Lexicology as a branch of linguistics. What does lexicology study? Branch of science that studies vocabulary Lexicology as a science sections of lexicology

This article will focus on lexicology. What it studies, what it is, what sections it is divided into and what modes of action it has, we will look at here.

Introduction

Lexicology is a linguistic branch that studies vocabulary. We have learned what lexicology studies, and now we will get acquainted with its general and specific parts. The latter is busy studying the lexical composition of a certain language. This science turned all its attention to:

  • the word and the meaning contained in it;
  • system of relationships between words;
  • historical facts through which vocabulary in the modern sense was formed;
  • the existing differences in words according to their functional and stylistic nature in various speech spheres.

Object and subject

The word serves as an object that lexicology studies. Another object of study is word formation and morphology. However, if in these branches of science the word is a means by which the grammatical structure and word-formation model, as well as language rules are studied, then in the science of lexicology the word is studied with the aim of knowing the meaning of the word itself and the linguistic vocabulary. It studies not individual linguistic units of oral speech, but directly the entire language system.

What does lexicology study in the Russian language? First of all, she is concerned with the consideration of the Russian and Slavic languages, which had active development in the course of historical events.

The subject of lexicology is

  • The word, as a part of language, considered using the theory of words.
  • The structure of the linguistic composition of words.
  • Functional capabilities of the lexical unit.
  • Possible ways to replenish the language composition.
  • Relationship with an extra-linguistic type of activity, for example with culture.

Main sections

Lexicology is a science that studies vocabulary, its basis. The science is quite extensive and has many sections, including:

  • onomasiology - a section on the process of naming objects;
  • semasiology - a section that studies words and phrases, namely their meaning;
  • phraseology - studies the vocabulary relationships between each other, and among themselves;
  • onomastics - busy with the study of existing names;
  • etymology - the section that draws attention to historical origin words, also considers the abundance of vocabulary as a whole;
  • lexicography - focused on the theory and practice of compiling dictionaries;
  • stylistics is a section that studies the meaning of sayings and words of a connotative type.

General information

Lexicology is a science that studies the vocabulary of a language, and the number of words in it is impossible to count. One, only seventeen-volume collection of the “Dictionary of Modern R.Ya.” includes more than 130,000 words, and the Oxford Dictionary contains over 300,000 words.

Lexicology studies the vocabulary of a language, which also includes little-known units of speech such as agnonyms, which refer to words with unknown meanings.

Speech units that are used frequently belong to the active vocabulary of the language. There are frequency dictionaries, with which you can identify frequently used words. However, there is the concept of a passive dictionary, which includes elements of language that carry information about something, but are used relatively rarely. Such words belong to limitedly used vocabulary - a dialectal, professional or slang word.

Replenishment of vocabulary

We have learned what lexicology studies, and now we will turn our attention to the ways in which the vocabulary is replenished.

The phenomenon of borrowing vocabulary from the languages ​​of other peoples is one of the main such ways. Taken long ago, foreign words are now considered native Russian. However, very often this is not the case; an example of this is the unit of speech - bread, which came into the Russian language from Germanic. Due to borrowing, the original meaning of a word may change.

Another way to enrich lexical components is the formation of a new series of words. Such components of speech are called neologisms.

The further development of the fate of new words can be varied: some lose their novelty and become fixed among other elements of the language, others can be considered new formations created by an individual author (occasionalisms). The expansion of the boundaries of vocabulary also occurs due to the development of a new range of meanings for words that have been known for a long time and well.

Words that have sunk into oblivion

Lexicology studies words, among which obsolete units of language are also considered. Due to the influence of time on the word, by the way, it is falling out of use. This can be observed, for example, when an object or phenomenon that was previously often used disappears. These words are called historicisms. The disappearance of such a word also leads to the loss of the reality that it carries, but sometimes the realities themselves do not disappear, but are renamed and called archaisms.

Vocabulary as a system of mobile type

Vocabulary is like a system capable of advancement. This allows us to determine that words have a wide variety of relationships with each other for various semantic reasons. These words include synonyms - speech units that differ in form, but are close to each other in meaning.

There are words related to each other by the presence of a reason for commonality in the opposite meaning - antonyms. They point to opposite "things". Available opposite meaning in one speech unit it is called enantiosemy. An example would be the phrases: “listen” in the understanding of the phrase “listen attentively”, and in the understanding “turn a deaf ear”.

The connection between words can be expressed in form. Almost every language carries words that have an external identity, they can have different meanings. An example is the variety of meanings of the word - braid, which can be either an agricultural tool or a braid of hair. This type of words is called homonyms.

