Pejorative meaning – derogatory attitude rendered by the semantics of the word (its evaluative connotations). – See Connotation

Percept – a type of concept (q.v.), concrete perceptible image, the image of a concrete object or phenomenon in our mind (a certain telephone, automobile, etc.) Concrete-perceptive image is rendered by the meaning of most words which contain concrete, perceptive outer characteristics of objects: e.g. anvil – a heavy block of iron on which a smith hammers heated metal into shape. Sometimes ps. are rendered with the help of pictures (pictorial dictionaries). The names of prototypes (a sparrow as a typical bird) and concrete objects (Prince Charles, Winston Churchill) also render concrete-perceptive concepts.

Phrasal verbs – verbs with postpositional elements (originally prepositions) – sit up, look for, slow down, etc. – See size-of-unit problem

Phrase/ word combination – a free combination of lexical units based on their semantic and syntactic valency. Typology of phs.:

• explicational combinations – subordinate phrases, the entities denoted by the components represent an object and its property – white snow, free will, cry desperately. Semantico-syntactic relationship is defined as explication and the arguments as explicant (name of the property) and explicandum (name of the object);

• elisional combinations – phrases, neither of the components of which denote particular characteristics of one another but represent a certain relationship between the two objects denoted by the elements of the combination without naming the relationship itself (which is elicited – hence the term) – my friend's dog; century turn.

Phraseological models – patterns in phraseological derivation (q.v.) according to which phraseological units are formed.

Phraseological stability – the degree of independence of a phraseological unity, its self-containment, reproducibility of the combination as a set phrase.

Phraseological unit / set expression / idiom – a complex word-equivalent in which the globality of nomination reigns supreme over the formal separability of elements. It is reproduced in speech. – See Idiom proper

Typology of ph.us. (according to the degree of motivation):

• unities, phraseological (q.v.);

• combinations, phraseological (q.v.);

• fusions, phraseological (q.v.).

Picture of the world conception – See Linguistic picture of the world

Pidgin – a language with a greatly reduced vocabulary and a simplified grammar, often based on a western European language. A p. is a linguistic adaptation to nonintimate contact and remains in existence as long as it is required for communication. Ps. usually arise as methods of communication between groups that have no language in common; the ps. in some instances later become established first or second languages of one of the groups involved. Some examples of p. are Chinese Pidgin English, Haitian French Creole, and Melanesian Pidgin English.

Plane of content – See Signified

Plane of expression – See Signifier

Poetic diction – 1. a style of poetry; 2. poetic vocabulary, words of highly elevated style of poetry.

Political correctness – a strong tendency in language usage to avoid words which would cause offence on the part of the communicants on different reasons. The replacement of offensive or potentially offensive vocabulary with ‘politically correct’ euphemistic phrases is highly recommended. Terms should be avoided which convey an impression of over-generalization, describing people as though they were merely instances of a particular feature, or especially imposing on them a depreciatory stereotype. One should certainly avoid abbreviated colloquial forms referring to race (e.g. Paki, Jap); the term race is itself best avoided, except in strictly anthropological contexts, in favour of nation, people, ethnic group, community. Words referring to racial type or to physical or mental handicap which have been used as terms of abuse, or have been associated with discrimination, are frequently therefore avoided even in their original neutral senses. The use of adjectives rather than nouns in describing groups is usually preferable (e.g. the Hispanic community not the Hispanics; disabled people not the disabled). – See Bias words; Sexism; Euphemism

Polyfunctionality – the functional shift of lexico-grammatical characteristics of certain words as a result of their ability to be used as different parts of speech, which is peculiar to the English language with its strong isolating tendencies. E.g. He is amusing himself by looking at old photos vs. an amusing story. – See Polystatutness.

Polysemantic/polysemous word – a word which has more than one meaning.

