OF THE WORD

The foregoing description of the word dwelt on its structural, semantic, stylistic and etymological peculiarities separately. In actual speech all these aspects are closely interrelated and interdependent and the pattern of their interdependence largely preconditions the comparative value and place of the word in Modern English. This interdependence is most vividly brought out in the frequency value attached to the words in the language. However- it must be pointed out that frequency value alone, important as it is, is not an, adequate criterion to establish the most important relationships between words or the most useful section of vocabulary.

§ 1. Notions and Form-Words The frequency distribution singles out twoclasses, all the words of the language fall into: the so-called notional words, the largest class, having a low frequency of occurrence in comparison with a numerically small-group of the so-called form or function words. Form words in terms of absolute figures make a specific group of about 150 units. Notional words constitute the bulk of the existing word-stock; according to the recent counts given for the first 1000 most frequently occurring words they make 93% of the total number. The results of these counts (given below graphically) show the numerical interrelation of the two classes..

The division of vocabulary units into notional and form words is based on the peculiar interrelation of lexical and grammatical types of meaning. In notional words which are used in speech as names of objects of reality, their qualities, names of actions, processes, states the lexical meaning is predominant. In the majority of form words (prepositions, articles, conjunctions), which primarily denote various relations between notional words, it is the grammatical meaning that dominates over their lexical meaning. The difference between notional and form words may be also described in terms of open and closed sets of vocabulary units.²

It should also be noted that though the division of all vocabulary units into notional and form words is valid, in actual speech the borderline between them is not always clear-cut. Comparing the use, e.g., of the verb (to) keep in the word-groups to keep books, to keep a house, to keep secret with to keep warm, to keep talking or the verb (to) turn in to turn one's head, to turn the toy in one's fingers with to turn pale

we observe that the verbs (to) keep and (to) turn develop meanings peculiar to form words without breaking with the class of notional words.

All notional lexical units are traditionally subdivided into parts of speech, i.e. lexical-grammatical classes: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs. Nouns numerically make the largest class—about 39%, verbs come second—25% of all notional words, they are followed by adjectives —17% and adverbs making 12%, the smallest group of notional words.

The frequency value of words show that the form words, though insignificant in terms of absolute figures, constitute the most frequent group of words inseparably bound up "with almost all patterns notional words are used in. It is interesting to note that the first ten words in order of frequency are: the, of, and, to, a, in, that, is, was, he. The high frequency value of these 150 function words accounts for the fact that this small group makes up approximately half the lexical items of any English text.

The frequency value of different lexical-grammatical classes of.notional words also shows a different distribution as compared with the absolute figures for the same classes, as it is the verbs that prove to be" words of highest frequency and greatest potential collocability.

§ 2. Frequency, Polysemy and Structure The interdependence of various features of the word may be easily observed through a comparative analysis of these aspects in relation to any chosen individual feature. Thus choosing, for example, the semantic structure as a starting point we observe that there is a certain interdependence-between the number of meanings in a word and its structural and derivational type, its etymological character, its stylistic reference. The analysis may start with any other aspect of the word—its structure, style or origin—it will generally reveal the same type of interdependence of all the aspects. Words of highest frequency, those that come into the first 2000 of most frequently occurring words all nd to be polysemantic and structurally simple. It should be noted, however, that structure and etymology by themselves are not

always indicative of other aspects of the word—simple words are not necessarily polysemantic, words that etymologically belong to late borrowings may be simple in structure. Frequency most clearly reflects the close interconnection between polysemy and the structure of the word. The higher the frequency, the more polysemantic is the word, the simpler it is in structure. The latest data of linguistic investigation show that the number of meanings is inversely proportional to the number of morphemes the word consists of. Derived and compound words rarely have high frequency of occurrence and are rarely polysemantic. Comparison of the words, members of the same word-cluster, for example heart—hearty—heartily—heartless—heartiness-heartsick shows that it is the simple word of the cluster heart that is marked by the highest frequency (it belongs to the first 500 most frequently occurring words) We also find that the word is highly polysemantic, heart has 6 meanings ^J Other members of the cluster which are all polymorphic and complex have fewer meanings and many of them are practically monosemantie, e.g. hearty has 3 meanings, heartily—2 and the rest only 1. All of these words have much lower frequences as compared with the simple member of the cluster—heartily belongs to the 6th thousand, heartless to the 13th, heartiness and heartsick to the 20th thousand.

The same is observed in the simple word man having 9 meanings and polymorphic derived words manful, manly, manliness which have only one meaning, etc. Thus the interdependence of frequency, polysemy and structure manifests itself not only in the morphemic structure of the word, but also in its derivational structure. Derived words are as a rule poorer in the number of meanings and have much lower frequencies than the corresponding simple words though they may be morphemically identical. It may be very well exempliffied by nouns arid verbs formed by conversion, e.g. the simple noun hand has 15 meanings while the derived verb (to) hand has only one meaning and covers only 4% of the total occurrences of both.²

§ 3. Frequency and Stylistic Reference Frequency is also indicative of the interdependence between polysemy, stylistic reference and emotive charge. It can easily be observed in any group of synonyms. Analyzing synonymic groupings like make—manufacture—fabricate, heavy—ponderous—weighty—cumbrous; gather—assemble; face—countenance—mug we find that the neutral member of the synonymic group, e g. make (the first 500 words) has 28 meanings, whereas its literary synonyms manufacture (the 2nd thousand) has 2 and fabricate (the 14th thousand) which has a narrow, specific stylistic reference has only one meaning. A similar relation is observed in other synonymic groups. The inference, consequently, is that stylisti-

¹ Here and below the number of meanings is given according to A. Hornby, The 0 ford Advanced Learner 's Dictionary of Current English, and the frequency values according to the Thomdike Teacher's Word Book of 30,000 Words.

