Linguistic Analyses

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 365.

Lexical Analysis. Lexicology treats separate words with their meanings and the structure of the vocabulary as a whole. The lexis can be simple or complicated, formal or colloquial, descriptive or evaluative. The choices made depend upon the author's intentions. Words may belong to a particular field or they may be idiosyncratic, clearly linked to a particular character; they may be linked to a dialect used in the story. The connotations of the words chosen build up a particular viewpoint of the fiction. Nouns may be abstract or concrete, depending upon whether the prose focuses on events or states of mind. Proper nouns may be used to give the fictional world and its inhabitants a concrete basis. Modifiers may provide physical, psychological, emotive or visual detail focusing on colour, sound, noise, etc. It is through the modifiers that authors influence the reader - giving positive or negative connotations. With the help of words readers form their opinion and make decisions about events, characters and places. Verbs tell the reader about the kinds of actions and processes occurring. The use of stative verbs suggests that the author's interest lies in description, whether it be of setting or states of mind; dynamic verbs place an emphasis on what is happening, implying that the author is more interested in action than in contemplation. All consideration of the lexis of must take account of the time and place in which the story is set. Here are basic categories that can be used for analyzing words.

1. General lexical characteristic of the whole text.

2. Meaning, interpretation, internal structure (denotative, connotative meaning, historical, extra-linguistic meaning, broadening, narrowing of meaning, and elevation of meaning).

3. Etymology: international words, borrowings, translation-loans.

4. Morphological structure: morphemes, the root, prefixes, suffixes, endings.

5. Word building: root-words, derived words, compounds, shortenings, conversion, onomatopoeia, reduplication, reversion.

6. Other features: formal (academic, scientific, learned, professional, terms), informal words (colloquial, slang, dialect), archaic, obsolete words, neologisms, stylistically marked/neutral words, synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, homographs, euphemisms.

7. Phraseology: word groups, idioms, proverbs.