lavrova_n_a_a_coursebook_on_english_lexicology_angliiskaya_l

XII

Study the following back-formed words, specify their meaning, say what word they are derived from. Check whether any of them are registered by dictionaries. What accounts for their lack of representation in dictionaries?

sculpt, intuit, liaise, enthuse, donate, surveille, diagnose, swindle, escalate, sleaze, grunge, embeds, to jell, to automate, to jubilate, to emote, laze, televise

XIII

Clipping, or shortening, or contraction is a productive way of wordbuilding in English. Reflect on the following clippings and say which of them are entrenched in the English word-stock and which are only emerging as fully-fledged independent words. What does it depend on? Which words are used in a clipped form exclusively without its full part any longer emerging in communication? Which clippings have a different meaning from their non-truncated counterparts?

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Diminutive suffixes are not very productive or wide-spread in English, however, they are found in a number of words. These words may be registered by dictionaries, in which case they, more often than not, have a meaning of their own. They may also be

created ad hoc, on the spur of the moment, in which case, however, the speaker should go by the rules of morphological collocation, according to which each diminutive can be added to a particular kind of stem. Some of the diminutives have the “remnant” status, native speakers may no longer be aware of their diminutive nature or meaning, as they are borrowed and non-productive.

The functions of diminutives are manifold: 1) endearment and affection; 2) familiarity or intimacy; 3) condescension or dismissal; 4) a smaller (a small) size or dimension; 5) the young of animals or pets

XIV

Study the diminutives suggested below, specify the principle of their classification and establish the meaning they render to the stem. Translate the words into Russian:

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dant usage may indicate absence of true love and care whenever they are automatically retrieved to refer to almost anything under the sun. Termi- nally-ill patients have been known to resent the application of such words towards themselves, as well as the not-so-little children.

XV

Below are some examples of baby-talk words or motherese. Specify their word-building peculiarities and say in what context their application could be appropriate.

Beddy-bye: the time for a baby to go to bed

Binkie: a pacifier Blankie: a baby’s blanket

Boo-boo: a minor injury Choo-choo: a railroad train

Da-da: father Din-din: dinner

Icky: sticky or disgusting

Jammies: pyjamas

Nana: grandma Oopsy-daisy: said on tossing a bay upside-down

Owie: a minor injury Piggie: a baby’s finger or toe

Teeny-weeny: very small, tiny Tummy: stomach

Tush: buttocks

Wawa: water

Yucky: sticky or disgusting Yummy: tasty, delicious

XVI

Onomatopoeic words are represented sparingly in the English word stock, however, a number of them play an important role in everyday communication, most of them are also registered by dic-

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tionaries. Below is a list of onomatopoeic words produced by animals. Which of the sounds seem unusual to you?

A bee – buzz

A bird – chirp, chirrup

A small bird – peep, tweet

A cat – purr

A cow – moo

A crow – caw

A dog – bow-wow, woof

A donkey – he-haw

A dove or a pigeon – coo

A goose – honk

A grasshopper – chirr

A hen – clucks

A horse – neigh, whinny

An owl – hoot

A pig – oink

A snake – hiss

A sheep – baa

A turkey – gobble

XVII

Paraphrase the following onomatopoeic words and translate them into Russian. What other word-building patterns (if any) are used in the formation of such words?

Babble, blab, gab, holler, jabber, natter, stutter, susurrate, tattle, whine, yada-yada-yada, yap, gargle, gurgle, ululate, zap, sizzle, wheeze, whiz, chug, clipclip, flip-flop

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The suffix “-ee” has a productive status in modern English, a surprisingly large number of words are formed with its help. It is regularly found in journalistic articles, however, its meaning may be ambiguous. It renders to the word the meaning of either “the

recipient of the action” (1) or “the doer of the action” (2) (the actor).

XVIII

Sort out the following words with the “-ee” suffix and allocate them to either the first (1) or the second (2) group. Specify the criteria that you go by when differentiating between the groups.

Adaptee, electee, examinee, franchisee, mergee, rescuee, transportee, appellee, mortgagee, educatee, releasee, addressee, deportee, nominee, trainee, absentee, escapee, riteree, returnee.

XIX

Consider the following derivatives, single out the suffix and say to what part of speech the stem of the derivative belongs.

Mileage, breakage, spillage; Moroccan, Egyptian, Iranian; attendance, disturbance, performance, elegance, relevance, vigilance; assistant, attendant, consultant; accountancy, privacy; mouthful, pocketful, tablespoonful; comedian, historian, Freudian; heroism, idealism; originality, personality, superiority; clumsiness; manliness, politeness; agreeable, understandable, manageable; customary, honorary, momentary; bearded, bow-legged, bigheaded; ashen, golden, leaden; collectible, convertible, digestible; angelic, artistic, heroic; childish; fiendish, shortish, whitish; cloudy, greedy, earthy, jazzy; skyward, northward, rearward; clockwise, healthwise, salarywise, testwise; freshen, quicken, hearten, strengthen.

