4. Системна організація словникового складу англійської мови. Синонімія та антонімія.

Being an adaptive system the vocabulary is constantly adjusting itself to the changing requirements and conditions of human communication and cultural and other needs. This process of self-regulation of the lexical system is a result of overcoming conditions between the state of the system and the demands it has to meet. The speaker chooses from the existing stock of words such words that in his opinion can adequately express his thought and feeling. Faling to find the expression he needs, he coins a new one. It is imporant to stress that the development Is not confined to coining new words on the existing patterns but in adapting the very structure of the system to its changing functions. The adaptive system approach gives a more adequate account of the systematic pheomena of a vocabulary by explaining more facts about the functioning of words and providing more relevant generalizations, because we can take into account the influence of extra-linguistic reality. The study of the vocabulary as an adaptive sytem reveals the pragmatic essence of the communication process – the way language is used to influence the adressee. New notions constantly come into being, requiring new words to name them, that’s why neologisms appear - a newly coined words o phrases or a new meanings for an existing words, or words borrowed from another language.The total sum of all words in the vocabulary may be considered as a structural set of independent and interrelated elements. Systemacy of the vocabulary reflects the systemacy of people’s perception of the world. Even though the elements of the system are concrete and can be observed as such, a set is always abstract and so is the vocabulary sytem. Attempts to study the inner structure of the vocabulary revealed in spite of the its heterogeneity the English word-stock may be analysed into numerous subsystemthe members of which have some features in common, thus distinguishing them from the members of other lexical subsystems. In the language system syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations are very important. Syntagmatic relations are based on the influence of the context on the linear character of the speech, they are horizontal. Paradigmatic linguistic relationships determining the vocabulary system may be subdivided as follows:

• The interdependence of elements within words;

• The interdependence of words within the vocabulary;

• The influence of other aspects of the same language.

Hyponymy is a type of paradigmatic relation between words in which the meaning of the one of the words includes the meaning of the other word. Thus, vehicle includes car, bus, taxi, train; oak implies tree. The hyponymic relationship is the relationship between the meaning of the general and the individual terms. Hyperonym is the word with a more general meaning. It’s a generic term which serves as the name of the general distinguished from the names of the species – hyponyms. For instance, animal is a generic term as complying to the names wolf, dog, mouse. Dog itself may serve as a generic term for different breeds, such as bull-dog, collie, poodle.

Semantic field is a closely knit sector of vocabulary characterized by a common concept: in the semantic field of space we find nouns (expanse, extent, surface), verbs (extend, spread, span), adjectives (spacious, roomy, vast, broad). The members of the semantic fields are not synonymous but all of them are joined together by some common semantic component. This semantic component common to all members of the field is sometimes described as the common dominator of meaning, like the concept of kinship, concept of colour, parts of the human body. The basis of grouping is extra-linguistic, the words are associated, because the things they name occur together and are closely connected in reality.

Thematic (ideographic) grouping are groups of words joined together by common contextual associations within the framework of the sentence and reflect the interlinking of things and events in objective reality. Contextual associations are formed as a result of regular co-occurrence of words in similar repeatedly used contexts. Thematic or ideographic groups are independent of classification not parts of speech. Words and expressions are here classed not according to their lexico-grammatical meaning but strictly according to their signification, e.g.: the system of logical nouns (tree-grow-green; journey-taxi-bus-train-ticket-suitcase).

Lexical gap is the absence of a word in a particular place in a semantic field of a language. A lexico-semantic group is singled out on purely linguistic principles: words are united if they have one or more semantic component in common, but differ in some other semantic components constituting their semantic structures. This type of grouping is mostly applied to verbs: verbs of sense perception, verbs of motion.

By a lexico-grammatical group of words we understand a class of words which has common lexico-grammatical meaning, common paradigm, the same substitutional elements and possible characteristic set of suffixes rendering the lexico-grammatical meaning. These groups are subsets of the parts of speech.

Synonymic grouping is a special case of lexico-grammatical grouping based on semantic proximity of words belonging to the same part of speech. Taking up similarity of meaning and contrasts of phonetic shape we observe that every language in its vocabulary has a variety of words kindred (споріднений) or similar in meaning but distinct in morphemic composition, phonetic shape and usage. These words express the most delicate shades of thought, feelings and are explained in the dictionaries of synonyms.

