CC BY
26UDC 81-2
INFORMAL LEXIS OF PARALOGIA SUBCATEGORY OF DEVIATION CATEGORY IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
A.S. Ptashkin
Tomsk Polytechnic University (Tomsk, Russia).
E-mail: pt.alexandr@gmail.com
Abstract. The author deals with the language means of expressing the subcategory "paralogia" as the element of deviation category in the English language. Deviation category is presented as the hierarchical system that includes different components. Subcategory of paralogia stands for biological component of deviation category. Paralogia subcategory central part of semantic field consists of three elements: medicine names of different mental disorders or brain pathologies, deficient development of mental abilities, psychic disorders. The periphery of paralogia subcategory has two elements - near and distant parts. Near periphery represents the lexis of informal style, distant periphery is characterized by euphemisms.
Keywords: deviation; category; paralogia; subcategory; lexeme; phrase; slang; euphemism.
Introduction
A focus on what people find meaningful necessitates investigating the cognitive, physical, and social embodiment that shapes and constrains meaningful expression. From cognitive neuroscience we know that the physical brain does not process visual information in a disembodied, nonimagistic way, but instead maintains the perceptual topology of images presented to it, and then re-represents increasingly abstract spatial and imagistic details of that topology. In Cognitive Linguistics, such findings have motivated a theory of image schemas whose topologies provide links between different clusters of prototypes in radial categories and whose topologies motivate the cross-domain mappings of systematic conceptual metaphors" (Rohrer, 2007).
"Cognitive Linguistics emphasizes the fact that defining a category may involve describing some of its principal members rather than just giving ana abstract definition. But it also stresses that the abstract definition need not consist of a single set of defining characteristics that belong uniquely and distinctively to that category. <...> We say that a category has a family resemblance structure" [1: 2].
"Family resemblance is a notion in Prototype Theory in which a particular member of a category can be assessed as to how well it reflects the prototype structure of the category it belongs to. This is achieved based on how many salient attributes belonging to the prototype the category member shares. <...> The degree of overlap between shared attributes reflects a category member's degree of family resemblance" [2: 78].
It is urgent to highlight that the category of deviation that is under following study is considered being a fuzzy category. "The fuzzy category relates to findings deriving from Prototype Theory. A fuzzy category, which can be contrasted with a classical category, is a category whose memebers exhibit degrees of family resemblance, with the cateogry borders not being clearly defined" [2: 88].
The category of deviation is a complex system that has some subcate-gories in its structure [3-5]. All these elements have specific means of expression. Some of the components are mainly expressed by adjectives or nouns, others can be mostly presented by verbs. The focus of this work is the informal lexis of subcategory of paralogia within deviation category in the English language.
Informal means of expression of paralogia subcategory within deviation category
The subcategory of paralogia is considered to be one of the structural elements in the deviation category. From our point of view, the category of deviation includes three components: 1) moral-ethic; 2) techno-biological; 3) legal-regulatory. The author considers deviation category being the system with three main levels: superordinate, basic, and subordinate ones. All these levels can be met in the boundaries of above-mentioned components.
The category of deviation like other mental units is characterized by structure with the core and periphery in the complex of a certain functional-semantic field. The semantic categories are functional-semantic fields being considered with means of expression of different levels in this or that language. These means react upon each other on the basis of their semantic function similarity.
The central part of paralogia subcategory is characterized by three components. The first component of the core includes medicine names of different mental disorders or brain pathologies. Second component - language means of neutral book style that express deficient development of mental abilities. Third one - language means of neutral book style that express psychic disorders.
The periphery of the semantic unit is divided into two parts: near periphery being represented by lexis of informal style, and distant periphery which consists of euphemisms. Near periphery is formed by non-standard lexis which is characteristic of evocative vernacular: "low" colloquialisms, general slang, special slang, and vulgarisms.
Near periphery of core component deficient development of mental abilities can be represented by such nouns and adjectives (informal general): booby; dense, dull, dull-witted, dullard; simpleton, dolt, dumb, dumbo, dumdum, dunce, empty-headed, half-baked, half-wit, blockhead, knucklehead,
76
A.S. Ptashkin
lame-brained, lamebrain, ninny, nitwit, dimwit, thickheaded, fat-headed, fathead, birdbrained, birdbrain, pea-brained, peabrain, wooden-headed, etc.; (Brit. informal) wally, berk, divvy; (N. Amer. informal) butthead, dumbbell, dumbhead, doofus, goof, bozo, dummy, etc. [6, 7].
