Basic types of lexical meanings of a word
Clarification of the essence of the meaning of a word, analysis of qualitative changes in the structure of words - in their historical movement - is one of the main tasks of lexicology. Defining or interpreting the meanings of words is the main goal of compiling dictionaries, a direct object of lexicography.
The most important tasks of studying the laws of the semantic side of words and expressions of a particular language are the creation of historical dictionaries of languages with ancient writing and the construction of descriptive, historical and comparative-historical lexicologies of different languages.
One of the ways to approach the solution of complex issues related to the study of a word and its meaning, with the study of the laws of changes in the meanings of words, is to clarify the different types or types of lexical meanings of a word and the ways or forms of their connection in the semantic structure of the word.
It is well known that a word is not only the name of an object or objects, but also an expression of meaning, and sometimes an entire system of meanings. In one and the same meaning, the public understanding of different objects or phenomena, actions, qualities is generalized and united... Denoting a phenomenon, an object, the word at the same time conveys its connections and relationships in a dynamic whole, in historical reality. It reflects the understanding of a “piece of reality” and its relationship to other elements of the same reality, as they were or are realized by society, the people in a certain era, and at the same time with the wide possibility of later rethinking of the original meanings and shades. Thus, the verb nasolit, in addition to the direct specific meaning of “prepare with pickles, put a lot of salt in something,” also has a figurative meaning in modern language “to damage, cause trouble.”
Between the series of objects, actions, qualities denoted by words, there are various interactions and relationships. An object named by a word may turn out to be a link in different functional series, different aspects of reality, included in the overall broad picture of life. The word helps to comprehend and generalize these relationships. All this is reflected in the development of word meanings in the language of a particular historical period. Thus, the word ending is associated with the professional terminology of press workers. In typography, it still means a drawing, a graphic decoration at the end of a manuscript, book, or at the end of a chapter or section. The word ending is formed from the adjective terminal or terminal using the suffix -ka (cf. colloquial table, cherry, postcard, etc.). At the beginning of the 20th century. this word expanded its meaning: it was transferred to the field of literary and musical terminology (the ending of a poem, the ending of a romance). The word ending began to be called the final part of a work. word lexical phrase
Thus, the formation and creation of a new concept or a new understanding of a subject is carried out on the basis of existing linguistic material. This understanding, embodied in the meaning of a word, becomes an element of the semantic structure of a given language as a whole. Whenever a new meaning is included in the lexical system of a language, it enters into connection and interrelation with other elements of the complex and branched structure of the language. Only against the background of the lexical-semantic system of the language, only in connection with it are the boundaries of the word determined, as a complex and at the same time integral linguistic unit, combining a number of forms, meanings and uses.
When treating a word only as a name, it is impossible to establish a fundamental difference between different meanings of the same word and between different homonym words.
The meaning of a word is determined not only by its correspondence to the concept that is expressed using this word (for example: movement, development, language, society, law, etc.); it depends on the properties of that part of speech, the grammatical category to which the word belongs, on the socially conscious and established contexts of its use, on its specific lexical connections with other words, determined by the laws of combination of verbal meanings inherent in a given language, on the semantic relationship of the word with synonyms and in general with words that are close in meaning and shades, depending on the expressive and stylistic coloring of the word.
In a linguistic system, the semantic essence of a word is not limited to its inherent meanings. The word for the most part contains indications of adjacent rows of words and meanings. It is full of reflections of other parts of the language system, expressing attitudes towards other words, correlative or associated with its meanings. The value of a successful name or artistic expression lies in the richness of such echoes.
The connection between the meaning of a word and the lexical-semantic system of the language is carried out through internally united various subject-semantic and expressive-synonymous word groups. Due to the complexity of the semantic structure of a word, due to the diversity of its relationships and living interactions with other lexical links of the language system, it can be very difficult to distinguish and convey all the meanings and shades of a word even in a given period of language development, to imagine with all the completeness and vital concreteness the role of the word in verbal communication and exchange of thoughts between members of society.
The lack of a developed semantic theory of the word is reflected in the fact that we have not generalized and systematized observations of the qualitative uniqueness of meanings and forms of their connection, their internal unification in words belonging to different grammatical classes. It has been suggested that the semantic scope and methods of combining meanings are different in words belonging to different significant parts of speech. Thus, the semantic structure of a verb is wider than the semantic structure of a noun, and the range of its meanings is more flexible.
The term “lexical” or, as they have recently begun to say, “semantic meaning of a word” cannot be considered completely definite. The lexical meaning of a word is usually understood as its objective and material content, formalized according to the laws of the grammar of a given language and being an element of the general semantic system of the dictionary of this language. The socially fixed content of a word can be homogeneous, unified, but it can also represent an internally connected system of multidirectional reflections of different “pieces of reality” between which a semantic connection is established in the system of a given language. The differentiation and unification of these heterogeneous subject-semantic relations in the structure of a word is fraught with very great difficulties. These difficulties make themselves felt in the constant confusion of meanings and uses of a word, typical for explanatory dictionaries, in the vagueness of the boundaries between the meanings and shades of meaning of a word, in constant disagreements or discrepancies on the issue of the number of meanings of a word and the correctness of their definition.
