Лекции по "Лексикологии"

Compounds in English can be formed not only by means of composition but also by means of:

-reduplication: too-too – sentimental, toy-boy – gigolo, shock-frock – bare-bosomed cocktail dress;

-conversion from word-groups: to micky-mouse, can-do, make-up;

-back formation from compound nouns or word-groups: to baby-sit from baby-sitter, to fingerprint from finger-printing;

-analogy: lie-in on the analogy with sit-in, brawn-drain on the analogy with brain-drain;

contrast: brain-gain in contrast to brain-drain.

There are different classifications of English compounds:

1. According to the parts of speech compounds are subdivided into:

• nouns: baby-moon, globe-trotter;
• adjectives: free-for-all, power-happy;
• verbs: to henpeck, to honeymoon;
• adverbs: downdeep, headfirst;
• prepositions: into, within;
• numerals: fifty-five.

2. According to the way components are joined together compounds are subdivided into:
• neutral, which are formed by joining together two stems without any joining morphemes: ball-point, to window-shop;
• morphological where components are joined by a linking element: astrospace, handicraft, sportsman;
• syntactical where the components are joined by means of stems: here-and-now, free-for-all, do-or-die.
3. According to their structure compounds are subdivided into:

-compound words which consist of two stems: job-hunt, train-sick, tip-top;

- compound-affixed words, where besides the stems we have affixes: ear-minded, autotimer;

-compound words consisting of three or more stems: singer-songwriter, eggshell-thin;

-compound-shortened words: V-day, intervision.

4. According to the relations between the components compound words are subdivided into:
• subordinative compounds where one of the components is the semantic centre and the structural centre and the second component is subordinate. These subordinative relations can be different. For exemple, they can be comparative : honey-sweet, goldfish; time relations: summer-house, spring-fresh; sex-relations: she-dog, he-goat, Tom-cat etc.

-coordinative compounds where  both components are semantically independent: no-no, Anglo-Saxon, secretary-stenographer etc.

5. According to the order of the components compounds are divided into compounds with direct order: killjoy and compounds with indirect order: nuclear-free, rope-ripe etc.
6. According to the meaning of the whole compound we can point out idiomatic and non-idiomatic compounds. Compounds may be very different in meaning from the corresponding free phrase. Such compounds are calles idiomatic: a blackboard – a black board, a tall boy – a tallboy, a blue bell – a bluebell. Compounds which are not different in their meaning from corresponding free phrases are called non-idiomatic: swimming-pool, speedometer, airmail etc.

 

Lecture # 5

 

Wordbuilding

Plan

7. Main ways of wordbuilding in English:
1. conversion,
2. abbreviation.

          2. Secondary ways of wordbuilding.

 

Literature

4. Дубенец Э.М. Современный английский язык. С. 26 – 74.
5. Антрушина Г.Б. Лексикология английского языка. С. 78 – 128.
6. I.V. Arnold. The English word. P. 90 – 165.

 

 

Conversion

              Conversion is a characteristic feature of the English wordbuilding system. It is also called affixless derivation or zero-suffixation but it is not quite correct because there are other types of wordbuilding in which new words are also formed without affixes: compounds, contracted words, sound-imitation words etc. The term conversion first appeared in the book by Henry Sweet New English Grammar in 1891. Conversion is very productive way of worldbuilding. Its productivity is encouraged by the analytical structure of Modern Englisg which facilitates processes of making words of one category of part of speech from words of another. A great number of one-syllable words is also a factor in favour of conversion. Such words are more mobile and flexible than polysyllabic words.

              Conversion is treated differently by different scientists. A.И. Смирницкий treats conversion as a morphological way of forming words when one part of speech is formed from another part of speech by changing its paradigm. For exemple, to form the verb to dial from the noun dial we change the paradigm of the noun a dial – dials  for the paradigm of a regular verb I dial, he dials, dialed, dialing. A. Marchand  treats conversion as a morphological-syntactical wordbuilding because we have not only the change of the paradigm, but also the change of the syntactical function. For exemple, in the sentence I need some good paper for my room the noun paper is an object in the sentence. In the sentence I paper my room every year the verb paper is the predicate in the sentence.

