Lexical system. The Classification of the English Vocabulary.

1. The semantic classification of the English vocabulary.

1. semantic fields
2. lexico-semantic groups
3. hyponymic classification
4. synonyms; types, sources.

2. Morphological and lexico–grammatical groupings.

3. Homonyms.

1. The semantic classification of the English vocabulary.

Modern English has a very extensive vocabulary. The stock of words is enormous. But it is possible to bring order into the seeming chaos of the vocabulary.

a) Words may be classified according to the concepts underlying their meaning. This classification is closely connected with the theory of semantic fields. By the term “semantic fields” we understand closely knit sectors of vocabulary each characterized by a common concept.

E.g. mother, father, brother, son : may be described as members of the semantic field of kinship terms.

        The members of the semantic fields are not synonyms, but all of them are joined together by some common semantic denominator. If a word has several common semantic denominators it means that this word is polysemantic. That is why analyzing the word cut of the context, it is necessary to know which semantic fields this word belongs to.

E.g. - “heavy” may belong to the semantic field of “weight”

       - “heavy bags” may belong to semantic field of “meals”, then it means “substantial” (heavy supper);

       - “heavy” may belong to the semantic field of natural phenomena, then it means “great” heavy snow.

        Words making up big semantic fields may belong to different parts of speech.

E.g. in the semantic field of “space” we find nouns “expanse, surface”; verbs “extend, spread”; adjectives “spacious, roomy, vast, broad”.

        b) Lexico-semantic groups are component elements of semantic fields. They also possess common semantic denominator, but they include words belonging only to one and the same part of speech.

E.g. words “dinner, soup, to drink, to eat, tasty, hungry” belong to one and the same semantic field with the common semantic denominator “the concept of meals”, but to different lexico-se mantic groups: “soup and dinner” to one lexico-semantic group, “to eat and to drink” to another group, “tasty and hungry” to the third group.

        It should be also pointed out that different meanings of polysemantic words make it possible to refer the same word to different lexico-semantic groups.

E.g. “make” in the meaning of “compel” is the member of a different lexico-semantic group made up by the verbs “force”, “induce”.

        c) Hyponymic classification. It is the study of hyponymic relations between words. By hyponymy we understand a semantic relationship of inclusion.

E.g. “tree” includes “pine, oak, chair, imply furniture”. The general term (tree) is called hyperonym and serves to describe the lexico-semantic group. The individual, more specific term (chair) is called the hyponym. Hyperonym include several hyponyms and every hyponym in its turn may be hyponym.

d) Synonyms are components of lexico-semantic groups. Synonyms are two or more words of the same language, belonging to the same part of speech and possessing one or more identical or nearly identical denotational meaning, interchangeable, at least in some contexts without any considerable alteration in the denotational meaning, but differing in morphemic composition, phonemic shape, shades of meaning, connotations and style.

E.g. “to look, to stare, to gaze” express the same notion of turning one’s eyes on smb. or smth. but “to stare and to gaze” differ in their emotional colourings, where as “to look” describes the notion generally, without any additional characteristics. Such a general word in the group of synonyms is called the synonymic dominant.

        Types of synonyms:

1. ideographic – here belong words which convey the same notion but different in shades of meaning;
2. stylistic type – here belong words different in stylistic characteristics;
3. absolute type – here belong words coinciding in all their shades of meaning and in all their stylistic characteristics.

There is another classification of synonyms:

1. the connotation of degree or intensity

E.g. to surprise – to astonish – to amaze – to astound – to shock

2. connotation of duration

E.g. to look – to glance – to stare – to glare – to gaze

3. emotive connotation

E.g. to stare – to glare – to gaze

4. the evaluative connotation conveys the speaker’s attitude towards the referent, labeling it as good or bad.

E.g. well-known – famous – notorious

5. the connotation of manner

E.g. to stroll – to pace – to stumble

6. stylistic connotations: colloquial, slang, dialect words, poetic words, archaic words, etc.

E.g. to snack, to have a bite (colloquial), to snap (dialect), feast (formal).

2. Morphological and lexico–grammatical groupings.

On the morphological level words are divided into four groups according to the number of morphemes and their types:

1. root or morpheme words – words which stem contains one – three morphemes. E.g. dog, hand, land.
2. derivatives contain no less than two morphemes of which last one is bound. E.g. a dog – dogged, handing.
3. compound words consist of not less than two – three morphemes, the presence of a bound morpheme is possible but not necessary. E.g. a text – book, kind – hearted.
4. compound  derivatives consist of not less than two – three morphemes and one bound morpheme referring to the whole combination. E.g. hand – handy – handbag – handful. All these words are grouped according to the common root morpheme. Sometimes words are grouped according to a common suffix or prefix. E.g. – some: troublesome, handsome.

The next step is to classify words according to their actual utterance, here notional words and functional words are contrasted. Notional words are words which can name different objects of reality, the quality of these objects, the process in which they take part and they can stand alone having their own meaning and making a complete utterance.

Functional words are empty words or auxiliaries. They are lexical units which are used only in combination with notional words or in reference to them. This group includes auxiliaries, prepositions, conjunctions.

Lexico – grammatical grouping is a class of words which have a common lexico – grammatical meaning, a common paradigm, the same substitutive elements and a set of suffixes rendering the lexico – grammatical meaning. These groups are subsets of the parts of speech, several lexico – grammatical groups make up one part of speech. E.g. noun is subdivided into following lexico – grammatical groups: personal names, animal names, abstract nouns, material nouns, etc.

3. Homonyms.

The words are homonyms when two or more unrelated meanings are associated with the same form. They are characterized by phonetic coincidence and semantic difference. Two or more identical in sound and spelling but different in meaning distribution words are called homonyms. Homonyms are classified into:

1.Homonyms proper – they are identical in pronunciation and spelling. E.g. ball – мяч, бал.

2.Homophones – they have the same sound form but different spelling and meaning. E.g. by – buy, knight – night.

3.Homographes – they have different sound form, meaning but the same spelling. E.g. tear – слеза, tear – рвать.