Observations on the ways of combining different meanings in a word, as well as on the patterns of word usage, lead to the conclusion that not all meanings of words are homogeneous or of the same type, that there are qualitative differences in the structure of different types of lexical meanings. It is well known that a word relates to reality, reflects it and expresses its meanings not in isolation, not in isolation from the lexical-semantic system of a given specific language, but in inextricable connection with it, as its constituent element.
1. In the system of meanings expressed by the vocabulary of a language, the easiest to distinguish are direct, nominative meanings, as if directly aimed at “objects”, phenomena, actions and qualities of reality (including the inner life of a person) and reflecting their public understanding. The nominative meaning of a word is the support and socially conscious foundation of all its other meanings and applications.
The basic nominative meanings of words, especially those that belong to the main vocabulary, are very stable. These meanings can be called free, although their freedom is conditioned socio-historically and subject-logically. The functioning of these meanings of words is usually not limited and not limited by the narrow framework of close phraseological combinations. Basically, the circle of use of the nominative meaning of a word, the circle of its connections corresponds to the connections and relationships of the objects, processes and phenomena of the real world themselves, for example: drink water, kvass, wine, tea, cider, grape juice, etc.; stone house, basement, foundation, floor, barn, etc.; squint, squint eyes; syllabic verse, versification.
2. In relation to the main nominative meaning, all other meanings of this kind in the word are derivative. This derivativeness of secondary nominative meanings should not be confused with metaphor and imagery. To the extent that these meanings are not separated from the main one, they are understood in relation to it and can be called nominative-derived meanings. Often they are narrower, tighter, more specialized than the main nominative meaning of the word. This is, for example, the word drop - drops has a nominative-derived meaning “liquid medicine used according to the number of drops.” It is characteristic of the plural forms - drops. For example, in Griboyedov’s “Woe from Wit”: “Should I give you some drops?” In Pushkin’s “The Miserly Knight”: “He makes drops... it’s truly wonderful how they act.”
It is curious to see the combination of three types of nominative meanings in the word friction. The mechanics term friction was used to characterize social relations. In the language system, the nominative-derived meaning of a word (as well as the terminological, scientific) cannot be separated from the basic free one. Therefore, the statement that a word in its basic meaning can be included in the main vocabulary fund, but in a “figurative or special” meaning can be outside it, is erroneous.
Two or more free nominative meanings can be combined in one word only if one or two of them are derived from the main one (at least understood as such at a given period of language development). If there is no such connection between the meanings, then we are already dealing with two homonyms. Analysis of the morphological structure of the word also helps a lot in solving this issue.
The connection of meanings in the semantic structure of a word, the ways of combining words and meanings in speech are determined by the internal semantic patterns of development of the language system. Here lie the grounds and conditions for historically established restrictions in the rules for linking the meanings of words and in the semantic spheres of their use. That is why not all meanings of words in a living, functioning lexical system are directly aimed at the surrounding reality and directly surround it. And in this area, language is a product of different eras. Many meanings of words are locked into strictly defined phraseological contexts and are used to exchange thoughts in accordance with historically established phraseological conditions for their use. Many words in the modern language system do not have direct nominative meanings at all. They exist only as part of a few phraseological combinations. Their meaning is isolated from these combinations most often by substituting synonyms. Many words or individual meanings of many words, mainly of a figurative or synonymous nature, are limited in their connections. These meanings can only appear in combination with strictly defined words, that is, in a narrow sphere of semantic relations. Several phraseological series are grouped around a polysemantic word. Most of the meanings of words (3) are phraseologically related. Having different meanings for a word most often means entering into different types of semantically limited phraseological connections. The meanings and shades of meaning of a word are mostly determined by its phrasal environment.
3. Phraseologically related meaning is devoid of a deep and stable conceptual center. The general subject-logical core does not stand out in it as clearly as in the free meaning. It does not follow either from the functions of the significant parts that make up the word (if the word is derivative), or from the relationship of this word to reality. The meaning of this kind is “scattered”: it tends to be fragmented into a number of shades associated with individual phraseological combinations. For example, the verb to grow, although it is defined in dictionaries by the general formula “to reach some size in growth,” is usually used only in relation to hair, mustache, beard, and nails. In other cases it is said to grow (compare the meanings of the word shoot: “a shoot extending from a stem or root” and “a branch”). Homogeneous restrictions on verbal connections are also valid for the verbs grow (hair, mustache, beard, nails) and let go (to oneself).
