Copyright ОАО «ЦКБ «БИБКОМ» & ООО «Aгентство Kнига-Cервис»

TEST YOURSELF

1. What is the object of lexicology?

2. What are the main problems of lexicology?
3. How do you define the term ‘word’ ?
4. In what way can one analyse a word a) socially, b) linguistically?
5. What are the structural aspects of the word?
6. What is the external structure of the word irresistible? What is the internal
structure of this word?
7. What is understood by formal unity of a word? Why is it not quite correct to say
that a word is indivisible?
8. Explain why the word blackboard can be considered a unity and why the com­
bination of words a black board doesn't possess such a unity?
9. What is understood by the semantic unity of a word? Which of the following
possesses semantic unity - a bluebell (R. колокольчик) or a blue bell (R.
синий бубенчик )?
10.Give a brief account of the main characteristics of a word.
11. What is meant by ‘motivation’? Give examples of the main types of motivation.
12. Give the definition of ‘lexeme’.
13. What is an ‘allolex’?
14. What are the main differences between studying words a) syntagmatically and
paradigmatically, b) synchronically and diachronically?
15.Show the interconnection between lexicology and other branches of linguistics.

SEMASIOLOGY
Definitions of Principal Concepts

Word, the basic unit of language. It directly corresponds to the object of thought
(referent) – which is a generalised reverberation of a certain ‘slice’, ‘piece’ of ob­
jective reality – and by immediately referring to it names the thing meant.
Referent, the object of thought correlated with a certain linguistic expression.
Also: the element of objective reality as reflected in our minds and viewed as the
content regularly correlated with certain expression.
Concept, a generalised reverberation in the human consciousness of the properties
of the objective reality learned in the process of the latter’s cognition. Concepts are
formed linguistically, each having a name (a word) attached to it.
Meaning, the reverberation in the human consciousness of an object of extralin­
guistic reality (a phenomenon, a relationship, a quality, a process) which becomes
a fact of language because of its constant indissoluble association with a definite
linguistic expression.
Semasiology, the branch of linguistics which studies the semantics of linguistic
units.
Semantics, the meaning of words, expressions or grammatical forms.

10
Copyright ОАО «ЦКБ «БИБКОМ» & ООО «Aгентство Kнига-Cервис»

Lexical meaning, the material meaning of a word, i.e. the meaning of the main
material part of the word (as distinct from its formal, or grammatical, part), which
reflects the concept the given word expresses and the basic properties of the thing
(phenomenon, quality, state, etc.) the word denotes.
Grammatical meaning, the meaning of the formal membership of a word ex­
pressed by the word’s form, i.e. the meaning of relationship manifested not in the
word itself but in the dependent element which is supplementary to its material
part.
Main meaning of a word, meaning which to the greatest degree is dependent
upon or conditioned by its paradigmatic links, while such meanings as display a
greater degree of syntagmatic ties are secondary.
Main nominative meaning, the main, direct meaning of a word, immediately re­
ferring to objects, phenomena, actions and qualities in extralinguistic reality (refer­
ent) and reflecting their general understanding by the speaker.
Nominative-derivative meanings, other meanings in a polysemantic word which
are characterised by free combinability and are connected with the main nominat­
ive meaning.
Denotation, the expression of the main meaning, meaning proper of a linguistic
unit in contrast to its connotation.
Sense (semantic component), the smallest element of the denotative meaning.
Connotation, supplementary meaning or complementary semantic and/ or stylistic
shade which id added to the word’s main meaning and which serves to express all
sorts of emotional, expressive, evaluative overtones.
Monosemy, the existence within one word of only one meaning.
Polysemy, diversity of meanings; the existence within one word of several connec­
ted meanings as the result of the development and changes of its original meaning.
Context, a) the linguistic environment of a unit of language which reveals the con­
ditions and the characteristic features of its usage in speech; b) the semantically
complete passage of written speech sufficient to establish the meaning of a given
word (phrase).
In lexical context the indication comes from the lexical meaning of the indicator
(eg. a black tie, black ingratitude).
In syntactical context the indication comes from the syntactic structure (eg. make
a toy, make somebody do something).
In mixed context the indication comes both from the lexical meaning of the key-
word and the syntactic structure the word in question is used in.
Metaphor, transference of meaning based on similarity between two dissimilar
objects (e.g. the neck of a bottle).
Metonymy, semantic process based on contiguity, i.e. in association of two refer­
ents, which are connected in reality (e.g. I love Turgenev).
Specialisation (narrowing) of meaning is the transition from a wide, generalised
meaning to a more concrete, specific one (e.g. deer ← OE deor ‘wild beast’).
Generalisation (widening) of meaning is the transition from a concrete meaning
to an abstract one (e.g. ready ← OE ræde ‘to ride’).

