Lexico-grammatical grouping.

By this group we understand a class of words which have a common lexico-grammatical meaning, a common paradigm, the same substituting elements and possibly a characteristic set of suffixes rendering the lexico-grammatical meaning. This group is also observed or characterised by generalization or specialization of meanings of the words and by a high percentage of emotionally coloured ways. F: baby-a person who behaves like a baby, witch-an ugly and unkind woman, or metaphorical expressive names for people possessing qualities rightly or wrongly attributed to the respective animals: cow, fox, ass, bitch.

Within the lexico-grammatical grouping there are two types of vocabulary.

1) Thematic group. Words such as names for parts of the human body, colour terms, military terms.

2) Ideographic group. Words belonging to different parts of speech, here the grammatical meaning is not taken into consideration, words and expressions are classed not according to their lexico-grammatical meaning, but according to their signification, to the system of logical notions. F: light (n)- bright (adj)-shine (v)

Nouns: (из презентации)

· personal names

· animal names

· collective names (for people)

· collective names (for animals)

· abstract nouns

· mass nouns

· object nouns

· proper names for people

· toponymic proper names

Personal names, for example, have the following characteristics: (из презентации)

· two number forms (Sg and Pl)

· two case forms

· they are animate (substituted by the pronouns he or she)

Verb classes (Levin 1993) (из презентации)

1. Verbs of putting 2. Verbs of removing 3. Verbs of sending and carrying 4. Verbs of exerting force (push/ pull) 5. Verbs of change of possession 6. Learn verbs 7. Hold/ keep verbs 8. Verbs of concealment 9. Verbs of throwing 10. Verbs of contact by impact (hit, spank)

11. Poke verbs 12. Verbs of contact (touch) 13. Verbs of cutting 14. Verbs of combining and attaching 15. Verbs of separating and disassembling 16. Verbs of change of state 17. Lodge verbs 18. Verbs of existence 19. Verbs of appearance, disappearance and occurrence

4) Semantic grouping (из презентации)

· blue, red, yellow, green, purple, brown, black, white, grey, pink (colour)

· ram, ewe, lamb (sheep)

· stallion, mare, foal (horse)

· man, woman, child (human)

 

Lexical meaning is studied on two levels: paradigmatic and sintagmatic.

On the first one, the connection of the word with other words in the system of the language are studied.

Paradigmatic connection include: synonymy, antonymy and hyponymy (the meaning of the word which is general includes the meanings of a group of other words; EG: furniture (a table, a chair…)

On Syntagmatic level the linear connections of words in speech are studied. (in the sentence, in the text). On this level we study combinability of words. EG: John (he, young man) came in (comes).

There are no words in the lang., which are completely identical. So, we can not speak about complete meaning equivalents. We speak about partial meaning equivalents. This type of equivalents expressed by words is called synonymy. Synonymy enrich the lang. because they let the speaker express different shades of meaning. (EG: to like-to love-to adore)

Synonyms are words which belong to the same part of speech and the same thematic group, and are so close semantically that to use the correct in speech we must know their shade of meaning and stylistic connotation.

The only existing classification system for synonyms was established by Academician V.V.Vinogradov. In his classification there are 3 types of synonyms: 1. ideographic; 2. stylistic; 3. absolute.

Ideographic synonyms. Synonyms which differ in shades of denotation meaning are called ideographic (смысловые синонимы). They bear the same idea but not identical in their referential content, different shades of meaning or degree. (beautiful – fine, handsome – pretty, to ascent – to mount – to climb.)

Stylistic synonyms are synonyms which differ in their stylistic connotation. They belong to different spheres of communication. EG: kid-child-infant (kid-colloquial, child-neutral, infant-bookish (elevated)).

Absolute synonyms coincide in all their shades of meaning and in all their stylistic characteristics. (fatherland – motherland)

Their origin

1. Borrowings give a lot of synonyms EG: to ask (native) – to question (French) – to interrogate (Latin)

2. Affixation: EG: changeable-changeful

3. conversion: EG: laughter-to laugh

4. Shortening: EG: laboratory-lab

Euphemisms. There are words in every language which people instinctively avoid because they are considered indecent, indelicate, rude, direct or impolite. They are often described in a round – about way by using substitutes, called euphemisms. (e.g. lavatory – powder-room, washroom, restroom, retiring-room, (public) comfort station, lady’s (room), gentlemen’s (room), water-closed, W.C., public conveniences, toilet, wind-sort castle.)

Euphemism may be used due to genuine concern not to hurt someone’s feelings (a stupid person can be said to be not exactly brilliant).