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Reduplication consists in repeating the stem either verbatim or introducing phonetic and graphic changes. Reduplicated words perform different functions, such as: indicating plurality, repetition, customary activity, increase of size, added intensity,

continuance. There are two basic types of reduplicatives: tautonyms and ricochet words (these terms are upheld by E.C. Brewer, S. Steinmetz, B.A. Kipfer). In tautonyms the repeated stem is not modified, in ricochet words it is modified. The popularity and relative productivity of reduplicatives is explained psychologically by the fact that the repetition of sound is pleasurable to the ear. Reduplicatives may also be loan words, in which case they are often of terminological character: e.g. beriberi (disease of the nerves caused by vitamin deficiency, from Sinhalese “beri” “weakness”), mahimahi (dolphin, from Hawaiian “mahi” “strong”), ylangylang (an East Indian tree or its oil, from Tagalog), couscous (semolina dish, from Arabic), lavalava (a Polynesian garment, from Samoan “clothing”).

XX

Study the reduplicatives below, specify their type and function and say in what sphere of communication they are predominantly used.

Choo-choo, doo-doo, pee-pee; honey-bunny, itty-bitty, itsy-bitsy, lovey-dovey;

Dilly-dally, flim-flam, hobnob, shilly-shally, wishywashy; boogie-woogie, chit-chat, pitter-patter, seesaw, walkie-talkie; knick-knack, hodge-podge, mishmash, pell-mell; riff-raff, fuddy-duddy, helter-skelter, higgledy-piggledy, nitty-gritty, roly-poly, super-duper, teeny-weeny, willy-nilly.

Recommended reading:

Ильченко Л.М. Компрессивное словообразование как один из способов реализации принципа языковой экономии (на примере современного

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5. The Meaning of the Word. Semantic Transference. Metaphor and Metonymy. Euphemisms. Neologisms

Points to ponder

–What is the difference between the meaning of the word and the concept (notion)?

–Is there any connection between the referent and its sign? What types of linguistic motivation can you single out?

–In the ancient linguistic tradition of Greece it was customary to distinguish between the theory of “thesei” and “fusei”5. These theories represent the results of the research into whether there is a natural connection between the word and its referent or not. According to the former, words are arbitrary signs and they do not reflect the properties of objects they nominate. The latter theory, conversely, postulates a natural connection between the word and its referent. Which theory do you personally support? Ground your choice.

–Specify the types of analysis of the semantics of the word. Which type do you find the most efficient one? What are the constraints of the componential analysis? What semantic groups of words is it mostly applicable to?

–Do you agree that the context is the ultimate “sieve” for the meaning of the word?

–Name the types of semantic components of the word. What is the pragmatic component of the word? What other types of information6 that a word conveys do you know?

–Why do words develop new meanings and what does it result in?

–Specify the types of metaphoric and metonymic transference.

–Metaphor and metonymy, which are based on different types of transference, sometimes go hand in hand, this phenomenon is

5 The word “thesei” comes form Greek and means “convention”, the word “fusei” is also of Greek origin, where it means “nature”.

6 The term “types of information” is used by prof. A.A. Reformatskij.

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known as “metaphtonymy”, for example, the adjective “black” in “black despair” can be treated as a case of metaphtonymy? Can you explain why?

–Give examples of broadening and narrowing of meaning and degeneration and elevation of meaning. Why can the last two terms be regarded as arbitrary and imprecise?

–Comment of the following statement by Karl Sornig and specify the functions that a metaphor serves:

…the capability to use and create metaphoric language can be regarded as a most delicate indicator of communicative competence for a certain language. The capability and propensity for that kind of handling language creatively might very well be considered a universal of language use. Metaphoric replacement of words for each other is a deliberate process which is brought about by the deletion of certain semantic features while other features from the feature-potential are selected and foregrounded, viz. those that would bring certain peculiarities of a certain denotation (whose “real” name has been suppressed and substituted) to the attention of the interlocutor. Focusing on a certain semantic aspect serves at the same time as an evaluative assessment of the concept denoted and an invitation to the recipient to comply with this assessment. Thus, metaphorization serves the evaluative/connotative processing of expressive means from the speaker’s evaluation of situational reality, and it tries to influence the recipient’s interpretation of that same situation

[Sornig, 1981:36].

The cognitive theory of metaphor by G. Lakoff and M. Johnson

According to the cognitive theory of metaphor worked out by G. Lakoff and M. Johnson, our perception of the world is metaphorically structured and this is reflected in the language. In the frame of this conception, metaphor can be defined as understand-

ing the essence of one thing through the essence of another. Cognitive metaphor emerges as a result of interaction of the target domain (the

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