3. Проблеми семасіології англійської мови. Типи значення слова. Полісемія.

The branch of lexicology that is devoted to the study of meaning is known as Semasiology. Diachronically, semasiology studies the change in meaning which words undergo in the process of their historical development. Synchronically, semasiology approaches semantic structures typical of the given language instead of studying the meanings of individual words.

The objects: types of meaning, semantic development of words, causes and results of semantic change, polysemy, homonymy, and various kinds of semantic relations inside the English vocabulary system.

According to Vinogradov, the meaning of a word can be:

1. Nominative.

2. Nominative- derivative

3. Collegationally and collocationally conditioned.

4. Phraseologically bound.

Nominative is the basic meaning of a word, which refers to objects of extra linguistic reality in a direct way and reflects their actual relations.

Nominative-Derivative meaning comes into being when the word is “stretched out” semantically to cover new facts and extra linguistic phenomena. When the speaker uses the word metaphorically he extends it’s content. The metaphorical use is based on certain similarities observed by the speaker. Metaphoric meanings are registered in dictionaries. Such meanings are often poetically present in the semantic structure of the word.

Some words (adj-s) are characterized by broad meaningness, it allows them to develop new meanings.  cool, chilly, frozen, hot  eyes were frozen with terror

Collegiationally and collocationally conditioned meanings are not free, but bound. Collegationally conditioned meaning is determined by morphosyntactic combinability of words. Some meanings are realized only without a given morphosyntactic pattern (colligation) (e.g. to tell- рассказать, сказать. In passive constructions means to order/to direct; to carry- нести.In passive construction= to accept) Collocationally conditioned meaning is determined by lexical- phraseological combinality of words. There are meaning which depend on the word association with other words (collocation).

Phraseologically bound meaning. Collocations should be distinguished from idioms and phraseological units. Idioms and phraseological units are devoid of referential meanings. The meanings of the individual words can’t be summed together to produce the meaning of the idiomatic expression. to kick the bucket = to die.

The word combimation is literal in meaning, because its degree of idiomatic is low it’s called phraseological unit.

ADDITIONAL

Typology of ms.:

- actual m. – opp. to virtual (systemic) m., actualized in speech, specified by linguistic and situational context;

- associative m. – similar to connotation (q.v.), weak implication, a conceptual entity to which the systemic m. of a given word merely hints, indirectly implies, which is triggered by association;

- bound m. – actualised by a word in a given phrase or context, predetermined by semantic or morphosyntactic combinability (or collocationally and colligationally bound)

- broad m. – resulting from generalization of m. (q.v.), when a word develops the broadest referential capacity possible (e.g. way. thing, body, do, have); further stage is deemantization and loss of purely lexical m., transformation of a lexical unit into a grammatical morpheme

- categorial m. – part-of-speech meaning;

- cognitive m. – a) same as conceptual or denotative or nominative or main meaning; b) the conceptual core, significative part of m. reflecting essential features of the referent conceptualised by our cognition; distinct from pragmatic m.;

- colligationally and collocationally conditioned m. (Acad. V.V. Vinogradov's term) – are not 'free' but 'bound' ones in the sense that they are determined by morphosyntactic and lexical-phraseological combinability. Some meanings are realised only within a given morpho-syntactic pattern (colligation), e.g. the verb to tell when used in a passive construction displays its colligationally conditioned meaning 'to order, to direct – You must do what you are told'. Similarly, there are meanings which depend on the word's association with other lexical units (collocation). Here the idiom principle is the leading one because the co-occurrence range of the word is determined not only by its meaning, but also, to a great extent, by the conventions of its use: e.g. milk is never rancid, but sour (see secondary signification). The verb to raise acquires a collocationally bound meaning ('to grow plants' or 'keep animals') when used in combinations, such as raise wheat/ pigs / cattle. When combine with the nouns hopes / consciousness / awareness, its meaning changes: The conference is intended to raise people's awareness of Aids. – See bound m.

- conceptual m. - same as cognitive or denotative or nominative or main meaning;

- connotative (connotational) m. – See Connotation

- contentional m. – reflects the structure of essential features of a notion, name.

- contextual (contextually-bound) m. – triggered/brought in by the contextual (both verbal and non-verbal) environment of the word; acquired on a definite occasion only;

- core m. – same as cognitive or denotative or nominative or main meaning;

- derived (derivational) m.

- direct m. – the main meaning of the word which appears in the act of primary semiosis; opp. to transferred (derived, figurative) m. which appears as a result of semantic derivation/semantic development processes (q.v.) and secondary nomination (q.v.).

- dynamic m. – actually, any m. is characterized by certain dynamism – ability to change either synchronically or diachronically, so that it would not be correct to discriminate between systemic (dictionary, virtual) m. as being static and speech (actual, actualized) m. as dynamic, although in a current speech event m. is necessarily subject to contextual (both linguistic and extralinguistic) influence hence actual is more dynamic than virtual/systemic m.;

- encyclopaedic m. – opp. to naive m. (q.v.), conveys the exhaustive information about an object, event or phenomenon, expert's knowledge of the denotatum which only professionals possess (cf. the meaning of the word 'atom' as understood by a physicist and by a actress). Lexical m. does not cover the e.m., actually, lexical m. has nothing to do with the e.m. To understand the m. of the word 'salt' you are not obligatorily to be an expert in chemistry and remember that NaCl is the chemical formula for salt and 'salts' are quite peculiar chemical substances not necessarily intended for cooking purposes.

- etymological m. – original m. of a word, which later on underwent semantic changes;

- expressive m

- extensional m. – a number of denotata to which a certain name refers to.

- further m. – m. or meanings within the prospective scope of semantic changes (only vaguely) predetermined by the current semantics of the word, the prospective sphere of its semantic variation;

- figurative m.

