The vocabulary of a language as a System

Lecture No. 3

Topics for discussion

1.The English vocabulary as an adaptive system. Neologisms.

2.Traditional lexicological grouping. Lexico-grammatical groups. Word-families.

3.The concept of polarity of meaning. Antonyms. Morphological classification of antonyms: absolute or root antonyms and derivational antonyms. Semantic classification of antonyms: antonyms proper, complementaries, conversives.

4.The theory of the semantic field. Common semantic denominator.

5.Thematic or ideographic groups. Common contextual associations,

6. Hyponymy, paradigmatic relation of inclusion. Hyponyms, hyperonyms, equonyms.

Working Definitions of Principal Concepts

Being an adaptive system the vocabulary is constantly adjusting itself to the changing requirements and conditions of human communication and cultural and other needs. This process of self-regulation of the lexical system is a result of overcoming contradictions between the state of the system and the demands it has to meet. The speaker chooses from the existing stock of words such words that in his opinion can adequately express his thought and feeling. Failing to find the expression he needs, he coins a new one. It is important to stress that the development is not confined to coining new words on the existing patterns but in adapting the very structure of the system to its changing functions.

The concept of adaptive system permits us to study language as a constantly developing but systematic whole, The adaptive system approach gives a more adequate account of the systematic phenomena of a vocabulary by explaining more facts about the functioning of words and providing more relevant generalisations, because we can take into account the influence of extra-linguistic reality. The study of the vocabulary as an adaptive system reveals the pragmatic essence of the communication process, i.e. the way language is used to influence the addressee.

The adaptive system approach to vocabulary is still in its infancy, but it is already possible to give an interim estimate of its significance. The process may be observed by its results, that is by studying new words or neologisms. New notions constantly come into being, requiring new words to name them. New words and expressions or neologisms are created for new things irrespective of their scale of importance. They may be all important and concern some social relationships such as a new form of state (People's Republic), or the thing may be quite insignificant and shortlived, like fashions in dancing, clothing, hairdo or footwear (rollneck). In every case either the old words are appropriately changed in meaning or new words are borrowed, or more often coined out of the existing language material either according to the patterns and ways already productive in the language at a given stage of its development or creating new ones.

Thus, a neologism is a newly coined word or phrase or a new meaning for an existing word, or a word borrowed from another language.

The intense development of science and industry has called forth the invention and introduction of an immense number of new words and changed the meaning of old ones, e.g. aerobics, black hole, computer, hardware, software, isotope, feedback, penicillin, pulsar, super-market and so on.

For a reliable mass of evidence on the new English vocabulary the reader is referred to lexicographic sources. New additions to the English vocabulary are collected in addenda to explanatory dictionaries and in special dictionaries of new words.

One should consult the supplementary volume of the English-Russian Dictionary edited by I.R.Galperin, the three supplementary volumes of The Oxford English Dictionary, The Longman Dictionary of New Words and the dictionaries of New English which are usually referred to as Barnhart Dictionaries. The first volume covers words and word equivalents that have come into the vocabulary of the English-speaking world during the period 1963-1972 and the second-those of the 70s.

There is a considerable difference of opinion as to the type of system involved, although the majority of linguists nowadays agree that the vocabulary should be studied as a system. Our present state of knowledge is however, insufficient to present the whole of the vocabulary as one articulated system, so we deal with it as if it were a set of interrelated systems.

By a lexico-grammatical group we understand a class of words which have a common lexico-grammatical meaning, common paradigm, the same substituting elements and possible characteristic set of suffixes rendering the lexico-grammatical meaning. These groups are subsets of the parts of speech, several lexico-grammatical groups constitute one part of speech. Thus English nouns are subdivided approximately into the following lexico-grammatical groups: personal names, animal names, collective names (for people), collective names (for animals), abstract nouns, material nouns, object nouns, proper names for people, toponymic names.

Another traditional lexicological grouping is known as word-families in which the words are grouped according to the root-morpheme, for example: dog, doggish, doglike, dogg), to dog, dogged, doggedly, doggedness, dog-days, dog-biscuit, dogcart, etc.

