Lexicology lecture

ULAANBAATAR UNIVERSITYULAANBAATAR UNIVERSITY
ENGLISH DEPARTMENTENGLISH DEPARTMENT
LEXICOLOGY
¯ÃÑÈÉÍ ÑÀÍÃÈÉÍ ÑÓÄËÀË
Ts. DAGIIMAA, Ph.D
1Lecturer Ts.Dagiimaa Ph.D

Õè÷ýýëèéí èíäåêñ: ENGL 210
Õè÷ýýëèéí íýð: ¯ãñèéí ñàíãèéí ñóäëàë
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 Àíãëè õýëíèé îð÷óóëàã÷
Ñóäëàõ óëèðàë: VI
Lecturer Ts.Dagiimaa Ph.D 2

Ëåêöèéí àãóóëãà
1. Lexicology. Word. Word formation. Word-building.
Affixation. Semantics of affixes. Root and stem.
2. Prefixation. Suffixation. Composition. Classification of English compounds.
3. English compounds. Ways of forming compound words.
Semantic aspect of compound words. Conversion.
4. “Stone wall” combinations. Shortenings. Sound imitations.
Abbreviations. Graphical abbreviations. Initial abbreviations. Blending.
5. Secondary ways of word-building. Stress interchange.
Clipping. Back formation. Semantic changes. Meaning.
Word meaning. Types of meaning. Lexical meaning-notion.
6. The main lexicological problems. Meaning and context.
How word develop new meanings. Causes of development of new
meanings. The process of development and change of meaning.
Metaphor. Metonymy. Generalization of meaning.
7. Specialization of meaning. Elevation, Degradation. Hyperbole. Litote.
Reduplication. Neoclassical formation. Miscellaneous. Formal style.
Informal style. Colloguial words. Slang. Dialect words. Learned words.
8. Archaic and Obsolete words. Professional terminology. Basic vocabulary.
The etymology of English words. Etymological doublets. International
words. Translation loans.

9. Polysemy. Phraseology. The origin of the phraseological units.
ways of forming phraseological units. Semantic classification of
phraseological units.
10. Structural classification of phraseological units. Syntactical
classification of phraseological units. How to distinguish
phraseological units from free word groups. Proverbs.
11. Homonyms. Sources of Homonyms. Classification of Homonyms.
Synonyms. Criteria of Synonymy. Types of Synonyms.
12. Types of connotations. The dominant synonym. Euphemisms.
Antonyms.
13. Borrowings. Classification of borrowings according to the
borrowed aspect and degree of assimilation. Borrowings of
French, Italian, Spanish, Germanic, Scandinavian, Holland and
Russian words.
14. Local varieties of English. British and American English.
Differences of spelling and pronunciation. Archaism. Neologism.
15. English idioms. Lexicography.
16. English dictionaries. Classification of dictionaries.

LECTURE 1
Lexicology. Word.
Word formation.
Word-building.
Affixation.
Semantics of affixes.
Root and stem.

What Is Lexicology? What Is a Word?
Lexicology is the part of linguistics which deals with
the vocabulary and characteristic features of words
and word groups.
Vocabulary is used to denote the system of words
and word groups.
Word denotes the main lexical unit of a language
resulting from the association of a group of sounds
with a meaning.
Word group denotes a group of words which exists
in the language as a ready made unit, has the unity of
meaning, the unity of syntactical function.
Semasiology is a branch of lexicology which deals
with the meaning.

We know very little about the nature of relations
between the word and the referent (i.e. object,
phenomenon, quality, action, etc. denoted by the
word). If we assume that there is a direct relation
between the word and the referent it gives rise to
another question: how should we explain the fact
that the same referent is designated by quite
different sound groups in different languages.
The list of unknowns could be extended, but it is
probably high time to look at the brighter side and
register some of the things we do know about the
nature of the word.

First, we do know that the word is a unit of
speech which, as such, serves the purposes
of human communication. The word can be
defined as a unit of communication.
Secondly, the word can be perceived as
the total of the sounds which comprise it.
Third, the word, viewed structurally,
possesses several characteristics.
The modern approach to word studies is
based on distinguishing between the external
and the internal structures of the word.

By external structure of the word we mean its
morphological structure.
For example, in the word post-impressionists
the following morphemes can be distinguished:
the prefixes post-, im-, the root press, the noun-
forming suffixes -ion, -ist, and the grammatical
suffix of plurality -s.
All these morphemes constitute the external
structure of the word post-impressionists.

The internal structure of the word, or its
meaning, is nowadays commonly referred to as
the word's semantic structure.
This is certainly the word's main aspect. Words
can serve the purposes of human communication
solely due to their meanings.
The area of lexicology specialising in the
semantic studies of the word is called semantics.
Another structural aspect of the word is its unity.
The word possesses both external (or formal)
unity and semantic unity. Formal unity of the word
is sometimes inaccurately interpreted as
indivisibility.

The formal unity of the word can best be
illustrated by comparing a word and a word-
group comprising identical constituents. The
difference between a blackbird and a black bird
is best explained by their relationship with the
grammatical system of the language. The word
blackbird, which is characterised by unity,
possesses a single grammatical framing:
blackbird/s. The first constituent black is not
subject to any grammatical changes. In the
word-group a black bird each constituent can
acquire grammatical forms of its own: the
blackest birds I've ever seen.

Other words can be inserted between the
components which is impossible so far as the word is
concerned as it would violate its unity: a black night
bird. The same example may be used to illustrate
what we mean by semantic unity. In the word-group
a black bird each of the meaningful words conveys a
separate concept: bird - a kind of living creature;
black - a colour.
The word blackbird conveys only one concept: the
type of bird. This is one of the main features of any
word: it always conveys one concept, no matter how
many component morphemes it may have in its
external structure.

A further structural feature of the word is its
susceptibility to grammatical employment. In
speech most words can be used in different
grammatical forms in which their interrelations
are realised.
The word is a speech unit used for the
purposes of human communication, materially
representing a group of sounds, possessing a
meaning, susceptible to grammatical
employment and characterised by formal and
semantic unity.
13Lecturer Ts.Dagiimaa Ph.D

. Word formation
Morpheme is the smallest functioning unit in the
composition of words.
Some morphemes are realized by more than one
morph according to their position in a word. Such
alternative morphs are known as allomorph.
Types of morpheme:
1.Free morphemes – independent morphemes
which have complete meanings and used as free
grammatical units are called free morphemes.
2.Bound morphemes – Morphemes bound to other
morphemes to form words which cannot be used as
separate words are called bound morphemes.

Wordbuilding
Wordbuilding is one of the main ways of
enriching vocabulary.
There are 4 main ways of wordbuilding in
English: affixation
composition
conversion
abbreviation
Secondary ways of wordbuilding:
sound interchange
stress interchange
sound imitation
blends
back formation

All morphemes are subdivided into two large
classes: roots and affixes.
The latter fall into prefixes which precede the
root in the structure of the word and suffixes
which follow the root.
Word which consist of a root and an affix are
called derived words or derivatives and are
produced by the process of wordbuilding
known as affixation.
Derived words are numerous in English
vocabulary.

By wordbuilding are understood processes of
producing new words from the resources of this
particular language. Together with borrowing,
wordbuilding provides for enlarging and enriching
the vocabulary of the language.
This type is widely represented by a great
number of words belonging to the original English
stock and has been greatly enlarged by the type of
wordbuilding called conversion.
Another wide spread word structure is a
compound word consisting of two or more stems.
Words of this structural type are produced by the
wordbuilding process called composition.

The four types (root words, derived words,
compounds, shortenings) represent the main
structural types of Modern English words and
conversion, derivation and composition the most
productive ways of wordbuilding.
Affixation
Affixation is one of the most productive ways of
wordbuilding. Affixation is divided into:
suffixation
prefixation

The process of affixation consists in coining a
new word by adding an affix or several affixes to
some root morpheme.
According to the functions they are divided into
two groups:
1. Inflectional affixes. They are attached to the
end of the words to indicate grammatical
relationships. For example, plural affixes of
plurality, comparative and superlative and third
person singular affixes.
2. Derivational affixes. As the term indicates these
affixes are added to other morphemes to create
new words. They further divided into prefixes and
suffixes.

Semantics of affixes
Affixes have widely generalised meanings and
refer the concept conveyed by the whole word.
The noun-forming suffix -er could be defined as
designating persons from the object of their
occupation or labour or from their place of origin
or abode
The adjective-forming suffix -ful has the
meaning of "full of", "characterised by" (beautiful,
careful) whereas -ish may often imply insufficiency
of quality (greenish - green, but not quite;
youngish - not quite young but looking it).