For instance, according to data of British National Corpus (BNC) [8]: Charles Russell also found much to admire in his Manchester Scuttlers, seeing in their violent gang fights a 'sense of comradeship' which he could not altogether disapprove of: 'The 'Scuttler''was not wholly bad; he would rather be a blackguard than a dullard [Ibid: EDE 931]. I'm not going to bring the whole world down on us by telling my mother and father that I feel like a big span-celled goat going to college and having to come back here every night as if I were some kind of simpleton [Ibid: CCM 1244]. I just stood there like a goof waiting for him to introduce her [Ibid: FS1]. First of all, he appeared on television like he was some kind of game-show berk, not a businessman [Ibid: BP7 2185]. I cannot help thinking that the booby who so completely misses the point of the question is often actuated by some hidden (and mistaken) motive of self-preservation [Ibid: FRA 381]. If you want to survive, you shivering ninny, you might as well shoot off your big toe [Ibid: HRA 714]. Anybody but a complete knucklehead could find a beautiful woman in a place like Waldron City inside twenty-four hours [Ibid: FAP 694].
Language units of this periphery zone correlate with the core component psychic disorders: (informal-general) addlebrained, brainless, crazy, (stark) raving mad, bonkers, cracked, batty, cuckoo, gaga, loony, loopy, nuts, potty, screwy, bananas, wacko, etc.; (Brit. informal) crackers, barmy, barking (mad), daft, etc.; (N. Amer. infromal) buggy, nutso, etc.
For example, according to data of Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) [9]: It might be more comforting to think that Atta was stark raving mad, but true madmen, who are usually dysfunctional, don't work with Atta's calm purpose [10]. What is the purpose of this debauchery? Money! Only a seriously sick or brainless person could like them [11]. "If he was screwy you should have told me before he moved in", she said to Chaz's father [12]. She's loopy and eccentric and has little sense of style. She wears bedroom slippers a lot [13].
Distant periphery of analyzed semantic field includes euphemisms: not all there, a brick short of a load, off one's rocker, off one's head, round the bend, off one's trolley, round the twist, not the full shilling, a sandwich short of a picnic, sick in the head, etc. (N. Amer.) a brick shy of a load, full of locoweed, off the wall, etc. [14].
For instance, according to data of BNC: The people in the town may say 'Oh, he's not all there, you know,' but that's just their little joke (and sometimes, just to rub it in, they don't point to their heads as they say it); I don't mind [8: HWC 143]. Maybe it was, too, because anyone would want to be a little round the bend to marry him. [Ibid: A7J 1244]. Having read
that, the rest of you probably now think that the author is a sandwich short of a picnic [8: FBL 3239]. My dad says that queers are all sick in the head and he'd kill one if they ever touched me [Ibid: CF4 1414]. Did Malik still suspect him of not being quite the full shilling as far as heterosexuality was concerned? [Ibid: HR8 1499].
Conclusion
The interconnection of deviation and paralogia can be characterized as the system "category-subcategory." Language means of expression of such system also demonstrate the hierarchy relations. It can be shown in the ex-istance of semantic fields. Components core, near periphery, distant periphery are distinguished in the structure of semantic fields. Subcategory of pa-ralogia is represented by the complex of language means: lexemes, set phrases. Non-alphabetical enumeration of language units in the dictionaries means that these numerous means differ in variants of the English language, in frequency of their usage, and in diachronic aspect.
References
1. GEERAERTS, D., 2006. Cognitive Linguistics: Basic Readings. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
2. EVANS, V., 2007. A Glossary of Cognitive Linguistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University
Press.
3. PTASHKIN, A., 2013a. Concept "Genocide" as the Form of the Legal-Regulatory Compo-
nent in the Deviation Category in the English Language. World Applied Sciences Journal, 23 (5), pp. 621-627.
4. PTASHKIN, A., 2013b. The Concept "Ethnocide" Within the Category of Deviation in the
English Language. World Applied Sciences Journal, 28 (6), pp. 826-828.
5. PTASHKIN, A., 2014. The Concepts of "Beauty" and "Pathology" within the Biological
Component of Deviation Category (in the English Language). Xlinguae: European Scientific Language Journal, 7 (1), pp. 21-28.
6. SOANES, C., 2001. The Oxford Dictionary, Thesaurus, and Wordpower Guide. New York:
Oxford University Press.
7. MOREHEAD, Ph.D., 2001. The New American Webster Handy College Dictionary. New
York: New American Library.
8. British National Corpus, 2014. URL: http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk
9. Corpus of Contemporary American English, 2014. URL: http://corpus.byu.edu/coca
10. EVAN, T., 2001. The Day That Changed America. Newsweek, 139 (1), p. 40.
11. FLEMING, Ch., 2005. A Wild Rumpus In the Hollywood Jungle. New York Times, 23, AR15.
12. SEDARIS, D., 2007. This Old House. New Yorker, 83 (19), pp. 42-47.
13. BENDER, A., 2005. The Secret Society of Demolition Writers: Stories. New York: Random House.
14. STUART-HAMILTON, I., 2007. An Asperger Dictionary of Everyday Expressions. 2nd ed. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