11
Copyright ОАО «ЦКБ «БИБКОМ» & ООО «Aгентство Kнига-Cервис»

Pejoration (degradation, deterioration) of meaning, a semantic shift undergone

by words due to their referents lowering in social scale (e.g. a knave ← OE knafa
‘boy’).
Amelioration of meaning involves the referent coming up the social scale (e.g.
OE cwen «woman» → ModE queen).
Homonymy, the coincidence in the same sound form (phonetic coincidence) and
orthographic complex of two (of more) different linguistic units.
Homonyms, two (or more) different linguistic units within one sound and ortho­
graphic complex, i.e. displaying diversity on the content plane and identity on the
expression plane.
Homophones, words with different morphological structure which coincide in
their sound expression.
Homographs, different words coinciding in their orthographic expression.
Perfect (or full) homonyms, words identical in all their forms (e.g. seal (a sea an­
imal) and seal (a design printed on paper).
Partial homonyms, words homonymous only in some individual word-forms, but
different in others (e.g. found (past tense of ‘find’) and to found).
Lexical homonyms, words different in their lexical meaning (e.g. lie1 (to be in a
horizontal or resting position) and lie2 (to make an untrue statement).
Grammatical homonyms, word-forms differing in grammatical meaning (e.g. sis­
ters (the Common Case Plural) and sister’s (the Possessive case Singular).
Lexico-grammatical homonyms, words differing both grammatically and lexic­
ally (e.g. seal1 (n), seal2 (v) (to close tightly).

Word Meaning
The branch of lexicology concerned with meaning is called semasiology. The
subject matter of semasiology is the semantic structure of words.
Diachronic semasiology studies the change in the meaning which words un­
dergo or have undergone in the course of the development of the language.
the Synchronic approach calls for a detailed study of the whole semantic
structure of the vocabulary as it is at the present moment of its development.
There is no universal accepted definition of the term ‘word meaning’/ The two
main approaches are the referential approach which treats the meaning of a word
as a relationship between words and the things (the notions) they refer to or signi­
fy, and the functional approach which treats meaning as the relationship of one lin­
guistic sign (word) to another, i.e. meaning can be studied only through the con­
text. Both approaches have certain drawbacks and remain the matter of controversy
and heated debate in linguistics.
Meaning can also be approached pragmatically. The knowledge of the prag­
matic meaning of words is of extreme importance, as language does not exist
mainly for the sake of ‘broadly referential communication’, it rather serves for
«communication» (Sapir), i.e. to provide for interaction between people, by allow­
ing the expression of statuses, social and individual attitudes, assessments, judge­
ments and the like.
In studying word meaning all the three aspects should be taken into account.
12
Copyright ОАО «ЦКБ «БИБКОМ» & ООО «Aгентство Kнига-Cервис»

Types of meaning
The two main types of word-meaning that are readily observed are the gram­
matical and the lexical meanings.

