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5PHILOLOGICAL SCIENCES
ЛЕКСИЧЕСКОЕ ЗНАЧЕНИЕ И СЕМАНТИЧЕСКАЯ СТРУКТУРА СЛОВ В АНГЛИЙСКОМ
ЯЗЫКЕ
Мамедова С.Б.
кандидат филологическх наук, преподаватель Азербайджанского медицинского университета
LEXICAL MEANING AND SEMANTIC STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH WORDS
Mammadova S.B.
PhD in philology, teacher at Azerbajan Medical University
Аннотация
У каждого языка есть словарный состав или лексика, которая составляет основную часть его грамматики. Принимая во внимание, что лексика языка - это сумма всех слов, иными словами, ввсе лексемы этого языка. Лексикон - это основной продукт, который составляет основу языка. Предметом лексикологии является развитие словарного запаса, происхождение слов и групп слов, а также семантических отношений и развитие звуковой формы и значения. Это позволяет стимулировать системный подход к фактам словарного запаса и обоснованное сравнение инородных и родных языков. Данная статья проливает свет на этот вопрос, принимая во внимание определенное исследование взаимодействия между синтаксисом и лексической семантикой, и, в частности, как структурируется лексическое значение, на примере английского языка.
Abstract
Every language has a vocabulary or lexicon which forms one part of its grammar. Whereas, the lexicon of a language is the sum of all words, in another word lexemes of this language. The lexicon is a staple which formulates the core of the language. The subject matter of lexicology is the development of vocabulary, the origin of words and word groups as well as the semantic relations and the development of the sound form and meaning. It furnishes to stimulate a systematic approach to the facts of vocabulary and well-founded comparison of the foreign and native languages. This current article sheds lights upon the matter by taking into consideration certain exploration of the interface between syntax and lexical semantics, and in particular how lexical meaning is structured.
Ключевые слова: компонентный анализ, лексическое значение в сравнении с понятием, денотативный и коннотативный компоненты, категориальное значение, проблемы и области лексикологии
Keywords: componential analysis, the lexical meaning versus notion, the denotative and connotative components, categorial meaning, the problems and areas of lexicology
The term lexicology is of Greek origin, from "lexis" - word and "logos" - science. Word-meaning is one of the central characteristics of the word. The branch of linguistics, specializing in the study of meaning, is called semantics. Meaning can be described as a component of the word through which a concept is communicated, the word gratified with the ability of denoting real objects, qualities, actions, and abstract notions. The semantic structure of the word does not present an indissoluble unity, nor does it necessarily stand for one concept. Linguists singled out Semasiology as a term which is one of the most extensive branches of Lexicology. However ,it has been steadily manifested that there are various promulgated criteria which stands upon the establishment of word. One of the first things that is noticed about words is that they are not only the smallest units but also they can form an utterance on their own. On the other hand, elements within them show greater cohesion than words themselves: therefore, neither stems and affixes cannot be separated except by other affixes particularly in the flow of speech nor does the order and arrangement of elements in words tend to vary.
The lexical meaning versus notion
One of the most striking definitions of word meaning runs as follows: linguistic meaning is the specific kind of content produced by the reverberation in the human consciousness of objective reality which constitutes the inner (semantic) structure of linguistic units and with respect to which their expression, the sounds in which they are materialized, is the outer (or phonetic) structure.
It has been supervised that there is tremendous renewal of interest in semantic theory among linguists in the last few decades. This tendency has substantially increased. The primary causal of this increment is the development of generative grammar with its emphasis on the distinction between 'deep structure' and 'surface structure'. On the one hand semantics deals with the way words are and sentences are related to objects and processes in the world. On the other hand, it deals with the way in which they are related to one another in terms of such notions as 'synonymy', entailment', and 'contradiction'. Semantics is the study of meaning communicated through language. it has been further elucidated that a speaker's semantic knowledge is exciting and challenging activity. Themajor principle of
semantic analysis, is pertinent explanation how the sentences of a particular language are understood, interpreted, and related to states, processes and objects in the world.More precisely, semantics is the study of the meaning of linguistic units, words and sentences in particular.