Synonyms can also develop completely synonymous, phraseologically related meanings. A striking example is the verbs vvat and vvaletsya. The verb to fall in one of its meanings is phraseologically related, synonymous with the verb to fall: “to sink deeply, to become sunken.” This meaning is realized in combination with the words - eye (eyes), cheek (cheeks), mouth, lips, chest, sides. For example, in Pushkin’s “The Undertaker”: “... sunken mouths”; from Turgenev in the story “Strange History”: “The lips were so sunken that among the many wrinkles they represented one - transverse. The verb to fall is characterized by the fact that its direct nominative meaning is outdated and has fallen out of use (cf. Old Russian fall into a hole, ditch and etc.) To express this verb, the verbs to fall and fall (cf. fall into a hole and fall into a hole) began to be used. Only in imperfect forms the nominative meaning “to flow in”, “to flow in” (about rivers, streams) was preserved. In the perfect forms of the verb vvat, the meaning “to become sunken” is fixed, synonymous with the same meaning of the verb vvalt. It is associated only with the words cheeks, eyes (eyes), less often mouth, lips, temples, chest, sides. In Lermontov: “pale cheeks.” sunken" ("Bela"); in Chekhov's story "The Seizure": "His face was pale and haggard, his temples were sunken."
The distinction between free and phraseologically related meanings of a word helps to more accurately and clearly represent both the semantic boundaries and the semantic composition of the word, the system of all its meanings. The distinction between free and phraseologically related meanings is especially important for the theory and practice of lexicography. It is especially easy to make mistakes in isolating and defining phraseologically related meanings of words, since their use does not provide sufficient means for checking their meaning.
The extreme level in the series of phraseological combinations is occupied by phrases that include words with a single use. For example, the book word advanced occurs only in the expressions “advanced age”, “advanced years” or “years”. It is clear that in an individual style it can be combined with some other synonym for the word “age”. So from Nekrasov: “The old days will set more serene than the Arcadian idyll.”
Its use differs from the meaning of the word. Usage is either a trace of past uses of a word that did not create a special meaning, or a new application of one of the meanings of a word in an individual, not quite ordinary phraseological environment, in a unique situation, with a new figurative orientation. Under the figurative or compositionally complicated use of a word in any of its basic meanings, new, unique semantic meanings arise. They are volatile, changeable, and sometimes even difficult to detect. They are not characteristic of the common language, although they are generally understandable.
The history of word meanings is inextricably linked with the history of phraseological units. Phraseological combinations embody general patterns that govern the connection of meanings within a given semantic system. New, individual uses of a word make themselves felt first in individual phraseological combinations. Based on them, a common phraseologically related, non-free meaning can then crystallize.
At the same time, the fading of the meaning of a word does not always lead to the disappearance of all related contexts of its use. The separation of phraseological combinations also leads to the formation of new expressions and new semantic shades. For example, the verb to get drunk (as well as its expressive synonyms to get drunk, etc.) in colloquial-familiar speech is combined with the expression to hell (cf. to the green serpent) in the meaning “to the extreme degree of intoxication, to hallucinations.” Here, to hell is a designation of the highest, extreme degree, but only of one very specific action. Being torn away from the verb to get drunk, the expression to get drunk as hell can, in individual speech, become a playfully ironic designation of the highest limit of anything at all. This is exactly how the artist A. Ya. Golovin used this expression when talking about Levitan: “What “hells” of virtuosity he reached in his last works!.. Thus, the study of not only synonyms, but also phraseologically related meanings, the use of words closely unites lexicology with stylistics.
In addition to the qualitative differences between free meanings (1) and phraseologically related meanings (3), non-free ones, in the lexical system of the Russian language the specific features of meanings, the implementation of which is determined (4) syntactically, stand out very clearly. The very nature of the interconnectedness of the lexical meanings of words and their syntactic properties is reflected in the qualitative differences between the two main syntactic categories - phrases and sentences.
A peculiar type of meaning of a syntactically determined nature (4) is formed in words, to which a strictly defined function is assigned as part of a sentence. A functionally syntactically limited meaning is qualitatively different from all other types of meanings in that the syntactic properties of a word as a member of a sentence are, as it were, included in its semantic characteristics. For example, Wed. in colloquial speech the word well done when expressing praise, approval as a predicate: She’s a great guy with us; Well done for passing your exams well.
The word rooster has two meanings: 1) “male hens”, 2) “bully” when applied to a person. However, it is characteristic that the second meaning of this word is not associated with any of the phraseological units formed on the basis of the word rooster: let the rooster (about the singer); let the red rooster (“set it on fire”, from robber jargon); get up (early) with the roosters, stay up until the roosters (until dawn), stay late. Thus, the figurative meaning of the word rooster cannot be considered phraseologically related. It would be most correct to recognize this meaning, in contrast to the direct, free nominative meaning, as a predicative-characterizing meaning. The predicative-characterizing meaning of a noun can be used to name, designate someone or something only in the case of an individual indication (usually through pronoun this). For example, if they said about a bully: That's a rooster! Or: This rooster always ruins everyone's mood! But as a name, as a designation, the word rooster is usually applied to a person only as a surname or nickname (one can recall Gogol’s Pyotr Petrovich Rooster). The predicative-characterizing meaning of a noun can be realized in a predicate or as part of a predicate, in circulation, in a separate definition and application.
