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Lexicology (lexicology.doc)
LEXIKOLÓGIA
= dealing with words(tvorenie slov)
2 knihy- Ivor Rybka, Mária Imrichova: Zákl. slov. Lexikológie
- Pavol Kvetko – Essencials of mothern English Lexicology
Concept: base of the word
DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE
- Lexicology: is the branch of linguistic studying the vocabulary of the given language
- Dictionary: book compainig of vocabulary of the given language
- Reats word: cammon, history and meaning
- Language: is a product of human sociaty, can exist only in human sociaty, outside sociaty there is no language, ideals and thaught=different aspect of lives, find there ways in to the material reality of people throw the medium of language
- The language: can be understand only if it is studied in conection with history af the sociaty, all the words in language make up what is generaly called the vocabulary of the language(dictionary is specialy book containing words-vocabulary-is the collection of words of a specific language)
- The volume(objem)and character of the vocabulary are determined by the socila and economic and culture history of the people speaking the language. Socila, political, and culture changes in the human sociaty cause changes in the vocabulary of the language. When a new product, new conception comes in to the thought of a people it is in evitabely(nevyhnutné)finds a name in there language
- Rapie advance: which are been made in scientific knowledge create continual demand(požiadavka) for the formation of new words to expres this reality. In simple words the vocabulary reflects all the things that have happend in certain period of the history and life of the sociaty.
- Lexicology: is that branch of a sticks which is in separably bound(spojený) with grammar, which determines the rules governy the modification(úpravy) of words, governy the combination of words in to sentences and the formation of new words. There is a close relatiomship between lexicology and stylistic
- Lexicology: is study concerned(týkajúce sa) with properities, usage and origin of words and regularities and relations in the vocabulary of the language. Traditionaly it includes the study of nameing the extralingoul reality(mimojazyková realita) study of meaning, the history of words and the words formation
- Each of the parts of lexicology has its own problems and it studies words from a certain point of vew
THE NATIVE ELEMENTS IN THE ENGLISH VOCABULARY
- The study of the english vocabulary must beginig with the native elements which was brought to Britain in 5th cen. by the German tribes, despite the borrowing already made before the Anglo-saxon setlers in Britain and despite the large scales borrowings of the later periods, native words are still at the core(jadro) of the language. The native stock(zásoba) includes auxiliary and modal werbs, most words of the strong conjunction(časovanie). Pronoun most numerals, prepositions, conjuctions almost all commonly used english words are anflo-saxons in origin it should be mention that the native element in modern onglish is mostly monosillabic.
- The fundamental feature of the basic words stock of:
- all national charakters
- great stability
- the basic words stock includes all the rootwords as the core
- words belonging to the basic words stock often possess a plurality of meaning
- In the basic stock of words we can find names denoting the commonest things necessary for life(bred, water, meat...)
- Things of natural (snow, rain, grass, frost, colour, wind)
- names of seasons, parts of body
- names of sociaty and administrative order (city, village)
- as has been already said one of the basic feature of the basic stock of words is its stability. Othervise nutual under the standibg of the members all the certain comunity word not be possible. On the other hand the language slovly undergoes some changes by being suplemented(doplňované)with new words. This proces can be seen also in the english vocabulary. Quiet a member of Scandinavian, Latin, Franch borrovings had become part of the english basic stock of words:
- wall was taken from Latin – vallum
- pear – pirum
- street – strata
- flower – flear
- colour – coleur
- courage – corage
- During the anglo-saxon period the EL was apected by the native Celtic inhabitans, by the Latin language and even later by Scandinavian languages. The principal contact(hl. Contact) between the English and Celtic speach was established by the english settlements of the British Isles. The influents of Celtic upon english may be seen in the names of town. Native names are common in all parts of England, especially in the north and west. In Scotland and Irelandä
- The Celtic words Avon means river and it still found as the name of several streams of GB especially in in central England, Scotland and Wales. Here are few words which are Celtic in origin which have acquired internation usage – budget(rozpočet), cereer(kariéra), clan, mackintsh(gumený plášť)
THE FOREIGN ELEMNTS IN MODERN ENGLISH
- In the study of language its vocabulary, an inportant role is played by words taken from other language which are known, other the loan words. If he look at the proces of excepting foreign words enetrated into the language we can that a given language come in to contact with other languages.
- Sometimes a given language may come into contact with a languages that belongs to a different language family.
- Three language have contributed(prispeli) to extensive chares(podiel)to the en. words stock and deserve(zaslúžia) special entention: Latin, Greek, French
- Loan words have come to the English teritory throught commers, literatury, travel and meny other ways. In the influence of foreign language may be done in to 2 ways:
- throught the spoken words by personal contacts between people
- throught the eritten words by indirect contact throught the literature of the given peoples.
