Семинар по лексикологии №6. Combinability. Семинар 6 Combinability. Семинар 6 Combinability. Word Groups key terms syntagmatics
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Семинар 6 Combinability. Word Groups KEY TERMS Syntagmatics - linear (simultaneous) relationship of words in speech as distinct from associative (non-simultaneous) relationship of words in language (paradigmatics). Syntagmatic relations specify the combination of elements into complex forms and sentences. Distribution - The set of elements with which an item can cooccur Combinability - the ability of linguistic elements to combine in speech. Valency - the potential ability of words to occur with other words Context - the semantically complete passage of written speech sufficient to establish the meaning of a given word (phrase). Clichе´ - an overused expression that is considered trite, boring Word combination - a combination of two or more notional words serving to express one concept. It is produced, not reproduced in speech. Collocation - such a combination of words which conditions the realization of a certain meaning TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION AND EXERCISES 1. Syntagmatic relations and the concept of combinability of words. Define combinability. Syntagmatic relation defines the relationship between words that co-occur in the same sentence. It focuses on two main parts: how the position and the word order affect the meaning of a sentence. The syntagmatic relation explains: • The word position and order. • The relationship between words gives a particular meaning to the sentence. The syntagmatic relation can also explain why specific words are often paired together (collocations) Syntagmatic relations are linear relations between words The adjective yellow: 1. color: a yellow dress; 2. envious, suspicious: a yellow look; 3. corrupt: the yellow press TYPES OF SEMANTIC RELATIONS Because syntagmatic relations have to do with the relationship between words, the syntagms can result in collocations and idioms. Collocations Collocations are word combinations that frequently occur together. Some examples of collocations: Verb + noun: do homework, take a risk, catch a cold. Noun + noun: office hours, interest group, kitchen cabinet. Adjective + adverb: good enough, close together, crystal clear. Verb + preposition: protect from, angry at, advantage of. Adverb + verb: strongly suggest, deeply sorry, highly successful. Adjective + noun: handsome man, quick shower, fast food. Idioms Idioms are expressions that have a meaning other than their literal one. Idioms are distinct from collocations: The word combination is not interchangeable (fixed expressions). The meaning of each component is not equal to the meaning of the idiom It is difficult to find the meaning of an idiom based on the definition of the words alone. For example, red herring. If you define the idiom word by word, it means 'red fish', not 'something that misleads', which is the real meaning. Because of this, idioms can't be translated to or from another language because the word definition isn't equivalent to the idiom interpretation. Some examples of popular idioms: Break a leg. Miss the boat. Call it a day. It's raining cats and dogs. Kill two birds with one stone. Combinability (occurrence-range) — the ability of linguistic elements to combine in speech. The combinability of words is as a rule determined by their meanings, not their forms. Therefore not every sequence of words may be regarded as a combination of words. In the sentence Frankly, father, I have been a fool neither frankly, father nor father, I ... are combinations of words since their meanings are detached and do not unite them, which is marked orally by intonation and often graphically by punctuation marks. On the other hand, some words may be inserted between the components of a word-combination without breaking it. Compare, a) read books b) read many books c) read very many books. In case (a) the combination read books is uninterrupted.In cases (b) and (c) it is interrupted, or discontinuous(read... books). The combinability of words depends on their lexical, grammatical and lexico-grammatical meanings. It is owing to the lexical meanings of the corresponding lexemes that the word wise can be combined with the words man, act, saying and is hardly combinable with the words milk, area, outline. The lexico-grammatical meanings of -er in singer (a noun) and -ly in beautifully (an adverb) do not go together and prevent these words from forming a combination, whereas beautiful singer and sing beautifully are regular word-combinations. The combination * students sings is impossible owing to the grammatical meanings of the corresponding grammemes. Thus one may speak of lexical, grammatical and lexico-grammatical combinability, or the combinability of lexemes, grammemes and parts of speech. The mechanism of combinability is very complicated. One