Syntagmatic relations in vocabulary
Lexical grouping can be done on the basis of contextual (syntagmatic) relations. Classification of vocabulary items into thematic groups is based on the co-occurrence of words in certain repeatedly used contexts. For example, on the level of word-groups the word question, for instance, is often found in collocation with the verbs raise, put forward, discuss, etc., with the adjectives urgent, vital, disputable and so on. The verb accept occurs in numerous contexts together with the nouns proposal, invitation, plan and others.
As a rule, thematic groups deal with contexts on the level of the sentence. Words in thematic groups are joined together by common contextual associations within the framework of the sentence and reflect the interlinking of things or events. Common contextual association of the words, e.g. tree – grow – green; journey – train – taxi – bags – ticket or sunshine – brightly – blue – sky, is due to the regular co-occurrence of these words in a number of sentences. Words making up a thematic group belong to different parts of speech and do not possess any common denominator of meaning.
Thematic groups are distinguished by means of text analysis. Words entering a thematic group are united by some typical situation. The basis for uniting words into thematic groups are relations of the objects in the real world.
Associative relations in vocabulary
Words can be grouped on the basis of such extralinguistic factor as associations. The criterion of the grouping of this kind is a psycholinguistic one. Associative connections are revealed in psycholinguistic experiment. They can be paradigmatic and syntagmatic. One of the methods to arrange the socio-cultural and individual associations is a frame (it’s a term of cognitive linguistics).
Frame (mental frame) is an arranged set of characteristics and relations of social reality, verbalized (worded) by language means. Frame is knowledge about typical situations. Social and individual experience can be viewed in the frame form. Frame in a certain way structures knowledge essential for comprehension by means of interrelated word groups. Frame is a minimal description which can distinguish an object from the surrounding world. Frame describes a typical succession of actions in a stereotype situation.
Structurally frame can be represented as a net, consisting of knots and connections between them. Frame consists of a topic and slots (terminals). These knots (slots, terminals) indicate at the roles (functions) which should be performed by role performers. The examples of frame are buying and selling, wedding, сrime and punishment, theatre, trade, etc. (Diagram 11).
Diagram 11. Frame “Transaction”
subject object actions result
contractual parties |
goods and services |
talks |
transaction |
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Another method to describe cognitive associations connected with a word is to study the concept. Concept is “a discrete mental unit which reflects the object of real or imaginative world and is kept in the national memory of native speakers in the verbalized form” (A.P. Babushkin). The characteristics of concepts:
1. A concept has properties, possibly with some structure.
2. The structure encodes a statistical analysis of the properties the concept's members tend to have.
3. Membership in the concept is “a matter of satisfying a sufficient number of features, where some may be weighted more significantly than others”.
Example: the concept bird can be described using the following properties, among others: (1) bird: has feathers, lays eggs, flies, small, eats insects, sings, perch trees. An instance of a robin has all seven features. An instance of a chicken only has the first two: (2) a. robin: has feathers, lays eggs, flies, small, eats insects, sings, perch trees; b. chicken: has feathers, lays eggs. Thus, robins are more typical birds than chickens, although they are both in the extension of the concept bird.
Concepts are often viewed in terms of the “core – periphery” model. Thus, the core of the concept SUCCESS in the English language map is represented by components:
• result, happy outcome;
• accomplishment, attainment;
• fame, being known.
Peripheric layers of the given concept are the following ones:
• a high position in something;
• a lot of money;
• respect;
• to try to do (efforts);
• admiration;
• others: aim, purpose, wealth, social status, luck, something that people like, effect, to work in a satisfactory way, to intend, prosperity, advance, succession.