IV. Lexical and Grammatical Meaning

The word is a lexical-grammatical unity. Its content plane includes two types of meaning: lexical and grammatical.

Lexical meaning is individual, unique. It does not belong to any other word in the same language: bicycle – a vehicle with two wheels, handle-bars to guide it with, a seat, and two pedals to make it go.

Grammatical meaning is general, standard. It belongs to a whole class of words and word-forms: bicycle – a noun in the common case, singular.

At the same time lexical and grammatical meanings co-exist in the word and are interdependent:

1. Lexical meaning affects grammatical meaning: abstract or mass nouns have no plural form (joy, sugar), relative adjectives have no degrees of comparison (watery), stative verbs are not used in progressive tenses (see, understand).

2. Grammatical meaning affects lexical meaning. Different meanings of the polysemantic word go have their own grammatical peculiarities: He has gone to China – moved (go + adverb of place); They are going to get married soon – are planning (be going + to-infinitive); The children went wild with excitement – became (go + adjective).

3. Combinability of the word depends both on its lexical and grammatical (part-of-speech) meaning, e.g. the noun tea combines with strong but not with strongly.

4. Grammatical form may be isolated from the paradigm and become lexicalized: works – factory.

5. Lexical meaning may be grammaticalized, e.g. some notional verbs may be used as link-verbs: give a smile, turn red.

V. Polysemy. Semantic Structure of the Word

The modern approach to semasiology is based on the assump­tion that the inner form (or facet) of the word (i.e. its meaning) presents a structure, which is called the semantic structure of the word.

We know that most words convey several concepts and thus possess the corresponding number of meanings. A word having se­veral meanings is called polysemantic, and the ability of words to have more than one meaning is described by the term polysemy

The word "polysemy" (from Greek "polus"-many and "sema"-meaning) means a plurality of meanings.

The system of meanings of any polysemantic word develops gradually, mostly over the, centuries. These complicated processes of polysemy development involve both the appearance of the new meanings and the loss of old ones. Yet, the general tenden­cy with English vocabulary at the modern stage of its history is to increase the total number of its meanings and to provide for a quantitative and qualitative growth of the expressive resources of the language.

Thus, word counts show that the total number of meanings separately registered in the New English Dictionary (NED) for the 1st thousand of the most frequent English words is almost 25 000,i.e. the average number of meanings for each of these words is 25.

For example: the word "power" has 15 meanings:

1. Capacity of producing some effect (the power of heart burn)

2. Control over some people (the power of Government)

3. Delegated authority (the president exuded his power)

4. Physical Strength (all the power of his muscles)

5. Moral or intellectual force, energy

8. A person of influence (he is a power in the town)

11) An effective quality of style in writing (a writer of great power)

12) Personal influence (a man's power means the readiness of other; men to obey him)

Polysemy does not interfere with the communicative function of the language because in every particular case the situation and context, i.e. the environment of the word, cancel all the unnecessary meanings and make speech unambiguous.

Literature

1. Antrushina G.B. English Lexicology. M., 2006.

2. Arnold I.V. The English Word. M., 1986.

3. Ginzburg R.S. et al. A Course in Modern English Lexicology. M., 1979.

4. Dubenets E.M. Modern English Lexicology. M. – S.-P., 2004.