- The former way was more productive in the earlier stages(strašie obdobie) and letter has become imoprtant in more recent time.
- As part as the character foreign borrroving is considered these may be subdivided into the 4 following groups:
- Aliens are words borroved from foreign language without any changes of the foreign sound and sepling. Such words were taken from French: balllet, bouquet, resume, regime. Anyway certain foreign words after period of tiem are not feld to be aliens and they became associated with the already existing native words.
- Demisens in English are represnted by many Scandinavian borrovings which became perfectly naturalised in usage and they have been acomodated (prispôsobené) to the English by their sounds acent and by their development of forms such words: call, kill, law, die, lose, skirt, skin. Sometimes there are cases that a foreign words may be combined with english sufix/prefix such are: trouble – troublesome, fault – faultless, certain – uncertain
- translation louns represented the influence of one lenguage upon another. Mothertoung – lingua materna, a slip of the toung – lapsun lingue, having industry – schwere idustry, muster peace, great power – grose mucht, waterfall-vasserfall
- Cementic borroving (významné pôžičky) meny words have acquired a new meaning in mothern English name words benn taken from Russia language but with their meaning that was shifted, the word: brigade: has its basic mening from the military spher but in Russian brigade may have the meaning of organising voluntary work . Another word pioneer means in Russian a member of a youth organisation which originaly meant a settler, in English this word represented people who tride to get further to thr west from Eastern parts of the USA
LEXICAL ELEMENTS IN THE ENGLISH VOCABULARY
LATIN:
Classical elements came into the E. language at different times and in different ways. The Gemanic tribes of which the Angles and Saxons formed part had been in contact with the Roman civilization and had adopted many Latin words. But this words are typical of the early Roman commercial penetration. To this period the introduction of the word wine belongs whose name in Latin is VINUM. Other Latin words connected with trade: iron monger (železiarstvo), fish monger (ten čo predáva ryby), war monger (vojnový štváč – chce zarobiť na vojne)... monger – obchodník.
Here are some words in English that have their origin in Latin: ass-asellus (somár), mule-mulus (mulica), colony-colonia, mill – mola (mlyn), cup – cupa, kettle – catillus, dish-diskus, street-strata. Some geographical names ending in – Chester such as Manchester, Glouchester, Lancaster have their origin partially in Latin where castrum means opevnený tábor.
In analyzing the early Latin loans, we can see that they penetrated the English lang; during several periods of time. In the first period words of military character became accepted by means of purely oral men...? This situation lasted 4 centuries, which preceded the invasion of Angles, Saxons, Frisians.
Different: the English words big, large and great have the same basic meaning, but there are some aspects by which they are different.
MEANING AND REFERENT
The meaning is related to the sphere of the linguistics whereas denoting object (the referent) is outside the sphere of language.
TYPES OF MEANING
The meaning of words is nothing homogeneous but is made up of various components. The combination and the interrelation of which determines to a great extent the inner facet of the word. These components are usually described as types of meaning. The two types of meaning are the so-called grammatical and lexical meanings that can be found in words.
GRAMATICAL MEANING
If we look at the words such as girls, winters, tables, children, etc, though they denote different objects of reality incoming they have something that is typical of their forms. This common element is the grammatical meaning of plurality, which can be found in them.
Tous the grammatical meaning may be defined as the component in identical sets of individual forms of different words: e.g. the tense meaning in the word forms of verbs. E. g.: asked, thought, walked the case meaning in the word forms of various nouns: e.g.: girl´s, boy´s, plane´s
LEXICAL MEANING
Comparing word forms of one and the same word we observe that besides grammatical meaning, there is another component of meaning to be found in then. This component is identical in all the forms of the word. E. g.: the word forms of go, goes, went, going, gone possess different grammatical meanings of tense, person etc. But in each of this forms we find one and the same semantic component denoting a pracess of movement. This is the lexical meaning of the word which may be described as the component of the meaning to the word as a linguistic unit. It follows that be lexical meaning we designate the maning of a given word in all its forms, while by grammatical meaning we designate the meaning to sets of word forms common to all words of a certain part of speech.
EMOTIVE CHARGE
Words contain on element of emotive evaluation as part of the connotational meaning e. g.: the English word hovel denotes a small house or cottage and besides it says that it is a miserable dwelling place, dirty and in bad state. This does not depend (emotive charge) on the feeling of the individual speaker but is true for all speakers of English. The emotive charge varies in different word classes (parts of speech) In e. g.: in interjections the emotive charge prevails whereas conjunctions the emotive charge is practically non existed.
