Лексикология английского языка. Учебно-методическое пособие

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5. Establish the causes of semantic development of the words: a) ellipsis; b) dif-

ferentiation of synonyms; c) fixed context; d) linguistic analogy.

1.Minerals came to be used for mineral waters.

2.Harvest and autumn used to be synonyms. Then the French borrowing autumn became the normal word for the season while the native harvest was reserved for the agricultural labour the peasantry performed at that time.

3.The noun train was used in the word-group a train of carriages in the mean-

ing of “a row of carriages”. The noun acquired the meaning of the whole wordgroup.

4. When the verb overlook acquired the meaning “to deceive”, its synonym – oversee got the same meaning.

5. The word camp originally was used as a military term and meant “the place where troops are lodged in tents”. Now it denotes “temporary quarters (of travellers, etc.)”

6. Target originally meant “a small round shield” but now it means “anything that is fired at” and also figuratively “any result aimed at”.

6.Group the examples given below according to the type of semantic change: a) restriction, b) extension of meaning: meat, fowl, bird, girl, deer, camp, drive, way, thing, arrive, busy, family, starve, hound, style, ready, mill.

7.Group the examples given below according to the type of semantic change: a) elevation, b) degradation of meaning:

Silly, lady, lord, nice, blackguard, villain, queen, fond, slave, duke, knights, don, demon, marshal, pretty.

8. The same word can develop both metaphorical and metonymical meanings. Group the words according to the nature of semantic change: a) metaphor, b) metonymy:

a)the head of a cabbage, to count heads, the head of a household

b)the eye of a potato, to have an eye for fashion

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c)the mouth of a cave, another mouth to feed

d)his native tongue, the tongue of a bell, No tongue must ever tell the secret

e)the heart of the matter, brave hearts

f)factory hands, the hand of a clock

g)the foot of a mountain, foot (“infantry”)

9. The following words denoting parts of human body express different meanings. What are these metaphors called?

Leg (оf a table), eye (of a needle), head (of a cabbage), neck (of a bottle), the heart (of a country), hand (of a clock), tongue (of a bell)

10. Arrange the words given below according to the type of antonomasia: a) metaphoric, b) metonymic

Cicero, Don Juan, Hooligan, diesel, Quixote, Cinderella, mackintosh, sandwich, champagne, quisling, cardigan, Judas, astrakhan, the White House (the policy of the administration).

11. Find opposites to the terms presented in the left-hand column:

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PARADIGMATIC RELATIONS

IN THE ENGLISH VOCABULARY

Points for Discussion:

1.The vocabulary as a system, different types of groupings. Paradigmatic relations vs. syntagmatic links. Thematic and idiographic groups. Semantic fields.

2.Lexico-semantic grouping of words. Hyponymy.

3.Synonyms, their definition. Synonymic series (sets); the synonymic dominant. Classification of synonyms. Sources of synonyms. Function of synonyms in speech. Euphemisms.

4.Antonyms. Their classification. Stylistic value.

5.Homonyms. Their definition. Sources of homonyms. The problem of classification of homonyms.

Literature:

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

М.: Дрофа, 2000. – P. 166-183, 184-216, 216-224

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

Ковалева. – Иркутск, 1997

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. 182-194, 226-229, 194-206.

5.The Issues in English Philology (Study Manual). – Irkutsk, 1998. – P. 54-59.

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.- 62-72, 74-85.

7.Уфимцева А.А. Лексическое значение. М., 1996.

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Basic terminology:

Paradigmatic relationships are non-linear, non-simultaneous, associative relations of language units which can occur in the same position (context). Paradigmatic relations determining the vocabulary system are based on the interdependence of words within the vocabulary (synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy). These are the contrastive relations of the type “or… or”, unobservable in speech directly. Paradigmatic relations are vertical.

Paradigm is a set of homogeneous forms opposed to each other according to their semantic and formal features.

Syntagmatic relationships are linear, simultaneous relations between language units. They are combinatorial relationships of the type “and… and”; directly observable in speech. These are relationships between elements given in a linear succession or syntagm. Syntagmatic relations are horizontal.

Thematic group is a subsystem of the vocabulary for which the basis of grouping is not only linguistic but also extralinguistic: the words are associated, because the things they name occur together and are closely connected in reality. Examples of thematic groups: terms of kinship (father, cousin, mother-in-law, uncle, step-mother, etc.), colour terms (blue, green, yellow, red, crimson,

etc.), military terms (lieutenant, captain, major, colonel, general, etc.).

Ideographic group is a group uniting words of different parts of speech but thematically related. Ideographic groups may comprise nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, provided they refer to the same notion. In the ideographic group

“Space” there are nouns “surface, place, room”, verbs “to expand, to extend, to spread, to narrow”, adjectives “vast, spacious, roomy” etc.

Semantic field is the extensive organization of related words and expressions into a system which shows their relations to one another. Here the significance of each unit is determined by its neighbours, with the units’ semantic areas reciprocally limiting each other.

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Some scholars do not differentiate between thematic groups, ideographic groups, and semantic fields.

