Vocabulary as a system

Types of groupings
I. Semantic groups.
II. Paradigmatic relations in the vocabulary (homonymy, synonymy, antonymy, paronymy, hyponymy).
III. Syntagmatic relations (types of contexts)

§ 1. Vocabulary studies
deal with ways of grouping and classifying words.
Though vocabulary is defined as a lexical system, the present state of knowledge is insufficient to present the whole of the vocabulary as one articulated system.
It is rather a set of interrelated systems.

Types of groupings
2) Morphological groups
1) According to function
form words (functional words)
7% of vocabulary
He is a student.
notional words
a cat, to go, milk
according to morphological structure
root-words, derivatives,
compounds
word-families
dog, doggish, doglike, doggie, to dog, dogged, doggedly, doggedness, dog-biscuit
according to a common suffix or prefix
gladsome, gruesome, handsome, lonesome, tiresome, troublesome, wearisome, wholesome
substitute words
this, that, they, there, then, thus, he, here, how, who, what, where, whither, nobody, never, not

3) Parts of speech and their subdivisions (lexico-grammatical groups)
noun
personal names, animal names, collective names (for people); collective names (for animals), abstract nouns, material nouns, object nouns, proper names for people, toponymic proper nouns
verb
thematic groups
terms of kinship, colour terms
4) Semantic groups
ideographic groups
semantic fields
terminology

7) Non-semantic grouping
rhyming
length
statistical frequency of use
alphabetical
5) According to emotional colouring
coloured
neutral
6) According to word-origin
native
words beginning with a w are mostly native; with a P are borrowed from Greek
borrowed

8) Paradigmatic groupings (based on the contrastive interdependence of words within the vocabulary)
Homonymy
Synonymy
Antonymy
Hyponymy
Paronymy
9) Syntagmatic groupings (based on the combinatorial properties of words)
context-free
context-dependant

notional
functional
word-families
common affix
morphological structure
parts of speech
thematic groups
ideographic groups
semantic fields
antonyms
synonyms
homonyms
colored
neutral
native
borrowed
context-free
context-dependant

Semantic groupings – attempts to describe vocabulary systematically
Thematic subgroups are formed on the extra-linguistic basis: the words are associated, because the things they name occur together and are closely connected in reality; these words often co-occur in certain repeatedly used contexts (topical vocabulary):
tree-grow-green;
journey-train-taxi-bags-ticket
names for parts of the human body, terms of kinship,
Adj-ves for shape, colour, physical or mental qualities, speed, size
2) Ideographic groups - groups uniting words of different parts of speech but thematically related according to their signification, i.e. to the system of logical notions, the significance of each unit being determined by its neighbors. These groups are supposed to reflect the system of notions in our mind:
light n, bright a, to shine
an airport, to delay, a flight, a terminal, a gate, to check in, a boarding pass, luggage, a porter, an airline, a traffic controller, a lounge, on board, a pilot, to fasten belts

3) Semantic fields – closely knit sectors of vocabulary each characterized by a common concept, is the organization of related words and expressions into a system which shows their relationship to one another:
Health: strength, power, potency, robustness, force, vivacity, stingo, energy, vigor
Movement: go, ride, crawl, fly, run, jump
Sense perception: see, observe, notice, feel, hear, listen
Food: bread, cheese, milk, meat,
A lexical gap – absence of a logically necessary element in a system.
Horse = stallion + mare
??? = cow + bull
The words which often occur in the text together are semantically related (co-occurrence criterion), have the same valency potential (combine with the same words), have similar grammatical properties.

Terminology as a special vocabulary sphere
Terminology constitutes the greatest part of every language vocabulary.
A term is a word or word-group used to name a notion characteristic of some special field of knowledge, e.g., linguistics, oil-and-gas production, engineering, culture, economics.
Basic characteristics:
monosemantic
does not depend upon the micro-context
constant meaning
no emotional colouring or evaluation (unless used in literary or colloquial speech)
reflects the system of notions of a science

§ 2. Homonymy
Homonyms - words which have identical sounding or spelling but have nothing in common in their meaning.
A penny is one cent.
The soap has a nice scent.
She sent me a letter.

