The word as the main unit of language and speech

The word as a basic unit of language

The word is the subject matter of Lexicology. The
word may be described as a basic unit of language. The definition of
the word is one of the most difficult problems in Linguistics because
any word has many different aspects. It is simultaneously a semantic,
grammatical and phonological unit.
Accordingly the word may be defined as
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. This
definition based on the definition of a word given by the eminent
French linguist Arthur Meillet does
not permit us to distinguish words from phrases. We
can accept the given definition adding that a word is the smallest
significant unit of a given language capable of functioning alone and
characterized by positional mobility within a sentence, morphological
uninterruptability and semantic integrity.
In Russian Linguistics it is the word but not the morpheme as in
American descriptive linguistics that is the basic unit of language
and the basic unit of lexical articulation of the flow of the speech.
Thus, the word is a structural and
semantic entity within the language system. The word is the basic
unit of the language system, the largest on the morphological level
and the smallest on the syntactic level of linguistic analysis.
As any language unit the word is a two facet unit possessing both its
outer form (sound form) and content (meaning) which is not created in
speech but used ready-maid. As the basic unit of language the word is
characterized by independence or separateness (отдельность),
as a free standing item, and identity (тождество).

The word as an independent
free standing language unit is
distinguished in speech due to its ability to take on grammatical
inflections (грамматическая
оформленнасть) which makes it
different from the morpheme.

The structural
integrity (цельная
оформленнасть) of the word
combined with the semantic integrity and morphological
uninterruptability (морфологическая
непрерывность) makes the word
different from word combinations.

The identity of the
word manifests itself in the ability of
a word to exist as a system and unity of all its forms (grammatical
forms creating its paradigm) and variants: lexical-semantic,
morphological, phonetic and graphic.

The system showing a word in all its word forms is
called its paradigm. The lexical meaning of a word is the same
throughout the paradigm, i.e. all the word forms of one and the same
word are lexical identical while the grammatical meaning varies from
one form to another (give-gave-given-giving-gives;
worker-workers-worker’s-workers’).

Besides the grammatical forms of the words (or
word forms), words possess lexical varieties called variants of words
(a word – a polisemantic word in one of its meanings in which it is
used in speech is described as a lexical-semantic variants. The term
was introduced by A.I. Smernitskiy; e.g. “to learn at school” –
“to learn about smth”; man – мужчина/человек).
Words may have phonetic, graphic and morphological variants:

often – [Þfən]/[
Þftən] – phonetic
variants

birdy/birdie –
graphic variants

phonetic/phonetical – morphological
variants

Thus, within the language system the word exists as a system and
unity of all its forms and variants. The term lexeme may
serve to express the idea of the word as a system of its forms and
variants.

Every word names a given referent and another one and this
relationship creates the basis for establishing understanding in
verbal intercourse (общение). But because
words mirror concepts through our perception of the world there’s
no singleness in word-thing correlations.

As reality becomes more complicated, it calls for
more sophisticated means of nomination. In recent times Lexicology
has developed a more psycho-linguistic and ethno-cultural orientation
aimed at looking into the actual reality of how lexical items work.

Соседние файлы в папке Lecture1

• #
• #
• #
• #

Скачать материал

Скачать материал

The Word As The Basic Unit Of The Language

The word is a unit of speech that serves the purposes of human communication. The word can be perceived as the total of the sounds which comprise it. The word, viewed structurally, possesses several characteristics.

Word-meaning Two schools: the referential approach, which seeks to formulate the essence of meaning by establishing the interdependence between words and the things or concepts they denote the functional approach, which studies the functions of a word in speech and is less concerned with what meaning is than with how it works

There is no inherent connection between this particular sound-cluster and the meaning of the word. English dove, Russian голубь Seal – “a piece of wax, lead” Seal – “a sea animal” O.E. lufian, Mn.E. love

Concept is a category of human cognition. Concept is the thought of the object that singles out its essential features. Our concepts abstract and reflect the most common and typical features of the different objects and phenomena of the world. Being the result of abstraction and generalisation all concepts are almost the same for the whole of humanity in one and the same period of its historical development.

Apple Fruit Something This

The structure of the word External structure (morphological) post-impressionists: prefixes post-, im- root press noun-forming suffixes -ion, -ist grammatical suffix of plurality –s Internal structure (semantic) The word’s meaning

