18.Euphemisms and dysphemisms

There are words in every language which people instinctively avoid because they are considered indecent ,indelicate ,rude, too direct or impolite. Ex lavatory – powder room, washroom, restroom, restroom. water closet.

Pregnancy is another topic for delicate references.Ex in an interesting condition,in the family way,with a baby coming,with a child.

The love of affection,which displays itself in the expressive use of euphemisms,has never been a sign of good taste or genuine refinement .Quite the opposite.Fiction writers have often ridiculed pretentious people for their weak attempts to express themselves in a delicate and refined way Ex Mr.White went to bed,he retired.

The adj Drunk Ex intoxicated,under the influence.

They are used to avoid the co-called social taboos which have their roots in the distant past of mankind when people believed that there was a supernatural link between a name and the object or creature it represented.Therefore all the words denoting evil spirits ,dangerous animals,or the powers of nature were taboo. Ex the one-lurking-in-the –dark,the blach death.

Euphemism are probably the oldest type of symonyms.The Christian religion also made certain words taboo.Ex devil-the evil one,the Prince of Darkness ,Old Nick.

Ex God-my goodness-good heavens-gosh. Ex to die-pass away-be taken-depart this life-close one’s eyes-kick the bucket. Ex a mad person-insane-unbalanced-cuckoo-loony-wacky-dotty-nutty-balmy.

Cacophemism or dysphemism are the opposites of euphemism. A dysphemism is an offensive substitute of something inoffensive. Dysphemism is unpitying, brutal, mocking. It is also a reaction against pedantry, rigidity and pretentiousness, but also against nobility and dignity in the language. Let us consider a lazy person who is watching television, for example; he may euphemize his behavior by saying that he is 'recuperating from work'. A correlated dysphemism, or insulting substitute would be 'couch potato'.

'used car' -junker .Dysphemisms abound in current insults. To take the example of stupidity and incompetence, from a rich field there are such terms as blockhead, bonehead, dickhead, lamebrain, not have a full deck of cards, not know one’s arse (ass) from one’s elbow , or couldn’t organize a booze-up in a brewery . Among terms for ugliness or unattractiveness there is the old euphemism plain , the pseudo-euphemism no oil painting , or the crudely dysphemistic a face to shatter glass, to stop a clock , or something the cat dragged in .

19. Paradigmatic and syntagmatic relationships of words. Antonyms

we use the term antonyms to indicate words of the same category of parts of speech which have contrasting meanings.Antonyms are usually believed to appear in pairs.Most antonyms are adj which only natural because qualitative characteristics are easily compared and contrasted.Verbs take second place.And nouns are not rich in antonyms.they can be subdivided into 2 groups a)adverbs derived from adjectives EX loudly-softly b)adverbs proper EX now-then,ever-never

It’s more or less universally recognized that word-meaning can be perceived through intralinguistic relations that exist between words.Untralinguistic relations of words are basically of two main types:syntagmatic and paradigmatic.

Syntagmatic relations define the meaning the word possesses when it’s used in combination with other words in the blow of speech.Ex to get (the letter,to London,get tired,get the piano)

Paradigmatic Relations define the word-meaning through its interrelation with other members of the subgroup in question. Ex to get – can be fully understand only in the comparison with other items of the synonymic set: get,obtain,receive.(a letter). Comparing the sentences discussed above we can conclude that an item in a sentence can be usually substituted by one or more than one other items that have identical part of speech meaning and similar though not identical lexical meaning.The sets of items in which the choice is limited to a finite number of alternatives are described as closed pattern.The sets in which the number of alternatives is practically infinite are described as open system.Closed system are traditionally considered to be the subject matter of grammar .Open system such as lexico semantic fields,hyponymic,synonymic sets are studied by lexicology.The distinction between paradigmatic and syntagmatic is conventionally indicated by horizontal and vertical presentation .Syntagmatic relationship being based on the linear character of speech are studied by means of contextual ,valency,distributional ,transformational and some other types of analysis.

Paradigmatic linguistic relationships determining the voc. System are based on the interdependence of words within the voc.(sunonymy,antonymy,homonomy)

Paradigmatic and syntagmatic studies of meaning are functional because the meaning of the lexical unit is studied first not through its relation to referent but through its functions in relation to other units.