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Файл:Lexicology. Practical Course. Лексикология. Практический курс. Учебное пособие
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19. Match each bold adjective with a suitable adverb. Then use
each combination to complete one of the sentences.
blissfully absent a I’m not unduly concerned by the latest figures.
conspicuously composed b She is _______ of her achievements.
eerily concerned c He seems _______ of the trouble he’s caused.
justly familiar d The former chairman was _____ from the guest list.
notoriously fickle e Her voice sounded ________ to me.
oddly proud f She seemed _______, despite the pressure.
outwardly silent g The street was ______ after the explosion.
unduly unaware h The world of fashion is _________.
20. Complete each of the following sentences with a suitable word
or phrase. Look at the entry for the bold adjective entries for help.
a The missing climbers have been found alive and well.
b I was so relieved when they got home safe and _____.
c I'll show you a dish that’s really quick and _____.
d If you need any help, I’m ready and _____.
e His hair is always so neat and _____.
f By midnight I was worried _____.
g I forgot my umbrella and I got wet _____.
h When he told me the news I was thrilled ______.
i If a dog comes anywhere near me I’m scared ______.
j The speaker went on and on until we were bored ______.
21. Complete the table with the semantic set of adjectives relating to
the concept “difficulty” and their collocations.
Adjectives Meaning Collocations
Abstruse difficult to understand theory, _______, philosopher
Arduous difficult, tiring, needing much climb, task, ______
Complex difficult to understand as it _____, problem, theory, process
Convoluted unreasonably long and explanation, sentence, _______
Grueling extremely tiring and difficult journey, work, _____, expedition
Insufferable difficult to bear as it is annoying _______, heat, boredom, pain
Obstructive causing deliberate difficulties ______, measure
Stiff difficult to beat opposition, _________
Tough difficult to deal with or do time, _______, climate, decision
effort
has many parts
hard to follow
or uncomfortable
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Traumatic shocking or upsetting ________, past, childhood
_
p
b
_
_
Wayward challengeable, selfish, and/or hard behavior, _______, person
to control
22. Use the “NTC’s Thematic dictionary of American Idioms”,
Richard A. Spears, give several examples of idioms on the themes,
presented there.
1. Description 6. Sobriety
2. Forgiveness 7. Togetherness
3. Knowledge 8. Understanding
4. Promises 9. Urgency
5. Sincerity 10. Waste
23. For the following words, list as many synonyms as you can think
of and discuss the connotations that these synonyms have.
1. Frugal
2. Thin (of a person)
3. Бравурный
4. Сопротивление
5. Непросвещённость
24. Fill in the columns below with the appropriate synonym. In each
case, the word in column A is of English origin and the word in column
B is of French or Latin origin. Can you make a general statement about
the connotations of the words in columns A and B?
A B
feed
___________
____________ conceal
____________
egin
eople
___________
____________ aid/assist
mistake
___________
____________ labor
____________ vision
middle ____________
____________ altitude
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25. For the following words, explain the background or contextual
information which is necessary to understand the meaning of the word.
1. Reconcile
2. Generous
3. Procrastinate
4. Patient
5. Reputation
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SEMINAR 16
CONCEPTUAL BASIS OF THE LINGUISTIC
UNITS’ SEMANTICS
EXERCISES
1. What information about the world and a person can you learn
from analysis of the internal form and meaning of the following lexical
and phraseological units:
A) cornflower (a small wild plant with bluish-purple flowers): bruiser (a
large strong aggressive man), dogfish (a small shark), fish-eater (sl. a
Roman Catholic); elephant (a clumsy, awkward person); egghead (an
intellectual, anyone considered to work with brain)
B) cornish pasty (a small pie in the shape of a half circle, containing
meat and vegetables; Dutch courage (the false courage or confidence that a
person gets from drinking alcohol); to sail close to the wind (to take a risk
of doing something that is dangerous or that may be illegal); to hit the nail
on the head (to say something that is exactly right); to bury / hide your head
in the sand (to refuse to admit that a problem exists); white wedding (a
traditional wedding, especially in a church, at which the bride wears a white
dress).
C) A rich miser is poorer than a poor man; Never take a stone to break
an egg, when you can do it with the back of your knife; A great man and a
great river are often ill neighbours; Millers are the last to die from famine;
An old dog barks not in vain; Gold is tried in the fire; One swallow does not
make a summer, Silence catches a mouse.