The syntactically limited meaning of a word from a semantic point of view is often the result of a figurative-typical generalization of some social phenomenon, character, some personality traits and is a popular expression of their assessment, their characteristics. Therefore, it is used as a predicate, as an address, as an application, or a separate definition, or even initially as a figurative, often metaphorical, designation that appears in speech, in cases where it is necessary to classify a person, object, phenomenon to some category in the system collectively conscious ways to characterize them. The peculiar semantic features of this type of word meaning appear especially clearly in cases of transition, developing, but not yet becoming standard.
Functionally and syntactically limited meanings are characteristic mainly of nouns, adjectives (especially their short forms), as well as adverbs, which under these conditions pass into the category of state. However, there is no doubt that in the verb system a similar type of predicative-characteristic, attributive meanings develops. These meanings usually appear in imperfective forms and are associated with a limitation of not only the aspectual, but also the modal possibilities of using the corresponding verb. For example: The windows overlook the garden; The endeavors of young researchers deserve every encouragement; The matter is worth attention; One is worth seven, etc.
Much more complex, far beyond the limits of simple correlation with three types of lexical meanings of a word - meanings of free, phraseologically related and functional-syntactically limited (or fixed) - is the sphere of meanings (5) constructively organized or constructively determined. Many lexical meanings of words are inseparable from strictly defined forms of compatibility of these words with other words. Moreover, these forms of compatibility depend not only on the belonging of words to certain grammatical categories (for example, verbs to the category of transitivity), but also on the connection of these words with such semantic groups that have a stable type of construction. The fact is that the structure of some types of phrases is determined by the belonging of their grammatically dominant member to one or another semantic class or category of words that have the same type of construction. For example, a small number of verbs of internal state, emotional and volitional experience - cry, lament, complain and some others - usually express their meaning in combination with the preposition na and the accusative case form of a noun denoting the object of the corresponding state or experience. Thus, the direct nominative meaning of the verb to cry (as well as its synonyms with the help of which it is defined - to complain, lament) is constructively determined. You can’t just cry, you can cry about something - about your fate, about your misfortunes.
Structurally determined meaning is characterized by the subject-semantic incompleteness of its disclosure in the forms of the word itself: it is fully realized only in its characteristic syntactic structure - in combination with other words, the number and composition of which may not be limited in any way. The possible unlimited connections with other words within a strictly defined syntactic structure is an essential feature of a constructively determined meaning. And by this feature it differs sharply from the phraseologically related meaning, which is typical of isolation and limited possible combinations with other words.
An example of the interaction of phraseologically related meanings and strictly differentiated constructions is the word play: cf., on the one hand, to play something (cards, lotto, hide and seek, football, chess, etc.) and figuratively - to play feeling, indignation, etc. and, on the other hand, to play something (violin, guitar, piano; cf. also play billiards, on nerves); Wed play with something or someone (life, people), play someone, in something, etc.
Thus, in the system of significant parts of speech, constructive conditionality or connectedness only introduces peculiar shades into the main types of meanings of words, contributes to the differentiation of meanings and shades of words, as well as the differentiation of homonyms. The identification of a special type of constructively determined meaning occurs when a significant word is transformed into a function word (for example, relatively - in the function of a preposition with a homonym regarding - an adverb and a modal word; exactly - in the function of a conjunction in relation to a homonym exactly - an adverb, as well as a modal word and an affirmative particle etc.).
Distinguishing the main types or types of lexical meanings of words helps to establish a clear perspective in the semantic characteristics of words and contributes to the correct definition of homonyms and synonyms in the lexical system of the language. Different types of word meanings serve in different ways to reflect and consolidate in the language the successes of the cognitive activity of the people. A. A. Potebnya correctly pointed out that the lexical meanings of words, organically connected with grammatical ones, are a structural element of the language, and in this sense they are formal - in comparison with those concepts that are formed and fixed on their basis and with their help.
A concept can become a free, nominative meaning of a word, but even in this case, the semantics of the word as a whole, considered in the system of aspects of language, is not exhausted and is not limited only to the expression of this concept. As for other types of lexical meanings of words, these meanings are so merged with the specifics of this particular language that the universal, conceptual, logical content in them is overgrown on all sides with peculiar forms and semantic shades of the national creativity of a given people.
In this article we will look at the types of lexical meanings of words and present their most famous classification, created by
As you know, a word has two meanings - grammatical and lexical. And if the grammatical meaning is abstract and inherent in a large number of words, then the lexical meaning is always individual.