Homonyms, in turn, include different types differences of the same nature. If linguistic units coincide in the “form” of sound only if there are separate reasons, then such words are called homoforms. Words that have the same spelling but differ in sound led to the creation of the term homograph. If the pronunciation is the same, but the spelling is different, then such words are called a homophone.

Paronyms include words that are similar, but have a difference in identity based on the characterized parameters of form and meaning. They also perfectly show us the essence of a formal type of communication.

There is a concept of interlingual homonyms and paronyms. Such words have a formal similarity, but in different languages can have many meanings. They are called "false friends of translators."

Lexical units

Lexicology, as a branch of linguistics, studies the vocabulary components of any language, and knows that they have enormous diversity and heterogeneity. There are categories that were identified due to the presence of special distinctive features in them. In the lexicology of the Russian language, the following many subspecies are foreseen:

  • by areas of application, they are divided into: commonly used types of words and units of vocabulary that are used under special circumstances in science, poetry, vernacular, dialect, etc.;
  • by the magnitude of the emotional load, which includes units of speech colored by emotional or neutral “color”;
  • in accordance with historical development, divided into archaisms and neologisms;
  • according to the history of origin and development, divided into internationalism, borrowing, etc.;
  • in accordance with functionality - vocabulary units of active and passive types;

Given the continuous development of languages, what lexicology considers includes insurmountable boundaries of study, constantly expanding and changing.

Lexical problems

In this science there is a concept of certain problems that it studies. Among them are:

  1. Structural problems that determine the form of perception of a word, the structural basis of its elements.
  2. A semantic problem involved in studying the question of the meaning of a lexical unit.
  3. Functional problems of the general system of language, exploring the role of words and speech units in the language itself.

Speaking about the first problem, and the aspect of development, we can summarize that this science is busy establishing specific criteria by which the differences and identities of a separate series of words can be determined. To avoid this, a lexical unit is compared with a phrase, and a structure for analysis is developed to establish the invariance of words.

The semantic problem expresses itself as a question of semasiology - a science that studies the connections between words and specific objects. In lexicology, this is one of the extremely important objects of study. His study is focused on the meaning of the word, its individual categories and types, which allow the creation of terms: monosymy (univocality) and polysymy (ambiguity). Lexicology tries to explore the cause-and-effect relationships that lead to the loss or emergence of new meanings for words.

The functional problem tries to study a lexical unit, in the form of an object, which is associated with another similar element and creates a complete linguistic system. In this understanding, the role of interaction between grammar and vocabulary is considered extremely important. They can both support and limit each other.

Conclusions

We have determined that lexicology studies the vocabulary of a language, its structure, disappearing units of speech, such as historicisms, and has built an idea of ​​the meaning of words. We examined their types and variations and determined the problems of this science. Thanks to this, we can summarize that its importance cannot be overestimated, since it is extremely important for the general system of the language and tracking trends in its development.

Lexicology (from the Greek lexikos - related to the word and logos - teaching) is a section of linguistics that studies the vocabulary of a language, its vocabulary.

The subject of lexicology is the word. And its object is the definition of the word as the basic unit of language.

The main objectives of lexicology are:

Clarifying the connection between the meaning of a word and a concept, identifying different types of word meanings;

Characteristics of the lexical-semantic system, i.e. identification internal organization linguistic units and analysis of their connections (semantic structure of a word, specificity of distinctive semantic features, patterns of its relations with other words, etc.);

Establishment various types systemic relations existing within various groups of vocabulary, the definition of those objective (including syntactic) indicators that unite words (in certain meanings).

Lexicology studies the stylistic differentiation of vocabulary, individual thematic and lexical-semantic groupings of words, their relationship with each other and the relationship of units within these groupings. From the point of view of stylistic differentiation, words, firstly, may belong to certain functional types of speech. Secondly, there are a significant number of words in the language that give speech a “high” or “low” character.

In addition, in lit. The language includes words that retain a dialect coloring, and in literary literature (chief form for the purpose of speech characterization of characters) slang words and expressions are also used.

Studying the vocabulary of a language in its systemic connections, lexicologists take into account that, being designations of objects and phenomena of extra-linguistic reality, words naturally reflect the connections that exist between objects and phenomena of reality itself. At the same time, words are units of language and there are actual linguistic connections between them: they are united into certain lexical-semantic groups, in each language in their own way they articulate certain segments of reality (for example, in the Russian language - the names of hills: mountain, hill, hillock, mound, hill, etc., verbs of motion: go, ride, fly, swim, crawl, etc. - do not find full correspondence in other languages).

