Лексикологія англійської мови

Даний посібник написаний англійською мовою і розрахований на студентів-германістів заочної форми навчання ІV курсу факультету іноземних мов вищих навчальних закладів. Матеріали організовані згідно з вимогами навчальної програми для гуманітарних спеціальностей. Посібник складається з 6 частин, у яких висвітлюються питання основних розділів курсу лексикології сучасної англійської мови на основі існуючих робіт вітчизняних та зарубіжних лінгвістів. У практичній частині кожного розділу посібника студентам пропонується закріпити теоретичні знання, виконуючи вправи з теми розділу. Для перевірки отриманих знань у посібнику також надаються завдання та вправи для лексичного аналізу. Навчальні матеріали можна залучати як для аудиторної , так і для самостійної роботи, зокрема у заочному та дистанційному навчанні

Феномен синкретизма в украинской лингвистике

У сучасній лінгвістиці вивчення складних системних зв’язків та динамізму мови навряд чи буде завершеним без урахування синкретизму. Традиційно явища транзитивності трактуються як поєднання різних типів утворень як результат процесів трансформації або відображення проміжних, синкретичних фактів, що характеризують мовну систему в синхронному аспекті.In modern linguistics, the study of complex systemic relations and language dynamism is unlikely to be complete without considering the transitivity. Traditionally, transitivity phenomena are treated as a combination of different types of entities, formed as a result of the transformation processes or the reflection of the intermediate, syncretic facts that characterize the language system in the synchronous aspect.В современной лингвистике изучение сложных системных отношений и языкового динамизма вряд ли будет полным без учета синкретизма. Традиционно явления транзитивности трактуются как совокупность различных типов сущностей, сформированных в результате процессов преобразования или отражения промежуточных синкретических фактов, которые характеризуют языковую систему в синхронном аспекте

Doing things with words across time. Snapshots of communicative practices in and from the past

Knowing our contextualized (hi)story means being able to understand ourselves and how the world works. This kind of knowledge is key to self-awareness and self-empowerment, which also have a close connection with how we use language to communicate, to develop social interactions, to build relationships, and to project our identity. The diachronic evolution of languages is therefore a crucial part of a social being’s historical situatedness. The account of this evolution, i.e. historical linguistics, has traditionally focused on formal aspects of language as a grammatical system, investigating changes affecting or reflected in orthography, phonetics-phonology, morphology, syntax and vocabulary. More recently, however, scholarly attention has broadened its scope to include functional aspects of language use, such as strategies and conventions of communicative affordances over time, thus giving rise to historical pragmatics. In this special issue, the contributions encompass three main areas within historical pragmatics: language use in earlier periods (pragmaphilology), the development of language use (diachronic pragmatics) and causes of language change (discourse-oriented historical linguistics). In particular, the papers offer complementary insights into communicative practices, examining interactional strategies in classical languages, politeness phenomena in grammar and discourse, the evolution of discursive practices, the pragmatic use of lexemes and the teaching of sociopragmatics. Significantly, the issue presents a cross-linguistic approach, since it considers pragmatic phenomena in English, Korean, Italian, Slavonic languages, Ancient Greek and Latin, thus helping us understand how current discursive forms are in fact both unique and comparable in several languages and cultures

A call for the environment: A bilingual corpus-driven analysis of creative language in online texts by WWF and Greenpeace

Since its development as a discipline in the 1980s, environmental communication has sought to inform and warn people about the threats and issues that concern nature and wildlife by providing an accurate representation of them. There are a variety of actors and media that have contributed to spread such communication and raise awareness about environmental issues, both on a local and a global level. In order to reach even lay people and to fulfil their persuasive purpose, environment texts have undergone a process of popularisation and have exploited every linguistic resource, including the most creative ones. This dissertation aims at investigating the use of creative solutions in environment texts published by two environmental organisations, namely, WWF and Greenpeace. This investigation was carried out by designing a comparable corpus, consisting of online texts in Italian, British English and American English found in the websites of such NGOs. The study focused on the titles and subheadings of those texts, which were classified and grouped according to the type of lexical creativity they contain. The analysis showed that only a minority of cases included traditional figures of speech and idiomatic expressions that maintained their original form and meaning, as the majority contained manipulations at the semantic, structural, or phonological level. These deformations concerned collocations, idioms, and even quotes of famous books, songs, films, and other cultural or intertextual references. However, the most used device in the corpus turned out to be wordplay, followed by the exploitation of the polysemy of words that is generated in a particular context. Overall, it was observed that what affects the choice towards a creative device rather than another is not the general topic but the specific content of that text

The literal/non-literal divide synchronically and diachronically: The lexical semantics of an English posture verb

