Лексикология английского языка. Учебно-методическое пособие

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6.Ginzburg R.S., Khidekel S.S., Knyazeva G.Y., Sankin A.A. A Course in Modem English Lexicology. M.: Higher School Publishing House, 1966. – P. 157-208.

Basic terminology:

Conversion (also termed zero derivation, root formation, functional change) is the method of word-formation without using specific word-building affixes; a kind of transposition by which the shift of a word from one part of speech to another comes about in such a way that the word-form of one part of speech (or its stem) is used without any material change as a representative of another part of speech (jump, v.

– jump, n). In cases of conversion the word-building means is a morphological paradigm, namely the capacity of a paradigm and endings forming it to express the meaning of the part of speech. For example, the noun father has the following paradigm: father, fathers, father’s, fathers’. When from the noun father the verb to father is formed with the help of conversion, the paradigm is changed (I father, he fathers, fathered, fathering). But in conversion we have not only the change of the paradigm, but also the change of the syntactic functions. In the sentence She adored her father, father is the object; in the sentence He fathered two children, father is the predicate. That is why conversion is often called the morphologicalsyntactic method of word-formation.

Word-composition (composition, compounding) is the formation of words by morphologically joining two (or more) stems, e.g. night-club, passer-by.

Compound word is a word consisting of at least two stems which usually occur in the language as free forms. In a compound word the components obtain integrity and structural cohesion that make them function in a sentence as a separate lexical unit.

Shortening is making a word by taking away the part of the original word or a word group. There are three basic types of shortening: abbreviation, clipping, blending.

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Abbreviation is a process of shortening the result of which is a word made up of the initial letters or syllables of the components of a word-group or a compound word.

Alphabetic abbreviation is a shortening which is read as a succession of alphabetical readings of the constituent letters, e.g. MP (Military Police), BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation).

Acronymic abbreviation (acronym) is a shortening which is read as a succession of sounds denoted by the constituent letters, i.e. if they were ordinary words, e.g.

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation), SCUM (Self-Centered Urban Male).

Clipping is the process of cutting off one or several syllables of a word, e.g. prof

(professor), phone (telephone), fridge (refrigerator).

Blending is the method of merging parts of words into one new word – a blend e.g. smoke + fog = smog.

Reversion (back-formation) is the derivation of new words by subtracting a real or supposed affix from existing words (often through misinterpretation of their structure), e.g. baby-sitter → to baby-sit, mass-production → to mass-produce.

Postpositivation is the process of changing verb stems with the help of postpositives, e.g. to bring up, to take after, to go on.

Sound-interchange is the gradation of sounds occupying one and the same place in the sound form of one and the same morpheme in various cases of its occurrence, e.g. food, n – feed, v; sing, v – song, n.

Stress-interchange is the gradation of stress in one and the same morpheme in various cases of its occurrence. Examples: ′conduct, n – con′duct, v, ′object, n – ob′ject, v.

Practical Assignment

1. Find the cases of conversion, identify the part of speech: 1) She is an awful tease. 2) He elbowed into the crowd. 3) She capped the lipstick and put it down.

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4) This is a must for everybody. 5) Her eyes narrowed. 6) That was Helena's last try. 7) He took the cup she offered him and sugared it. 8) He liked to know the ins and outs. 9) I shan’t go into the whys and wherefores. 10) He was familiar with ups and downs of life.

2.Analyze the following word-combinations: family doctor - doctor family, child problem – problem child, flower garden – garden flower, laboratory research – research laboratory.

3.Match the compound and its meaning:

1. cocktail; 2. ducktail; 3. bobtail; 4. dogfish; 5. rosefish; 6. dogrose; 7. cheesecake; 8. cheese-eater; 9. beefcake; 10. beefeater; 11. lady’s-slipper; 12. ladyfinger; 13. lady’s fingers; 14. lady’s-thumb.

a)a yeoman of the English royal guard or a warder of the Tower of London

b)an informer; a person who betrays, denies, or abandons his or her associates, social group, beliefs

c)an alcoholic drink consisting of a spirit or spirits mixed with fruit juice, etc.

d)a North Atlantic rockfish used for food

e)a small thin sponge cake

f)a long thin green vegetable from southern countries

g)a kind of small shark

h)a short or docked tail

i)a picture of women with shapely bodies, especially as used in advertisements

j)a smartweed having pink or purplish flowers and lanceshaped leaves with a spot resembling a thumbprint

k)a wild rose having pink or white flowers

l)a type of wild or garden orchid with a flower shaped like a pouch

m)a mail hairstyle, in which the hair is slicked back on both sides to overlap at the back of the head

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n) pictures of strong muscular men, especially as used in advertisements or sex magazines

4. Which of the compounds below are a) compounds proper; b) derivational compounds; c) contracted.

Smoke-filled, puffy-eyed, cruel-hearted, soft-boiled, first-nighter, castle-builder, TV-set, mill-owner, choco-pie, do-gooder, A-level, dish-washer.

