A COURSE IN MODERN ENGLISH LEXICOLOGY

This book makes no pretension to deal with the whole vast field of English Lexicology. It has a more limited aim, to assist the students of foreign
language institutes and departments in their study of the fundamentals of
Modern English Lexicology. Post-graduates specialising in English and
teachers of English may also find it useful.
This book is, as its title implies, concerned only with the vocabulary of
English as it exists and functions at the present time. The authors* major
concern is, therefore, with the treatment of the problems inherent in a course
of Lexicology mainly from the synchronic angle. The diachronic approach
which is, in the authors’ opinion, indispensable in any study of vocabulary
occupies its due place in the book too.
The book is based on the course of lectures in English Lexicology delivered by the authors for a number of years at the Moscow Maurice Thorez
State Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages. The subject matter corresponds to the programme on English Lexicology issued by the USSR Ministry of Higher and Secondary Special Education.
In preparing this work the authors have tried to take into consideration
the latest achievements in linguistic science made in the Soviet Union and
elsewhere. The authors’ indebtedness to various books and studies will be
readily perceived from List of Books Extensively Used as well as from the
authors quoted or referred to in the foot-notes. The factual material collected
in some of the best graduation papers compiled under the authors’ guidance
has also been made use of.