lavrova_n_a_a_coursebook_on_english_lexicology_angliiskaya_l

a formal disciplinary meeting or official reprimand; a dressing-down.

a person without a police record; someone who does

not trigger suspicions

McJob: 1993 An unstimulating low-paying job

Babymoon:

a planned period of calm spent together by a justborn baby and its parents; occasionally, time spent by parents without their baby.

a workday when employees are allowed to dress casually love-cum-arranged marriage: matrimony between a mutually acceptable and consenting couple that has been facilitated by the couple’s parents.

to act irrationally and violently as a result of work-stress

Jesus year:

a person’s 33rd year of life

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The Pragmatic Component in the Meaning of the Word

The classic understanding of pragmatics was formulated by Ch. Morris who posited that pragmatics is the relationship of the sign towards its inter-

preters. The pragmatic component of meaning reveals itself in the process of communication, is originally occasional and may retain an emergent status for some time. The specific feature of the word’s pragmatic component is that if the word which bears it recurs in communication, this meaning may become systematic and codified. V.I. Zabotkina points out that all innovations, unless they are terms and have only the denotative component, possess the pragmatic sememes of being rhematic, new from the point of view of time and voguish.

A pragmatically-charged word may also change its function depending on the social status of the person who uses it. Thus, the usage of such a word by a superordinate towards his/her subordinate is not deemed as an admonition, or a reprimand, conversely, the usage of such a word by a subordinate towards his/her superordinate is regarded as an insult.

Some of the important pragmatic sememes are those of gender, age, ethnic and social status. These sememes are rarely registered by general-

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purpose dictionaries, that is, they are not part of the word’s denotative or connotative component.

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Dwell on the pragmatic component of the meaning of the words bellow. With what stylistic characteristics does the pragmatic component go hand in hand?

Recommended reading:

Апресян Ю.Д. Лексическая семантика. – М.: Наука, 1974. Беляевская Е.Г. Семантика слова. – М.: Высш. шк., 1987.

Беляевская Е.Г. Модель и моделирование в лингвистических исследованиях (традиционный vs когнитивный подход) // Принципы и методы когнитивного исcледования языка: сб. научных трудов. – Тамбов: Изд-во ТГУ им. Г.Р. Державина, 2008. – C. 98–109.

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Заботкина В.И. Новая лексика современного английского языка. – М.: Высш. шк., 1989.

Заботкина В.И. Семантика и прагматика нового слова: дис. … д-ра филол. наук. – М., 1991.

Заботкина В.И. Основные параметры прагматики нового слова / Проблемы семантики и прагматики. – Калининград, 1996. – С. 83–91.

Кобозева И.М. Лингвистическая семантика. – М.: Едиториал УРСС, 2004.

Котелова Н.3. Первый опыт лексикографического описания русских неологизмов // Новые слова и словари новых слов. – Л., 1978. – С. 8–9.

Кубрякова Е.С. Типы языковых значений. Семантика производного слова. – М.: Наука, 1981.

Кубрякова Е.С. Коммуникативно-прагматический аспект лексического значения слова // Коммуникативные аспекты значения: сб. науч. тр. ВГПИ им. А.С. Серафимовича. – Волгоград, 1990. – С. 15–29.

Лейчик В.М. Терминоведение: Предмет, методы, структура. – 4-е изд. – М.: ЛИБРОКОМ, 2009.

Попова Т.В. Русская неология и неография: учеб. электронное текстовое издание: ГОУ ВПО УГТУ-УПИ. – Екатеринбург, 2005.

Тогоева С.И. Новое слово: подходы и проблемы // Психолингвистические проблемы функционирования слова в лексиконе человека : кол. монография / под общ. ред. А.А. Залевской. – Тверь, 1999. – С. 75–101.

Уфимцева А.А. Лексическое значение: Принципы семиологического описания лексики / под ред. Ю.С. Степанова. – 2-е изд., стер. – М.: Едиториал УРСС, 2002.

Шувалов В.И. Метафора в лексической системе немецкого языка: автореф. дис. ... д-ра филол. наук. – М., 2006.