This thesis' main research goal is to provide an account of the English posture verb sit, from a synchronic a diachronic perspective. My proposed account of sit comprises various components, including a characterisation of the different possible meanings of sit and a comparison with stand and lie. The two relevant meanings are a literal one and non-literal one (The girl is sitting on the chair vs. The wine bottle is sitting on the chair; in the former the subject is described to be in a sitting position, while in the latter the subject is not in a sitting position). I analyse each meaning/use separately, noting which semantic patterns occur with one type only and those which occur with both. I argue that the non-literal use is diachronically connected to the literal one, and I motivate this claim based on the shared components identified in the thesis and on data from corpus studies reported in the thesis. A consequence of acknowledging a divide between the literal and non-literal uses---a perspective not usually taken in theoretical linguistics---is that I am able to account for important semantic details which might be otherwise overlooked. The cognitive and typological literature includes account of posture verbs cross-linguistically, but in the theoretical literature these verbs have not received much attention. In this thesis, I review existing proposals and highlight the uncertainties surrounding the posture verbs. In order to fillthese gaps in the literature and to better understand the phenomena, I analyse data from synchronic and diachronic corpus studies, and incorporate these insights into my account of sitEl principal objetivo de investigación de esta tesis es dar cuenta del verbo de postura inglés sit (`sentarse¿), desde una perspectiva sincrónica y diacrónica. La descripción que propongo de sit comprende varios componentes, incluida una caracterización de los diferentes significados posibles de sit y una comparación con stand (`estar de pie¿) y lie (`estar echado¿). La literatura cognitiva y tipológica incluye una descripción de los verbos de postura de forma interlingüística, pero en la literatura teórica estos verbos no han recibido mucha atención. En esta tesis, reviso las propuestas existentes y destaco las preguntas sin responder que rodean a los verbos de postura. Para llenar estos vacíos en la literatura científica y comprender mejor los fenómenos, analizo datos de estudios de corpus sincrónicos y diacrónicos, e incorporo estos conocimientos en mi explicación de sit. Los dos significados relevantes son uno literal y uno no literal (The girl is sitting on the chair `La niña está sentada en la silla' vs. The wine bottle is sitting on the chair `(lit.) La botella de vino está sentada en la silla¿; en la primera frase, se describe el sujeto en posición de estar sentado, mientras que en la segunda frase el sujeto no está sentado). Analizo cada significado/uso por separado, notando qué patrones semánticos ocurren con un solo tipo y cuáles ocurren con ambos. Argumento que el uso no literal está conectado diacrónicamente con el literal, y motivo esta afirmación a partir de los componentes compartidos identificados en la tesis y en los datos de los estudios de corpus tratados en la tesis. Una consecuencia de reconocer una división entre los usos literales y no literales (una perspectiva que no suele adoptarse en la lingüística teórica) es que se consigue dar cuenta de importantes detalles semánticos que de otro modo podrían pasarse por alto

Advertisements: Signs of femininity and their corresponding ‎color ‎meanings

This book is submitted by Professor Mony Almalech, Dr. Habil. ‎Institute for the Bulgarian language. The monograph represents an example ‎of the unique partnership between Almalech and Prof. Sasha Weitman, ‎Ph.D., Tel-Aviv University as Almalech quotes a manuscript Weitman ‎on signs of femininity. ‎ The monograph of Almalech consists of two parts two Appendixes – the first serves ‎as a textbook on Semiotics of colors, the second is research on the color ‎meanings and their corresponding meanings to the signs of femininity in ‎advertisements.‎ Appendix 1 is the Norm of color associations and 2 is pictures of adds. The contribution of Almalech is the development of the Semiotics of ‎colors and its application to the world of advertisements. ‎ Almalech draws our attention to the semiotic differences between ‎visual colors and linguistic color terms. He recognized two forms of ‎existence of the language of the colors – Verbalized and Visual (non-‎verbalized). The visual colors are percept by the ocular perception, i.e. all ‎colors are percept simultaneously. The verbalized form is when we use the ‎natural language to designate color. The verbalized Color language is ‎subordinate to the linear or syntax order of the natural language. ‎Almalech used the Test of Free Linguistic Associations (Kent-‎Rossanof) to form the Bulgarian Norm of associations on colors (Appendix ‎‎1). The list of word-associations (Appendix 1) is taken as a dictionary of ‎non-color meanings of colors. In his previous book in English – Balkan ‎Folk Color Language – Almalech proves a list of universal and non-‎universal color meanings of Visual colors in folklore marriage and burial. ‎Now he used the Prototype theory of Rosch and Lakoff to comment the ‎Norm of associations and the list of visual color meanings.‎ Almalech relates the verbalized associative non-color meanings of ‎different words (basic color terms white, black, red, etc.; prototype terms ‎light, darkness, sun, fire, blood, sky, sea, etc.; prototype rival terms linen, ‎cherry, duckling, ruby, wine, sapphire, etc.; terms for the basic features of ‎the prototypes clean, pure, immaculate for light; hot, warm for fire; fresh ‎for plants, etc.) to the non-color meanings of the visual colors in folklore. ‎He finds a small kern of mutual universal meanings which become a ‎semiotic key for decoding the messages of advertisements. ‎ The colors and the signs of femininity are described by Almalech as ‎independent sign systems in terms of the semiotic triangle. The previous ‎researches of Almalech on colors gave him the possibility to trace ‎semantic and semiotic links between the signs of femininity and the colors. ‎The analysis of 44 advertisements (pictures in Appendix 2) is the second ‎part of the book. ‎ Maybe the most valuable result of this book of Mony Almalech is ‎the conclusion that despite the successful use of folklore matrices such as ‎‎“saying twice the same thing” the world of advertisements misses the most ‎important intention and semantics of the ritual colors – the preserving ‎and reproducing power of their positive magic. The ads manipulate by ‎subconsciously readable messages which are not pinpointed on our ‎survival. The pragmatic principle of lie works here because, as the author ‎points out, we all know subconsciously the universal meanings of colors. ‎Almalech concludes that effective advertising works on our soul but not ‎on our pocket. ‎ The book can be used both by students of semiotics or by ‎advertisement specialists. It might be of interest to semioticians, ‎anthropologists, linguists.‎ DOI: 10.7546/9789543220205