DENOTATIONAL AND CONNOTATIONAL MEANING
It is important to take into account (vziať do úvahy) the lexical meaning is not homogeneous and it may be analyzed as including denotational and connotational components. One of the functions of words is to denote things, concepts different phenomena etc. Uses of language cannot have any knowledge of objects or phenomena of the real word around them unless this knowledge is embodied in words which have essentially the same meaning for all speakers of that language. This is the denotational meaning, it is that component of the lexical meaning which makes communication possible. The second component of the lexical meaning is so-called connotational meaning, it is the emotive charge.
STYLISTIC REFERENCE
Words differ not only in their emotive charge but also in their stylistic reference. Sytlistically words can be roughly subdivided into literary and non literary layers. The greater part of the literary layer of modern English vocabulary are words of general use having no specific stylistic reference: these are known as neutral words. Against the backround of neutral words we can distinguish two major subgroups:
- Standard colloquial (hovorové slová) – daddy
- Literary or bookish (e.g.: the word father which is stylically neutral the form dad, daddy have the character of a colloquial form)
Literary (bookish) words are not stylistically homogeneous. Literary words and the vocabulary in general includes words that represent: 1. terms or scientific words
2. poetic words and others
denotational and connotational components. ty and in
The non-literary words may be subdivided into:
- slang words which are often regarded as a violation of the norms of standard English. E.g.: governor in slang may mean father, gag means joke, dotty means insane
- professionalism – it is words used in narrow groups having the same occupation e.g. lab – laboratory
- jargon – it is words used within a particular social group
- vulgarisms – it is words that are not generally used in public e.g.: bloody, hell, damn
All words in language together constitute what is konwn as its vocabulary. Everywhere has two aspects: the outer aspect – sound and the inner aspect – meaning. The interrelation between the two aspects shows that they may developed differently. Though everywhere is a unity of sound and meaning we cannot say that it is such an entity that if we change one of the element of other will change accordingly. In a number of instances words have several meanings. This sound and meaning do not always form a constant unit. The context generally gives the word its actual meaning. The context will generally show in what meaning the word is used, either in its primary sense of figuratively. When used literally words have their natural meaning, when used figuratively they have a symbolic meaning. That is why we should distinguish between the actual and lexical meaning. An isolated word in meaing of the word is determined by the context. Words used in a different context may undergo a shift of meaning which may lead to polysemin and two main processes may occur: 1. radiation 2. concatenation
RADIATION
It is a semantic process in which the primary meaning stands at the center and the secondary meanings come out of it in every duraton like ray. Each of them is independent of all the rest and may be traced back to the central signification e.g.: in moderm English the word face may signify: 1. fromt part of the head; 2. outward appearance; 3. the principal sight of surface of anything; 4. the front of a building; 5. a cliff; 6. a marked side of a playing card; 7. the front side of a watch (the clock face)
Besides what had been said the face may have different technical meanings.
The meaning reached by the first shift may intern be shifted a second time and son on form many times, so that the original meaning may be quite lost. Etymologically the word concatenation may be explained as linking tohether.
CONCATENATION
It is name of the semantic process in which the meaning of a word moves gradually away form its first signification by successive shifts of meanigs until, in any cases there is not a shadow of conection between the sense that is finally developed and the sense which determine had at the beginning of its use.
It is evident that radiation and concatenation are closely connected and there is a development of different stages of the same process. In fact radiation always precedes concatenation. E.g.: this process can be illustrated by the development of the word board:
- in a piece of wood sawn thin
- board as a part of a compound (blackboard, notice-board, chessboard...)
- a component of the word hardboard, material may be hard paper instead wood
- board may have the meaning of the word table
- it may dnote a diece of furniture (side-board (kredenc))
- in the phrase: “to be on the boards” – byt v komisii, “board of directors” – správna rada
- the phrase: “board and lodging” – strava a ubytovanie
Another phenomenon in lexcology is the term catachresis. Catachresis often expresses phrases which in a sense in which the components contradict to one another. E.g.: eloquent silence, landed on the sea, zem: earth, ground, soil, land
POLYSEMY
Polysemy (multiple meaning) is the term used to describe a single word with several different but closely related meanings. Words are generally units of more than one meaning. A word that has more than one meaning in the language is called a polysemous word. Words having only one meaning are comparatively rare and they are called monosemous word and they are usually technical or scientific terms. E.g.: in linguistics the followings terms such as noun phoneme vowel are words of such a character. E.g.: head: part of the body; peak of the something; the chief person.
In actual speech the context is very important for the interpretation of the concrete meaning of the word. E.g.: it cost him his head, the horse won by a head, Mr. Brown is the head of our school.