Grammatical meaning is understood as the component of meaning recurrent in

sets of word forms of all words of a certain class. It is formally expressed a) by
means of inflexion (goes, writes, speaks); girl – girl’s – girls – girls’; b) syntactic­
ally (cf. They talk :: She is the talk of the town); c) with the help of function words
(an arm of the chair; a box and a pen-holder).
Lexical meaning is the component of meaning identical in all forms and distri­
butions of the word (e.g. the lexical meaning of the word ‘table’ is ‘a piece of fur­
niture consisting of a flat top with (usually four) supporters (called legs)’. Lexical
meaning is the realisation of the noting by means of a definite language system.
Both the lexical and the grammatical meanings make up word meaning (its
referential aspect) and neither can exist without the other.
The relation of the lexical and grammatical meaning and the role played by
each varies in different word-classes and even in different groups of words within
one and the same class (cf. notional words :: functional words :: common nouns ::
proper names, etc.).
The combination of the lexical and grammatical meaning is language specific
and is different in different languages, i.e. the Russian word "совет/ советы" is not
semantically identical with the English word "advice" because unlike the Russian
word the English word does not possess the grammatical meaning of plurality
which is part of the semantic structure of the Russian word.
Lexical meaning may be analysed into denotational and connotational com­
ponents. The notional content of a word is expressed by the denotative meaning.
To denote is to serve as linguistic expression for a notion or as a name for an actu­
ally existing object referred to by a word. The term denotatum or referent means
either a concrete thing or a concept of a thing. The word ‘book’ denotes any object
that is a book, it is the name of a whole class of objects that are books. An isolated
word ‘book’ denotes the concept of the thing that is a book. The word ‘book’ with­
in a certain context denotes a definite thing, i.e. has a definite meaning. The know­
ledge of the word-denotation is shared by all the speakers of the given language
and this is what makes communication possible.
Every denotational meaning is itself a combination of several more element­
ary components (semes). The meaning of the word ‘snake’, for instance, can be de­
scribed as follows: reptile + form + tail + poison. The method the aim of which is
to decompose the meaning of a word into its elementary senses and representing it

13
Copyright ОАО «ЦКБ «БИБКОМ» & ООО «Aгентство Kнига-Cервис»

as a combination of semantic components is called componential (componental)

analysis.
Besides denoting a concrete thing, action, or concept, a word may also carry a
connotation, an overtone. Within the affective connotations of a word prof.
I.V.Arnold distinguishes its capacity to evoke or directly express: a) emotions (e.g.
mummy as compared to mother); b) evaluation (e.g. notorious as compared to fam­
ous); c) intensity, gradation (e.g. "to hate" as compared to "to dislike"); d) stylistic
colouring (e.g. "to begin" as compared to "to commence"). Connotations may be
inherent when they are part of the word’s dictionary meaning, i.e. are present in the
word when it is taken in isolation, they may, on the other hand, be part of the
word’s contextual meaning, i.e. emerge in the word when they it is used in a con­
text. Such connotations acquired by a word in certain environment are called ad­
herent connotations.

Semantic Structure of English Words

The most typical feature of the semantic structure of a word is polysemy. It is
natural for a word to have more than one meaning.
Polysemy is inherent in the very nature of words and notions, as they always
contain a generalisation of several traits of the object. Some of these traits are com­
mon with other objects. Hence the possibility of identical names for objects pos­
sessing common features.
Thus polysemy is characteristic of most words in many languages. But it is
more characteristic of the English vocabulary as compared with Russian, due to the
monosyllabic character of English and the predominance of root words. There is
certain independence between the frequency of the word and the number of mean­
ings it possesses. The greater the relative frequency of the word, the greater the