Antonyms are words of the same category of parts of speech which have contrasting meanings such as hot-cold. They usually appear in pairs, but a polysemantic word may have an antonym for each of its meanings (light-heavy, light-dark).

Antonymy is not evenly distributed among the categories of parts of speech. Most antonyms are adjectives which is quite natural because qualitative characteristics are easily compared and contrasted. Verbs take second place (to lose-to find). Nouns are not rich in antonyms (friend- enemy).

Antonymic adverbs can be subdivided into 2 groups:

a) adverbs derives from adjective (warmly-coldly);

b) adverbs proper (now-then, here-there).

Together with synonyms antonyms represent the language’s important expressive means. Authors often use antonyms as a stylistic device of contrast.

Hyponymy is a relation between two words in which the meaning of one of the words includes the meaning of the other word. (The lexical relation corresponding to the inclusion of one class in another is hyponymy.) EG: Blue, Green are kinds of color. They are specific colors and color is a general term for them, vehicle includes car, bus, taxi; horse entails animal; table entails furniture and so on.

#7 Syntagmatic relations of words in English.

The laws of combinability are studied by syntagmatics on the other hand, in the system of the language every word has certain characteristic which predetermine its combinability with other words.

The aptness of the word to appear in various combination of word is called “valency”

EG: a verb can combine with a noun.

EG: it can have a direct-object (to buy a book)

Lexical (semantic) valency

The aptness of a word to appear in various combinations is described as its lexical valency or collocability. The noun job, for example, is often combined with such adjectives as backbreaking, difficult, hard; full-time, part-time, summer, cushy, easy; demanding; menial, etc. The noun myth may be a component of a number of word-groups, e.g. to create a myth, to dispel a myth, to explode a myth, myths and legends, etc. Lexical valency acquires special importance in case of polysemy as through the lexical valency different meanings of a polysemantic word can be distinguished, for instance, cf.: heavy table (safe, luggage); heavy snow (rain, storm); heavy drinker (eater); heavy sleep (sorrow, disappointment); heavy industry (tanks).

The range of the lexical valency of words is linguistically restricted by the inner structure of the English word-stock. Though the verbs lift and raise are usually treated as synonyms, it is only the latter that is collocated with the noun question.

The restrictions of lexical valency of words may also manifest themselves in the lexical meanings of the polysemantic members of word groups. For example, the adjective heavy in the meaning ‘rich and difficult to digest’ is combined with the words food, meals, supper. But it cannot be used with the words cheese or sausage (the words with more or less the same component of meaning) implying that the cheese or the sausage is difficult to digest.

The lexical valency of correlated words in different languages is different, cf.: in English pot flowers – in Russian комнатные цветы.

Argument structure of verbs

1) Transitive verbs are characterized by the obligatory presence of two non-prepositional arguments: a subject and a direct object. Transitive verbs assign accusative case to their direct object, while the subject receives nominative case.

Subject [Nominative]		Object [Accusative]
John	broke	the window
John	painted	the door

 

2) Intransitive verbs. An intransitive verb does not have an object. In the following sentences, cry, work, laugh, and talk are intransitive verbs:

· The baby was crying.

· I work for a large firm in Paris.

· They laughed uncontrollably.

· We talked for hours.

3) Ditransitive verbs are very similar to transitive verbs but they have one more argument, which is traditionally called indirect object.

EG: He gave her the letter. ('The letter' is the direct object, what he gave, and 'her' is the indirect object, the person he gave it to. This sentence can also be written 'He gave the letter to her'.)

Semantic roles

• Agent (Ag) The thing that is responsible for doing the action (also Actor)

• Theme (Th) The thing that is moved, changed, described (also Patient)

• Goal (Go) The thing where an action ends (or for which the action was done) (also Recipient)

• Location (Loc) The place where the theme is

• Event (Ev) Something that takes place, that happens

• Experiencer (Exp) Someone who experiences a psychological state

• Referent (R) The thing a noun refers to

On the subject we find the roles of Agent, Location, Experiencer; while on the direct object we find the roles of Patient (when it is “affected” by the event), Theme (when it is not affected by the event).

Syntactic valency

Grammatical (syntactic) valency is the aptness of a word to appear in specific grammatical (or rather syntactic) structures. The minimal grammatical context in which words are used when brought together to form word-groups is usually described as the pattern of the word-groups. For instance, the verb offer can be followed by the infinitive (to offer to do smth.) and the noun to suggest can be followed by the gerund (to suggest doing smth.) and the noun (to suggest an idea). The grammatical of these verbs is different.

The grammatical valency of correlated words in different languages is not identical, cf.: in English to influence a person, a decision, a choice (verb + noun) — in Russian влиять на человека, на решение, на выбор (verb + preposition + noun).