WORD MEANING AND MOTIVATION

The process of motivation depends upon the inner form of a word. The inner form is the pivotal point in the lexical meaning which helps to get an insight into the features chosen as the basis for nomination. In linguistics the term ‘ motivation’ is used to denote the relationships between the phonetic or morphemic composition and structural pattern of the word on the one hand and its meaning on the other. There are 3 main types of motivation:

a) phonetical motivation;

b) morphological motivation;

c) semantic motivation.

4.1The phonetical motivation implies a direct connection between the phonetic structure of the word and its meaning. For instance, the word cuckoo denotes a bird whose call is like its name. Thus, there is a certain similarity between the sound-form of the word and the sounds the bird produces. It is also suggested that sounds themselves can be emotionally expressive which accounts for the phonetical motivation in certain words. For example, the sound-cluster [-in] is imitative of sound or swift movement as can be seen in the words a ring (bell sound), to sing (to make musical sounds), to swing (to move quickly round to the opposite directions), to fling (to move suddenly or violently).

4.2 The morphological motivation implies a direct connection between the lexical meaning of the component morphemes', the pattern of they arrangement and the meaning of the word. Thus, the main criterion in morphological motivation is the relationship between morphemes. For example, the derived word to rethink is motivated through its morphological structure which suggests the idea of’ thinking again'. The direct connection between the order of the arrangement of morphemes in words and their meaning can be illustrated by the semantic analysis of different words composed of phonetically identical morphemes with identical lexical meaning. The difference in the arrangement of the component morphemes in-the words finger-ring and ring-finger accounts for the difference in the meaning of these words.

4.3 The semantic motivation implies a direct connection between the central and marginal meanings of the word. For example, the compound noun eyewash has two meanings: 1) a lotion for the eyes 2) something said or done to deceive a person so that he thinks what he sees is good though in fact it is not (cf. in Russian. The first meaning is based on the literal meanings of the components, i.e. the meanings of the morphemes eye- and -wash. Thus, the motivation of the noun eyewash in its first meaning is morphological. The second meaning of the word eyewash is metaphoric or figurative. In this case the motivation is semantic. Semantic motivation is based on the coexistence of direct and figurative meanings within the semantic structure of the word. Mouth, for instance, continues to denote a part of human face, and at the same time it can mean metaphorically any opening or outlet, as in the mouth of a river

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