5. Essential and distinctive features of words

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)

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

Essential word characteristics:

Strucrural: 1) phonetic structure (particular group of sounds); 2) graphic (representation in writing or printing); 3) morphological (may consist of a single morpheme or of a combination of morphemes); 4) grammatical (capable of a particular grammatical employment); 5) Syntactic (A minimum free form, sentence);

Semantic: 1) Nominal (onomastic character)( symbol in its aspect of denoting smth which is spoken about, corresponds to the object of thought); 2) Significant (possessing a meaning); 3) Indivisible (It cannot be cut into without a disturbance of meaning); 4) Isolated;

Functional: 1) Communicative function (A speech unit used for the purposes of human communication).

6. Semantic changes

Semantic change – changes of both synchronic and diachronic nature, which concerns the semantic content of the word. New meanings would appear by means of semantic shift (q.v.) and semantic transference (q.v.), which lead to the growth of polysemy. Causes for s.ch. can be both extralinguistic and linguistic.

There are many causes of semantic change:

1) Historical causes.

According to historical principle, everything develops changes, social institutions change in the course of time, and the words also change.

Ex.: “car” which goes back to Latin “carfus” which meant a four wheeled (vehicle) wagon, despite of the lack of resemblance.

2) Psychological causes.

Taboos of various kinds.

Words are replaced by other words, sometimes people do not realize that they use euphemisms.

Ex.: “lady’s room” instead of the “lavatory”

3) Linguistic causes

Tendency of a language to borrow a particular metaphorical development of a word from another language.

Types:

1. Widening/Extension - range of meanings of a word increases so that the word can be used in more contexts than were appropriate before the change

Ex.: dog - 1) specific powerful breed of dog => all breeds or races of dog

cupboard => 1) table upon which cups or vessels were placed, a piece of furniture to display plates => closet or cabin with shelves for the keeping cups and dishes =>AE: small storage cabinet

2. Narrowing (specialisation, restriction) - range of meaning is decreased so that a word can be used appropriately only in fewer contexts than before the change

Ex.: meat => 'food' in general ;

hound => OE hund 'dog in general' => species of dog (long eared hunting dog) ;

wife => OE 'woman' =>'woman of humble rank or low employment' => 'married woman, spouse'

girl => ME 'child or young person of either sex' =>'female child, young woman'

3. Metaphor involves relationship of perceived similarity

Ex.: root (of plant) => > root of plant, root of word, root in algebra, source

stud => 'good-looking sexy man '(of slang origin) derived from stud 'a male animal used for breeding

chill => "relax, calm down' of slang origin, original 'to cool'

4. Metonymy - inclusion of additional senses which were originally not present but which are closely associated with word's original meaning

Ex.: tea => 'drink' => 'evening meal accompanied by drinking tea';

cheek 'fleshy side of the face below the eye' < OE: cēace ' jaw, jawbone'

5. Synecdoche - kind of metonymy, involves part-to-whole relationship

Ex.: hand 'hired hand, employed worker';

tongue 'language'

6. Degeneration / Pejoration - sense of a word takes on a less positive, more negative evaluation in the minds of the users

Ex.: -knave 'a rogue' < OE: cnafa ' a youth, a child' > 'servant' ;

-spinster 'unmarried woman' < 'one who spins' ;

-silly 'foolish, stupid' < ME sely 'happy, innocent' < OE sælig ''blessed, blissful'

-disease 'illness' < 'discomfort' (cf. dis+ease)

7. Elevation /Amelioration - shifts in the sense of a word in the direction towards a more positive value in the minds of the users

Ex.: -pretty < OE: prættig 'crafty, sly'

-knight 'mounted warrior serving a king' 'lesser nobility' < OE cniht 'boy, servant' >'servant' > 'military servant';

8. Hyperbole -shift in meaning due to exaggeration by overstatement

Ex.: -terribly, horribly, awfully 'very'

9. Litotes - exaggeration by understatement

7. Stylistic types of English words. Substandard vocabulary.

In accordance with the division of language into written and oral va­rieties (literary and vernacular) the whole word-stock may be divided into three main layers: literary, neutral and colloquial. The literary and the colloquial layers contain a number of subgroups each of which has a property it shares with all the subgroups within the layer. The aspect of the literary layer is its bookish character. The aspect of the colloquial layer is its lively spoken character. The aspect of the neutral layer is its universal character: it can be employed in all styles of language and in all spheres of human activity.

Colloquial Neutral Literary

kid child infant

daddy father parent

go ahead begin commence

Colloquial words are always more emotionally colored than literary ones.

The literary vocabulary consists of the following subgroups:

1) Common literary.

2) Terms and learned word. Their main stylistic function is to create the true-to-life atmosphere of the narration.

3) Poetical words. These are words with the fixed sphere of usage in poetry and elevated prose, their function is to give a lofty poetic coloring. E. g.: steed-horse, woe-sorrow.

