Lexical mng. Is the correlation bw sign and phenomenon

A mng. which establishes relations of the sound form & objects (phenomena of reality)

Aspects of lex. mng.:

All the mngs are connected but should be studied through history.

Denotational mng. is the core of the lex. mng. We look for it in the dictionnary. Some nouns are abstract, have no real denotation. => we talk about conceptional mngs (the object doesn’t exist: friendship)

Connotational mng: this aspect gives addditional info about the attitude of the given lex. community to what is expressed in the W, it’s not individual. It’s restricted in a dictionnary.

Emotive charge: (ex. Daddy/dad/father) It’s the stylistic reference. Some Ws are neutral, others are stylistically marked (dac)

Pragmatic aspest: often describes the situation in wnich the W is used.

28. The fundamental features of W mng.

- relative stability

The nngs don’t change during long periods of time. The concepts remain more or less the same for a long time, so their mngs remain more or less the same.

- relative flexibility

In time some there are some changes in people’s way of life, new objects appear, other objects (& concepts) are used no more. So people use the existing names for new concepts => new mngs appear. Usually the old and the new mng have smth in common, some feature unites them.

29. Polysemy, its sources. Polysemy & homonymy. Sources of homonyms. Classification of homonyms.

The word «polysemy» means «plurality of meanings» it exists only in the language, not in speech. A word which has more than one meaning is called polysemantic.

Different meanings of a polysemantic word may come together due to the proximity of notions which they express.

There are some words in the language which are monosemantic, such as most terms.

There are two processes of the semantic development of a word: radiation and concatenation. In cases of radiation the primary meaning stands in the centre and the secondary meanings proceed out of it like rays. Each secondary meaning can be traced to the primmary meaning. (in the word «face»^ the primary meaning denotes «the front part of the human head» => the front part of a watch, the front part of a building, the front part of a playing card were formed. => expression of the face, outward appearance are formed.

In cases of concatination secondary meanings of a word develop like a chain. In such cases it is difficult to trace some meanings to the primary one. (in the word «crust» - «hard outer part of bread» => «hard part of anything /a pie, a cake/» => “harder layer over soft snow” => «a sullen gloomy person» => «impudence. Here the last meanings have nothing to do with the primary ones. In such cases homonyms appear in the language. It is called the split of polysemy.

In most cases in the semantic development of a word both ways of semantic development are combined.

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

Homonyms can appear in the language not only as the result of the split of polysemy, but also as the result of levelling of grammar inflexions, when different parts of speech become identical in their outer aspect.». They can be also formed by means of conversion, with the help of the same suffix from the same stem. Homonyms can also appear in the language accidentally, when two words coincide in their development, e.g. two native words can coincide in their outer aspects. Homonyms can develop through shortening of different words.

Walter Skeat classified homonyms according to their spelling and sound forms and he pointed out three groups:

1. perfect homonyms that is words identical in sound and spelling

2. homographs, that is words with the same spelling but pronounced differently

3. homophones that is words pronounced identically but spelled differently

A more detailed classification was given by I.V. Arnold. She classified only perfect homonyms and suggested four criteria of their classification: lexical meaning, grammatical meaning, basic forms and paradigms.

a) homonyms identical in their grammatical meanings, basic forms and paradigms and different in their lexical meanings

b) homonyms identical in their grammatical meanings and basic forms, different in their lexical meanings and paradigms

c) homonyms different in their lexical meanings, grammatical meanings, paradigms, but coinciding in their basic forms

d) homonyms different in their lexical meanings, grammatical meanings, in their basic forms and paradigms, but coinciding in one of the forms of their paradigms In I. V. Arnold’s classification there are also patterned homonyms, which, differing from other homonyms, have a common component in their lexical meanings. These are homonyms formed either by means of conversion, or by levelling of grammar inflexions. These homonyms are different in their grammar meanings, in their paradigms, identical in their basic forms, e.g. «warm» - «to warm»,

30. The main types of semantic relations between mngs.

Lexicon is a system that exists in the mind of the speaker. The Ws divide the semantic space between themselves.

Thesaurus: Ws are grouped according to some common concepts.

Types of relations:

1. inclusion

2. proximity (a kind of similarity – closest mngs, partially similar)

3. oppsition

4. equivalence (strictly speaking doesn’t exist)

Paradigmatically: proximity = 2 Ws share close semantic features.

Degree of proximity:

Proximity is always a matter of degree. There are cases when Ws share only 1 semantic feature (ex: red, green, father, son). The higher the degree is the more possible becomes synonymy.

1. Denotations are the same, connotations are different

(ex: foe-enemy – dif.style; father-daddy – dif. emotive connotation).

2. Denotations are close, but different, connotations are the same. The degree of proximity is lower.

(clever – intelligent)

3. Denotations are close, but not identical, connotations & pragmatics differ. (economical – stingy)

Ideographic stylistic synonyms belong to the same group, have same connotations. Some syns. are very distant.

4. Denotations, connotations & pragmatics are close. (ex: to kill-murder; convince-persuade)

Opposition: at some step Ws stop sharing common features, but there’s still smth that unites them. (ex: black-white).

There should be some ground for the opposition. Opposition is the key to antonymy. Ws can be contrasted & opposed, have smth in common. (ex: man-woman).

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