2. Describe the differences and similarities in the worldview based
on the following English and Russian proverbs. For this, analyze not
only the meaning, but also the inner form and imagery:
Don't соunt your chickens before they are hatched – Цыплят по осени
считают.
The lone sheep is in danger of the wolf – Один в поле не воин.
Where there's a will there's a way – Плeтью обуха не перешибешь.
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Friends аrе thіеvеѕ оf tіme – Был бы друг, а время будет.
Nothing so necessary for travellers as languages – Хлеб в пути не
тягость.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating – Хлеб всему голова.
3. Here are some of the descriptive ways the English used to refer to
Dutch people. Give the definitions of these phraseological units and
choose those, having positive meaning.
Beat the Dutch Dutch leaf
Dutch barn Dutch leave
Dutch act / cure Dutch gold
Dutch agreement Dutch clover
Dutch auction Dutch nightingales
Dutch bargain Dutch reckoning
Dutch collar Dutch talent
Dutch comfort Dutch treat
Dutch cousins Dutched
Dutch concert To go Dutch
Dutch courage To be in Dutch with someone
Dutch door I'm a Dutchman if I do
Dutch defence In Dutch
Dutch generosity To talk like a Dutch uncle
Dutch headache Dutch bulb
4. Read the following reflections on the mentality of Russians,
Englishmen and Americans. Do you agree with the author? Justify your
position.
“Gullibility is traditionally associated with the Russian mentality, more
precisely, belief in authority, submission to power, circumstances, fate, a
low level of rational self-control, lack of self-confidence in behavior.
Russians are impractical, gullible, peaceful. They are characterized by:
sympathy, collectivism, increased sensitivity, manifested in the form of
increased ability to empathize, emotional response. At the same time, there
is a lack of strong skills of free etiquette behavior, excessive stiffness and
inhibition in situations, and vice versa, there is some disinhibition in
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situations of informal communication. The researchers also note that the
predominance of prohibitive instructions and negative sanctions resulted in
suppression of initiative and optimistic confidence in success. Domestic
linguists, analyzing foreign literature covering a period of about a hundred
years, note that the stereotype of the Russian mentality in the eyes of
foreigners has survived to the present day. Foreign analysts emphasize that
Russians are hospitable, sincere and open. They clearly express a sense of
solidarity, brotherhood – individualism is alien to them. <...> The British
are practical, businesslike, enterprising, smart, reasonable, prudent, farsighted, inventive. They are characterized by seriousness, gravity,
importance, dignity, respectability. At the same time, they are distinguished
by inattention to other people, they are inhospitable and dryish. When
characterizing Americans, researchers note some similarities in mental
characteristics between Americans and Russians. Thus, A. I. Herzen
emphasized that both nations are characterized by flexibility, the presence
of inner strength, team spirit, persistence in overcoming difficulties.
However, Americans are practical, friendly, self-confident in behavior,
deeds, and enterprising. They are characterized by individualism, ruthless
selfishness and naive childish vanity.”
5. Determine what values of Russian and American cultures are
reflected in the following phraseological units, find their equivalents
(if any):
По одежке встречают, по уму провожают; с милым рай и в шалаше;
один за всех, все за одного; чем богаты, тем и рады; голь на выдумки
хитра; в тесноте, да не в обиде; не хлебом единым жив человек; не все
то золото, что блестит; не имей сто рублей, а имей сто
друзей; нет худа
без добра; под лежачий камень вода не течет; вольный казак; не за
страх, а за совесть; один в поле не воин.
An early bird catches the worm; feel like a million dollars; God helps
those who help themselves; everyone has his own path; keep one's chin up;
a fool and his money are soon parted; scratch my back and I 'II scratch
yours; every man is an architect of one's own fortune; paddle your own
canoe; apple-pie order; cleanliness is next to godliness; a penny saved is a
penny earned; time is money; might makes right.
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6. Analyze the definitions of the term “concept” in the works of
different linguists (at least three), draw a table of overlapping and
differing components of these definitions.
7. Choose 3-5 English proverbs containing the same word, single out
the stereotypical ideas set out in them. Compare these proverbs with
the Russian equivalents (if any).
8. Using a dictionary of idioms, find more idioms, that include the
food component (with the meaning – praising or criticism of people /
actions).
9. Look at the agony column in a magazine and see how many
idioms are used to describe people in positive and negative ways. Give
examples.
10. Analyze the concept “happiness”. Find the center and the
periphery of this concept.