5. Which of the compounds are a) neutral, b) morphological, c) syntactic?

Lipstick, statesman, stay-at-home, good-for-nothing, shopwindow, AngloSaxon, speedometer, editor-in-chief, sunflower.

6. Which of the compounds are a) motivated, b) non-motivated?

1)highbrow, n (a person who has or is thought to have superior intellectual and cultural tastes)

2)fingerprint, n (a mark made by the tip of a finger on a surface and used for identifying people, especially criminals)

3)dumb-waiter, n (a small lift for carrying food from one floor to another, especially in a restaurant)

4)wallflower, n (a) a common garden plant that has sweet-smelling flowers in spring; b) a person (especially a woman) who has no dancing partners at a dance and has to sit or stand around while others dance)

5)bookworm (a) a person devoted to reading or studying; b) various insects that feed on books)

6)screwdriver (a) a tool with a handle and a blade that fits into a slot, etc. in the head of a screw to turn it; b) a mixed drink made with vodka and orange juice). 7. Which of the following reproductive compounds are a) proper, b) rhyme, c) ablaut?

Willy-nilly, shilly-shally, goody-goody, chit-chat, no-no, mish-mash, itsy-bitsy,

hoity-toity, bric-a-brac.

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8.Arrange the words according to the type of clipping (initial, final, medial, ini- tial-final): exam, vets, lab, gent, Liz, prof, prep, flue, Fred, Mr, Mrs, pub, phone, math, doc.

9.Comment on the type of abbreviation (lexical, graphical): Ltd, radar, laser, M.P.,OK, cf, e.g., Dr., ABC, X-ray, X-mas, T-shirt, CD.

10.Group the following into acronyms and letter abbreviation: UNO, BBC, UNESCO, G.I., p.m., V.I.P., SOS, TV, NATO, USA, B.C., SALT

11. Arrange the following words according to the word-building process: a) shortening, b) back-formation.

Jap, to edit, pub, to typewrite, to baby-sit, dad, to tape-record, doc, to lase. 12. Translate the following blends and give the words they are built from:

slanguage, shamateur, motel, affluenza, foolosophy, medicare, intervision, Spanglish, toytoon, docu-fantasy, boomflation, beautility, gastrodrama, infomercial, rockumentary.

13. What process do the following words illustrate?

Import – import, perfect – perfect, present – present, food – feed, sing – song, breath – breathe, live – life.

SEMASIOLOGY AS THE STUDY OF MEANING

Points for Discussion:

1.Semasiology as the study of meaning. Different approaches to the definition of the word-meaning (referential theory, conceptual theory, functional theory).

2.Aspects and types of meaning (lexical and grammatical meanings; cognitive, pragmatic, syntactic aspects of the lexical meaning).

3.Componential analysis as a linguistic method of investigating the lexical meaning of the word.

4.Polysemy. Semantic structure.

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5.Causes of semantic change (extralinguistic, linguistic).

6.Nature of semantic change. Types of associative relationships. Metaphor and metonymy.

7.Results of semantic change (in the denotative component, in the connotative component).

Literature:

1.Antrushina G.B., Afanasyeva O.V., Morozova N.N. English Lexicology. –

М.: Дрофа, 2000. – P. 147-160

2.Современный английский язык (слово и предложение) / Отв. ред. Л.М.

Ковалева. – Иркутск, 1997. – C. 150-174.

3.Кульгавова Л.В. Учебно-практические материалы по дисциплине «Лек-

сикология английского языка. – Иркутск: ИГЛУ, 2005. – 587 с.

4.Arnold I.V. The English Word. M., 1999. – P. 37-42, 47 – 50, 57-59, 60-76.

5.The Issues in English Philology (Study Manual). – Irkutsk, 1998. – P. 48-54.

6.Ginzburg R.S. et al. A Course in Modem English Lexicology. M., 1999.

Basic terminology:

Semasiology is a brunch of linguistics which is concerned with the study of

meaning.

Grammatical meaning is the meaning which unites words into big groups such as parts of speech or lexico-grammatical classes. It is recurrent in identical sets of individual forms of different words. It is not individual, but generalized. For example, the words boys, remarks, inches denote different objects of reality, but they have one grammatical meaning of plurality.

Lexical meaning is the meaning proper to the word as a linguistic unit; it is recurrent in all the forms of this word and in all the possible distributions of these forms. Lexical meaning is closely connected with concept as it is its linguistic manifestation. Lexical meaning is individual. It differs from word to word. E.g.

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boy – boys – boy’s. These forms have different grammatical meanings, but they represent one word which denotes one object of reality, a male child.

Denotative meaning is the conceptual content of the word fulfilling its significative functions; it conceptualizes and classifies our experience. It names or denotes an object of reality. The denotative meaning of the word mother can be represented in the following way: mother is a female parent.

