- •Theme 1: Lexicology as a Branch of Linguistics. The Word as the Basic Unit of Lexicology
- •Theme 2: English Etymology
- •Comment on the terms:
- •Theme 3: Word-building in Modern English
- •Comment on the terms:
- •Theme 4: Lexical Meaning as a Linguistic Category. Development of Meaning
- •Comment on the terms:
- •Explain the basis for the following jokes:
- •3. Specify lexical and grammatical meaning of the following words:
- •4.Identify the denotative and connotative elements of the meanings in the following pairs of words:
- •5.Define the type of transference which has taken place:
- •6.Trace the process of narrowing of meaning in the words:
- •Theme 5: Semantic Relations of Words and Structure of the English Lexicon
- •Comment on the terms:
- •2.Write out from a dictionary all the meanings of the following words. Comment on the semantic structure of the words:
- •3.Single out the denotative and connotative components of meaning of the synonyms in the following examples:
- •Theme 6: English Phraseology
- •1.Comment on the terms:
- •6. Give Russian equivalents of the phraseological units. Memorize them
- •8.Complete the following sentences, using the phraseological units given in the list below. Translate them into Russian.
- •10.Choose the idiom. Choose the word or phrase which best completes each sentence.
- •11.Complete the paired phraseological units in the sentences below.
- •Theme 7: Stylistic classification of English Vocabulary
- •1.Comment on the terms:
- •7.The italicized words and word-groups in the following extracts belong to informal style. Describe the stylistic peculiarities of each extract in general. Look up unfamiliar words in the dictionary:
- •8.Compose the following brief situations. Your language and style should suit both the subject and the situation:
- •Theme 8: American English
- •1.Comment on the terms:
- •2.Find:
- •3.Explain the differences in the meanings of the following words in American and British English:
- •4.Identify the etymology of the following words:
- •5.Say which of the two words is American and which is British. Translate the sentences into Russian:
- •6.Translate into English giving two variants – British and American:
- •7. Translate the following sentences:
Theme 3: Word-building in Modern English
Comment on the terms:
word-building, word-building pattern, productive, non-productive, dead affixes, motivation, degrees of motivation, affixation, origin of affixes, theories of conversion, origin of conversion, composition (structural, semantic, theoretical aspect), shortening (lexical, clipping), blending, back-formation, sound-and-stress interchange, sound imitation, reduplication.
Deduce the meanings of the following derivatives from the meanings of their constituents:
reddish, overwrite, irregular, retype, old-womanish, disrespectable, disorganize, eatable, snobbish, handful, sandy, breakable, underfed.
3. Make up the names of people according to the following word-building meanings:
connection with action (V+er), place, residence (N+er), object (N+ist), instrument (N+ist), nationality (-ese, -an, -ish).
4.Specify the levels of lexical meaning in:
-er, -ish, -ist, -ian, -like, -ly, -ful.
5.Prove that the following affixes are highly productive:
un-, re-, dis-, -ing, -able, -ize, -er, -less, -ish, -ness, -ed.
6. Define the meanings of the nonce-words:
breakfaster, word-breaker, notatallness, mother-in-lawed, seasider, a take-my-word-for-itist, a collarless appearance, a lungful of smoke.
7. Say whether the following lexical units are word-groups or compounds:
railway platform, snowman, light dress, traffic light, landing field, film star, white man, hungry dog, medical man, landing plane, distant star, small house, evening dress, bluecoat, roughhouse, booby trap, black skirt, medical student, black shirt, hot dog.
8. Translate the words into English. Comment on the type of compounding:
cтарик, рыбак, колокольчик, свекровь, тесть, зять, невеста, белить, железная дорога, космический корабль, незабудка, черноволосый, зеленоглазый, вечнозеленый, самоанализ.
9.Form compounds:
to paint pictures, to break stones, to own land, to love art, something that kills pain, a brush for hair, the end of the week, the sill of a window, a chair with arms, filled with smoke, driven with wind, having dark eyes, the process of drilling holes.
10.Translate the word-combinations and sentences into Russian:
to head an army, to eye a foe, to chain a prisoner, to fish for accomplishments, to dress a wound, to hand a plate, to book a ticket;
1. They will holiday in Italy. 2. It was a good buy. 3. She never notices the obvious. 4. Pocket your pride. 5. Why shoulder the burden alone? 6. His eyes narrowed. 7. The beer wasn’t iced. 8. Don’t baby him. 9. Women pilot planes and man ships. 10. The drop-out in colleges has a lot of reasons.
11.Write in full the shortened words. Define the type of shortening:
pub, ad, fancy, UNO,V-day, mike, mob, lab, jeep, fridge, V.I.P.
12.Give the words denoting sounds produced by the animals:
The cat… the hen….
The dog… the sparrow…
The cow… the pig…
The cock… the bee…
The frog… the duck…
The sheep… the snake…
13.Comment on the type of word-building. Translate into Russian:
walkie-talkie, ping-pong, dilly-dally, wishy-washy, flip-flop, helter-skelter, hanky-panky, hurly-burly, Humpy-Dumpy.
14.Form nouns from the verbs and adjectives according to the models:
a)to breathe – breath:
to live, to grieve, to advise, to use, to excuse, to bathe, to believe, to prove, to practice, to relieve;
b)strong – strength:
wide, deep, long, broad.
15.Form verbs from nouns and adjectives:
Food, brood, blood, full, gold.
16.Explain the formation of the following words:
to pettifog, to burgle, to typewrite, to sight-read, to beg, to meditate, to inflate;
flush, glaze, good-bye, smog, cablegram, electrochute, swellegant, motel.