Lexicology Course

Lesson 1 • Defining Lexicology and Its Scope

Lexicology is defined as the study of words, their forms, meanings, and relations. This grounds all subsequent analysis in a shared disciplinary framework.

Lesson 2 • Word Forms and Identification

Criteria for identifying words across spoken and written language are established. Students apply these criteria to distinguish words from morphemes and phrases.

Lesson 3 • The Lexicon as a System

The mental and linguistic lexicon is examined as a structured inventory. Students understand how words form networks rather than isolated entries.

Lesson 1 • Morphological Analysis Techniques

Segmentation and identification procedures are practised on authentic word samples. Students develop reliable analytical habits for decomposing complex words.

Lesson 2 • Compounding and Other Word-Formation Processes

Compounding, conversion, blending, clipping, and acronymy are analysed as productive processes. Students classify novel words by the process that generated them.

Lesson 3 • Derivation and Affixation

Prefixes, suffixes, and their semantic and grammatical effects are examined systematically. Students predict meaning and category changes produced by affixation.

Lesson 1 • Theories of Lexical Meaning

Referential, conceptual, and use-based theories of meaning are compared. Students evaluate each theory's explanatory power for lexical phenomena.

Lesson 2 • Sense Relations: Synonymy and Antonymy

Synonymy, antonymy, and their subtypes are defined with diagnostic tests. Students map sense relations within a lexical field accurately.

Lesson 3 • Hyponymy, Meronymy, and Lexical Fields

Hierarchical and part-whole relations structure vocabulary into organised fields. Students construct lexical hierarchies and identify field boundaries.

Lesson 4 • Semantic Features and Components

Componential analysis decomposes word meaning into binary semantic features. Students apply feature matrices to distinguish near-synonyms and related terms.

Lesson 1 • Connotation, Denotation, and Register

Denotative and connotative dimensions of meaning are distinguished with examples. Students assess how register and style shift lexical choice.

Lesson 2 • Metaphor and Metonymy in the Lexicon

Conceptual metaphor and metonymy are shown to motivate systematic lexical patterns. Students trace metaphorical mappings across semantic domains.

Lesson 3 • Collocation and Lexical Restrictions

Collocational patterns reveal constraints on word co-occurrence beyond grammar. Students identify strong and weak collocates using frequency-based evidence.

Lesson 1 • Sources of Vocabulary: Native and Borrowed

Native heritage words are contrasted with loanwords from major donor languages. Students identify etymological layers and their stylistic implications.

Lesson 2 • Neologisms and Lexical Innovation

Mechanisms driving new word creation in contemporary language are examined. Students analyse neologisms by formation process and social motivation.

Lesson 3 • Etymology and Word History

Etymological research methods and resources are introduced for tracing word origins. Students reconstruct word histories using etymological dictionaries and databases.

Lesson 1 • Dialect and Regional Lexical Variation

Regional dialects exhibit distinct vocabulary that reflects geographic and cultural history. Students map lexical isoglosses and interpret dialect atlas data.

Lesson 2 • Gender, Age, and Lexical Choice

Empirical research on gender- and age-related lexical preferences is reviewed critically. Students evaluate methodological challenges in sociolexical studies.

Lesson 3 • Social and Occupational Lexicons

Sociolects, jargon, and professional registers encode group identity and expertise. Students analyse specialised vocabulary for its social and functional roles.

Lesson 1 • Semantic Prosody and Discourse Patterns

Semantic prosody describes the attitudinal colouring words acquire through habitual co-occurrence. Students identify prosodic patterns and their discourse implications.

Lesson 2 • Introduction to Corpus Linguistics for Lexicology

Corpus design, annotation, and retrieval principles are introduced as tools for lexical research. Students navigate a reference corpus to extract word frequency data.

Lesson 3 • Designing a Corpus Lexical Study

Research design principles are applied to plan a complete corpus-based lexical investigation. Students produce a study protocol with justified methodological choices.

Lesson 4 • Collocation Analysis and Association Measures

Statistical association measures quantify collocational strength between word pairs. Students select appropriate measures and interpret collocate profiles.

Lesson 1 • Principles of Vocabulary Instruction

Evidence-based principles for teaching vocabulary explicitly and implicitly are examined. Students evaluate instructional techniques against acquisition research.

Lesson 2 • Evaluating and Creating Lexical Resources

Criteria for evaluating word lists, thesauri, and digital lexical tools are established. Students produce a justified lexical resource for a specified learner audience.

Lesson 3 • Terminology and Specialised Vocabulary

Terminological theory and specialised vocabulary management are introduced for professional contexts. Students compile a small terminological glossary from a domain text.

Lesson 4 • Lexicography: Dictionary Types and Design

Dictionary typology, macrostructure, and microstructure are analysed as applied lexicology. Students critique dictionary entries using lexicological criteria.