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Лексикология как наука. Предмет лексикологии и ее связь с другими разделами языкознания
Слово как основная единица языка. Отношения между словом и понятием
Проблема определения слова и его основные характеристики
Элементы семантической структуры слова. Полисемия в английском языке
Полисемия и омонимия. Проблема разграничения полисемии и омонимии
Антонимические отношения между словарными единицами. Некоторые общие и различительные черты синонимов и антонимов
Типы значения. Значение в синтагматике и парадигматике
Значение в сложных словах
Lexicology is a branch of linguistics concerned with the vocabulary of a language and properties of words. This term is composed of two morphemes form the Greek language: ‘lexis’ (word, phrase) and ‘logos’ (branch of knowledge, learning). Lexicology studies the vocabulary of a given language at a given stage in history. The task of lexicology is a study and systematic description of vocabulary, its origin, development, and current use. Lexicology is concerned with words, phraseological units, variable word groups, and morphemes which make up words.
The general study of words and vocabulary, irrespective of the specific features of any particular language, is known as general lexicology. Linguistic phenomena and properties common to all languages are generally referred to as language universals. Special lexicology devotes its attention to the description of the characteristic peculiarities in the vocabulary of a given language. It goes without saying that every special lexicology is based on the principles of general lexicology, and the latter forms a part of general linguistics.
A great deal has been written in recent years to provide a theoretical basis on which the vocabularies of different languages can be compared and described. This relatively new branch of study is called contrastive lexicology. The evolution of any vocabulary, as well as of its single elements,forms the object of historical lexicology or etymology. This branch of linguistics discusses the origin of various words, their change and development, and investigates the linguistic and extra-linguistic forces modifying their structure, meaning and usage. In the past historical treatment was always combined with the comparative method.
Descriptive lexicology deals with the vocabulary of a given language at a given stage of its development. It studies the functions of words and their specific structure as a characteristic inherent in the system. The descriptive lexicology of the English language deals with the English word in its morphological and semantical structures, investigating the interdependence between these two aspects.
Meaning relations as a whole are dealt with in semantics — the study of meaning which is relevant both for lexicology and grammar.
The distinction between the two basically different ways in which language may be viewed, the historical or diachronic (Gr dia ‘through’ and chronos ‘time’) and the descriptive or synchronic (Gr syn ‘together’, ‘with’), is a methodological distinction, a difference of approach, artificially separating for the purpose of study what in real language is inseparable, because actually every linguistic structure and system exists in a state of constant development. The distinction between a synchronic and a diachronic approach is due to the Swiss philologist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913).
The vocabulary of any language quickly reacts to any changes in social life and every new phenomenon is reflected in vocabulary. Every new object or notion created by the speech community gets a new name, that is why the vocabulary of any language is never rigid, stable, but always growing and changing. In this way,sociolinguistics is a branch of science which deals with correlations between the facts of social life and linguistic facts, the system of the language and its development. Lexicology also should take into account the stratification of society and find points of contact between the social life and the language. The development of science and technology, latest political reality have given rise to many new words and phraseological units. The influence of extralinguistic forces or the development of words may be traced in the content and form of many words and phraseological units. Besides, we see a lot of borrowings from other languages.
The points of contact between them are numerous. Words consist of sounds or phonemes which build up morphemes in their turn. Phonemes perform the distinctive function differentiating words (‘chum’ - ‘much’). A different sound sequence results in a different word. Besides, sometimes stress is used for differentiating words (parts of speech, n. ‘record’ - v. ‘record’). On the historical plane phonology helps us to differentiate between homonyms and polysemy or to explain the connection between such words as ‘history’ and ‘story’, ‘flower’ and ‘flour’, which historically were one word.
Every word belongs to some part of speech and it follows certain grammar rules. Alongside with lexical, words have grammatical meanings, and any word can perform a grammatical function or occur in certain grammatical patterns, if their lexical meaning enables them to do so. For example, words denoting substances have only one form and category of number. Objects consisting of two halves are always plural (‘scissors’). Sometimes a grammatical form becomes a basis for new word (he looks - his looks). This is called the process of lexicalisation of grammatical forms. Besides, the existence of two grammatical forms of the same word leads to their semantic differentiation: ‘brothers’ - ‘brethren’, ‘cows’ - ‘kine’. One and the same word may function as a notional word and a form word: ‘to go wrong’ - ‘to go to the cinema’.