11. Read an extract from Professor Adam Makkai's introduction to
a Dictionary of American Idioms on the problem of roots of the English
language prominent idiomaticity. Comment on it.
“Why is English, and especially American English, so heavily
idiomatic? The most probable reason is that as we develop new concepts,
we need new expressions for them, but instead of creating a brand new word
from the sounds of the language, we use some already existent words and
put them together in a new sense. This, however, appears to be true of all
known languages. There are, in fact, no known languages that do not have
some idioms. In learning idioms, though, a person may make an incorrect
guess. Consider the idiom Oh well, the die is cast! What would you guess it
means – in case you don't know it? Perhaps you may guess that the speaker
you heard is acquiescing in something because of the Oh well part. The
expression means 'I made an irreversible decision and must live with it'.
You can now try to reconstruct how this idiom came into being: the image
of the die that was cast in gambling cannot be thrown again; that would be
illegal; whether you have a one, a three, or a six, you must face the
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consequences of your throw, that is win or lose, as the case may be (Some
people may know that the phrase was used by Caesar when he crossed the
Rubicon, an event that led to war).”
12. Compare English and Russian conceptual fields “forest – лес”.
How many derivatives have these words?
E.g. лесник, лесопилка, лесок …
E.g. woodland, forestry …
What is the difference between роща, чаща, пуща, бор, дубрава,
тайга, заросли?
What is the difference between forest, thicket, coppice, grove, clump?
What epithets are used with these words?
Give examples of geographical metaphors, based on the concept of
forest / wood. E.g. Vermont is famous for its evergreens and has a name of
The Green Mountain State.
13. In Russian phraseology there are many set expressions,
proverbs and riddles based on the concept of trees and wood. Guess the
meaning and give more examples.
Есть дерево об четыре дела: Первое дело – мир освещает, второе
дело – больных исцеляет, третье дело – крик утешает, четвёртое дело –
чистоту соблюдает. Some men go through a forest and see no firewood. Be
out of one’s tree. Like trying to nail Jell-O to a tree.
14. Consult the dictionary to find the definitions of these
neologisms. Think about their semantic structure.
Antiquark Jazzercise
To astroturf Microwavable
To camp on Street credibility
Foodie Yuppiedom
Microwedding Avoision
Doomscrolling Brexperts
Blursday Fitspiration
Zoombombing Hangry
Anthropause
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15. One of the main ways of verbalizing a concept is a synonymous
row. The synonymous row of “winter bad weather” is presented as
follows: метель, вьюга, буран, пурга, буря. Systematize semantic
differences between the words-members of the row.
Synonyms are distinguished by the following semantic features: kind of
bad weather (degree), the nature of the snow movement, …
English equivalents for these words are: snowstorm, …
Explain the quantitative and qualitative differences in their
representation in dictionaries.
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SEMINAR 17
ETHNOCULTURAL SPECIFICITY
OF LEXICAL UNITS
EXERCISES
1. Analyze the following definitions from the point of view of how,
in the words of L. Wittgenstein, “language can change the thoughts”:
GOBBLEDYGOOK, also gobbledeegook [1944: promoted by Maury
Maverick, but probably an older slang term that echoes the sound of a
turkeycock and combines gob mouth, gobble eat greedily, and gook a
(foreign) speaker of gibberish. A pejorative and facetious term for
pretentious and opaque jargon; inflated language. Maverick put it as
follows: "Just before Pearl Harbor, I got my baptism under “gobbledygook”
... its definition: talk or writing which is long, pompous, vague, involved,
usually with Latinized words."
BAFFLEGAB [1950s: AmE, from baffle and gab mouth]. An informal
pejorative term for fluent language that sounds impressive but confuses and
confounds, and is often associated with politicians.
BUREAUCRATESE A pejorative non-technical term for the language
of bureaucrats.
DOUBLESPEAK [1971: coined in the US, blending doublethink and
newspeak]. Language that diverts attention from, or conceals, a speaker's
true meaning, making the bad seem good, and the unpleasant attractive or at
least tolerable, e. g. the use of the euphemism unlawful or arbitrary
deprivation of life instead of killing, servicing the target instead of killing
the enemy, members of the vertical transportation corps instead if elevator
operators.
OBSCURANTISM A deliberate use of language that is obscure, vague,
or lacking in clear meaning. Politicians and others who seek to avoid
specific statements often use this style of language. For example, at the
height of US involvement in Vietnam, Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New
York was asked his position on the war, and replied: “My position on
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