SEMASIOLOGY Lexicology deals with such linguistic

SEMASIOLOGY

Lexicology deals with such linguistic units as words, morphemes, word-groups or phrases. These linguistic units are two-facet, i. e. both their form and meaning can be studied. The brunch of Lexicology that is devoted to the study of meaning is Semasiology studies meaning of language units in the direction “from name/sign to concept”.

Meaning is one of the most controversial terms in theory of language. This problem is still under investigation: “What is meaning? ” Generally speaking, there are two main lines of thinking on the problem: the referential approach and the functional approach.

Semasiology - the brunch of linguistics which studies the semantics of linguistic units. If treated diachronically, Semasiology studies the change in meaning which words undergo. The main objects of semasiology are: semantic development of words, its causes and classification, relevant distinctive features and types of lexical meaning, polysemy and semantic structure of words, semantic grouping and connections in the vocabulary system.

Referential Approach Ferdinand de Saussure defined a word as a linguistic sign which refers to the concept in the speaker’s and listener’s mind. The situation may be represented by a triangle. The triangular scheme was first suggested by the German mathematician and philosopher Gotlieb Frege (1848 -1925)

concept sign thing (referent)

English scholars C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards adopted this three-cornered pattern with considerable modifications (the basic triangle): reference symbol referent

concept, thought, reference referent, object word, name, sign [kæt]

Concept - denotes the reflection in the mind of real objects and phenomena in their essential features and relations. Referent - the thing denoted by the word (extralinguistic reality). What is a “cat”? a small domestic animal with soft fur… kept as a pet or for catching mice

What is a cat?

Functional Approach The functional approach maintains that the word's meaning may be studied only through its relation to other words and not through its relation to either concept or referent. This view may be illustrated by the following: the meaning of the two words sun and sunbathe is different because they function in speech differently, which is clear comparing the contexts they are used. The sun is shining. Those who sunbathe a lot may put their lives at risk. When comparing two approaches we see that the functional approach is not the alternative, but a complement to the referential theory.

Types of Meaning The word meaning is not homogeneous but is made of components, which are described as types. The main types of meaning are grammatical and lexical. Lexical meaning is the realization of concept or emotion by means of a definite language system. This meaning is identical in all forms of the words: love, loves, loving, loved. Grammatical meaning is the component of meaning recurrent in identical sets of individual forms of different words, as, e. g. the tense meaning in the word-forms of verbs (told, booked, sang) or the meaning of plurality in the word-forms of nouns ( tales, smiles, shoes).

The lexico-grammatical meaning is the common denominator of all the meanings of words belonging to a lexico-grammatical class of words (parts-of-speech). They are grouped into major word-classes (nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs) and minor wordclasses (articles, prepositions, conjunctions, etc. ). All members of major word-classes possess very abstract lexical meaning, e. g. , 'thingness or substance' is found in nouns, which have the grammatical meanings of number, case, etc.

Types of Semantic Components Lexical meaning is not homogenous and may be analyzed as including denotational and connotational components. The denotational meaning expresses the conceptual content of the word: to look, to stare, to glance, to glare > have the common denotative component “to look” There also additional semantic components which are termed connotations or connotative components. The connotative component is optional, while the denotational is obligatory, because it makes the communication possible.

Types of Connotations There are four types of connotations: stylistic emotional (effective) evaluative expressive (intensifying)

Stylistic connotation is the associations concerning the situation in which the word is used, the social circumstances (formal, familiar, etc. ), the social relationships between the speakers (polite, rough), the type and purpose of communication (learned, poetic, official, etc. ). The effective method of revealing connotations is the analysis of synonymic groups: horse, steed, nag, gee-gee horse is stylistically neutral steed is poetic nag is slangish gee-gee is baby language.

Emotional Connotation is acquired by the word as a result of its frequent use in contexts corresponding to emotional situations or because the referent in the denotative meaning is associated with emotions. E. g. girl (neutral) and girlie (emotive connotation). lonely - melancholy, sad to glare - in anger, rage, etc.

Evaluative connotation expresses approval or disapproval. E. g. the word notorious possesses negative evaluative connotation, while its synonym celebrated has positive evaluative connotation. Intensifying connotation expresses exaggeration. E. g. love - adore Very often the word has two or three types of connotations. If the word has connotation it is actualized in every context.

Motivation of words The term motivation is used to denote the relationship existing between the phonemic or morphemic composition and structural pattern of the word on the one hand, and its meaning on the other. There are three main types of motivation: phonetical, morphological, and semantic. When there is a certain similarity between the sounds that make up the word and those referred to by the sense, the motivation is phonetical: hiss, clang, bang, cuckoo

A direct connection between the structural pattern of the word and its meaning is called morphological motivation. All one-morpheme words (cry, cloud, go) are nonmotivated morphologically. The words ex-wife, rewrite, doer are morphologically motivated. The degree of motivation may be different. Between complete motivation and lack of motivation there are various grades of partial motivation. Thus, cranberry is partially motivated because of the absence of the lexical meaning in the morpheme cran-.

Semantic motivation is based on the coexistence of direct and figurative meanings of the same word within the same synchronous system. E. g. the word 'cat' denotes a domestic animal, but the figurative meaning of this word or its metaphorical extension is 'a spiteful woman'. Metaphorical extension can be viewed as generalization of the denotational meaning of a word.

Meaning and context It is common knowledge that context is a powerful preventative against misunderstanding of meanings. E. g. , the adjective dull, if used out of context, would mean different things to different people. Only in combination with other words it reveals its actual meaning: a dull student, a dull stare, a dull play, a dull razor-blade, dull weather. Sometimes the minimum context is not enough to reveal the meaning of the word, and it can be interpreted only in a larger context (a second-degree context - Amosova). E. g. , The man was large, but his wife was even fatter. The word fatter here serves as a kind of indicator pointing that large describes a stout man and not a big one.