Lexicology is closely connected to it, and linguostylistic is defined as a branch of linguistics dealing with the investigation of the styles of speech and stylistic expressive means with relation to the contents expressed. Both lexicology and linguostylistic treat of differentiation of vocabulary to the sphere of communication, the type of transference of meaning, semantic structure of words and connotations which can be found in this structure.
A word is one of the fundamental units of language. It is a dialectical unity of form and concept. It is related both to extra-linguistic reality and to human notions. Its basic function is to reflect reality in its content. Word is used for the purposes of human communication, materially representing a group of sounds possessing a meaning and characterized by formal and semantic unity.
The branch of linguistics concerned with the meaning of words and word equivalents is called semasiology. If treated diachronically, semasiology studies the change in meaning which words undergo. Descriptive synchronic approach demands a study not of individual words but of semantic structures typical of the language studied, and of its general semantic system.
The main objects of semasiological study are as follows:
The definition of lexical meaning has been attempted more than once in accordance with the main principles of different linguistic schools. The disciples of F. de Saussure consider meaning to be the relation between the object or notion named, and the name itself. Descriptive linguistics of the Bloomfieldian trend defines the meaning as the situation in which the word is uttered. Both ways of approach afford no possibility of a further investigation of semantic problems in strictly linguistic terms, and therefore, if taken as a basis for general linguistic theory, give no insight into the mechanism of meaning.
In our country the definitions of meaning given by various authors, though different in detail, agree in the basic principle: they all point out that lexical meaning is the realisation of concept or emotion by means of a definite language system. The definition stresses that semantics studies only such meanings that can be expressed, that is concepts bound by signs. It has also been repeatedly stated that the plane of content in speech reflects the whole of human consciousness, which comprises not only mental activity but emotions, volition, etc. as well.
The complexity of the word meaning is manifold. The four most important types of semantic complexity may be roughly described as follows:
The grammatical meaning is defined as an expression in speech of relationships between words based on contrastive features of arrangements in which they occur. The grammatical meaning is more abstract and more generalised than the lexical meaning, it unites words into big groups such as parts of speech or lexico-grammatical classes. It is recurrent in identical sets of individual forms of different words. E. g. parents, books, intentions, whose common element is the grammatical meaning of plurality.
The lexiсo-grammatical meaning is the common denominator of all the meanings of words belonging to a lexico-grammatical class of words, it is the feature according to which they are grouped together. Words in which abstraction and generalisation are so great that they can be lexical representatives of lexico-grammatical meanings and substitute any word of their class are called generic terms. For example the word matter is a generic term for material nouns, the word group — for collective nouns, the word person — for personal nouns.
Words belonging to one lexico-grammatical class are characterised by a common system of forms in which the grammatical categories inherent in them are expressed. They are also substituted by the same prop-words and possess some characteristic formulas of semantic and morphological structure and a characteristic set of derivational affixes. The degree and character of abstraction and generalisation in lexico-grammatical meanings and the generic terms that represent them are intermediate between those characteristic of grammatical categories and those observed on the lexical level — hence the term lexico-grammatical.
The conceptual content of a word is expressed in its denotative meaning.1 To denote is to serve as a linguistic expression for a concept or as a name for an individual object. The denotative meaning may be signifiсative, if the referent is a concept, or demоfistrative, if it is an individual object. The term referent or denotatum (pl. denotata) is used in both cases.
The information communicated by virtue of what the word refers to is often subject to complex associations originating in habitual contexts, verbal or situational, of which the speaker and the listener are aware, they give the word its connotative meaning. The connotative component is optional, and even when it is present its proportion with respect to the logical counterpart may vary within wide limits. We shall call connotation what the word conveys about the speaker’s attitude to the social circumstances and the appropriate functional style (slay vs kill), about his approval or disapproval of the object spoken of (clique vs group), about the speaker’s emotions (mummy vs mother), or the degree of intensity (adore vs love). The third type of semantic segmentation mentioned on p. 39 was the segmentation of the denotational meaning into semantic components.
