Practice 3

Consider your answers to the following.

1. What is understood by "semantics"? Explain the term "polysemy".

2. Define polysemy as a linguistic phenomenon. Illustrate your answer with your own examples. Dwell on the concept of the split polysemy.

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?

7. The verb "to take" is highly polysemantic in Modern English. On which meanings of the verb are the following jokes based? Give your own examples to illustrate the other meanings of the word.

1. " Where have you been for the last four years?"
"At college taking medicine."

"And did you finally get well?"

2. " Doctor, what should a woman take when she is
run down?"

"The license number, madam, the license number."

3. Proctor (exceedingly angry): So you confess
that this unfortunate Freshman was carried to this
frog pond and drenched. Now what part did you take in
this disgraceful affair?

Sophomore (meekly): The right leg, sir.

8. Choose any polysemantic word that is well-known to
you and illustrate its meanings with examples of your own.
Prove that the meanings are related one to another.

9. Try your hand at the following research work.

a) Illustrate the semantic structure of one of the following
words with a diagram; use the dictionary if necessary.

Foot, n.; hand, n.; ring, n.; stream, n.; warm, adj.; green, adj.; sail, n.; key, n.; glass, n.; eye, n.

b). Identify the denotative and connotative elements of the
meanings in the following pairs of words.

To conceal — to disguise, to choose — to select, to draw — to paint, money — cash, photograph — picture, odd — queer.

c. Read the entries for the English word "court" and the
Russian "cyд" in an English-Russian and Russian-English
dictionary. Explain the differences in the semantic structure of both words.

10. What causes the development of new meanings? Give examples.

11. What is the basis of development or change of meaning? Explain what we mean by the term transference.

12.What types of transference can you name?

13.What is meant by the widening and the narrowing of meaning?

14.Give examples of the so-called "degradation" and "elevation" of meaning. Why are these terms imprecise?

15. Read the following extracts and explain the semantic
processes by which the italicized words acquired their
meanings

a) 'Bureau', a desk, was borrowed from French in the 17th c. In Modern French (and English) it means not only the desk but also the office itself and the au­thority exercised by the office. Hence the familiar bureaucracy is likely to become increasingly familiar. The desk was called so because covered with bureau, a thick coarse cloth of a brown russet.

b). An Earl of Spencer made a short overcoat fashionable for some time. An Earl of Sandwich invented a form of light refreshment which enabled him to take a meal without leaving the card-table. Hence we have such words as spencer and sandwich in English.

c). A common name for overalls or trousers is jeans.
In the singular jean is also a term for durable twilled cotton and is short for the phrase jean fustian which first appeared in texts from the sixteenth century. Fustian (a Latin borrowing) is a cotton or cotton and linen fabric, and jean is the modern spelling of Middle English Jene or Gene, from Genes, the Middle French name of the Italian city Genoa, where it was made and shipped abroad.

16. Explain the logical associations in the following
groups of meaning for the same words. Define the type of
transference which has taken place.

a) The wing of a bird – the wing of a building; the eye of a man – the eye of a needle; the hand of a child – the hand of a clock; the heart of a man – the heart of the matter; the bridge across the-river – the bridge of the nose; the tongue of a person – the tongue of a bell; the tooth of a boy – the tooth of a comb; the coat of a girl – the coat of a dog.

b) Green grass — green years; black shoes — black despair; nickel (metal) — a nickel (coin); glass — a glass; copper (metal) — a copper (coin); Ford (proper name) — a Ford (car); Damascus (town in Syria) — damask; Kashmir (town in North India) — cashmere.

17. Analyze the process of development of new meanings in
the italicized words in the examples given below.

1. I put the letter well into the mouth of the box and let it go and it fell turning over and over like an autumn leaf. 2. Those that had been the head of the line paused momentarily on entry and looked around curiously. 3. A cheerful-looking girl in blue jeans came up to the stairs whistling. 4. Seated behind a desk, he wore a light patterned suit, switch from his usual tweeds. 5. Oh, Steven, I read a Dickens the other day. It was awfully funny. 6. They sat on the rug before the fireplace, savoring its warmth, watching the rising tongues of flame. 7. He inspired universal confidence and had an iron nerve. 8. A very small boy in a green jersey with light red hair cut square across his forehead was peering at Steven between the electric fire and the side of the fireplace. 9. While the others were settling down, Lucy saw Pearson take another bite from his sandwich. 10. As I walked nonchalantly past Hugo's house on the other side they were already carrying out the Renoirs.

18. In the examples given below identify the cases of widening and narrowing of meaning.

1. While the others waited the elderly executive filled his pipe and lit it. 2. Finn was watching the birds. 3. The two girls took hold of one another, one acting gentleman, the other lady; three or four more pairs of girls immediately joined them and began a waltz. 4. He was informed that the president had not arrived at the bank, but was on his way. 5. Smokey had followed a dictum all his life: If you want a woman to stick beside you, pick an ugly one. Ugly ones stay to slice the meat and stir the gravy.

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