• contextual,

• Valency,

• distributional (colligation, collocation),

• transformational types of analysis.

Referential (onomasiological) approach (theory of nomination):

Meaning is studied as interdependence btw words and their referents (things or concepts).

Polydimentional opposition: comprises many elements of the system:

skilled:: unskilled;

Able:: unable;

accountable:: unaccountable;

affected:: unaffected;

armed:: unarmed;

Immovable, deforestation, miscalculate – the new words

Text

When some years ago, knowing ten words of English and using them all wrong, I applied for a translator’s job, my would – be employer (or would – not – be employer) softly remarked: “I am afraid your English is somewhat unorthodox.” This translated into any continental language would mean: EMPLOYER (to the commissioner): “Jean, kick this gentleman down the steps!

Lecture 2. The English Word as a Structure

An Outline

1. Characteristics of the word as the basic unit of the language

2. The definition of the word

3. Semantic triangle

4. Phonetic motivation of words

5. Morphological motivation of words

6. Semantic motivation of words

DEFINITION:

indicates most essential characteristic features of the notion expressed by the term under discussion distinguishing it from other notions (the word from the morpheme and the word group).

A word is the basic unit of a given lg. resulting from the association of a particular meaning with a particular group of sounds capable of a particular grammatical employment.(I.V. Arnold)

DESCRIPTION: aims at enumerating all the essential features of a notion.

The word is the basic unit of the lg.

• It unites meaning and form,

• is composed of one or more morphemes,

• each consisting of one or more spoken sounds or their written representation.

Morphemes are also meaningful units but cannot be used independently, only as parts of words, but words can be used as complete utterances (Look! Listen!)

Words can be formed with the help of derivational affixes: work > worker.

Words fulfill different grammatical functions with the help of functional affixes (work, works, worked) or analytically with the help of auxiliaries (I am working now).

Words are syntactically organized

But their freedom of entering into syntactical constructions is limited by different factors and constraints (They saw me. They looked(not saw) at me attentively).

Word Definition

Th. Hobbes (1588-1679) - (materialistic approach)

Words are not mere sounds but names of matter.

I. P. Pavlov(second signal system):

A universal signal that can substitute any other signal from the environment in evoking a response in a human organism.

Machine translation Sidney M.:

A word is a sequence of graphemes which can occur between space, or the representation of such a sequence on morphemic level

In linguistics:

the word is defined

• Syntactically;

• Semantically;

• Phonologically and

• By combining various approaches.

Syntactically:, H.Sweet, L. Bloomfield S. Potter:

H. Sweet: “the minimum sentence”.

L. Bloomfield “A minimum free form”

( free forms are forms which occur as sentences).

Phonological approach:

Л.С. Бархударов:

• Последовательность морфем (в простейшем случае – одна морфема) внутри которой не может быть вставлена другая такая же последовательность морфем

Syntactic and semantic aspects:

E. Sapir: ‘A word is one of the smallest completely satisfying bits of isolated ‘meaning’ into which the sentence resolves itself. It cannot be cut into without a disturbance of meaning’…(the essence of indivisibility: a(living or dead) lion and alive).Each other and one another are word-units (not word-groups).

J. Lyons: two criteria: ‘positional mobility and uninterruptability’:

The- boy-s-walk-ed-slow-ly-up-the-hill

Slow-ly- the- boy-s- walk-ed- up-the-hill

Up-the-hill-slow-ly-walk-ed- the- boy-s

‘One of the characteristics of the word is that it tends to be internally stable (in terms of the order of the component morphemes) but positionally mobile, (permutable with other words in the same sentence) (J. Lyons)

Semantic treatment:

Stephen Ullmann’s

«A connected discourse will fall into a certain number of meaningful segments which are ultimately composed of meaningful units. These meaningful units are called words»

The semantic-phonological approach:

Gardiner:

An articulate sound – symbol in its aspect of denoting smth which is spoken about

Semantic, phonological and grammatical criteria:

A. Meillet (1866-1936)

A word is the association of a particular meaning with a particular group of sounds capable of a particular grammatical employment (objections: child but a pretty child – no difference).

E.M. Mednicova

The basic unit of language.It directly corresponds to the object of thought (referent) which is a generalized reverberation of a certain “slice”, “piece” of objective reality – and by immediately referring to it names the thing meant

Ladislave Zgusta: Words are treated as Interpersonal units of Language, as signs of the system of a language above all to construct sentences

Antrushina

Afanasieva

Morosova A speech unit used for the purposes of human communication, materially representing a group of sounds, possessing a meaning, successible to grammatical employment and characterized by formal and semantic unity

Collins Cobuild