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Порівняльна лексикологія (конспект)
Порівняльна лексикологія (конспект)
Порівняльна лексикологія (конспект)
Lecture 1
Lexicology as the science about the word.
Definition of the word as the basic unit of English lexical system.
Types of lexical units. Basic tasks of lexicology
Essential aspects of the nature of the word which still escape us:
We do not fully understand the phenomenon called “language”, of which the
word is a fundamental unit;
We know little about either the mechanism by which a speaker’s mental process
is converted into sound groups called “words” or about the reverse process;
We know very little about the nature of relations between the word and the
referent (i.e. object, phenomenon, quality, action, etc. denoted by the word).
Things we do know about the nature of the word:
we do know that the word is a unit of speech, which, as such, serves the
purposes of human communication. Thus, the word can be defined as a unit of
communication;
the word can be perceived as the total of the sounds, which comprise it;
the word, viewed structurally, possesses several characteristics.
2) Set expressions:
- word groups consisting of two or more words whose combination is integrated.
Consist of the units with a special meaning of the whole that cannot be
considered as a simple sum total of the meanings of the elements: a bean pole.
3) Orthographic words:
- written as a sequence of letters bounded by spaces on a page: none the less, and
complex prepositions: along with, as far as, in spite of, except for, due to, by
means of, for the sake of, etc.
- equivalents:
phrasal verbs, so numerous in English: bring up 'to educate', call on 'to visit',
make up 'to apply cosmetics', 'to reconcile after a disagreement' and some other
meanings, put off 'to postpone'.
They function like words and they are integrated semantically so that their
meaning cannot be inferred from their constituent elements.
The same is true about phrasal verbs consisting of the verbs give, make, take
and some others used with a noun instead of its homonymous verb alone: give a
smile, make a promise, take a walk (c.f. to smile, to promise, to walk).
Tasks of lexicology:
o The first is the issue of studying the external structure of the word or word-
building. It focuses on the study of prevailing morphological word-structures
and in the processes of making new words.
o The second, semantics, is the study of the internal structure of the word (or the
other lexical unit) structure, its meaning. Modern approaches to this problem
are characterized by two different levels of study: syntagmatic and
paradigmatic.
Lecture 2
Semantics as a science. Polysemy. Semantic structure of the word.
Types of semantic components
The essence of the Meaning – a component of the word through which a concept
is communicated, in this way endowing the word with the ability of denoting real
objects, qualities, actions and abstract notions.
Semantic Triangle:
• The link between the referent and the word is dashed
since it is not immediate
• The mediator is the concept (the idea of a phenomenon in
our mind)
Basics of Semantics:
- The branch of linguistics, which deals with the study of meaning is semantics;
- the inner form of the word (i.e. its meaning) is a semantic structure of the word;
- semantic structure of the word is not an indissoluble unity, which does not
necessarily stand for one concept.
Polysemy
Most words implement several concepts and thus have the corresponding
number of meanings;
a word with several meanings is polysemantic;
ability of words to have more than one meaning is polysemy.
o main meaning
o secondary meanings
II
The Second Stage of Semantic Analysis
The transformed scheme of the semantic structure of dull features the centre. It
holds together the complex semantic structure of this word. It is not one of the
meanings but a certain component that can be easily singled out within each
separate meaning.
Lecture 3
English vocabulary as a system. Types of semantic groups
English vocabulary as a system
- The term system as used in present-day lexicology denotes not merely the sum
total of English words
- It describes the set of elements associated and functioning together according to
certain laws.
- It is a coherent homogeneous whole, constituent of interdependent elements of
the same order and related in certain specific ways.
Morphological Grouping:
1. Root or morpheme words. Their stem contains one free morpheme, e. g. dog,
hand.
2. Derivatives contain no less than two morphemes of which at least one is bound,
e.g. dogged, doggedly, handy, handful; sometimes both are bound: terrier.
3. Compound words consist of no less than two free morphemes, the presence of
bound morphemes is possible but not necessary, e. g. dog-cheap 'very cheap';
dog-days 'hottest part of the year'; handball, handbook.