Polysemy – diversity of meanings; the existence within one lexeme of several connected meanings as a result of semantic development. Linguistic phenomenon when one item of the plane of expression corresponds to two or more items of the plane of content, which, in their turn preserve semantic links. – See Homonymy

Polysemy, disintegration of – See Split of polysemy

Polystatutness/polystatusness – the ability of an English word to have several part-of-speech statuses on the systemic level which is actualised on the level of realization in the phenomenon of polyfunctionality. The phenomenon of ps. is backed up by poor morphology of the English language and serves the evidence to the fact that the language typology is changing as more and more islolating tendencies are showing up. E.g. the word round has several statuses – of a noun, a verb, an adjective, a preposition and an adverb; the word proper can function as an adjective and as an adverb. – See Polyfunctionality

Polyword – a conventional phrase (sometimes a sentence) which functions as a word sharing its specific characteristic of reproducibility – greetings, conversational openers, conversational gap-fillers, etc. E.g. in a nutshell, to tell the truth, how do you do.

Portmanteau words – See Blending

Positional mobility – characteristic of a word which means that a word can move relatively freely (depending upon the word-order type of the language) within an utterance as compared with morphemes which can not move freely within the boundaries of an utterance.

Pragmalinguistics – the study of the language from the point of view of language users (their objectives, communicative purposes, communicative behaviour and communicative effects).

Pragmatics – 1) according to Ch.Morris, one of the three dimensions of the sign (syntax, semantics, pragmatics), 'sign↔user' relationships; 2) general study of language from the point of the user, its intentions, verbal behaviour, etc.

Pragmasemantics – the study of pragmatic component of meaning – the part of the word (phrase or sentence) semantics, reflecting human attitudes, intentions, evaluations and assessments of objects denoted by words.

Prefix – the morpheme followed by the root morpheme.

Productivity – creative capability of the language which is realized on different levels of the language:

1. grammatical productivity – concerns the appearance of new phrases; the ability of a word/phrase to be brought together to form a word combination/sentence after a certain syntactic pattern; grammatical productivity is the result of combinatorial possibilities inherent in words, phrases and sentences;

2. conceptual productivity – concerns the appearance of figurative senses: is the result of combinatorial possibilities inherent in lexical and sentential concepts, based on compatibility of concepts;

3. lexical/morphemic productivity – concerns the appearance of new words the ability of language material to be used to form (after specific patterns) new, occasional or potential words which are readily understood by the speakers of a language. According to the degree of automation of linguocreative processes p. can be:

• automatic (absolute) – naturally triggered process of producing grammatically and semantically coherent stretches of sounds or graphical symbols;

• limited (partial) – restricted (by various reasons) ability of some patterns to serve as models for new creations (semantic, lexical, syntactic, morphological);

• semi-productivity – same as limited/partial p. – See Acceptability

Productive - able to form new words/phrases/meanings which are understood by the speakers of a language.

Professionalisms – lexical units pertaining to the sphere of professional communication (shoptalk). – See Jargon; Professional jargon

Professional jargon – type of special vocabulary and instances of its use covering professionally specific nominations and areas of communication. Can be formal and informal, includes both special terminology and slang (e.g. airspeak, copspeak, etc.).

Profile – opp. to Base, similar to figure (q.v.). – See Cognitive semantics; Domain

Proper names – names of unique objects (people, places, companies, magazines, newspapers, films and the like, characterized by peculiar referential function and the absence of significative component of lexical meaning. – See Anthroponym, Toponym

Propositional structure/proposition – a type of concept (q.v.), most wide-spread means of conceptual structuring of our knowledge. This is a model of a particular sphere of our experience, which comprises a basic predicate and its arguments. Their characteristics and the type of connection are specified. Semantic relationship between them is represented as a set of semantic functions: agent, patient, experiencer, benefactive, instrument. etc. Verbal means of expressing this type of concept are sentences.