- free m. – nominative m. (q.v.) can be regarded as 'free' as distinct from the collocational and colligational meanings as bound (q.v.) ones;

- functional m. – grammatical meaning of a word (word-like unit) as an element of syntax, predetermined by its categorial (q.v.), subcategorial and individual lexical m.;

- generic m. – reflection in lexical m. of a generic concept, concept of the higher level of abstraction;

- grammatical m. – m. of a grammatical form of a word;

- idiomatic m. – m., actualized within a certain idiomatic expression only, idiomatically bound m.;

- lexical m. – m. of a lexical unit, comprises categorial m., subcategorial m. and individual m. of a lexeme; reflects a certain part of a corresponding concept on the level of language;

- lexico-grammatical m. – same as categorial m. (q.v.), part-of-speech m.;

- main m. – See nominative m;

- naive m. – lexical m. as represented in the mind of a common native speaker, not an expert in the field which includes the denotatum of the word – see encyclopaedic m.

- next m. – m. or meanings within the actual scope of semantic derivation of a lexeme, easily predetermined or expected by the core semantics (lexical prototype) of the word;

- nominative m. – also basic, main, direct, conceptual, cognitive m. of the word, referring to objects, phenomena, actions and qualities in extralinguistic reality (referent) and reflecting their general understanding by the speaker (can be correlated with referential, denotative, descriptive, factual, objective m.); realization of the word's nominative capacity (to serve as a name for some extralinguistic entity). The n.m. also has the following 'free' authentic equivalents in English: essential, central, domain, primary, focal, pivotal, common, usual – which are mostly used to avoid repetition in speech and not as technical terms;

- nominative-derivative m. – comes into being when the word is 'stretched out' semantically as a result of semantic derivation to cover new facts and phenomena of extralinguistic reality

- original m. – = etymological m.

- phraseological m. (phraseologically bound meaning) – also idiomatic m. (q.v.) the meaning which is realised only in some phrases and belongs only to a given collocation – when a word is habitually associated together with another word to form a 'natural-sounding' combination: e.g. to raise becomes part of the phrase meaning 'to show surprise' in to raise one's eyebrows (at smb.)

- pragmatic m. – semantic component of lexical m. (as distinct from conceptual m.) which reflects the attitudes, emotions of the speakers (either personal or communal), so it can be regarded a correlative term to connotation (q.v.);

- primary m. –  which to the greatest degree is dependent upon or conditioned by its paradigmatic links, while such meanings as display a greater degree of syntagmatic ties are secondary;

- referential m.

- secondary m.

- significative m.

- situational m.

- specific m. – opp. to generic m. (q.v.), m. of a specific term, correlates with the specific concept, a subordinate one in the hierarchical taxonomy;

- static m. – opp. to dynamic m. (q.v.)

- usual m. – m., accepted by the language-speaking community, fixed in dictionaries, reproduced in speech actualizations of the word;

- virtual m. - as opp. to actual m., systemic (fixed in dictionaries) m.

* * *

There are two main types of meaning distinguished in English lexicology: lexical and grammatical.

Grammatical meaning is defined as the component of meaning recurrent in identical sets of individual forms of different words.

Lexical meaning is usually defined as the realization of the notion by means of language; is of interest to the seasiology.

Lexical meaning consists of two important parts: denotative meaning (also called referential or extensional) and connotative meaning (also referred to as emotional, intentional or expressive).

The denotative meaning expresses the notional content of the word, i.e. it gives a name to the actually existing object, and may be of two types according to the word’s function in speech: significative and identifying or demonstrative. If the word’s function in speech is to signify, i.e. to evoke general ideas we speak about realization of the word’s significative meaning. When the word’s function is to identify the individual objects of reality, to name its exact referents, it realizes its demonstrative meaning.

The connotative meaning is optional, i.e. it may be altogether absent in some words or it may exist in a wide range of proportions. The connotational component of meaning consists of a large variety of associations of which the speaker and the listener are aware.

POLYSEMY

Polysemy is very characteristic of the English vocabulary due to the monosyllabic character of English words and the predominance of root words. The greater the frequency of the word, the greater the number of meanings that constitute its semantic structure. A special formula known as "Zipf's law" has been worked out to express the correlation between frequency, word length and polysemy: the shorter the word, the higher its frequency of use; the higher the frequency, the wider its combinability , i.e. the more word combinations it enters; the wider its combinability, the more meanings are realised in these contexts.

A word which has more than one meaning is called polysemantic. Different meanings of a polysemantic word may come together due to the proximity of notions which they express. (e.g. the word «blanket» has the following meanings: 1)a woolen covering used on beds, 2)a covering for keeping a horse warm, 3)a covering of any kind /a blanket of snow/, 4)covering all or most cases /used attributively/: «a blanket insurance policy»)

There are some words in the language which are monosemantic, such as most terms, /synonym, molecule, bronchites/, some pronouns /this, my, both/, numerals.

There are two processes of the semantic development of a word: radiation and concatenation. In cases of radiation the primary meaning stands in the centre and the secondary meanings proceed out of it like rays. Each secondary meaning can be traced to the primary meaning (e.g. in the word «face» the primary meaning denotes «the front part of the human head» => the front part of a watch => the front part of a building => the front part of a playing card) In cases of concatenation secondary meanings of a word develop like a chain (e.g. in the word «crust» the primary meaning «hard outer part of bread» => «hard part of anything /a pie, a cake/»=> “harder layer over soft snow” => «a sullen gloomy person» => «impudence») In such cases homonyms appear in the language. It is called the split of polysemy. In most cases in the semantic development of a word both ways of semantic development are combined.