Basic problems of lexicology

Basic problems of lexicology: Semasiology and semantic classification of words; Word groups and phraseological units; Word structure; Word formation; Etymological survey of the English vocabulary; aspects of vocabulary units and ways of replenishment of Modern English word-stock; • Variants and dialects of Modern English; • Fundermentals of the English Lexicography; • Methods and proceedures of lexicological analysis. • • • • • • The word as a basic unit of language (semasiology) • The definition of the word is one of the most difficult questions in Linguistics. • A word has different aspects: it is simultaneously a phonological, grammatical / morphological and semantic unit. Jackson and Z. Amvela: Presented three approaches to a word definition: 1) Word as a unit made up of letters with spaces before and after it. But…. (phonograph record = one unit of meaning); 2) Psycological approach: word is a unit of thought , but ....phono – graph re-cord. 3) Formal analysis suggested by Bloomfield in the 1920s does not handle relational words, (conjunctions, particles, prepositions, interjactions) and grammatical morphems very well. 9 facets of the word: • • • • • • Phonology – the sound form Orthography a word’s written form Reference – what the word indicates Semantics – word meaning Register – how a word is used appropriately Collocation – words that go together • Word association – the network of mental word links • Syntax – how a word fits into grammar • Morphology – the units that make up the form of a word Defining «word» Jackson and Ze Amvela, 2007 «We shall consider a word as an uninterruptible unit of structure consisting of one or more morphemes and which typically occurs in the structure of phrases». WORD • A group of sounds with a grammatical function. It is a semantic, phonological and grammatical unit. • Constantly changing in form and meaning • Lexicologists study the contrasts and similarities between words (and phrases) and how these change over time. Arthur Meillet: «The word is the basic unit of a given language, resulting from the association of a particular meaning with a particular group of sounds capable of a particular grammatical empolyment». (how to distinguish a word from phrase?) The word is the smallest unit of a given language capable of functioning independently /alone and characterized by positional mobility within a sentence, morphological uninterruptability and semantic integrity. A word is the smallest communicative unit of a language, characterized by certain syntactic distribution/ position in a sentence, morphological unity and semantic integrity. • A word is the largest unit on the morphological level and the smallest on the syntactic level of the linguistic analysis. • A word is a two-facet unit, possessing a form and a content (meaning), which is used ready-made and not created in speech. Word as grammatical unity A word possesses an ability to exist as a system/unity of all its forms creating its paradigm and variants: lexical-semantic, morphological, phonetic and graphic. PARADIGM • The system showing a word in all its word-forms; • The lexical meaning of a word is the same throughut its paradigm: give-givesgave-giving,given; …... Lexical varieties = variants of words • A polysemantic word in one of its meanings in which it is used in speech is described as a lexiccal-semantic variant (A.I.Smernitsky): Lexical-semantic variants of a word: • • • • Learn Learn Learn Learn at school the news a language about something/somebody variants of a word: • Often [often]/[ofen] – phonetic • Birdy/birdie – graphic • Phonetic/ phonetical – morphological, (but : historic / historical) lexeme Within the language system the word exists as a system and unity of all its forms and variants: to go- went- gone, have gone; good – better – the best; badly – worse – the worst. • In actual speech a polyemantic word is used in one of its variants. • A slight change in its morphemic or phonemic form does not affect its lexical meaning. Semantic relations in English • Polysemy • Homonymy POLYSEMY is a situation when a word has two or more related meanings: mark (22) HOMONYMY • the words have the same form – written identically and/or sound the same but have entirely different meanings: bank, TYPES OF HOMONYNY • Homographs – bored (бурить)/bored (скучающий): same spelling, same sound form but different meaning; • Homophones – board (доска)/bored (бурить): same sound form, but the spelling and meaning are different. Determine relationships between these homonyms • Lead pipe • Led the troops • Led Zeppelin SEMASIOLOGY A branch of Lexicology devoted to the study of meaning. Lexical units: words, morphemes, phraseological units, word-groups or phrases – all have form and meaning and therefore treated by semasiology WORD-MEANING • Referential approach seeks to establish interdependence between words and objects or notions of the objective reality they denote. • Functional approach studies the function of the word in speech and is less concerned with what the meaning is than with how it works. REFERENTIAL APPROACH COMPONENTS • THE SOUND FORM OF THE LINGUISTIC SIGN • THE CONCEPT • THE ACTUAL REFERENT (belongs to the actual reality) • The meaning is in some form or other connected with the referent. Conventional and arbitrary nature • [kot] = cot / кот / cod • Seal [si:l] = a sea animal / a piece of wax = homonyms • • • • Sound form – concept- referent Symbol- thought of reference – referent Sign – meaning – thing meant Sign – designatum - denotatum Meaning and sound form are arbitrary connected: Sound form may change in the course of time but it does not really change the meaning: Lufian [luvian] – love [lˆv] = hold dear, cherish. Meaning is not identical with concept or concepts: Fixed residence of family or household – home (not house, which is a building)/ дом Concept is a category of human cognition. Synonyms express one and the same concept but have different meanings: look, stare, glare, gaze, watch, peep, etc. Meaning and referent • Meaning is a linguistic matter and referent belongs to the extralinguistic reality. • We can denote one and the same object or phenomenon by more than one word of a different meaning: apple = fruit – something , this, it; summer = season, holiday time, part of the year, june+july+august. Meaning cannot be equated with the actual properties of the referent Water =H2O the meaning of water as a substance we all know is not identical by its chemical formular; salt = NaCl; Angel, demon, phoenix, unicon – the meanings are understood by the speakerhearer, but the objects they denote do not exist. Hobbit, troll, ogre, ….. • Meaning is not to be identified with any points of the referential/semantic triangle MEANING IN THE REFERENTIAL APPROACH A.I. Smirnitsky: «meaning ia a certain reflection in our mind of objects, phenomena or relations that makes part of the linguistic sign – it’s so called inner facet, whereas the sound form functions as its outer facet». The outer facet of a linguistic sign is indispensable to meaning and communication. FUNCTIONAL APPROACH The meaning of a linguistic unit may be studied only through its relation to other linguistic units and not through its relation to either concept or referent. To move / movement – are two different words because they occupy different positions in relation to other words and function differently in communication: • Move a chair; move house; do not move; move slowly/ fast; • Movement of something/sb; someone’s movement, slow/fast; akward/graceful movement, etc. • But: indispensible = indispensable; realize/realise • As the distribution of the two words is different, and they belong to different word classes, their meanings are different too: • the birds are pecking at their food. • finally Sandie understood the pecking order in the family. In the functional approach 1)semantic investigation is confined to the analysis of the sameness or difference of meaning; 2) meaning is understood esentially as the function of the use of linguistic units. • Distribution = the position of a linguistic unit in relation to other linguistic units. Which approach to choose? • The two approaches are applied together and complement each other: Fauw pas – commit a major faux pas; Now came the moment to commit his major faux pas – he asked David how his wife was doing, not knowing they had divorsed last week. TYPES OF MEANING