One of the main tasks of lexicology is to clarify those semantic oppositions that exist between different words, incl. synonymous and antonymous; It is precisely the contrast of the meanings of different words that makes it possible to identify the essential semantic features that determine the given meaning of the word (for example, the common semantic element of the words mountain and hill is “hill,” which allows them to be compared; the essential differential feature for them is the sign of size).

In lexicology, stable combinations of words, which are dissected names, are also studied. individual items and phenomena of reality and are equivalent to words. These combinations relate to phraseology, which is included in lexicology as one of its sections (by some researchers, however, it is considered independent section language sciences).

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    Object and subject of lexicology

    Units of the lexical-semantic system

    Specifics of the lexical-semantic system

    Main problems of lexicology

    Sections of lexicology

Literature

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  1. Object and subject of lexicology

Lexicology(Greek lexis'word', lexikos'vocabulary', logos‘teaching, science’) – a branch of linguistics that studies vocabulary language (vocabulary) in its current state And historical development.

Sections of linguistics that study different tiers language system, actually have two objects:

    unit appropriate level, its nature and properties,

    system of units, the relationships between these units.

Objects of lexicology- This

    word as a lexical unit (LE),

    vocabulary(vocabulary) as a set of words, organized and structured in a certain way.

The word is the object of various linguistic disciplines. Each of them examines the word from a certain angle, i.e. with a common object has its own item:

    studied in phonetics sound side words,

    in morphemics – structure words,

    word formation – ways of education words,

    in morphology – grammatical forms And grammatical meanings words,

    in syntax - connection methods words and forms of words into phrases and sentences [SRYa, p. 165].

Word like grammatical unit is a system of all its forms with their grammatical meanings; word like lexical unit, or unit of a dictionary, is a formally expressed system of all its lexical meanings [Russian grammar, p. 453].

In lexicology, a word is considered

    in terms of its subject-conceptual content

    and as a unit of vocabulary of a language.

Word wing , for example, is of interest here

a) how Name:

    the organ of flight in birds, insects, and some mammals;

    the bearing plane of an aircraft or other moving vehicle;

    rotating blade of a windmill wheel;

    tires over the wheel of a carriage, car, etc.;

    side extension, outbuilding;

    extreme (right or left) part of the combat formation;

    extreme (right or left) group of any organization.

b) how unit of the lexical system, which is in certain relationships with other lexical units, for example, as part of Class names of bird body parts along with words tail, beak etc.

Opposition grammatical forms of words(word forms) in the same meaning ( wing, wing, wing...) is insignificant for lexicology. This is the subject of studying grammar.

On the contrary, the study of the similarities and differences of semantic variants of the same word in the entire system of their forms ( wing, wing, wing...‘organ of flight’; wing, wing, wing...‘carrying plane’, etc.) is one of the most important tasks of lexicology [SRYa, p. 165].

However, when studying words in lexicology, it is impossible to completely ignore grammar, since vocabulary and grammar are closely related.

  1. Units of the lexical-semantic system

Word- a sound or complex of sounds that has meaning and employee name objects and phenomena of reality [SRYASH, p. 165].

The definition states iconic nature words and his function.

A word, as opposed to a phoneme, is sign:

    there is also a material side to it - sound or spelling(phonographic shell),

    and the ideal side - meaning.

Main function words - nominative(lat. nominatio ‘naming, denomination’). Most words called objects, their characteristics, quantity, actions, processes are meaningful and independent.

Words name not only specific objects, but also concepts about these objects arising in the minds of speakers.

With the word correlate all language units:

    phonemes And morphemes make up the structure of a word,

    phrases And offers consist of words.

This gives grounds for some scientists to say that the word is central unit of language.

Since a word is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon, the term word polysemantic and indefinite: it denotes

    and words like vocabulary units(linguistic units);

    and words like units of speech, text(words with specific meanings and specific grammatical forms).

For example, in a sentence Man is man's friend

    three words in specific grammatical forms

    And two words as vocabulary units: Human And Friend[Kodukhov, p. 184].

    The word is called and unambiguous words and individual meanings multi-valued words

To refer to these different objects, lexicology uses clearer terms.

    The most common term is lexical item(LE)

Lexical unit is a unit of the lexical level of a language that has bilateral character, grammatical form and performing nominative function.

Term lexical item is ancestral in relation to terms token And lexical-semantic variant:

┌─────────┴─────────┐

lexeme lexico-semantic

    Token(Greek lé xis ‘word, expression’) is a unit of the lexical level of language, which is a collection all forms and meanings of one word[≈ LES, p. 257; ERYA, p. 207].

Those. lexeme is two-way unit 1 :

token = –––––––––––––––––––––––

expression plan

Term token usually used only in relation to words significant parts of speech.

