Lecture

Semasiology

The branch of lexicology, which deals with the meaning of words and other linguistic signs is called semasiology or semantics. Semantics is otherwise called “the science of meaning”. If treated diachronically, semasiology studies the development and changes of meaning in words. Synchronic approach to meaning deals with the study of semantic structure of words, as well as with the study of various types of meanings and of their roles in a language. Since the introduction of the term “semantics” by the French philologist M. Breal in 1883 and the establishment of semantics as a discipline in its own right this branch of linguistics has explored various types of meaning.

The most general classification of meanings is 1) grammatical, 2) lexical and 3) lexico-grammatical.

1.Grammatical meaning is the meaning common to sets of word-forms of different words, e.g. the past tense meaning in the word-forms of verbs “asked”, “thought”, “walked”; the possessive case meaning of the word-forms of various nouns “girl’s”, “night’s”, etc., the meaning of plurality in such word-forms as “girls”, “winters”, “joys”, etc. Word-forms “speaks”, “reads”, “writes” are also characterized by one and the same grammatical meaning, including notions of “singularity” and “the present tense action”. In the latter example word-forms “speaks”, “reads”, etc. are characterized by identical distribution, or position, in a sentence, i.e. they can be used only after nouns in the singular or pronouns “he”, “she”, “it”, and before adverbs “well”, “badly”, “today”, “quickly” and the like.

2. Lexical meaning is the meaning proper of a word in all its forms and distributions, e.g. word-forms of the verb “to go” constituting its paradigm (go, went, gone, etc.) are characterized by the meaning of “movement”.

3. Lexical and grammatical meanings often overlap. The overlapping results is the so-called lexico-grammatical meaning. The part-of-speech meaning is a typical combination of lexical and grammatical meanings, e.g. the meaning of “substantivity” grammatically determines the category of “noun”, while lexically it points to a “material thing”. 

 

Types of lexical meaning

Lexical meaning includes denotational and connotational components.

The denotational aspect of lexical meaning is the part of lexical meaning, which establishes correlation between the name and the object, phenomenon, process or characteristic feature of concrete reality, which is denoted by the given word. The denotational aspect of lexical meaning expresses the notional content of a word.

The connotational aspect of lexical meaning is the part of meaning which reflects the attitude of the speaker towards what he speaks about. Connotation conveys additional information in the process of communication. There are four main types of connotation. They are stylistic (e.g. horse – steed); emotive (e.g. daddy – father); evaluative (e.g. well-known – notorious (пресловутый); expressive (e.g. adore – love).

Various types of meanings may be combined in a word. For singling out all components of the lexical meaning of a word linguists apply the componential analysis. The procedure of the componential analysis consists in finding out the smallest particles of meaning, which are called “`semes”. Thus, the arrangement of semes of the word “wolf” can be presented as follows: 1) animal, 2) fairly large, 3) shaggy, 4) carnivorous, 5) predatory, 6) canine etc. Sometimes, along with its direct meaning a word may have a figurative meaning, e.g. “fox” 1) a small doglike animal; 2) a deceitful person. The words possessing more than one meaning are called polysemantic.

Every word has two aspects: the outer aspect (its sound form) & the inner aspect (its meaning). Sound & meaning do not always constitute a constant unit even in the same language. E.g. the word temple may denote a part of a human head & a large church. In such cases we have homonyms. One & the same word in different syntactical relations can develop different meanings, e.g. the verb treat in the sentences:

a) He treated my words as a joke.

b) The book treats of poetry.

c) They treated me to sweets.

d) He treats his son cruelly.

         In all these sentences the verb treat has different meanings & we can speak about polysemy.

        On the other hand, the same meaning can be expressed by different sound forms, e.g. pilot & airman, horror & terror. In such cases we have synonyms.

        Both the meaning & the sound can develop in the course of time independently, e.g. the Old English luvian is pronounced [l/\V] in Modern English. On the other hand, board primarily means a piece of wood sawn thin. It has developed the meaning: a table, a board of ship, a stage, a council.