The word’s unity

www.themegallery.com Company Name The Etymology of English Words

www.themegallery.com Company Name The first century В. С. butter and cheese (Lat. butyrum, caseus) cherry (Lat. Cerasum) pear (Lat. Pirum) pepper (Lat. Piper) plant (Lat. Planta) cup (Lat. cuppa) kitchen (Lat. coquina) port (Lat. portus) wine (Lat. vinum)

www.themegallery.com Company Name The fifth century A. D. Mod. E. bald, down, glen, druid, bard, cradle Avon, Exe, Esk, Usk, Ux Celtic Llyn + dun Street (Lat. strata via) Wall (Lat. Vallum)

www.themegallery.com Company Name The seventh century A. D. priest (Lat. presbyter) bishop (Lat. Episcopus) monk (Lat. monachus) nun (Lat. nonna) candle (Lat. candela) school (Lat. schola, of Greek origin) magister (Lat. magister)

www.themegallery.com Company Name End of the 8th –middle of the 11th Scandinavian borrowings: call, take, cast, die, law husband, (< Sc. hus + bondi, i. e. «inhabitant of the house»), window (< Sc. vindauga, i. e. «the eye of the wind») ill, loose, low, weak sky, skill, skin, ski, skirt О. Е. dream (“joy”) – Scandinavian draumr (Germ. Traum «dream“, R. дрёма)

www.themegallery.com Company Name 1066 Administrative words: state, government, parliament, council, power Legal terms: court, judge, justice, crime, prison Military terms: army, war, soldier, officer, battle, enemy Educational terms: pupil, lesson, library, science, pen, pencil table, plate, saucer, dinner, supper, river, autumn, uncle

www.themegallery.com Company Name The Renaissance Period abstract words (major, minor, intelligent, permanent, to elect, to create) scientific and artistic terms (status, phenomenon, philosophy, method, music) Greek Renaissance borrowings (atom, cycle, ethics, esthete) Parisian borrowings (regime, routine, police, machine, ballet, scene, technique) Italian (piano, violin, opera, alarm, colonel)

www.themegallery.com Company Name The Etymological Structure of English Vocabulary The native element Indo-European element Germanic element English Proper element (no earlier than 5th c. A. D.) The borrowed element Celtic (5th — 6th c. A. D.) Latin (1st group: 1st с. В. С. 2nd group: 7th c. A. D. 3rd group: the Renaissance period) Scandinavian (8th — 11th c. A. D.) French (1. Norman borrowings: 11th — 13th c. A. D. 2. Parisian borrowings (Renaissance)) Greek (Renaissance) Italian, Spanish (Renaissance and later) German, Indian, Russian and some other groups

www.themegallery.com Company Name Indo-European element Words of roots common to all or most languages of the Indo-European group. I. Family relations: father, mother, brother, son, daughter. II. Parts of the human body: foot, nose, lip, heart. III. Animals: cow, swine, goose. IV. Plants: tree, birch, corn V. Time of day: day, night. VI. Heavenly bodies: sun, moon, star. VII. Numerous adjectives: red (cf. Ukr. рудий, R. рыжий), new, glad, sad. VIII. The numerals from one to a hundred. IX. Pronouns — personal (except they which is a Scandinavian borrowing); demonstrative. X. Numerous verbs: be, stand, sit, eat, know.

www.themegallery.com Company Name The Germanic element Words of roots common to all or most Germanic languages. I. Parts of the human body: head, hand, arm, finger, bone. II. Animals: bear, fox, calf. III.Plants: oak, fir, grass. IV.Natural phenomena: rain, frost. V. Seasons of the year: winter, spring, summer. VI. Landscape features: sea, land. VII. Human dwellings and furniture: house, room, bench. VIII. Sea-going vessels: boat, ship. IX. Adjectives: green, blue, grey, white, small, thick, high, old, good. X. Verbs: see, hear, speak, tell, say, answer, make, give, drink.

www.themegallery.com Company Name Star: Germ. Stern, Lat. Stella, Gr. aster. Sad: Germ. satt, Lat. satis, R. сыт, Snscr. sd-. Stand: Germ. stehen, Lat. stare, R. стоять, Snscr. stha-. English proper words: bird, boy, girl, lord, lady, woman, daisy, always

4 main types of words can be found in the English language: Root words are words that have only one root morpheme in their structure, e.g., boy, girl, pen, pencil, etc. Derived words/ derivatives are words that have one root morpheme and one of several affixes in their structure, e.g. manhood, rewrite, unlike, etc. Compound words are words that have 2 or more root morphemes in their structure starfish (+compound derivatives/ derivational compounds – built by composition in which one stem is derived, e.g., blue-eyed, old-timer, teenager, kind-hearted, etc.) Shortenings/ contracted words are words formed by contracting certain elements of an existing word or word group, e.g., TV, exam, bus (omnibus), etc.

The most productive ways of word-building: Conversion e.g. water (n) -to water (v); dry (adj) — to dry (v); must (v) — a must (n), go (v) — a go (n). Composition/ Compounding Holiday(holy+day),breakthrough(break+through), bedroom (bed+room) Derivation The compound word ‘unkindness’ ‘kind’ is the base, un- the prefix and -ness the suffix; or in “disjoined’, “join’ is the base, dis- the prefix and -ed the suffix.