There are numerous derived words whose
meanings can really be easily deduced from
the meanings of their constituent parts.
The semantic distinctions of words produced
from the same root by means of different
affixes are also of considerable interest, both
for language studies and research work.
Compare: womanly - womanish,
flowery - flowered - flowering,
starry – starred,
reddened - reddish,
shortened- shortish.

The semantic difference between the
members of these groups is very obvious: the
meanings of the suffixes are so distinct that
they colour the whole words.
Womanly is used in a complimentary
manner about girls and women, whereas
womanish is used to indicate an effeminate
man and certainly implies criticism.

Some Productive affixes
Noun-forming suffixes: -er, -ing, -ness, -ism
(materialism), -ist (impressionist), -ance
Adjective-forming suffixes: -y, -ish, -ed
(learned), -able, -less
Adverb-forming suffixes: -ly
Verb-forming suffixes: -ize/-ise (realise), -ate
Prefixes: un- (unhappy), re- (reconstruct), dis-
(disapoint)

Root and Stem
A root is the basic form and the main
component of the word. We can not divide the root
further into parts.
Stem is part of the word consisting of root and
affix. In English words stern and root often
coincide.
From the etymological point of view affixes are
classified into the same two large groups as words:
native and borrowed.
A stem may consist of a simple root morphemes as
in “iron”.

Derivation or affixation is a formation of
words by adding word-forming or derivational
affixes. The words formed in this way are
called derivations.
According to the positions which affixes
occupy in words, affixation falls into two
subclasses:
Prefixation and
Suffixation

LECTURE 2
Prefixation. Suffixation.
Classification of English
Compounds.

Prefixation
Prefixation – formation of new words by
adding prefixes to stems.
Prefixes changes the word-class of stems
and modify the meaning.
For example: courage - encourage;
asleep-sleep.
But the majority of prefixes are characterized
by their non-class-changing nature.
Their chief function is to change meanings of
the stems.

Accordingly, they are classified on a semantic basis
into nine groups:
1. Negative prefixes
2. Reversative prefixes
3. Pejorative prefixes
4. Prefixes of degree or size
5. Prefixes of orientation and attitude:
antinuclear; contraflow; pro-democracy
6. Locative prefixes
7. Prefixes of time and order
8. Number prefixes
9. Miscellaneous prefixes

Suffixation
The main function of suffixes in Modern English is
to form one part of speech from another, the
secondary function is to change the lexical meaning
of the same part of speech.
There are different classifications of suffixes:
1.Part-of-speech classification
Suffixes which can form different parts of speech
are given here:
a) noun-forming suffixes, such as:-er
b) adjective-forming suffixes, such as:-able
c) verb-forming suffixes, such as -ize
d) adverb-forming suffixes , such as : -ly
e) numeral-forming suffixes, such as -teen

2.Semantic classification
Suffixes changing the lexical meaning of the
stem can be subdivided into groups.
Noun-forming suffixes can denote:
a) the agent of the action -er
b) nationality –ian, -ese
c) collectivity -dom
d) diminutiveness -ie, -let, -ling
e) quality -ness, -ity

3. Lexico-grammatical character of the stem
Suffixes which can be added to certain groups
of stems are subdivided into:
a)suffixes added to verbal stems, such as:
-er, -ing, -able, -ment, -ation
b) suffixes added to noun stems, such as:
-less, -ful, -ism, -ster, -nik, -ish
c) suffixes added to adjective stems, such as:
-en, -ly, -ish, -ness

4. Origin of suffixes
Here we can point out the following groups:
a) native (Germanic), such as -er,-ful, -less, -ly.
b) Romanic, such as : -tion, -ment, -able, -eer.
c) Greek, such as : -ist, -ism, -ize.
d) Russian, such as -nik.

5. Productivity
Here we can point out the following groups:
a) productive, such as : -er, -ize, --ly, -ness.
b) semi-productive, such as : -eer, -ette, -ward.
c) non-productive , such as : -ard (drunkard), -
th (length).
Suffixes can be polysemantic, such as : -er can
form nouns with the following meanings:
- agent, doer of the action expressed by the
stem (speaker), profession, occupation
(teacher),
- a device, a tool (transmitter).

By productive affixes we mean the ones, which
take part in deriving new words in this particular
period of language development.
The best way to identify productive affixes is to
look for them among neologisms and so-called
nonce-words, i. e. words coined and used only for
this particular occasion.
There are quite a number of high-frequency
affixes which, nevertheless, are no longer used in
word-derivation.
E.g: the adjective-forming native suffixes -ful, -ly;
the adjective-forming suffixes of Latin origin -ant,
-ent, -al which are quite frequent).

Classification of English compounds
I. According to the parts of speech
compounds are subdivided into:
1. Noun compounds: this is the commonest
type, and new specimens a constantly being
formed. Noun compounds are subclassified
according to the syntactic relation of the
compounding elements:
a) Subject and verb: the verb may take the form
of the base or that of the base plus –ing.
b) Verb and object: The verb may take the form of
the base or that of the base + -ing.

c) Verb and adverbial: Verbal noun in - ing
+adverbial (consisting of a prepositional phrase)
d) Subject and object: steamboat “steam powers
the boat”; honeybee “the bee produces honey”.
e) Restrictive relation: the first element restricts the
meaning of the second: raindrop “a drop of rain”;
evening school “a school in the evening”;
tablecloth “a cloth for table”; breakfast time “time
for breakfast”.
f) Appositive relation: the first element is in
apposition to the second one.

When the first element of a noun compound is
itself a compound, such a compound is called a
string compound. Compound nouns can also be
formed from phrasal verbs. This type is very
common in contemporary English.
2. Adjective compounds: Adjective compounds
are also subclassified according to the syntactic
relation of the compounding elements:
a)Subject and a verb: the verb is in the form of
past participle. This type is highly productive.
b) Verb and object: the verb is in the form of
present participle. It is a productive type.

c) Verb and adverbial: The verb is in the form of
present participle or past participle.
d) Noun and adjective:
• The noun denoting respect.
• The noun denoting the thing with which the
adjective is compared.
e) coordinating relationship:
The two adjectives are in a coordinating
relationship.

3. Verb compounds:
Verb compounds fall into two main groups
according to their method of formation:
a) Those formed by back- formation. E.g: house-
keep is formed by deleting – ing and –er from
housekeeping and housekeeper, which entered
the language much earlier.
b) Those formed by conversion. In this case, the
verb compounds are converted from noun
compounds.
These verb compounds are very often used in
colloquial speech.

Compounds are very often used because
of their brevity and vividness.
E.g. “up-to-the-minute information” is more
vivid than “the latest information.”
4. adverbs
5. prepositions
6. numerals

LECTURE 3
Composition.
Ways of forming compound
words.
Semantic aspect of compound
words.
Conversion.

II. According to the way components are
joined together compounds are divided into:
a) neutral, which are formed by joining together
two stems without any joining morpheme,
b) morphological where components are joined
by a linking element :
vowels «o» or «i» or the consonant «s».
c) syntactical where the components are joined
by means of form-word stems.

III. According to their structure compounds
are subdivided into:
a) compound words proper which consist of two
stems
b) derivational compounds, where besides the
stems we have affixes,
c) compound words consisting of three or more
stems,
d) compound-shortened words,

IV. According to the relations between the components
compound words are subdivided into:
a)subordinative compounds where one of the components
is the semantic and the structural centre and the second
component is subordinate; these subordinative relations
can be different: with comparative relations.
b) coordinative compounds where both components are
semantically independent. Here belong such compounds
when one person (object) has two functions.
Such compounds are called additive. This group includes
also compounds formed by means of reduplication.
V. According to the order of the components
compounds are divided into compounds with direct order.

Composition
Composition is the way of wordbuilding when
a word is formed by joining two or more stems to
form one word.
The structural unity of a compound word
depends upon:
a)the unity of stress,
b)solid or hyphenated spelling,
c) semantic unity,
d) unity of morphological and syntactical
functioning.

This type of word-building, in which new words
are produced by combining two or more stems, is
one of the three most productive types in Modern
English, the other two are conversion and
affixation.
Compounds, though certainly fewer in quantity
than derived or root words, still represent one of
the most typical and specific features of English
word-structure.

1. For English compounds some of these factors
are not very reliable. As a rule English compounds
have one uniting stress (usually on the first
component).
We can also have a double stress in an English
compound, with the main stress on the first
component and with a secondary stress on the
second component.
The third pattern of stresses is two level
stresses. The third pattern is easily mixed up with
word-groups unless they have solid or hyphonated
spelling.