A word made by conversion has a different meaning from the meaning of the word from which it was made. Though both meaning can be associated. There are some regularities in these associations:

-the noun is the name of a tool or instrument, the verb denotes an action performed by the tool: to pencil, to nail, to pin;

-the noun is the name of an animal, the verb denotes an action or aspect of behaviour typical of this animal: to ape, to wolf, to fox;

-the name of a part of the human body – an action performed by it: to nose, to shoulder, to elbow;

-the name of a profession or occupation – an activity typical of it: to nurse, to maid, to groom;

-the name of a place – the process of occupying the place or of putting smth / smb in it: to room, to cage, to table;

-the name of a container – the act of putting smth within the container: to pocket, to bottle, to can;

-the name of a meal – the process of taking it: to lunch, to supper, to dinner.

In cases of conversion we have a question: which word is primary and which is converted from it? There are three approaches to this problem.

1.If the lexical meaning of the root morpheme and the lexico-grammatical meaning of the stem coincide the word is primary. For exemple, in cases pen – to pen, father – to father the nouns are names of an object and a living being. In the nouns pen and father the lexical meaning of the root and the lexico-grammatical meanings of the stems coincide. The verbs to pen and to father denote an action, a process. The lexico-grammatical meanings of the stems do not coincide with the lexical meanings of the roots. The verbs have a complex semantic structure and they were converted from nouns.

           2. If we compare a converted pair with a synonymic word pair which was formed by means of suffixation we can find out which of the pair is primary. This criterion can be applied only to nouns converted from verbs. For exemple, chat as a noun and chat as a verb can be compared with conversation – converse.

            3. We must take a word-cluster of relative words to which the converted pair belongs. If the root stem of the word-cluster has suffixes added to a noun stem, the noun is primary in the converted pair. For exemple, in the word-cluster hand n., hand v., handy, handful the affixed words have suffixes added to a noun stem, that is why the noun is primary and the verb is converted from it. In the word-cluster dance n., dance v., dancer, dancing we see that the primary word is a verb and the noun is converted from it.

What is relationship between conversion and substantivation? Some scientists refer substantivation of adjectives to conversion. But most scientists do not, because in cases of substantivation of adjectives we have quite different changes in the language. Substantivation is the result of syntactical shortening when a word combination with a semantically strong attribute loses its semantically weak noun: a grown-up person is shortened to a grown up. In cases of substantivation the attribute takes the paradigm of a countable noun: a criminal, criminals, a criminal’s, crimiunals’. There are also two types of partly substantivized adjectives:

3. those which have only the plural form and have the meaning of collective nouns: sweets, news, empties, finals, greens;

b) those which have only the singular form and are used with the definite article. They also have the meaning of collective nouns and denote a class, a nationality, a group of people etc.: the rich, the English, the dead.

These words are called partly substantivized because they do not get a new paradigm. Besides, they keep some properties of adjectives, they can be modified by adverbs: the enormously rich, the very unfortunate, the extravagantly jealous.

There is one more problem connected with convertion in English. In English there are a lot of word combinations of the type stone wall. For exemple: time table, homework, price rise, language teacher etc. If he first component of such units is an adjective converted from a noun, combinations of this type are free word-groups of the structure adjective + nouns. This point of view is proved by O. Yespersen by the following facts:

1. The word stone denotes some quality of the object named by the word wall.
2. The word stone stands before the word it modifies as adjectives do.
3. The word stone is used in the singular though its meaning may be plural, and adjectives in English have no plural form.
4. There are some cases when the first component is used in the comparative or the superlative degree, and adjectives can have degrees of comparison: the bottomest end of the scale.
5. The first component can have an adverb which characterizes it, and adjectives are characterized by adverbs: a purely family gathering.
6. The first component can be used in the same syntactical function with a proper adjective to characterize the same noun: lonely bare stone houses.
7. After the first component the pronoun one can be used instead of a noun: I shall not put on a silk dress, I shall put on a cotton one.

       But other scientists say that these criteria are not characteristic of the majority of such units. They consider the first conponent of such units to be a noun in the function of an attribute because in Midern English almost all parts of speech and even word-groups and sentences can be used in the function of an attribute. For exemple: the then president (an adverb in the function of an attribute), out-of-the-way villages (a word-group in the function of an attribute), a devil-may-care speed (a sentence in the function of an attribute).

There are different semantic relations between the components of such combinations:

-time relation: evening paper,

-space relation: top floor,

-qualitative relations: winter apples,

-cause relations: war orphan etc.

