- •L.M. Takumbetоvа english lexicology preface
- •1. Morphological and Derivational Structure of Words.........................................57
- •Abbreviations and symbols
- •Introduction lexicology as a branch of linguistics.
- •Its subject matter and objectives
- •1. The Subject Matter of Lexicology.
- •2. The Theoretical and Practical Value of Lexicology
- •Questions and Tasks
- •2. The Problem of Word Definition
- •3. Types of Nomination and Motivation of Lexical Units
- •4. The Notion of Lexeme. Variants of Words
- •Questions and Tasks
- •Chapter 2 semasiology. The problem of meaning
- •1. Referential and Functional Approaches to Meaning
- •2. Types of Meaning
- •3. The Semantic Structure of Words. Polysemy
- •4. Сauses, Types and Results of Semantic Change
- •Questions and Tasks
- •Exercises
- •I. Which of the following words are monosemantic (use a dictionary)?
- •II. Group together the following pairs of words according to the lsVs they represent. Use dictionaries if necessary.
- •III. Define the meanings of the italicized words in the following sentences. Say how meanings of the same word are associated one with another.
- •IV. Explain the logical associations in the meanings of the same words in the following word combinations. Define the type of transference which has taken place.
- •V. Comment on the change of meanings in the italicized words.
- •Chapter 3 english vocabulary as a system
- •1. Semantic Classes of Lexemes in the Lexico-semantic
- •System of the English Language
- •2. Synonymy
- •3. Antonymy
- •4. Homonymy
- •The Origin of Homonyms in the English Language
- •Questions and Tasks
- •Exercises
- •I. Classify the following words into logical groups on the principle of hyponymy.
- •II. Arrange the following lexemes into three lexico-semantic groups - feelings, parts of the body, education.
- •III. Prove that the following sets of words are synonyms (use dictionaries).
- •IV. Find the dominant synonym in the following synonymic sets. Explain your choice.
- •V. Find antonyms for the words given below.
- •VI. A) Find the homonyms proper for the following words; give their Russian equivalents.
- •VI. Match the italicized words with the phonetics.
- •Chapter 4 morphological structure of english words and word formation
- •1. Morphological and Derivational Structure of Words
- •2. Аffixation
- •Clаssification of Prefixes
- •Classification of Suffixes
- •3. Conversion
- •Patterns of Semantic Relations by Conversion
- •Basic Criteria of Sеmantic Derivation within Conversion Pairs
- •4. Word-Composition (Compounding)
- •Classifications of Compound Words
- •Meaning and Motivation in Compound Words
- •Historical Changes of Compounds
- •5. Minor Types of Word-Formation
- •Questions and tasks
- •Exercises
- •I. A) Give examples of nouns with the following suffixes; state which of the suffixes are productive.
- •II. Explain the etymology and productivity of the affixes given below. Say what parts of speech they form.
- •III. In the following examples the italicized words are formed from the same root by means of different affixes. Translate these derivatives into Russian and explain the difference in meaning.
- •IV. Find cases of conversion in the following sentences.
- •V. Explain the semantic correlations within the following pair of words.
- •VI. Identify the compounds in the word-groups below. Say as much as you can about their structure and semantics.
- •VII. Match the following onomatopoeic words with the names of referents producing the sounds they denote in brackets.
- •VIII. Define the particular type of world-building process by which the following words were formed and say as much as you can about them.
- •Chapter 5 word-groups and phraseological units
- •1. Lexical Valency and Collocability
- •2. Criteria of phraseological units
- •3. Classifications of phraseological units
- •4. Origin of phraseological units
- •Questions and tasks
- •Exercises
- •I. What is the source and meaning of the following idioms?
- •II. Explain whether the semantic changes in the following units are complete or partial.
- •III. Give Russian equivalents of the following phraseological units from the list below.
- •IV. Give the proverbs from which the following phraseological units have developed.
- •V. Match the beginning of the proverb in the left-hand corner with its ending in the right-hand corner.
- •Chapter 6 etymological background of the english vocabulary
- •1. What Is Etymology?
- •2. Native English Vocabulary
- •3. Loan Words and Their Role in the Formation of the English Vocabulary
- •4. Assimilation of Borrowings
- •5. Degree of Assimilation and Factors Determining It
- •5. Impact of Borrowings on the English Language System
- •Quesions and Tasks
- •Exercises
- •I. Subdivide the following words of native origin into a) Indo-European, b) Germanic, c) English proper.
- •II. Distribute the following Latin borrowings into three groups according to the time of borrowing.
- •III. Find the examples of Scandinavian borrowings in the sentences given below. How can they be identified?
- •IV. Point out whether the italicized words in the sentences given below are Norman or Parisian French borrowings. How can they be identified?
- •V. Explain the etymology of the italicized words (native English and borrowings). Use etymological dictionaries if necessary.