4) Archaic words. The main stylistic function is to re-create the atmosphere of antiquity. Archaisms used in inappropriate surroundings can cause humorous effect. The main types of archaisms are archaisms proper - obsolete words replaced by new ones (befall = happen), historical words (knight, spear, vassal, yeoman), morphological archaisms - archaic forms of non-archaic words (speaketh, cometh, brethren).

5) Barbarisms and foreign words. They are used mainly to supply the narrated events with the proper local coloring and to convey the idea of the foreign origin or cultural and educational status of the personage. E. g.: chic, bon mot, ad infinitum, solo.

6) Literary coinages (including nonce words). Literary coinages are words coined because their creators seek expressive utterance. Their stylistic function is to create the effect of laconism, implication (lilliput) or to create the atmosphere of witty humor and satire.) Nonce-words are words coined to suit one particular occasion, they rarely pass into the language as legitimate units of vocabulary. E. g.: "I am not just talented. I'm geniused."

The colloquial vocabulary falls into the following groups:

1) Common colloquial.

2) Slang. It is the most extended and vastly developed subgroup of non-standard colloquial layer of the vocabulary. Besides separate words it includes also highly figurative phraseology. Slang occurs mainly in dialogue and serves to create speech characteristics of personages. E. g.: a pretty girl — "bird", "sugar", "cookie".

3) Jargonisms. Jargon is used to conceal or disguise something. E. g.: thieves "grease" — money.

4) Professional words. They are used in emotive prose to depict the natural speech of a character within the framework of such device as speech-characterization. They can show vocation, education, breeding, environment and even the psychology of a personage.

E. g.: "driller" -"borer", "digger" - "hogger".

5) Dialectical words. They are introduced into the speech of personages to indicate their origin. The number of dialectal words and their frequency also indicate the educational and cultural level of the speaker.

6) Vulgar words. Vulgarisms are divided into expletives and swear-words used as general exclamations and obscene words. They are emotionally strongly charged and can be used for speech-characterization.

7) Colloquial coinages.

The common literary, neutral and common colloquial words are grouped under the term Standard English Vocabulary.

Substandard vocabulary:

-dialectal words regionally restricted

-vulgarisms

-colloquailisms

-informalities

-cant

-argo

-slang

8. Essential&dictinctive features of phraseological units.

The vocabulary of a language is enriched not only by words but also by phraseological units. Phraseological units are word-groups that cannot be made in the process of speech, they exist in the language as ready-made units. They are compiled in special dictionaries. The same as words phraseological units express a single notion and are used in a sentence as one part of it. American and British lexicographers call such units «idioms»

Phraseological units can be classified:

• According to the ways they are formed,

• According to the degree of the motivation of their meaning,

• According to their structure ,

• According to their part-of-speech meaning.

WAYS OF FORMING PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS

A.V. Koonin classified phraseological units according to the way they are formed. He pointed out primary and secondary ways of forming phraseological units.

Primary ways of forming phraseological units are those when a unit is formed on the basis of a free word-group:

a) Most productive in Modern English is the formation of phraseological units by means of transferring the meaning of terminological word-groups, e.g. in cosmic technique we can point out the following phrases: «launching pad» in its terminological meaning is «стартовая площадка» , in its transferred meaning - «отправной пункт», «to link up» - «cтыковаться, стыковать космические корабли» in its tranformed meaning it means -«знакомиться»;

b) A large group of phraseological units was formed from free word groups by transforming their meaning, e.g. «granny farm» - «пансионат для престарелых», «Troyan horse» - «компьюторная программа, преднамеренно составленная для повреждения компьютера»;

c) Phraseological units can be formed by means of alliteration , e.g. «a sad sack» - «несчастный случай», «culture vulture» - «человек, интересующийся искусством», «fudge and nudge» - «уклончивость».

d) They can be formed by means of expressiveness, especially it is characteristic of forming interjections, e.g. «My aunt!», « Hear, hear !» etc

e) By means of distorting a word group, e.g. «odds and ends» was formed from «odd ends»,

f) By using archaisms, e.g. «in brown study» means «in gloomy meditation» where both components preserve their archaic meanings,

g) By using a sentence in a different sphere of life, e.g. «that cock won’t fight» as a free word-group in sports (cock fighting ), as a phraseological unit in everyday life, because it is used metaphorically,

h) Using some unreal images, e.g. «to have butterflies in the stomach» - «испытывать волнение», «to have green fingers» - »преуспевать как садовод-любитель» etc.

i) By using expressions of writers or politicians in everyday life, e.g. «corridors of power» (Snow), «American dream» (Alby) «locust years» (Churchil) , «the winds of change» (Mc Millan).

