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0Малинина Д.А.
Старший преподаватель, Липецкий государственный технический университет.
Принципы лексикографической фиксации значений слов на примере Семного толкового
словаря (на примере английского языка)
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Аннотация. В статье рассматриваются принципы лексикографической фиксации значений языковых единиц на примере членов семантической группировки «Наименования лиц по уровню материального состояния» в английском языке. Слова были отобраны в семантическую группировку на основе доминантного опорного семантического признака. Практическое применение данного исследования состоит в создании семного толкового словаря. Предлагаемый словарь содержит разнообразную лексику: современные и устаревшие слова, неологизмы, диалектизмы, сленг, акронимы. В словарь включены лексические и фразеологические единицы, устойчивые словосочетания, что подчеркивает возможности используемого научного метода. Исследование выполнено в русле семной семасиологии, в рамках Воронежской научной школы З.Д. Поповой, И.А. Стернина, с применением трафаретной модели аспектно-структурного подхода в описании значения слова, разработанного профессором Е.А. Маклаковой.
Ключевые слова: семантика, сема, семема, семный толковый словарь, лексикографическая фиксация значений слов.
Malinina D.A.
Senior lecturer, Lipetsk State Technical University.
The principles of lexicographical fixation of words'
meanings by the example of Seme monolingual dictionary (by the example of the English language)
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© Малинина Д.А., 2024.
Abstract. The article deals with the principles of lexicographic fixation of language units on the material of members of the semantic group "Names of persons by the level of welfare" in the English language. The words were selected into the group on the basis of dominant supporting semantic feature in their semantics. Practical application of the study lies in the creation of seme monolingual dictionary, which contains a variety of language units. It describes contemporary and old-fashioned words, neologisms, dialecticism, slang and acronyms. It has lexical and phraseological units, collocations, which highlights the opportunities of the scientific method used. The study is carried out in the framework of seme semasiology developing by Voronezh scientific school of Z.D Popova and I.A. Sternin using aspect-structure approach with structure pattern of seme description of a word meaning (by Professor E.A. Maklakova).
Key words: semantics, seme, sememe, seme monolingual dictionary, lexicographical fixation.
The paper deals with analyzing and describing the semantics of "Names of persons by the level of welfare" in the English language.
The English semantic grouping analyzed includes about 500 lexical and phraseological units and collocations.
The presence of the dominant semantic feature - possessing a particular amount of material means - has been applied as a screening method to group the linguistic units.
The linguistic units under consideration have been obtained through the continuous sampling technique using a number of established English language dictionaries (monolingual and bi-lingual, slang, dialects, dictionaries of synonyms, etymological dictionaries, new words dictionaries etc.) followed by the process of their context meaning verification in BNC, COCA, on google.books.com. and sketchengine.
The study has been carried out in the framework of seme semasiology.
The practical application of the study lies in compiling a Seme Monolingual Dictionary "Names of persons by the level of welfare".
The tool employed in describing meanings of the lexical units in Seme Explanatory Dictionary is "the unified seme metalanguage" [1].The main benefits of the metalanguage applied are its clarity and explicitness. Complex components are decomposed into so- called "elementary particles" with a view to make them comprehensive to both a linguist and an average native speaker.
All the lexical units presented in the given Seme Monolingual Dictionary are listed in alphabetical order, with polysemantic words being represented with a corresponding number of sememes: in case of polysemy (sememe 2), (sememe 3) etc. entries are given in brackets.
^HAOAOrmffliHf HA^H, AHHrfiHfTHllA
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It is worth mentioning that the Dictionary only includes those polysemantic unit entries that are relevant within the framework of our study (in our examples given in bold)
Examples:
ANGEL - 1) "a spiritual creature like a human with wings, who some people believe lives with God in heaven";
2) "a very good, kind person";
3) "a rich person who invests in a new company" [Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus].
MOGUL - 1) "a very rich, important or powerful person";
2) "a member of the Muslim race that ruled much of India from the 16th to the 19th century";
3) "a raised area of hard snow that you jump over when you are skiing" [Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary 7th edition].
The structure of Seme Monolingual Dictionary entry is as follows:
- headword;
- metalanguage description of a "seme word meaning structure", with the information on the three macro-components (denotative, connotative and functional, labeled D, C, F correspondingly) being listed successively in a definite order; it should be noted that semantic characteristics, i.e. a lexical unit meaning micro-components, are separated by a comma;
- an example sentence or a context in which a language unit is used.
Examples:
AFFLUENT
D: a person, male / female possesses money, material means and property in a large amount,
C: non-estimated, non-emotional
F: inter-style, commonly used, modern, widespread, frequent, politically correct, neutral.
"However, the two market segments begin to look different when we compare the views of affluents and non-affluents on specific issues". [BNC].
BAG PERSON
D: a person, male / female, deprived of any means of subsistence, lives on beggary; carries his or her possessions in disposable shopping bags; homeless;
C: non-estimated, non-emotional;
F: slang, modern, in the USA, frequent, politically correct, neutral."
"He also wore dingy old robes that seemed, in his case, to shout "homeless bag person". [Cambridge English Corpus].
Within the context of the study, the method of supplemented interpretation of the meaning of the word has been employed as a key scientific technique. The dictionary entries of a particular lexical unit from a variety of lexicographical
sources have been analyzed and complemented taking into account denotative, connotative and functional usage dictionary marks.
The semantic grouping under study THE RICH -THE POOR is represented in the English language as gradual dichotomy.
In the semantic structures of language units the following seme's specifiers (examples underlined italicized) have been recognized.