has to take into consideration not only the combinability of homogeneous units, e. g. the words of one lexeme with those of another lexeme. A lexeme is often not combinable with a whole class of lexemes or with certain grammemes. For instance, the lexeme few, fewer, fewest is not combinable with a class of nouns called uncountables, such as milk, information, hatred, etc., or with members of 'singular' grammemes (i. e. grammemes containing the meaning of 'singularity', such as book, table, man, boy, etc.). The 'possessive case' grammemes are rarely combined with verbs, barring the gerund. Some words are regularly combined with sentences, others are not. It is convenient to distinguish right-hand and left-hand connections. In the combination my hand (when written down) the word my has a right-hand connection with the word hand and the latter has a left-hand connection with the word my. With analytical forms inside and outside connections are also possible. In the combination has often written the verb has an inside connection with the adverb and the latter has an outside connection with the verb. It will also be expedient to distinguish unilateral, bilateral and multilateral connections. By way of illustration we may say that the articles in English have unilateral right-hand connections with nouns: a book, the child. Such linking words as prepositions, conjunctions, link-verbs, and modal verbs are characterized by bilateral connections: love of life, John and Mary, this is John, he must come. Most verbs may have zero (Come!), unilateral (birds fly), bilateral (I saw him) and multilateral (Yesterday I saw him there) connections. In other words, the combinability of verbs is variable. One should also distinguish direct and indirect connections. In the combination Look at John the connection between look and at, between at and John are direct, whereas the connection between look and John is indirect, through the preposition at. 2. Lexical and grammatical valency. Valency and collocability. Relationships between valency and collocability. Distribution. The appearance of words in a certain syntagmatic succession with particular logical, semantic, morphological and syntactic relations is called collocability or valency. Valency is viewed as an aptness or potential of a word to have relations with other words in language. Valency can be grammatical and lexical. Collocability is an actual use of words in particular word-groups in communication. The range of the Lexical valency of words is linguistically restricted by the inner structure of the English word-stock. Though the verbs ‘lift’ and ‘raise’ are synonyms, only ‘to raise’ is collocated with the noun ‘question’. The lexical valency of correlated words in different languages is different, cf. English ‘pot plants’ vs. Russian ‘комнатные цветы’. The interrelation of lexical valency and polysemy: • the restrictions of lexical valency of words may manifest themselves in the lexical meanings of the polysemantic members of word-groups, e.g. heavy, adj. in the meaning ‘rich and difficult to digest’ is combined with the words food, meals, supper, etc., but one cannot say *heavy cheese or *heavy sausage; • different meanings of a word may be described through its lexical valency, e.g. the different meanings of heavy, adj. may be described through the word-groups heavy weight / book / table; heavy snow / storm / rain; heavy drinker / eater; heavy sleep / disappointment / sorrow; heavy industry / tanks, and so on. From this point of view word-groups may be regarded as the characteristic minimal lexical sets that operate as distinguishing clues for each of the multiple meanings of the word. Grammatical valency is the aptness of a word to appear in specific grammatical (or rather syntactic) structures. Its range is delimited by the part of speech the word belongs to. This is not to imply that grammatical valency of words belonging to the same part of speech is necessarily identical, e.g.: • the verbs suggest and propose can be followed by a noun (to propose or suggest a plan / a resolution); however, it is only propose that can be followed by the infinitive of a verb (to propose to do smth.); • the adjectives clever and intelligent are seen to possess different grammatical valency as clever can be used in word-groups having the pattern: Adj. + Prep. at +Noun(clever at mathematics), whereas intelligent can never be found in exactly the same word-group pattern. • The individual meanings of a polysemantic word may be described through its grammatical valency, e.g. keen + Nas in keen sight ‘sharp’; keen + on + Nas in keen on sports ‘fond of’; keen + V(inf)as in keen to know ‘eager’. Lexical context determines lexically bound meaning; collocations with the polysemantic words are of primary importance, e.g. a dramatic change / increase / fall / improvement; dramatic events / scenery; dramatic society; a dramatic gesture. In grammatical context the grammatical (syntactic) structure of the context serves to determine the meanings of a polysemantic word, e.g. 1) She will make a good teacher. 