Лексикология английского языка. Учебник

letters (NATO). They are found not only among formal words, such as the ones above, but also among colloquialisms and slang

Both types of shortenings are characteristic of informal speech in general and of uncultivated speech particularly. The history of the American okay seems to be rather typical. Originally this initial shortening was spelt O.K. and was supposed to stand for all correct. The purely oral manner in which sounds were recorded for letters resulted in O.K. whereas it should have been AC. or aysee. Indeed, the ways of words are full of surprises.

Sound-Imitation (Onomatopoeia)

Words coined by this type of word-building are made by imitating different kinds of sounds that may be produced by animals, birds, insects, human beings and inanimate objects. This type of word-formation is now also called echoism (the term was introduced by O. Jespersen).

For instance, English dogs bark (cf. the R. лаять) or howl (cf. the R. выть). The English cock cries cock-a-doodle-doo (cf. the R. ку-ка-ре-ку). In England ducks quack and frogs croak (cf.

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the R. крякать said about ducks and квакать said about frogs).

It is only English and Russian cats who seem capable of mutual understanding when they meet, for English cats mew or miaow (meow). The same can be said about cows: they moo (but also low).

Some names of animals and especially of birds and insects are also produced by sound-imitation: crow, cuckoo, humming-bird, whip-poor-will, cricket.

Reduplication

In reduplication new words are made by doubling a stem, either without any phonetic changes as in bye-bye (coll., for good-bye) or with a variation of the root-vowel or consonant as in ping-pong, chit-chat (this second type is called gradational reduplication).

This type of word-building is greatly facilitated in Modern English by the vast number of monosyllables. Stylistically speaking, most words made by reduplication represent informal groups: colloquialisms and slang. E. g. walkie-talkie ("a portable radio"), riff-raff ("the worthless or disreputable element of society"; "the dregs of society"), chi-chi (sl. for chic as in a chichi girl).

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Back-Formation (Reversion)

The earliest examples of this type of word-building are the verb to beg that was made from the French borrowing beggar, to burgle from burglar to cobble from cobbler. In all these cases the verb was made from the noun by subtracting what was mistakenly associated with the English suffix -er. Instead of a noun made from a verb by affixation (as in painter from to paint), a verb was produced from a noun by subtraction.

Later examples of back-formation are to butle from butler, to baby-sit from baby-sitter to force-land from forced landing, to blood-transfuse from blood-transfuing.

Blending (portmanteau words) is merging parts of words into one word: smog, transceiver (transmitter + receiver), transistor (transfer + resistor), medicare, brunch (breakfast + lunch), foolosopher.

Soundand Stress-Interchange is a non-productive way of word building. There can be vowel interchange (sing – song), consonant interchange (live-life, defence-defend). Examples of stress interchange are to import – import, to transport – transport.

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Lexical Meaning as a Linguistic Category

1.Language meaning: lexical and grammatical meaning

2.The definition of lexical meaning according to the referential approach

3.Componental structure of lexical meaning:

a)a denotative component (DC)

b)a connotative component (CC)

4.Development of new meanings: causes, semantic process, result.

1.

Though meaning is a very complex matter it is possible to distinguish (for practical purposes) the main two types of language meaning: grammatical and lexical.

Grammatical meaning refers our mind to relations between words and structures /constructions bearing upon their structural functions in the language-as-a system/. Grammatical meaning is the component of meaning recurrent in identical sets of individual forms of different words (see, for instance, the

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grammatical meaning of plurality in winters, girls, tables, joys). Grammatical meaning is more abstract than lexical meaning.

Lexical meaning is more concrete; it refers our mind to some concrete object, phenomenon (real or imaginary) of objective reality, to some concept. Lexical meaning is the component of the meaning proper; it is recurrent in all the forms of the words and in all possible distributions of these forms. Both the lexical and grammatical meaning comprise the word meaning.

2.

