Vocabulary of a language as a System Neologisms

Vocabulary of a language as a System Neologisms Types of semantic relations between words Classifications of vocabulary units

Vocabulary as an Adaptive System Vocabulary is constantly adjusting to the changing requirements and conditions of human communication and cultural and other needs. Language – constantly developing but systematic whole. Groupings of words within vocabulary are the result of the analysis of various relations between words.

Neologisms as an example of the adaptive capability of language New words – new notions constantly come into being, requiring new names for them. Newly coined word or phrase or a new meaning for an existing word, or a word borrowed from another language.

Neologisms: Produced by nearly all means of word-formation existing in a given language Sources of neologisms are extremely varied It is often difficult to state unambiguously when exactly a word stops being a neologism Dictionaries of neologisms

Tech-neologisms (examples taken from www.bbc.co.uk/news) Acronyms: IMHO, OMG, LOL, FYI, OTT Idiolect: lolspeek Various coinages: to friend – to unfriend; to like – to unlike; phablet; webinar; phoneying – pretending to be using a phone when in fact you are not

“Tweet” “If I meet my social media followers in real life, I'm indulging in a tweetup - that is, a meetup for tweeps (a contraction of "twitter peeps", itself a contraction of "Twitter people"). If I can't drag myself away from this particular social media service for even a moment, I may be a borderline twitterholic - although my fluency in speaking twitterese will be hard to dispute by anyone else in the twittersphere. I may even win the approval of the elite twitterati, so long as I don't embarrass myself by sending dweeps (drunken tweets)”.

Types of semantic relations between words Proximity – partial similarity of meanings of words; Equivalence – implies full similarity of meaning of two or more language units. Extremely rare in case of separate words. Could be observed more regularly in case of phrases; Opposition – the contrast of semantic features.

Lexico-grammatical group A class of words which have a common lexico-grammatical meaning, common paradigm, the same substituting elements and possible characteristic set of suffixes rendering the lexico-grammatical meaning

Lexico-grammatical groups in English: Personal names; Animal names; Collective names (for people); Collective names (for animals); Abstract nouns; Material nouns; Object nouns; Proper names for people; Toponymic names

Word-families: Word grouping according to the root-morpheme: E.g.: dog, doggish, to dog, dog-days, dogcart etc.

Antonyms Words belonging to the same part of speech different in sound, and characterized by semantic polarity of their denotational meaning. Types of antonyms can be distinguished according to the character of semantic opposition.

Semantic classification of antonyms: Antonyms proper/Contraries – may embrace several elements characterized by different degrees of the same property. Always imply comparison: large/little – small; young – old; Complemetaries/Contradictories – based on binary opposition; include only two members: dead – alive; Conversives – words denoting one and the same referent as viewed from different points of view: to buy – to sell; to give – to recieve

Morphological classification of antonyms: Root (absolute) antonyms: good – bad; beautiful – ugly Derivational antonyms: appear – disappear; pleasant - unpleasant

Semantic Field Closely knit sector of vocabulary characterized by a common concept. Members of the semantic field are not synonymous components, but are joined together by some common semantic component – common denominator of meaning (e.g.: concept of kinship, concept of colour, parts of human body).

Example of semantic fields: SF of space: nouns (expanse, extent, surface); verbs (extend, spread, span); adfectives (spacious, roomy, vast, broad).

Thematic/Ideographic groups: Groups of words joined together by common contextual associations within the framework of the sentence and reflecting the existing link between things and event in reality. Contextual associations are formed as a result of regular co-occurrence of words in similar repeatedly used contexts.

Examples of Thematic Fields: TREE – GROW – GREEN; JOURNEY – TRAIN, TAXI; SUNSHINE – BRIGHTLY – BLUE – SKY Thematic groups are independent of classification into parts of speech.

Hyponymy: Semantic relationship of inclusion existing between elements of various levels. Vehicle – car; bus; taxi Horse – animal Table – furniture Hyponymic relationship exists between the meaning of the general and the individual terms.

Hyperonym: Generic term which serves as the name of the general as distinguished from names of the species – hyponyms: E.g.: animal (hyperonym) – wolf, dog, mouse (hyponym) Some words may be both hyponyms and hyperonyms: Animal – Dog – bulldog; bloodhound; collie; Alsatian