² According to M. "Wesf. A General Service List of English Words. Longmans, 1959.

cally neutral vocabulary units tend to be polysemantic and to have higher frequency value, whereas words of narrow or specific stylistic reference or nonliterary vocabulary units are mostly monosemantic and have a low frequency value. The following examples may serve as illustration: the neutral word horse, in addition to its basic meaning, has the mean- ings—'a frame', 'a rope', 'cavalry'; its poetic synonym steed has only one meaning. The neutral word face forms a variety of word-groups in its basic meaning, in addition, it has at least 3 more meanings—'boldness', 'impudence', e.g. to have the face to do smth; 'an outer part', 'a surface', e g. the face of a coin, the face of a clock. The word face also enters a number of phraseological units, e g to put a new face on a matter, on the face of it. Its literary bookish synonym countenance has only two meanings and a much poorer collocability; its third synonym mug belongs to slang, has a heavy emotive charge, is monosemantic and its lexical valency is greatly restricted. The frequency values of these words speak for themselves — face belongs to the first 500 words, countenace to the 4th thousand and mug to the 6th thousand of the most frequently occurring words.

4. Frequency, Polysemy and Etymology Frequency value may also serve as a clue to the etymological character of the word and its interrelation with polysemy. The most frequently used words as we have seen are characterized by polysemy, structural simplicity and neutral stylist-ic reference. They generally belong either to the native words or to the early borrowings, which are already fully assimilated in English. Late borrowings like regime, bourgeoisie, genre, kuru (a fatal disease of the human nervous system), duka (a retail shop in Kenya), etc. are generally marked by low frequency and are very seldom polysemantic. The interrelation of meaning and etymological factors, more specifically the period and the degree of assimilation, makes itself felt above all in the stylistic reference and emotive charge proper to words and is clearly observed in synonymic groups which in most cases consist of both native and bor-rowed members.¹ The analysis of the synonymic group, for example small, little, diminutive, petite, wee, thiy, minute, miniature, microscopic, shows that they come from different sources: small from OE. smael; little from OE. lytel; diminutive from Fr.< L. diminutivus; petite from Fr. petite; wee (Scand. origin) fromME.wei, wee, we; tiny (origin dubious) from ME. tine; minute from Fr< L. minuta; microscopic from Gr. mikros + G r. scopes; miniature from lt.<. L. miniatura. Of these words only small and little are polysemantic (small has 8 meanings and little—7 meanings) and are widely used in Modern English (both belong to the first 500 most frequently occurring words). All the others are monosemantic and by far of lesser practical value. For example petite, a late French borrowing, is scarcely ever used in English and is felt as a "foreign element" in the English vocabulary, minute lies outside the 20,000 most frequently occurring words, miniature, diminutive belong to the 8th thousand. Their lexical valency is very low. It may also be

* See Semasiology; § 49, p. 58.

easily seen that words of this synonymic group differ greatly in their stylistic reference. Only the two native words small and little belong to the neutral literary layer; the rest have a specific stylistic reference: microscopic coined in recent times from Greek morphemes is used more or less as a term, diminutive is bookish, wee (which for.the most pact occurs in Scottish dialects) has a poetic tinge in literary English.

§ 5. Frequency and Semantic Structure Frequency also reflects the interdependence and comparative importance individual meanings within the word. For example, the adjective exact has two meanings 'entirely correct, precise', e.g. the exact time, stub's exact words, etc. and 'capable of being precise', eg. exact observer, exact memory. The comparison of the frequencies of these individual meanings shows that they are not of equal importance in the semantic structure of the word; it is the first meaning of this word that is much more important than the second as it accounts for 78% of total occurrences of the word, leaving only 18% to the second meaning.

The adjective blue which is a polysemantic unit of a high frequency value may serve as another example. On comparing the frequencies of individual meanings of this word we find that its neutral meaning the colour of the sky' accounts for 92% of the occurrences of the word, whereas the meaning 'sad¹ (of. to look (to feel) blue) and the meaning in decent, obscene' (of. to tell blue stories, to talk blue) are both marked by a heavy emotive charge and make only 2% and 0.5% of the occurrence of this word respectively.

Thus, as we see, the semantic frequencies of individual meanings give a better and a more objective insight into the semantic structure of words.

We may now conclude by pointing out that frequency value of the word is as a rule a most reliable and objective factor indicating the relative value of the word in the language in general and conditioning the grammatical and lexical valency of the word. The frequency value of the word alone is in many cases stufficient to judge of its structural, stylistic, semantic and etymological peculiarities, i.e. if the word has a high frequency of occurrence one may suppose that it is monomorphic, simple, polysemantic and stylistically neutral. Etymologically it is likely to be native or to belong to early borrowings. The interdependence so markedly reflected by frequency can be presented graphically. Below we show the analysis of two groups of synonyms. (See the table, p. 181.)

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