5. Retell the text. The object of lexicology. Synonyms, antonyms and homonyms

The origin of the word of lexicology is derived from Greek [< ‘lexis’ – words + ‘logos’ – study>].

Lexicology is a science of words or the study of words as a fundamental unit of a language.

There are five parts of lexicology:

1) etymology;

2) lexicography;

3) word-building;

4) phraseology;

5) semantics.

Synonyms, antonyms, homonyms. Synonym is a word having the same or nearly the same meaning of another word or other word in a language. For example: ‘wonderful’, ‘excellent’, ‘fine’, ‘nice’, ‘great’, etc.

Relative synonyms are words having various degrees of action. For example: ‘like’ – ‘love’ – ‘adore’.

Total synonyms are words which can replace each other in any given context. For example: ‘noun’ – ‘substantive’, ‘railway’ – ‘railroad’.

Antonym is a word having a meaning opposite to that of another word (the same part of speech). For example: ‘white’ – ‘black’, ‘dark’ – ‘pale’, ‘good’ – ‘bad’, ‘beautiful’ – ‘ugly’, etc.

Derivational antonyms are created with the help of the affixes. For example: ‘known’ – ‘unknown’, ‘hopeful’ – ‘hopeless’.

Homonyms are two or more words identical in sound and spelling, but different in meaning, distribution (sometimes origin). For example: ‘to run fast’ – ‘to stand fast’.

Homonyms proper are words identical in pronunciation and spelling. For example: ‘ball’ – 1) for game; 2) gathering of people for dancing.

Homophones are words of the same sound, but of different spelling and meaning. For example: ‘play-wright’ – ‘right’ – ‘rite’ – ‘write’.

Homographs are words different in sound and in meaning, but accidentally identical in spelling. For example: ‘wind’ [wind] and ‘wind’ [waind].