Abbreviation

In the process of communication words and word-groups can be shortened. The causes of shortening can be linguistic and extra-linguistic. By extra-linguistic causes changes in the life of people are meant. In Modern English many new abbreviations are formed because the tempo of life is increasing and it becomes necessary to give more and  more information in the shortest possible time. There are also linguistic causes of abbreviating words and word-groups. Among them are: demand of rhythm, which is satisfied by monosyllabic words and shortening of borrowings from other languages.

There are two main types of shortenings: graphical and lexical.

Graphical abbreviations are the result of shortening of words and word-groups only in written speech while orally the corresponding full forms are used. They are used for the economy of space and effort in writing.

The oldest group of graphical abbreviations in English is of Latin origin. In these abbreviations in the spelling Latin words are shortened while orally the corresponding English equivalents are pronounced in the full form. For exemple: a.m. – in the morning (ante meridiem), No – number (numero), i.e. – that is (id est), p.a. – a year (per annum), lb – pound (libra) etc.

In some cases initial letters are pronounced: a.m., p.m.

Some  graphical abbreviations of Latin origin have different English equivalents in different contexts: p. m. can be pronounced in the afternoon (post meridiem) and after death (post mortem).

Graphical abbreviations of native origin represent several semantic groups:

- days of the week: Mon – Monday, Tue – Tuesday,

- names of months: Apr – April, Aug – August,

- names of address: Mr, Mrs, Ms, Dr,

- military ranks: capt – captain, col – colonel, sgt – sergeant,

- scientific degrees: BA – Bachelor of Arts, DM – Doctor of Medicine,

- units of time, length, weight: f / ft – foot / feet, in. – inch, mg. – milligram etc.

The reading of some graphical abbreviations depends on the context. For exemple: m can be read as male, married, masculine, metre, mile, million, minute.

Lexical abbreviations

Lexical abbreviaion consists in clipping a part of a word. As a result we get a new lexical unit where either the lexical meaning or the style is different from the full form of the word. For exemple: in such cases as fantasy and fancy, fence and defence we have different lexical meanings. In such cases as laboratory and lab, we have different styles.

Lexical abbreviaion  does not change the part-of-speech meaning, it produces  words belonging to the same part of speech as the primary words. For exemple: professor is a noun, prof is also a noun.

Abbreviated are usually nouns, verbs and adjectives. Pronouns, numerals, interjections, conjunctions are, as a rule, not abbreviated.

Lexical abbreviations are classified according to the part of the word which is clipped. Mostly the end of the word is clipped, because the beginning of the word in most cases is the root and expresses the lexical meaning of the word. This type of abbreviation is called apocope: disco, expo, intro etc.

If the beginning of the word is clipped we have apheresis: chute – parachute, versity – university, copter – helicopter etc.

Sometimes the middle of the word is clipped, such abbreviations are called syncope: mart – market, fanzine – fan magazine etc.

We may also have a combination of apocope with apheresis, when the beginning and the end of the word are clipped: tec – detective, van – avanguard etc.

2. There are also secondary ways of wordbuilding in English: sound interchange, stress interchange, sound imitation, blending, back formation. These ways of wordbuilding are not  productive in Modern English.

Sound interchange is the way of wordbuilding when some sounds are changed to form a new word. For exemple: strike – stroke, sing – song, blood – to bleed, hot – to heat etc. It was productive in Old English and can be met in other Indo-European languages.

Stress interchange can be mostly met in verbs and nouns of Romanic origin. Nouns have the stress on the first syllable and verbs – on the last syllable. For exemple: to conflict – conflict, to export – export, to accent – accent etc. However, this is not regular. There are borrowed nouns and verbs with the stress on the first syllable. For exemple: focus, exile, preface, program, triumph etc. There are also a large group of loan words that retain the stress on the second syllable both in verbs and nouns. For exemple: advance, escape, attack, defeat, concern, amount, research etc.

Sound imitation is the way of wordbuilding when a word is formed by imitating different sounds. There are some semantic groups of words formed by means of sound imitation:

-sounds produced by human beings: to whisper, to giggle, to sneeze etc,

-sounds produced by animals: to hiss, to bark, to moo, to buzz etc,

-sounds produced by nature: to tinkle, to ding-dong, to buble, to splash etc.

Blends are words formed from a word-group or two synonyms. In blends two ways of wordbuilding are combined: abbreviation and composition. To form a blend we clip the end of the first component and the beginning of the second component. For exemple: smog is formed from smoke + fog, slanguage is formed from slang + language, gasohol is formed from gasoline + alcohol.