Lexical meaning and its numerous aspects are studied by semaciology both synchronically and diachronically. As meaning is one of the most controversial terms in the theory of language it has been the issue of endless discussions. In present-day linguistics there exist 2 approaches to the problem:

-the referential approach which formulates the essence of meaning by establishing the interdependence between lexical meaning and reality (the object proper) and thinking (a notion as a mental

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reflection of an object recording its most essential

properties),

-the functional approach which studies the functions of a word in speech. The functional approach maintains that the meaning of a linguistic unit may be studied only through its relation to other linguisticunits and not through its relation to either concept or referent. It follows that in the functional approach (1) semantic investigation is confined to the analysis of the difference or sameness of meaning; (2) meaning is understood essentially as the function of the use of

linguistic units.

All major works on semantic theory are based on referential concepts of meaning. This approach distinguishes between the 3 components closely connected with meaning: the sound-form, the concept and the referent (that aspect of reality to which this linguistic sign refers). This referential model of meaning is represented as the socalled “basic triangle”

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Sound-form

Thus, lexical meaning originates from a referent, correlates with a notion about this referent, is attached to a certain plane of expression, but not identical to any of the three.

Lexical meaning and sound-form

The sound-form is not identical with its lexical meaning. The connections are not inherent, but conventional and arbitrary. The proofs are:

-comparing the sound-form of different languages conveying one and the same meaning,

-homonyms: knight – night,

-a change in the sound form doesn’t necessitate a change of meaning: luvian – love.

-

Lexical meaning and the referent

Meaning is linguistic whereas the denoted object is beyond the scope of language. We can denote one and the same

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object by more than one word of a different meaning: apple – apple, fruit, smth, this. M cannot be equated with the actual properties of the referent.

Lexical meaning and the concept

Concept and meaning are different categories each serving the tasks of its system. Concept is a category of cognition. It is a thought about the object in its essential features, an abstraction, a reflection in the mind of the most common properties of the class.

Meaning names the object after its certain features the choice of which may be chance and accidental. This makes meaning a subjective presentation of objective reality.

e.g., The concept of the animal “кошка” comprises 5 basic properties: beast of prey, food, shape and sharpness of claws, size, manner of movement. But the linguistic experiment proved that it can be identified by 2 features: domestic, catch mice. Its dictionary definition runs: a small domestic fur-covered animal often kept as a pet to catch mice.

Since the notional properties are not fixed in the speaker’s consciousness’ they are linguistically irrelevant. Under the pressure of the structural properties of a certain language a concept gets modified but still it’s different from meaning.

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3.

Lexical meaning is a systematic whole made up of several elements which are structurally ordered. The whole sphere of human psychic gets involved in the process of naming and communication: mental activity and emotional response to reality.

A man doesn’t register the reality like an impersonal apparatus. He perceives it as a living and thinking being who has needs, looks for the ways to meet them and sets aims. He reveals his attitude to reality.

Thus, lexical meaning is a combination of 2 components:

-denotative which reproduces reality by correlating with a C,

-connotative expressing the speaker’s attitude to the

object named.

The DC providing information about reality and ensuring communication makes the nucleus of LM whereas the CC is secondary being derived from the description of the object.

a)

The DC of lexical meaning makes its core and determines the character of the CC representing the notion in meaning. It is

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made up by semes. A seme is a meaningful unit of language which correlates with a notion and serves as a part of lexical meaning.

e.g., lonely – alone, without company + melancholy, sad,

celebrated – widely known + for special achievements,

to shiver – to tremble + lastingly, with the cold.

Most scholars agree that the lexical meaning of a word (a sememe) presents a hierarchy of semes of different types and several levels of abstraction:

-archiseme (a grammatical marker) conveys a part of speech meaning,

-classseme – a semantic marker,

-differential seme – a particular distinguisher,

-potential seme – reflects subsidiary and probable

features of an object.

We should distinguish between basic and derived features of an object. Basic properties serve as the foundation for generalization of the objects in the notion. Derived properties are determined by basic ones and derived from them. Both may be constant or probable, reflecting such properties as form, function,

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