Despite the term "semantics" has only a subtle history on the basis of hundred years,meaning has always been a considerable topic in human scholarship, though the term "semantics" has only a history of a little over a hundred years.The fact that over the years numerous dictionaries have been produced with a view to explaining the meaning of words also bears witness to its long tradition. Notwithstanding, semantics compared to other branches of linguistics such as with phonetics, phonology, morphology and syntax still remains the least known area in linguistics. Hereinafter, more and more emphasis should be placed on the specific of class of word in semanticswhich are lexical meaning and grammatical meaning.
The content of lexical meaning
The words "meaning" and "sense" are used interchangeably. Broadly speaking, meaning can be described as a component of the word through which a concept is communicated, in this way endowing the word with the ability of denoting real objects, qualities, actions and abstract notions. It is essential to denote that many scholars have attempted to define the word as a linguistic phenomenon. The two main types of meaning are the grammatical and lexical meanings of a word. The grammatical meaning of a word deals with the expression in speech of relationship between words. The lexical meaning of the word is the realization of the notion by means of a definite language system.
As it has been stated above, in linguistic area, however, these two words are differentiated. The lexical meaning of a word may be thought of as the specific value it has in a particular language system. It is significant to point out that the prime discrepancy between lexical and grammatical meaning lies on the fact that lexical meaning is dominant in content words, whereas grammatical meaning is dominant in function words, but in neither is grammatical meaning absent. Lexical meaning is the most outstanding individual of the word that makes it different from any other word.Lexical words supply meaning to a sentence, whereas grammatical words relate the lexical words to one another. Lexical words, also known as content words, have concrete meaning that goes beyond their function in a sentence. These words refer to things, people, actions, descriptions, or other ideas that have more than just a grammatical usage. Their meaning is easily identified by a clear concept or item. The categories of English words that are lexical include nouns, adjectives, most verbs, and many adverbs.
The content of grammatical meaning and cate-gorial meaning
Grammatical words have little definite meaning on their own and are ambiguous without context as well as they are regarded as function words since part of them can also function to impart the speaker's attitude or perspective onto other words. These words affiliated
to this type determine the structure of a sentence and relate lexical words to each other.
The lexical meaning of a word remains the same, that is, all the word-forms of one and the same word share the same lexical meaning, the grammatical meaning varies from one word-form to another vice versa. Whereas ,the grammatical meaning is the same in identical sets of individual forms of different words, one of the specific precedent of this is the usage of the past-tense meaning in the word-forms of different verbs such as (delivered, undertook, implemented, etc.), or the grammatical meaning of plurality in the word-forms of various nouns (tools, data,flowers, vehicles etc.).Thus.the meaning of a sentence is determined partially by the meaning of the words lexemes of which it consists and partly by its grammatical meaning. The term "categorial meaning" being the part of grammatical meaning derives from members of one category of major parts of speech rather than another (nouns rather than verbs, verbs rather than adjectives, and so on).Thereupon, it can be inferred that all lexemes with full word-forms have a grammatical particularly, a categorical, meaning.Grammatical words comprise prepositions, modals and auxiliary verbs, pronouns, articles, conjunctions, and some adverbs.When a dictionary lists the function of a word, the definition does at least two things: it describes the word's lexical meaning and also gives what is traditionally known as the part of speech of the word, which modern linguists call the word-class, for example, determined will be marked as an adjective, determine as a verb, and determination as a noun. The word-class is significant in the usage of word in a sentence, two inevitable factors are to be to taken into considerationtwo factors: its specific lexical meaning and the position it normally occupies in a sentence, which is determined by the word class to which the word belongs.
Emphasizing the fact that the word is a language unit which is representative of the system of language, it should be taken into account that it has a grammatical meaning because it exists and functions due to grammatical rules. In other words, the grammatical component of meaning is characterized by generalization and abstraction recurrent in word-forms, and has regular and standard expression. Grammatical meaning becomes obvious only against the background of meaningful oppositions. For example, in the system of noun such a grammatical component is the meaning of plurality versus singularity even if the markers of plurality vary singularity versus plurality, which is characterized by absence of a regular suffix, and in some cases, for example, by an irregular suffix of Greek or Latin origin (datum, bacterium, criterion, phenomenon, stratum, etc.). word, i.e. the referential basis; the latter includes the register and speech situation, i.e. the functional differentiation of discourse.