Mostly blends are formed from a word-group. For exemple: cinemaddict (cinema addict), dramedy (drama comedy), magalog (magazine catalogue), slimnastics (slimming gymnastics) etc.

Back formation is the way of word-building when a word is formed by dropping the final morpheme to form a new word. It is opposite to suffixation, that is why it is called back formation. At first it appeared in the language as a result of misunderstanding the structure of a borrowed word. It is typical of English to form nouns denoting the agent of the action by adding the suffix –er to a verb stem: speak – speaker, teach – teacher. So when the French word beggar was borrowed into English the final syllable ar was pronounced in the same way as the English -er. Soon Englishmen formed the verb beg by dropping the end of the noun. Other exemples are: to accreditate (accreditation), to bach (bachelor), to collocate (collocation), to compute (computer), to televise (television) etc.

 

Значение  и контекст. Взаимосвязь между  значением слова и его сочетаемостью. Значение и употребление.

Lecture # 6

Plan

1. Meaning of a word.
2. Semantic structure of the word.

3. Polysemy.

4. Main types  of lexical meanings of the word.

 

1. The linguistic science at ptesent is not able to put forward a definition of meaning which is conclusive. But the fact is that the very function of the word as a unit of communication is made possible by its possessing a meaning. So, among the various characteristics of the word the meaning is the most important.

Generally speaking meaning can be more or less described as a component of the word through which a concept is communicated. Concepts are mental phenomena.

To explain what the meaning is scientists use a triangle.

 

By referent we understand objects, qualities, actions, abstract notions denoted by the word. By symbol is meant the word. Thought or reference is concept. The dotted line suggests that there is no immediate relation between word and referent. It is established only through the concept.

The mechanism by which concepts, that is mental phenomena, are converted into words, that is linguistic phenomena, and the reverse process by which a heard or a printed word is converted into a mental picture are not yet understood.

The branch of linguistics which specialises in the study of meaning is called semantics. This term is ambiguous. It can stand for the espressive aspect of language in general and for the meaning of particular words. That is why very often the study of meaning of words is called semasiology.

2. The modern approach to semantics or semasiology is based on the assumption that the meaning of the word presents a structure which is called the semantic structure of the word. When analysing the semantic structure of a word, it is necessary to distinguish between two levels of analysis.

On the first level the semantic structure of a word is treated as a system of meanings. For exemple, the semantic structure of the noun fire can be presented in the following way:

 

 

As we see, meaning 1 dominates over  meanings 2, 3, 4, 5. Meaning 1 is called the main meaning, meanings 2, 3, 4, 5 are called secondary meanings. All the meanings, main and secondary ones, may be associated with each other very differently. They may be associated through the main meaning or through one of the secondary meanings or else through all meanings. But some semantic structures are arranged on a different principle. For exemple, in the semantic structure of the word dull it is not possible to find the main meaning which organizes secondary meanings. The centre holding together the semantic structure of this word is not one of the meanings but a certain component that can be easily singled out within each separate meaning. And this brings us to the second level of analysis of the semantic structure of a word.

At the second level of analysis each separate meaning may be represented as sets of semantic components. These components are not part of the vocabulary but rather theoretical elements. The study of semantic components of each separate meaning is the aim of componential analysis. Componential analysis is one of the modern methods of semantic research.

Thus, the semantic structure of the word is not just a system of meanings, for each separate meaning is subject to further subdivision and possesses an inner structure of its own. The semantic structure of a word should be investigated at both levels: the level of different meanings and at the level of semantic components within each separated meaning. For the words with one meaning the first level is excluded.

Semantic components may be of different types. The leading semantic component in the semantic structure of a word is  called denotative  or referential component. The denotative component expresses the conceptual content of a word. For exemple, the denotative component of the English verbs to glare, to glance, to look is to look. But in such a way the meanings of these verbs will be described only partially and incompletely. To have a full picture of the meaning of each verb, it is necessary to add some other semantic components. They are called connotative components or just connotations.

Then the verb to glare may be described as the denotative component to look + a connotative component steadily, lastingly + a connotative component in anger, rage, etc. The connotative component steadily, lastingly introduces connotation of duration. The connotative component in anger, rage, etc. introduces emotive connotation.

The verb to glance consists of the denotative component to look and a connotative component briefly, passingly. The connotative component introduces connotation of duration.