The structure of lexical meaning.

Denotational component. The word “denotational” is formed from the word denote – to state as a name for smth. Denotational meaning is a kind of meaning when a word serves as a name for an object of extralinguistic reality. The word is used in its significative meaning when it serves a name for a class of objects and denotes a general idea of an object. F.e.: East or West home is best; A good laugh is sunshine in the house. The word is used in its demonstrative meaning when it serves to name individual elements of reality. F.e.: She studied to make their home a nice place.

Connotational component is the part of lexical meaning which reflects the attitude of the speaker to what he speaks about.

Emotive charge. F.e.: “father” is neutral and “daddy” is emotionally colored.

Expressiveness sometimes is called intensity. F.e.: “love” and “door”, the first word is more intense.

Imagery presupposes the image which we have in our mind when we use the word in its figurative meaning.

Evaluation. It can be positive and negative. F.e.: “лошадь” – “кляча”, “помощник” – “пособник”, “to clique” – “group”.

Pragmatic component conveys the information on the situation of communication.

Information on the participants and the given language community. This component reflects the social system the given language community. F.e.: “policeman” – “cop”; “invalid” – “physically / mentally challenged”.

Information on the time and space relationship. F.e. – obsolete / archaic words: “to see” – “to behold”, “enemy” – “foe”.

Information on the conditions of communication. It can range from extremely formal to extremely informal. F.e.: formal – “anticipate”, “aid”; informal – “stuff”, “to butt in”.

Types of lexical meaning according to Виноградов:

1) nominative meaning is the basic meaning of a word which refers to objects of extralinguistic reality in a direst way. F.e. “a chair”

2) nominative-derivative meaning comes into existence when the word is stretched out semantically to cover new facts and phenomena of extralinguistic reality. F.e.: Petrov is the chair of our meeting; the English chair – кафедра английского языка.

These two meanings are based on contiguity.

3) colligationally conditioned (морфо-синтаксически обусловленное). Colligational is a given morpho-syntactic pattern. Verb + Object + Infinitive. F.e.: “to make” – “to make smb to do smth”: “to carry” – “the bill was carried by the Parliament”.

4) collocationally conditioned. Collocation is a marriage contract between words. Collocationally conditioned is determined by the combine ability of words. F.e.: “walk”. When this word is used in combination with adjectives describing some territory the meaning is “route, path”. If this word is used in combination with such adjectives as “lazy”, “quick”, “morning” it means “a journey on foot”.

5) phraseologically bound. Phraseologically bound meaning appears in the idioms and phraseologically units. F.e.: “blank”. Blank wall” – a wall without a window; “Blank despair” – the highest degree of despair; “Blank verse” – белый стих. “To kick the bucket” – умереть.

Semantic changes.

Causes of semantic changes:

Extra-linguistic causes:

1) historical – changes in the way of life

2) psychological – taboos of different kind. F.e. “bathroom” is a euphemism for “toilet”.

Linguistic causes:

1) ellipsis – takes place when in a phrase made up of two words one of them is emitted and its meaning is transferred to its partner. F.e.: “to starve”. In OE it meant “to die”. In the 16^th century the verb developed a new meaning – “to die of hunger”.

2) differentiation of synonyms. F.e. “land”. In OE the word “land” had two meanings: “solid part of the surface of earth” and “the territory of the nation“. Later the word “country” was borrowed and the word “land” lost the second meaning due to the competition of synonyms.

3) fixed context is cause closely connected with the competition of synonyms. F.e. “heaven”. In OE it meant “sky”. Then the word “sky” was borrowed and “heaven” became restricted in use (religion, poetic spheres).

Semantic changes:

Metaphor is a semantic process which amply comparison between two unlike entities. It is based on the similarity of features of two object. Sometimes it is called hidden comparison.

F.e.: This man is a pig.

Metaphor has a structure. It consists of tenor and vehicle. “This man” is a tenor (the object), “pig” is a vehicle (the image introduced). Sometimes we see only vehicle.

Conceptual domains. “This man” belongs to a conceptual domain “human” and “a pig” belongs to a conceptual domain “animal”. And these domains overlapped.

Kinds of metaphors:

1) metaphors based on the similarity of shape. F.e.: the head of cabbage – кочан капусты.

2) metaphors based on the similarity of function. F.e.: umbrellas of trees.

3) metaphors based on the similarity of position. F.e.: the foot of the mountain.

etc.

In most cases we deal with several types of similarity. F.e.: the leg of the table.