2.2. Main sources of homonymy
break of polysemy (split polysemy)
Different meanings of one and the same word may lose their semantic connection and may form different words. Unlike homonymy different meanings of one word are mutually dependent.
owing, provided
loan words which were adopted to the English standards in their pronunciation and spelling
Fair (a market) was borrowed from Latin “feria”, and fair (light colour, not dark) was developed from native “faeger”.
shortening of words:
flue, short for influenza is homonymous to flew, past tense of the verb “to fly”.
conversion
a ban --- to ban
a shoulder --- to shoulder

2.2. Classifications of homonyms
according to their spelling and sound form
perfect homonyms (identical in sound and in spelling):
key /ki:/ - ключ, key /ki:/ - клавиша and key /ki:/ - амер. островок, особ. коралловый риф;
homophones (words with the same sound but different
spellings):
read (past tense) - red, pair - pear, principle - principal, capital - capitol, heir – air,
write and right, night and knight, sea and see
homographs (words accidentally identical in spelling
but different in sound):
bow/bou/ - a weapon for shooting arrows, bow/bau/ - an inclination of the body or head in salutation.
lead/led/ - the heaviest of the base metals, lead /li:d/ - to conduct;
row /rou/ - a line of people, row/rаи/ - a quarrel.

according to their spelling and sound form, and grammatical meaning
lexical (no link between their lexical meanings, but one part of speech):
can – мочь and can – консервировать;
post – столб, post – почта, post – должность, post – сигнал на горне
grammatical (belong to different parts of speech, formed by conversion):
milk - to milk, practice - to practice
lexico-grammatical (no link between their lexical meanings and they belong to different parts of speech):
tear (n) - tear (v), bear (n)-bare (a), a pullover – to pull over

according to the characteristics of the paradigm
full homonyms (identical in sound in all their forms or paradigms)
ear «ухо» - ear «колос».
partial homonyms (identical in sound in several forms)
to lay (laid; laid “класть, положить” - to lie (lay; lain “лежать”), to lie (lied; lied) - to lie (lay; lain).
Is homonymy a disease of the language, an annoying lack of distinction between words?
It is widely used for stylistic purposes in puns (word plays):
“Waiter, waiter, what's this?”
“It's bean soup”.
“I can see that. But what is it now?”

§ 3. Description of English Synonymy
A synonym is a word that has the same or nearly the same meaning as another word.
English is rich in synonyms for the historical reason; its vocabulary is made up of Anglo-Saxon words on one hand and of French, Latin and Greek on the other.
The native words are often shorter and stylistically neutral, while French borrowings are literary and Latin/Greek - learned:
belly – stomach – abdomen
to end - to finish - to complete
teaching - guidance - instruction
division - part - branch;
buy and purchase,
world and universe,

A synonymic dominant of a synonymic group is the most general word that expresses the notion common for all the members of the group. It belongs to the basic stock of words, is stylistically neutral, has high frequency of usage and vast combinability, lacks connotations.
WORK: toil, drudgery, labour, grind, job, task;
FAMOUS: celebrated, distinguished, eminent;
FASHIONABLE: chic, dressy, elegant, modish, smart, stylish, trendy.
Each LSV (meaning) of one word has its own synonyms:
Compare the following groups synonymous to five different meanings of the adjective fresh:
A fresh metaphor — fresh : : original : : novel : : striking.
To begin a fresh paragraph — fresh : : another : : different : : new.
Fresh air — fresh : : pure : : invigorating.
A freshman — fresh : : inexperienced : : green : : raw.

3.1. What are synonyms?
Lexical synonyms are different words 1) of the same part of speech having the same grammatical distribution, which 2) have some common denotational components of meaning, but 3) differ either in some denotational component(s) or in some connotational components of meaning and thus usually have different lexical valency.