 

Lexical Meaning – Notion

         The lexical meaning of a word is the realization of a notion by means of a definite language system. A word is a language unit while a notion is a unit of thinking. A notion cannot exist without expressing it in the language, but there are words, which do not express any notion but have a lexical meaning. Interjections express emotions but not notions, but they have lexical meanings, e.g. Alas! (Увы!) (disappointment), Oh, my buttons! – Вот те на! (surprise) etc. There are also words, which express both notions & emotions, e.g. girlie, a pig (when used metaphorically).

         The term notion was introduced into lexicology from logics. A notion denotes the reflection in the mind of real objects & phenomena in the relations. Notions, as a rule, are international (especially with the nations of the same cultural level), while meanings can be nationally limited. The grouping of meanings in the semantic structure of a word is determined by the whole system of every language. E.g. the verb go & its Russian equivalent идти have some meanings, which coincide: to move from place, to extend (The road goes to London), to work (Is your watch going?). On the other hand, they have different meanings. In Russian we say: Вот он идет! In English we use the verb come in this case: Here he comes! In English we use the verb go in the combinations to go by bus, to go by train etc. In Russian we use the verb ехать in these cases.

         The number of meanings does not correspond to the number of words; neither does the number of notions. Their distribution in relation to words is peculiar in every language. In Russian we have two words for the English man: мужчина & человек. In English, however, man cannot be applied to a female person. We say in Russian: Она хороший человек. In English, we use the word ‘person’ in this case: She is a good person.

         The development of lexical meanings in any language is influenced by the whole network of ties & relations between words & other aspects of the language.

 

Semantic Changes

        The meaning of a word can change in the course of time. Changes of lexical meanings can be proved by comparing contexts of different times. Transfer of the meaning is called lexico-semantic word building. In such cases the outer aspect of a word does not change.

        The cause of semantic changes can be extra-linguistic, e.g. the change of the lexical meaning of the noun pen was due to extra-linguistic causes. Primarily pen comes back to the Latin word penna (a feather of a bird). As people wrote with goose pens the name was transferred to steel pens, which were later on used for writing. Still later, any instrument for writing was called a pen.

         On the other hand, causes can be linguistic, e.g. the conflict of synonyms when a perfect synonym of a native word is borrowed from some other language one of them may specialize in its meaning, e.g. the noun tide in Old English was polysemantic & denoted time, season, hour. When the French words time, season, hour were borrowed into English they ousted the word tide in these meanings. It was specialized & now means regular rise & fall of the sea caused by attraction of the moon. The meaning of a word can also change due to ellipsis, e.g. the word-group a train of carriages had the meaning of a row of carriages. Later on of carriages was dropped & the noun train changed its meaning, it is used now in the function & with the meaning of the whole word-group.

         Semantic changes have been classified by different scientists. A German scientist Herman Paul suggested the most complete classification. It is based on the logical principle. He distinguishes two main ways where the semantic change is gradual (specialization & generalization), 2 momentary conscious semantic changes (metaphor & metonymy) & also secondary ways: gradual (elevation & degradation), momentary (hyperbole &litotes).

 

Specialization

         It is gradual process when a word passes from a general 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 lawsuit – судебный процесс), in grammar (a form in the paradigm of a noun), in medicine (a patient, an illness). The difference between these meanings is revealed in the context.

        The meaning of a word can specialize when it remains in the general usage. It happens in the case of the conflict between two absolute synonyms when one of them must specialize in its meaning to remain in the language, e.g. the native word meat had the meaning food, this meaning is preserved in the compound sweetmeats (засахаренные фрукты, цукаты). The meaning of edible flesh (мясо) was formed when the word food, its absolute synonym, won in the conflict of absolute synonyms (both words are native). The English verb starve was specialized in its meaning after the Scandinavian word die was borrowed into English. Die became the general verb with this meaning because in English there were the noun death & the adjective dead beginning with the same consonant ‘d’. Starve got the meaning to die of hunger.

