Lexicology in theory, practice and tests Study guide Recommended by the Academic Council of Sumy State University Sumy Sumy State University 2015

1. The pen is mightier than the sword. 2. He writes a fine hand. 3. Fox News has always maintained. 4. As the bullet pierced his chest, I watched the life flow out of him. 5. She is the shoulder I always cry on. 6. The blueberry pie wants to see the chef. 7. We have always remained loyal to the crown. 8. They gradually ascended for half-a-mile, and then found themselves at the top of a considerable eminence, where the wood ceased, and the eye was instantly caught by Pemberley House, situated on the opposite side of a valley, into which the road with some abruptness wound. 9. Elizabeth’s heart was delighted. She had never seen a place for which nature had done more, or where natural beauty had been so little counteracted by an awkward taste. 10. King’s hand does this better than anyone else. We finished the book about three non-stop hours after we picked it up. 11. Smaug’s eyes certainly looked fast asleep, when Bilbo peeped once more from the entrance. 12. My poor legs, my poor legs and poor me. It is a dangerous and long adventure for a little hobbit, I say. 13. You’re a fool head, William, as I’ve said afore this evening. 14. My eyes are exited! This is the real elvish blade. 15. Calm down, boy. We must wait to hear from the crown until we make any further decisions. 16. Don’t trouble your little peanut head over the problem. It is not worth. 17. Yes, we were together. We even engaged. But one day she just broke my heart. 18. One table was playing dominoes already. 19. The Stars and Stripes dangled languidly from a flagstaff. 20. She smoothed the front other dress with the palms of soft, clever hands. 21. I stopped at a bar and had a couple of double Scotches. They didn't do me any good. All they did was make me think of Silver Wig, and I never saw her again. 22. The White House asked the television networks for air time on Monday night. 23. Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.

Sometimes, the process of transference may result in a considerable change in the range of meaning. For example, the verb to arrive (French borrowing) comes from English and had the narrow meaning “to come to shore, to land”. In modern English it has greatly widened and developed the general meaning “to come”. Here we come across broadening or generalization of meaning. The meaning developed through transference based on contiguity, but the range of the second meaning is much broader. In such cases the meaning of a word becomes more general in the course of time. The transfer from a concrete meaning to an abstract one is most frequent, e. g. ready (a derivative from the verb ridan - ride) meant “prepared for a ride”, now its meaning is “prepared for anything”. Journey was borrowed from French with the meaning “one day trip”, now it means “a trip of any duration”. All auxiliary verbs are cases of generalization of their lexical meaning because they developed a grammatical meaning: have, be, do, shall, will when used as auxiliary verbs are devoid of their lexical meaning which they have when used as notional verbs or modal verbs, e. g. cf. I have a new car and I have bought a new car. In the first sentence the verb have has the meaning “possess”, in the second sentence it has no lexical meaning, its grammatical meaning is to form Present Perfect.

Narrowing (or specialization) of meaning is a process contrary to broadening. It is a gradual process when a word passes from a general sphere to some special sphere of communication, e. g. case has a general meaning “circumstances in which a person or a thing is”. It is specialized in its meaning when used in law (a law suit), in grammar (a form in the paradigm of a noun), in medicine (a patient, an illness). The difference between these meanings can be revealed from the context. The meaning of a word can specialize when it remains in the general usage. It occurs in the case of the conflict between two absolute synonyms when one of them specializes in its meaning to remain in the language, e. g. the English verb starve was specialized in its meaning after the Scandinavian verb die was borrowed into English. Die became the general verb with this meaning because in English there were the noun death and the adjective dead. The meaning of starve was “to die of hunger”.

The next way of specialization is the formation of Proper names from common nouns, it is often used in toponimics, e. g. the City – the business part of London, Oxford – university town in England, the Tower – originally a fortress and palace, later – a prison, now – a museum.

It is interesting to trace the history of the word girl. In the Middle English it had the next meaning of ‘a small child of either sex’. Then the word underwent the process of transference based on contiguity and gained the meaning of ‘a small child of the female sex’, so that the range of meaning was narrowed. In its further semantic development the word gradually broadened its range of meaning. At first it came to denote not only a female child but, also, a young unmarried woman, later, only young woman, so that its range of meaning is quite broad.

Some more examples:

In all these words the second meaning developed through transference based on contiguity, and when we speak of them as examples of narrowing of meaning we imply that the range of the second meaning is more narrow than that of the original meaning.

Elevation is a transfer of the meaning when it becomes better in the course of time, e. g. knight originally meant “a boy”, then “a young servant”, then “a military servant”, then “a noble man”. Now it is a title of nobility given to outstanding people; marshal originally meant “a horse man” now it is the highest military rank etc.

Degradation is a transfer of the meaning when it becomes worse in the course of time. It is usually connected with nouns that denote common people, e. g. villain originally meant “working on a villa” now it means “a scoundrel”.
Hyperbole and Litote

Hyperbole is a transfer of the meaning when the speaker uses exaggeration, e. g. to hate (doing something), (not to see somebody) for ages. Hyperbole is often used to form phraseological units, e. g. to make a mountain out of a molehill, to split hairs, etc. Litote is a transfer of the meaning when the speaker expresses affirmative with the negative or vica versa, e. g. not bad, no coward, etc.

Synonyms are words different in their outer aspects, but identical or similar in their inner aspects. In other words synonyms are words with the same or similar meanings. Words that are synonyms are said to be synonymous, and the state of being a synonym is called synonymy. The word comes from Ancient Greek syn (σύν) (“with”) and onoma (νομα) (“name”). Examples of synonyms are the words begin and commence. Likewise, if we talk about a long time or an extended time, long and extended become synonyms.

