The Semantic Characteristics of the English Vocabulary
The branch of language concerned with meaning of words and word equivalents is called semasiology (sema in Greek means “sign”). Semasiology deals with lexical meaning of words. Semantics is a wider term. It covers not only the meaning of words, but semantics as a branch of symbolic and mathematical logic, as a part of semiotics – the study of signs etc.
The treatment of meaning in the 19th century was purely diachronistic. Attention was concentrated upon the process of semantic change.
The Golden Age of English lexicology and lexicography began in the middle of the 19th century, when monumental Oxford dictionaries of the English language on Historical Principles appeared.
In the 20th century after the work of Ferdinand de Saussure the structuralist orientation came to the forefront of semasiology, especially when Jost Trier, a German philologist, offered his theory of semantic field.
Lexical meaning is the realization of the notion by means of a definite language. The notional content of a word is expressed by the denotative meaning (referential).
The term “notion” denotes the reflection in the mind of real objects and phenomena.
The scope of the notion is determined by all the objects it refers to.
The content of the notion is made up of all features that distinguish it from other notions.
The set of meanings possessed by the word may look as follows:
1. The direct logical meaning directed straight at the object of nomination where we distinguish:
a) primary (etymological or source) meaning e.g. wall – fortification; table – article of furniture with a flat top.
b) derived (formed out of the source) meaning but customary, not felt to be figurative, e.g. wall – side of house; table – part of a machine tool.
2. The transferred meaning used for new related concepts appearing as a result of new practice such as
a) secondary, e.g. mountain wall, green beginner.
b) figurative, e.g. a wall of hostility, green with envy.
The figurative meaning of a word is not to be confused with figurative usage, that is with the contextual meaning of the word which is occasional and recurrent, created each time anew, e.g. “She is but a butterfly”.
Considered in meaning, words making up the English vocabulary fall into two groups: notional words and form words.
Notional words embody concepts, they name objects, phenomena, states, processes, actions etc. They are usually divided into two semantic groups: concrete words denoting tangible objects, e.g. plate, saucer, table, etc., and abstract words denoting ideas, features, feelings etc., e.g. patience, kindness, etc. Form words show relations between objects. They are divided into two main categories: prepositions and conjunctions.
|
|
|
The structure of every separate meaning depends on the linguistic syntagmatic and paradigmatic relationships. The complexity of each word meaning is due to the fact that it combines lexical meaning with structural meaning and sometimes with emotional colouring, stylistics peculiarities and connotations born from previous usage. The monosemantic property of a word used in context does not exclude the complexity of each denotative meaning, special procedures of componential analysis have been developed to determine the components of each meaning and to represent them as a combination of elementary senses.
Thus, grandson is a) male, b) offspring of the first generation, c) as to its lexico-grammatical meaning, it’s a personal noun.
Frequently used words are polysemantic. The semantic structure of a polysemantic word may be defined as a structural set of interrelated meanings. The different meanings of a polysemantic words may come together due to the proximity of notions they express, e.g. blanket – a wool covering. But we may say a blanket of snow.
In every language the combination of word meanings is specific. Thus English nouns combine individual and collective, countable an uncountable variants in one phonetic complex.
In verbs we observe different meanings based on the transitive and intransitive lexico-semantic variants of the same verb, e.g. hold 1) transitive – contain; 2) intransitive – be true.
Morphological derivation also plays a very important part in determining possible meaning combinations. Thus nouns derived from verbs name not only the action itself but its result as well, e.g. to cause – a cause.
The meaning of every word forms part of a semantic system of each particular language, e.g. compare Russian “идти” and English “go”.
The number of notions does not correspond to the number of words. There are many cases when one English word combines the meanings of two or more Russian words and vice verse, e.g. desk – парта, письменный стол; foot – leg – нога.
|
|
|
Summing up all the points of difference between the thing meant, the notion and the meaning, we can say that the lexical meaning of the word may be defined as the realization of a notion, emotion or object by means of a definite language system subject to the influence of grammar and vocabulary peculiarities of the language. Words that express notions may have some emotional or stylistics colouring or express connotations suggested by the contexts in which they appear. Expressing notions is one of the word’s functions. But the development of the lexical meaning is influenced by the relations between words of a given vocabulary and between the vocabulary and other aspects of the language.
Дата добавления: 2018-05-31; просмотров: 400; Мы поможем в написании вашей работы! |
Мы поможем в написании ваших работ!