5. Conversion.

The process of coining a new word in a different part of speech with a different distribution characteristics but without adding any derivative element so that the basic form of the original and the basic formof the derived words are homonymous, is calledconversion(zero derivation, root formation).

As a type of word - formation conversion exists in many languages. The study of conversion in present-day English is of great theoretical interest as nowhere perhaps,are the interdependence of vocabulary and grammar and the systematic character of language so obviously displayed. Studying it,one sees the dependence of word - building types on the character of word structures already frequent in the language.The main reason for the widespread development of conversion in present-day English is no doubt the absence of morphological elements serving as classifying signals,or,in other words,of formal signs marking the part of speech to which the word belongs.

Examples: back п.,v.,adj.,adverb.

homeп.,v.,adj.,adverb, silence п.,v.

LECTURE 5.

Theme: Lexical meaning and semantic structureof the word.

The exact definition of any basic term is no easy task altogether.

The definition of lexical_meaninghas been attempted more than once by representatives of different linguistic schools. The disciples of F.de Saussure consider meaning to be the relation btw. the object or notion named,and the name itself. Descriptive linguists of the Bloomfieldian trend define the meaning as the situation in which the word is uttered. In our country definitions given by the majority of authors,however different in detail,agree in one basic principle: they all point outthat lexical meaning is the realization of the notion by means of a definite language system. It has also been repeatedly stated that the plane of content in speech reflects the whole of human consciousness,which comprises not only mental activity but emotions as well.

The notional content of a word is expressed by the denotative meaning. To denote,then, is to serve as linguistic expression for a notion or as a name for an actually existing object referred to by a word. The term “denotatum” or “referent” means either a notion or an actually existing individual thing to which reference is made.

The emotional content of the word is its capacity to evoke or directly express emotion. It is rendered by the emotional or expressive counterpart of meaning, also called emotive charge,intentional or affectiveconnotations of words.

The denotative meaning may be of two types according to whether the word function is significative and evoke a general idea,or demonstrative,i.e. indentifying.

The complexity of the word meaning is manifold. Apart from the lexical meaning including denotative and connotative meaning it is always combined with the grammatical meaning.

Grammatical meaning is defined as an expression in speech of relationship btw. wordsbased on contrastive features of arrangements inwhich they occur.

One and the same word may have several meanings. A word that has more than one meaning is called polysemantic. Polysemy is more characteristic of the English vocabulary as compared with Russian,due to the monosyllabic character of English and the predominance of root words. The greater the relative frequency of the word,the greater the number of elements that constitute its semantic structure,i.e. the more polysemantic it is. Every meaning in language and every difference in meaning is signalled either by the form of the word itself or by context. In analyzing the polysemy of a word we have to take into consideration that the meaningisthe content of a two - facet linguistic sign existing in unity with the sound form of the sign and its distribution (i.e.its syntagmatic relations depending on the position in the spoken chain).

We have therefore to search for cases of unity for both facets of the linguistic sign - its form and its content.

This unity is present in the so - called lexico-grammatical variants of words. They are characterized by раradigmatic or morphological peculiarities,different syntactic functions,very often they belong to different lexico-grammatical groups of the part of speech: Ex. "run" is intransitive verb in "I ran home"and transitive in "I run this office".

All the lexical and lexico-grammatical variants of a word taken together form its semantic structure.Thus in thesemantic structure of the word "youth"3 lexico-grammatical variants may be distinguished:

1. anabstract uncountable noun e.g. "the friends of ones youth"

2.countable personal noun "a young man",that can be substituted by pron. "he".

3.a collective noun "young men and women". These variants form a structured set because they are expressed by the same sound complex and are interrelated inmeaning as they all contain the semantic component "youth" and can be explained by means of one another. Polysemy and semantic structure exist only in language,not in speech. The sum total of many contexts in which the word may occur permits us to observe and record cases of identical meaning and cases that differ in meaning. They are registered and classified by lexicographers and found in dictionaries.

It is very important to distinguish btw. the lexical meaning of a word in speech and its semantic structure in language. The meaning in speech is contextual.

Polysemy does not interfere with the communicative function of the language because in every particular case the situation and context,i.e. the environment of the word,cancel all the unnecessary meanings and make speech unambiguous.

Lexical meaning and the notion.The term notion is introduced into linguistics from logic and psychology. It denotes the reflection in the mind of real object and phenomena in their essential features and relations. Each notion is characterized by its scope and content. The scope is determined by all the objects it refers to. The content is made up of all the features that distinguish it from other notions. The logical notion is the referent of lexical meaning quite often but not always,because there may be other referents such as the real objects. Notions are always emotionally neutral as they are a category of thought. Language,however,expresses all possible aspects of human consciousness .

Therefore the meaning of many words not only conveys some reflection of objective reality but also the speaker's state of mind and his attitude to what he is speaking about.