NewArchive / 36- The basic principles of grouping words together

36. - The basic principles of grouping words together.

The system is shifting.

There are 3 basic options how to classify vocabulary:

1) formal approach:

a) alphabetic

b) B + er -> N (acc. to a pattern)

c) acc. to the rule (full hand-cluster)

2) on the basis of semantic rel-s b/n words

Core

synonyms

antomyms

lexico-semantical groups unite words by 1 general idea/concept

Ex. mental abilities of a person (capable, clever, bright, shrewd, smart)

cats (cheetah, puma, jaguar)

Fields

Ex. motion (~ 1000)

Words making up such semantic fields may belong to different parts of speech. For e.g., in sem. field of space we find nouns: expanse, extent, surface, etc.; verbs: extend, spread, spa , etc.; adj. : broad, roomy, vast.

It is argued that we cannot possibly know the exact meaning of the w-d if do not know the structure of the semantic field to which the word belongs, the number of the members, etc. e.g. The meaning of wordd captain cannot be properly understood until we know the semantic field in which this term operates – the army, the navy, the merchant service. It means that the meaning of the word captain is determined by the place it occupies among the terms of the relevant system.

3) associative (in speech)

All parts of speech. Co-occurrence of words in the text.

Ex. burning/pressing matter

sky – sun – blue – rain – bright

Words in the semantic groups are joined together by common contextual associations within the framework of the sentence and reflect the words, e.g. tree- grow- green; journey- train- taxi- bags. These words do not possess any common denominator of meaning. Contextual associations are usually conditioned by the context of situation. When watching a play, for e.g., we naturally speak of the actors who act the main parts, of good [bad] staging of the play, of the wonderful scenery and so on. The purpose of singling out sem. correlates: we single out to see the system of a L-ge, to understand the meaning of the word, to compile a dictionary.