4. Compound derivatives consist of no less than two free morphemes and one
bound morpheme referring to the whole combination. The pattern is (stem +
stem) + suffix, e. g. dog-legged 'crooked or bent like a dog's hind leg', left-
handed.
Word-Family Grouping:
The number of groups is equal to the number of root morphemes: dog, doggish,
doglike, doggy/doggie, to dog, dogged, doggedly, doggedness, dog-wolf, dog-days,
dog-biscuit, dog-cart, etc.;
hand, handy, handicraft, handbag, handball, handful, handmade etc.
Affix Grouping:
- groupings according to a common suffix or prefix.
- The greater the combining power of the affix, the more numerous the group is.
- Groups with such suffixes as -er, -ing, -ish, -less, -ness constitute infinite (open)
sets, i.e. are almost unlimited, because new combinations are constantly
created.
- When the suffix is no longer productive the group may have a diminishing
number of elements, as with the adjective-forming suffix -some: gladsome,
gruesome, handsome, lonesome, tiresome, troublesome, wholesome, etc.
Notional Words –
- the definition of the word as a minimum free form holds good for notional
words only.
- It is only notional words that can stand alone and yet have meaning and form
a complete utterance: Snow…Silence…
- They can name different objects of reality, the qualities of these objects and
actions or the process in which they take part
- In sentences they function syntactically as some primary or secondary
members: Grey abandoned streets seem dead animals.
Personal Names:
• two number forms, the singular and the plural;
• two case forms;
• animate;
• substituted in the singular by he or she;
• common, i.e. denoting a notion and not one particular object (as proper
names do);
• able to combine regularly with the indefinite article,
• some of them have such suffixes as -er, -or, -ist, -ee, -eer and the semi-affix
-man,
• agent, baker, artist, volunteer, visitor, workman.
Thematic Grouping:
- terms of kinship, names of parts of the human body, colour terms, military
ranks and so on.
- The basis of grouping this time is not only linguistic but also extra-linguistic:
the words are associated, because the things they name occur together and are
closely connected in reality.
- It has been found that these words constitute quite definitely articulated spheres
held together by differences, oppositions and distinctive values.
Red Group:
red is taken as a dominant
for the subsystem of the first degree (level): scarlet, orange, scarlet, orange, crimson
crimson,
and the subsystem of the second (third) level is: vermilion, wine
red, cherry, coral, copper-red, etc. vermilion, wine red,
cherry, coral, copper-red
Ideographic Grouping:
- independent of classification into parts of speech.
- Words and expressions are here classified not according to their lexico-
grammatical meaning but strictly according to their signification, i.e. to the
associations of logical notions.
- These groups may comprise nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs together,
provided they refer to the same notion.
- Thus, such words as light n, bright a, shine v and other words connected with
the notion of light as something permitting living beings to see the surrounding
objects are united into the ideographic group.
Lexical Fields – theory of intellectual terms, which form a lexical sphere where
the significance of each unit is determined by its neighbours.
(Ch. Fillmore)
SEMI-
PERYPHERY
Core: the most typical components: hour, week, day, month
PERYPHERY
Non-Semantic Grouping:
Is performed according to the words:
- alphabetical organization
- rhyming
- length
- frequency
Grouping by Rhyming:
- The rhyming, i.e. inverse, dictionary presents a similar non-semantic grouping
of isolated written words differing from the first in that the sound is also taken
into consideration and in that the grouping is done the other way round and the
words are arranged according to the similarity of their ends.
- The practical value of this type is very limited. These dictionaries are intended
for poets. They may be also used, if but rarely, by teachers, when making up
lists of words with similar suffixes.
Grouping by Length:
- based on the length, i.e. the number of letters the words contain.
- This type, worked out with some additional details, may prove useful for
communication engineering, for automatic reading of messages and correction
of mistakes. It may prove useful for linguistic theory as well, although chiefly
in its modified form, with length measured not in the number of letters but in
the number of syllables.
- Important statistical correlations have been found to exist between the number
of syllables, the frequency, the number of meanings and the stylistic
characteristics a word possesses. The shorter words occur more frequently and
accumulate a greater number of meanings.
Grouping by Frequency:
- based on a statistical analysis of the words frequency.
