7. 3. Significative structure of word

We have already mentioned the levels of functioning of Man's speech-generating mechanisms. These levels together with the codes specific for each of them make up the significative structure of the word.

Components of the significative structure of the word are the following ones: the visual image of the word, its sound-motor (or auditory) image, its sound-letter (or graphic) image, the meaning (or concept) of the word and the sense of the word [29, 27].

These properties of the word (or levels of the word) are closely connected with each other. The word can be comprehended at each of its levels, though the codes with the help of which it can be understood are different at each level. We can understand a word by ear — the code the word is expressed in consists of sounds . We can understand the word in written — the code the word is expressed in consists of letters. When we look at a picture we can understand what word is implied - the code understanding in this case is the visual image. When we witness a situation we understand it even without pro­nouncing a word - the code for understanding is the sense of the situation.

All these properties of a word are interconnected with one another. In speech they are translated into each other, and this is the process of translating one code into another code that can lead to understanding the sense of the word.

So, by the significative structure of the word we mean totality of all proper­ties of the word, when understanding of each of the property can result in com­prehending the word either in speaking, reading, writing or listening [29, 26].

Below the components of significative structure of the word are shown in greater detail.

The word can denote a real object which exists in the reality surrounding us and is not a part of the word itself, for example, in figure 9 a real object is shown:

Fig. 1

A real object existing in nature which is a denotation of the word tree

Words can also denote not only objects existing in the reality, but objects of our thought, which reflect concepts of something that exist in real life, e.g.: the concept of friendship, the concept of love etc.

The visual image of a word is a visual image of an object which exists in real­ity. The visual image of a word exists in the UOC of a person. The visual image of a word is not an exact copy of the object existing in nature because every person can see one and the same object in his/her own personal and specific way. In figure 9 you can see different visual images of the same object:

Fig. 12 Different visual images of an object

The visual image as a component of the significative structure of a word is of prime importance for teaching languages. A language teacher should keep in mind that in language instruction two images of a word work. One of them is pusented in a speech situation or context with the help of which a new word is introduced. The other is the visual image available in the Universal Object < ' ніс. The visual image of a word given in a situation can be understood by learn­ers only by means of its being identified through the visual image of the UOC. So,

The sound-letter (graphic) image of a word is a unity of the sound-motor image of a word and the letters with the help of which the word is spelt, e. g.:

it is the L ОС that serves as a means of receiving new language information. Only in the process of comparison of these two visual images some new unfamiliar features of language information can attract attention of a learner [11, 52].

The sound-motor (auditory) image of a word is a unity of what we hear by ear and what we pronounce, e. g.:

Fig. 13 Sound-motor (auditory ) image of a word

As we have already mentioned, a word can be understood by its sound- motor image. However, the visual images actualized as a response to the sound-motor image may be quite different, the phenomenon which is so­ cially conditioned, e.g.:

[MAN!]

Fig. 14

Different visual images actualized as a response to the sound-motor image of one & the same word

Fig. 15 Sound-letter (graphic) image of a word

The meaning (or concept) of a word is the contents of the word, which can be presented as a generalized and socially coloured idea of a thing (a stone), or of an object of our thought (public relations, algebra), or of an action (to clarify) or of a property (green, big), or of a feeling (love, friendship) etc. The meaning (or concept) of a word can be expressed either as a synonym or a translational equivalent or a worded idea, e. g.:

LOOKING-GLASS - a mirror.

LOOKING GLASS - зеркало.

LOOKING-GLASS — a piece of a special glass in which you can see yourself or see what is behind you [77, 956].

Having the same object reference a word can have different meanings [23, 151]. Quite often due to some social and economic conditions of living dif­ferent people actualize different meanings of one and the same word. For example, for a biologist the word "apple" has a meaning which is very close to a scientific notion: "a roundish solid eatable fruit of an apple-tree". For a trader it is an article for sailing. For a cook it is a food-staff to cook apple-pies, jellies etc.[29, 25].

The difference in meanings of one and the same word for these people is conditioned by the different social colourings this word has for each of them. This evidently shows that the meaning of a word has a social character.

The sense of a word is the place or degree of importance the word occupies in the activity of a person. In the light of views of the prominent psycholo­gist L. S.Vigotsky the sense of a word is formed in the following way. In the process of oral or written communication its every participant enriches the meaning of a word by his/her personal experience, ideas, emotions, needs and goals. In the result of it the meaning of the word in his/her mental codes is transformed into the sense of the word. The sense of the word is the final stage of processing and comprehending of a new meaningful context (either that of an oral situation or that of a written text) [6].

The sense of a word is highly specific and individual for each person. Dif­ferent people can often have quite different sense of one and the same word though the meaning of the word is common for all of them. The sense of a word, which people can have, depends upon their social background. It can be very well seen in fig. 16.

Fig. 16

The sense of the word "bison "shared by three different persons

1. The sense of the word "bison" shared by a person, who has never seen bisons and who knows only that they are herbivorous and not predators, is rather positive, such people usually think that bisons are very peaceful and clever animals.

2. The sense of the word "bison" shared by a master of a bison, for whom the animal carries out a lot of hard work, is even more positive than in the first case. He really loves the bison and takes proper care of him.

3. For persons, who witnessed bisons' annual migration runs, a bison is a kind of wild uncontrollable force, and they are afraid of them.

As it has already been mentioned, the visual image and sense of a word are highly specific for every person. This psycholinguistic factor is an inherent quality of speech, and, to a certain degree, can account for some differences in the com­position of vocabulary of different languages. There was developed the theory of linguistic relativism according to which the composition of the vocabulary of any language to a certain degree can be definitely influenced by the big differ­ence in the religions, peculiarities of thinking, conditions of life, level of scientific and technical progress of the nation as well as by phenomena of nature specific to the countries in which the nationy live [41, 219]. For example, in the life of the Chukchi the word "snow" is much more important than it is , suppose, for citizens of South Europe. That's why in their language there are nearly 50 nouns expressing numerous meanings of the word "snow". The same is with the word "blue", there are more than 15 words denoting shades of meaning of the concept "blue" in the Chukchi language. All these words are only to some extent syno­nyms for the words "snow" and "blue" because they depict various peculiarities of these natural phenomena. They are names of different qualities of these words specific for Chukotka where these words are used. Their number depends upon a great variety of geographical, social and economic factors.

It is the theory of linguistic relativism that also accounts for the existence of some words specific only to a certain language and which can't be found in some other ones, e. g.: in English they do not say "a big finger of a hand" or "a big finger of a foot", they say a thumb and a toe. This is a peculiarity of their thinking.