LEXICAL MEANING: STRUCTURE AND DEVELOPMENT

1. WORD MEANING

   1. Reference, concept, sense.

   2. Motivation: onomatopoetic, morphological, semantic, etymological, phraseological.

   3. Types of meanings: grammatical vs lexical.

2. LEXICAL MEANING

   1. Types of lexical meaning (nominative, syntactically conditioned, phraseologically bound).

   2. Nominative meaning (conceptual + associative).

   3. Connotational components.

3. SEMANTIC STRUCTURE OF THE WORD.

   1. Types of semantic structures: monosemy, bisemy, polysemy, semantic diffusion.

   2. Polysemantic structure treated diachronically.

      1. Direct meaning (primary and derived).

      2. Secondary meaning (denotative and figurative).

4. CHANGE/ SHIFT OF MEANING.

   1. Reasons and conditions for semantic shift.

   2. Paths of semantic development.

      1. Types of metaphoric shift.

      2. Types of metonymy.

   3. Outcomes or results of semantic shift.

      1. Semantic change in denotation.

         1. Extension vs restriction.

         2. Shift to opposite (enantiosemy).

      2. Semantic change in connotation:

4.3.2.1. Pejoration vs amelioration.

4.3.2.2. Emotive intensification.

4.3.2.4. Change in social connotation: register shift.

RECOMMENDED READING

Arnold, Irina. The English Word. - Moscow: Vyshaja Shkola. 1986. – Ch. VII. Semantic Structure of English Words. P. 145. - 180.

Квеселевич Д.І., Сасіна В.П. Практикум з лексикології сучасної англійської мови: Навч. пос.- Вінниця: Вид-во “Нова книга”, 2001. – С. 52 - 66.

Антрушина Г.Б., Афанасьева О.В., Морозова Н.Н. Лексикология английского языка: Учебник для пед. вузов. – 3-е изд-е. - – М.: Дрофа, 2001. – C. 129 -165.

Rayevskaya N.M. English Lexicology. – Kiev.: “Vysca Scola”, 1979. Ch. 6, 7. Problems of Word Meaning. Semantic Transposition of Words. – P. 116 - 181.

MAIN CONCEPTS OF THE THEME:

1. amelioration of meaning

2. broadening of meaning

3. conceptual nominative meaning

4. connotative associative meaning

5. dead metaphor

6. degradation of meaning

7. elevation of meaning

8. emotive intensification

9. enantiosemy

10. etymological motivation

11. extension of meaning

12. figurative secondary meaning

13. generalization of meaning

14. grammatical meaning

15. lexical meaning

16. metaphor

17. metonymy

18. monosemy

19. morphological motivation

20. narrowing of meaning

21. nominative lexical meaning

22. onomatopoetic motivation

23. pejoration of meaning

24. phraseological motivation

25. phraseologically bound lexical meaning

26. polysemy

27. primary direct meaning

28. register shift

29. restriction of meaning

30. secondary meaning

31. semantic diffusion

32. semantic motivation

33. semantic structure

34. shift to opposite

35. specialization of meaning

36. stylistic associative meaning

37. synecdoche

38. synesthesia (Br. synaesthesia)

39. widening of meaning

summed up as follows: lexico-grammatical variants of a word are its

variants characterized by paradigmatic or morphological peculiarities,

different valency, different syntactic functions; very often they belong

to different lexico-grammatical groups of the same part of speech. Thus

run is intransitive in I ran home, but transitive in I run this office.

Some of the variants demand an object naming some vehicle, or some

adverbials of direction, and so on.

All the lexical and lexico-grammatical variants of a word taken

together form its s e m a n t i c s t r u c t u r e or semantic paradigm.

Thus, in the semantic structure of the word youth three lexicogrammatical

variants may be distinguished: the first is an abstract

uncountable noun, as in the friends of one's youth, the second is a countable

personal noun 'a young man' (plural youths) that can be substituted

by the pronoun he in the singular and they in the plural; the third is

a collective noun 'young men and uomen' having onlv one form, that

of the singular, substituted by the pronoun they. Within the first lexicogrammatical

variant two shades of meaning can be distinguished with

tvo different referents, one denoting the state of being young, and the

other the time of being young. These shades of mean'ng are recognized

due to the lexical peculiarities of distr bution and sometimes are blended

together as in to feel that one's youth has gone, where both the time and

the state can be meant. These variants form a structured set because

they are expressed by the same sound complex and are interrelated in

meaning as they all contain the semantic component 'yroung' and can

be explained by means of one another.

No general or complete scheme of types of lexical meaning as elements

of a word's semantic structure has so far been accepted by linguists.

Linguistic literature abounds in various terms reflecting various points

of view. The following terms may be found with different authors: the

meaning is d i r e c t when it nominates the referent without the help

of a context, in isolation, i.e. in one word sentences:. The meaning is

f i g u r a t i v e when the object is named and at the same time characterized

through its similarity with another object. Note the word

characterized: it is meant to point out that when used figuratively a

word, while naming an object simultaneously describes it.

Other oppositions are c o n c r e t e : : a b s t r a c t ; m a i n/

p r i m a r y : : s e c o n d a r y ; c e n t r a l : : p e r i p h e r i c ; n a r -

r o w : : e x t e n d e d; g e n e r a l : : s p e c i a l / p a r t i c u l a r,

and so on. One readily sees that in each of these the basis of classification

is different, although there is one point they have in common. In each

case the comparison takes place within the semantic structure of one

word. They are characterized one against the other.

Take, for example, the noun screen. We find it in its direct meaning

when it names a movable piece of furniture used to hide something or

protect somebody, as in the case of fire-screen placed in front of a fireplace.

The meaning is figurative when the word is applied to anything

which protects by hiding, as in smoke screen. We define this meaning

as figurative comparing it to the first that we called direct. Again,

when by a screen the speaker means 'a silver-coloured sheet on which

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