lexicology / 12-13

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be defined as the realization of notion by means of a definite language system.

2.4. Motivation of Words

The term 'motivation' is used to denote the relationship between the phonemic or morphemic composition of the word and its meaning.

There are three main types of motivation: phonemic, morphological and semantic motivation.

When there is a certain similarity between the sounds that make up the word and its meaning, the motivation is phoneеical.

Phonemic motivation can be observed in onomatopoeic (imitative) words which more or less exactly render the sounds produced by human beings, animals and inanimate things (water, wind, metallic things).

e.g. bang, buzz, cuckoo, purr, splash

Morphological motivation may be found in derivatives and compound words when the meaning of the word can be deduced from the meanings of its components.

e.g: asylee is someone who is given asylum

latecomer is someone who habitually comes late dogshow is a show in which dogs take part

Semantic motivation is based on the co-existence of direct and figurative meaning of the same polysemantic word. In other words, semantic motivation can be found in the words which arc used in figurative meaning.

e.g. white fence - white lie

branch of a tree - branch of linguistics

Semantic motivation is often present in popular names of flowers, plants, animals and birds where denomination implies some properties of the things signified: colour, form, qualitative features.

e.g. lilac, bluebottle, horse-tail, nutcracker, grasshopper

2.5. Folk/False Etymology

Sometimes in an attempt to find motivation for a borrowed word the speakers change its form so as to give it a connection with some well known words. These cases of mistaken motivation received the name of folk etymology, or false etymology.

The international radio-telephone signal ''may-day' correspond^ the telegraphic 'SOS', has nothing to do with the First of May, but is a phonetic rendering of the French phrase 'm'aidez' (help me) П was adapted to remind a more familiar English word.

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The word 'mushroom' is an alteration of the French word 'moucheron'.

The component 'mare'' in 'nightmare,' does not mean 'a female horse' but is the transformation of the Old English word 'mare" which meant an evil spirit formerly thought to oppress people during sleep. These 'maeres of the night' were thought to be the cause of bad dreams. The word 'nightmare'' as the name of these evil creatures first appeared in English around 1290, and by about 1562 'nightmare' was being used to mean the bad dreams themselves.

The word 'adder" (a non-venomous snake) illustrates a process known as false splitting, or juncture loss: the word came from Old English 'naddre* and kept its V into the Middle English period, but later during that stage of the language people started analyzing the phrase a naddre as an adder - the false splitting that has given the word 'adder '

The same process may be traced in the word 'an apron" (Middle English 'a napron")

Questions for Self-Control

1. How would you define the word?

1. What are the two main types of meaning? How would you define lexical and grammatical meaning of the word?

2. How would you define the denotative and connotative meaning of the word? What types of connotative meaning do you know? Give examples.

3. What is motivation of the word? What types of motivation exist in the language? Give examples.

Practical Task

Exercise 1. a) Using your dictionary, look up the words below, decide if they are positive or negative, and give an explanation.

Cozy, gloomy, damp, spacious, cramped, draughty, luxurious

Positive spacious

Explanation lots of space

Negative

Explanation

b) Complete the following sentences with one of the above u adjectives.

1 The place where I stayed was so that 1 didn't have any room to

store anything.

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