When talking about polysemous in English we have two distinguish the so-called basic meaning form the minor meaning of the word. E.g.: in the case of the noun hand the basic meanings is placed as the first in the dictionar i.e. hand – part of the body and other meanings (minor) follow hand – hand of a clock; farm hand – pracovník
The second period of the penetration of Latin words occurred in the sixth and 7th cnturies when the people of England were converted to Christianity. To this period belong such words as: altar, chapter, candle, creed, cross, feast, disciple.... besides this words the names of many articles of..... foreign production were brought into English from Latin: copper, marble, chalk, linen. Also other words such as: elephant, lily, fiddle, palm, pearl..... From that time there has been a gradual but constant adoption of Latin words.
The penetration of Latin words into English is partly due to great historical events. The Noman Conquest and the Revival of learning renaissance. This period is often called the third period of Latin influence in which a great stock of Latin words entered English trouhg French language: animal, antenna, genius, stimulus, nucleus, radius, datum, series, maximum, minimum, junior, senior / During the 4th period loans taken from Latin represent abstract and scientific words adopted exclusive through the medium of writing.
There are several abbreviations adopted in English from Latin: e.g. (example, gracias), i.e. (id es), a. m. (ante meridian), p.m. (post meridian)....
Ibidem (ibid) – in the same place (in the book)
GREEK LANGUAGE IN ENGLISH
Great many Greek words introduced into English came in chiefly throuhg the median of Latin, because the Latin language itself, owes a lot to the Greek influence. Borrowings from Greek into English go back to an early period. Anyway the influx (príliv) of Greek words on a large scale did not begin until the time of the revival of learning (in renaissance). The most of such borrowings are of bookish character.
It is interesting that the modern scientific and technical terms of Greek origin are nearly all of a international usage. In natural sciences the presence of Greek words is striking. It is sufficient to mention the names of such fields as Botany, Physiology, Physics, Zoology and others to see to what scale the Greek terms are also used in medicine. Greek borrowings were more of less Latinized, it means there are spelled and pronounced not as in Greek but as in Latin. Here are some Greek bowwowings that can be found in the English vocabulary: analysis, comedy, democrat, democracy, dictator, dialogue, gymnastics, Physics, Philology, Philosophy, problem, tragedy....
Here are some loan words which are used in linguistics: antonyms, archaisms, dialect, etymology, homonym, hoophone, idiom, lexicology, metaphor....
THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT
The Danish invasion in 878 AD resulted in the occupation of a great part of England. But Scandinavian words were borrowed within the 9th and 12th century. However in modern English it is very difficult form the point of view of Etymology to make the difference between words that are supposed to be of Scandinavian origin compared to words of English origin. Due to the fact of the great simolarity between the English and Scandinavian languages, but the Scandinavian loan words are practically everyday words in English: anger, bull, calf, cake, crop, egg, gate, guest, kid (kozla), knife, right, rite, write, night, knight, gnat, sky, ski, skin, flat, ill, low, wrong, call, guess, get, give, seem, take, want....
THE NORMA x FRENCH ELEMENT
The Norman French influence started to penetrating the English after he battle of Hastings in 1066 this is one of the most important date in the history of England. The immediate result of this event was that all important places in the government and the court and in the church were filled by French speaking people. Naturally not all feudals spoke French, which was spoken by the upper classes ot he English society. In the course of time the French language started to be spoken more and more by the population. The flooding of the English vocabulary with French words began in the 13th century and reached very large proportions in the century that follow. In general it can be said that the French loans penetrated the English vocabulary in the course of two main periods so they may be subdivided into a two main groups.
1st early loans: In the course of the 12th and 15th centuries and secondly later loans beginning from the 16th century. Early French loans were naturalized in English and they gradually word made to conform to the rules of English pronuncation. The early loans from French were simple short words as distinguished form later introductions. Some examples: age, ear, arm, breeze, brush, cage, chain, chance, change, clear..... The influence of the French languae is particulary felt in the vocabulary of law. Words like: accuse, court, fee, heritage, judge, justice, penalty, privilege, session. Another sphere of French influence was military sphere. Example: arms, admiral, battle, lance, sergeant, soldier, troops.
Among numerous latin and Greek word which entered English vocabulary through French language in the epoque of the French bourgeoisie revolution one can find words as: democrat, aristocrat, royalist. In the 18th century the vocabulary of literature was influenced by French words such as: novelist, publisher, magazine, editor. The vocabulary of the church was also influenced by French, as can be seen form such words: lesson, pray, service, tempt.... If we look at the words denoting the names of different kinds of meat and the names of the animals, the meat is produced from this will show us the certain point, the subdivision of the society in England at that time. The animals carry English names, while the product carries French names. Names: beef-cow, ox, veal-calf; pork – pig, off; mutton – sheep; lamb-lamb. In the sphere of cookery; roast, sausage, soup, jelly, pastry. Some words related to things that make life enjoyable are taken from French: comfort, joy, flower, fruit and pleasure.
