THE PRINCIPLES OF CLASSIFICATION OF A VOCABULARY
Some of the Minor Types of Modem Word-Building
Translation-Loans
Etymological Doublets
International Words
Basic vocabulary or stylistically neutral words
The Etymology of English Words.
The Etymological Structure of English Vocabulary
The native element of English Vocabulary.
The Indo-European element of English Vocabulary.
The Germanic element of English Vocabulary.
The reasons for borrowing words
The three main areas of adjusting borrowed words.
The phonetic adaptation of borrowed words.
The grammatical adaptation of borrowed words.
The semantic adaptation of borrowed words.
1. Sound-imitation. Wolds are made by imitating different kinds of sound: crow: cuckoo, etc.
2. Reduplication. New words are made by doubling a stem, either without any phonetic changes as in bye-bye (coil, for good-bye) or with a variation of the root-vowel 'or consonant as in ping-pong, chit-chat (this second type is "called gradational reduplication).
3. Back-Formation (Reversion).The earliest examples of this type of wold-building are the verb to beg that was made from the French, borrowing beggar, to burgle from burglar, to cobble from horn cobbler. In all these cases the verb was made from the noun by subtracting what was mistakenly associated with the English suffix -er. So, in the case of the verbs to beg, to burgle, to cobble the process was reversed: instead of a noun made from a verb by affixation (as in poorer from to paint), a verb was produced from a noun by subtraction. That is why this type
of word-building received the name of back-formation or reversion.
Later examples of back-formation are to butle from butler, to baby-sit from baby-sitter, to force-land from forced landing, to blood-transfuse from blood-transfusion, to fingerprint from finger printings
The vocabulary or a language covers completely the whole reality of human experience, and thus becomes, a systems. In this general system we find smaller, less general systems, such as, for example, the-system of the concept «boy» in English and «мальчик» in Russian.
The principles of classification of a vocabulary are:
1) Part-of-speech classification, i. e. lexico-grammatical classification;
2) contextual classification;
3) logical classification;
1) Parts of speech pre special classes of words characterized by
a) common grammatical properties, i. e. grammatical shaping of the words, their syntactical functions, anrl
b) common lexical properties, 1. e. the general meaning of the whole class, which is manifested through the grammatical properties. Grammer singles out some general meaning and passes in on to lexics. To exemplify:
book- the name of an object
classification - the name of an action or the development of an action
(the) use — the name of an action
Another subdivision in Verbs is that of transitive and intransitive verbs. Here again this division is not decisive. The meaning of the verb is historically devoid of transitiveness or intran-sitiveness. This is a secondary element superimposed upon the general meaning. For instance, the verb run was historically not transitive. In the course of the development of the language - it acquired that additional meaning: to run a company.
Other parts of speech are also very scantily subdivided. The noun is the only class of words with a more or less thoroughly defined subdivision.
2) Another semantic classification is the one which is connected with the combinability of words. There are words with a wide combinational capacity and those whose combinational capacity extremely limited. For instance, the adjectives good, bad, big, etc. combine with a great number of nouns.
The adjective aquiline has a still more limited combinatory "valence". It is connected with appearance
only (and human appearance at that): aquiline nose.
3) Another type of classification is the logical classification, called so for want of a better term. Here we find the following subdivisions:
a) logical groups (hyponimic ), comprising the general and the particular, e. g. animal, dog, cat, etc,, plant tree, bush, grass.
b) synonymic groups (series), which can be further classified into groups-of stylistic synonyms (horse, steed; begin, commence), ideographic synonyms (house, building etc.) and expressive synonyms (big man and huge man differ not only ideographically, but also by our subjective approach to size and by the emotional coloring of the adjectives big and huge.)
c) arntonymic series (groups) are yet another subdivision of logical classification. Antonyms are words of opposite meanings, such as give - take, come - go, short - long. Antonyms should not be confused with correlative pairs, which arc related through one property only, as day - night, father-son, father - mother
d) Homonyms are words which are identical in sound and spelling or at least, in one of these aspects but different in their meaning.
bank n - 'a shore'
bank n - 'an institution for receiving, lending, exchanging and safeguarding money
ball n - 'any spherical body
ball n - 'a large dancing party'.
If synonyms and antonyms are regarded as the language expressive resourses, homonyms are not. In the process of communication they can lead to confusion and misunderstanding. Yet it is this very characteristic which makes them one of the most important sources of popular humour. The pun (KaiiaM6yp) is a joke based upon the play on words of similar form but different meanings {i.e. homonyms): - 'Waiter!'
-‘Yes, sir’.
-'What's this?1
- 'It's bean soup, sir.'
- 'Never mind what it has been. I want to know what it is now!'
'Bean' (n-бобы) and 'been1 (past participle) of 'to be' are homonym, the same in sound but different in spelling. There are three groups of homonyms:
- which are the same in sound and spelling (homonyms proper - bank, ball, etc.).
- which are the same in sound but different in spelling (homophones - bean - been),
- which are the same in spelling but different in sound (homographs)
LECTURE 5
Meaning and its Types.