2. Spelling in English compounds is not very
reliable as well because they can have different
spelling even in the same text.
In Modern English a special type of compound
words which are called block compounds, they
have one uniting stress but are spelt with a
break.

3. The semantic unity of a compound word is
often very strong.
In such cases we have idiomatic compounds
where the meaning of the whole is not a sum of
meanings of its components.
In nonidiomatic compounds semantic unity is
not strong.

4. English compounds have the unity of
morphological and syntactical functioning.
They are used in a sentence as one part of it
and only one component changes grammatically.
There are at least three aspects of composition
that present special interest.
The first is the structural aspect. Compounds
are not homogeneous in structure.
Traditionally three types are distinguished:
neutral, morphological and syntactic.

Ways of forming compound words
Compound words in English can be formed
not only by means of composition but also by
means of:
a) reduplication.
b) conversion from word-groups.
c) back formation from compound nouns
or word-groups.
d) analogy.

Semantic aspect of compound words
Unstable compounds
Semantically compounds are divided into
idiomatic and non-idiomatic.
1. Non-idiomatic compounds are the words
in which the meaning of the whole is the sum
of the meanings of components.
2. Idiomatic compounds are those in which
the meaning is changes or transferred.

The degree of transparence of meaning may
be different. There are idiomatic compounds in
which only one of the components has change
its meaning.
The meaning of the whole can be guessed.
The difference between non-idiomatic and
idiomatic compounds is based on the degree of
the semantic cohesion of its elements.

There are several criteria which help us
distinguish between a compound and a word
combination:
1) Semantic criterion. A compound denotes one
notion a word combination, denotes two or several
or more notions.
2) Phonetic criterion – in a compound there is one
stress, in a word combination there are two stresses.
3) Morphological criterion – a compound has
single grammatical framig a word combination
doesn’t have such a quality.
4) Syntactical criterion. We can always enlarge a
word combination by inserting a word.

Conversion
Conversion is a characteristic feature of the
English word-building system. It is also called
affixless derivation or zero-suffixation.
Conversion is a convenient and "easy" way of
enriching the vocabulary with new words. It is
certainly an advantage to have two (or more) words
where there was one, all of them fixed on the same
structural and semantic base.
The two categories of parts of speech especially
affected by conversion are nouns and verbs. Verbs
made from nouns are the most numerous amongst
the words produced by conversion. Nouns can also
be formed by means of conversion from verbs.

Converted nouns can denote:
1. The noun is the name of a tool or implement,
the verb denotes an action performed by the tool
2. The noun is the name of an animal, the verb
denotes an action or aspect of behaviour considered
typical of this animal.
3. The name of a part of the human body - an
action performed by it.
4. The name of a profession or occupation- an
activity typical of it: to nurse, to cook, to groom.
5. The name of a place - the process of
occupying the place or of putting smth./smb. in it.
6. The name of a container - the act of putting
smth. within the container.
7. The name of a meal - the process of taking it.

Verbs can be formed from nouns of different
semantic groups and have different meanings.
a) Verbs have instrumental meaning if they are
formed from nouns denoting parts of a human body.
They have instrumental meaning if they are formed
from nouns denoting tools, machines, instruments,
weapons.
b) Verbs can denote an action characteristic of the
living being denoted by the noun from which they
have been converted. Sometimes the noun names
the agent of the action expressed in the verb, the
action being characteristic of what is named by the
noun.

c) Verbs can denote acquisition, addition or
deprivation if they are formed from nouns
denoting an object.
d) Verbs can denote an action performed at the
place denoted by the noun from which they have
been converted.
e) Verbs can denote an action performed at the
time denoted by the noun from which they have
been converted.
f) Verbs can be also converted from adjectives,
in such cases they denote the change of the
state.

LECTURE 4
“Stone wall” combinations.
Shortenings. Sound imitations.
Abbreviations.
Graphical abbreviations.
Initial abbreviations.
Blending.

« Stone Wall » combinations
The problem whether adjectives can be formed by
conversion from nouns is the subject of many
discussions. If the first component is an adjective
converted from a noun, combinations of this type are
free word-groups (adjective + noun).
This point of view is proved by O. Yespersen by the
following facts:
1. «Stone» denotes some quality of the noun «wall».
2. «Stone» stands before the word it modifies, as
adjectives in the function of an attribute do in English.
3. «Stone» is used in the Singular though its
meaning in most cases is plural, and adjectives in
English have no plural form.

4. There are some cases when the first component is
used in the Comparative or the Superlative degree.
5. The first component can have an adverb which
characterizes it, and adjectives are characterized by
adverbs.
6. The first component can be used in the same
syntactical function with a proper adjective to
characterize the same noun.
7. After the first component the pronoun can be
used instead of a noun.

There are different semantic relations between
the components of «stone wall» combinations.
E.I. Chapnik classified them into the following
groups:
1. time relation
2. space relation
3. relations between the object and the material
of which it is made
4. cause relation
5. relations between a part and the whole
6. relations between the object and an action

7. relations between the agent and an action
8. relations between the object and its
designation
9. the first component denotes the head,
organizer of the characterized object
10. the first component denotes the field of
activity of the second component
11. comparative relation
12. qualitative relation

Shortening (Contraction)
Shortenings are produced in two different
ways. The first is to make a new word from a
syllable of the original word.
The second way of shortening is to make a
new word from the initial letters of a word group.
Both types of shortenings are characteristic of
informal speech in general and of uncultivated
speech particularly.

Sound - Imitation (Onomatopoeia)
Word-building are made by imitating different
kinds of sounds that may be produced by animals,
birds, insects, human beings and inanimate objects.
This type of word-formation is now also called
echoism represented by quite different sound groups
in different languages.
The majority of them serve to name sounds or
movements and most of them are verbs easily turned
into nouns.
Sound imitative words form a considerable part of
interjections.

Semantically, according to the source of
sounds imitative words fall into a few very define
groups.
1. Sounds product by human beings in the
process of communication or in expressing their
feelings.
2. By animals, birds, insects.
3. Verbs imitating the sound of water (bubble,
splash) and the sound of (or noise of) metallic
things.

Abbreviation
Abbreviation of words consists in clipping a
part of a word. As a result we get a new lexical
unit where either the lexical meaning or the style
is different from the full form of the word.
Abbreviation does not change the part-of-
speech meaning, as we have it in the case of
conversion or affixation, it produces words
belonging to the same part of speech as the
primary word, E.g: prof is a noun and professor is
also a noun.

Mostly nouns undergo abbreviation, but we can
also meet abbreviation of verbs, such as to rev
from to revolve, to tab from to tabulate.
Abbreviated forms of verbs are formed by
means of conversion from abbreviated nouns.
Adjectives can be abbreviated but they are
mostly used in school slang and are combined with
suffixation.
Pronouns, numerals, interjections, conjunctions
are not abbreviated.

Graphical abbreviations
Graphical abbreviations are the result of
shortening of words and word- groups only in written
speech while orally the corresponding full forms are
used.
They are used for the economy of space and
effort in writing.
The oldest group of graphical abbreviations in
English is of Latin origin.
There are also graphical abbreviations of native
origin, where in the spelling we have abbreviations of
words and word-groups of the corresponding English
equivalents in the full form.

We have several semantic groups of them:
a) days of the week.
b) names of months.
c) names of counties in UK.
d) names of states in USA.
e) names of address.
f) military ranks.
g) scientific degrees.
h) units of time, length, weight.

Initial abbreviations
Initialisms are the bordering case between
graphical and lexical abbreviations.
There are three types of initialisms in English:
a) initialisms with alphabetical reading.
b) initialisms which are read as if they are
words.
c) initialisms which coincide with English
words in their sound form, such initialisms are
called acronyms.

Some initialisms can form new words in which
they act as root morphemes by different ways of
wordbuilding:
a) affixation.
b) conversion.
c) composition.
d) there are also compound-shortened words
where the first component is an initial abbreviation
with the alphabetical reading and the second one is
a complete word.
In some cases the first component is a complete
word and the second component is an initial
abbreviation with the alphabetical pronunciation.

Blending
Blending is a process of word-formation in
which a new word is formed by combining the
meanings and sounds of two words, one of which
is not in its full form or both of which are not in
their full forms.
Blending is a process of both compounding
and abbreviation. Like acronyms, new blends are
freely produced in contemporary English.