- Frequency counts carried out for practical purposes of lexicography, language
teaching and shorthand enable the lexicographer to attach to each word a
number showing its importance and range of occurrence.
- The most frequent words are usually polysemantic and stylistically neutral.
Lecture 4
Homonyms. Synonyms. Antonyms
Homonyms – words identical in sound and spelling or, at least, in one of these
aspects, but different in their meaning:
bank, n. — a shore
bank, n. — an institution for receiving, lending, exchanging, and
safeguarding money
графік, n.—a schedule
графік, n.— an artist who draws pictures
Pun – a joke based on the play on words of the similar form but different meaning
(i. e. on homonyms) as in the following.
Types of Homonyms:
1. Homonyms Proper
2. Homophones
3. Homographs
Homonyms proper – words identical in sound and spelling
- деркач – a bird
- деркач – a used sweeper
- crane (лелека – машина кран)
- pine
- well (добре – колодец)
Sources of homonyms:
o Phonetic changes – in the course of their historical development, two or more
words formerly pronounced differently may develop identical sound forms and
thus become homonyms:
Night and knight were not homonyms in Old English as the initial k in the
second word was pronounced, and not dropped as it is in its modern sound
form: O. E. kniht (cf. O. E. niht).
A more complicated change of form brought together another pair of
homonyms: to knead (O. E. cnedan) and to need (O. E. neodian).
In Old English the verb to write had the form writan, and the adjective right had
the forms reht, riht.
Types of Homonyms
Full Lexical Homonyms – Words of the same part of speech with an identical
paradigm:
• match, n. — a game, a contest;
• match, n.—a short piece of wood used for producing fire
Partial Lexical Homonyms – words of the same part of speech identical only in
their corresponding forms:
• to lie (lay, lain), v. to lie (lied, lied), v.
• to hang (hung, hung), v. to hang (hanged, hanged), v.
• to can (canned, canned) (I) can (could)
Simple Lexico-Grammatical Partial Homonyms – words of the same part of
speech. Their paradigms have one identical form, but it is never the same form:
• (to), found, v. — found, v. (past indef., past part, of to find)
• to lay, v. — lay, v. (past indef. of to lie)
• to bound, v. — bound, v. (past indef., past part. of to bind)
Complex Lexico-Grammatical Partial Homonyms – words of different parts of
speech with one identical form in their paradigms.
• rose, n. — rose, v. (past indef. of to rise)
• maid, n. — made, v. (past indef., past part. of to make)
• left, adj. — left, v. (past indef., past part, of to leave)
SYNONYMS: ARE THEIR MEANINGS THE SAME OR DIFFERENT?
“I have always liked you very much, I admire your talent, but, forgive me, — I
could never love you as a wife should love her husband.”
(From The Shivering Sands by V. Halt)
Though they all render more or less the same feeling of liking, each of the three
verbs describes it in its own way: "I like you, i. e. I have certain warm feelings
towards you, but they are not strong enough for me to describe them as "love" —
so that like and love are in a way opposed to each other.
In terms of component analysis, synonyms may be defined as words with the
same denotation, or the same denotative component, but differing in
connotations, or in connotative components.
A group of synonyms may be studied via their dictionary definitions
(definitional analysis), like in the following:
look, stare, gaze, glare, glance, peer.
Idiographic synonyms – words that render the same notion but differ in the
shades of meaning:
assemble - amass, collect, convene, summon, mobilize
table – bar, bench, board, buffet, bareau, console, dresser, slab
веселий – життєрадісний, сонцелюбний, сонцеликий, просвітлий,
втішний
Stylistic synonyms – words that differ in terms of their usage in functional
styles:
assemble – convene, gather; bunch, flock, huddle; gang up, hang around;
good – favourable, acceptable, reputable; delux, first-class, super; bully,
bad, crack, rad, sick.
дурень - бовдур, неінтелектуальний, відсталий за розвитком
Absolute synonyms – identical in their shades of meaning and in all their
stylistic features:
articulation, pronunciation, verbalization
However, absolute synonyms are rare in vocabulary and, at the diachronic level,
the phenomenon of absolute synonymy is anomalous and consequently
temporary: the vocabulary system invariably tends to eliminate it either via
abolishing one of the absolute synonyms or by developing semantic or
contextual differentiation in one or both (or all) of them.
