7. Componentional and contrastive analysis of lexis.

Contrastive analysis can be carried out at three linguistic levels: phonology, grammar (morphology and syntax) and lexis.

Contrastive analysis is applied to reveal the features of sameness and difference in the lexical meaning and the semantic structure of correlated words in different languages. It is commonly assumed by non-linguists that all languages have vocabulary systems in which the words themselves differ in sound-form, but refer to reality in the same way. From this assumption it follows that for every word in the mother tongue there is an exact equivalent in the foreign language. It is a belief which is reinforced by the small bilingual dictionary where single-word translation is often used. Language learning cannot be just a matter of substitution a new set of labels for the familiar ones of the mother tongue. It should be born in mind that though the objective reality exists outside human beings and irrespective of the language they speak, every language classifies reality in its own way by means of vocabulary units. In English, for example, the word “foot” is used to denote the extremity of the leg. In Russian there is no exact equivalent for “foot”: “стопа” is a little bit smaller than foot, the word “нога” denotes the whole leg including the foot.

Contrastive analysis on the level of the grammatical meaning reveals that co-related words in different languages may differ in grammatical characteristics. e. g. Russians are liable to say “news are good, the money are on the table, her hair are black” because the Russian words “новости, деньги, волосы ” have the grammatical meaning of plurality.

Contrastive analysis brings to light the essence of what usually described as idiomatic English, idiomatic Russian, i. e. the peculiar way in which every language combines and structures in lexical units various concepts to denote extra-linguistic reality. e. g. A typical Russian word-group used to describe the way somebody performs an action or to state how a person finds himself has the structure that may be represented by the formula “adjective + a finite form of a verb”(он крепко спит, быстро усваивает). In English we can also use structurally similar word-groups and say “he learns fast/slowly”. The structure of idiomatic word-group in English is different. The structure is “adjective + deverbal noun”. It is really in English to say “he is a heavy smoker, poor learner, early riser”.

8. Omomasiological and semasiological characteristics of English and Ukrainian units of lexicon.

Irrespective of the lexico-grammatical class to which a word belongs, it may be characterised in the contrasted languages from two sides: a) from its onomasiological side, i.e. from its structure and nomination capacity and b) from its semasiological or content side.

The onomasiological characteristics of a word are displayed through its morphological structure and its categorial (if any) meaning. Thus, the verb goes (the root go + es inflexion) has the categorical meanings of person, tense, aspect and voice, whereas the noun songs (song + s inflexion) has only the category of number (singular and plural). From the semasiological side words may be monosemantic or polysemantic. The semantic structure of the bulk of English nouns, for example, is richer than that of the Ukrainian nouns. Thus, the English noun boat can mean човен, судно/корабель, шлюпка; the noun coat in English can mean верхній одяг, пальто, піджак, кітель, хутро (тварин), захисний шар фарби на предметі.

The inner means of nomination include: 1) morphemes; 2) words; 3) phrases/word-groups and 4) sentences.

The onomasiological and semasiological status and structure of words may be changed in the contrasted languages by affixal mor- phemes as can be seen from the following words: miss - dismiss, elect - reeled, man — mankind, relation — relationship; Київ — киянин — київський, переможний - переможений - непереможний, вибори - перевибори — довибори — виборний — виборчий, післявибор-

чий, etc. The prosodic means, especially accent, can sometimes greatly influence the onomasiological and semasiological status of words in Englishand Ukrainian as well. This can be seen from the following words:б'conduct (n) - con'duct (v);б'mankind - man'kind;'замок - за'мок, за'няття - заня'ття, 'колос - ко'лос, пере'їзд - пе'реїзд, ко'рови -коро'ви, 'вівці - вів'ці,'руки - ру'ки,'поперек - попе'рек, etc. A considerable number of semasiologically identical English lexemes often have different onomasiological/structural expression in Ukrainian and vice versa, eg: akimbo — (тримати) руки в боки/взявшись руками в боки; toski — їздити/ходити на лижвах; to skate — їздити на ковзанах; закохатися/покохати — to fall in love, зрячий — one who can see/one who is not blind; награтися — to play to one's heart's content, реготати - to laugh very loudly, etc. Genuine internationalisms, naturally, maintain their complete identity of semasiological and onomasiological structures in both contrasted languages, cf.: basis, comedy, drama, biology, parliament, student, transport, opera, the heel of Achilles, sword of Damocles, tabula rasa, finita la comedia; базис, комедія, драма, парламент, опера, ахіллесова п'ята, табула раса,дамоклів меч, фініта ла комедія (справі кінець), etc.

Other borrowings, which do not have the status of internationalisms, mostly maintain their semasiological and onomasiological structure in the source languages and in the borrowing languages. This can be seen from the Turkic or German borrowings in Ukrainian (cf. башлик, баштан, кавун, могорич, хабар, чабан; бинт, лазарет, бухгалтер, бляхар, цех, фельдшер, дах, стільвага, стельмах, деко, etc).

Among other common features of lexicon testifying to its systemic arrangement are the common types of motivation, the main of which in English, Ukrainian and in many other languages are three: phonetical, morphological and semantic by nature.

1. All phonetically motivated words have their sounding structure somewhat similar to the sounds which they convey. For example: to cade - кудкудакати, cock-a-doodle-doo — кукуріку, bang — бух/бухнути, bark - гав/гавкати.

2. The morphological motivation in the contrasted languages remains the major one. It is characteristic of numerous notional words, in which it is clearly indicated by the affixal morphemes. For example, by suffixes: doer one who does smth; flyer one who flies; detainee one who is detained; examinee one who is examined; changable that which is subjected to change/can be changed; movable smth. that can be moved, etc. A similar function may be performed by some prefixal morphemes in both contrasted languages. Cf.: asleep the one who is in the state of sleeping; bedew to cover with dew; overturn to turn smth. over; ex-president the one who was president, etc.

3. Semantic motivation of lexical units is displayed by the figurative/ connotative meaning of words or phrases, representing the transferred meanings of their denotata. This is expressed by many semanti-cally motivated words and word-groups in both contrasted languages. Cf. foot of a mountain підніжжя гори, hand/hands of a watch стрілка/стрілки (схожі на руки) годинника, tokeephouse вести домашнє господарство.