English Lexicology in Theory and Practice. Учебное пособие

Both the lexical and grammatical meanings cannot exist without each other. The Russian word сведения is not semantically identical with the English equivalent information because the last word does not possess the grammatical meaning of plurality, which is a part of the semantic structure of the Russian word. In some parts of speech the prevailing component is the grammatical type of meaning. For example, in the verb to be the grammatical meaning of a linking element prevails.

The essence of the part-of-speech meaning expresses the reference to a certain class of words. Major word-classes are nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs; minor word-classes are articles, prepositions, conjunctions, etc.

All members of a major word-class share a distinguishing semantic component as lexical one of a part-of-speech meaning. For example, all nouns have the meaning of thingness or substantiality, though they possess different grammatical meanings of number and case.

The grammatical aspect of part-of-speech meaning is conveyed as a rule by a set of forms: number lamp-lamps; and case sister – sister’s.

4. TWO APPROACHES TO THE CONTENT FACET UNITS

In studying correlation between meaning and the thing denoted by the word two different approaches are possible:

–semasiological approach starts with the name (word) and consists in considering different meanings of the word, determining interrelations between them, as well as discovering semantic relations between different words;

–onomasiological approach starts from the object and consists in analyzing different words correlated with it. This approach helps to discover how meaning is formed, considering its basic properties and

peculiarities.

Diagram 2. The difference between the semasiological and onomasiological approaches

The semasiological approach (polysemy)

name object (word)

The onomasiological approach (synonymy)

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The semasiological approach can be illustrated by the following dia-

Thus, the study of the semantic side of the word may start with the name (word) or with the object denoted. The semasiological approach consists in considering different meanings of the word, while the onomasiological approach consists in analyzing different words correlated with the certain object or idea.

QUESTIONS

1.What is semasiology?

2.What are the three main approaches to defining meaning?

3.What is the essence of the referential approach to defining meaning?

4.In what relations does meaning stand to 1) the sound-form; 2) the concept; 3) the referent?

5.Is the meaning of the word identical to its sound-form, concept and referent?

6.How is the meaning defined on the functional (contextual) basis?

7.What does distribution of the word mean?

8.What does the term context denote?

9.What is the essence of the operational approach to defining meaning?

10.What may the sentence imply besides the direct meaning?

11.What is the difference between meaning and sense?

12.What types of meaning can be singled out?

13.How is the grammatical meaning defined?

14.What is the lexical meaning of the word? Can the lexical and grammatical meaning exist without each other?

15.What is the essence of the part-of-speech meaning?

16.How is the grammatical aspect of part-of-speech meaning conveyed?

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Connotation includes:

–the emotive charge is one of the objective semantic features proper to words as linguistic units that forms part of the connotational component of meaning, for example, daddy as compared to father.

–evaluation, which may be positive or negative, for instance, clique (a small group of people who seem unfriendly to other people) as compared to group (a set of people);

–imagery, for example, to wade – to walk with an effort (through mud, water or anything that makes progress difficult). The figurative use of the word gives rise to another meaning, which is based on the same image as the first – to wade through a book;

–intensity / expressiveness, for instance, to adore – to love;

The correlation of denotational and connotational components of some words is shown in Table 2.

Table 2. The correlation of denotational and connotational components

The above examples show how by singling out denotational and connotational components we can get a sufficiently clear picture of what the word

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really means. The schemes presenting the correlation of two components of the words also show that a meaning can have two or more connotational components.

The given examples do not exhaust all the types of connotations but present only a few: emotive, evaluative connotations, and also connotations of duration, cause, etc.

3. PRAGMATIC ASPECT

The pragmatic aspect is the part of lexical meaning that conveys information on the situation of communication. Like the connotational aspect, the pragmatic aspect falls into four closely linked together subsections.

1)Information on the ‘time and space’ relationship of the participants. Some information which specifies different parameters of communication may be conveyed not only with the help of grammatical means (tense forms, personal pronouns, etc), but through the meaning of the word. For example, the words come and go can indicate the location of the speaker who is usually taken as the zero point in the description of the situation of communication.

The time element when related through the pragmatic aspect of meaning is fixed indirectly. Indirect reference to time implies that the frequency of occurrence of words may change with time and in extreme cases words may be out of use or become obsolete. Thus, the word behold – „take notice, see

(smth. unusual)‟ as well as the noun beholder – „spectator‟ are out of use now but were widely used in the 17th century.

2)Information on the participants and the given language community. The language used may be indicative of the social status of a person, his education, profession, etc. The pragmatic aspect of the word also may convey information about the social system of the given language community, its ideology, religion, system of norms and customs. Let us consider the following sentences:

А) They chucked a stone at the cops, and then did a bunk with the loot. В) After casting a stone at the police, they absconded with the money.

Sentence A could be said by two criminals talking casually about the crime afterwards. Sentence B might be said by the chief inspector in making his official report.

3)Information on the tenor of discourse. The tenors of discourse reflect how the addresser (the speaker or the writer) interacts with the addressee (the listener or reader). Tenors are based on social or family role of the participants of communication. There may be situation of a mother talking

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to her small child, or about her children, or a teacher talking to students, or friends talking to each other.

4) Information on the register of communication. The conditions of communication form another important group of factors. The register defines the general type of the situation of communication grading the situations in formality.