Antonyms
Antonyms – words of the same part of speech with contrasting meanings: hot —
cold, light — dark, happiness — sorrow, to accept — to reject, up — down, верх —
низ.
If synonyms form whole, often numerous, groups, antonyms are usually
believed to appear in the counterpart pairs. For instance, the adjective cold has
warm for its antonym, and sorrow may be contrasted with gaiety.
On the other hand, a polysemantic word may have an antonym (or several
antonyms) for each of its meanings. So, the adjective dull has the antonyms
for its meaning “deficient in interest”: interesting, amusing,
entertaining,
for its meaning “deficient in intellect”: clever, bright, capable
for its meaning “deficient in activity”: active etc.
Lecture 5
Motivation of words.
Linguistic and extralinguistic reasons of semantic shifts
Motivation – the relationship existing between the phonemic or morphemic
composition and structural pattern of the word, on the one hand, and its meaning,
on the other.
Motivation:
o Phonetic;
o Morphological;
o Semantic.
Phonetic motivation – a certain similarity between the sounds that make up the
word and those referred to by the sense.
bang, buzz, cuckoo, giggle, gurgle, hiss, purr, whistle
• the sounds of a word are imitative of sounds in nature because what is referred
to is a sound or at least, produces a characteristic sound (cuckoo);
• not perfect replica of any acoustic structure but only a rough approximation;
• determined by the phonological system of each language as shown by the
difference of echo-words for the same concept in different languages
• this accounts for the variability of echo-words within one language and between
different languages: cuckoo (Engl.) = Kuckuck (Germ)
Words denoting animal sounds – motivated only phonetically so that nouns and
verbs are exactly the same: bleat, purr (of a cat), moo (of a cow), crow (of a cock),
bark (of a dog), neigh (of a horse)
Morphological motivation – a similarity between the structure of the word and the
meaning it renders:
the prefix, ex- means 'former' when added to human nouns: ex-filmstar, ex-
president, ex-wife;
There is also a more general use of ex-: in borrowed words it is unstressed and
motivation is faded (expect, export, etc.).
Not all words with a similar morphemic composition will have the same
derivational history and denote human beings:
first-nighter and honeymooner are personal nouns, but two-seater is 'a car or
an aeroplane seating two persons', back-hander is 'a back-hand stroke in tennis' and
three-decker 'a sandwich made of three pieces of bread with two layers of filling'.
Stages of Motivation:
When the connection between the meaning of the word and its form is
conventional that is there is no perceptible reason for the word having this
particular phonemic and morphemic composition, the word is said to be non-
motivated for the present stage of language development.
When some people recognize the motivation, whereas others do not, motivation
is said to be faded.
Folk Etymology – 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 word:
A nightmare is not 'a she-horse that appears at night' but 'a terrifying dream
personified in folklore as a female monster'. (OE mara 'an evil spirit'.)
The international radiotelephone signal may-day corresponding to the
telegraphic SOS used by aeroplanes and ship in distress has nothing to do with
the First of May but is a phonetic rendering of French m'aidez 'help me'.
Ellipsis:
• The qualifying words of a frequent phrase may be omitted: sale comes to be
used for cut-price sale, propose for propose marriage, be expecting for be
expecting a baby, media for mass media.
• Or vice versa the core word of the phrase may seem redundant: minerals for
mineral waters, summit for summit meeting.
Ambiguity – regular coincidences of different aspects, alongside with cause and
result, subjective and objective, active and passive aspects especially frequent in
adjectives.
e.g. hateful means 'exciting hatred' and 'full of hatred'; curious—'strange' and
'inquisitive';
pitiful — 'exciting compassion' and 'compassionate'.
One can be doubtful about a doubtful question, in a healthy climate children are
healthy.
To refer to these cases linguists employ the term conversives.
- The word being a linguistic realization of notion, it changes with the progress of
human consciousness.
- This process is reflected in the development of lexical meaning.
- As the human mind achieves an ever more exact understanding of the world of
reality and the objective relationships that characterize it, the notions become
more and more exact reflections of real things.
