Concept of lexical meaning

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 598.

Reduplication.

Back formation

To drop the final morpheme to form a new word

By adding the suffix –er(speak-speaker)

To accredite-acredittation, to enthuse-enthusiasm

New words are made by doubling a stem, either without any phonetic changes as in bye-bye or with variation of the root-vowel or consonant as in ping-pong. Most words made by reduplications are informal.

There are 2 main types of word-meaning:

· the grammatical meaning

· the lexical meaning.

They are found in all words.

The interrelation of these 2 types of meaning may be different in different groups of words.

The definitions of lexical 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.

· Comparing word-forms of one and the same word we observe that besides gram. meaning, there is another component of meaning to be found in them. Unlike the gram. m-ng this component is identical in all the forms of the word. Thus, e.g. the word-forms go, goes, went, going, gone possess different gram. m-ng of tense, person and so on, but in each of these forms we find one and the same semantic component denoting the process of movement. This is the lexical m-ng of the word. The difference between the lexical and the grammatical components of meaning is not to be sought in the difference of the concepts underlying the 2 types of meaning, but rather in the way they are conveyed. The concept of plurality, e.g., may be expressed by the lexical m-ng of the word plurality; it may also be expressed in the forms of various words irrespective of their lexical m-ng, e.g. boys, girls, joys, etc. The concept of relation may be expressed by the lexical m-ng of the word relation and also by any of prepositions, e.g. in, on, behind, etc. ( the book is in/on, behind the table ). We define 3 aspects: denotational, сonnotational, pragmatic aspects

1. Structure of lexical meaning

lexical meaning consist of:

Denotative component (usually speak about denotative meaning) transfers the general logic concept concluded in a word

Connotative meaning transfers additional shades of a word

1. Connotative(pragmatic) meaning(emotive charge, stylistic reference)

The word denoting a concrete thing, action may also carry a connotation. These connotations are vary in character. They may express the speaker's attitude to the thing (emotive component of meaning) indicate the social sphere in which the discourse takes place (stylistic reference). или указать на социальную сферу, в которой, беседа имеет место (стилистическая ссылка). Both these components may be «part of the word's dictionary meaning, i. e. be present in the word when it is taken in isolation.

An emotive component of meaning may have linguistic expression with the help of suffixes; for example, the suffix ie/y in such words as birdie, or Freddy serves to express the diminutive/the hypocoristic. (уменьшительное) The emotive component of meaning may have no specific linguistic form but be contained in the concept the given word denotes, as for example, in the words horrid, terrifying, lovely, etc. Then-are words of purely emotive "meaning". These are interjections (междометия) which differ from words with denotative meanings (i.e. notional words) by their peculiar sound pattern oh, ouch, alas, hm, etc. They also differ by their syntactic role in an utterance: they are not components but equivalents of sentences.

Stylistic reference. Verbal communication takes places in different spheres of human activity, such as everyday life, business, science. Each' of these spheres has a peculiar mode (способ) of linguistic expression which is generally known as a functional style. Words that are preferably used in one functional style are said to have a stylistic reference. The connotation of stylistic reference is always present in the word alongside (рядом) its denotative meaning. Words may be grouped together on the basis of their common stylistic reference. Inquire-ask, obtain-get, pursue-run after, seek-look for. Each of these two groups represents a different stylistic layer: the first group contains words of a literary-bookish layer, the second — stylistically neutral words. While speaking about stylistic reference, the following factor should be emphasized: stylistic reference can be recognized only when there is some common element to refer to. This common element is the similarity of denotation, or, synonymity of words.

Subdivisions within the class of stylistically marked words are numerous. But in general

literary stylistic layer (words of Standard English) and those of nоn-1iterагу stylistic layer (Colloquialisms,Slangisms,Professionalisms,Vulgarisms,Jargonizes,Regional dialectisms)

(words of Sub-Standard English). literary stylistic layer divided into literary-colloquial and literary-bookish(Terms,poeticisms,fоrеign words and barbarisms)

1. Types of semantic change. Linguistic causes of semantic change

Change in the meanings of words, especially with the passage of time.EG: Silly – Old Eng(happy) then – (ignorant, foolish). Meat in Middle English (food in general), in Modern English (animal flesh). Types:

1. Semantic expansion – a word increase its range of meaning over time. EG ME- bridle(small bird)later term bird in general sense
2. Semantic restriction – opposite to expansion EG Meat in Middle English (food in general), in Modern English (animal flesh)
3. Semantic deterioration – disapprovement in the meaning of a word. In Old Eng word knave (male servant )replaced by boy.
4. Semantic amelioration – an improvement in the meaning. In Old French nice(silly) then(foolish), later (pleasing)
5. shift in markedness – the marked element becomes unmarked or vice versa. Originally Jet is the type of aeroplane now it's a propeller of a machine.
6. rise of metaphorical usage- is very common semantic development is for literal expressions to acquire figurative usages. Ahead of sth(in front of), now(in better position)
7. reanalysis- The Latin morpheme min- ‘little' is seen in minor and minus but the words minimum and miniature led to the analysis of mini- as the morpheme meaning ‘small' which has become general in English (and German) as a borrowed morpheme, cf. minibar, minicomputer, miniskirt.
8. truncation(усечение)- An element is deleted without substitution. mini in the sense of miniskirt.
9. meaning loss through homonymy- Old English had two verbs lætan ‘allow' and lettan ‘obstruct, hinder'. These became homophonous and only the meaning ‘allow' survived. However, in the expression without let or hindrance the original meaning survives.

Long time the linguistic reasons of semantic changes weren't studied. Linguistic causes influencing the process of vocabulary adaptation may be of paradigmatic and syntagmatic character; in dealing with them we deal with the constant interaction and interdependence (взаимодействием и взаимозависимостью) of vocabulary units in language and speech, such as differentiation between synonyms, changes taking place in connection with ellipsis and with fixed contexts and some other causes.

Differentiation of synonyms is a gradual change observed in the course of language history, sometimes, involving the semantic assimilation of loan words. (вовлекающее семантическую ассимиляцию заимствованных слов) EG: time and tide. They used to be synonyms. Then tide took on its more limited application to the shifting waters, and time alone is used in the general sense. Beast and deer. In ME beast (animal in general sense) was borrowed from French. Before word «beast» in English was the word «deer» with the same meaning, but then deer(a certain kind of beast). Later word animal was borrowed from Latin and beast (the four-footed kind from all the other members of the animal kingdom). Thus, beast displaced deer and was in its turn itself displaced by animal.

Fixed context may be regarded as another linguistic factor in semantic change. The noun token originally had the broad meaning of ‘sign'. With the loan word (заимствованное слово) sign, it became restricted in use to a number of set expressions such as love token, token of respect and so became specialised in meaning. Fixed context has this influence not only in phrases but in compound words.

Ellipsis.Words of a frequent phrase may be omitted: «sale» comes to be used for «cut-price sale», «propose» for «propose marriage»

1. Extralinguistic causes of semantic change

The extralinguistic causes are determined by the social nature of the language In other words, extralinguistic causes of semantic change are connected with the development of the human mind. Languages are powerfully affected by social, political, economic, cultural and technical change. The influence of those factors upon linguistic phenomena is studied by sociolinguistics. It shows that social factors can influence even structural features of linguistic units (terms of science). The new inventions, new concepts and the phenomena should be named. There are two ways of formation of names for these concepts (понятий) and objects: creation of new words by word-formation and loan of the foreign. However, one more way of filling of such blanks of the dictionary is an application of already available words to new concepts.