What’s the difference between synonyms?
belong to different varieties of the language:
fall (USA) and autumn (UK);
different combinability:
both to win and to gain may be used in combination with the noun victory, but with the word war only win is possible: to win a war;
different stylistic reference:
to die vs. to pass away ≈ умереть vs. почить
fairly and rather are used to express an opinion meaning “moderately”. We use fairly to suggest our approval;
interchangeability in linguistic contexts (eye-doctor/oculist, radio/wireless, telegram/wire), but only in certain environments:
«the rainfall in April was abnormal» and «the rainfall in April was exceptional»
«my son is exceptional» and «my son is abnormal»

3.2. Classification of synonyms
Ideographic or denotational: the difference in the meaning concerns the notion expressed:
change (become or make different) – alter – vary (undergo change or change something within a range of possibilities);
understand - realize;
to walk - to pace - to stroll - to stride.
Ideographic-stylistic synonyms have the same denotational components but differ in connotational components of meaning:
imitate - monkey;
terrible – horrible - atrocious.
intelligent -shrewd - clever - bright - sagacious;
Typical groups of stylistic synonyms:
archaic/ modern (oft - often);
neologisms / common (baby-moon – artificial satellite);
British/American (post-mail);
euphemisms (die – pass away).

absolute synonyms of exactly the same meaning can replace each other in any given context, without the slightest alteration in denotative or emotional meaning and connotations:
the terms noun and substantive; functional affix, flexion and inflection
phraseological synonyms which are used in different collocations: language - tongue (only mother tongue)
contextual synonyms that are similar in meaning under some specific distributional conditions (e.g. get and buy).
Translation cannot serve as a criterion of synonymy!
words as also, too and as well, all translated by the Russian word тоже, are never interchangeable.
Euphemism - a shift of meaning a word of more or less pleasant or at least inoffensive connotation becomes synonymous to one that is harsh, obscene, indelicate or otherwise unpleasant
naked : : in one's birthday suit;
pregnant : : in the family way
drunk : : merry

§ 4. Lexical Oppositions and Antonymy
Types of lexical opposition doubtfully referred to antonymy:
complementarity/contradictory:
single – married; alive - dead;
(not antonyms because antonyms are gradable)
converseness - mirror-image relations of functions
teacher -student, host - guest, give – take, buy - sell; logical conversives: man and woman, husband and wife
autoantonymy – a word combines two opposite meanings
Unlike antonymy these LSV are used with different words and/or with different prepositions.
an odor – 1) an agreeable scent; fragrance; 2) a disagreeable smell.
a public school - 1) a state school (USA); 2) a private school (UK).

4.1. What’s an antonym? Forms of antonymy
Antonyms are words 1) of the same part of speech 2) having common denotational component of meaning but 3) expressing contrasting opposite points of the same notion.
wide/narrow, admit/deny, produce/consume, old/young bitter/sweet
Types of relations referred to antonymy
contradictory, mutually opposed and denying one another:
alive means 'not dead' and impatient means 'not patient‘;
contrary relations (qualitative or gradual ) opposition;
old and young are the most distant elements of a series like: old : : middle-aged : : young,
hot and cold form a series with the intermediate cool and warm;
high - low
vectorial opposition
to widen - to narrow

What’s characteristic of English Antonymy
Almost every word can have one or more synonyms. ComparativeIy few words have antonyms.
Antonyms do not differ stylistically, in emotional colouring or distribution; an antonymic substitution never results in a change of stylistic colouring.

4.2. Classifications of antonyms
Morphological and semantic basis
a) root antonyms expressing contrary notions:
bad - good, tall - short, slow - fast, ancient – modern;
b) derivational antonyms expressing contradictory notions:
like - dislike, efficient - inefficient, useful - useless, logical – illogical;

§ 5. Hyponymy and Paronymy
Hyponymy is a paradigmatic relation of sense between a more specific, or subordinate lexeme, and a more general, or superordinate, lexeme:
Hyponym is a word the meaning of which may be said to be included in that of another word.
Thus, hyponymy is based on logical and semantic relationship of inclusion.
cow (a specific term, or a hyponym) : : animal (a general term, or a hyperonym, a superordinate),
rose, chamomile, dandelion (co-hyponyms) : : flower,
honesty: virtue,
buy: get,
crimson: red.

