The classification of meanings of words

It is distinguished the grammatical and the lexical meaning of the words. Grammatical (or structural) meaning is defined as the component ot meaning recurrent in identical sets ot different words, for example, time-relations are expressed by the tense-forms of the English verb,(e.g. worked, took, went, printed), the category of person denoted by verb-formms{e_}.g_ztakes, speaks, writes). Lexical meaning is the meaning proper to' the given linguistic unit in all its forms and distributions/ One should distinguish three main types of the lexical meaning of words:

1. Nominative meaning which is the direct meaning of the wood. It includs denotatin and

connotation components, Denotation is the expression of the expresion of the direct meaning proper proper

of the word without any emotive evasliation or stylystic colouring.

Connotation is the supplementary expessive meaning presrnted either by emotive charge, e.g. a girlie, a doggy, sheepish, or by stylistic rerence : a maiden (poetic) :: a lass (folk) :: a chic (slang)/ a father (neutral denotation)::.

2. Syntactically conditioned meaning which manifests itself in different collocations, c.t. to ask smc» :: to ask smth about smth :: to ask for smb :: to ask for smth.,etc.

3. Phraseologically bound mean ing which manifests itself only in certain phraseological units, e.g. a tall

story, to catch one's eye, a sun of a ^

4. Semantic structure of the word

Words convey several concepts and possess the corresponding meaning. There are three main structures of words: monosemy, polysemy, and semantic diffusion. '

Monosemy is the existence within one word of only one meaning (mainly scientific terms), e.g. biochemistry, cybernetics, radar, etc.

Polysemy is, the existence wrtnin one word of several connected meaning, and the rest are associated (marginal) meanings . Semantic diffusion is observed in words which demneone concept, but can name an inaenrutely large number of objects treferents),.

5. Change of meaning

There are following tendencies in the development of the vocabulary:

1. Extension of meaning (generalization) means'exfension of the wora-range. For instance, the verb to arrive (French borrowing) began its life in English as "to come to shore, to land". In Modern English it has widened its generajmeaning "to come";

2. Narfowingiffimeaning (specialization). In this process a word of wide meaning acquires a narrower, specialized sense, e.g. a wife (originally meant simply 'woman' and now 'a married woman'), a girl (originally meant 'a young person of either sex, a child, a boy or a girl' and now it denotes 'a small child of female sex'), a spinster (originally meant 'a woman spinner' and now it denotes 'an unmarried woman').

3. Transference^ meaning (metaphor and metonymy). Other terms for this type are: . . ' - linguistic metaphor (from Greek 'meta' that means "over" and 'pherein' that means "to carry") is a

semantic transformation of a word in which the meaning appears as a result of associating two objects dueto

3.g. shy girls :: shy stars, clever boys :: clever fingers, blooming flowers :: blooming

lfconclusion :: to jump to a conclusion;

- linguistic metonymy (from Greek 'meta' that means "substantivation" and 'onyma' that means "name") is the device in which the name of one thing is changed for that of another, to which it is related by association of ideas, asjiaving close_relationship to one another Je.g^the foot of bed :: the foot of mountains, a hand of a girl.:: a hand of a clock;

- elevation of meaning (amelioration) is the process which is opposite of degradation. Words often rise from humble beginnings to positions of greater importance, e.g. a minister (earlier it meant "servant" and now it means "an important public official"), nice (earlier it meant "accurate" and now it means "foolish"), a knight (earlier it meant "a title of rank" and now it means "a boy");

- degradation of meaning (pejoration) is the process in which a word falls into disrepufe, e.g. a churl (irr Old English it meant "a man"), a knave (in Old English it meant "a boy"), a gossip (in Old English it meant "a good parent"), silly (in Old English it meant "happy"), an idiot (in Old English it meant "a private person").

6. Transference of meaning

Words are used in two ways: literary (have their»natural and usual meaning) and figuratively (have a

the imagination. For example, metaphor and

nonliteral, suggestive meaning). Figures of speech appeal to

metonymy are based on different kinds of association and belong to the type of changing meaning called

transference of meaning. Hyperbole (from Greek 'hyper' that means "beyond" and 'ballein' that means "to

throw") is a statement exaggerated fancifully for the purpose of creating an effect (fiction and poetry),

Euphemism (from Greek 'eu' that means "well" and 'phemi' that means "I speak") tries to use a pleasantterm to describe a disagreeable jact^For example, for the direct verb |oj)5ieljire substituted such expressions as: to join the mafority, yield up the ghost, go the way of all flesh, go west, go hence, etc.

Litotes (from Greek 'litos' that means "plain", "meagre") expresses the affirmative by the negation of its contrary. For example, instead of good it is used not bad, instead of great - not small, instead of brave - no coward.

Irony expresses of one's meaning by words opposite meaning, especially a simulated adoption of the opposite point of view for the purpose of ridicule. For example, you've got us into a nice mess. „ ^ал'

Zoosemy expreses names of animals used metaphorically to denote human qualities, e.g. a cruel may be called a tiger, a crafty person - a fox, a stupid person - a goose, a clumsy person - a bear, etc.

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