Homonyms Homonyms proper (syn. absolute, perfect) – words identical in pronunciation and spelling, e.g. temple – 1) висок, 2) храм; seal – 1) печать, 2) тюлень; ball – 1) мяч, 2) бал, bark – 1) кора, 2) лай, etc. Homophones – words identical in sound-form but different both in spelling and in meaning, e.g. to know – no, not – knot, to meet – meat, piece – peace, write – right, sea – see, son – sun, bye – buy – by, etc. Homographs – words identical in spelling but different both in their sound-form and meaning, e.g. bow /bəʊ/ лук – /baʊ/ поклон, row /rəʊ/ ряд – /raʊ/ ссора, lead(v) /liːd/ вести – /lɛd/ свинец, tear (v) /tɛː/ рвать – /tɪə/ слеза, etc.

Semantic changes Semantic change in the context of words describes the gradual shift in the conventional meaning of words, as people use them in new types of contexts and these usages become normal. The meaning of a word can change in the course of time. Transfer of the meaning is called lexico-semantic word-building. In such cases the outer aspect of a word does not change.

Types of semantic changes Amelioration/əˌmiːlɪəˈreɪʃ(ə)n/ or elevation (a semantic shift of meaning) e.g., pretty < OE: prættig ‘crafty, sly‘ Pejoration of meaning (also degradation of meaning) e.g., spinster ‘unmarried woman’ < ‘one who spins’ Broadening (extension, generalization or widening) of meaning e.g., dog =>specific powerful breed of dog => all breeds or races of dog Semantic narrowing of meaning (or specialization) e.g., wife => OE ‘woman’ =>’woman of humble rank or low employment’ => ‘married woman, spouse‘ Bleaching e.g., awfully, terribly, horribly (awfully late, awfully big, awfully small) or pretty (pretty good, pretty bad . . .) Metaphor e.g., «The rain came down in long knitting needles.» (Enid Bagnold, National Velvet)

Types of semantic changes Metonymy /mɪˈtɒnɪmi/ e.g., «Fear gives wings.» (Romanian proverb) Synecdoche / sɪˈnɛkdəki / e.g., hand ‘hired hand, employed worker‘

www.themegallery.com Company Name Exercises Subdivide all the following words of native origin into: a) Indo-european, b) Germanic, c) English proper. Daughter, woman, room, land, cow, moon, sea, red, spring, three, lady, always, goose, bear, fox, lord, tree, nose, daisy, heart

Exercises Choose the correct answer. A branch of lexicology which is devoted to the study of meaning is called a) Etymology b) Dialectology c) Semantics d) Phraseology

Exercises Choose the correct answer. The referential approach a) seeks to formulate the meaning by establishing the interdependence between words and the things or concepts they denote b) studies the functions of a word in speech and is concerned with how meaning works.

Choose the right answer. 1. She wants an apple, not a ___. pear pair 2. The bus ___ is one dollar. fare fair 3. ___ house is near the lake. There Their

4. No eating or drinking ___ on the sports ground! aloud allowed 5. The book teaches how to spell ___. write right 6. We took a ___ from work and went for a walk. break brake

7. We must consider this situation as a ___ . hole whole 8. It’s time to ___ the seeds. sew sow 9. Mix some ___ with milk, eggs, and sugar and make cookies for the children. flower flour 10. It was more than I could ___ . bare bear

Semantic changes 1. Processes of Semantic Change Identify the type of semantic shift that has occurred in each case. Choose either Metaphor or Metonymy. a. barbecue ‘a rack for cooking meat over a fire’ > barbecue ‘a social event at which food is cooked over a fire’ b. influence ‘something which has flowed in’ > influence ‘something which affects someone without apparent effort’ c. mouth ‘the body opening through which an animal takes food’ > mouth ‘a person’ (eg. «three mouths to feed») d. solve ‘to loosen’ > solve ‘to clear up something puzzling’ e. counter ‘a device for counting’ > counter ‘a surface on which various devices can be placed’ f. mouth ‘the body opening through which an animal takes food’ > mouth ‘an opening into a cave or canyon’ g. white shirt ‘a shirt that is white in color’ > white shirt ‘a manager’

2. Result of Semantic Change For each example, tell whether the result of the semantic shift is Narrowing, Degeneration, Widening, or Amelioration. a. OE wif ‘a woman’ > Modern English wife ‘a married woman’ b. nuke ‘to destroy with nuclear weapons’ > nuke ‘to destroy in any manner’ (eg. Buffy nuked her Porsche last night.) c. ME marshall ‘groom for horses (literally ‘horse slave’)’ > Modern English marshall ‘high ranking officer’ d.OE steorfan ‘to die (of any cause)’ > Modern English starve ‘to die from hunger’ e. Middle English vilein ‘feudal serf, farmer’ > Modern English villain ‘a wicked or evil person’ f. OE bouchier ‘one who slaughters goats’ > Modern English butcher ‘one who slaughters animals’ g. Middle English girle ‘child’ > Modern English girl ‘female child’ h. lyric ‘poem to be sun with a lyre’ > lyric ‘any poem to be sung’ i. lewd ‘of the laity (i.e. non-church)’ > lewd ‘indecent’ j. OE mete ‘any food’ > Modern English meat ‘animal flesh’