    Lexico-semantic variant(LSV) – one of the lexical meanings of the lexeme, expressed by the phonographic shell.

Otherwise: LSV– a lexeme in one of its meanings. Those. LSV is also bilateral unit. LSV of one token

    differ in their lexical meanings (LZ)

    and coincide in form (sound and graphic expression).

For example, sleeve

    piece of clothing covering the hand ( short sleeves);

    branch from the main river channel ( right branch of the Volga);

    hose for supplying liquids, bulk or viscous substances, gases ( fire hose).

All these values ​​are connected by the relationship semantic productivity(native speakers are aware of the connection between these meanings), so the identity of the word is not violated.

Token is a system of interconnected LSV:

lexeme = LSV 1 + LSV 2 + LSV 3

If the word definitely, it is presented one LSV:

    stomp‘noise, sounds from kicks when walking’.

Term "lexical unit" is also used in relation to token, and in relation to LSV, if there is no need to differentiate them.

LE, lexeme and LSV are linguistic units, because represent set of meanings and forms.

IN speeches these abstract units are realized in specific units, because is selected every time one meaning and one form:

    Dress with shortsleeves .

    Specific implementation lexemes or LSV in speech (text) are called:

    lex(A) (the term is not very commonly used),

    word form– a word in a certain grammatical form (the term comes from grammar),

    word usage is a relatively new term.

Zhdanova L. A.

Lexicology (from the Greek lexikós ‘relating to the word’ and logos ‘word, teaching’) is a branch of linguistics that studies the vocabulary (vocabulary) of a language and the word as a unit of vocabulary. One of the main tasks of lexicology is the study of the meanings of words and phraseological units, the study of polysemy, homonymy, synonymy, antonymy and other relationships between the meanings of words. The scope of lexicology also includes changes in the vocabulary of the language, reflection in the vocabulary of the social, territorial, and professional characteristics of people who speak the language (they are usually called native speakers). Within the framework of lexicology, layers of words are studied, distinguished on different grounds: by origin (original and borrowed vocabulary), by historical perspective (obsolete words and neologisms), by sphere of use (national, special, vernacular, etc.), by stylistic coloring (interstyle and stylistically colored vocabulary).

Lexicology as the science of a word, its meaning and the vocabulary of a language

Vocabulary is a set of words of a language, its vocabulary (lexical) composition. Sometimes this term is used in a narrower sense - in relation to individual layers of vocabulary (outdated vocabulary, socio-political vocabulary, Pushkin's vocabulary, etc.). The basic unit of vocabulary is the word.

Vocabulary is directly addressed to reality, therefore it is very mobile and greatly changes its composition under the influence of external factors. The emergence of new realities (objects and phenomena) and the disappearance of old ones lead to the appearance or departure of corresponding words and a change in their meanings. Lexical items do not suddenly disappear. They can remain in the language for a long time as obsolete or obsolete words (historicisms, archaisms). New words (neologisms), having become commonly used and fixed in the language, lose their property of novelty. Vocabulary national language always interacts with the vocabulary of other languages ​​- this is how borrowings appear. Changes in the lexical composition occur constantly, so it is fundamentally impossible to calculate the exact number of all words in a language.

The vocabulary reflects social, professional, and age differences within the language community. In accordance with this, various layers of words are distinguished. Various social and professional associations of people, along with commonly used ones, use limited vocabulary in communication. For example, in the speech of students you can often hear words related to student jargon; people of the same profession use special vocabulary specific to this profession - terms and professionalisms. In the speech of a person who speaks a literary language, features of one of the Russian dialects may appear (the dialects themselves, or dialects, are studied by the science of dialectology). Such inclusions qualify as dialectisms. Each language has groups of words with different stylistic characteristics. Stylistically neutral words can be used in any style of speech and form the basis of the dictionary. Against their background, stylistically colored words stand out - they can belong to a “high” or “low” style, they can be limited to certain types of speech, conditions of verbal communication (scientific, official business, book vocabulary, etc.).

The subject of our study is the vocabulary of the modern Russian literary language. As noted in the “Preface,” the chronological boundaries of the concept “modern” are defined ambiguously. In a broad sense, the language from Pushkin to the present day is considered modern, in a narrow sense - its lower limit pushed back to the middle of the 20th century.