Prototype – a categorial concept which presents an understanding and image of a typical representative of a category: These are typical examples, social stereotypes, ideals, samples, patterns. – See Prototype theory

Prototype theory – an approach to categorization which posits the prototypical principle in categorial structure. The entities are organized in categories on the basis of their similarity with the best representative of the category (a prototype). P.t. views categories as sets with blurred edges, permeable or overlapping boundaries, comprising central (nuclear) elements, which share most characteristics with the prototype and marginal (peripheral) members which may at the same time enter another category. – See Prototype; Prototypicality effect

Prototypical

• prototypical category – See Prototype theory; Prototype; Prototypicality effect

Prototypicality effect (salience; centrality effect) – means that some elements of the category are far more conspicuous or salient, or more frequently used than others. Such p.e. occurs not only at the level of senses, but at the level of referents. E.g. the category 'fruit' would have 'apple' as a salient member for the Northern Europeans' conceptual construal, whereas Southern Europeans if asked to name fruits would name figs. – See Prototype

Proverb – also paremy, a short familiar epigrammatic saying expressing popular wisdom, a truth or moral lesson in a concise and imaginative way: their lexical components are constant, their meaning is traditional and mostly figurative, they are introduced into speech ready-made.

Pseudo-compounds – See Compound, pseudo-c.

Purism – a movement/scholarly approach advocating scrupulous purity in language (concerning the processes of borrowing, creolization, jargonization, vulgarization, etc.)

Q

Quotation compounds (holophrasis) – See Compound, quotation c.

Quotation, familiar – expressions which come from literature and by and by become part and parcel of the language, so that many people using them do not even know that they are quoting, e.g. Shakespearian quotations: There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, / Than are dreamt of in your philosophy; The rest is silence; from A.Pope: To err is human; At every word a reputation dies; A little learning is a dangerous thing.

R

Reduplication – a minor means of word formation (q.v.), doubling of stems with sound interchange. – See Ablaut combinations; Compounds, reduplicative c.

Reference (referential content) – is derived from reality and depend on how the conceptual space (a given referential area) is covered by a lexical item. R. is referring – linkage of a linguistic unit with a non-linguistic entity to which it serves a name. This linkage can be of a different nature and is reflected in discrimination between specific referential functions /usage of words:

• existential;

• identifying;

• non-referential (usage);

• direct address to the communicant.

Referent – 1) the object of thought correlated with a certain linguistic expression, the element of objective reality as reflected in our minds and viewed as the content regularly correlated with certain expression, an object of our experience, a fact of the outer world which is encompassed by a given symbol. In this sense r. can be equated terminologically with denotatum, but the two terms can be distinguished as well in the following way: denotatum means a class of objects, to which a concept of a class would be a corresponding conceptualisation on the cognitive level 2) while r. would mean a discrete representative of a class of denotata, to which a mental referent would correspond on the level of conceptualisation.

Referential approach to meaning – See 'Lexicentric' approach to meaning

Referential meaning – 1) equivalent to denotation-1 – part of the word's semantics which involves the relationship between a linguistic unit (a lexical item) and the non-linguistic entities to which it refers; 2) type of meaning actualised by lexical items when they denote a single representative of a class of denotata/referents, its cognitive counterpart being a mental referent (a thought / a conceptualised image of a single referent) as opposed to concepts of a class (reflected in denotational meaning) and concept of a property/feature (reflected by significative meaning); actualised primarily by proper names and common names supported by the individualising (specifying) function of the articles.

Register – refers to functional specification of language use. Introduced into linguistic analysis by M.A.K.Halliday who defined the notion in the following way: "A register can be defined as a particular configuration of meanings that is associated with a particular situation type. The distinction between one register and another is a distinction of what is said as much as how it is said, without any enforced separation between the two". Register features are a universal factor: they cut across the whole of English vocabulary; in analysis of register it is customary to distinguish three interacting dimensions of variation: field, mode, and style, which are closely interwoven:

• field (subject-field) – refers to the subject-matter, the specialised or predominant themes of discourse; we can speak of lexical and grammatical peculiarities of such fields of discourse as the language of law, academic discourse, advertising language, political speeches, etc. The structure of discourse in respect to subject-fields will involve the division into general and specialised vocabulary

• mode – is concerned with the manner of transmission of a linguistic message – whether, for instance, it is written, spoken, telegraphed, or whatever. This medium is normally determined by the social function of communication. In most speech communities there are conventions, usually quite clearly established, which determine whether messages should be conveyed orally or in writing, and little choice is possible.