When French endins (suffixes) can be combined with English words een though the suffix is of French origin drinkable, breakable, ess-xaitress, shepherd-shepherdess. The following phonetic peculiarities are forms of later adoptions in English from Fench:
- in English the accent is kept on the last syllable in words like cravat, finance, supreme
- ch is pronounced as s: machine, avalanche, charlatan, chaperon
The final consonant p, s, t is not pronounced in English: ballet, coup
OTHER ELEMENTS
We can find many borrowngs in the English vocabulary from other movements to English language. Such as Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. Cultural and commercial relationships between England and Italy in the epoch of the renaissance especially in the 16th century brought in many Italian words from the sphere of architecture: balcony, colonnade, vialin, volcao
Italian music was introduced into England in the 18th century and with this many musical terms were adopted by english: baritone, duet, libretto, piano, concert, tenor, soprano, intermezzo, opera, solo
INTERNATIONAL WORDS
Most of developed modern languages have a common international fund of words which comprises (obsahuje) scientific, technical and social-political terminology. Words making of the fund of international terminology are ostly Latin or Greek by origin:
- Greck – democracy, poem, poet, philosophy, mathematic, geography, biology, telegraph, electron, amnesty, strategy, stadium, rheumatism, sclerosis, drama, prejudy...
- Latin – medical terms: tuberculosis, angina
- judicial words: advocate, candidate, graduate, justice, jurist (právnik), appeal, civil
- political terms: constitution, republic
- school terms: dean, discipline, rector, student
But among the international words we can find a nmber of newly coined (vytvorenie) compounds made from Latin and Greek roots by means of derivation and composition (telephone, kilometer, microscope...) Certain important coinages are hybrids of Latin and Greek (automobile).
SEMANTICS
In our study of lexicology we will pay attention to one of the most important part of it, it is to semantics. This is a branch of philology which deals with words meanings. The general principles of semantics are equally applicable to fall languages in certain spheres of every languages we may easily find its specific peculiarities associated with concrete conditions of language development. There are numbers of recognized ways in which words change their meanings. The meaning of a word implies not only the reflection of reality but the attitude of the speaker towards the reality. The reality of thought manifests.
O.K. – was formed by Indians – all correct – ol korekt – OK – modern words aare regular
- gerundial form: I like his OK-ing
Meaning is one of the most controversial terms in the theory of language. There are different theories representing the main approaches of how words in language are formed. One of well known approaches is the so called referential approach of means. I is the meaning by establishing the interdependence between words and things or concepts they denote.
The essential feature of this approach is that it distinguishes between the three components closely connected with meaning: the sound form of the linguisic sign, the concept underlying this sound form and the actual referent it means that part or that aspect of reality to which the linguistic sign refers.
MEANING AND SOUND FORM
There are no inherent connections between a particular sound cluster and meaning of the word. The connections are conventional and arbitrary. This can be easily proved by comparing the sound forms of different languages: in Slovak we have word kniha, in German Buch, in English book.
Meaning and concept
When we exam a word we see that its meaning though closely connected with the underlying concept is not identical with it. The concept is the thought of the object and it points to its essential features. This being the result of abstraction and generalization all concepts are intrinsically almost the same for the whole of humanity in one and the same period of its historical development. The difference between meaning and the concept can also be observed by comparing synonymous words expressing the same concepts but the linguistic meaning may be felt as though main source of polysemy is a change in the semantic structure of the word, polysemy may also arise from homonymy.
POLYSEME AND CONTEXT
Some meanings are clear without any context even if the word is used in isolation. On the other hand many words are determined by the context only. E.g.: he made the story up out of his own head (vymyslel svoj vlastný príbeh). Mr. Brown is at the head of the department. My head is swimming (hlava sa mi točí)ext even if the word is used in isolation. a change in the semantic structure of the word, polys
There are different kinds of context: It may be linguistic (lexical and grammatical)
Context of speech situation (extra-lingual).
The linguistic context includes two elements: lexical and grammatical.
The lexical context or the meaning by collocation (co-textual meaning) is when the identification comes from group of words. E.g.: thick-line, thick-ice, thick-forest, thick-smoke (hustý dym)
Grammatical context is when the meaning is determined by the syntactical structure, that is the grammatical structure of the context serves to determine various meanings of a polysemantic words. E.g.: the verb make: he made her laugh; she will make a good wife
Another verb of such a type is the word have + object + past participle. E.g.: to have the clothes cleaned (dať si vyčistiť šaty), to have ones hairs cut.