Structurally blends may be divided into four
types:
1. The first part of the first word + the last part of the
second word
2. The first part of the first word + the first part of
the second word
3. Whole form of the first word + last part of the
second word
4. First part of the first word + whole form of the
second word

Blends are words formed from a word-group or
two synonyms. In blends two ways of word-building
are combined: abbreviation and composition. To
form a blend we clip the end of the first component
(apocope) and the beginning of the second
component (apheresis).
As a result we have a compound-shortened
word.
Blends formed from two synonyms are: slang
language, to hustle, gasohol.
Mostly blends are formed from a word-group.

LECTURE 5
Secondary ways of word-building.
Stress interchange.
Clipping. Back formation.
Semantic changes. Meaning.
Word meaning. Types of meaning.
Lexical meaning-notion.

Secondary ways of wordbuilding –
Sound interchange
Sound interchange is the way of word-building
when some sounds are changed to form a new
word.
The causes of sound interchange can be
different. It can be the result of Ancient Ablaut
which cannot be explained by the phonetic laws
during the period of the language development
known to scientists.

It can be also the result of Ancient Umlaut or
vowel mutation which is the result of palatalizing
the root vowel because of the front vowel in the
syllable coming after the root (regressive
assimilation).
In many cases we have vowel and consonant
interchange.
In nouns we have voiceless consonants and in
verbs we have corresponding voiced consonants
because in Old English these consonants in nouns
were at the end of the word and in verbs in the
intervocal position.

Stress interchange
Stress interchange can be mostly met in verbs
and nouns of Romanic origin: nouns have the stress
on the first syllable and verbs on the last syllable.
French verbs and nouns had different structure
when they were borrowed into English, verbs had
one syllable more than the corresponding nouns.
When these borrowings were assimilated in English
the stress in them was shifted to the previous
syllable (the second from the end).
Later on the last unstressed syllable in verbs
borrowed from French was dropped and after that
the stress in verbs was on the last syllable while in
nouns it was on the first syllable.

Clipping
The process of clipping involves the deletion of one
or more syllables from a word (usually a noun), which
is also available in its full form.
Clippings may be divided into four main types:
1. Back clippings
2. Front clippings
3. Front and back clippings
4. Phrase clippings
The above two types of word-formation-acronyms
and clipping are processes of shortening. They show
a typical characteristic of the vocabulary of
contemporary English: the tendency to shorten the
English words, reflecting the tense, fast-paced and
competitive modern life.

Back-formation (Reversion)
Back-formation is a term used to refer to a type
of word-formation by which a shorter word is
coined by the deletion of a supposed affix from a
longer form already present in the language.
Back-formation is therefore a process of
shortening, too. The majority of back- formed
words are verbs.
Back-formation has a long and recognized
standing as one of the traditional sources of new
words.

It is the way of word-building when a word is
formed by dropping the final morpheme to form a
new word. It is opposite to suffixation, that is why it is
called back formation. At first it appeared in the
languauge as a result of misunderstanding the
structure of a borrowed word.
Prof.Yartseva explains this mistake by the
influence of the whole system of the language on
separate words. E.g. it is typical of English to form
nouns denoting the agent of the action by adding the
suffix -er to a verb stem (speak- speaker).
As we can notice in cases of back formation the
part-of-speech meaning of the primary word is
changed, verbs are formed from nouns.

The meaning of a word can change in the course
of time. Changes of lexical meanings can be proved
by comparing contexts of different times. Transfer of
the meaning is called lexico-semantic word-building.
In such cases the outer aspect of a word does not
change. There are several types of change of
meaning:
1)metaphor , 2) metonymy, 3) widening of
meaning /generalization/, 4) narrowing of meaning
(сужение) /specialization/, 5) elevation
(улучшение),
6) Degeneration, 7) hyperbole,
8) litote
The meaning of a word can also change due to
ellipsis.

What is "Meaning"?
There are certain facts of which we can be reasonably
sure, and one of them is that the very function of the
word as a unit of communication is made possible by its
possessing a meaning.
Meaning can be more or less described as a
component of the word through which a concept is
communicated, in this way endowing the word with the
ability of denoting real objects, qualities, actions and
abstract notions. The branch of linguistics which
specialises in the study of meaning is called semantics.
The modern approach to semantics is based on the
assumption that the inner form of the word (its meaning)
presents a structure which is called the semantic
structure of the word.

Word meaning
Every word has two aspects: the outer aspect
(its sound form) and the inner aspect (its meaning).
Sound and meaning do not always constitute a
constant unit even in the same language.
One and the same word in different syntactical
relations can develop different meanings, e.g. the
verb «treat» in sentences:
a) He treated my words as a joke.
b) The book treats of poetry.
c) They treated me to sweets.
d) He treats his son cruelly.

In all these sentences the verb «treat» has
different meanings and we can speak about
polysemy.
On the other hand, one and the same
meaning can be expressed by different sound
forms, e.g. «pilot» , and «airman», «horror» and
«terror».
In such cases we have synonyms.
Word meaning - the word is the combination
of form (pronunciation and spelling) and
meaning.

1. Reference - It is relationship between language
and the world. In other words only when a connection
has been established between the linguistic sign and
a referent, and object, a phenomenon, a person, etc
does the sign become meaningful.
2. Concept - Concept is the result of human
cognition reflecting the objective world in the human
mind. A concept can have as many referring
expressions as there are languages in the world. Even
in the some language the some concept can be
expressed in different words.
3. Sense - Sense denotes the relationships inside
the language. Every word that has meaning has
sense.

4. Motivation - Motivation accounts for the connection between
the linguistic symbol and its meaning. As the relationship
between the word-form and meaning is conventional and
arbitrary.
4.1.Onomatopoeic motivation - In modern English there are
some words meanings of which we can suggest by their
sounds. For example: bang, bow-wow, tick-tuck, miaow, ha ha
are onomatopoeically motivated words.
4.2.Morphological motivation - Compound and derived words
are multi-morphemic and the meaning of many of them are the
sum total of the morphemes combined.
4.3.Semantic motivation - Refers to the mental associations
suggested by the conceptual meaning of a word. It explains the
connection between the literal sense and figurative sense of
the word.
4.4.Etymological motivation - The meanings of many words are
of often related directly to their origins.

Types of Meaning
1. Grammatical meaning and Lexical meaning
Grammatical meaning refers to that part of the
meaning of the word which indicates grammatical
concept or relationships such as part of speech of
words (nouns, verbs, adj, adverbs) singular and
plural meaning of nouns, tense meaning of verb
and their inflectional forms.
It becomes important only when the word is
used in actual context.

2. Conceptual meaning and Associative meaning
Conceptual meaning (also known as denotative
meaning) is the given in the dictionary and forms the
core of word-meaning. Being constant and relatively
stable, conceptual meaning forms the basis for
communication as the same word has the same
conceptual meaning to all speakers of the same
language.
Associative meaning comprises four types:
a) Connotative meaning
b) Stylistic meaning
c) Affective meaning
d) Collocative meaning

Lexical Meaning – Notion
The lexical meaning of a word is the realization
of a notion by means of a definite language
system. A word is a language unit, while a notion
is a unit of thinking.
There are also words which express both,
notions and emotions, when used metaphorically/.
The term «notion» was introduced into
lexicology from logics. A notion denotes the
reflection in the mind of real objects and
phenomena in their relations.

LECTURE 6
The main lexicological problems.
Meaning and context.
How word develop new meanings.
Causes of development of new
meanings. The process of
development and change of
meaning. Metaphor. Metonymy.
Generalization of meaning.

The main Lexicological problems
The problem of word-building is associated with
prevailing morphological word-structures and with
processes of making new words. Semantics is the
study of meaning.
Modern approaches to this problem are
characterised by two different levels of study:
syntagmatic and paradigmatic.
On the syntagmatic level - the semantic structure
of the word is analysed in its linear relationships with
neighbouring words in connected speech. In other
words, the semantic characteristics of the word are
observed, described and studied on the basis of its
typical contexts.

On the paradigmatic level - the word is studied
in its relationships with other words in the
vocabulary system. A word may be studied in
comparison with other words of similar meaning.
The main problems of paradigmatic studies are
synonymy, antonymy, functional styles.
Phraseology is the branch of lexicology
specialising in word-groups which are
characterised by stability of structure and
transferred meaning.

Meaning and context
It is common knowledge that context is a
powerful preventative against any
misunderstanding of meanings.
Current research in semantics is largely based
on the assumption that one of the more promising
methods of investigating the semantic structure of
a word is by studying the word's linear
relationships with other words in typical contexts.

