Words, Meaning and Vocabulary: An Introduction to Modern English Lexicology

by Howard Jackson, Etienne Ze Amvela

This work goes back to the sources of modern English words and studies the development of vocabulary over time. It examines what constitutes a word, with a discussion of words that look and sound the same, words that have several meanings, and "words" that are made up of more than one "word". As well as considering the borrowing of words from other languages throughout the history of English as a means of increasing the vocabulary, the book also outlines how English forms new words by exploiting the structure of existing words, through processes of derivation and compounding. The meaning of a word is composite of a number of reference to external context, relations with other words of a similar or opposite meaning, collocational relations, and so on. The book grapples with the meaning problem, but then goes on to look at the contexts in which words are used and the purposes for which they are used, raising the question whether it is more sensible to talk about English "vocabularies" rather than English "vocabulary".

Genres: Linguistics, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published December 1, 1999

Reviews

[ingridsreads · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book provides a nice overview of the important parts of the field known as lexicology. The content is written in a way which is understandable even to a «beginner lexicologist». The inclusion of exercises (as well as a key to these) and the chapter summaries made this textbook quite an enjoyable read.

[Elena · Rating 1 out of 5]

The entire section on Old English has been borrowed from Crystal's Encyclopedia of the English Language (examples, whole sentences, etc.). Where I come from, that's called plagiarism.

[Paidah]

the book is very important for my thesis