Context of speech situation – There are cases when the maning is determined by the actual speech situation: e.g.: using the word key: I forgot to take the key; Never mind play it in the key of C (zahraj C)
SYNONYMS
They are words different in sound and spelling, but identical or nearly alike in the meanig. Synonymic words are closely connected with the stylistic differentation of the language. The existence of numerous nouns that are synonymous is one of the characteristic features of the vocabulary. The ent of the vocabulary in the course (v priebehuexistence of numerous nouns that are synonymous is one of the characteristic features of the vocabulary. tructure of the con) of language development, together with a great influx (príliv) of foreign words through the context with other languages contributed much towards increasing the number of synonyms in the English language.
Some words are more general, colourless and neutral in tone, but others have a literary, bookish or poetic flavour or suggestion, which may be colloquial, humorous, vulgar, slang, learned, technical etc.
Among synonyms we find words that are used on particular linguistic occasions. E.g.: there is a difference between the word “violin” and “fiddle” – lacné husle, a mariner (voj. námorník) and a sailor. One of the basic features of synonyms is that they should be interchangeable in certain texts at least. E.g.: home: domicile (bydlisko), dwelling (obydlie), residence (sídlo)
As the origin of synonyms we should distinguish:
- synonyms which originated from the native element denoting different shades of common meanig e.g.: fast-pôst, rýchly speedy, rapid, swift (veľmi rýchly); handsome, pretty, nice, lovely, bold (smelý, udatný), manful (udatný, mužný)
- synonyms may be crated through the adoption of words from different dialects e.g.: charm – glamour
- synonyms which have their origin in a foreign borrowing due to the crosing with other languages. Commence (French) – start, begin, help – aid, heaven – sky, raise – rear (vychovávateľ)
- synonyms may be connected with the non – literal figurative (prenesený) use of words in a pictorial language e.g.: occupation, profession – walk of life; stargazer – dramer; pins and needles (husia koža); shive creeps (mrznúť)
- sonyms may be connected with euphemisms (slušnejšie, prijateľnejšie) and vulgarisms. Die – to distort the facts (prekrúcať fakty); drunk – intoxicated – elevated; steal – to shoop
Absolute synonyms are relatively rare in languages, but they usually occur in terminology e.g.: grammatical cases in Slovak may be expressed using domestic names: “prvý pád....” or international names may be used. “nominative....”
In English there are some cases where even domestic words may be used as absolute synonyms e.g.: motherland – fatherland, answer – respond
ANTONYMS
Words opposite in meaning e.g. young – old, good – bad,
Also serve in a language as expressive means such as idioms black or white, life or dead here or there etc.
There are several kinds of antonyms: 1. Antonyms proper
2. Complementary antonyms
3. Converses
1. Antonyms proper are antonyms in a narrow sense and they imply some comparison e.g. expressing such a degree; very – quite: very old, quite young
2. Complementary antonyms – words where the denial (popretie) of one member of the pair implies assertion (uloženie) of the other: male, female, single, married, divorced, widow, spinster, bachelor, pass, bail, dead – alive,
3. Converses (opaky) – buy – sell, recieve – give
HOMONYMY
Homonymous are generally defined as words diff. In meaning, but identical in sound and spelling or identical only in spelling or sound. Usually the context will indicate which of 2 or more poss. Meanings is to be attached to a word (treba pripísať slovu)
I have to see the doctor – musím
I am to see the doctor – mám isť k lekárovi (konštatovanie)
A single word can be used to express more diff. Meanings. In the case of homonymy the diff. Meanings of words are mutually independent, there is no connection between such words. They have only the same pronounciation. E.g. red and read, see and sea, sight and site (stavenisko), vain and vein, course and coarse voice (hrubý hlas), prace and piece, light an lite, meet and meat, tear and tear.
As can be seen from the said the sources of homonyms may be different.
Among lexical grammatical hononyms we should distinguish homonyms which can be found within the limits of one and the same part of speech e.g.: a) bound (vazal) – to bound (nasmerovať), to find (nájsť) – to found (založiť); b) homonyms referring to different parts of speech e.g. light (svetlo) – light (ľahký)
There are cases where homonyms maybe identical in spelling but different in sound and meaning. Such homonmys are called homographs e.g. bow (poklona) – bow (sip), row (rad) – row (hlučno). There are words which are identical in sound but different in spelling and meaning e.g. son- sun, pair – pear. Such forms are called homophones. And finally there are words that are quite different in meaning and identical in some of their grammatical forms (see, bound, bind, found, find). Such forms are called homoforms.