There is an interesting hypothesis that the
semantics of words regularly used in common
contexts (E.g: bright colours, to build a house, to
create a work of art.) are so intimately correlated
that each of them casts, as it were, a kind of
permanent reflection on the meaning of its
neighbour.

How words develop new meanings
It has been mentioned that the systems of
meanings of polysemantic words evolve
gradually.
The normal pattern of a word's semantic
development is from monosemy to a simple
semantic structure encompassing only two or
three meanings, with a further movement to an
increasingly more complex semantic structure.

There are two aspects to this problem, which
can be generally described in the following
way:
a) Why should new meanings appear at all?
What circumstances cause and stimulate their
development?
b) How does it happen?
What is the nature of the very process of
development of new meanings?

Causes of development of new meanings
The first group of causes is traditionally termed
historical or extra-linguistic.
Different kinds of changes in a nation's social life, in
its culture, knowledge, technology, arts lead to gaps
appearing in the vocabulary which beg to be filled.
Newly created objects, new concepts and
phenomena must be named. We already know of two
ways for providing new names for newly created
concepts: making new words (word-building) and
borrowing foreign ones. One more way of filling such
vocabulary gaps is by applying some old word to a
new object or notion.

The history of English nouns describing different
parts of a theatre may also serve as a good
illustration of how well-established words can be
used to denote newly-created objects and
phenomena.
New meanings can also be developed due to
linguistic factors. Linguistically speaking, the
development of new meanings, and also a
complete change of meaning, all the parts of the
theatre are named by borrowed words caused
through the influence of other words, mostly of
synonyms.

The process of development and
change of meaning
Most scholars distinguish between the terms
development of meaning and change of meaning.
In actual fact, all cases of development or change
of meaning are based on some association. The
process of development of a new meaning (or a
change of meaning) is traditionally termed
transference.
Two types of transference are distinguishable
depending on the two types of logical associations
underlying the semantic process.

Metaphor
Transference based on resemblance
(similarity) is a metaphor. It is a transfer of the
meaning on the basis of comparison.
Herman Paul points out that metaphor can be
based on different types of similarity:
a) similarity of shape
b) similarity of position
c) similarity of function, behaviour
d) similarity of colour

Many metaphors are based on parts of a
human body.
A special type of metaphor is when Proper
names become common nouns.
This type of transference is also referred to as
linguistic metaphor. A new meaning appears
as a result of associating two objects
(phenomena, qualities) due to their outward
similarity.
Transference is also based on the association
of two physical objects.

Metonymy
Another term for this type of transference based
on contiguity is linguistic metonymy.
The association is based upon subtle
psychological links between different objects and
phenomena, sometimes traced and identified with
much difficulty.
The two objects may be associated together
because they often appear in common situations,
and so the image of one is easily accompanied by
the image of the other; or they may be associated on
the principle of cause and effect, of common
function, of some material and an object which is
made of it.

Generalization of meaning
It is a process contrary to specializaton, in such
cases the meaning of a word becomes more
general in the course of time.
All auxiliary verbs are cases of generalization of
their lexical meaning because they developed a
grammatical meaning: «have», «be», «do»,
«shall», «will» when used as auxiliary verbs are
devoid of their lexical meaning which they have
when used as notional verbs or modal verbs.

Sometimes, the process of transference may
result in a considerable change in range of
meaning.
The meaning developed through transference
based on contiguity (the concept of coming
somewhere is the same for both meanings) but
the range of the second meaning is much broader.

LECTURE 7
Specialization of meaning.
Elevation, Degradation.
Hyperbole. Litote.
Reduplication. Neoclassical
formation. Miscellaneous.
Formal style. Informal style.
Colloguial words. Slang.
Dialect words. Learned words.

Specialisation of meaning
1. It is a gradual process when a word passes
from a general sphere to some special sphere of
communication. The difference between these
meanings is revealed in the context.
2. The meaning of a word can specialize when
it remains in the general usage. It happens in the
case of the conflict between two absolute
synonyms when one of them must specialize in
its meaning to remain in the language.

3. The third way of specialization is the
formation of Proper names from common nouns,
it is often used in toponimics.
4. The fourth way of specialization is ellipsis.
In such cases primaraly we have a word-group of
the type «attribute + noun», which is used
constantly in a definite situation.
Due to it the attribute can be dropped and the
noun can get the meaning of the whole word-
group.

Elevation
It is a transfer of the meaning when it becomes
better in the course of time.
Degradation
It is a transfer of the meaning when it becomes
worse in the course of time. It is usually connected
with nouns denoting common people.
Hyperbole
It is a transfer of the meaning when the speaker
uses exaggeration. Hyperbole is often used to form

Litote
It is a transfer of the meaning when the speaker
expresses affirmative with the negative.
Reduplication
In reduplication new words are made by
doubling a stem, either without any phonetic
changes as in bye-bye (coll, 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).

This type of word-building is greatly facilitated in
Modern English by the vast number of
monosyllables. Stylistically speaking, most words
made by reduplication represent informal groups:
colloquialisms and slang.
Reduplication is a minor type of word-formation by
which a compound word is created by the repetition
1) of one word like: go-go;
2) of two almost identical words with a change in the
vowels such as: pingpong;
3) of two almost identical words with a change in the
initial consonants, as: in willy-nilly “willingly or
unwillingly”.

Neoclassical formation
Neoclassical formation denotes the process
by which words are formed from elements
derived from Latin and Greek.
The majority of neoclassical formations are
scientific and technical. Neoclassical formation
plays a prominent role in word-formation today,
esp. in creating new scientific terms.

Miscellaneous
Genuine coinage is rare. An American
physicist Murray Gell-Mann coined the word
quark as the name of an imaginary particle
bearing a charge of electricity.
Some new words are coined by analogy:
earthquake-youthquake, air pollution-
environment pollution, handbag-airbag, sunrise-
earthrise, future shock-culture shock, nightmare-
daymare

Formal style
We have already pointed out that formal style
is restricted to formal situations. In general,
formal words fall into two main groups: words
associated with professional communication and
a less exclusive group of so-called learned
words.
The term functional style is generally
accepted in modern linguistics. Professor
I.V.Arnold defines it as "a system of expressive
means peculiar to a specific sphere of
communication".

By the sphere of communication we mean the
circumstances attending the process of speech
in each particular case: professional
communication, a lecture, an informal talk, a
formal letter, an intimate letter, a speech in court.
All these circumstances or situations can be
roughly classified into two types: formal and
informal.
Accordingly, functional styles are classified
into two groups, with further subdivisions
depending on different situations.

Informal style
Informal vocabulary is used in one's immediate
circle: family, relatives or friends.
Informal style is relaxed, free-and-easy, familiar
and unpretentious. But it should be pointed out that
the informal talk of well-educated people considerably
differs from that of the illiterate or the semi-educated;
the choice of words with adults is different from the
vocabulary of teenagers; people living in the
provinces use certain regional words and
expressions.
Informal words and word-groups are traditionally
divided into three types: colloquial, slang and dialect
words and word-groups.

Colloquial words
Among other informal words, colloquialisms are the
least exclusive: they are used by everybody, and their
sphere of communication is comparatively wide, at
least of literary colloquial words. These are informal
words that are used in everyday conversational speech
both by cultivated and uneducated people of all age
groups. The sphere of communication of literary
colloquial words also includes the printed page, which
shows that the term "colloquial"
Literary colloquial words are to be distinguished from
familiar colloquial and low colloquial. The borderline
between the literary and familiar colloquial is not
always clearly marked.

Slang
The Oxford English Dictionary defines slang as
"language of a highly colloquial style, considered as
below the level of standard educated speech, and
consisting either of new words or of current words
employed in some special sense."
Here is another definition of slang by the famous
English writer G.K.Chesterton: "The one stream of
poetry which in constantly flowing is slang. Every day
some nameless poet weaves some fairy tracery of
popular language. All slang is metaphor, and all
metaphor is poetry. The world of slang is a kind of
poetry, full of blue moons and white elephants, of men
losing their heads, and men whose tongues run away
with them - a whole chaos of fairy tales."

All or most slang words are current words whose
meanings have been metaphorically shifted. Each
slang metaphor is rooted in a joke and most slang
words are metaphors and jocular, often with a
coarse, mocking, cynical colouring.
People use slang for a number of reasons:
- to be picturesque, arresting, striking and, above
all, different from others.
- to avoid the tedium of outmoded "common"
words.
- to demonstrate one's spiritual independence and
daring.
- to sound "modern" and "up-to-date".