The definition of “literary” also requires clarification. Literary language should not be confused with the language of literature. The concept of "Russian" literary language"is opposed to the concept of "national (national) Russian language." The national (popular) vocabulary includes all the vocabulary layers listed above (including dialects, vernacular, jargon). The basis of a literary language is literary vocabulary and phraseology, outside of which remain colloquialisms, jargons, and dialect words. Literary language is distinguished by its normalization and codification, that is, the written legalization of this norm, which is recorded in normative dictionaries and reference books. The peculiarity of the literary language in general and its vocabulary in particular is that it is not assigned to any limited (territorially, socially, professionally) group of people or communication situation. Therefore, the literary language is not just one of the components of the national language, but the highest form of its existence.

In the native speaker dictionary, a distinction is made between active and passive vocabulary. To active vocabulary refer to words that we know and use. Passive - words that we know, but do not use in our speech.

With all the diversity and multiplicity of composition, permeability, mobility, internal heterogeneity of the lexical level of the language, it represents a well-organized system. The concept of “systematic vocabulary” includes two interrelated aspects. Firstly, vocabulary is included in common system language, correlates with phonetics, morphemics, word formation, morphology, syntax. Secondly, consistency is inherent in vocabulary from the point of view of its internal organization. Words are grouped into different groups depending on their meaning. Thus, word combinations based on semantic similarities and differences can be identified - antonymic pairs, synonymous series. A complex microsystem is represented by a polysemantic word. Based on the common semantic component, words are combined into groups: for example, the words lake, river, stream, canal, pond, etc. form a group of words with general meaning'water'.

Thus, the meanings of words form a system within one word (polysemy), within the vocabulary as a whole (synonymy, antonymy), within the entire language system (connections of vocabulary with other levels of language). The specificity of the lexical level of language is the orientation of vocabulary to reality (sociality), the permeability of the system formed by words, its mobility, and the associated impossibility of accurately calculating lexical units.

References

To prepare this work, materials were used from the site http://www.portal-slovo.ru/


Themselves linguistic means, which are the object of phraseology; it is enough to compare the relationships between established terms: phoneme - phonology, morpheme - morphology, lexeme - lexicology (cf. phraseme - phraseology). In educational and scientific literature, attempts have been made to define the concept of a phraseological object. For example, the following definition is given: “a ready-made whole expression with something known and given in advance...

And covered (starting with a consonant). The combination of 2 vowels in a syllable is a diphthong. Syllables are delimited by syllable separation. Syllables are divided into sounds. 3. Phonology as scientific discipline. The concept of phoneme. Phonology (from the Greek phone - sound), a branch of linguistics, the science of the sound structure of a language, studying the structure and functioning of the smallest insignificant units of language (syllables, phonemes). F. is different from...

Various kinds of oral and written statements, learn independent skills creative work with the word; · speak and write publicly. Conclusion So, we have defined the subject of rhetoric as a science, examined the structure of rhetoric, the functions of rhetoric. In the future, apparently, we should expect the transformation of rhetoric as a modern semiotic discipline into a more “exact” science, into...

Don't need any more. Competition-defender 1. Tell me how much science and mysticism resonates with you. Why? (Name the advantages of this sphere of activity). 2. Select two poems (to the authorities). Analyze the stylistic features of lexicology in them. Then wrap it up. Gra "Kto shvidshe?" Use synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, paronyms. 1) My thoughts, my thoughts, my children’s lives. Having looked at you, having looked at you. De...

The term "lexicology" is made up of two Greek elements: lexis (lexis) and logos (logos). Both meant “word” in ancient Greek. Thus, lexicology is a word about a word, or the science of words. The vocabulary of a language is the totality of all words and their equivalent phrases (phraseological units).

Sections of lexicology

1. Onomasiology - studies the vocabulary of a language, its nominative means, types of vocabulary units of a language, methods of nomination.

2. Semasiology - studies the meaning of vocabulary units of a language, types of lexical meanings, and the semantic structure of the lexeme.

3. Phraseology - studies phraseological units.

4. Onomastics is the science of proper names. Here we can distinguish the largest subsections: anthroponymy, which studies proper names, and toponymy, which studies geographical objects.

5. Etymology - studies the origin individual words.

6. Lexicography - deals with issues of compiling and studying dictionaries.

7. The focus of the study of lexicology is the word.

Token

Having become familiar with the types of words presented in the language, we can introduce another concept presented in lexicology, namely, the concept lexical word, or lexemes. A lexeme is a significant word that points to objects and denotes concepts about them. A lexeme is capable of acting as a member of a sentence and forming sentences; it can be simple (a lexeme is a word) and compound (a lexeme is a compound name, for example: a railway, a holiday home). In this understanding, function words and forms of words are not included in the concept of “lexeme”.

How do the terms lexeme and word relate?