14
Copyright ОАО «ЦКБ «БИБКОМ» & ООО «Aгентство Kнига-Cервис»

number of elements that constitute its semantic structure, i.e. the more polysemant­
ic the word is. Monosemantic words are mostly scientific terms.
The objective of lexicology is to establish and describe the relations of the
various meanings within the frame-work of the same word.
Historically we differentiate between the primary (or original) meaning and
secondary meanings. The relation between the primary and secondary meanings is
not only one of order of appearance, since the secondary meaning is in most cases
derived directly from the primary meaning. Thus the meaning which appeared later
is not only a secondary meaning but a derived meaning as well.
Synchronically the main problem of polysemy is to establish whether all the
meanings in the semantic structure of a word are equally important. Here the op­
position if formed by the major (or central, or basic) meaning of the word and its
minor meanings.
Other oppositions are abstract - concrete; main (or primary) - secondary; cent­
ral - peripheral; narrow - extended; general - particular, etc.
The semantic structure of a word is a structured set of interrelated lexical vari­
ants with different meanings.
By a lexico-semantic variant we mean one of the meanings of a word used in
a certain context. These variants belong to the same set because they are expressed
by the same combination of morphemes, although in different conditions of distri­
bution. The elements are interrelated due to some common semantic component
(e.g. green 1) colour, 2) unripe (e.g. green blackberries), 3) immature (e.g. You are
too green to teach her).
Polysemy and semantic structure exist only in language. Polysemy does not
interfere with the communicative function of the language because in every partic­
ular case context (i.e. the environment of a word) cancels all the unnecessary
meanings and makes speech unambiguous.
The meaning or meanings least dependent on context are usually described as
free or denominative meanings, e.g. baby is «a very young child»; nose is «the part
of the face or head just above the mouth», etc.
The meaning or meanings observed only in certain contexts may be viewed as
determined either by linguistic (or verbal) contexts or extra-linguistic (or non-
verbal) contexts.
The two more or less universally recognises main types of linguistic context
are the lexical and the grammatical contexts. The meaning which is dependent on
lexical context is sometimes referred to as a phraseologically bound meaning,
while the meaning dependent on syntactical context is referred to as a syntactically
(or grammatically) bound meaning.
The polysemantic nature of a word is indirectly proved by the number and
variety of lexical and syntactical distributions in which it manifests itself.
Polysemy is also discoverable through an examination of the nature of synon­
imic and antonymic groupings characteristic of a given word.
There is also a connection between polysemy and the structure of words. As a
rule, the simpler the structure of a word the wider its range of meanings. Com­
pound words are practically monosemantic.
15
Copyright ОАО «ЦКБ «БИБКОМ» & ООО «Aгентство Kнига-Cервис»

Stylistic factors should also be taken into consideration in determining the de­
velopment of polysemy in words.
An examination of different parts of speech in English from the point of view
of semantic variation reveals that verbs and nouns are characterised by a wider
polysemy than adjectives and adverbs.
The semantic structure of a word is a flexible category – the relations between
the major and minor meanings are liable to change. The most striking example is
the semantic structure of the word revolution.
Words, which correspond in their major meanings in two different languages
are normally referred to as correlated words. As a rule, polysemantic words of dif­
ferent languages are correlated in some of their meanings only. Their semantic
structures are different.

