65. Semantic Structure of the Word & Interaction of Direct & Indirect Transferred Meanings

Semantic structure of the word is the sum total (совокупность) of its lexico-semantic variants.

It is important to underline the discreteness (дискретность) of variants, each of which has its connotational & distributional peculiarities. We can call this sum total a structure because it presents a multitude (множество) where certain relations are defined. The common feature of all the elements of this multitude is that all these elements are expressed by the same combination of morphemes, although they are met in different conditions of distribution. All lexico-semantic variants of a word should belong to the same part of speech.

Polysemy doesn't prevent from understanding, as the word is used in the context

only in one of its meanings (contextual meaning). But other meanings are not completely eliminated, they exist as certain stylistic background. Sometimes authors deliberately create a possibility of realizing 2 meanings - contextual & reflected (‘concord’ созвучие, согласие, 'union' гармония, брачный союз). The collision of 2 meanings of the word 'front’ (фронт, прихожая) in Dilan Thomas's novel makes us feel the cruelty & absurdity of war through the child's perception.

Direct/ nominative meaning can be realized without the context. One-word titles

('The Search' 'Victory') may acquire transferred meaning in the context of the whole work. "The Search' is not a real, but a spiritual search. There is a special stylistic device – autology which consists in using the words only in their direct meanings to create the simplicity of the description (Hemingway “In Another Country”) - shows the reserve of the narrator).

The meaning is called transferred or figurative when it not only names, but also describes or characterizes the object through its resemblance with another object. Contextual meaning is compared to direct meaning and the reasons for transfer are evident (She was a dynamo of activity. She was here, there and everywhere... Technical term 'dynamo' acquires transferred meaning 'the source of human activity'). Not all transferred meanings are stylistically relevant (the mouth of the river). Transfers may be metaphoric &metonymic.

66. The Use of Polysemy and Repetition

The interaction of direct & indirect transferred meanings of a word may be paradigmatic or syntagmatic. For syntagmatic realization the variants should be within one speech chain and close enough. Polysemy becomes stylistically potent in the combination with repetition. Lexical repetition is the repetition of a word or word combination in the structure of one sentence, paragraph or even the whole text. The distance between the repeated lexical units may be different, but the reader should be able to notice the repetition. The usage of polysemy in the combination with repetition may be similar to word play in its stylistic function. Very often the usage of different lexico-semantic variants in the same context underlines the difference in connotations. In the poem “Don'ts” by D. Lawrence the word 'little' is used in its 2 meanings (1. It’s synonymous to the endearment suffix; 2. It’s opposed to null/zero – противопоставлен нулю). The poem has a distinct social orientation & the usage of polysemy in the combination with repetition contributes greatly to it.