Three main types of the situations of communication are usually singled out: formal, neutral and informal. Thus, the pragmatic aspect of meaning refers words like cordial, fraternal, anticipate, aid to formal register while units like cut it out, to be kidding, stuff, hi are to be used in the informal register.

The structure of lexical meaning see in diagram 3. Diagram 3. Structure of the lexical meaning

Information on the „time and space‟

Relationship of the participants

Information on the participants and the given language community

Information on the tenor of discourse

Information on the register of communication

4. COMPONENTIAL ANALYSIS

The meaning of a word can be analyzed in terms of a number of distinct elements (components) of meaning. This approach to the description of meaning of words known as componential analysis / semantic decomposition rests upon the thesis that the sense of every lexeme can be analyzed in

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terms of a set of more general sense components or semantic features, some or all of which will be common to several different lexemes in the vocabulary.

Componential analysis attempts to treat components according to „binary‟ opposition, for example, male / female, animate / inanimate, adult / non-adult, human / non-human. Hence, the sense of man might be held to combine the concepts (male, adult, human). While the sense of woman might be held to differ from man in that it combines (female (not male), adult, human).

Componential analysis allows us to group entities into natural classes. For instance, man and boy could be grouped together as (human, male), while man and woman could be put in a class defined by the feature (human, adult). This in turn can be used for starting generalizations of various sorts. For example, there are certain verbs, such as marry, argue that are found with subjects that are [+human]. Moreover, within the English pronoun system, he is used to refer to [human] entities that are [+male] while she is used for [human] entities that are [not male].

Let us try to analyze the word bachelor. According to the dictionary it has 4 meanings:

1)a man who has never married;

2)a young knight;

3)someone with a first degree;

4)a young male unmated fur seal during the mating season.

These four meanings can be partly differentiated by what are called

„markers‟ (placed in round brackets) together with some specific characteristics which are called „distinguishers‟ [in square brackets], thus the semantics of bachelor can be set out in a tree diagram 4.

Diagram 4. The semantic structure of the word bachelor

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Let us consider the following sentence The old bachelor finally died. This cannot refer to the fur seal, because such bachelors are by definition young. It follows from this that (young) must be a marker for the fur seal, and that it must now appear not among the distinguishers, but as a marker. Theoretically there is no limit to the number of markers.

The distinction between markers and distinguishers is that markers refer to the features which the lexeme has in common with other lexical items, whereas a distinguisher differentiates it from all other items. Distinguishers can be regarded as providing a denotational distinction, while semantic markers represent conceptual components of the meaning of lexical items.

Componential analysis gives its most important results in the study of verb meaning, it is an attractive way of handling semantic relations. It is currently combined with other linguistic procedures used for the investigation of meaning.

QUESTIONS

1.What aspects of lexical meaning can be singled out?

2.What is the denotational aspect of lexical meaning?

3.Why is the denotational aspect is highly significant in the process of communication?

4.What is the connotational aspect of lexical meaning?

5.What constituents may be distinguished in the connotational aspect of meaning?

6.What is the emotive charge like?

7.What kinds of evaluation may be singled out?

8.How is imagery manifested in meanings?

9.What is the pragmatic aspect of lexical meaning?

10.What constituents may be distinguished in the pragmatic aspect of meaning?

11.What does information on the space relationship of the participants mean?

12.What does information on the time relationship of the participants denote?

13.What is information on the tenor of discourse like?

14.What does information on the register of communication signify?

15.What types of the situations of communication can be singled out?

16.What is componential analysis?

17.What is the advantage of componential analysis?

18.What do markers refer to?

19.What is the main role of distinguishers ?

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3.MOTIVATION AND SEMANTIC CHANGE

1.Word Meaning and Motivation. Types of Motivation.

2.Semantic Change.

2.1.Causes of Semantic Change.

2.2.Nature of Semantic Change.

2.3.Results of Semantic Change.

2.3.1.Changes of the Denotational Meaning.

2.3.2.Changes of the Connotational Meaning.

KEY TERMS

Inner form, motivation (phonetical, morphological, semantic), semantic change, extralinguistic causes of semantic change, linguistic causes of semantic change, ellipsis, discrimination / differentiation of synonyms, fixed context, similarity / metaphor, contiguity / metonymy, changes of the denotational meaning (restriction vs generalization), changes of the connotational meaning (amelioration vs deterioration)

1. WORD-MEANING AND MOTIVATION.

TYPES OF MOTIVATION

The process of motivation depends upon the inner form of a word. The inner form is pivotal point in the lexical meaning which helps to get an insight into the features chosen as the basis for nomination.

Motivation is used to denote the relationship between the phonetic or morphemic composition and structural pattern of the word on the one hand, and its meaning on the other. There are three main types of motivation:

–phonetical motivation implies a direct connection between the phonetic structure of the word and its meaning, for example, cuckoo denotes a bird whose call is like its name. Thus, there is a certain similarity between the sound-form of the word and the sound the bird produces;

–morphological motivation implies a direct connection between the lexical meaning of the component morphemes, the pattern of their arrangement and the meaning of the word. Thus, the main criterion in morphological motivation is the relationship between morphemes, for example, the derived word to rethink is motivated through its morphological structure which suggests the idea of „thinking again‟;

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