In some cases they denote the same fact of language. So a person is both a word and a lexeme; in, would. From are words, but not lexemes. The sentence “Man is a friend to man” contains three words, but two lexemes. Consequently, the term lexeme diverges from the term word. The latter names both the function word and the form of the word. Word forms that differ only in grammatical meaning are not considered separate lexemes (kot - kota - kotu - cat). They form a paradigm, that is, a system of word forms of one lexeme.

The lexical meaning of a word is the content of the word, reflecting in the mind and consolidating in it the idea of ​​an object, property, process, phenomenon, and so on. This is the correlation established by our thinking between a sound complex and an object or phenomenon of reality, which is designated by this complex of sounds.

The carrier of lexical meaning is the stem of the word. The meaning of the word reflects general and at the same time essential features subjects learned as a result of people's social practice. Lexical meanings can be concrete and abstract, general (common nouns) and singular (proper).

Word problems in language

Shcherba in one of his latest articles wrote: “Really, what is a word? I think that it will be different in different languages. It follows from this that the concept of a word does not exist at all.”

This issue is covered differently by Smirnitsky, who in his article “On the Question of the Word” wrote that “the word acts not only as the basic unit of vocabulary, but also as the central nodal unit of language in general.” When presenting material about words, we will adhere to precisely this point of view.

In linguistic encyclopedic dictionary(M., 1990) the following definition of the concept of a word is given:

The word is the basic structural and semantic unit of language, serving to name objects and their properties, phenomena, relations of reality, possessing a set of semantic, phonetic and grammatical features specific to a given language.

The most important features of a word

A word, like any other unit of language, according to Smirnitsky, has two important features:

1) It has not only an external (sound) side, but also an externally expressed meaning (semantic or emotional content).

When considering the question of the two-sidedness of a word, we should dwell on the very nature of this connection between the sound of a word and its meaning.

The connection between the sound and meaning of a word is, in principle, conditional, arbitrary, or unmotivated. So, for example, there is no inherently obligatory connection between the meaning table and the sound Tisch. As is known, in different languages ​​the meaning table is associated with different sound complexes: in English. table, in Russian Table, in it. Tisch. The principle of convention applies to simple, indecomposable units; completely, actually to morphemes.

As for more complex formations, in them, in addition to the principle of convention (since complex formations include simple units), the principle of motivation comes first. Correlating with the concept of motivation is the term “internal form of a word,” which refers to the motivation of the lexical meaning of a word by its word-formation and semantic structure. The internal form of the word reveals some attribute of the object on the basis of which the name originated. For example, the redstart bird once amazed a person with its unusually bright, seemingly burning tail. This symptom that struck a person was the basis for the name of this bird. Of course, the feature that forms the basis of the name is not always so bright and effective. It is usually much calmer: a candlestick is what is under the candle, and a thimble is what is put on the finger - a finger, a snowdrop, a flower that appears in the spring, when there is still snow on the fields.

2) The word appears not as a work created in the process of speech, but as something that already exists and is only reproduced in speech.

By the way, morphemes also satisfy the above requirements, and therefore can rightfully be considered units of language. It should also be noted that proverbs, sayings, aphorisms and generally various sayings, reproduced again and again as whole units, also act, according to Smirnitsky, as units of language, since they already exist in the language and are only reproduced in speech. But the sentence then is not, according to Smirnitsky, a unit of language.

It is necessary to dwell on the issue of the salience of a word in the flow of speech. In certain cases, certain phonetic moments serve to highlight a word, to delimit it from neighboring words. So, for example, the lack of emphasis on a full-valued unit that has a substantive meaning in Germanic languages is usually an indicator that we are dealing with only part of the word, e.g. English Railway, blackboard, German. Eisenbahn, Schwarzbrot, where the lack of emphasis on -way, -board, -bahn, -brot shows that these units in these cases do not represent separate words, but are only components of words. Such phonetic moments, capable of expressing the difference between a word and part of a word, should be considered only as some additional, auxiliary means of highlighting a word. Why? The fact is that with this selection, the word is treated as if it were only a sound segment. Meanwhile, a word, as a unit of language, is a formation that has both a sound side and a semantic side. The main signs of the distinctiveness and completeness of a word should be sought based on the understanding of the word as the basic unit of the vocabulary of a language and, at the same time, a unit that is capable of grammatical change and grammatical combination into sentences, into coherent meaningful speech with other units of the same order.

The changeability of a word presupposes a certain formability: since the same word changes, something basic, actually dictionary, lexical, stands out in it, remaining the same with various changes in the word, and, on the other hand, something additional, variable, belonging together however, not to a given specific word, but to a known class or category of words, abstracted from specific words - grammatical, associated with the use of the word in various works of speech. Thus, the basic, lexical meaning of the word turns out to be supplemented, complicated by certain grammatical meanings, which are materially expressed in external, sound differences between individual varieties - the grammatical forms of the word: this gives the word a certain formality.