         The third way of specialization is the formation of proper names from common nouns, it is often used in toponymics, e.g. the City – the business part of London, Oxford – a university town in England (which was built near the place where oxen could ford the river), the Tower originally meant a fortress & palace, later – a prison, now it means a museum.

         The fourth way of specialization is ellipsis. In such cases primarily we have a word-group of the type attribute + noun, which is used constantly in a definite situation. Due to it the attribute can be dropped & the noun can get the meaning of the whole word-group, e.g. room originally meant space, this meaning is retained (сохраненный) in the adjective roomy (просторный, свободный, вместительный) & word-combinations: no room for, to take room. The meaning of the word room was specialized because it was often used in the combinations: dining room, sleeping room, which meant space for dining, space for sleeping.

 

Generalization

         It is process contrary to specialization; in such cases the meaning of a word becomes more general in the course of time.

         That 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 (jour means a day in French).

         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 (лишены) of their lexical meaning which they have when used as notional verbs or modal verbs, c.f. I have several books by Austin & I have read some books by Austin. In the first sentence the verb to have has the meaning possess, in the second sentence it has no lexical meaning, it is used to form Present Perfect.                          

 

Metaphor

         It is a transfer of the meaning on the basis of comparison. H. Paul points out that metaphor can be based on different types of similarity:

a)  similarity of shape, e.g. head (of a cabbage), bottleneck, teeth (of a saw, a comb);

b)  similarity of position, e.g. foot (of a page, of a mountain), head (of a procession);

c)  similarity of function, behaviour, e.g. a whip – парламентский партийный организатор (an official in the British Parliament whose duty is to see that members were present at the voting), a bookworm (a person who is fond of books);

d)  similarity of colour, e.g. orange, hazel, chestnut etc.

In some cases, we have a complex similarity, e.g. the leg of a table has a similarity to a human leg in its shape, position & function.

Many metaphors are based on parts of a human body, e.g. an eye of a needle, arms & mouth of a river, head of an army.

A special type of metaphor is when proper names become common nouns, e.g. philistine – a mercenary person, vandals – destructive people, a Don Juan – a lover of many women etc.

 

Metonymy

It is transfer of the meaning on the basis of contiguity. There are different types of metonymy:

a)  the material of which an object is made may become the name of the object, e.g. a glass, boards, an iron etc;

b)  the name of the place may become the name of the people or of an object placed there, e.g. the House – members of Parliament, Fleet Street – bourgeois press, the White House – the Administration of the USA etc;

c)  names of musical instruments may become names of musicians when they are united in the orchestra, e.g. the violin, the saxophone, the piano;

d)  the name of some person may become a common noun, e.g. boycott was originally the name of an Irish family who were so much disliked by their neighbours that they did not mix with them, sandwich was named after Lord Sandwich who was a gambler. He did not want to interrupt his game & had his food brought to him, while he was playing cards, between two slices of bread, not to soil his fingers etc;

e)  names of inventors very often become terms to denote things they invented, e.g. watt, roentgen (рентген – единица излучения);

f)   some geographical names can also become common nouns through metonymy, e.g. holland (linen fabrics), Brussels (a special kind of carpets), china (porcelain), astrakhan (a sheep fur) etc.

         

Secondary ways of semantic changes

                                           Elevation

          It 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 servant looking after horses, now it is the highest military rank. Queen originally meant a woman.

 

Degradation

          It is a transfer of the meaning when it becomes worse in the course of time. It is usually connected with nouns denoting common people, e.g. villain originally meant working on a villa, now it means a scoundrel.

                                                 

Hyperbole

         It is a transfer of the meaning when the speaker uses exaggeration, e.g. to hate (doing smth), not to see smbd for ages. The same can be said about such sentences as: You’ll be the death of me. It’s a nightmare. A thousand pardons.

         Hyperbole is often used to form phraseological units, e.g. to make a mountain out of a molehill, to split hairs (спорить о мелочах, вдаваться в мелкие подробности, проявлять педантизм) etc.

Litotes

         It is a transfer of the meaning when the speaker expresses the affirmative with the negative or vice versa, e.g. not bad, no coward. It is not bad is used instead of it is good.