Polysemy and Context

The notion of context has several different interpretations. Most linguists un­
derstand by the term context the minimal stretch of speech determining each indi­
vidual meanings of the word. According to N.N.Amosova context is a combination
of an indicator or indicating minimum and the dependant, that is the word the
meaning of which is to be realized in a given utterance. The individual minimum
includes lexical and grammatical (structural) elements. Two types of context are
distinguished: lexical context and syntactical context. In lexical context the indica­
tion comes from the lexical meaning.
In lexical context the indication comes from the lexical meaning of the indic­
ator. For instance, in the following sentence: The coasting steamer passed the
mouth of river twice a month the meaning of the word river realizes the meaning of
the word mouth (устье).
In syntactical context the indication comes from the peculiarity of syntactical
structure, e.g. Mr Hicks probably made him put it in his bath water the meaning of
the word make is ‘force’, ‘compel’. This meaning is realized when the word is fol­
lowed by a complex object; the indication comes from the grammatical structure.
Two kinds of lexical context are distinguished – lexical context of the first de­
gree and the lexical context of the second degree. In the lexical context of the first
degree there is a direct syntactical connection between the dependant and the indic­
ator (or indicating minimum), e.g.: Under the canal bridge?
The lexical meaning of the noun canal realizes the meaning of the noun
bridge, as ‘something built across a river’ (мост). The first blow left a thin red welt
from his left temple to the bridge of his nose.
The indicator is the noun nose which realizes the meaning of the noun bridge
as ‘the upper bony part of the nose’ (переносица).
In lexical context of the second degree there is no direct syntactical connec­
tion between a dependant and an indicator, e.g.…and in Marlow we left the boat by
the bridge and went and put up for the night at the ‘Crown’
The indicating minimum is we left the boat. The pronoun we and the verb left
have no direct syntactical connection with the dependant, the context is that of the
second degree.
16
Copyright ОАО «ЦКБ «БИБКОМ» & ООО «Aгентство Kнига-Cервис»

When the indication comes both from the lexical meaning of the word and
from the particular structure, we deal with a mixed type of the context, e.g.: His
lips moved. Do let me help you to move your luggage.
In the first sentence the absence of the direct object indicates that it is an in­
transitive meaning and the meaning of the subject lips indicates the lexical mean­
ing of the word 'двигались, шевелились’; in the second sentence the presence of
the direct object (your luggage) indicates that the verb move has a transitive mean­
ing and the meaning of the word luggage indicates the lexical meaning of the verb
‘продвинуть, переместить’.
There are cases, however, when the meaning of the word is determined not by
linguistic factors (lexical groups of words and syntactic structure of the context)
but by the actual speech situation in which the word is used.
The meaning of the verb to get in I’ve got it is determined not only by the
grammatical or lexical context, but much more so by the actual speech situation. It
may be interpreted as «possess» or «understand» depending on the actual speech
situation.
Two principal forms of speech-situation may be distinguished: text-situation
and life-situation. Text situation is a preceding or succeeding description which re­
veals the meaning of the word in question. Life-situation is a real situation or a dia­
logue in which the word in question is used.

Change of meaning
Word meaning is a changeable category. It is necessary to discriminate
between the causes of semantic change, the results and the nature of the process of
semantic shift.
The factors accounting for semantic change may be roughly divided into ex­
tralinguistic and linguistic. By extralinguistic causes we mean various changes in
the life of the speech community, changes in economic and social structure,
changes in ideas, scientific concepts, way of life and other spheres of human activ­
ities.
By linguistic causes we mean factors acting within the language system, to
which we refer: ellipses, discrimination of synonyms, linguistic analogy (radiation
of synonyms).
A necessary condition of any semantic change is some connection, some asso­
ciation between the old meaning and the new one. There are two kinds of associ­
ations involved in various semantic changes: a) similarity of meanings, and b) con­
tiguity of meanings.
Similarity of meanings or metaphor is a semantic process of associating two
referents, one of which is in some way resembles the other. Metaphors may be
based on different types of similarity: a) similarity of shape (head of a cabbage),
b) similarity in position (foot of a mountain), c) similarity of function (the head of
the school), d) similarity in movement (foxtrot, a caterpillar tractor), e) similarity
in behaviour (a bookworm), etc.
Contiguity of meanings or metonymy is based on association of two referents
that are in some way or other connected in reality. The transfer may be conditioned
17
Copyright ОАО «ЦКБ «БИБКОМ» & ООО «Aгентство Kнига-Cервис»

by spatial, temporal, causal, symbolic, instrumental, functional and other relations

(e.g. The town awoke, the best pens of our time etc.).