• style (tenor) – language characteristics which mark different relations between the participants in a linguistic exchange; the roles of the participants in the conversation, the level of intimacy, the social position, age – are the factors to be taken into account. Here we find the greatest variety of cognitive synonyms. The emotional side of the message to be conveyed becomes the speaker's real concern as well as the adequate linguistic expression of attitudes and reactions in a particular context. Lexical items are differentiated in respect of the tenor of the utterance. Whether the speaker chooses to sound neutral or even formal in conversation, or, on the contrary, appears to be more relaxed, intimate and friendly, finds expression in the vocabulary he uses.

Registers of English

• Basic English – spoken by the educated majority of the population

• Social English – spoken by different social subgroups of the population, cf Jargon

Reproducibility – regular use in speech as the principal form of existence of a linguistic unit; characteristic of a word as distinguished from sentences as most sentences are produced ad hoc while words are reproduced from memory.

Restricted collocation –See Collocation

Rhyme combinations – See Reduplication; Compounds, reduplicative

Root – the semantic nucleus of a word with which no grammatical properties of the word are connected.

Root-morpheme – See Root

S

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis – theory propounded by E.Sapir and B. Whorf which basic postulate is that the world in which we live is to a large extent unconsciously built on the language habits of the group (cf. linguistic relativity)

Scenario - a notion of cognitive semantics (q.v.) referring to a type of concept (q.v.) which reflects some denotata as a situation with possible relationships between the participants of the situation, possible ongoing event, a dynamic frame (the so called predicate names, words of propositional semantics – e.g. holiday, wedding, exam, beat about the bush).

Scheme – a notion of cognitive semantics referring to 1) a type of concept (q.v.) which reflect some denotata in relation (comparison) to some other denotata. – See Frame; 2) See Image scheme; 3) a type of concept; a mental image of an object or phenomenon which has a spatial-contour character; is represented by the meanings of such words as tree, river, man, road. E.g. the concept 'road' is a scheme as it involves the concepts of the departure point and the destination point, and can be represented schematically.

Secondary nomination – the process and the result of derivational processes in the vocabulary, when an already existing name is used for the second time to denote another referent. However, the term is assumed to be incorrect because for each referent the process of nomination is always a primary and the only act of nomination. Although we can speak of secondary (or multiple) use of one the same name in nomination acts.

Secondary signification – according to Prof. M.V. Nikitin, additional element of significative meaning, which is being formed in the structure of lexical meaning of a word as a result of certain restrictions mapped upon the sphere of referential applicability of this very name and which bears extensional-intentional information about the class of denotata (extralinguistic counterparts), correlating with this meaning: e.g. to moo (of cows), to philander (of men), nubile (of women), auburn (of hair), a troupe (of performers), etc. S.s. characterises a specific layer of extensionally restricted lexical units, which possess bound (restricted) combinability. This is the case when the meaning of the word signifies of its referential applicability. Otherwise the phenomenon is described in terms of 'lexical solidarity', 'bound meaning', 'presupposition', 'covert semantics', 'lexical parameters' and others.

Semantic base (universal s. b.) – a set of universal concepts (semantic primes or semantic primitives;) shared by all linguistic communities; the basic 'atoms' of meaning in terms of which thousands upon thousands of complex meanings are composed and find either lexical or grammatical expression by means of different languages. E.g. I, people, say, have, live, before, etc. (about 60 in total according to A. Wierzbicka).

Semantic component – See Seme

Semantic change – changes of both synchronic and diachronic nature, which concern the semantic content of the word. New meanings would appear by means of semantic shift (q.v.) and semantic transference (q.v.) which lead to the growth of polysemy. Causes for s.ch. can be both extralinguistic and linguistic. – See Secondary nomination; Semantic development of the word

Semantic derivation – a means of word formation by which a new meaning appears within a semantic structure of a word (resulting in polysemy and sometimes in homonymy), an increase in the semantic potential of the word. – See Semantic changes; Semantic shift; Semantic transference

Semantic development/evolution of the word – a diachronic semantic 'life story' of a word – a sum total of semantic changes it underwent. – See Semantic changes

Semantic extension – same as generalization (q.v.), also broadening/widening of meaning.