Dialect words

    H.W.Fowler defines a dialect as "a variety of a
language which prevails in a district, with local
peculiarities of vocabulary, pronunciation and
phrase".  England is a small country, yet it has
many dialects which have their own distinctive
features. So dialects are regional forms of English.
    Dialectal peculiarities, especially those of
vocabulary, are constantly being incorporated into
everyday colloquial speech or slang.

Learned words
Learned words are mainly associated with the
printed page. It is in this vocabulary stratum that
poetry and fiction find their main resources. The
term "learned" is not precise and does not
adequately describe the exact characteristics of
these words.
The term "learned" includes several
heterogeneous subdivisions of words. We find here
numerous words that are used in scientific prose
and can be identified by their dry, matter-of-fact
flavour. Probably the most interesting subdivision of
learned words is represented by the words found in
descriptive passages of fiction.

LECTURE 8
      Archaic and Obsolete words.

         Professional terminology.
              Basic vocabulary.
    The etymology of English words.
           Etymological doublets.
              International words.
               Translation loans.

Archaic and obsolete words

Numerous archaisms can be found in
Shakespeare, but it should be taken into
consideration that what appear to us today as
archaisms in the works of Shakespeare, are in
fact examples of everyday language of
Shakespeare's time.
The terms "archaic" and "obsolete" are used
more or less indiscriminately by some authors.

Professional terminology

Thousands of words belong to special scientific,
professional or trade terminological systems and
are not used or even understood by people outside
the particular speciality. Every field of modern
activity has its specialised vocabulary.
There is a special medical vocabulary, and
similarly special terminologies for psychology,
botany, music, linguistics, teaching methods and
many others. Term, as traditionally understood, is a
word or a word-group which is specifically
employed by a particular branch of science.

Basic vocabulary

     The words of basic vocabulary are used every
day, everywhere and by everybody, regardless of
profession, occupation, educational level, age group
or geographical location.
    The basic vocabulary is the central group of the
vocabulary, its historical foundation and living core.
Basic vocabulary words can be recognised not only
by their stylistic neutrality but, also, by entire lack of
other connotations (i. e. attendant meanings).
     Their meanings are broad, general and directly
convey the concept, without supplying any
additional information.

The etymology of English words
This question partially concerns the historical
circumstances which stimulate the borrowing process.
Each time two nations come into close contact, certain
borrowings are a natural consequence. The nature of
the contact may be different. It may be wars, invasions
or conquests when foreign words are in effect imposed
upon the reluctant conquered nation. There are also
periods of peace when the process of borrowing is due
to trade and international cultural relations.
The difference in the consequences of these
evidently similar historical events is usually explained
by the divergence in the level of civilisation of the two
conflicting nations.

    But all this only serves to explain the conditions
which encourage the borrowing process. The question
of why words are borrowed by one language from
another is still unanswered.
     But there is also a great number of words which
are borrowed for other reasons. There may be a word
(or even several words) which expresses some
particular concept, so that there is no gap in the
vocabulary and there does not seem to be any need
for borrowing. It is borrowed because it represents the
same concept in some new aspect, supplies a new
shade of meaning or a different emotional colouring.
   This type of borrowing enlarges groups of synonyms
and greatly provides to enrich the expressive
resources of the vocabulary.

Etymological doublets
    Sometimes a word is borrowed twice from the
same language.  As the  result, we have two
different words with different spellings and
meanings but historically they come back to one
and the same word. Such words are called
etymological doublets.
    Such words as these two originating from the
same etymological source, but differing in
phonemic shape and in meaning are called
etymological doublets. They may enter the
vocabulary by different routes. Others are
represented by two borrowings from different
languages which are historically descended from
the same root.

    Etymological triplets (i. e. groups of three words
of common root) occur rarer, but here are at least
two examples: hospital (Lat.) - hostel (Norm. Fr.) -
hotel (Par. Fr.), to capture (Lat.) - to catch (Norm. Fr.)
- to chase (Par. Fr.).
     There are also etymological doublets which were
borrowed from the same language during different
historical periods, such as French doublets: gentil,
etymological doublets are: gentle - and genteel. From
the French word gallant etymological doublets are :
‘gallant - and ga’llant.
     Sometimes etymological doublets are the result of
borrowing different grammatical
forms of the same word.

International words
It is often the case that a word is borrowed by
several languages. Such words usually convey
concepts which are significant in the field of
communication. Many of them are of Latin and Greek
origin. Most names of sciences are international,
E.g: philosophy, mathematics, physics, chemistry,
biology, medicine, linguistics, lexicology.
There are also numerous terms of art in this group:
music, theatre, drama, tragedy, comedy, artist,
primadonna.
XX century scientific and technological advances
brought a great number of new international words.

Translation loans

The term loan-word is equivalent to borrowing.
By translation-loans we indicate borrowings of a
special kind.
They are not taken into the vocabulary of
another language more or less in the same
phonemic shape in which they have been
functioning in their own language, but undergo the
process of translation.

LECTURE 9
        Polysemy. Phraseology.
  The origin of the phraseological

                     units.
  Ways of forming phraseological

                     units.
      Semantic classification of

Polysemy
The word «polysemy» means «plurality of meanings»
it exists only in the language. A word which has more
than one meaning is called polysemantic. Different
meanings of a polysemantic word may come together
due to the proximity of notions which they express.
There are two processes of the semantic development
of a word: radiation and concatination. In cases of
radiation the primary meaning stands in the centre and
the secondary meanings proceed out of it like rays.
Each secondary meaning can be traced to the
primmary meaning.
In cases of concatination secondary meanings of a
word develop like a chain. In such cases it is difficult to
trace some meanings to the primary one.

    A word having several meanings is called
polysemantic, and the ability of words to have
more than one meaning is described by the term
polysemy.
   The system of meanings of any polysemantic
word develops gradually, mostly over the
centuries, as more and more new meanings are
either added to old ones.
    So the complicated processes of polysemy
development involve both the appearance of
new meanings and the loss of old ones.

Phraseology
The vocabulary of a language is enriched not
only by words but also by phraseological units.
Phraseological units are word-groups that cannot
be made in the process of speech, they exist in
the language as ready-made units.
Phraseological units can be classified according
to the ways they are formed, according to the
degree of the motivation of their meaning,
according to their structure and according to
their part-of-speech meaning.

The origin of the phraseological units
    There are several sources of phraseological
units. One of them is the development of cultural
and economical spheres of life. Phraseological units
may come from the following  spheares:
-   from engeniring and technology
-   from agro-cultural
-   from sea-travelling business
-   from trade and commerce
-   national customs and traditions
     A great many phraseological units come from
the words of Greek and Latin classics from the
Bible and from myths and legends.

Ways of forming phraseological units
     A.V. Koonin classified phraseological units
according to the way they are formed. He pointed
out primary and secondary ways of forming
phraseological units. Primary ways of forming
phraseological units are those when a unit is
formed on the basis of a free word-group:
  a) Most productive in Modern English is the
formation of phraseological units by means of
transferring the meaning of terminological word-
groups.
  b) a large group of phraseological units was
formed from free word groups by transforming their
meaning.

  c) phraseological units can be formed by means of
alliteration
  d) they can be formed by means of expressiveness,
especially it is characteristic for forming interjections
  e) they can be formed by means of distorting a word
group
  f) they can be formed by using archaisms
  g) they can be formed by using a sentence in a
different sphere of life
  h) they can be formed when we use some unreal
image
  i) they can be formed by using expressions of
writers or polititions in everyday life

    Secondary ways of forming phraseological units
are those when a phraseological unit is formed on
the basis of another phraseological unit; they are:
  a) conversion
  b) changing the grammar form
  c) analogy
  d) contrast
  e) shortening of proverbs or sayings
  f) borrowing phraseological units from other
languages, either as translation loans

     Phonetic borrowings among phraseological units
refer to the bookish style and are not used very often.
Phraseological units are subdivided into the
following four classes according to their function in
communication determined by their structural-
semantic characteristics.
1.  Nominative phraseological units
2.  Nominative-communicative phraseological units
3.  Phraseological units
4.  Communicative phraseological units
    These four classes are divided into sub-groups
according to the type of structure of the
phraseological unit.

    Semantic classification of phraseological units
     V.V.Vinogradov's classification system is founded on
the degree of semantic cohesion between the
components of a phraseological unit. Units with a
partially transferred meaning show the weakest
cohesion between their components.
     Accordingly, Vinogradov classifies phraseological
units into three classes: phraseological combinations,
unities and fusions.
1) Phraseological fusions demotrare word-groups
with a completely changed meaning but, in contrast to
the unities, they are demotivated, that is, their meaning
cannot be deduced from the meanings of the
constituent parts; the metaphor, on which the shift of
meaning was based, has lost its clarity and is obscure.