EXAMPLES:
ZILLIONAIRE
D: a person, male // female, possesses money, material means and property in a huge amount; immeasurably wealthy;
"If you are unemployed and down to your last dollar, than any camera is too expensive to buy, and if you are a zillionaire, then the cost of any camera is irrelevant" [BNC];
TYCOON
D: a person, male // female, possesses money, material means and property in a very large amount; very successful and powerful in business;
"She is believed to have a 4.2 million fortune based solely on French property she owned before her marriage to the tycoon". [BNC];
A WOMAN OF MEANS
D: a person, female, possesses money, material means and property in a large amount; has a lot of power and influence;
"... it's a good idea for a woman of means to draw up a prenuptial agreement to limit the distribution of assets in the course of a separation ..." . [The Sunday Times];
THE PETIT BOURGEOISIE
D: a group of individuals, male / female, possess money, material means and property in an excessive amount, belong to a middle class, generally composed of shopkeepers, lower clerical staff, etc;
"The upper-middle classes do not enjoy close encounters with the petit-bourgeoisie — though they successfully condescend to this heart of the party membership". [The Sunday Times];
AVERAGE EARNER
D: a person, male // female, possesses average income enough to just satisfy urgent needs, cannot afford any luxury items, and gets a regular income;
"The gap between Britain's super-affluent and the average earner is widening, with those earning more than £350,000 per year becoming increasingly immune to tax changes." [The Times];
UNDERPRIVILEGED
D: a group of individuals, male // female, possess a small amount of money, having less money, education, etc., than the other people in a society: having fewer advantages, privileges, and opportunities than most people;
"For inclusive growth, the underprivileged, the needy and the social problems cannot be bypassed". [Cambridge English Corpus];
^HAOAOrH^ffllHf Ha^KH, AHHrfiHfTHllA
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THE WORKING POOR
D: a group of individuals, male / female, possess a very small amount of money that is not enough for a decent livelihood, work but earn very little money so that they are not able to save or pay for expensive goods or services;
"The working poor are working people whose incomes fall below a given poverty line". [Cambridge English Corpus];
VAGABOND
D: a person, male // female, has no means for subsistence, wanders from place to place without a fixed home; has no job;
"Where've you been hiding? Lazy idle vagabond!" [BNC].
The above-enumerated unified seme's specifiers enable us to specify the level or the grade of the basic dominant characteristic in the semantic structure among the language units of the grouping under consideration.
It is noteworthy that the Dictionary contains a wealth of various vocabulary -contemporary lexical units, new words, neologisms, e.g. DELLIONAIRE (DELL + MILLIONAIRE) - a person who has made a fortune selling Dell computers;
DOT- COM MILLIONARE - a millionaire whose company does most of its business on the Internet;
DEMI-BILLIONAIRE - a person who has half a billion dollars, pounds or other currency;
OILLIONAIRE (inf. USA, Canada) - a person who grew rich trading fuels;
CELANTHROPIST - a celebrity philanthropist, a very rich person who is intent on saving the world by spending money;
old-fashioned words, e.g. ABRAHAM COVE - naked or poor man;
slang, e.g. BIG BUG - a man of wealth and distinction;
HIGH ROLLER - someone who spends lots of money carelessly, blowing money fast and recklessly or in a risky way, especially by gambling;
WALKING BANKROLL - an individual rich in cash;
acronyms, e.g., SLRB (spoilt little rich brat) - person who takes everything for granted, is given loads of money by parents, hangs around with other such people;
VHNWI - (very-high-net-worth-individual) - the one whose fortune is worth from 5 million to 30 million;
ROWG - (rich old white guy);
dialects, , e.g. SQUATOCRACY (Australian) - a group of wealthy sheep farmers as a political or social force;
JOE BUCKS (Bahamas) - any wealthy man;
LAND SHARK (Australia and New Zealand) - a person made wealthy by speculating in land.
^n^sion. The lexicographic fixation principles considered in the article reveal an advanced up-to-date approach to the process of creating Seme Monolingual Dictionaries. The presented Dictionary is an example of an applied use of the research
conducted, and adds to the list of the existing dictionaries of the type. They are of a high practical value for contrastive and comparative research carried out by scholar-philologists and a wide range of people mastering English as their second language.
The apparent advantage of semantic monolingual dictionaries is introducing the more detailed information on unified macro- and micro-components of a lexical unit meaning, because despite a great diversity of dictionaries of different types, many of them lack connotative and functional dictionary marks. This approach enables linguists to depict the semantics of lexis in detail, highlighting its integral and differential features.
Библиографический список:
1. Малинина Д.А., Маклакова Е.А. Внутриязыковое сочетание единич лексики на основе семейного опи-
сания ix семантики. Сборник научных статей X Международной научно-практической конференции «Многоуровневая языковая подготовка в условиях поликультурного общества», Казань, 2023. 700 с.
2. Малинина Д.А. Маклакова Е.А. К вопросу о дифференциации лексических единиц по семантическим
признакам (на материале наименований лиц по уровню материального состояния в русском языке). Сборник научных трудов «Язык и национальное сознание» Выпуск 29, Москва, 2023. 175 с.
3. Малинина Д.А., Маклакова Е.А. «Семантика названий лиц по уровню материального состояния». Науч-
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Reference
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10. https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us (20.09.2023).
11. Corpus of Contemporary American English // URL: https://www.english-corpora.org/corpora.asp (15.08.2023).
12. British National Corpus (BNC) // URL: http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/ (05.07.2023).
13. The Free Dictionary. // URL: https://www.thefreedictionary.com/ (10.08.2023).
14. Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary 7th edition, Oxford University Press, 2005. 1780 p.
