Word meaning and lexicology

Lexicology (from Greek lexis — word, logos — study) is the branch of linguistics that studies the vocabulary of a language: the meanings of words, their origin, where they are used and how they change over time. All the words of a language together are its lexicon. The exam has tasks from the “Vocabulary” section, and the reading-literacy questions on “the meaning of a word in the text”, as well as tasks on style and speech culture, rely on the same knowledge. A learner who misunderstands a word will misunderstand both the text and the question.

§1. The word and its meaning

Every content word names an object, quality, action or concept — this is its lexical meaning. Through suffixes a word also acquires grammatical meaning:

Lexical meaning is explained in a dictionary; grammatical meaning is studied in morphology. Function words (va, bilan, faqat) name nothing and only do grammatical work, so lexicology deals mainly with content words.
Word meaning has two sides: the concept (what the word denotes) and the colouring (the attitude expressed towards it). Yuz, chehra and bashara all denote the face, but their colouring differs: neutral, elevated and negative.

§2. Literal and figurative meaning; one and many meanings

• Literal (direct) meaning is the primary, immediate meaning of a word: tosh — stone; oltin — gold, a precious metal.
• Figurative meaning develops from the literal one through similarity or association: tosh yurak — a heartless person; oltin qo‘llar — a skilled craftsman.

Monosemous words are usually terms and exact names: kislorod, uchburchak, kesim, Toshkent. Polysemous words have several related meanings:

• ko‘z — 1) the eye; 2) buloq ko‘zi — the source of a spring; 3) uzuk ko‘zi — the stone of a ring;
• bosh — 1) the head; 2) the start of something: ko‘chaning boshi; 3) chief: bosh muharrir;
• oyoq — 1) the leg or foot; 2) stolning oyog‘i — a table leg.

Polysemy makes language economical: instead of inventing a new word for every new thing, an existing word gains a new meaning. The ways meaning transfers (metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, transfer by function) are covered in the topic “Tropes”.

Worked example

In what sense is qo‘li ochiq used in Uning qo‘li ochiq odam?

1. The literal sense (an open palm) does not fit the sentence.
2. The phrase describes a person’s character.
3. The two words together give one meaning — “generous”.
4. Answer: figurative meaning; qo‘li ochiq is an idiom meaning “generous”.

§3. Groups of words by meaning relations

Words enter into relations of meaning and form:

• synonyms — similar in meaning, different in form: chiroyli — go‘zal — ko‘hlik;
• antonyms — opposite in meaning: issiq — sovuq, do‘st — dushman;
• homonyms — identical in form, unrelated in meaning: ot (horse) — ot (name);
• paronyms — similar in sound, different in meaning: asr — asir, abzal — afzal.

These groups are studied separately in the topic “Synonyms, antonyms and homonyms”.

§4. By origin: native and borrowed vocabulary

• The native layer — common Turkic and Uzbek words: ota, ona, tosh, suv, bosh, yaxshi, kel, bil. This is the oldest, core part of the language.
• The borrowed layer — words from other languages:
• Arabic: kitob, ilm, maktab, adabiyot, hayot, davlat;
• Persian-Tajik: daraxt, oyna, shahar, dasturxon, go‘sht, bog‘;

Arabic words came mainly with Islamic culture, scholarship and statecraft; Persian words through long neighbourhood and literary ties; Russian words in the 19th–20th centuries along with technical and social innovations.
The sources that enrich Uzbek are word formation (the main one), borrowing, words passing from dialects into the standard language, and new figurative meanings.

Worked example

Classify dasturxon, ilm and suv by origin.

1. Suv is a common Turkic word — native layer.
2. Ilm is an Arabic loanword (sharing a root with olim, ilmiy, ulamo).
3. Dasturxon is a Persian-Tajik loanword.
4. Answer: native — suv; borrowed — ilm (Arabic), dasturxon (Persian-Tajik).

§5. By sphere of use

• Common words are understood by everyone and used in all styles: non, uy, yurmoq, katta.
• Dialect words are used by the people of a particular area; in literary texts they appear only for artistic purposes, to make a character’s speech vivid.
• Terms are exact names for concepts of science, technology and professions: scientific (fotosintez, kesim), economic (inflyatsiya, soliq), internet (sayt, brauzer, server), social and humanities (demokratiya).
• Professional words come from the speech of people in a particular trade: andava (a plasterer’s float), randa (a carpenter’s plane).
• Jargon is the informal vocabulary of a particular group (for example, young people); it is not used in standard speech.

§6. Active and passive vocabulary

Language changes constantly: some words fall out of use and new ones appear.

• Obsolete words are of two kinds:
• historicisms — the object or phenomenon itself has disappeared: mirshab (night watchman), dorug‘a, qozi kalon;
• archaisms — the object exists, but its old name has been replaced: bitik → kitob, ulus → xalq.
• Neologisms are words that appeared together with new objects and ideas: smartfon, bloger, onlayn, elektromobil. Once widespread, they become ordinary words and stop being neologisms.

Writers use obsolete words in historical works to convey the spirit of the period — this is their main stylistic function.

Worked example

Which groups do mirshab and bitik belong to?

1. Mirshab is a night watchman; the post no longer exists.
2. If the thing itself has disappeared, the word is a historicism.
3. Bitik means a written work, a book; books exist, only the name has changed.
4. If the thing exists but its name has changed, the word is an archaism.
5. Answer: mirshab — historicism, bitik — archaism.

§7. Dictionaries and the meaning of names

• An explanatory dictionary explains the meanings of words. The largest is the five-volume “Explanatory Dictionary of the Uzbek Language” (2006–2008).
• A spelling dictionary shows how words are spelt.
• Dictionaries of synonyms and antonyms, phraseological dictionaries (Sh. Rahmatullayev’s explanatory phraseological dictionary of Uzbek), terminological and bilingual dictionaries.

Names have meanings too: Nodira — “rare”, Bahodir — “brave”, Gulnora — “pomegranate flower”. The meaning of names is studied by onomastics, the branch dealing with proper names of people and places.

Check yourself

1. In what sense is og‘iz used in daryoning og‘zi?

2. Which language does daraxt come from?

3. Is dorug‘a a historicism or an archaism?

4. Which group does inflyatsiya belong to?

5. What kind of word is bitik?

6. Which group does smartfon belong to?

7. Which language does kitob come from?

8. Which part of kitoblarim carries the lexical meaning?

Common mistakes

• Confusing historicisms and archaisms: the thing has gone — historicism; only the name has changed — archaism.
• Treating polysemy as homonymy.
• Mixing up terms and professional words.
• Trying to determine a word’s meaning without context.
• Calling every foreign word a neologism: gazeta is a loanword but not a new word.
• Confusing lexical and grammatical meaning.