2) Phraseological unities are word-groups with a
completely changed meaning, that is, the meaning of
the unit does not correspond to the meanings of its
constituent parts.
   Such phraseological units have completely
transfered meaning. They are not motivated and the
metaphor on which the changed of meaning is waste
is not clear.
3) Phraseological combinations are word-groups
with a partially changed meaning. They may be said to
be clearly motivated, that is, the meaning of the unit
can be easily deduced from the meanings of its
constituents.  Words are combined in their original
meaning but their combinations are different in
different languages,

LECTURE 10
      Structural classification of
     Syntactical classification of
  How to distinguish phraseological

      units from Free word groups.
                   Proverbs.

Structural classification of phraseological
units
Prof. A.I.Smirnitsky worked out structural
classification of phraseological units, comparing
them with words. He points out one-top units which
he compares with derived words because derived
words have only one root morpheme.
He points out two-top units which he compares
with compound words because in compound
words we usually have two root morphemes.

     The structural principle of classifying
phraseological units is based on their ability to
perform the same syntactical functions as
words.
     In the traditional structural approach, the
following principal groups of phraseological units
are distinguishable.
      1.   Verbal
      2.  Substantive
      3.   Adjectival
      4.   Adverbial
      5.   Interjectional

   Prof Smirnitsky offered another classification
system. In it tried to combine the structural and the
semantic principles. Phraseological units are
grouped according to their semantics. He worked
out structural classification of phraseological units,
comparing them with words.
    There are two groups in this classification.
    He points out one-top units which he compares
with derived words because derived words have
only one root morpheme.
    He points out two-top units which he compares
with compound words because in compound words
we usually have two root morphemes.

   Among one-top units he points out three structural
types and subdivided into:
a) verbal-adverbial units equivalent to verbs in
which the semantic and the grammatical centres
coincide in the first constituent.
b) units equivalent to verbs which have their
semantic centre in the second constituent and their
grammatical centre in the first.
c) prepositional- nominal phraseological units.
    These units are equivalents of unchangeable
words: prepositions, conjunctions, adverbs, that is
why they have no grammar centre, their semantic
centre is the nominal part,

    2) two-summit and multi-summit, which have 2 or
more meaningfull elements. E.g: first night –
премьера; In this classification its interesting to see
the correlation of the syntactic and semantic center of
the combination. E.g: to give (syntactic center) up
(semantic center)
   Two-summit and multi-summit phraseological units
are classified into: attributive-nominal.
Units of this type are noun equivalents and can be
partly or perfectly idiomatic.
   b) verbal-substantive two-summit units equivalent to
verbs.
   These units are not idiomatic and are treated in
grammar as a special syntactical combination, a kind
of aspect.

c) phraseological repetitions equivalent to adverbs.
   Phraseological repetitions can be built on
antonyms.
   Components in repetitions are joined by means of
conjunctions. These units are equivalents of
adverbs or adjectives and have no grammar centre.
They can also be partly or perfectly idiomatic.
d) adverbial multi-summit units.
   If synonyms can be figuratively referred to as the
tints and colours of the vocabulary, then
phraseology is a kind of picture gallery in which are
collected vivid and amusing sketches of the nation's
customs, traditions and prejudices, recollections of
its past history, scraps of folk songs and fairy-tales.

Syntactical classification of phraseological units
   Phraseological units can be classified as parts of
speech. This classification was suggested by I.V.
Arnold. Here we have the following  groups:
  a) noun phraseologisms denoting an object, a
person, a living being
  b) verb phraseologisms denoting an action, a state,
a feeling
  c) adjective phraseologisms denoting a quality,
E.g: loose as a goose, dull as lead,
  d) adverb phraseological units
  e) preposition phraseological units
  f) interjection phraseological units

         How to distinguish phraseological units
from free word-groups
    This is probably the most discussed and the most
controversial problem in the field of phraseology.
    There are two major criteria for distinguishing
between phraseological units and free word-groups:
semantic and structural. The semantic shift affecting
phraseological units does not consist in a mere change
of meanings of each separate constituent part of the
unit. The meanings of the constituents merge to
produce an entirely new meaning. That is what is meant
when phraseological units are said to be characterised
by semantic unity. In the traditional approach,
phraseological units have been defined as word-groups
conveying a single concept.

   The structural criterion also brings forth pronounced
distinctive features characterising phraseological units
and contrasting them to free word-groups.
   Structural invariability is an essential feature of
phraseological units, some of them possess it to a
lesser degree than others.
   Structural invariability of phraseological units finds
expression in a number of restrictions.
   First of all, restriction in substitution.
   The second type of restriction is the restriction in
introducing any additional components into the
structure of a phraseological unit.
   The third type of structural restrictions in
phraseological units is grammatical invariability.

                            Proverbs
   Proverbs are different from phraseological units,
the first distinctive feature that is the obvious
structural dissimilarity.
   Phraseological units are a kind of ready-made
blocks which fit into the structure of a sentence
performing a certain syntactical function.
   Proverbs in their structural aspect, are sentences
and cannot be used in the way in which
phraseological units are used.
   Proverbs could be best compared with minute
fables for, like the latter, they sum up the collective
experience of the community. They moralise, give
advice, give warning, admonish, criticise

Professor A.V.Koonin includes proverbs in his
classification of phraseological units and labels
them communicative phraseological units.
The criterion of nomination and communication
cannot be applied here either, says Professor
A.V.Koonin, because there are a considerable
number of verbal phraseological units which are
word-groups (nominative units) when the verb is
used in the Active Voice, and sentences
(communicative units) when the verb is used in the
Passive Voice.

LECTURE 11
                  Homonym.
         Sources of Homonyms.
      Classification of Homonyms.
                   Synonym.
          Criteria of Synonymy.
           Types of Synonyms.

                             Homonyms
    Homonyms are words different in meaning but
identical in sound or spelling, or both in sound and
spelling. Homonyms can appear in the language not
only as the result of the split of polysemy, but also as
the result of levelling of grammar inflexions, when
different parts of speech become identical in their
outer aspect.
    They can be also formed by means of conversion.
    They can be formed with the help of the same
suffix from the same stem.
   Homonyms are words which are identical in sound
and spelling, or, at least, in one of these aspects, but
different in their meaning.

English vocabulary is rich in such pairs and even
groups of words. Their identical forms are mostly
accidental: the majority of homonyms coincided due to
phonetic changes which they suffered during their
development. In the process of communication
homonyms are more of an encumbrance, leading
sometimes to confusion and misunderstanding. It is
this very characteristic which makes them one of the
most important sources of popular humour.
Homonyms which are the same in sound and spelling
are traditionally termed homonyms proper.
Homophones are the same in sound but different in
spelling. The third type of homonyms is called
homographs. These are words which are the same
in spelling but different in sound.

                        Sources of homonyms
     Phonetic changes which words undergo in the
course of their historical development. As a result of
such changes, two or more words which were
formerly pronounced differently may develop identical
sound forms and thus become homonyms.
Borrowing is another source of homonyms.
     A borrowed word may, in the final stage of its
phonetic adaptation, duplicate in form either a native
word or another borrowing.
    Word-building  also contributes significantly to the
growth of homonymy, and the most important type in
this respect is undoubtedly conversion.

Shortening is a further type of word-building which
increases the number of homonyms.
   Words made by sound-imitation can also form
pairs of homonyms with other words.
   The above-described sources of homonyms have
one important feature in common. In all the
mentioned cases the homonyms developed from two
or more different words, and their similarity is purely
accidental.
   Two or more homonyms can originate from different
meanings of the same word when, for some reason,
the semantic structure of the word breaks into several
parts. This type of formation of homonyms is called
split polysemy.

Classification of homonyms
Walter Skeat classified homonyms according to
their spelling and sound forms and he pointed out
three groups:
1. perfect homonyms that is words identical in sound
and spelling
2. homographs, that is words with the same spelling
but pronounced differently
3. homophones that is words pronounced identically
but spelled differently.
Another classification was suggested by
A.I.Smirnitsky. He added to Skeat’s classification one
more criterion: grammatical meaning.

