Экзаменационный билет № 7

1. Diachronic and synchronic approaches to polysemy

Diachronically, polysemy is understood as the growth and development of the semantic structure of the word. Historically we differentiate between the primary and secondary meanings of words.

The relation between these meanings isn't only the one of order of appearance but it is also the relation of dependence = > we can say that secondary meaning is always the derived meaning (e.g. dog – 1. animal, 2. despicable person)

Synchronically it is possible to distinguish between major meaning of the word and its minor meanings. However it is often hard to grade individual meaning of the word in order of their comparative value (e.g. to get the letter - получить письмо; to get to London - прибыть в Лондон - minor).

The only more or less objective criterion in this case is the frequency of occurrence in speech (e.g. table – 1. furniture, 2. food). The semantic structure is never static and the primary meaning of a word may become synchronically one of the minor meanings and vice versa. Stylistic factors should always be taken into consideration

Polysemy of words: "yellow"- sensational (Am., sl.)

The meaning which has the highest frequency is the one representative of the whole semantic structure of the word. The Russian equivalent of "a table" which first comes to your mind and when you hear this word is 'cтол" in the meaning "a piece of furniture". And words that correspond in their major meanings in two different languages are referred to as correlated words though their semantic structures may be different.

Primary meaning - historically first.

Major meaning - the most frequently used meaning of the word synchronically.

2. Typical semantic relations between words in conversion pairs

We can single out the following typical semantic relation in conversion pairs:

1) Verbs converted from nouns (denominal verbs):

a) Actions characteristic of the subject (e.g. ape – to ape – imitate in a foolish way);

b) Instrumental use of the object (e.g. whip - to whip – strike with a whip);

c) Acquisition or addition of the objects (e.g. fish - to fish - to catch fish);

d) Deprivation of the object (e.g. dust - to dust – remove dust).

2) Nouns converted from verbs (deverbal nouns):

a) Instance of the action (e.g. to move - a move = change of position);

b) Agent of an action (e.g. to cheat - a cheat – a person who cheats);

c) Place of the action (e.g. to walk-a walk – a place for walking);

d) Object or result of the action (e.g. to find- a find – something found).

Экзаменационный билет № 8

1. Classification of homonyms

Homonyms are words that are identical in their sound-form or spelling but different in meaning and distribution.

1) Homonyms proper are words similar in their sound-form and graphic but different in meaning (e.g. "a ball"- a round object for playing; "a ball"- a meeting for dances).

2) Homophones are words similar in their sound-form but different in spelling and meaning (e.g. "peace" - "piece", "sight"- "site").

3) Homographs are words which have similar spelling but different sound-form and meaning (e.g. "a row" [rau]- "a quarrel"; "a row" [rəu] - "a number of persons or things in a more or less straight line")

There is another classification by Смирницкий. According to the type of meaning in which homonyms differ, homonyms proper can be classified into:

I. Lexical homonyms - different in lexical meaning (e.g. "ball");

II. Lexical-grammatical homonyms which differ in lexical-grammatical meanings (e.g. "a seal" - тюлень, "to seal" - запечатывать).

III. Grammatical homonyms which differ in grammatical meaning only (e.g. "used" - Past Indefinite, "used"- Past Participle; "pupils"- the meaning of plurality, "pupil's"- the meaning of possessive case).

All cases of homonymy may be subdivided into full and partial homonymy. If words are identical in all their forms, they are full homonyms (e.g. "ball"-"ball"). But: "a seal" - "to seal" have only two homonymous forms, hence, they are partial homonyms.

2. Classification of prefixes

Prefixation is the formation of words with the help of prefixes. There are about 51 prefixes in the system of modern English word-formation.

1. According to the type they are distinguished into: a) prefixes that are correlated with independent words (un-, dis-), and b) prefixes that are correlated with functional words (e.g. out, over. under).

There are about 25 convertive prefixes which can transfer words to a different part of speech (E.g. embronze59).

Prefixes may be classified on different principles. Diachronically they may be divided into native and foreign origin, synchronically:

1. According to the class they preferably form: verbs (im, un), adjectives (un-, in-, il-, ir-) and nouns (non-, sub-, ex-).

2. According to the lexical-grammatical type of the base they are added to:

a). Deverbal - rewrite, overdo;

b). Denominal - unbutton, detrain, ex-president,

c). Deadjectival - uneasy, biannual.

It is of interest to note that the most productive prefixal pattern for adjectives is the one made up of the prefix un- and the base built either on adjectival stems or present and past participle, e.g. unknown, unsmiling, unseen etc.

3. According to their semantic structure prefixes may fall into monosemantic and polysemantic.

4. According to the generic-denotational meaning they are divided into different groups:

a). Negative prefixes: un-, dis-, non-, in-, a- (e.g. unemployment, non-scientific, incorrect, disloyal, amoral, asymmetry).

b). Reversative or privative60 prefixes: un-, de-, dis- (e.g. untie, unleash, decentralize, disconnect).

c). Pejorative prefixes: mis-, mal-, pseudo- (e.g. miscalculate, misinform, maltreat, pseudo-classicism).

d). Prefixes of time and order: fore-, pre-, post-, ex- (e.g. foretell, pre-war, post-war, ex-president).

e). Prefix of repetition re- (e.g. rebuild, rewrite).

f). Locative prefixes: super-, sub-, inter-, trans- (e.g. superstructure, subway, inter-continental, transatlantic).

5. According to their stylistic reference:

a). Neutral: un-, out-, over-, re-, under- (e.g. outnumber, unknown, unnatural, oversee, underestimate).

b). Stylistically marked: pseudo-, super-, ultra-, uni-, bi- (e.g. pseudo-classical, superstructure, ultra-violet, unilateral) they are bookish.

6. According to the degree of productivity: a). highly productive, b). productive, c). non-productive.