Antonyms have been traditionally defined as words of opposite meaning. Their distinction from synonyms is semantic polarity. The English language is rich in synonyms and antonyms, their study reveals the systematic character of the English vocabulary.

Synonymy is the coincidence in the essential meaning of words which usually preserve their differences in connotations and stylistic characteristics.

Synonyms (Gr. Syn. “with”, onyme – “name”) – are 2 or more words belonging to the same part of speech and possessing one or more identical or nearly identical denotative meaning interchangeable in some contexts. These words are distinguished by different shades of meaning, connotations and stylistic features.

The synonymic dominant is the most general term potentially containing the specific features rendered by all the other members of the group. It is characterized by high frequency value, broad combinability, broad general meaning, lack of connotations, stylistic neutrality, it may substitute for other synonyms at least in some contexts. It is often used to define other synonyms in dictionary definitions, e.g.: to eat, to swallow, to ingest, to devour, to consume. The majority of words are polysemantic and it is precisely the frequent words that have many synonyms. The result is that many polysemantic words mays belong in its various meanings to several different synonymic groups. That’s why synonyms are supposed to be words that can replace each other in a given context without the slightest alteration either in the denotational or connotational meaning.

Synonyms can be lexical and contextual. Lexical synonyms are similar in meaning in the language system, e.g.: desire – wish. Contextual or context-dependent synonyms are similar in meaning only under some specific contextual distributional conditions: e.g. I can’t bear him anymore. I can’t stand him anymore. According to whether the difference is in denotative or connotative component lexical synonyms are classified into ideographic and stylistic. Ideographic synonyms denote different shades of meaning or different degrees of a given quality. They are nearly identical in one or more denotative meanings and interchangeable at least in some contexts, e.g.: beautiful – fine- cute – handsome – pretty – nice. Beautiful conveys the strongest meaning, it marks the possession of that quality to the fullest extent, while other terms denote the possession of it in part only. Stylistic synonyms differ not so much in denotational as in emotive value or stylistic sphere of application. Pictorial language often uses poetic words, archaisms and stylistic alternatives of neutral words: maid for girl. In many vases a stylistic synonym has an element of elevation in its meaning, e.g.: girl – maiden. There is also the reverse process of degradation. E.g.: to steal – to pinch, to eat – to devour, face – muzzle.

Total synonyms – are those members of a synonymic group which can replace each other in any given context. They are very rare, e.g.: noun – substantive, affix – flection. Relative synonyms have different degree of the same notion or different shades of meanings, e.g.: ask-beg-implore, like – love – adore.

One of the sources of synonymy is borrowing.

Native English	French Borrowings	Latin Borrowings
To ask	To question	To interrogate
To end	To finish	To complete
To rise	To mount	To ascend
Teaching	Guidance	Instruction
belly	Stomach	Abdomen

More decent synonymic substitutes used instead if indecent, impolite or too direct words are called euphemisms. They may have various causes: superstition (devil – deuce, dickens), social and moral taboos (nigger – afro-american), the need to express smth in a more delicate, softened way (to die – to pass away).

Paronyms are words that are alike in form, but different in meaning and usage, e.g.: ingenious (“clever”): ingenious (“frank”, “artless”). They are often mistakenly interchanged and they are liable to be mixed.

Antonyms also belong to the lexico – grammatical group. Antonyms are words belonging to the same part of speech, different in sound, characterized by semantic polarity of their denotation meaning. According to the character of semantic opposition antonyms are subdivided into proper, compementaries and conversives. The semantic polarity in antonyms proper is relative, the opposition is gradual, it may embrace several elements, characterized by different degrees of the same property. They always imply comparison. Large and little or small denote polar degree of the same notion – size.

Complementaries are words characterized only by a binary opposition which have only 2 members; the denial of one member of the opposition implies assertion of the other, e.g.: not male means female, not dead means alive.

Conversives are words which denote one and the same referent as viewed from different points of view, that one of the subject and that of the object, e.g.: husband-wife, teach-learn, behind – in front.

Morphological classification:

Root words form absolute antonyms.(right – wrong, good-bad, old - new). The presence of negative affixes creates - derivational antonyms (happy – unhappy, appear-disappear, prewar-postwar).