Grammatical meaning. Lexical meaning. Part of speech meaning. Denotational and connotational meaning. Emotive charge and stylistic reference. Word meaning and meaning in morphemes.
Meaning is not homogeneous. It consists of some components, which are usually described as types of meaning. The main types to be found in words and word-forms are the grammatical and lexical meaning.
If we take different words (asked, formed, etc.) we shall see that they al! have something in common: the grammatical meaning of the tense. According to the functional approach grammatical meaning can be identified through its relations to other words in a sentence (by its distribution). Different words (likes, runs, etc.) have one and the same grammatical meaning because of their identical distribution (subject, adverb, object).
Besides grammatical meaning there exists another type of meaning, which is the same in different word-forms of one and the same word: to run (runs, ran, running, run). They have the identical semantic components (the process of moving), but different grammatical meaning.
Thus, by lexical meaning we understand the meaning proper (свойственный) to the given linguistic unit, which is the same in all its forms and distributions. Grammatical meaning isms meaning proper to sets of word-forms, common to all the words of a certain class. These two types of meaning cannot exist without each other, as both make up the word meaning.
According to part of speech meaning, the meaning of lexical units can be classified into two word classes: major: nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives; minor: articles, prepositions, conjunctions, particles.
Words of the first class have the lexical component of part of speech meaning. All the nouns have the meaning "thingness" or "substantiality" (предметность). All the verbs have the meaning "process" all the adjectives have the meaning "quality".
Words belonging to the second class differ from the words of major classes. The former (minor) class comprises closed set of units to which new units are never added and they are not numerous. The latter (major) class comprises open sets because new units are constantly added to them and they are endless in number.
The interconnection and interdependence of the lexical and grammatical meanings vary in different word classes, in different groups of words within the class. The lexical meaning of major word classes is more important than its grammatical meaning. In minor word classes the grammatical meaning is more important than the lexical meaning. But there are some words in the major word classes where grammatical meaning prevails and instead of "to be" we use "to turn, to get, to become + adj., to grow".
Semantic analysis.
The first function of the word as a unit of communication is realized through its meaning, that is why meaning (among other characteristics) is the most impotent one. The branch of linguistics which specialises in the study of meaning is called semantics.
The modem approach to semantics is based on the assumption (npeдположение) that the inner form of the word (its meaning) is a structure which is called the semantic structure (семантическая структура) of the word. The semantic structure doesn't present only one concept, on the contrary most of the words convey several concepts and have a corresponding number of meanings. A word with several meanings is calles polysemantic. A word with one meaning is calles monosemantic.
Most English words are polysemamic. The system of meanings of any polysemantic word develops
gradually, mostly over the centuries, as more and more new meanings (JICB –лексико-семантические варианты) either appear or the old meanings disappear.
When analysing the semantic structure of a polysemantic word it is necessary to distinguish between two levels of analysis: on the 1st level we analyse a system of meanings (i.e. a semantic structure of any polysemantic word; on the 2nd level we analyse a system of semantic components within one meaning (i.e. a semantic structure of one meaning – структура значения).
Let's analyse the semantic analysis on the first level, where the semantic structure of the word is treated as a system of meanings. The semantic structure of the noun 'fire' can be presented by the scheme:
Fire n. = 1. Flame (пламя = portion of burning gas)
2. instant of destructive burning: a forest fire
3. burning material in a stove: fireplace: a camp fire (Koстep)
4. shooting of guns: open/ceasefire
5. strong feeling, passion, enthusiasm: speech lacking fire
So the meaning 1 conveys the concept in the most general way whereas meanings 2-5 are associated with special circumstances, aspects of the same phenomenon. Meaning 1 is called the main meaning (ochobhoc 3Ha-H6Hne) and it presents the centre of the semantic structure of the word, holding it together. Meanings 2-5 are called secondary meanings (второстепенное значение).
If we take the word 'dull', its semantic structure looks differently:
Dull adj.=
1.  Uninteresting, boring
2.  Stupid
3.  Not bright
4.  Not loud
5.  Not active
6.  Seeing badly
7.  Hearing badly
| deficient in interest deficient in intellect deficient in colour deficient in sound deficient in activity deficient in eyesight deficient in hearing |
The scheme shows that the centre holding together the semantic structure of the word is not one of the meanings, but a certain semantic component which can be singled out within one separate meaning.
Each separate meaning can also be structurally analysed, i.e. different sets of semantic components, comprising this meaning, can be found - denotational and connotational. Connotational components include emotive and evaluative, imaginable and intensifying, stylistic and pragmatic ones. Pragmatic components convey information on the "time and space", the participants and type of communication. Here are some examples of semantic components in the structure of the meaning: ape v =to imitate, behave like an ape (imaginable and evaluative component), MejBeflb = animal which likes honey and looks for it [мед + ведать] (денотативный компанент), wind n = air in rapid natural motion (intensifying component), prestige n = good reputation (evaluative component), order v = to give instructions to subordinates (pragmatic component).