Lexical meaning is usually called the correlation of objects or phenomena of reality with a specific sound complex of a language unit, fixed in the mind of a native speaker. That is, lexical meaning denotes the content inherent in a certain word.
Now let’s look at the basis on which types are distinguished. And then we’ll look at one of the most popular classifications.
Semantic correlation of various words of the Russian language allows us to identify different types of lexemes. Today there are many systematizations of such meanings. But the most complete classification is considered to be the one proposed in his article entitled “Basic types of lexical meanings of words.” We will analyze this typology further.
Based on nomination (or correlation), it is customary to distinguish two meanings of a lexeme - direct and figurative.
Direct meaning, also called main or basic, is a meaning that reflects the phenomenon of reality, the real world. For example: the word “table” means a piece of furniture; "black" is the color of coal and soot; “boil” means to bubble, seethe, evaporate from heating. Such semantics is permanent in nature and is subject only to historical changes. For example: “table” in ancient times meant “reign,” “throne,” and “capital.”
The main types of lexical meanings of a word are always divided into smaller ones, which we proved in this paragraph, talking about literal and figurative meanings.
Returning to the main topic, we can add that words in their literal meaning are less dependent than others on the context and other words. Therefore, it is believed that such meanings have the least syntagmatic coherence and the greatest paradigmatic conditionality.
Types of lexical meanings of words were identified on the basis of living Russian speech, in which language games are very often used, part of which is the use of words in figurative meanings.
Such meanings arise as a result of the transfer of the name of one object of reality to another on the basis of common features, similarity of functions, etc.
The word has the opportunity to have several meanings. For example: “table” - 1) in the meaning of “piece of equipment” - “machine table”; 2) in the meaning of “food” - “get a room with a table”; 3) in the meaning of “department in an institution” - “round table”.
The word “boil” also has a number of figurative meanings: 1) in the meaning of “manifestation to a high degree” - “work is in full swing”; 2) excessive manifestation of emotions - “seething with indignation.”
Figurative meanings are based on the convergence of two concepts with the help of various kinds of associations that are easily understood by native speakers. Very often, indirect meanings have great imagery: black thoughts, seething with indignation. These figurative phrases quickly become fixed in the language, and then end up in explanatory dictionaries.
Figurative meanings with pronounced imagery differ in their stability and reproducibility from metaphors invented by writers, publicists and poets, since the latter are strictly individual in nature.
However, very often figurative meanings lose their imagery for native speakers. For example, “handles of a sugar bowl”, “bend of a pipe”, “chime of a clock” are no longer perceived by us as figurative phrases. This phenomenon is called extinct imagery.
Depending on the degree of semantic motivation (or origin), the following are distinguished:
For example: unmotivated words include “build”, “table”, “white”. The motivated ones include “construction”, “desktop”, “whitewash”, since these words were formed from unmotivated ones, in addition, the primary source words help to understand the meaning of the newly formed lexemes. That is, “whiten,” derived from “white,” means “to make white.”
But not everything is so simple; the motivation of some words does not always manifest itself so clearly, since the language changes, and it is not always possible to find the historical root of the word. However, if you conduct an etymological analysis, you can often find an ancient connection between seemingly completely dissimilar words and explain their meanings. For example, after etymological analysis we learn that the words “feast”, “fat”, “cloth”, “window”, “cloud” come from “drink”, “live”, “knot”, “eye”, “drag” respectively. Therefore, it is not always possible for a non-specialist to distinguish an unmotivated word from a motivated one the first time.
Depending on their meanings, words can be divided into:
Non-free types of lexical meanings of words in Russian:
Syntactically determined meanings also include those vocabulary constructions that can only be realized under certain syntactic conditions. For example: “whirlwind” acquires a figurative meaning only in the form gender. n. - “whirlwind of events.”
Types of transfers of the lexical meaning of words can be distinguished depending on the nature of the functions performed:
An example of a nominative word: “tall man” - this phrase informs the listener that the person being described is tall.
An example of an expressive-semantic word: in the same case as described above, the word “tall” is replaced with the word “lanky” - this is how a disapproving, negative assessment of this growth is added to information about high growth. Thus, the word "lanky" is an expressive synonym for the word "tall".
The main types of lexical meanings of Russian words, depending on the nature of the connection in the lexical system of one meaning with another:
Thus, we have listed the types of lexical meanings of words. Briefly we can name the following aspects that formed the basis of the classification we presented:
By studying the classification of lexical meanings, one can better understand the semantic structure of words and understand in more detail the systemic connections that have developed in the vocabulary of the modern language.
The word is the most important structural and semantic unit of language, used to name objects, processes, properties. Structurally, S. consists of morphemes, from which it differs in independence and free reproduction in speech, and represents building material for a sentence, unlike which it does not express a message. S. is characterized by structural formality (the presence of its own and single stress; borderline sound signals; the impossibility of pauses within the S. and their possibility between words; impenetrability, i.e., the impossibility of including other S. in its composition, etc.); semantic idiomaticity (arbitrariness of connection of a sound complex with a certain meaning); autonomous nominative function (the ability to independently designate objects or phenomena of reality, which is associated with the reproducibility of S. in speech, their isolability and the ability to act as a minimum of a sentence).