The term notion (concept) is introduced into linguistics from logic and psychology. It denotes the reflection in the mind of real objects and phenomena in their essential features and relations. Each notion is characterised by its scope and content. The scope of the notion is determined by all the objects it refers to. The content of the notion is made up of all the features that distinguish it from other notions. The distinction between the scope and the content of a notion lies at the basis of such terms as the identifying (demonstrative) and significative functions of the word that have been discussed above. The identifying function may be interpreted as denoting the objects covered by the scope of the notion expressed in the word, and the significative function is the function of expressing the content of the respective notion. The function of rendering an emotion or an attitude is termed the expressive function.
The relationship between the linguistic lexical meaning and the logical notion deserves special attention not only because they are apt to be confused but also because in comparing and contrasting them it is possible to achieve a better insight into the essence of both.
Summing up all the points of difference between the thing meant, the notion and the meaning, we can say that the lexical meaning of the word may be defined as the realisation or naming of a notion, emotion or object by means of a definite language system subject to the influence of grammar and vocabulary peculiarities of that language. Words that express notions may also have some emotional or stylistic colouring or express connotations suggestive of the contexts in which they often appear. All the specific features that distinguish the lexical meaning from the notion are due to its linguistic nature. Expressing the notion is one of the word’s functions but not the only one, as there are words that do not name any notion of the language.
Nobody doubts that word is a basic unit of lexicology, alongside with morphemes and phraseological units. Each word is a small unit within a vast, efficient and well-balanced system. It is immediately understood by every native speaker. A word is a dialectical unity of form and content. The definition of the word is one of the most difficult in linguistics because the simplest word is a multi-aspect unit possessing a sound form (a certain arrangement of phonemes). Besides, it has morphological structure (a certain arrangement of morphemes). When it is used in actual speech, it may occur in different word forms and signal different meanings. The word is a sort of focus for the problems of phonology, lexicology, syntax, morphology and also for some other sciences dealing with the language and speech. Each of these sciences suggests its own definition of the word but in fact none of these definitions can be considered totally satisfactory in all aspects.
If we try to divorce two facets of the word (form and content), the word will lose its identity. The word is further complicated by the existence of variants and word forms. ‘Write - writing - has been writing - wrote - written’ - these are word forms. They are lexically identical but have different grammatical meaning. These forms constitute the word paradigm. Variants appear when slight modifications in the morphemic or phonemic structure of the word are related with any modification in the content or changes in the plane of expression are linked with the change in the plane of content (‘open’ - ‘opened’). Lexical semantic variants appear if we observe the change of meaning without modification of the form: ‘open face - open sound - open window’.
All these considerations show that any attempt to give a definition of the word faces a lot of difficulties. There are a lot of linguistic definitions of the word. It can be defined syntactically (a minimal sentence; a minimal free form which occur in sentences), as a minimal meaningful unit of speech. It can be considered on purely phonetic criterion as a part of the sentence singled out with full stops. Some linguists claim that word is means of nominating any element of extralinguistic reality.
There are some characteristics of the word which scientists mention:
Words in sentences may change their position, but they should behave as blocks. They occur always together, they are positionally mobile, but indivisible. Prof. Smirnitsky singles out grammatical cohesion as the main criterion of the word. He tries to prove that word combinations are different from words because they lack structural cohesion and are divisible, cf.: “a black bird” - “a blackbird”. The latter is characterized by unity and it possesses a single grammatical framing (“blackbirds”). The first component (black) cannot have any grammatical changes. On the contrary, each component of “a black bird” may have its own grammatical framing, e.g. “the blackest birds”. Besides, if we take a word combination, we can insert other words between the components of it - “a black night bird”, but that is impossible with a single word. The word “blackbird” conveys only one concept - the type of the bird. As for the word combination, it conveys the two meanings - the color and the type of the animal.