Paronyms are words that are kindred both in sound form and meaning and therefore liable to be mixed but in fact different in meaning and usage and therefore only mistakenly interchanged.
to affect ('to influence') and to effect (‘to bring about, to result in');
prosecute and persecute;
policy and politics;
moral and morale;
respectfully and respectively;
human and humane;
economy and economics;
conscience, conscious, consciousness and conscientious.

§ 6. Syntagmatic relations. Combinability
J. R. Firth: You shall know a word by the company it keeps.
Functioning of a word in speech is determined by the environment in which it occurs (collocation), by its grammatical peculiarities (part of speech it belongs to, categories, functions in the sentence, etc.= colligation), and by the type and character of meanings included into the semantic structure of a word.
A collocation (≈lexical context) is the habitual association of a word in a language with other particular words in sentences, it’s part of the meaning of a word, the so called «the mutual expectancy of words».
Lexical valency is the possibility of lexico-semantic connections of a word with other words.
a high level of radiation (poverty, significance, etc)
on a level with smth
a level teaspoon
have a level head, life (reasonable)
to speak in level tones (calm)

Lexical valency of words is restricted by the inner structure of the language and extralinguistic factors (notional combinability):
Linguistic limits:
the verbs lift and raise are considered to be synonyms, but only raise can collocate with the noun question.
a buxom woman/waitress, but not a buxom bachelor,
a pretty girl but a handsome boy;
to commit a murder and not commit a task,
monumental ignorance and not monumental brilliance;
to be green with envy,
a book has a purple passage (витиеватый).
Extraliguistic limits
V+N pattern:
to read a book, but not to eat a book,
to write a letter, but not to write a fish
Different nations have different standards for notional combinability:
hostage of war
стоимость эксплуатационных издержек

«The mutual expectancy of words» can be well demonstrated with the names of groups of animals in English:
a herd of cows, a flock of sheep, а дат of whales, a colony of ants, a pride of lions, a parliament of owls
a. Our neighbors are throwing a party tonight.
They were very grateful to the rescue party.
The Conservative Party has lost many votes.
d. The lawyer refuted the arguments of the other party.
e. Your party is on the line/an old party with spectacles.
A colligation (≈grammatical context) is the occurrence of lexical items in this or that syntactical construction or function. In other words it is the position that lexical units may occupy in the sentence. The corresponding type of meaning is called grammatical valency.
The verbs suggest and offer can be followed by a noun, but only offer can be followed by the infinitive of a verb.
To make (when followed by a Complex Object) has causative meaning.

Practical tasks # 11-12-13.
1. Which pair of phrases provides examples of homonymy, synonymy, antonymy?
a) I have only one apple in my basket. The red team won the game.
b) "— Was she a pretty girl?
— I would certainly have called her attractive."
c)... The writer should seek his reward in the pleasure of his work and in release from the burden of his thought; and indifferent to aught else, care nothing for praise or censure, failure or success (From The Moon and Sixpence by W. S. Maugham).

2. Which type of paradigmatic relations of words in the vocabulary is the basis for the following jokes (homonymy, polysemy, rhyme)?
When asked what they do with all their fruit the Californians answer: we eat what we can and what we cannot we can.
What has one horn (рог, гудок) and gives milk?
A milk truck (грузовик).
A man, after being hurt, calls 911 for help.
Man: Operator, operator, call me an ambulance!
Operator: Okay, sir, you're an ambulance!
What has a lot of keys but can not open any doors?
A piano.
Where can a man buy a cap (кепка, коленная чашечка) for his knee,
Or the key to a lock (замок, копна волос) of his hair?
Can his eyes be called an academy
Because there are pupils (ученик, зрачок) there?

3. Homonymy or polysemy?
Customer:
- Do you serve shrimps?
Waiter:
- We serve anyone, sir…
NOTES:
To serve (обслуживать; подавать (на стол)
A shrimp (креветка; маленький, слабый человек)
4. From the lexemes in brackets choose the correct one to go with each of the synonyms given below (make typical collocations):
a) acute, keen, sharp (knife, mind, sight);
b) deep, profound (ignorance, river, sleep);
d) diminutive, petite, small, tiny (camera, house, speck, suffix, woman)