Combining lexical and grammatical meanings, s. belongs to a certain part of speech, expresses in its composition all grammatical meanings predetermined by the system of a given language (for example, adjectives of the Russian language express the meanings of gender, number, case) and in languages with inflection it represents a set all its grammatical forms. In S. the results of people’s cognitive activity are consolidated; without S. not only the expression and transmission of concepts and ideas, but also their very formation is impossible. The meaning of a symbol acts as a generalized reflection of the object it denotes. The meaning of S. reflects the dialectical relationship between the general and the individual, stable and mobile. The stability of its meaning ensures mutual understanding; mobility (shifts in the specific meaning of the word) allows the word to be used to name new objects of reality and is one of the factors in artistic verbal creativity. Associated with mobility is the tendency for words to have multiple meanings. The speaker’s attitude towards the named object forms the emotional aspect of the meaning of the word, expressing the feelings and subjective opinion of the speaker. Sentences form a specific system in a language, which is based on the grammatical features of synonyms (parts of speech), word-formation connections (clusters of words), and semantic relationships.
The scientific value of the concept of language lies precisely in the fact that it combines features identified in different aspects of language analysis: sound, semantic, grammatical. S. acts as the main element of language for its speakers, representing a psychological reality: although people speak in phrases, they remember and know the language primarily through S., for S. serves as a means of consolidating in memory and transmitting in speech the knowledge and experience of people.
The word as the basic unit of language is studied in various branches of linguistics.
So, from a phonetic point of view the sound envelope is examined, and those vowel and consonant sounds that make up the word are highlighted, the syllable on which the stress falls is determined, etc.
Lexicology (descriptive) point of view clarifies everything related to the meaning of a word: clarifies the types of meanings, determines the scope of use of the word, stylistic coloring, etc. For lexicology, the important question is the origin of the word, its semantics, sphere of use, stylistic affiliation, etc. at different periods of language development.
From a grammatical point of view the belonging of a word to one or another part of speech, the grammatical meanings and grammatical forms inherent in the word, and the role of words in a sentence are revealed. All this complements the lexical meaning of the word.
Grammatical and lexical meanings are closely related, so a change in the lexical meaning often leads to a change in the grammatical characteristics of the word. For example, in the phrase deaf consonant, the word deaf (meaning “a sound formed only with the participation of noise alone, without the participation of the voice”) is a relative adjective. And in the phrase deaf voice, the word deaf (meaning “muffled, unclear”) is a qualitative adjective, having degrees of comparison, a short form. Consequently, the change in meaning also affected the morphological characteristics of the word.
Lexical meaning- correlation of the sound shell of a word with the corresponding objects or phenomena of objective reality. Lexical meaning reveals the signs by which common properties are determined for a number of objects, actions, phenomena, and also establishes the differences that distinguish a given object, action, phenomenon. For example, the lexical meaning of the word giraffe is defined as follows: “an African artiodactyl ruminant with a very long neck and long legs,” that is, the characteristics that distinguish the giraffe from other animals are listed.
All words in the Russian language have meaning. A word can have one lexical meaning (unambiguous words): syntax, tangent, cap, secret, etc. Words that have two, three or more lexical meanings are called polysemantic: sleeve, warm. Polysemantic words occur among all independent parts of speech, except numerals. The specific meaning of a polysemantic word can only be determined in context: star - stars lit up in the sky; screen star; starfish.
Types of lexical meanings of words in Russian
A comparison of various words and their meanings allows us to identify several types of lexical meanings of words in the Russian language.
1. By nomination method direct and figurative meanings of words are distinguished. The direct (or basic, main) meaning of a word is a meaning that directly correlates with the phenomena of objective reality. For example, words table, black, boil have the following basic meanings: 1. “A piece of furniture in the form of a wide horizontal board on high supports, legs.” 2. "The color of soot, coal." 3. “Burgle, bubble, evaporate from strong heat” (about liquids). These values are stable, although they may change historically.
Direct meanings of words least of all others depend on the context, on the nature of connections with other words. Therefore, they say that direct meanings have the greatest paradigmatic conditionality and the least syntagmatic coherence.
Figurative (indirect) meanings of words arise as a result of the transfer of names from one phenomenon of reality to another on the basis of similarity, commonality of their characteristics, functions, etc.