Algeo J. Fifty Years among the New Words. A Dictionary of Neologisms. – Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Dictionary of Computer and Internet Terms. – N.Y.: Barron’s Educational Series, 2006.

Fischer R. Lexical Change in Present-Day English. A corpus-Based Study of the Motivation, Institutionalization, and Productivity of Creative Neologisms. – Tübingen, 1998.

Harrison M. Word Perfect. Vocabulary for Fluency. – Edinburgh: Nelson, 1990.

Lakoff G., Johnson M. Metaphors We Live By. – Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980.

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (LDCE). – L.: Longman Group Ltd., 1995.

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6. Synonyms. Antonyms. Paronyms.

Hyperonyms and Hyponyms. Meronyms

Points to ponder

–What are criteria for synonymy and what are the major types of synonyms?

–Why are synonyms not always interchangeable in the context? What are the semantic characteristics of synonyms that make them in a way opposed to each other?

–Name the types of connotations by which synonyms usually differ.

–In what way does stylistic connotation differ from all the other types?

–How are semantic characteristics of synonyms linked to their syntactic peculiarities?

–What part of speech is more prone to having synonyms?

–What is the dominant synonym?

–What words from stylistic point of view do not admit (or hardly admit) of any synonyms?

–What are antonyms? What groups of antonyms can there be distinguished?

–Define the term “paronym” and give examples of paronyms. Does the presence of paronyms in a language facilitate language acquisition or impede it?

–What kind of an error will occur if one substitutes a word for a similar sounding word which has, however, no semantic connection with it?

–What are hyperonyms, hyponyms and co-hyponyms? Does the relationship of inclusion characterize all words in a language? What is the difference between “hyperonymic-hyponymic” organization of words and thematic fields? Illustrate the difference with your own examples.

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Exercises:

I

Supply both a derived antonym and an antonym which contains a different root for the following adjectives (variants are admissible).

II

The following adjectives (or participles II) (in bold) are either synonyms or are semantically connected. Going by the illustrations, pinpoint the contexts in which each of them is used. Specify the type of connotation by which they differ.

1.It is immaterial whether you were present there or not, you knew about the gathering, so you could have prevented it. Those who believe in God, claim that the provenance of the universe is non-material. Spiritual needs are to be put ahead of corporeal ones.

2.It is unclear to me why you should choose to please both your friends, when one is definitely in the wrong. But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts benighted walks under the midday sun (J. Milton, cited in NPED). She was in a foul temper. I’ll get

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what I want by fair means or foul. The ship ran foul of a hidden reef. The archeologists stumbled upon a foul copy of a manuscript. The water in the well was contaminated, it was a life-haz- ard to drink it. There are many synonyms for the word-building pattern of blending, one being “contamination”. For instance, the word “shamateur” (sham + amateur) can be referred to as contaminated.

3.The dotted line on the graph indicates the hypothetical development of the trend. All day long we had intermittent rain, so we chose not to go and do the sights. The signal was intermittent and I couldn’t make out what he was saying. A discontinuous morpheme is the one that changes its grammatical meaning by way of an inner flexion.

4.The newspaper is believed to be unprofitable for at least the past decade (cited in CCED). I was in a disadvantageous position as compared to my better-equipped rivals. I am particularly unfavourable to the idea that we should abandon our original plan.

5.You’d better avoid climbing the perilous cliffs. It was a perilous journey lying through the woods, impregnable mountains and marshy lands. It is hazardous to health to smoke, drink or eat too much canned food. The harmful effects of these byproducts are yet to be discovered. It’s a risky business to invest in failing companies. It’s risky to presume that the storm won’t change its direction. This machine is unsafe, it may jam any moment.

6.Most traditional cultures believe that abortion is immoral as it nips the life in the bud. Those who think that moral considerations do not apply can be described as amoral.

7.Depraved and evil-minded criminals will stop at nothing to get what they want. Films featuring sick and perverted people should be banished from the market. I don’t want you to learn the twisted notion that life is a bed of roses. A thwarted plan will never succeed.

8.Reckless driving is a potential risk to the driver, his passenger and pedestrians. You were indiscreet in saying that I have weight

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