Colour and semantic change: a corpus-based comparison of English green and Polish zielony

The purpose of my research is to investigate the processes and mechanisms of semantic change in two basic colour terms: green in English and zielony in Polish. My research methodology focuses on existing English and Polish corpora, namely the British National Corpus, the Corpus of Contemporary American English and the National Corpus of Polish. I analyze my data both synchronically and diachronically (comparing two periods of time: 1985-1994, 2001-2010). My study also evaluates the use of corpus evidence for the purpose of investigating the processes of semantic change. Various factors have caused the Basic Colour Terms (BCTs) green and zielony to form metaphorical and metonymical meanings that have been conventionalised in English and Polish respectively. These processes have long played an important role in our understanding of the surrounding world. Investigating semantic changes in these two colour terms and two periods of time is key to my cross-cultural research, and this entails answering the questions: Why do green and zielony develop different senses? What are the similarities and differences between these two colour terms? How have these two terms developed and might they develop new senses in future? Are metonymy and metaphor the only mechanisms of semantic change in green and zielony? The semantic change of each colour term is shown through a network of meanings, where all the different meanings of green and zielony are presented together with their stages of development in the form of codes. Additionally each stage is a separate prototype. The aim of the network is to show the etymological prototype and various senses (new prototypes) developing from this original sense. Moreover the number of occurrences of each prototype might indicate which meaning or meanings are most common or even central in a given language at a certain point in time. The network of meanings is a visual representation of semantic change and processes involved in it. A very detailed analysis of corpus examples provides an insight into the uses of green and zielony in English and Polish respectively. The data are analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. Such an approach offers a thorough analysis of the two terms in question

Meaning, Life and Culture

This book is dedicated to Anna Wierzbicka, one of the most influential and innovative linguists of her generation. Her work spans a number of disciplines, including anthropology, cultural psychology, cognitive science, philosophy and religious studies, as well as her home base of linguistics. She is best known for the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach to meaning—a versatile tool for exploring 'big questions' concerning the diversity and universals of people’s experience in the world. In this volume, Anna Wierzbicka’s former students, old and current colleagues, ‘kindred spirits’ and ‘sparring partners’ engage with her ideas and diverse body of work. These authors cover topics from the grammar of action verbs to cross-cultural pragmatics, and over 30 languages from around the world are represented. The chapters in Part 1 focus on the NSM approach and cover four themes: lexico-grammatical semantics, cultural keywords, semantics of nouns, and emotion. In Part 2, the contributors connect with a meaning-based approach from their own intellectual perspectives, including syntax, anthropology, cognitive linguistics and sociolinguistics. The deep humanistic perspective, wide-ranging themes and interdisciplinary nature of Wierzbicka’s research are reflected in the contributions. The common thread running through all chapters is the primacy of meaning to the understanding of language and culture

Semantic innovation and grammaticalization of the English loanword type in colloquial Hindi

Recent years have seen increased interest in the grammaticalization of type nouns cross-linguistically. This thesis contributes to the growing body of research in the field by using naturally occurring data to investigate innovative uses of the English loanword type in colloquial Hindi by residents of the North Indian Himalayan town of Pithoragarh. A semantic-pragmatic and syntactic analysis of the spoken data reveals that the functions of type in Hindi mirror the grammaticalized functions of type cognates in other languages, including uses as a similative and a hedge, and incipient uses as a quotative marker, a general extender and a discourse marker. The emergence of type in a language already replete with lexical options offers a unique opportunity for comparison between the functions of type and those of equivalent Hindi lexemes. Of particular import is the analysis of aisa ‘like this’ and related lexemes, a class known as ‘similative demonstratives’ (van der Auwera and Sahoo, 2020). Highly prolific in Hindi, similative demonstratives share many of the extended functions of synonyms of like and of type, but also ‘discourse-structuring devices’ associated with English such and German so (König, 2020). A ‘phoric’ construction formed with loanword type appears in similar contexts to similative demonstrative aisa beyond the remit of a modifier, showing evidence of semantic-pragmatic extension and decategorialization. This thesis presents a motivated argument that type may have modelled itself on aisa and be grammaticalizing along a similar path or indeed paths. Finally, the study offers a novel contribution to research into type noun grammaticalization due to type’s status as a recent loanword. Whilst being fully integrated into the Hindi lexicon there is evidence that loanword type also retains its status as an English-origin lexeme, functioning as a flag for English code-switches alongside its hedging role