L’enseignement de la lexicologie FLE: les nouvelles approches
Teaching FFL lexicology: opening new approaches

Summary/Abstract: The main aim of this paper is to show major problems of modern lexicology as well as to improve the teaching of lexicology at the university by taking into account new theories that appeared at the end of the 20th century. Modern education requires the introduction of new terminology such as eponymy, enantiosemy, meronymy, etc., and the revision of the so-called classical theories and themes such as polysemy, semantic evolution, word formation or borrowing. It is also essential to introduce several topics and approaches including, above all, field theory, connotation theory, the problem of the concept, cognitive semantics, prototype theory and stereotype theory, linguistic and cultural aspects, semantic universals, etc. We seek to identify the main problems posed by the study of French vocabulary, to show the development of theories and lexical approaches during the 20th and the 21st centuries. It is thought that students should be provided with information on the new orientations and methods existing in contemporary linguistics, primarily semiotic, cognitive, discursive and contrastive, even if presented in different or even contradictory versions. At the same time, an overview of lexicology textbooks shows that several rather well-known phenomena remain on the margins of study; these include calques, international words, occasionalisms, semantic archaisms, etc. Therefore, adequate definitions of terms and their use, precise identification of their peculiarities within relevant paradigms in contemporary studies of lexicology are indispensable. The article is based on an in-depth study of the French lexicon and lexicological theories. The work was carried out during many years while the author was working on her book French Lexicology, published in 2015. French vocabulary is treated as a specific system of nominative units.

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