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LECTURE 4

Hybrids are words that are made up of elements derived from two or more different languages (read (Eng.) + able (Lat.) = readable, black (Eng.) + guard (Fr.) = blackguard, bi (Lat.) + cycle (Gr.) = bicycle, school (Lat.) +boy (Eng.)= schoolboy)

Blending is a result of creation of words by merging elements of several words (smoke + fog = smog, breakfast + lunch = brunch, television broadcast = telecast)

Back-formation is a creation of new words by substracting a real or supposed affix from existing words through misinterpretation of their structure (to compute from a computer, to typewrite from typewriter, to baby-sit from baby-sitter, to beg from beggar).

Reduplication is the morphological process by which a morpheme is repeated thereby creating a new word with a different class. We should distinguish partial and full reduplication. Partial reduplication in which only one part of the morpheme is reduplicated (walkie-talkie, riff-raff, ping-pong). Full reduplication in which the entire morpheme is reduplicated (bye-bye, fifty-fifty, pooh-pooh).

Sound imitation is a reproduction of a sound associated with it (bubble, splash, gurgle)

Sound-interchange is the formation of a word due to an alteration in the phonemic composition of its root. Sound-interchange falls into two groups:

- vowel-interchange (food – to feed). In some cases vowel-interchage is combined with suffixation (strong - strength)

- consonant-interchange (advice – to advise)

- consonant-interchange and vowel-interchange may be combined (life – to live)

Distinctive stress is the formation of a word by means of the shift of the stress in the source word (‘increase – to in’crease, ‘absent – to ab’sent)

LECTURE 4

Semasiology

1. Meaning as a Linguistic Notion

2. Types of meaning

3. Semantic structure of the word

4. Semantic changes (nature, causes and results of semantic changes)

5. Polysemantic words

6. Homonymy. Classification of homonyms

7. Semantic classification of words (synonyms, antonyms)

Semasiology is a branch of linguistics which studies the meaning of linguistic units. The 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, i.e. synonyms, antonyms, terminological systems, etc.

To define meaning is especially difficult due to the complexity of the process by which language and human consciousness serve to reflect outward reality and to adopt it to human needs. There are 3 main categories of definitions of meaning which may be referred to as

- referential or analytical definitions of meaning

- functional or contextual definitions of meaning

- operational or information-oriented definitions of meaning

The essential characteristic of the referential or analytical approach is that it distinguishes between the three components closely connected with meaning:

1) the sound-form of the linguistic sign

2) the concept underlying this sound-form

3) the referent (the part or aspect of reality to which the linguistic sign refers)

concept

sound-form - - - - - - - - referent

The sound-form of the linguistic sign [d Λ v] is connected with our concept of the bird which it denotes and through it with the referent (the actual bird). The diagram implies that meaning is in a way a correlation between the sound-form of a word, the underlying concept and the concrete object it denotes.

The functional approach to meaning that the meaning of a linguistic unit can be studied only through its relation to other linguistic units. According to the given approach the meaning of the words to move and movement are different because these words function in speech differently. To move can be followed by a noun (to move a chair) and preceded by a pronoun (we move). Movement may be followed by a preposition (movement of a car) and preceded by an adjective (slow movement). The position of a word in relation to other words is called distribution of the word. As the distribution of the words to move and movement is different they belong to different classes of words and their meanings are different.The functional approach is sometimes described as contextual as it is based on the analysis of various contexts.

The operational or information-oriented definitions of meaning are centered on defining meaning through its role in the process of communication. This approach studies words in action and is more interested in how meaning works than in what it is. Meaning is described as information conveyed from the speaker to the listener in the process of communication.

Word meaning is the reverberation in the human consciousness of an object of extra-linguistic reality (a phenomenon, a relationship, a quality, a process) which becomes a fact of language because of its constant indissoluble association with a definite linguistic expression.

There two types of meaning: lexical and grammatical meaning.

Grammatical meaning is defined as an expression in speech of relationship between words. Grammatical meaning is the component of meaning recurrent in identical sets of individual forms of different words. Grammatical meaning is expressed mainly by individual word-forms. Meaning of plurality in the word-forms of nouns (children, dogs), tense meaning in the word-forms of verbs (asked, thought), case meaning in the word-forms of nouns (boy's, girl's).

Lexical meaning is the material meaning proper to the word as a linguistic unit in all its forms and distributions. The word-forms go, goes, went, going, gone possess different grammatical meanings of tense, person, number but in each form they have one and the same semantic component denoting “the process of movement”.

Both the lexical and grammatical meanings make up the word-meaning as neither can exist without the other.

Semantic structure of the word is the inner form of the word (the set of semantic components). Semantic components are elements of meaning which can be combined in various ways with other such elements in the meaning of different words. There two semantic components: denotative and connotative.

Denotative component or denotation is the main meaning which expresses the notional content of the word.

Connotative component or connotation is a supplementary meaning which added to the word's main meaning and which serves to express all sorts of emotional, expressive, evaluative overtones.