Secondary ways of forming phraseological units are those when a phraseological unit is formed on the basis of another phraseological unit; they are:

a) conversion, e.g. «to vote with one’s feet» was converted into «vote with one’s feet»;

b) changing the grammar form, e.g. «Make hay while the sun shines» is transferred into a verbal phrase - «to make hay while the sun shines»;

c) analogy, e.g. «Curiosity killed the cat» was transferred into «Care killed the cat»;

d) contrast, e.g. «cold surgery» - «a planned before operation» was formed by contrasting it with «acute surgery»; «thin cat» - «a poor person» was formed by contrasting it with «fat cat»;

e) shortening of proverbs or sayings, e.g. «You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear» by means of clipping the middle of it the phraseological unit «to make a sow’s ear» was formed with the meaning «ошибаться».

f) borrowing phraseological units from other languages, either as translation loans, e.g. « living space» (German), « to take the bull by the horns» ( Latin) or by means of phonetic borrowings «meche blanche» (French), «corpse d’elite» (French), «sotto voce» (Italian) etc.

SEMANTIC CLASSIFICATION OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS

Phraseological units can be classified according to the degree of motivation of their meaning. This classification was suggested by acad. V.V. Vinogradov for Russian phraseological units. He pointed out three types of phraseological units:

a) fusions where the degree of motivation is very low, we cannot guess the meaning of the whole from the meanings of its components, they are highly idiomatic and cannot be

translated word for word into other languages, e.g. on Shank’s mare - (on foot), at sixes and sevens - (in a mess) etc;

b) unities where the meaning of the whole can be guessed from the meanings of its components, but it is transferred (metaphorical or metonymical), e.g. to play the first fiddle

( to be a leader in something), old salt (experienced sailor) etc;

c) collocations where words are combined in their original meaning but their combinations are different in different languages, e.g. cash and carry - (self-service shop), in a big way (in great degree) etc.

STRUCTURAL CLASSIFICATION OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS

Prof. A.I. Smirnitsky worked out structural classification of phraseological units, comparing them with words. He points out one-top units which he compares with derived words because derived words have only one root morpheme. He points out two-top units which he compares with compound words because in compound words we usually have two root morphemes.

Among one-top units he points out three structural types:

a) units of the type «to give up» (verb + postposition type), e.g. to art up, to back up, to drop out, to nose out, to buy into, to sandwich in etc.;

b) units of the type «to be tired» . Some of these units remind the Passive Voice in their structure but they have different prepositons with them, while in the Passive Voice we can have only prepositions «by» or «with», e.g. to be tired of, to be interested in, to be surprised at etc. There are also units in this type which remind free word-groups of the type «to be young», e.g. to be akin to, to be aware of etc. The difference between them is that the adjective «young» can be used as an attribute and as a predicative in a sentence, while the nominal component in such units can act only as a predicative. In these units the verb is the grammatical centre and the second component is the semantic centre;

c) prepositional - nominal phraseological units. These units are equivalents of unchangeable words: prepositions, conjunctions, adverbs , that is why they have no grammar centre, their semantic centre is the nominal part, e.g. on the doorstep (quite near), on the nose (exactly), in the course of, on the stroke of, in time, on the point of , etc. In the course of time such units can become words, e.g. tomorrow, instead etc.

Among two-top units A.I. Smirnitsky points out the following structural types:

a) attributive-nominal: a month of Sundays, grey matter, a millstone round one’s neck. Units of this type are noun equivalents and can be partly or perfectly idiomatic. In partly idiomatic units (phrasisms) sometimes the first component is idiomatic, e.g. high road, in other cases the second component is idiomatic, e.g. first night. In many cases both components are idiomatic, e.g. red tape, blind alley, bed of nail, shot in the arm.

b) verb-nominal phraseological units, e.g. to read between the lines , to speak BBC, to sweep under the carpet etc. The grammar centre of such units is the verb, the semantic centre in many cases is the nominal component, e.g. to fall in love. In some units the verb is both the grammar and the semantic centre, e.g. not to know the ropes. These units can be perfectly idiomatic as well, e.g. to burn one’s boats, to vote with one’s feet, to take to the cleaners’ etc.

Very close to such units are word-groups of the type: to have a glance, to have a smoke. These units are not idiomatic and are treated in grammar as a special syntactical combination, a kind of aspect.

c) phraseological repetitions: now or never, part and parcel , country and western etc. Such units can be built on antonyms, e.g. ups and downs , back and forth; often they are formed by means of alliteration, e.g cakes and ale, as busy as a bee. Components in repetitions are joined by means of conjunctions. These units are equivalents of adverbs or adjectives and have no grammar centre. They can also be partly or perfectly idiomatic, e.g. cool as a cucumber (partly), bread and butter (perfectly).

Phraseological units the same as compound words can have more than two tops (stems in compound words), e.g. to take a back seat, a peg to hang a thing on, lock, stock and barrel, to be a shaddow of one’s own self, at one’s own sweet will.