6. Word-combination

1. Word-combination. Lexical and grammatical combinability

2. Meaning of word combinations

3. Interdependence of structure and meaning in word-combinations

4. Motivation in word-combinations

5. Categories of word-combinations

Lexical combinability: delicate/vital/important question.

Garden flowers – садовые цветы, hot-house flowers – оранжерейные цветы, но: pot flowers – комнатные цветы.

Grammatical combinability (colligation):Heavy: heavy storm, heavy to lift. A new dress. Dreadfully tired. Mathematics at clever is meaningless.

Lexical meaning: red flower – red + flower. Atomic weight – atomic bomb.

Blind man, cat – blind print, handwriting.

Structural meaning: school grammar – grammar school

to build + N: to build a house; to rely + on + N: to rely on smb; get + N: get a letter; get + to + N: get to Moscow; get + N + inf: get smb to come; anxious + for + N: anxious for success; anxious + about + N: anxious about his health.

take + N: take tea, take precautions; take + to + N: take to sports.

Motivated WCs: red flower – red + flower – quality + substance: A + N

Non-motivated WCs: red tape – bureaucratic methods.

Categories of word-combinations

1. neutral – stylistically marked: old coat – old boy

2. variable – stable: take a pen – take place

3. non-idiomatic – idiomatic: to speak plainly – to call a spade a spade

4. usual – occasional: blue sky – angry sky

5. sociolinguistically determined – sociolinguistically non-determined: cold war – cold soup

7. Syntagmatic and paradigmatic relationships

8. Polysemy

1. Polysemy.

2. Semantic structure of polysemantic words

Monosemantic words. Terms: synonym, molecule, bronchitis; some pronouns: this, my, both.

Polysemantic words. “bother”: 1) to worry or to cause trouble; 2) to take the trouble. “family”: 1) My family comes from Scotland. 2) The cat family includes lions and tigers. 3) A family of languages. “blanket”: 1) a woolen covering used on beds, 2) a covering for keeping a horse warm, 3) a covering of any kind (a blanket of snow), 4) covering all or most cases: «a blanket insurance policy».

Polysemy is a result of: 1) adj. red, red ink (is really red), red hair, red deer, red cabbage, red Indian. 2) “partner”: a type of relationship between two or more people, business partner, marriage partner, partner in crime. 3) leaf of a tree – leaf of a book.

“executive”, BrE – one who acts under the direction of somebody – исполнитель. AmE – a manager.

Two processes of the semantic development of a word.

1) radiation. “face” – the front part of the human head; the front part of a building, the front part of a watch, the front part of a playing card, expression of the face, outward appearance.

2) concatenation. “crust”: 1) hard outer part of bread, 2) hard part of anything, 3) harder layer over soft snow, 4) sullen gloomy person, 5) impudence.

The analysis of the semantic structure of a polysemantic word is based on the following set of oppositions.

1. direct – derived meaning: “rat”

2. extended – restricted meaning: “to knock”

3. free – bound meaning: “hat”

4. general – specialized meaning: “case”

5. neutral – emotional meaning: “nut”