Semantic field – The earliest definition introduced by German linguist Ipsen (1924) meant a group of words that form some kind of semantic unity. Modern treatments of s.f. involve: a) part (slice) of reality singled out in human experience and, theoretically, covered in language by a more or less autonomous lexical microsystem; b) (otherwise known as lexical field) a whole set of lexemes belonging to a particular area of meaning and reflecting linguistically a certain semantic field. S.f. is assumed, therefore to consist of a lexical field and a conceptual core. A lexical field is organized both by shared conditions determining the denotations of its words and by a conceptual core, by the meanings of what the words denote. A conceptual core is an organized representation of general knowledge and beliefs about whatever objects or events the words denote – about what they are and do; what can be done with them; how they are related; what they relate to. This lexical-conceptual relation is complex. With the rise of prototype theory the properties of the field came to be considered of prototypical nature. S.fs can be formed by different types of systemic relationships between words: synonymic, antonymic, hierarchical, conceptual integrations, associative networks. S.fs are more than a convenient summarizing device. They make possible an extremely flexible access to the information stored in mental lexicon. – See Prototype theory, Conceptual categories; Hierarchical taxonomy

Semantic isolation – the loss by a word, or word combination, of productivity and free combinability; the acquisition of idiomatic qualities.

Semantic level of analysis – bi-aspectual study of linguistic units – both as units of expression and units of content; comprises semasiological and onomaseological analyses (q.v.).

Semantic primitives – See Semantic base

Semantic restructuring – See Contraction

Semantic shift – a type of semantic change (q.v.), opp. to semantic transference (q.v.) when changes in semantics take place within one and the same conceptual sphere. Typology of ss.:

• generalization of meaning (q.v.) /extension/broadening of meaning;

• narrowing of meaning (q.v.) /specialization/specification;

• attitudinal shifts – pejorative and meliorative development (the so-called 'degradation' and 'elevation' of meaning): the acquisition by a word of some derogatory or positive emotive charge and the degradation or improvement of the evaluative connotational component of meaning, sometimes involves changes in denotation. – See Amelioration; Pejoration

Semantic structure of a word – a) of a monosemantic word or of a lexico-semantic variant – a set of interrelated semes. – See Seme; b) of a polysemantic word – a set of lexico-semantic variants, structured as a chain or radial network. – See Polysemy; Concatenation; Irradiation

Semantic transference – type of semantic change when two conceptual spheres are involved: a name for an entity of one conceptual sphere 'is transferred' to serve as a name for an entity from another conceptual sphere. Typical example of s.t. is metaphor (q.v.). – See Cognitive Metaphor; Metaphorization; Secondary nomination

Semantic triangle – graphical representation of the way names and things named are related. C.K.Ogden and I.A.Richards following ancient philosophers presented this relationship as a triangle, joining the thought of reference, referent and symbol as the three apexes of it in the following way:

thought of reference

symbol referent

Other names (in different scholarly approaches to semantic triangle) for the apexes are: thought of reference – concept, signified, notion, content; referent – denotatum, object; symbol – signifier, sign, word, form.

Semantic variation – See Variation, semantic v.

Semantics – 1) the philosophical and linguistic study of meaning. The term is one of a group of English words formed from the various derivatives of the Greek verb semaino ("to mean" or "to signify"). The term s. has ultimately prevailed as a name for the doctrine of meaning, in particular, of linguistic meaning. Semiotic is still used, however, to denote a broader field: the study of sign-using behaviour in general. S. became a general term for several branches of s.:

• cognitive semantics – q.v.;

• general semantics – a philosophy of language meaning, the study of language as a representation of reality. G.s. theory was intended to improve the habits of response to environment. G.s. followers sought a scientific, non-Aristotelian basis for clear understanding of the differences between symbol (word) and reality (referent) and the ways in which words themselves can influence (or manipulate) and limit human ability to think;

• formal semantics – logical or mathematical semantics, the calculation of truth value conditions for logical and mathematical expressions.

2. meaning of words, expressions or grammatical forms. – See Meaning

Semasiological analysis – approach in the study of linguistic semantics in 'formcontent' direction, the study of cases of polysemy and homonymy; opp. to onomaseological analysis (q.v.).