Lexico-semantic group is singled out on purely linguistic principles: words are united if they have one or more semantic components in common (which is the basis if opposition) but differ in some other semantic components constituting their semantic structure. This type of grouping is mostly applied to verbs, e.g. verbs of sense perception, verbs denoting speech acts, verbs of motion, etc.

Hyponymy is a relationship between two words, in which the meaning of one of the words includes the meaning of the other word. Hypernym (hyperonym) is a generic term. Hypernym is a specific term. For example, in the set flower, snow-drop, dandelion, tulip, forget-me-not the word flower is a hypernym (generic term). Its meaning includes the meanings of the other words of the set which are hypernyms (specific terms).

Synonyms are two or more words of the same language belonging to the same part of speech, identical in their basic denotational meaning, interchangeable in the certain conditions but different in sound form and morphemic structure, shades of the denotational meaning, connotations (emotional and stylistic colouring), valency and distribution, idiomatic usage. For example, piece − bit −

slice − lump.

Synonymic dominant is the central term of a synonymic set which is stylistically neutral, has high frequency of usage, broad combinability, broad general meaning, and may substitute for other synonyms of the set. It is often used to define other synonyms in dictionary definitions. In the synonymic set piece − bit − slice − lump, the synonymic dominant is piece.

Ideographic synonyms are words conveying the same concept but differing in

shades of meaning, e.g. go – move – walk – stride – stroll – march – stagger –

tramp – wander.

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Stylistic synonyms are words differing in their stylistic characteristics, e.g. sky

(neutral) – welkin (bookish), head (neutral) – attic (slang).

Absolute synonyms are words coinciding in all their shades of meaning and in all their characteristics, e.g. word-building – word-formation.

Euphemism is a word which substitutes by a milder more delicate expression another word, which is for some reason considered as rude, indelicate, rough, or evoking unpleasant or offensive connotation.

Antonyms are defined as two words of the same part of speech, identical on style, and very often identical on distribution and valency, associated and regularly used together, so that their denotative meanings render contradictory or contrary notions, e.g. poor – rich, failure – success.

Contrary antonyms are gradable (there are some intermediate units between the most distant members of a set) and they do not deny one another. Such words refer not to independent absolute qualities but to some implicit norm, i.e. their important feature is the presence of some reference point. Examples: good

– bad, young – old, big – small, to love – to hate.

Contradictory (complementary, binary) antonyms are mutually opposed and denying one another, e.g. male – female, to live – to die, married – single.

Conversive antonyms are words which denote one and the same situation as viewed from different points of view, with a reversal of the order of participants and their roles. Converseness is a mirror-image relation or function, e.g. husband – wife, teacher – pupil, to buy – to sell.

Root antonyms are antonyms having different roots, e.g. day – night. Derivational antonyms are antonyms having the same root but different affixes, e.g. to like – to dislike, joyful – joyless.

Homonyms – are two or more words identical in form (sound or graphical) but different in meaning, distribution, valency, paradigm and very often in origin.

4.State the type of synonyms (ideographic, stylistic, total, territorial): look − stare − glance − peep

trousers − unmentionables − sit-upons clever − intelligent − able − keen − sharp elevator − lift

total synonymy − absolute synonymy borrowings − loan words

die − pass away − kick the bucket

5.State the sources of synonyms (change of meaning, borrowings, dialectisms, word-building process, euphemisms, set expressions)

7.Give derivational antonyms to the following: just, justice, like (v), like (adv), fortune

8.Spell the following homophones;

[teil], [ai], [wi:k], [nait], [bai], [sent], [rein], [seil], [nju:], [mein], [bau], ['stori],

['fa:рə], [bi:t], ['prinsipl], ['stei∫nəri]

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9.Establish the type of these homonyms: lexical, grammatical, lexicogrammatical.

1)friends – friend’s – friends’

2)ball (мяч) – ball (бал)

3)nit (гнида) – knit (вязать)

4)right (справедливый) – right (правый)

5)said (Past Ind.) – said (Past Pat.)

6)shy (пугливый) – shy (бросать мяч, камень)

10.Identify the source of homonymy for the words:

a)divergent meaning development;

b)convergent sound development;

c)borrowing;

d)conversion;

e)shortening;

f)sound-imitation.

1.work, n − work, v

2.bang, n (a fringe of hair combed over the forehead) − bang, n (a loud, sudden, explosive noise)

3.flower, n − flour, n

4.bank, n (a shore) − bank, n (a financial institution)

5.add, v − ad, n (an advertisement)

6.comb, n − comb, v

7.night, n − knight, n

8.rep, n (a kind of fabric) − rep, n (a representative)

9.love, n − love, v

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13.mew, n (a sea gull) − mew, n (the sound a cat makes)

14.sea, n − see, v

15.plate, n − plate, v

16.fan, n (an implement for waving lightly to produce a cool current of air) −

fan,n (an enthusiastic admirer of some kind of sport or of an actor, singer, etc.)

11. Establish the type of semantic relations between the following words:

6.him – hymn

7.red – green

8.past – future

9.sickness – illness 10.yew – tree 11.yew – ewe

12.ewe – ram

13.ewe – you