NEOLOGISMS
The vocabulary of a language is in a state of almost continues change. Neologisms are newly coined words that have acquired new meaning because of social, economic, political and cultural changes in human society. The rapid advances which are being made in scientific knowledge, the extension of sciences and arts create a continual demand form the formation of new words to express new ideas. The vocabulary of a language can be supplemented by foreign borrowings. For instance: antenna, electron, thermos bottle, space ship.
CHANGE OF MENING
Now we wilt turn our atention to for major tendencies that lead to change of meaning.
- Extension of meaning: most words begin as specific names for things. However this precise denotation (pomenovanie) is quickly lost and the word´s meaning is extended and generalized. A good example is the word manuscript (rukopis) a word that now refers to any authors copy whether written by hand or typed. Originally it means only something handwritten, but at present it applies generally to all kinds of printing. Many words and their meanings are derived from proper names, e.g.: vandal (has its meaning form Germanic tribe). Lynch is a word created probably from proper name Charles Lynch, a planter in Virginia in the 18th century. Wor utopian is a word that was created on the base of work of Sir Thomas Moore, name of the book is Utopia (thing that is not realistic in real life).
- Narrowing of meaning: in the process of narrowing of meaning a word of wide meaning acquires a narrower specialized meaning, which it is applicable only to some of the objects which has previously denote. For instance: in Old English the word deer meant any wild beast. Another word meant originally meant food and drink. The word wife originally meant siply woman, in Modern English it has been restricted to a married woman. The world girl once meant a young person regardless the sex of person, boy or girl. Spinster (unmarried woman of higher age), in older days it was spinner (priadka).
- Elevation of meaning: the process known as elevation (zvýšenie) is opposite of degradation. Words often rise form humble biginnings to positions of reater importance. For instance: the word minister in th old days meant servant, now it means an important public official. The word marshal has its origin in Germanic word meaning horse servant, now its high military rank. The word knight once meant boy.
- Degradation of meaning: is the opposite process of elevation. Words once respectable may become in their development less respectable. Some words reach such a low point that in some cases its improper to use them at all. For instance: in older periods of time the word boor originally meant a farmer, now it means in Slovak gazdo – sedlák. The word vulgar originally meant common, ordinary. The word silly originall meant happy. The word insane originally meant (I´m well) geeral health.
METAPHOR
A metaphor is an important language device. By metaphor we mean the transparence (prenos) of meaning on the base of similarity. It is an effective semantic way of contributing much to the expressive power of language. In the English language there are many metaphors and here are some examples proving that: A ray of hope, The wish is fther to the though, Grain of truth, Bitter eney, A stony heart, A storm discussion.
The history of the English language provides many examples of the process where the parts of the ody provide a number of well established metaphors. For instance: The leg of a table, The teeth of a saw, The had of a watch, The tongue of a shoe. Other are loud colors, sharp tongue.
METONYMY
Metonymy is a device in which the name of one thing is changed or the name of another thing is to which it has a close relation. The strenght of the metonymy lies in the pictorial appeal of the concrete as opposed to the abstract. For instance: if oe says I´m reading Shakespeare, it means that he/she is reading the works of Shakespeare. For e.g. the best pens of the day (spisovatelia danej doby), The kettle is boiling. To play my ear, He has an ear for music, My friend manages to earn his bread.
STRUCTURE OF WORDS
THE MORPHEMIC STRUCTURE OF WORDS
Words can be divided into smaller meaningful parts – morphemes. Morphemes are the smallest meaningful inits into which a word can be divided, but which usually do not occur in speech independently. A word may consist of one morpheme only – love, go, cook.... or more morphemes – use-ful, un-happy....
One morpheme may be represented by different forms, for instance: describe – description; such from called allomorph. Morphemes wary in kind and function. They may be classified into free, bound, root, affixational, lexical and grammatical morphemes. Morphemes homonymous with a word are called free morphemes – arm, chair, ect. Morphemes used only with another morpheme are called bound morphemes - high-ly. The basic common elements of words, it means their lexical centers within a word family are called root morphemes, they are usually free-friend – friendly. Free morpheme is an affixational morpheme. The affixes preceding the root are called prefixes and those fixed to the end of the root are called suffixes.
WORD FORMATIVE
In the word formation analyses we are concerned with a word base and the derivational affixes. The base is the basic part of a word from which a new word is formed consisting of one or more morphemes, which is common to all the other forms of the word, it represents the remaining part after the last affix is taken away. For instance: he act-ed, friend-ly, un-profession-al. In English the base may be identical with root in monomorphemic words: happy....