Results of semantic change can be observed in the changes of the denota­

tional meaning of the word or in the alteration of its connotational component.
Changes in denotational meaning may bring about the narrowing (specialization of
meaning) (e.g. meat ← any food) or the widening (generalization of meaning) (e.g.
camp ←Lat. Campus exercising ground for the army). Changes in the connotation­
al component of the lexical meaning may result in: a)pejorative development, i.e.
the acquisition by the word of some derogatory emotive charge (e.g. knave ←boy);
b) ameliorative development or the improvement of the connotational component
of meaning (e.g. minister ← a servant, an attendant).

When a word acquires a new meaning the old meaning may either drop out of
use or remain as a part of the semantic structure of the word and exist alongside the
new meaning.
In some case the old meaning is preserved only in set expressions or com­
pounds, e.g. the old meaning of meat was food, it is found now in one man's meat
is another man's poison, the archaic phrase meat and drink, and the compound
sweetmeat.
The development and change of the semantic structure of a word is always a
source of qualitative and quantitative development of the vocabulary.

Polysemy and Homonymy

One of the most debatable problems in semasiology is the demarcation line
between homonymy and polysemy.
Homonyms are words that have the same sound form or spelling (or both) but
different meanings and are not connected semantically. Several types of hom­
onyms may be distinguished. Homophones are words having the same sounding,

18
Copyright ОАО «ЦКБ «БИБКОМ» & ООО «Aгентство Kнига-Cервис»

but which may coincide or differ in spelling, e.g. hour and our, peace and piece.
Homographs are words that have the same spelling, but differ in pronunciation.
Homonyms may be classified on a different criterion underlying the classific­
ation. If two words are homonymous in their complete paradigms we call them full
homonyms (e.g. ball - бал, ball - мяч, pl. balls - balls; tail - хвост, tale - рассказ,
pl. tails - tales). We find full homonymy among words of one and the same part of
speech. If words are homonymous only in some of the forms of their respective
paradigms we call them partial homonyms (e.g. to found - нашел , (he) found -
нашел; pail - ведро, pl. pails, pale - бледный , paler, the palest; lie - лежать ,
lay, lain, lie - лгать , lied, lied. Partial homonyms may be found both within the
same part of speech and in different parts of speech.
We can approach homonyms from a different point of view and classify them
into lexical and grammatical homonyms. Lexical homonyms are words of the same
part of speech but of quite a different meaning, so that there is no semantic relation
between them (e.g. son - сын , sun - солнце, palm - ладья, palm - пальма). Gram­
matical homonyms are words of different parts of speech: work - работа , to work
- работать ; light - свет , light - светлый. Grammatical homonyms are ex­
tremely numerous in the English language.
The trouble of today is, however, that lexical homonyms often enough come
together with polysemy. There is no hard and fast line of demarcation between the
meanings of a polysemantic word and lexical homonymy. For instance, there is
hardly any semantic connection in Modern English between nail - ноготь and nail
- гвоздь notwithstanding the fact that both of them may be traced back to different
meanings of one and the same word.
There are two sources of homonyms in English: a) the split of polysemy (or
divergent meaning development) (e.g. OE 'cest' - 1) chest = large box, 2) chest =
part of a human body), b) a chance coincidence of form of originally different
words (e.g. two different Latin verbs cadere = to fall and capere = to hold are the
respective sources of the homonymous case№ = instance of things occuring and
caseІ = a box. Homonymy of this type is universally recognized. The other type is
open to discussion.
Tasks and Exercises
Types of Meaning. Meaning and Context

Exercise 1. Discuss the meaning of the words in bold type in connection with the
problem ‘concept-meaning’.
1) A house in the country. A full house. Every word was heard in all parts of the
house. White House. An ancient trading house in the city. A noisy cheerful
house. To keep house. To bring down the house. To leave one's father's house.
On the house.
2) White clouds. White hair. A white elephant. The white race. White magic.
White meat. As white as snow. White wine. It's white of you. White lie.
3) Die of hunger. Die a violent death. Die in one's bed. The day is dying.
Die to the world. I'm dying to know. His secret died with him. Die in harness.
Die game. Never say die.
19