Words turn out to be grammatically, both morphologically and syntactically, designed, in a certain way adapted to their joint functioning in coherent, meaningful speech. This formalization of the word gives it a certain completeness, which makes it quite easy to isolate it from speech.

The internal integrity of the word (whole form) of the word is revealed in comparison with the structure of the phrase. In contrast to words as completely formed formations, phrases can be defined as separately formed formations. This can be illustrated with the following examples. If we compare the language education das Schwarzbrot and the language education das schwarze Brot, which includes the same root elements as the first education, then it is easy to see that they, while denoting the same object of objective reality and not significantly different in their meaning, are fundamentally different in his attitude towards grammatical structure, according to its design. This difference lies in the fact that in the first language formation - a word - both components are formalized once, while in the second language formation - a phrase - there is an independent grammatical design for each component. In other words, the formation of Schwarzbrot is completely formed, and the formation of das schwarze Brot is separately formed.

The completeness of the word itself expresses the well-known semantic integrity: it emphasizes that a given object or phenomenon is thought of as one thing, a special whole, even if the complexity of its structure is noted or its individual features are highlighted. So, speaking das Schwarzbrot, we pay main attention to the object denoted by this word, although we mean its individual aspects: a) bread, food product and b) the quality of this product in color. On the contrary, if we say das schwarze Brot, individual aspects of the designated phenomenon come to the fore, and through the perception of individual aspects of this object or phenomenon the object or phenomenon itself is realized as a whole.

Semantic structure of a word- semantic structure of the basic unit of vocabulary (see Word). S. s. With. manifests itself in its polysemy (see) 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 is reduced to its seme composition (see Seme) .

The simplest unit (element) of semantic structure polysemantic word- its lexical-semantic variant (LSV), i.e. with a lexical meaning (see), associated with other lexical meanings by certain relationships, the main of which are hierarchical: an expression of the subordination of dependent lexical meanings to the main one. In S. s. With. lexical-semantic variants are related to each other due to the commonality of the internal form (see Internal form of a word), their mutual motivation, and deducibility from each other.

Therefore, in dictionaries, each preceding LSV determines the interpretation of the subsequent one, for example. circle ^ “part of the pchoskosgn, limited by the circle, as well as the circle itself” ~^- circle± “object in the shape of a circle” (rescue, rubber circle), [circle-) “closed area, within the outlined boundaries of the cut there is fulfillment and differentiation something" (range of responsibilities, interests, issues)], [circle "a group of people united by common interests, sanilamn" (circle of acquaintances, friends; in one's circle)], [circle "a social group of people primarily engaged in intellectual, creative work "(wide circles of the public, literary, journalistic circles; about diplomatic circles: in the circle of scientists, specialists)], etc. Here, hierarchically, the main LSV is the circle, in the content of which the internal form is most manifested; all other LSVs of the word circle are metaphorically connected with this LSV (by similarity of form). At<ггом представление о круге присутствует в толковании значений всех ЛСВ слова и внутренне связывает их в единое целое. Основанием для выделения главного и частных значений (или иначе: главного и частных ЛСВ) служит различный характер взаимодействия слова в таких значениях с контекстом, т. е. фрагментом текста, необходимым и достаточным для определения того или иного значения слова. Главное значение в наименьшей степени обусловлено контекстом. Слово в главном (первом в словарях) значении является семантически наиболее простым по своему содержанию (ср. вода\ "прозрачная бесцветная жидкость") и обладает в силу этого самой широкой н свободной сочетаемостью с другими лексическими единицами. Все прочие значения слова (его ЛСВ) выступают как частные. В частных значениях по сравнению с главным слово в значительно большей степени обусловлено контекстом, присоединяет к себе его элементы и является в силу этого семантически более сложным (напр., вода2 "минеральный, газированный, фруктовый напиток", т. е. вода+содержащая минеральные соли; насыщенная газом; приготовленная из фруктов), при атом характеризуется ограниченной, избирательной сочетаемостью: минеральная, сельтерская, газированная, фруктовая вода.

The main meaning is called the primary semantic function of the word, and the particular meanings are its secondary semantic functions.

