Автор: Пользователь скрыл имя, 06 Февраля 2013 в 17:44, курс лекций
Lexicology (from Gr lexis ‘word’ and logos ‘learning’) is the part of linguistics dealing with the vocabulary of the language and the properties of words as the main units of language.
The term vocabulary is used to denote the system formed by the sum total of all the words and word equivalents that the language possesses.
The term word denotes the basic unit of a given language resulting from the association of a particular meaning with a particular group of sounds capable of a particular grammatical employment. A word therefore is simultaneously a semantic, grammatical and phonological unit.
The task of distinguishing between the different meanings of a word and the different variations of combinability (or, in a traditional terminology, different usages of the word) is actually a question of singling out the different denotations within the semantic structure of the word.
Cf.:
1) a sad woman,
2) a sad voice,
3) a sad story,
4) a sad scoundrel (= an incorrigible scoundrel)
5) a sad night (= a dark, black night, arch, poet.)
How many meanings of sad can you identify in these contexts? Obviously the first three contexts have the common denotation of sorrow whereas in the fourth and fifth contexts the denotations are different. So, in these five contexts we can identify three meanings of sad. All this leads us to the conclusion that context is not the ultimate criterion for meaning and it should be used in combination with other criteria. Nowadays, different methods of componential analysis are widely used in semantic research: definitional analysis, transformational analysis, distributional analysis. Yet, contextual analysis remains one of the main investigative methods for determining the semantic structure of a word.
Questions of the seminar
1. What is understood by "semantics"? Explain the term "polysemy".
2. Define polysemy as a linguistic phenomenon. Illustrate your answer with your own examples.
3. What are the two levels of analysis in investigating the semantic structure of a word?
4. What types of semantic components can be distinguished within the meaning of a word?
5. What is one of the most promising methods for investigating the semantic structure of a word? What is understood by collocability (combinability)?
6. How can one distinguish between the different meanings of a word and the different variations of combinability?