The interplay and balance between the grammatical and lexical meanings varies from word-class to word-class and even within the same class. It is usually considered that the grammatical component is prevailing in minor word-classes (articles, prepositions, conjunctions, etc.) as their function is not to convey con-
cepts but to provide connection between words. However, even here the lexical component can be rather distinct. The prepositions in these word-groups: under the bridge/ over the bridge; above zero/ below zero. On the other hand, although in major word-classes the lexical component tends to outweigh, in the verbs be/ feel/ look functioning as link-verbs the lexical meaning can be reduced as a result of which the grammatical component comes to the fore.
The problems and areas of lexicology
It can be inferred from the above that we define the word as a basic (indivisible) unit at the level of speech. Nevertheless, as it was pointed out, this indivisibility is to a certain extent conventional. Particularly, at the level of lexicological analysis already, the word still being the main focus, a further step is taken
- the word is reduced to its extreme structural elements
- morphemes (roots, affixes). On the other hand, in utterances words do not emerge as isolated entities - they enter structurally complex units which are functionally equivalent to words. Therefore, when we say that Lexicology is the science about the word, we mean that it studies various lexical units including morphemes, words, variable word-groups and phraseological units. This being so, modern lexicological approaches meet two levels of investigation: syntagmatic and paradigmatic. On the syntagmatic level, intra-linguistic relations are viewed in the linear sequence. In other words, the semantic structure, or meaning of the word is defined in relation with other words in connected speech. This means that the semantic features of the word are considered in its typical contexts.
The denotative and connotative components
It has already been clarified that the factor of the referent is central to linguistic meaning. The existence of a referent (object: phenomenon, relationship, quality, process) presupposes the realization of another linguistic category - naming, or referring. When describing the semantic triangle, the connection between 'referent' and 'symbol' has been observed. However, linguistic meaning is characterized by three more factors or aspects of word meaning. They are: signification (or sense), denotation and connotation. Signification (or sense) is the inherent property of a word (or word combination), due to which the word has the power of denotation, i.e. can be used to refer to a certain object individually. The signification (sense) of the word is what is distinguished in a dictionary as it is illustrated in the following examples:
1. piece of furniture
2. person - (chairing a meeting).
Having the capacity of usage of aforehighlighted two words , the word chair can be used with reference to two separate objects or in another word - referents, for instance:
1. to refer
2. name.
It is implied that signification is that aspect of the word's meaning, in which the functioning of a lexical unit as a sign .Hence, in linguistics, unlike from semasiology, the term 'onomasiology' has been noticed -the study of vocabulary from the viewpoint of the
things or concepts being 'denoted'. It is worth mentioning that the two - semasiology and onomasiology - are viewed in contrast to one another. This means that the two linguistic factors of signification and denotation are considered as separate aspects of word-meaning. stressed, as for example.a lexical unit is viewed as a sign within the sign system of language vocabulary, involving the relationships between sign and thing or sign and concept. Differently, denotation is that part of the word's meaning which involves the relationship between a lexical unit and the non-linguistic object (entity) to which it refers). In other words, being referential meaning in essence, denotation presupposes the existence of something outside the speech event. The referents (or things mainly) can be concrete. When words are used literally, in their factual (objective and primary) meanings, denotation and signification coincide. However, that a word's signification and denotation are separate can be seen in the way how they may be at variance with, and even opposed to one another, depending on the speaker's intention. The sense (signification) and denotation of a word, though separate, interact, and the subtle relationship which arises between signification and denotation creates connotations. The separateness as well as the interaction between signification and denotation often bringing about new connotations is obvious in the cases of semantic change based on figurative extension known as linguistic metaphor and linguistic metonymy. Namely, when words are used to refer to new objects, the existing systematized structure of the meaning (signification) undergoes changes - it is extended. Correspondingly, their reference (denotation) is extended too. As a consequence, new connotations may arise. For example, we know the word cauliflower denoting 'a vegetable with green leaves around a large hard white head of 38 flowers', and we know the word ear, the signification of which is 'the organ with which we hear'. In the combination of the two words - cauliflower ear, the word cauliflower used attributively and figuratively denotes 'swollen'. Thus, on the one hand, the word signifies a 'vegetable', on the other hand, it actually refers to the quality of 'being swollen because the ear has been hit many times'. The connotations that arise because of the clash of signification and denotation are the expressive-emotional valuative elements and the associations that we have as we come across or use the phrase. Needless to say, visualized cauliflower ear as something vivid, arousing emotions.