2) She will make some tea. 3) She will make him obey. Distribution is understood as the whole complex of contexts in which the given lexical unit(word) can be used. Есть даже словари, по которым можно найти валентные слова для нужного нам слова - так и называются дистрибьюшн дикшенери 3. What is a word combination? Types of word combinations. Classifications of word-groups. Word combination - a combination of two or more notional words serving to express one concept. It is produced, not reproduced in speech. Types of word combinations: Semantically: free word groups (collocations) - a year ago, a girl of beauty, take lessons; set expressions (at last, point of view, take part). Morphologically (L.S. Barkhudarov): noun word combinations, e.g.: nice apples (BBC London Course); verb word combinations, e.g.: saw him (E. Blyton); adjective word combinations, e.g.: perfectly delightful (O. Wilde); adverb word combinations, e.g.: perfectly well (O, Wilde); pronoun word combinations, e.g.: something nice (BBC London Course). According to the number of the components: simple - the head and an adjunct, e.g.: told me (A. Ayckbourn) Complex, e.g.: terribly cold weather (O. Jespersen), where the adjunct cold is expanded by means of terribly. Classifications of word-groups: through the order and arrangement of the components: • a verbal - nominal group (to sew a dress); • a verbal - prepositional - nominal group (look at something); by the criterion of distribution, which is the sum of contexts of the language unit usage: • endocentric, i.e. having one central member functionally equivalent to the whole word-group (blue sky); • exocentric, i.e. having no central member (become older, side by side); according to the headword: • nominal (beautiful garden); • verbal (to fly high); • adjectival (lucky from birth); according to the syntactic pattern: • predicative (Russian linguists do not consider them to be word-groups); • non-predicative - according to the type of syntactic relations between the components: (a) subordinative (modern technology); (b) coordinative (husband and wife). 4. What is “a free word combination”? To what extent is what we call a free word combination actually free? What are the restrictions imposed on it? A free word combination is a combination in which any element can be substituted by another. The general meaning of an ordinary free word combination is derived from the conjoined meanings of its elements Ex. To come to one’s sense –to change one’s mind; To fall into a rage – to get angry. Free word-combinations are word-groups that have a greater semantic and structural independence and freely composed by the speaker in his speech according to his purpose. A free word combination or a free phrase permits substitution of any of its elements without any semantic change in the other components. 5. Clichе´s (traditional word combinations). A cliché is an expression that is trite, worn-out, and overused. As a result, clichés have lost their original vitality, freshness, and significance in expressing meaning. A cliché is a phrase or idea that has become a “universal” device to describe abstract concepts such as time (Better Late Than Never), anger (madder than a wet hen), love (love is blind), and even hope (Tomorrow is Another Day). However, such expressions are too commonplace and unoriginal to leave any significant impression. Of course, any expression that has become a cliché was original and innovative at one time. However, overuse of such an expression results in a loss of novelty, significance, and even original meaning. For example, the proverbial phrase “when it rains it pours” indicates the idea that difficult or inconvenient circumstances closely follow each other or take place all at the same time. This phrase originally referred to a weather pattern in which a dry spell would be followed by heavy, prolonged rain. However, the original meaning is distanced from the overuse of the phrase, making it a cliché. Some common examples of cliché in everyday speech: My dog is dumb as a doorknob. (тупой как пробка) The laundry came out as fresh as a daisy. If you hide the toy it will be out of sight, out of mind. (с глаз долой, из сердца вон) Examples of Movie Lines that Have Become Cliché: Luke, I am your father. (Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back) i am Groot. (Guardians of the Galaxy) I’ll be back. (The Terminator) Houston, we have a problem. (Apollo 13) Some famous examples of cliché in creative writing: It was a dark and stormy night Once upon a time There I was All’s well that ends well They lived happily ever after 6. The sociolinguistic aspect of word combinations. Lexical valency is the possibility of lexicosemantic connections of a word with other word Some