At the word black the following figurative meanings: 1. “Dark, as opposed to something lighter called white”: black bread. 2. “Taking a dark color, darkened”: black from tanning. 3. “Kurnoy” (full form only, obsolete): black hut. 4. “Gloomy, desolate, heavy”: black thoughts. 5. “Criminal, malicious”: black treason. 6. “Not main, auxiliary” (full form only): back door in the house. 7. “Physically difficult and unskilled” (long form only): menial work, etc.
figurative meanings can remain figurative: black thoughts, black betrayal; seethe with indignation. Such figurative meanings are fixed in the language: they are given in dictionaries when interpreting a lexical unit. Direct and figurative meanings are distinguished within one word.
2. According to the degree of semantic motivation unmotivated meanings are highlighted (non-derivative, primary), which are not determined by the meaning of morphemes in the word; motivated (derivative, secondary), which are derived from the meanings of the generating stem and word-forming affixes. For example, words table, build, white have unmotivated meanings. words dining room, desktop, eat, construction, perestroika, turn white, whitewash, white motivated meanings are inherent, they are, as it were, “derived” from the motivating part, word-formative formants and semantic components that help to comprehend the meaning of a word with a derivative base.
3. If possible, lexical compatibility The meanings of words are divided into free and non-free. The first ones are based only on subject-logical connections of words. For example, the word drink combined with words denoting liquids ( water, milk, tea, lemonade etc.), but cannot be combined with words such as stone, beauty, run, night.
Non-free meanings of words are characterized by limited possibilities of lexical compatibility, which in this case is determined by both subject-logical and linguistic factors. For example, the word win goes with words victory, top, but does not fit with the word defeat. You can say lower your head (look, eyes, eyes), but you can't - " lower your hand" (leg, briefcase).
Non-free meanings are divided into phraseologically related and syntactically determined. The first are realized only in stable (phraseological) combinations: sworn enemy, bosom friend(you cannot swap the elements of these phrases).
The syntactically determined meanings of a word are realized only if it performs an unusual syntactic function in a sentence. Yes, words log, oak, hat, acting as a nominal part of a compound predicate, obtain the meanings "stupid person"; "stupid, insensitive person"; "a sluggish, uninitiative person, a bungler".
4. By the nature of the functions performed Lexical meanings are divided into two types: nominative, the purpose of which is nomination, naming of phenomena, objects, their qualities, and expressive-synonymous, in which the predominant is the emotional-evaluative (connotative) feature. For example, in the phrase tall man word high indicates great growth; this is its nominative meaning. And the words lanky, long in combination with the word Human not only indicate great growth, but also contain a negative, disapproving assessment of such growth. These words have an expressive-synonymous meaning and are among the expressive synonyms for the neutral word high.
5 . By the nature of the connections of some meanings with others in the lexical system languages can be distinguished:
1) autonomous meanings possessed by words that are relatively independent in the language system and denote primarily specific objects: table, theater, flower;
2) correlative meanings that are inherent in words that are opposed to each other according to some characteristics: close - far, good - bad, youth - old age;
3) determined meanings, i.e. those “which are, as it were, determined by the meanings of other words, since they represent their stylistic or expressive variants...”. For example: nag(cf. stylistically neutral synonyms: horse, horse); wonderful, wonderful, magnificent (cf. good).
Thus, the modern typology of lexical meanings is based on, firstly, conceptual-subject connections of words (i.e., paradigmatic relationships), secondly, word-formation (or derivational) connections of words, thirdly, the relationships of words to each other friend (syntagmatic relationship). Studying the typology of lexical meanings helps to understand the semantic structure of a word, to penetrate deeper into the systemic connections that have developed in the vocabulary of the modern Russian language.
Polysemy(from the Greek πολυσημεία - “polysemy”) - polysemy, multivariance, that is, the presence of a word (unit of language, term) of two or more meanings, historically conditioned or interconnected in meaning and origin.
In modern linguistics, grammatical and lexical polysemy are distinguished. So, the shape of the 2nd person unit. Parts of Russian verbs can be used not only in their own personal meaning, but also in a generalized personal meaning. Wed: “Well, you’ll shout out everyone!” and “I can’t shout you down.” In such a case, we should talk about grammatical polysemy.
Lexical polysemy- this is the ability of one word to serve to designate different objects and phenomena of reality, associatively connected with each other and forming a complex semantic unity. It is the presence of a common semantic feature that distinguishes polysemy from homonymy and homophony: for example, the numeral “three” and “three” - one of the forms of the imperative mood of the verb “rub”, are not semantically related and are homoforms (grammatical homonyms).
Semantic structure of a word– semantic structure of the basic unit of vocabulary. S. s. With. manifests itself in its polysemy as the ability, with the help of internally related meanings, to name (designate) various objects (phenomena, properties, qualities, relationships, actions and states). The semantic structure of an unambiguous word comes down to its semantic composition.
The simplest unit of the semantic structure of a polysemantic word is its lexical-semantic variant (LSV), i.e., a lexical meaning associated with other lexical meanings by certain relationships, the main of which are hierarchical. In S. s. With. lexical-semantic variants are related to each other due to the commonality of the internal form, their mutual motivation, and deducibility from each other.