Componential analysis
Broadly speaking, componential analysis is considered as a means of analyzing words in terms of their semantic components rendered as -minimal distinctive features. Componential analysis aimed at to list all the functions and values associated with a source-text item, and then observe appropriate number of them are found in the target side equivalent. Although componential analysis as translation procedure is mainly approached in case of the translation of words that are specific to different cultures, it can also be useful for the translation of words that are not culture-bound. Moreover, componential analysis can be the basis of an assessment as regards the choice that has been made for a particular
target language equivalent word, by means of identifying which sense components might have led to this translation solution, even though it is not always the result of a componential analysis carried out by the translator, but merely an intuitive or experience-based choice.
Resume
The general propensity with English vocabulary at the modern stage of its history is to increase the total number of its meanings and to provide for a quantitieve and qualitative growth of the expressive resources of the language. The word is one of the fundamental units of language. It is a dialectal unity of form and content. Its content or meaning is not identical to notion, but it may reflect human notion, but it may reflect human notion and is considered as the form of their existence. Concept is a category of human cognition. Concept is the thought of the object that singles out its essential features. Our concepts abstracts and reflect the most common andtypical features of the different objects and phenomena of the world. Being the result of abstraction the concepts are thus almost the same for the whole of humanity. The concept of semasiology as a scientific discipline areas "Linguistics", its main objects of study. Identify the relationship sense with the sound forms, a concept referent, lexical meaning and the morphological structure of synonyms in English.
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BASIC FORMATiON METHODS OF NANOTECHNOLOGY TERMS
Panakhly S. T.
Azerbaijan Medicine University, PhD in philology teacher at foreing languages department
Abstract
The article deals with the term system of nanotechnology, its origin, areas of borrowing and provides the appropriate classification. The results of the morphological analysis of this term system, the morphological methods of forming terms in the English language, affixing methods of term formation, the most productive Latin and Greek prefixes and suffixes are described.
Keywords: term, term system, morphological method of terminology, affixation, prefixes, suffixes, single word, verbose term
Nanoindustry is a relatively young sphere of human activity. For the development of the entire infrastructure, it is necessary to regulate the terminology of a professional language in the field of nanotechnology. For the purpose of successful professional communication, specialists of Russian and foreign organizations need to create common terminological databases, a single terminological meta-language, various types of dictionaries, automated translation systems, training programs that would form the basis for training future specialists in the field of nanotechnology with a professional-oriented communication. The regulation of special vocabulary involves not just the systematiza-tion of concepts, but also a semantic, structural, functional analysis of the term system.
Some ways of forming nanotechnology terms are considered in the article. The volume of the article does
not allow analyzing all aspects of the formation of the term system in the field of nanotechnology.
Today the criteria for a formalized description of the most significant characteristics of any terminology system have been fully developed.
In our work, we used the criteria for evaluating term systems developed by S. G. Kazarina. The basis of this terminological system is a heterogeneous model [3, s. 73]. Nanotechnology is an interdisciplinary field. The terminological system of nanotechnology has arisen as a result of the interaction of such areas of human knowledge as physics, chemistry, biology, microelectronics. For example, terms were borrowed: form chemistry - tunneling, capillary force, catalysis, adhesion, clathrate, biosensor and etc., from biology and microbiology - biomimetic, bilayer; from physics - waveguide, dielectric; from electronics and microelectronics - bipolar transistor.