researchers suggested that the functioning of a word in speech is determined by the environment in which it occurs, by its grammatical peculiarities (part of speech it belongs to, categories, functions in the sentence, etc.), and by the type and character of meaning included into the semantic structure of a word. Words are used in certain lexical contexts, i.e. in combinations with other words. The words that surround a particular word in a sentence or paragraph are called the verbal context of that word. 7. Norms of lexical valency and collocability in different languages. The aptness of a word to appear in various combinations is described as its lexical valency or collocability. The lexical valency of correlated words in different languages is not identical. This is only natural since every language has its syntagmatic norms and patterns of lexical valency. Words, habitually collocated, tend to constitute a cliché, e.g. bad mistake, high hopes, heavy sea (rain, snow), etc. The translator is obliged to seek similar cliches, traditional collocations in the target-language: грубая ошибка, большие надежды, бурное море, сильный дождь /снег/. The key word in such collocations is usually preserved but the collocated one is rendered by a word of a somewhat different referential meaning in accordance with the valency norms of the target-language: trains run - поезда ходят; a fly stands on the ceiling - на потолке сидит муха; It was the worst earthquake on the African continent (D.W.) - Это было самое сильное землетрясение в Африке. Labour Party pretest followed sharply on the Tory deal with Spain (M.S.1973) - За сообщением о сделке консервативного правительства с Испанией немедленно последовал протест лейбористской партии. Different collocability often calls for lexical and grammatical transformations in translation though each component of the collocation may have its equivalent in Russian, e.g. the collocation "the most controversial Prime Minister" cannot be translated as «самый противоречивый премьер-министр». "Britain will tomorrow be welcoming on an official visit one of the most controversial and youngest Prime Ministers in Europe" (The Times, 1970). «Завтра в Англию прибывает с официальным визитом один из самых молодых премьер-министров Европы, который вызывает самые противоречивые мнения». "Sweden's neutral faith ought not to be in doubt" (Ib.) «Верность Швеции нейтралитету не подлежит сомнению». The collocation "documentary bombshell" is rather uncommon and individual, but evidently it does not violate English collocational patterns, while the corresponding Russian collocation - документальная бомба - impossible. Therefore its translation requires a number of transformations: "A teacher who leaves a documentary bombshell lying around by negligence is as culpable as the top civil servant who leaves his classified secrets in a taxi" (The Daily Mirror, 1950) «Преподаватель, по небрежности оставивший на столе бумаги, которые могут вызвать большой скандал, не менее виновен, чем ответственный государственный служащий, забывший секретные документы в такси». 8. Using the data of various dictionaries compare the grammatical valency of the words worth and worthy; ensure, insure, assure; observance and observation; go and walk; influence and влияние; hold and держать.
Contrastive Analysis. Give words of the same root in Russian; compare their valency:
10. From the lexemes in brackets choose the correct one to go with each of the synonyms given below: acute, keen, sharp (knife, mind, sight): • acute mind; • keen sight; • sharp knife; abysmal, deep, profound (ignorance, river, sleep); • abysmal ignorance; • deep river; • profound sleep; unconditional, unqualified (success, surrender): • unconditional surrender; • unqualified success; diminutive, miniature, petite, petty, small, tiny (camera, house, speck, spite, suffix, woman): • diminutive suffix; • miniature camera/house; • petite woman; • petty spite; • small speck/camera/house; • tiny house/camera/speck; brisk, nimble, quick, swift (mind, revenge, train, walk): • brisk walk; • nimble mind; • quick train; • swift revenge. 11. Collocate deletion: One word in each group does not make a strong word partnership with the word on Capitals. Which one is Odd One Out? 1) BRIGHT idea green smell child day room 2) CLEAR attitude need instruction alternative day conscience 3) LIGHT traffic work day entertainment suitcase rain green lunch 4) NEW experience job food potatoes baby situation year 5) HIGH season price opinion spirits house time priority 6) MAIN point reason effect entrance speed road meal course 7) STRONG possibility doubt smell influence views coffee language 8) SERIOUS advantage situation relationship illness crime matter Write a short definition based on the clues you find in context for the italicized words in the sentence. Check your definitions with the dictionary.
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