There are metaphors in a language that are called dead metaphors. We use them too often. They no longer call up the image of the object in our mind. F.e.: “the back of the chair”

Cognitive metaphor is a mechanism which is part of our conceptualization of the world. F.e.: its typical for us to think of feelings as liquids. We conceptualize life as a road or a way.

Metonymy is the semantic process the essence of which is the substitution of the name of one object by the other which occures in near proximity with the first one. F.e.: He drinks two cups every morning.

Types of metonymy:

1) container for contained. F.e.: cups, plates.

2) producer for produced. F.e.: Ford (car).

3) a person for his or her name. F.e: I am not in the telephone book.

4) synecdoche – a part is used instead of a whole or v.v. F.e.: New faces at the meeting.

5) bahuvrihi (санскрит) is the type of metonymy when a person or an object are named after a striking feature which they posses. The formula of bahuvrihi is adjective +noun. F.e.: синяя борода, красная шапочка, Белоснежка, sweet heart, sweet tooth, lazy bones.

Other semantic changes:

Broadening of meaning is extension of semantic capacity of a word, the range of its applicability. F.e.: bureau. The first meaning was :thick green cloth for covering tables”. Then “a table covered with this cloth”. Then “any writing table with or without this cloth”. Then “an office with writing tables”. Then “any office”.

Narrowing of meaning is the opposite process. F.e.: “girl”. In OE – “a child of either sex”. Now – “a female child” or “a young woman”.

Elevation of meaningis the improvement of the connotational component, the meaning becomes better. F.e.: “minister”, “lady”, “lord”.

Degradation of meaning – the meaning becomes worse. F.e.: “вонь”.

Systemic relations in the language.

There are four types:

1) synonymy

2) homonymy

3) semantic contrastives

4) polysemy

Synonymy.

Synonyms are words different in the outer form (aspect) but identical or similar in the inner aspect. There are other definition for this term: synonyms are words which can replace each other in any or some context.

Classification:

1) absolute synonyms – have the same meaning belong to the same styling. F.e.: moan = groan; homeland = motherland.

2) contextual synonyms – they are similar in meaning but in particular context. F.e.: to buy – to get (I’ll go to the shop and get some bread).

3) phraseological synonyms – they are identical in meaning but different conticability in the other word. F.e.: to be late for a lecture – to miss a bus.

4) dialectical synonyms – they have identical meaning but can be found different variant of the language. F.e.: sweet - candy (AmE and BrE); autumn – fall; lift - elevator.

5) stylistic synonyms – they belong to different styles. F.e.: examination – exam; late – dead.

6) ideogrphic synonyms – they are different in shares of meaning. They bear the same idea but not identical in their referential content. F.e.: look – appearance – complexion – countenance; to happen – to occur – to befall – to chance.

7) functional synonyms – they have identical meaning but different formation. F.e.: to look – to have a look; to work – to take a work.

8) slang synonyms. F.e.: head – attic – upper store.

Sources of synonymy:

1) dialects and different variants of the language. F.e.: lift – elevator.

2) borrowing. F.e. to begin – to commence; to sweat – to perspire.

3) word-forming processes

3.1 abbreviation

3.2 suffixation. F.e.: effectiveness – effectivity.

3.3 conversion. F.e.: laugh – laughter; commandment – command.

4) hyper-hyponymic relations. F.e.: father – parent; flower – rose.

5) semantic shifts due to various taboos. F.e.: victim – survivor; bathroom – toilet.

Homonymy.

Homonyms are words different in meaning but identical in sound or spelling or both in sound and spelling.

There are three types of homonyms:

1) homonyms which are identical in sound but different in spelling – homophones. F.e.: bear – bare; night – knight.

2) identical spelling but different sound form – homographs.

3) identical in sound and in spelling – perfect homonyms. F.e.: spring (весна) – spring (пружина) – spring (родник).

There are other classifications. One of them was developed by Смирницкий. He added one more criteria to sound form and spelling – grammatical meaning. He subdivided perfect homonyms into two types:

1) perfect homonyms identical in spelling, sound and grammatical form. F.e.: spring (весна) – spring (пружина) – spring (родник).

2) homoforms – they coincide in spelling and sound but different in grammatical meaning. F.e.: empty – to empty; work – to work.

Sources of homonymy:

1) split of polysemy (распад полисемии). F.e.: pupil.

2) levelling of the grammar inflexions

3) word-forming processes

3.1 suffixation. F.e: reader.

3.2 shortening. F.e.: biology and biography – bio.

3.3 conversion. F.e.: empty – to empty; water – to water.

4) homonyms can appear in the language accidentally when two words coincide in their development. F.e.: race (гонка, from French) – race (раса, from Norwegian).

5) borrowings