- •VIII. Think of 10-15 examples of Russian borrowings in English and English borrowings in Russian. Literary sources
- •II. Optional
- •Dictionaries
- •Internet sources
Meaning and Motivation in Compound Words
Many compounds are motivated. It means that it is possible to deduce the meaning of a compound from the meanings of the derivational bases constituting the word and the meaning of the word-formation pattern, as the compound word meaning also depends on the order of the components. A compound word is a minimal context of its kind where one meaning of the word, which has become a derivational base, is realized. For example, the word foot is polysemantic and its various meanings are realized in combinations with different bases in compound words: foot-print, foot-pump, foothold, foot-bath, footwear the base foot- has the meaning ‘termination of leg beginning at ankle’; in the compounds foot-note, foot-lights, foot-stone – the meaning ‘lower end’; in the compounds foot-high, foot-wide, foot rule – ‘foot as a unit of length’.
The role, the word-formation pattern (the order of the ICs) plays in compound words, can be illustrated by the examples (see above) dog-house and house-dog, also fruit-market ‘a market where fruit is sold’ and market-fruit ‘fruit to be sold at a market’, life-boat ‘a boat for helping persons in danger at sea’ and boat-life ‘spending time (holiday-making) in a boat’. Of course, the meaning of a compound word is not a mere sum of its constituents. A word acquires a new quality. For instance, a hand-writing is not just ‘writing by hand’, but ‘(person's style of) writing by hand’.
Compound words have different degrees of motivation:
1) Completely motivated compounds (non-idiomatic), the meaning of which can be deduced from the meanings of its constituents and the meaning of its structural pattern with a very high degree of probability: sky-blue, new-borne, snow-white, birdcage, headache, battleship, etc.
2) Partially motivated compounds of different degrees of motivation. E.g. words watch work, handwriting possess a high degree of motivation. The words flower-bed ‘plot of land where flowers are grown’, castle-builder ‘day-dreamer’, gate-crasher ‘spectator without a ticket’, couch potato ‘someone who is very lazy and who spends a lot of time watching TV’ are motivated in less degree, their meanings have undergone metaphoric or metonymic transferences. Partially motivated compounds are idiomatic.
3) Unmotivated compounds are those whose meanings are not deducible from the meanings of their constituents and the structural pattern. For example, lady-bird ‘reddish brown or yellow insect with black spots (божья коровка)’, eye-wash ‘sth. said or done to deceive (очковтирательство, лесть)’, fiddlesticks ‘Nonsense!’. These words are also idiomatic.
Many polysemantic compound words have LSVs of different degrees of motivation. E.g., watchdog 1) dog kept to protect property, 2) guard, controller. LSV 1 of this word is fully motivated. LSV 2 is partially motivated; its meaning is a result of a metaphoric transference by association of similarity of function.
In linguistic literature are found semantic classifications of compound words based on the criterion of semantic correlations between the constituents. It is impossible to present here all the subdivisions of the compounds based on this principle. Several examples will do. O.Jespersen mentions the following relations between the constituents of compound nouns of the following type: n + n → N: the first constituent may denote a subject: sunrise, earthquake; object: sun-worship, dog-show; place: garden-party, air-mail; time: day-dream, wedding star; goal: flagstaff, Salvation army; means, instrument: gunshot, book learning; something that is in the second constituent: stone-fruit, mountain-range; something that resembles the second constituent: needle-fish, bell-flower; material: gold ring, stone wall [Jespersen 1954: 164].
This classification was criticized for its inconsistency [Мешков 1976: 218]. Thus the words garden-party and airmail belong to one and the same type but their transformations into free phrases show the obvious differences in the relations between their constituents: garden-party → party in the garden; airmail → mail by/through air.
H. Marchand makes another attempt at classifying relations between the constituents of compound nouns of n + n → N type. He сlaims that at the basis of such relations might be: comparison (blockhead, wiregrass), material (tinware, network), goal (gunpowder, breadbasket), place (water horse, headache), time (evening song, moon-flower) [Marchand 1960: 22].
Another approach to classifying the relations between the constituents of compound nouns is based on investigation the propositions motivating the compound words. The semantic patterns of compound words are presented as a list of predicates. The following predicates make up the invariable nucleus of the list. [Харитончик 1992: 187]:
Cause (hay fever, disease germ)
Have (sand beach)
Use (handwriting, footstep)
Be (oak tree, fighter-bomber, king-emperor)
In (water horse, garden-party, headache)
For (gunpowder, birdcage, raincoat, battleship)
From (country boy)
About (tax law)
Resemble (goldfish, bellflower, silver-seed, wiregrass)
The predicates are singled out after the procedures of transformation of a compound word into a proposition expressed by a free word combination, e.g.: hay fever → fever caused by hay, garden-party → a party in the garden, bellflower → a flower resembling a bell, etc.
There are polysemantic patterns of a compound word , e.g., n + a → A: a) a pattern denoting comparison: world-wide ~ wide as the world, snow-white ~ as white as snow; b) patterns expressing adverbial meanings: road-weary ~ weary of the road, colour-blind ~ blind to colour, etc.