Synonyms can be of any part of speech (such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs or prepositions), as long as both words are the same part of speech. Here are more examples of English synonyms:

– verb

– adjective

– adverb

– preposition

Note that synonyms are defined with respect to certain senses of words; for instance, pupil as the “aperture in the iris of the eye” is not synonymous with student. Likewise, he expired means the same as he died, yet my passport has expired cannot be replaced by my passport has died.

In English, many synonyms emerged in the Middle Ages, after the Norman conquest of England. While England’s new ruling class spoke Norman French, the lower classes continued to speak Old English (Anglo-Saxon). Thus, today we have synonyms like the Norman-derived people, liberty and archer, and the Saxon-derived folk, freedom and bowman.

Some lexicographers claim that no synonyms have exactly the same meaning (in all contexts or social levels of language) because etymology, orthography, phonic qualities, ambiguous meanings, usage, etc. make them unique. Different words that have similar meaning usually differ for a reason: feline is more formal than cat; long and extended are only synonyms in one usage and not in others (for example, a long arm is not the same as an extended arm). Synonyms are also a source of euphemisms.

In contemporary research the term synonyms may be used for words with the same denotation, or the same denotative component, but differing in connotations, or connotative components.

Types of Semantic Components

The leading semantic component in the semantic structure of a word is usually termed denotative (or sometimes referential) component. The denotative component expresses the conceptual content of a word.

The following list presents denotative components of some English verbs:

to glare → to look

to glance → to look

to shiver → to tremble

to shudder → to tremble.

The definitions given in the right column only partially describe the meaning of their corresponding words. To give more or less full picture of the meaning of a word, it is necessary to include in the scheme of analysis additional semantic components which are termed connotations or connotative components.

Let us give connotative components to our verbs.
to glare →to look steadily 1.Connotation of duration

lastingly

in anger, 2.Emotive connotation

rage, etc.
to glance → to look briefly 1.Connotation of duration

passingly
to shiver → to tremble lastingly 1.Connotation of duration

with the cold 2. Connotation of cause

to shudder → to tremble briefly 1.Connotation of duration

with horror, 2.Connotation of cause

disgust, etc. 3.Emotive Connotation

Types of Connotations

1. 
   The connotation of degree and intensity (to surprise – to astonish – to amaze).
   
2. 
   The connotation of duration (to stare – to gaze – to glance).
   
3. 
   Emotive connotation (alone – single – lonely – solitary).
   
4. 
   The evaluative connotation (well-known – famous; to produce – to create – to manufacture).
   
5. 
   The connotation of manner (to like – to admire – to love – to adore worship).
   
6. 
   The connotation of cause (to shudder – to tremble).
   

A group of synonyms is usually studied with the help of their dictionary definitions (definitional analysis). The data from various dictionaries are analyzed comparatively. After that the definitions are subjected to transformational operations (transformational analysis). In this way, the semantic components of each analyzed word are signed out.

Here are the results of the definitional and transformational analysis of some synonyms for the verb to look.

To stare:	to look + steadily, lastingly + in surprise, curiosity, etc.
To glare:	to look + steadily, lastingly + in anger, rage, fury.
To gaze:	to look + steadily, lastingly + in tenderness, admiration.
To glance:	to look + briefly, in passing.
To peep:	to look+ steadily, lastingly + by stealth, through an opening or from a conceded location.

The common denotation shows that the words are synonyms. The connotative components highlight their differentiations.

In modern research the criterion of interchangeability is applied. According to it, synonyms are defined as words which are interchangeable at least in some contexts without considerable alteration in denotational meaning. But this theory has been much criticized. Synonyms are not, cannot and should not be interchangeable, or they would simply become useless ballast in the vocabulary.

In every synonymic group there is a word called the dominant synonym.

Ex: to shine – to gleam – to sparkle – to glitter – to glimmer – to shimmer – to flash – to blaze; fear – terror – horror.

The dominant synonym expresses the notion common to all synonyms of the group in the most general way, without contributing any additional information as to the manner, intensity, duration, etc. Its meaning which is broad and generalized, covers the meaning of the rest of the synonyms. Here, the idea of interchangeability comes into its own. But such substitution would mean a loss of the additional information.

Academician Vinogradov has established the only existing classification system for synonyms.

There are 3 types of synonyms:

1. 
   ideographic synonyms are words conveying the same concept but differing in shades of meaning, e. g. fast – rapid – swift – quick, etc.;
   
2. 
   stylistic synonyms differ in stylistic characteristics, e. g. to begin (neutral) – to commence (bookish) – to start (neutral) – to initiate (bookish);
   
3. 
   absolute synonyms coincide in all their shades of meaning and in all their stylistic characteristics and, therefore, are interchangeable in all contexts, e. g. compounding – composition; word-building – word-formation.
   

ideographic

stylistic

absolute
e. g. compounding – composition; word-building – word-formation

Synonymy has its characteristic patterns in each language. Its peculiar feature in English is the contrast between simple native words stylistically neutral, literary words borrowed from French and learned words of Greco-Latin origin. This results in a sort of stylistically conditioned triple “keyboard” that can be illustrated by the following:

The important things to remember is that it is not only borrowings from foreign languages but other sources as well that have made increasing contributions to the stock of English synonyms. There are, for instance, words that come from dialects, and, in the last hundred years, from American English in particular. As a result speakers of British English may make use of both elements of the following pairs, the first element in each pair coming from the USA: gimmick :: trick; dues :: subscription; long distance (telephone) call :: trunk call; radio :: wireless. There are also synonyms that originate in numerous dialects as, for instance, clover :: shamrock; liquor :: whiskey (from Irish); girl :: lass, lassie or charm :: glamour (from Scottish).