Several types of contexts are distinguished by linguists. One of them is verbal (linguistic), which originally meant what immediately precedes and follows the word. Now verbal context may cover the whole passage, and sometimes the whole book. Linguists also must pay attention to the so-called 'context of situation' (extra-linguistic). It means not only the actual situation in which the utterance occurs, but the entire cultural background against which a speech event has to be set.

Polysemy. Semantic Structure of the word It is generally known that most words convey several concepts and thus possess the corresponding number of meanings. 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.

Polysemy is characteristic of the English vocabulary due to the monosyllabic character of English words and the predominance of root words. All word meanings (lexico-semantic variants) taken together form semantic structure of a polysemantic word. There may be no single semantic component common to all the lexico-semantic variants of the word, but every variant has something in common with at least one of the others.

CAT (semantic structure of a polysemantic word) a small domesticated feline mammal, Felis catus , having thick soft fur and occurring in many breeds in which the colour of the fur varies greatly; kept as a pet or to catch rats and mice any of the larger felines, such as a lion or tiger any wild feline mammal of the genus Felis, such as the lynx or serval, resembling the domestic cat (old-fash. ) a woman who gossips maliciously (slang) a man; guy (nautical) a heavy tackle for hoisting an anchor to the cathead a short sharp-ended piece of wood used in the game of tipcat

woman 4 instrument (naut. ) 6 instrument (game) 7 domestic animal 1 small wild animal 3 man 5 large wild animal 2

Polysemy is the phenomenon of language not of speech. Polysemy does not interfere with the communicative function of language because the situation and context cancel all the unwanted meanings. The main source of polysemy is a change in the semantic structure of the word. Polysemy may also arise from homonymy.

Types of lexical meanings direct : : figurative concrete : : abstract main / primary : : secondary etymological : : obsolete : : archaic : : present -day original : : derived

a small domesticated feline mammal… - direct, concrete, main (primary), etymological 12 th century (preserved up to nowadays), original any of the larger felines – direct, concrete, secondary, present-day, derived any wild feline mammal, resembling the domestic cat – direct, concrete, secondary, present-day, derived (old-fash. ) a woman – figurative, concrete, secondary, archaic, derived (slang) a man; guy – figurative, concrete, secondary, present-day, derived (nautical) a heavy tackle – figurative, concrete, secondary, present-day, derived a short piece of wood used in the game – figurative, concrete, secondary, present-day, derived

The semantic structure of correlated polysemantic words of different languages can never be identical. Words from different languages are felt correlated if their central meaning coincide. The semantic structure of a word is never static. Its change is a source of the development of the vocabulary.

Causes of Development of New Meanings (1) linguistic and (2) extra-linguistic (historical) (1) Extra-linguistic Different kinds of changes in a nation's social life, in its culture, knowledge, technology, arts lead to gaps in the vocabulary which should be filled. Newly created objects, new notions, phenomena must be named. They are named with the help of making new words (word-building) and borrowing foreign ones. One more way is to apply old word to a new object or notion.

E. g. , when the first textile factories appeared in England, the old word mill was applied to these industrial enterprises. In this way, mill added a new meaning "textile factory". computer – the one who counts, computes computer – a special electronic device

(2) Linguistic. The development of meaning and a complete change of meaning may be caused through the influence of the other words, mostly synonyms. The Old English verb steorfan meant "to perish". When the verb to die was borrowed from the Scandinavian, these two synonyms collided, and, as a result, to starve gradually changed into "to die from hunger". This process is called discrimination of synonyms.

Process of development and change of meaning A necessary condition of any semantic change is some association between the old meaning and the new. There are two kinds of psychological association involved in semantic change: (1) similarity of meaning; (2) contiguity of meaning. Similarity of meanings, or metaphor, may be described as a semantic process of associating two referents, one of which in some way resembles the other. E. g. , the word star in the basic meaning "heavenly body" developed the meaning "famous actor, singer, etc. "

Contiguity of meaning, or metonymy, may be described as the semantic process of associating two referents one of which makes part of the other or is closely connected with it. This connection is real, unlike metaphoric transfer where the resemblance is only in our imagination. The examples of metonymy are: a mink ("mink coat"), silver ("silver medal"). The name of painter is frequently transferred onto one of his pictures: a Matisse = a painting by Matisse.

Results of semantic change can be observed in denotational meaning (generalization and specialization of meaning) and in its connotational component (elevation and pejoration of meaning). The process due to which the word becomes applicable to fewer things but tells more about them is called specialization. E. g. , the word deer meant "any beast" but now its meaning is "a certain kind of beast", meat "any food" > "a certain kind of food".

Generalization is the process when the scope of the new notion is wider than that of the original one, whereas the content of the notion is poorer. The word bird changed its meaning from "the young of a bird" to its modern meaning through transference based on contiguity. The second meaning is broader and more general. The word girl in Middle English had the meaning of "a small child of either sex". Then the word underwent the process of transference based on contiguity and developed into the meaning of "a small child of the female sex", so that the meaning was narrowed. But further it gradually broadened its range of meaning to "a young unmarried woman".

Elevation (amelioration) of meaning is the improvement of the connotational component of meaning. E. g. , lord: "master of the house, head of the family" > “noble man", knight "man-servant" > "noble, courageous man". Degradation (pejoration) of meaning is the acquisition by the word of some derogatory emotive charge. E. g. , knave "boy" > "swindler, scoundrel", silly "happy" > "foolish”

woman 4 instrument (naut. ) 6 instrument (game) 7 domestic animal 1 small wild animal 3 man 5 large wild animal 2

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