Antonyms аrе words belonging to the same pan of speech different in sound, and characterised by semantic polarity of their denotational meaning. According to the character of semantic opposition antonyms are subdivided into antonyms proper, complementary and conversive antonyms. The semantic polarity in antonyms proper is relative, the opposition is gradual, it may embrace several elements characterised by different degrees of the same property. They always imply comparison. Large and little or small denote polar degrees of the same notion, i.e. size.

Complementaries are words characterised only by a binary opposition which may have only two members; the denial of one member of the opposition implies the assertion of the other e.g. not male means female.

Conversives are words which denote one and the same referent as viewed from different points of view, that of the subject and that of the object, e.g. buy-sell, give-receive.

Morphologically antonyms are subdivided into root (absolute) antonyms (good - bad) and derivational antonyms (appear - disappear).

Semantic field is a closely knit sector of vocabulary characterised by a common concept (e.g. in the semantic field of space we find nouns (expanse, extent, surface); verbs (extend, spread, span); adjectives (spacious, roomy, vast, broad)). The members of the semantic fields are not synonymous but all of them are joined together by some common semantic component. This semantic component common to all the members of the field is sometimes described as the common denominator of meaning, like the concept of kinship, concept of colour, parts of the human body and so on. The basis of grouping in this case is not only linguistic but also extra-linguistic: the words are associated, because the things they name occur together and are closely connected in reality.

Thematic (or ideographic) groups are groups of words joined together by common contextual associations within the framework of the sentence and reflect the interlinking of things and events in objective reality. Contextual association are formed as a result of regular co-occurrence of words in similar repeatedly used contexts.

Thematic or ideographic groups are independent of classification into parts of speech. Words and expression are here classed not according to their lexico-grammatical meaning but strictly according to their signification, i.e. to the system of logical notions (e.g. tree - -grow - green; journey - train, taxi, bass - ticket; sunshine -brightly - blue - sky).

Hyponomy is the semantic relationship of inclusion existing between elements of various levels. Thus, e.g. vehicle includes car, bus, taxi; oak implies tree, horse implies animal; table implies furniture. The hyponymic relationship is the relationship between the meaning of the general and the individual terms.

A hyperonym is a generic term which serves as the name of the general as distinguished from the names of the species-hyponyms. In other words the more specific term is called the hyponym. For instance, animal is a generic term as compared to the specific names wolf, dog or mouse (these are called equonyms) Dog, in its turn, may serve as a generic term for different breeds such as bull-dog, collie, poodle, etc.

Tasks

1. Organize the given words in accordance with their hyponymic relations. Enumerate the general terms (hyperonyms).

1) train, light lorry, bicycle, vehicle, cabriolet, car, heavy lorry, estate car, motorcycle, bus, lorry, three-door hatchback, three-way dump truck;

2) turtle, mammal, squirrel, animal, reptile, seal, tiger, lizard, leopard, fox, wolf, iguana, bear, snake, feline, panther.

2. Group the sentences into pairs so that in one sentence there should be a hyperonym (the more general term) and in the other – the hyponym (the more concrete term).

Model: 1 ) The man was murdered. – The man was poisoned.

1. He gave her a ring with five emeralds as a birthday present. 2. The man was poisoned. 3. She looked at him. 4. He heard a nightingale singing. 5. He is an officer.

6. It’s an old car. 7. She was wearing a black dress. 8. They built a boat. 9. The man was murdered. 10. She stared at him. 11. He is a colonel. 12. It’s an old vehicle. 13. He gave her a ring with five precious stones as a birthday present. 14. They bought flowers in the shop. 15. She was wearing a dark dress. 16. She has got a child. 17. They built a yacht. 18. They bought lilacs in the shop. 19. She has got a daughter. 20. He heard a bird singing.

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4. Give antonyms to the following words. Group them into antonyms of the same root (a) and antonyms of different roots (b).

Model: artistic

The antonym of the word artistic is inartistic. These words belong to the group of antonyms of the same root (group a).