So the semantic structure of a word can be investigated at two levels: 1) of different meanings, 2) of semantic components within each separate meaning. For a monosemantic word the first level is excluded. The older a word is the better developed is its semantic structure. The normal pattern of a word's semantic development is from monosemy to a simple semantic structure with two or three meanings, and further development to a more complex semantic structure.
A good and reliable key to the meaning of the word is context, i.e. the word's linear relationships with other words (combinability or collocability). But context is not the ultimate (окончательный) criterion for meanings and the contextual analysis should be used in combination with other criteria:
definitional, transformational, distributional analyses. Yet the contextual analysis remains one of the main investigative methods for determining the semantic structure of a word.
Causes of developing new meanings
The first group of causes is historical (or extra-linguistic): new notions and phenomena must be named. We know 3 ways for providing new names: 1) making new words, 2) borrowing foreign ones, 3) filling vocabulary gaps by applying old words to new objects or notions.
With the appearance of railways in England 'carriage' (vehicle drawn by horses) received a new meaning of "a railway car". The words 'stalls', 'box', 'pit', 'circle1 had existed before the first theatres appeared in England. With their appearance the gaps in the vocabulary were filled with these words which developed new meanings:
'stalls'- napтep, 'box' - ложa, 'pit'- амфитеатр, 'circle' - бельэтаж.
New meanings can also be developed due to linguistic factors, when a complete change of meaning can be caused by the influence of other words, mostly synonyms: the word 'deer' in Old English denoted 'any beast'. In that meaning it collided with the borrowed word 'animal' and changed its meaning to a more concrete modern one - 'a certain type of beast - олень).
The process of developing a new meaning (or a change of meaning) is called transference (перенос значения). In any case of semantic change it is not the meaning but the word is being transferred from one referent onto another (e.g.: from a horse-drawn vehicle onto a railway car). The result of such a transference is the appearance of a new meaning.
Two types of transference are distinguished depending on two types of logical associations underlying the semantic process. In transference based on similarity (linguistic metaphor – сходство, подобие ), a new meaning appears as a result of associating two objects: 'neck' - part of a body -à the neck of a bottle; 'branch' - subdivision of tree à branch of science; 'star' - bright heavenly body -à famous actor or actress --à football star.
The meanings formed through this type of transference are often found in the informal strata of the vocabulary: 'a red-headed boy' is sure to be nicknamed by his schoolmates 'carrot'. The slang meaning of words 'nut', 'onion' is ' head', of 'saucers' - 'eyes'.
In transference based on contiguity (linguistic metonymy -смежность) the association is based upon psychological links between different objects and phenomena. Old English 'sad' (satisfied with food) developed a connotation 'oversatisfied with food' and 'not happy, having physical discomfort'. The next shift of meaning was from 'physical discomfort' to 'spiritual discontent' and further to modern 'sorrowful'. By the 'foot' of a bed, the 'arms' of a chair we mean the place where the feet/arms rest when one lies/sits ib a bed/chair. By the 'leg of a table (chair, bed, etc)' we mean the part which serves as a support due to the original association with 'the leg of man or animal'.
Meanings produced through transference based on contiguity originate sometimes from geographical or proper names. 'China' (dishes made of porcelain) originated from the name of the country which was the birthplace of porcelain. 'Tweed' (coarse wool cloth) got its name from the river Tweed and 'cheviot' (fine wool cloth) - from the Cheviot hills in England. The name of a painter is transferred on his pictures: a Matisse = a painting by Matisse.
Broadening (or generalisation) of meaning
The verb 'arrive' (French borrowing) began its life as 'to land, to come to shore'. In Modem English it has widened its combinability and developed the general meaning 'to come'. It's interesting to trace the history of 'girl'. In Middle English it had the meaning of 'a small child of either sex', then the word developed into the meaning of a small child of the female sex', so that the range of meaning was narrowed. In its further semantic development the word gradually broadened its meaning: 1) it meant not only 'a female child', but also 'a young unmarried woman', and later 'any young woman' and now 'any woman, even not young'.
Narrowing of meaning
Boy: 'any young person of the male sex' > 'servant of the male sex'. Meat: ' any food' > 'a certain food product'. Deer: 'any beast' > 'a certain kind of beast'.
Degradation of meaning
Gossip, god parent' > 'one who talks scandal, speaks ill of people'. Villain: 'farm servant, serf (крепостной) > 'vile person (злодей).
Semantically speaking the second meaning developed a negative evaluative component (connotation), which was absent in the first meaning.
Elevation of meaning Fond:
'foolish' > 'loving, affectionate'. Nice: 'foolish' > 'fine, good'. Knight: 'manservant' > 'noble, courageous man'.
Semantically speaking the second meaning developed a positive evaluative component (connotation), whereas the first meaning had a negative evaluative component.
Marshal: 'manservant attending horses' > 'the highest rank in the army'.
Lord: 'master of the house, head of the family' > 'baronet' (aristocratic title).
Lady: 'mistress of the house, married woman' > 'wife or daughter of baroner'.
Semantically speaking the second meaning developed a positive evaluative pragmatic component (connotation), which was absent in the first meaning.