Sema- a term denoting the minimum unit of the language plan of content (elementary lexical or grammatical meaning), correlating with the morpheme (the minimum significant unit of the plan of expression and representing a component of its content. For example, in the word form “book” the morpheme “-у” contains three S.: "singular", "feminine" and "accusative".
Lexical meaning words, being an element of the general linguistic system, nevertheless have sufficient independence. It has actually semantic, that is, specific properties inherent only to it, for example, different ways of nominating objects, concepts, phenomena, features according to the nature of their correlation with reality ( direct- indirect, or portable), according to the degree of motivation ( non-derivative - derivative), according to the methods and possibilities of lexical compatibility ( free - unfree), by the nature of the functions performed ( nominative - expressive-synonymous).
By nomination method, that is, by the nature of the connection word meaning with objective reality, there are two types lexical meanings - direct, or basic, and indirect, or portable. Direct meaning named because the word that has it directly, directly reflects the object (phenomenon, action, quality, etc.). Direct meaning, acting as a stable basis for the nomination of a subject in the modern period of linguistic development, is also called primary.
Indirect(or portable) meaning a word is a meaning that arises on the basis of comparisons, associations, etc., combining one object with another. Thus, figurative meaning appears as a result of name transfer direct(main) designations item to a new item. figurative meanings are private, they are also called secondary. figurative meanings, in turn, can be divided into figurative ones with extinct imagery (bow of a ship, wings of an airplane) and artistic-figurative (Pupils painted posters
/V.V. Mayakovsky/, The wind whistles, silver wind, IN silky rustle of snow noise
/S.A. Yesenin/).
According to the degree of semantic motivation, there are two types of lexical meaning of the word: non-derivative(unmotivated, primary) and derivative(that is, motivated by a primary, original meaning, and therefore being secondary). For example, the meaning of the word window“a hole in the wall for light and air” is non-derivative (unmotivated), primary, and the meaning of the word windowsill"situated" under the window"should be considered derivative (motivated), secondary, since it is motivated by the primary meaning of the word window.
According to the degree of lexical compatibility there are free values And unfree. Free meanings include those that reflect the subject-logical relationships of words in a language. For example, to free include meanings of words head, nose, eye; table, petal, spring; fairy tale, dispute, luck and many others. However, “freedom” of lexical combinability of such words is a relative concept, since it is limited by their subject-logical relations. So, based on subject-logical connections, you cannot combine the word hand with words like funny, smart, deep etc. And yet, the meanings of these (and many other) words from a lexical-semantic point of view can be called free.
To the group unfree values turn on meanings of words, the lexical compatibility of which is limited not only by subject-logical relations, but also by linguistic ones. Similar values are called not free. Among lexically unfree two groups stand out values words: phraseologically related And syntactically determined with a variety - constructively limited (or conditional) meanings.
Phraseologically related meaning is one that is realized only in combination with a narrowly limited, stable range of lexical units. The connections of words in these combinations are determined not by subject-logical relations, but by the internal laws of the lexical system of the language. Yes, the word pitch black meaning "complete, absolutely hopeless" appears only in combination with words hell or darkness.
Syntactically conditioned this is called figurative meaning, which appears in a word only in a sentence, for example p figurative meaning of the word crow - “(colloquial) slow, clumsy person, rotten, simpleton”.
A type of syntactically determined meanings are the so-called structurally limited(or conditional) meanings. These include values, which are realized only under the conditions of a certain syntactic structure. For example, the word mirage the main thing is the terminological meaning - "optical phenomenon". In a construction with a noun in the genitive case (in the function of definition), this word acquires figurative meaning - "a deceptive ghost, an illusion, something created by the imagination": mirage of love.
Based on the nature of the naming functions performed, two types can be distinguished: lexical meanings of the word: actually nominative And expressive-synonymous.
Nominative meanings words can be called those that are used primarily to name objects, phenomena, qualities, actions, etc. In the semantic structure of words with a similar meaning, as a rule, additional features (for example, evaluative ones) are not reflected. However, during subsequent use, these signs may appear. Nominative is, for example, meaning of words table, horse, beautiful, stone, be proud, move and many others. Each of the words with a nominative meaning is directly related to the concept and names it.
Expressive-synonymous meanings are called those in which the main one is an emotional-evaluative sign. Words with this meaning arose as additional expressive-evaluative names of already existing nominations (for example, nonsense, ascend, trudgeetc.). These words exist independently in the language and are reflected in dictionaries, but are perceived in the minds of native speakers by association with their nominative synonyms ( nonsense - stupidity, ascend - rise, trudge - walk slowly).
So, the typology of lexical meanings is based on three main types of relationships: conceptual-subject connection, the relationship of words to each other and the degree of motivation of the meaning. Identifying different types of lexical meanings helps to gain a deeper understanding of the semantic structure of a word, that is, to understand the nature of systemic intra-word connections.