Happy (adj), careful (adj), dwarf (adj), obedience (n), criticism (n), above (adv), regular (adj), asleep (adj), back (adv), polite (adj), triumph (n), hope (n), artistic (adj), appear (v), prewar (adj), far (adv), logical (adj), love (n), known (adj).

5. Classify antonymous pairs according to their semantic and morphological structure

Model: arid – awash

These antonyms refer to the group of contraries as they are polar members of a gradual opposition which has the following intermediate members: dry – wet.

Poetry – prose, inch – foot, man – woman, old – young, beautiful – ugly, Monday – Sunday, teacher – pupil, to adore – to loathe, one – thousand, tremendous – tiny, iron – copper, to accept – to reject, round – square, creditor – debtor, immaculate – filthy, boy – man, day – night, clever – stupid, red – brown, arid – awash, inside – outside, open – shut, November – March, evil – good.

Exercises

Exercise 1.

Read the following passage. What is understood by semantic fields?

Part of the power and flexibility of a language lies in the ability of the speakers to multiply their vocabulary in any given field in the interests of greater precision and clarity. It follows that the more words that are closely associated in meaning the more specific each one's meaning may be in the particular field (irrespective of its uses in other fields). As an organisation becomes more complex and its members more numerous, new ranks and grades appropriately named may be devised, restricting the holders to an exact. Occupations whose operations involve much colour discrimination (paint manufacture, textile manufacture, etc.) develop an extensive technical vocabulary, partly from existing colour words, partly by adding new and specialised meanings to words having reference to coloured things (e.g. magnolia, cream), partly by adapting other words and phrases to give them a definite place in the technical field of colour terms (summer blue, mistletoe green, etc.). Such technical vocabulary may sometimes employ numbers of words unknown to non-technical speakers of the language and devise meanings for other quite different from those they bear outside these specialised contexts.

The supreme example of this infinite flexibility is in the use of numerical terms with reference to measurable features of the world, Between any two adjacent number terms another may be added for greater precision; between eleven and twelve may be put eleven and a half, and between eleven and eleven and a half may be put eleven and a quarter, and so on indefinitely.

(R.H. Robins. General Linguistics. An Introductory survey.- p. 48-49.)

Exercise 2.

Comment on the way of formation of the following neologisms:

accessorise, aeroneurosis, astrogation, built-in, de-orbit, gadgeteer, laseronic, robotics, sanforise, urbanologism, vitaminise.

Exercise 3.

Arrange the following units into three semantic fields - feelings, parts of the body, education.

Academy, affection, arm, back, belly, body, blood, brow, calf, calmness, cheek, chest, classes, classmate, coaching, college, contempt, contentment, correspondence, course, curriculum, day-student, delight, don, drill, ear, education, elbow, encyclopedia, enthusiasm, envy, erudition, excitement, exercise, exhilaration, eye, face, faculty, finger, foot, forehead, frustration, grammar, hair, hand, happiness, head, headmaster, heel, homework, ignorance, impatience, indifference, indignation, instruction, jealousy, joint, kindness, knee, knowledge, knuckle, learning, lecturer, leg, limb, love, malice, master, neck, nose, passion, pedagogy, primer, rapture, relief, restlessness,

satisfaction, scholar, science, temple, tenderness, textbook, tight, thrill, thumb, toe, torso, tutor, undergraduate, university, unrest, waist, wrath.

Exercise 4. Classify the following pairs of antonyms given below:

slow - fast, post-war - pre-war, happiness - unhappiness, above - below, asleep awake, appear - disappear, late - early, ugly - beautiful, distraction - attraction, spend - save,

Exercise 5.

Put the following words into thematic groups according to their contextual associations:

air, challenger, transaction, championship, classification, profit, dig, flower, globalisation, garden, green, marketing, grow, juice, competitive, jump, language, match, preconditions, meaning, outrun, restructuring, overrun, participate, diversifier, principles, race sports, bargaining, system, water, weed, ward, relaunch.

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