From the point of their word formation structure bais may be of three types: simple base: child – childhood; complex base and this may be derived – one root + affix: government – governmental; compound base – two roots: highway – super-highway.
WORD-FORMATION PROCESSES
Word formationn is the process of building new words by means of existing elements of the language according to certain rules. We distinguish the following ways of word formation in English;
- principal processes: affixation (writer, unhappy), compounding (armchair), conversion (school – school building).
- minor processes: shortening (laboratory – lab), back-formation (beggar-beg, television-televise, burglar-burgle), blending (breakfast-lunch, burnch;smoke-fog)
AFFIXATION
Affixation is a very producive process of doing new words by adding a proper prefix or sufix or both to the existing base.
SUFFIXATIONňSuffixation is a process which is characteristic of the formation of nouns and adjectives. In the language there are many more different suffixes compared to the number of prefixes. The most productive suffixes in English are: -er, -ist, -ism, -ise, -ize
PREFIXATION
It is a process of building new words by adding a prefix to the base. A prefix usually changes or modifies the lexical meaning of a word: e.g. smoker – non-smoker, write-rewrite. Prefixes are more productive than suffixes and they are sometimes used to form nex verbs: e.g. large – to enlarge, courage – to encourage, able-to enable.
Prefixes are divided into several groups according to their semantic qualities:
- Prefixes expressing negatin or oppostition: im-impossible, il-illegal, ir-irregular, non-non-somker
- Prefixes expressing degree or size: super – supersonic (nadzvukový) – supernational (nadnárodný), semi-semivowel (polosamohláska) – semiconductor (polovodič), ultra-ultra sort (ultra kratky, vlny v radiu),
- Prefixes expressing repetition: re-reread
- Prefixes expressing time, place, relation: post – postwar (povojnovy), inter – interplanetary (medziplanetarny), pre-prewar (predvojnovy)
COMPOUNDING (tvorenie slov skladaním)
It is one of the principal and most producive way of creating words in English. Compound words may be studied from different points of view. The borderline between compounds and word groups in not always clear-cut (výrazná). From the orthographic (pravopisny) point of view there are no consistent rules of spelling. A compound may be written as one word e.g. bedroon, fireman. Other compounds may be hyphenated (pomlčovať): tax-free, king-size or they can be separated: sitting room.
Another factor which is typical of compounds is the stress. Most compounds as a rule have one stress, the main stress is on the first word. On the other hand word groups have more stress, usually two e.g. compounds such as: blackboard, darkroom; while word groups containing the same components are writen separately and have two stresses, of which the main stress is on the second component: black bir (akykolvek iny cierny vtak), black board, dark room.
As far as compounds are concerned another characteristic feature of them is the fact that unadditional (dodatočný)element can not be inserted between two components of compound word.
CONVERSION (zmena)
The process of coining new words in a different part of speech without adding any derivative elements is called conversion. For instance: face – to face, finger – to finger, man – to man, mother –to mother. Conersion is one of the principle ways of forming words in modern English, which is a great advantage of this language. From the synchronic point of view it is sometimes difficult to determine which word is derived and which is primary. Two words differ in meaning, function and the paradigm (tvar). Sometimes it is only the context that shows whether a word is to be taken as a noun, verb or adjective.
CLIPPING
There are also minor types of word formation in English, here are the main types of such a process: shortening which is represented by so called clipping. Clipping is used in colloquial English and it represents a cutting of one or more syllables of a word. Clipping is typical of nouns. In modern English for instance: caravan – van, gymnastics – gym, examination – exam, doctor – doc. Shortened variants of words are used as independent lexical units. Some of them occur in a oral and written speech, others only in written speech.
ABBREVIATIONS
We distinguish the following types of words formed from the initial letters&. Acronyms are words formed from the initials of expressions consisting of more then one word and these are read as ordinary words. For instance: NATO (north Atlantic treaty organization), UNESCO, RAF, AIDS, HIV, UFO. The next type is represented by initials with alphabetic meaning : CIA, MP (member of parliament), FBI, BA, MA. Graphical abbreviations are also read as full words: JAN (January), Mr. Brown (mister Brown). In English there are Latin abbreviations which are substuted by English words: am, pm, e.g., etc
BACK FORMATION
Back formation is the formation of a simpler word from a complex one. It may be defined as the derivation of new words by subtractin an affix on the existing word. Most of such words in English are verbs: e.g. typewriter – to typewrite, tlevision – to televise, burglar – to burgle, beggar – to beg
BLENDING
It is a process similar to shortening in which two different part of two different words fuse into a new word: smoke + fog = smog, television + cast = telecast, lunch + brakfast = brunch
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