Pragmatic (or connotative) meaning conveys he speaker’s attitude to the social circumstances and the appropriate functional style, his/her approval or disapproval of the object spoken of, the speaker’s emotions, the degree of intensity.

There are four types of connotations: stylistic, emotional, evaluative, intensifying.

Componential analysis is the investigation method which proceeds from the assumption that word meaning can be decomposed into elementary semantic components, or semantic features / semes.

Seme is the smallest unit of meaning. For instance, the meaning of the word boy can be represented with the help of the following semes: “human”, “male”, “non-adult”. Wife can be analysed into the following semes: “human”, “female”, “adult”, “married”.

Semantic change is the process of development of a new meaning or a change of meaning.

Ellipsis is the phenomenon acting within the language system: when in a phrase made up of two words one of these is omitted, its meaning is transferred to its partner. For example, the verb to propose used to be a part of the phrase to propose marriage. Later the noun marriage was omitted and the word to propose is employed alone in this sense.

Differentiation (or discrimination) of synonyms is a gradual change of the meanings of synonyms which is a result of competition develop different semantic structures. Historically these synonyms came from different languages, e.g.

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stool – chair, land – country, deer – beast. They gradually come to denote different things. Fixed context is the result of synonymic differentiation: when synonyms are brought into competition, one of them comes to be restricted in use to a number of set expressions and compound words. For instance, the noun token originally had the broad meaning of “a sign”. When brought into competition with the loan word sign, it became restricted in use to a number of set expressions as love token, token of respect.

Linguistic analogy is found out when one of the members of a synonymic set acquires a new meaning and the other members of this set change their meanings in the same way. When the verb catch acquired another meaning – “to understand”, the verbs synonymous with it (e.g. grasp, get, etc) got the same meaning.

Metaphor is the transference of name based on the association of similarity between two objects. In the face of a clock, metaphor is based on the similarity of appearance; in foxtrot (a dance), there is the similarity of movement.

Metonymy is the transference of name based on contiguity; the semantic process of associating two referents, one of which makes part of the other or is connected with it in some other way. There is the contiguity of place (the pulpit

– priest), of material (a glass, an iron), of instrument (tongue – language), of part standing for the whole – synecdoche (the foot – stands for “infantry”).

Generalization (broadening, extension) of meaning increases the number of contexts in which a word can be used, although reducing the amount of information conveyed about the referent. Generalization of meaning takes place in the denotative component of the lexical meaning. For example, the word ready originally meant “prepared for a ride”. Nowadays it has the broad meaning

“prepared for anything”.

Specialization (narrowing, restriction) of meaning involves an increase of information conveyed, since a changed word is applicable to fewer situations but

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tells us more about the referent. The range of references denoting by the word is narrowed. Specialization of meaning takes place in the denotative component of the lexical meaning. For example, the word sell had the broad meaning “to give” but later it acquired the specialized meaning “to deliver for money”. The word family originally meant a whole household including servants; then the meaning was narrowed to members bound by blood relationship.

Amelioration (elevation, bettering of meaning) involves an improvement in assigned value, the acquisition by a word of some positive emotive charge. Ameliorative development takes place in the connotative component of the lexical meaning. For example, the adjective fond originally meant “foolish”.

Pejoration (degradation, worsening) of meaning is a downward move in evaluative attitude, the acquisition by a word of some derogatory emotive charge. It is frequently due to social prejudice (and very often involves words for women and foreigners). Pejorative development takes place in the connotative component of the lexical meaning. For instance, the word knave originally meant “a boy, a male servant”, but later it acquired a negative meaning “a swindler, scoundrel, rogue, a tricky deceitful person”.

Polysemy is the ability of words to have more than one meaning.

Practical Assignment

1. Define what type of meaning a) lexical, b) grammatical, с) 1exiсоgrammatical is presented in the following groups of words:

a)in, out, from, before, on, under.

b)go, went, gone, going, goes.

c)books, dreams, phenomena, men, children

d)asked, thought, walked, left, did.

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2. Carry out the componential analysis of these words by using an appropriate combination of the semantic features:

3. Identify the meanings of the polysemantic words which are played upon in these riddles and conundrums:

1.Why are oysters lazy? (They are always found in bed).

2.When does a chair dislike you? (When it can’t bear you).

3.Why is a proud man like a music book? (Because he is full of airs).

4.Why is an English teacher like a judge? (Both give people sentences).

5.What bird can lift the most? (A crane).

6.What has a lot of keys but cannot open any doors? (A piano).

4. Define what type of connotation a) stylistic, b) emotional, c) evaluative, d) intensifying is presented in the following groups of words: parent – father – dad, to begin – to commence, magic – witchcraft, trousers – sit-ups, like – love – worship, hate – detest – abhor, kid – brat, to die – to pass away – to peg out, bright – garish, new – modern – newfangled.