What are words? Where do words come from? How are they used? Answering these questions and more, this book guides you through the key concepts in the lexicology of modern English. Providing an overview which encompasses all aspects of English vocabulary, this book explains the sources of modern English words and shows how the vocabulary has developed over time. Thoroughly updated throughout to keep pace with recent developments in the field, this third edition features: - Enhanced chapters on vocabulary, dictionaries and investigative lexicology - New sections on contemporary topics such as internet language, social media and youth culture - Guides to new electronic resources and tools of analysis - Exercises throughout each chapter, with an updated answer key - A revised list of suggestions for further reading Assuming no prior knowledge of linguistics, and featuring exercises and a fully updated glossary of lexicological terms to support your learning, An Introduction to English Lexicology is the only book you need to understand the basics of English lexicology.

Outline of English Lexicology: Lexical Structure, Word Semantics and Word Formation.

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 relations: 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".

This book gathers some of the latest approaches to Lexicology and Lexicography, which span from research on language for specific purposes to the study of lexical constellations and translation. It aims to present a multifaceted insight on current trends and, thus, includes papers that explore lexical processes in several areas, which comprise fields so diverse and riveting such as the language of cinema, fashion, tourism, and even comics. In addition, other papers examine the lexicon of well-established professional languages, such as the language of law, medicine and business, by revealing leading-edge perspectives on topics such as translation, word-formation, cultural clashes, or lexical selection. Key issues on learning and teaching are also considered, as part of a long tradition in the study of professional and academic languages that posits users’ learning needs as the cornerstone to the study of these languages. Therefore, this work proposes a strong emphasis on lexis and terminology, which are highlighted as the fundamental core of the definition and analysis of specialized languages. All in all, this publication intends, on the one hand, to embrace current trends in the study of specialized lexicon and terminology from the perspective of both Lexicology and Lexicography, and, on the other hand, to open new possibilities for future research.

A linguistic introduction to the structures and meanings of English words Lexicology is about words, their meanings and the relationships between them, their origins and their structure. It combines the study of derivational morphology with lexical semantics. This textbook explores the history, meanings and structure of words, the way they are collected in dictionaries and the way they are stored in our minds. It goes beyond examining the morphological structure of words to examine the way words are spelt and the way they sound. At every stage, the book focuses not only on description, but also on the puzzles that words present. Supported by numerous examples, exercises, discussion questions, suggestions for further reading and a glossary, this is an accessible and lively guide to the linguistic study of English through the consideration of words. Key Features: -Covers orthography, synonyms, hyponyms, figurative language, semantic analysis, loan words and dictionaries -Considers the history and morphological structure of English and the influence of borrowing from French, Latin and Greek -Includes examples, exercises and discussion questions in each chapter -Includes a glossary of key terms and suggestions for further reading Laurie Bauer is Emeritus Professor of Linguistics at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

The papers in this volume show the range and direction of current work in historical semantics and word-studies. There is a strong focus throughout on semantic change and lexical innovation, interpreted within a sociolinguistic, cultural or textual context. Many of the papers draw on the remarkable range of electronic resources now available to historical linguists, notably corpora, dictionaries, bibliographies and thesauruses, and show the effects that these have had in stimulating new lines of research or the re-interpretation of previous conclusions. Cognitive semantics, and especially prototype theory, emerges as a challenging theoretical framework for much current research. The volume contains a selection from papers presented at the 10th International Conference on English Historical Linguistics (10ICEHL). They include work on historical lexicography and an account of the workshop on electronic dictionary resources, such as the Revised Oxford English Dictionary, which formed the centrepiece of the Fourth G. L. Brook Symposium.