Technical Imagery:
I. Chain Reaction
II. Live wire
Lecture 6-7
Functional stylistic, Temporal and Regional division
of English vocabulary
Scientific approach to the bulk of English and Ukrainian vocabulary is not
exhausted by thematic, lexicogrammatical, ideographic and other principles.
There are still more principles of the vocabulary division.
Division of Vocabulary:
Stylistic
Temporal
Regional
Stylistic division – is based on the supposition that one and the same notion may be
named variously depending on the situation of communication, which is actualized
in the form of different functional styles.
These are mainly formal, colloquial, and professional, which in their turn
diverge into substyles.
Functional Styles:
The term functional style is generally accepted in modern linguistics. It is a system
of expressive means specific for a certain sphere of communication.
By the sphere of communication, we mean the circumstances attending the process
of speech in each particular case: professional communication, a lecture, an
informal talk, a formal letter, an intimate letter, a speech in court, etc.
English Vocabulary:
Informal:
o Colloquial
o Slang
o Dialect words and word-groups
Formal
Professional
Example:
You're at some sort of technical college?" she said to Leo, not looking at him...
"Yes. I hate it though. I'm not good enough at maths. There's a chap there just
down from Cambridge who puts us through it. I can't keep up. Were you good at
maths?"
(From the Time of the Angels by I. Murdoch)
Internet Slang
Archaisms – are words that were once common but are now replaced by
synonyms.
- When these new synonymous words, introduce nothing conceptually new, the
stylistic value of older words tends to be changed;
- on becoming rare they acquire a lofty poetic tinge due to their ancient flavour,
and then they are associated with poetic diction:
aught n 'anything, whatever', betwixt prp 'between', billow n 'wave', chide v
'scold', damsel n 'a noble girl', ere prp 'before', even n 'evening', forbears n
'ancestors', hapless a 'unlucky', hark v 'listen', lone a 'lonely', morn n 'morning',
perchance adv 'perhaps', save prp, cj 'except', woe n 'sorrow',
- when the thing named is no longer used, its name becomes a historism.
- Historisms are very numerous as names for social relations, institutions and
objects of material culture of the past.
- The names of ancient transport means, such as types of boats or types of
carriages, ancient clothes, weapons, musical instruments, etc. can offer many
examples.
Transport Historisms:
- brougham, berlin, calash, diligence, fly, gig, hansom, landeau, phaeton
- caravel, galleon
Costume Historisms:
- a tabard of the 15th century was a short coat open at the sides and with
short sleeves, worn by a knight over his armoury and emblazoned on the
front, back and sides with his armorial bearings
- a doublet is a close-fitting jacket with or without sleeves worn by men in
the 15th-17th centuries
Weapon Historisms:
- battering ram 'an ancient machine for breaking walls'
- breastplate 'a piece of metal armoury worn by knights over the chest to
protect it in battle'
British vs. American English
Area of Difference:
The American variant of the English language differs from British English in:
pronunciation
some minor features of grammar
but chiefly in vocabulary
Lecture 8
Lexicography as a Science
Lexicography – is the theory and practice of compiling dictionaries, is an
important branch of applied linguistics.
Lexicologists sort and present their material in a sequence depending upon their
views concerning the vocabulary system, whereas lexicographers have to arrange
it most often according to a purely external characteristic, e.g. alphabetically.
Types of Dictionaries
The term dictionary is used to denote a book (a site) listing words of a language
with their meanings and often with data that concerns pronunciation, usage, origin
etc.
There are also dictionaries that concentrate their attention upon only one of these
aspects: pronouncing (phonetic) dictionaries and etymological dictionaries.
Number of languages:
- For dictionaries, in which the words and their definitions belong to the same
language, the term unilingual or explanatory is used.
- Bilingual or translation dictionaries explain words by providing their
equivalents in another language.
- Multilingual or polyglot dictionaries are not numerous, they serve chiefly the
purpose of comparing synonyms and terminology in various languages.
2) By types of units – deal with specific language units, i.e. with phraseology,
abbreviations, neologisms, borrowings, surnames, toponyms, proverbs and
sayings, etc.