     He subdivided the group of perfect homonyms in
Skeat’s classification into two types of homonyms:
perfect which are identical in their spelling,
pronunciation and their grammar form homoforms
which coincide in their spelling and pronunciation but
have different grammatical meaning
     A more detailed classification was given by
I.V.Arnold. He classified only perfect homonyms and
suggested four criteria of their classification:
     -  lexical meaning,
     -  grammatical meaning,
     -  basic forms and
     -  paradigms.

      According to these criteria I.V.Arnold pointed out
the following groups:
a) homonyms identical in their grammatical meanings,
basic forms and  paradigms and different in their
lexical meanings
b) homonyms identical in their grammatical meanings
and basic forms, different in their lexical meanings
and paradigms
c) homonyms different in their lexical meanings,
grammatical meanings, paradigms, but coinciding in
their basic forms
d) homonyms different in their lexical meanings,
grammatical meanings, in their basic forms and
paradigms, but coinciding in one of the forms of their
paradigms

    Accordingly, Professor A.I.Smirnitsky classified
homonyms into two large classes:
        I. full homonyms,
       II. partial homonyms.
Full lexical homonyms are words which
represent the same category of parts of speech
and have the same paradigm.

Partial homonyms are subdivided into three
subgroups:
A. Simple lexico-grammatical partial homonyms are
words which belong to the same category of parts
of speech. Their paradigms have one identical
form, but it is never the same form.
B. Complex lexico-grammatical partial homonyms
are words of different categories of parts of speech
which have one identical form in their paradigms.
C. Partial lexical homonyms are words of the same
category of parts of speech which are identical only
in their corresponding forms.

Synonyms
Synonyms are words different in their outer
aspects, but identical or similar in their inner
aspects. In English there are a lot of synonyms,
because there are many borrowings.
Synonymy is one of modern linguistics' most
controversial problems. The very existence of
words traditionally called synonyms is disputed by
some linguists; the nature and essence of the
relationships of these words is hotly debated and
treated in quite different ways by the
representatives of different linguistic schools.

Sources of synonyms:
1. Borrowing: as a result of borrowing, words of
native origin from many couplets and triplets with
those from other languages
2. Dialects and regional English
3. Coincidence with idiomatic expressions
4. Discrimination of synonyms.
Generally speaking, relative synonyms differ in
one way or another and these differences boil
down to three areas.
5. Difference in denotation.
Synonyms may differ in the range and intensity.

6. Difference in connotation: By connotation we
mean the stylistic and emotive colouring of words.
7. Difference in application: Many synonyms are
different in usage in simple terms and they form
different collocations and fit into different sentence
patterns.
    After a word is borrowed it undergoes
desynonymization, because absolute synonyms
are unnecessary for a language.  In cases of
desynonymization one of the absolute synonyms
can specialize in its meaning and we get semantic
synonyms. Sometimes one of the absolute
synonyms is specialized in its usage and we get
stylistic synonyms,

Stylistic synonyms can also appear by means of
abbreviation. In most  cases the abbreviated form
belongs to the colloquial style, and the full form to
the neutral style.
    Among stylistic synonyms we can point out a
special group of words which are called
euphemisms. These are words used to substitute
some unpleasant or offensive words.
    There are also phraseological synonyms, these
words are identical in their meanings and styles but
different in their combining with other words in the
sentence.

Criteria of synonyms
Synonymy is associated with some theoretical
problems which at present are still an object of
controversy. Probably, the most controversial
among these is the problem of criteria of
synonymy.
Traditional linguistics solved this problem with
the conceptual criterion and defined synonyms
as words of the same category of parts of
speech conveying the same concept but differing
either in shades of meaning or in stylistic
characteristics.

    In contemporary research on synonymy
semantic criterion is frequently used. In terms of
componential analysis synonyms may be defined
as words with the same denotation, or the same
denotative component, but differing in
connotations, or in connotative components.
    In modern research on synonyms the criterion
of interchangeability is sometimes applied.
    According to this, synonyms are defined as
words which are interchangeable at least in some
contexts without any considerable alteration in
denotational meaning.

Synonyms are frequently said to be the
vocabulary's colours, tints and hues (so the term
shade is not so inadequate, after all, for those
who can understand a metaphor).
Attempts at ascribing to synonyms the quality
of interchangeability are equal to stating that
subtle tints in a painting can be exchanged
without destroying the picture's effect.

Types of synonyms
The only existing classification system for synonyms
was established by Academician V.V.Vinogradov, the
famous Russian scholar. In his classification system
there are three types of synonyms:
ideographic, stylistic and absolute
Absolute synonyms complete synonyms which
are identical in meaning in all aspect, i.e. both in
grammatical meaning and lexical meaning, including
conceptual and associative meanings.
Ideographic synonyms the vagueness of the term
"shades of meaning" has already been mentioned.
There are numerous synonyms which are
distinguished by both shades of meaning and stylistic
colouring.

LECTURE 12

          Types of connotations.
         The dominant synonym.
                     Antonym.

Types of connotations
1. The connotation of degree or intensity can be
traced in such groups of synonyms as:
to surprise - to astonish - to amaze - to astound;
2. In the group of synonyms to stare - to glare - to
gaze - to glance - to peep - to peer, all the synonyms
except to glance denote a lasting act of looking at
somebody or something, whereas to glance
describes a brief, passing look. These synonyms may
be said to have a connotation of duration in their
semantic structure.
3. The synonyms to stare - to glare - to gaze are
differentiated from the other words of the group by
emotive connotations, and from each other by the
nature of the emotion they imply

4. The evaluative connotation conveys the
speaker's attitude towards the referent, labelling it
as good or bad. So in the group well-known -
famous - notorious - celebrated, the adjective
notorious bears a negative evaluative connotation
and celebrated a positive one.
5. The causative connotation can be illustrated by
the examples to sparkle and to glitter given above:
one's eyes sparkle with positive emotions and
glitter with negative emotions.

6. The connotation of manner can be singled out in
some groups of verbal synonyms. The verbs to stroll -
to stride - to trot - to pace all denote different ways and
types of walking, encoding in their semantic structures
the length of pace, tempo, gait and carriage,
purposefulness or lack of purpose.
7. The verbs to peep and to peer have already been
mentioned. They are differentiated by connotations of
duration and manner. But there is some other curious
peculiarity in their semantic structures. We call this the
connotation of attendant circumstances.
8. The synonyms pretty, handsome, beautiful have
been mentioned as the ones which are more or less
interchangeable. This connotation is the connotation of
attendant features.

9.  Stylistic connotations stand somewhat apart for
two reasons.
   Firstly, some scholars do not regard the word's
stylistic characteristic as a connotative component
of its semantic structure.
    Secondly, stylistic connotations are subject to
further classification, namely: colloquial, slang,
dialect, learned, poetic, terminological, archaic.
     Here again we are dealing with stylistically
marked words, but this time we approach the
feature of stylistic characteristics from a different
angle: from the point of view of synonyms frequent
differentiation characteristics.

The dominant synonyms
All synonymic groups have a "central" word of
this kind whose meaning is equal to the denotation
common to all the synonymic group.
This word is called the dominant synonym.
The dominant synonym expresses the notion
common to all synonyms of the group in the most
general way, without contributing any additional
information as to the manner, intensity, duration or
any attending feature of the referent.

Summing up what has been said, the following
characteristic features of the dominant synonym
can be underlined:
1. High frequency of usage.
2. Broad combinability, i. e. ability to be used in
combinations with various classes of words.
3.Broad general meaning.
4.Lack of connotations. (This goes for stylistic
connotations as well, so that neutrality as to style is
also a typical feature of the dominant synonym.)

Euphemisms
There are words in every language which people
instinctively avoid because they are considered indecent,
indelicate, rude, too direct or impolite.
As the "offensive" referents, for which these words stand,
they are often described in a round-about way, by using
substitutes called euphemisms.
Euphemisms may be used due to genuine concern not to
hurt someone's feelings. All the euphemisms that have been
described so far are used to avoid the so-called social taboos.
Their use, as has already been said, is inspired by social
convention.
Superstitious taboos gave rise to the use of other type of
euphemisms. The reluctance to call things by their proper
names is also typical of this type of euphemisms, but this time
it is based on a deeply-rooted subconscious fear.

Antonyms
Antonyms are words belonging to the same
part of speech expressing contrary or contradictory
notions. V.N.Comissarov in his dictionary of
antonyms classified them into two groups: absolute
or root antonyms «late» - «early»; and derivational
antonyms «to please-«to displease».
Absolute antonyms have different roots and
derivational antonyms have the same roots but
different affixes. In most cases negative prefixes
form antonyms / un-, dis- , non-/.

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