Along with the usual dictionary meanings (main, particular) in S. p. With. the general meaning is distinguished as its invariant (from the Latin invarians - unchanging), opposed to variant meanings: this is a coinciding part of the content of all meanings (LSV) of a word, something constant, unchangeable in them. It stands out like a common factor in algebra: ab + ac + ad = = a(b + c + d), is an extremely generalized and semantically simple content and represents a linguistic abstraction useful for the semantic analysis of linguistic units. The relationship of the meanings of a word to its general meaning [i.e. e. to the general content of all its variants] allows us to establish their semantic hierarchy according to the degree of proximity to it: the central, dominant meanings turn out to be semantically the simplest, the peripheral ones - more complex and therefore further removed from the general (invariant) meaning of the word than the first. In S. s. With. certain values ​​(LSV) may die out. For example, the meaning of “beautiful” in the common Slavic adjective red (cf. Red Square) was historically original, the main one in the word formed from the same stem as the word beauty. In the meaning of color, the word red began to be used later, in the era of the separate existence of the Eastern Slavs. languages. This meaning has become the main one in S. s. s, leading to its partial restructuring. At the same time, S. s. With. is constantly enriched with new meanings, since a word is a unit of an “open” lexical system, for example. the meaning of “a person who swims in open water in winter” in the word walrus (cf. walrus section), “effective attacking player in football, hockey” in the word scorer (cf. best scorer of the season), etc.

All words are divided into word-formation motivated (derivatives) and unmotivated (non-derivatives)). Word-formatively motivated are words whose meaning and sound are determined in the modern language by other words of the same root (motivating, or producing). Motivated words are recognized as being formed from motivating words: table - table ‘small table’, white - whiten ‘become white, whiter’. The meaning and sound of word-formative unmotivated words (table, white) are not determined in the modern language by other cognate words; they are not recognized as formed from other words.

A motivated word is connected with another word with the same root or with several words with the same root through relations of word-formation motivation. Motivation is a relationship between two words of the same root in which the meaning of one of them is either determined through the meaning of the other (house - house 'small house', strength - strong man 'man of great physical strength'), or is identical to the meaning of the other in all its components, except for the grammatical meaning of a part of speech (walk - walking, daring - daring, bold - boldly), or completely identical to the meaning of another with a difference in the stylistic coloring of these words (knee - razg. kolenka).

Words with the same root, devoid of the named properties (house and house), are not in a relationship of motivation with each other.

One of the two cognate words connected by the relations of word-formation motivation is motivating, and the other is motivated. The motivation of a word is determined by four rules that apply in the following cases:

The compared words with the same root have different lexical meanings, and in their stems, in addition to the root, a different number of sound segments are isolated (the stem of one of them may be equal to the root). In this case, the motivated word is the word whose base is longer by any sound segment, which is recognized as a word-forming affixal morph (see § 16): forest - forest-ok, stand - stand.

The compared words of the same root have different lexical meanings, and their stems contain the same number of sound segments. In this case, motivated is a word that is semantically more complex, the meaning of which is determined through another word compared with it: chemistry - chemist ‘chemistry specialist’, artist - artist ‘woman artist’.

The meanings of the compared cognate words are identical in all their components, except for the grammatical meaning of the part of speech. In this case: a) in pairs “verb - noun denoting the same action” (draw - drawing, exit - exit, creak - creak) and “adjective - noun denoting the same attribute” (brave - courage, graceful - grace , blue - blue), regardless of the length of the stems of the words being compared, the noun is motivated; b) in the “adjective - adverb” pair, the motivated word is the word whose stem is longer by any segment - the word-forming affixal morph (see paragraph 1): cf. today - today-sh-y and bold-y - bold-o, where -o is part of the stem (suffix).

Note. The exception to the rule formulated in paragraph 3a is: 1) pairs of words consisting of a noun that does not have a suffix with the meaning of action, and a verb with the suffix -nicha-, -stova-, or -ova-/-irova-/- izirova-/-izova-: in such pairs, the verb is motivated, since in modern language, with the help of these suffixes, verbs are easily formed from nouns with the meaning of action, and nouns with the meaning of action are not formed from such verbs without the help of a suffix: focus - to play tricks, blasphemy - blaspheme, salute - salute, repair - repair, terror - terrorize; 2) pairs consisting of a noun ending in -stv(o) and an adjective in which -stv- is followed by the suffix: courage - courageous, ignorance - ignorant.

One of the words in a motivational relationship is stylistically neutral, while the other has some stylistic connotation. In this case, regardless of the length of the stems of the compared words, the stylistically colored word is motivated: ship - ship (colloquial), individual - individual (colloquial).

A motivated word differs from a motivating word by certain word-formation means. Affixal morphs (most often), as well as cutting off part of the stem, a fixed order of components and a single emphasis on one of the components in additions and splices (for more details, see § 31) act as word-forming means for motivation.