Semasiology (from Gr. semasia ("signification") + logos ("account")) – also semantics 1), the branch of linguistics which studies the semantics of linguistic units.

• synchronic s. – studies the semantics of words on synchronic level, as well as synchronic semantic derivational processes;

• diachronic s. - studies the semantic development (q.v.) of the word;

• stylistic s. – studies the stylistic potential of the word semantics.

Seme (same as Sememe, Semantic component) – minimal unit of sense, an 'atom' of lexical semantics, distinguished on the basis of oppositions by methods applied in componential analysis. Typology of ss.:

• categorial s.;

• denotative/connotative s.;

• differential s.;

• covert/overt s.;

• occasional s.;

• potential s.

Sememe – See Seme

Semi-affixes – See Bound cases

Semi-morphemes - See Bound cases

Semi-opaque idiom – See Idiom proper

Semio-implicational meanings – occasional senses/meanings which appear when a word is used in an utterance in a certain act of communication. The source of s.-i. meanings is mostly extralinguistic (the knowledge of the current and background situations, of the interlocutor, the prospective/previous development of the events, etc.).

Semiosis – 1) the process of sign formation; 2) the process of signification of a linguistic sign which takes place in the act of nomination (q.v.). There are two modes of s. distinguished in modern linguistics:

• primary s. – endowing a word with meaning in the primary act of nomination;

• secondary s. – appearance of sense (q.v.) in an utterance in a current particular act of communication which involves actualization of meaning of every word in the given utterance and all possible associative, semio-implicational, contextual additions to their virtual meaning.

Semiotics – the study of signs (symbols, icons, signals, etc.).

Sense (end, purpose, significance, purport) – the meaning a word or a phrase acquires in a certain context, as distinct from meaning specified by the dictionary. S. is applicable to actual speech only, to utterances as speech realisation of sentences. S. can not be presented as a sum total of the meanings of utterance constituents, but rather as a result of multiplication and blending of all meaningful elements on the basis of certain speech strategies. The result may even oppose logical meaning of words and standard meaning of grammatical structures. "What a good boy you are!" addressing a window-smasher renders something quite different from appraisal of which the word 'good', emphatic grammatical construction taken separately would be suggestive. The essence of irony, mockery and sarcasm lies in the discrepancy between the meaning of the word or phrase and the sense as actual realisation of this meaning on the broad contextual (both linguistic and extralinguistic) background in speech (actual situation of communication).

Set – a group of words united on different principles:

• lexical set – See Lexical field

• semantic set – See Lexical field

• synonymic set – See Synonyms

Set expressions – See Idiom proper

Sexism – offensive use of words implying sexual affinity of people. Hence there appeared a widespread tendency to replace terms for occupations or titles which are unnecessarily marked for gender (e.g. flight attendant for stewardess), and to substitute -person for -man in words such as chairman, salesman, and spokesman. Opinions vary very widely concerning the desirability of such substitutions. The extending of this tendency to cover words with only tenuous etymological links with sex (e.g. masterpiece, manhandle, manhole) is not generally accepted, and extreme forms such as herstory for history have little place outside specifically feminist writing. – See Bias words; Political correctness; Euphemism

Shades of meaning (same as overtones, types of connotations, connotative implications) – See Connotation

Shift/ semantic shift – See Semantic changes; Semantic shift

Shortening (clipping, curtailment, apheresis/aphesis) – type of word-building; the reduction of a word to one of its parts (whether or not this part has previously been a morpheme), as a result of which the new form acquires some linguistic value of its own. D.Crystal classifies shortened words and some of their types as abbreviations (q.v.). Prof. I.V.Arnold classifies s.w. according to the position of the clipped part:

• final clipping (or apocope from Gr. 'apokoptein' – 'cut off''): ref – referee;

• initial clipping (or aphesis, i.e. apheresis, from Gr. 'aphairesis' – 'a taking away'): cute – acute; fend –defend; chute – parachute;

• medial clipping (or syncope, from Gr. 'syncopé' – 'a cutting up'): maths – mathematics; specs – spectacles;

• combined type: (final + initial clipping) – flu (influenza); tec (detective).

The two words (the full form and the shortened form) can be: