LEXICOLOGY

Have you ever read a dictionary ? maybe Oxford English Dictionary ?

Ok. It is also called Lexicon. What is lexicon ?

Lexicon is vocabulary considered from a synchronic, systematic perspective and Lexicology is study about that.

Study of dictionaries and dictionary making is called lexicography.

You know in dictionary, we can divide it into :

1.Common : English contains a large central area shared by all speakers (assumtion).

2.Literary: contains scientific, foreign and archaic word.

3.Colloquial: contains dialectal, vulgar, slang and technical elements.

English vocabulary is not homogeneous, A temporally variable (changes over time).

  

A few terms that are of  importance in lexicology should be examined here.

1.Lexical Decomposition

-> characterizing the detail lexical features of a word.

Ex : kitten, puppy, fawn. ( living, animate, four legged, young)

Like I said before “characterizing” and in () it is its characterizing.

2.Collocation

->It refers to the co-occurence possibility oe compatibility of a word with other word.

Ex : “black”box, “black”coffee, “black”board

3.Denotation and Connotation

->Denotation refers to the srict defenition of a word, the class of things denoted by a word.

And about connotation goes into the extraliguistic associations and overtones of the meaning of words.

Ex : feelings

Denotation : what someone senses/emotion

Connotation : sad, happy, glad

Home

Denotation :  shelter and place of refuge

Connotation : protection, affection, love, peace, happiness

I have asked to you about you have ever read a dictionary.

And the dictionary that have you read like what ?

When I go to library, maybe look for English books or dictionary. I would find two kind of  dictionary of  English language.

It can be called bilingual and monolingual dictionaries.

Monolingual dictionaries should contain the following information such as  how to pronunciation, definitions, collocations/ idioms, notes on usage for English

Ex :  Oxford English Dictionary

And for bilingual, it is like the dictionary when we were in SD, SMP, or SMA, maybe. It is Indonesia-English.

Honestly I used  that dictionary :D

References : Introduction to English Language & Linguistics (pdf).http://www.fineprint.com

Baskaran, Loga Mahesan. 2005. A Linguistic Primer for Malaysians. Kuala Lumpur : University of Malaya Press