20. Meaning. Polysemy. Semantic structure of the word. Types of the semantic components. Meaning and context.

Meaning is a component of the word through which a concept is communicated and giving to word the ability of denoting real affects, qualities, actions and abstract notions. Inner form of the word, its meaning, presents the semantic str-re of the word. The leading semantic component in the semantic structure of a word is usually termed denotative component or denotation. It expresses the notional content of a word and define its main meaning. But in order to get a sufficiently clear picture of what the word really means we must take into consideration the additional meaning the word possesses - the connotative component or connotation which may be emotive, evaluative (positive or negative), of duration, of cause. A word having several meanings is called polycemantic and the majority of English words are polys-c. The ability of words to have more than one meaning is polysemy. The wealth of expressive resources of a lang. depends on the degree to which polysemy has developed in the it. The number of sounds combinations that human speech organs can produce is limited and at a certain stage of lang. development the production of new words by morphemic means becomes limited. Here polysemy becomes increasing important in providing the means for enriching the vocabulary. The complicated process of polysemy development involves both the appearance of new meanings and the loss of old ones. As a result of polysemy there are cases of misunderstanding when a word is used in a certain meaning but accepted by listener in another. In such way a lot of jokes are made. Here the context is a powerful preventative against confusion in meanings (a dull razor, a dull student, a dull book/ bright color, bright metal, bright face).

21. Lexicology as a brunch of linguistics. A word. Main lexicological problems .

Lexicology is a branch of linguistics studying the word - a unit of speech which due to its meanings serves the purpose of human communication, it’s the total of the sounds comprising it. Structurally the word possesses several characteristics, such as the external and the internal structures. By external structure we mean its morphol. str-re. (post - grad uate s).The internal str-e of the word, or its meaning, is referred to as the word’s semantic structure, consisting of denotative and connotative components. Another structural aspect of the word is its unity. The word has external (or formal) and semantic unity. The formal unity of the word can best be illustrated by comparing a word and a word-group with identical constituents. The difference between a redbreast and a red breast is best explained by their relationship with the grammatical system of the language. The word redbreast, which is characterized by unity, possesses a single grammatical framing: redbreast. In the word-group a red breast each constituent can have grammatical forms of its own. Acc. to semantic unity in the word-group a red breast each of the meaningful words conveys a separate concept, but the word redbreast conveys only one concept: the type of bird. Two of the main lexicological problems have already been staffed. The problem of word-building is associated with processes of making new words. Semantics is the study of meaning. Modern approaches to this problem are characterized by two different level of study: syntagmatic and paradigmatic. On the syntagmatic level, the semantic structure of the word is analyzed in its immediate relations with neighboring words, on the paradigmatic level - in its relations with other words in the vocabulary system (similar meaning (work - labour) opposite meaning (to accept – to reject), different characteristics (man – chap – guy)). The main problems of paradigmatic studies are synonymy, antonymy and functional styles. Phraseology is the branch of lexicology specializing in word-group, which are characterized by stability of structure and transferred meaning (birds of a feather-одного поля ягода). Also lexicology studies the vocabulary of a language as a system (diachronically and synchronically).