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communication, and special bulks. The latter ones, in their turn, are subdivided into subgroups, each one serving a rather narrow; specified communicative purpose.

3.3. Formal (bookish, literary) words

Literary (bookish) words belong to that stratum of the vocabulary which is used in cultivated speech only – in books, official papers and documents, in scientific communication, in high poetry, in authorial speech of creative prose or in such special types of oral communication as public speeches, official negotiations, etc. They contribute to the message, the tone of solemnity, sophistication, seriousness, gravity, learnedness. Bookish words are mostly loan-words, Latin and Greek. They are either high-flown synonyms of neutral words, or popular terms of science. Consider the following example:

A great crowd came to see. – A vast concourse was assembled to witness. He began his answer. – He commenced his rejoinder.

Words of literary stylistic layer are divided into literary-colloquial

(common literary) and literary-bookish (special literary). Literarycolloquial are words denoting everyday concepts, they constitute the core of the word-stock (see, come, home, right).

Among special literary words such subgroups are mentioned:

· Terms, i.e. words denoting objects, processes, phenomena of science, humanities, technique. They may be subdivided into:

ØPopular terms of some special spheres of human knowledge known to the public at large (typhoid, pneumonia);

ØTerms used exclusively within a profession (phoneme, mi- cro-linguistics).

In the works of fiction the use of terminology serves to characterize the speech of a character thus pointing out his job or occupation. The terms may also be used to describe a certain location – a plant, a laboratory, a bank this providing the reader with the realistic scenery. Sometimes a humorous note may be seen in the terms usage when they are employed in the speech of uneducated or showing off people.

· Archaisms – words which are practically out of use in present-day language and are felt as obsolete. Archaisms may be subdivided into two groups:

Ødenoting historical phenomena which are no more in use (such as "yeoman", "vassal", "falconet") These are historical words.

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Øin the course of language history ousted by newer synonymic words (such as "whereof = of which; "to deem" = to think; "repast" = meal; "nay" = no; main – ocean) or

forms ("maketh" = makes; "thou wilt" = you will; "brethren" = brothers). These are called archaic words (archaic forms) proper.

In the works of fiction the use of archaic words serves to characterize the speech of the bygone epoch, to reproduce its atmosphere. It should be noted that archaization does not mean complete reproduction of the speech of past epochs; it is effected by the use of separate archaic words.

Occurring in the speech of a person, archaic words show his attachment to antiquity. In official form of speech the function of archaisms is to rise above the ordinary matters of everyday life, with the colouring of solemnity.

They are also still used in juridical documentation (Сим удостоверяю –

Hereby I promise. К этому – Hereto. При сем – Herewith. Из этого – Thereof. В дальнейшем именуемый – Hereinafter named)

·Poeticisms, words used exclusively in poetry and the like. They are used to create romantic atmosphere, the general colouring of elevation. The colouring may be described as poetic and solemn at the same time. Many of these words are archaic or obsolete: e.g. foe (enemy), realm (kingdom), billow (wave, surge), spouse (husband or wife), woe (sorrow), childe (a nobleman's son); whilom (sometimes), aught (anything), naught (nothing), tie (no, not), haply (may be), for ay (for ever), I wee (I suppose), he kens (he knows).

Others are morphological variants of neutral words: oft (often), list (listen), morn (morning).

·Fоrеign words (bon mot, neglige, au revoir, adabsurdum, Bundeswehr) are words and phrases loaned from other languages. These words haven't undergone grammatical or phonetic assimilation. Fr.: bonjour, tout le monde (всякий, каждый встречный и поперечный), peu de chose (малость, пустяк, ерунда). Ital.: dolce far niente (pleasing inactivity). Lat.: alter ego, mirabile dictu. In literature foreign words are generally used to lend local colouring: pied-a-terre (a small flat), croissants (breakfast, bread), or point at the character's nationality “Mme Lamote found him and said…trés amical, trés gentel”.

·Barbarisms are foreign words which have exact equivalents in the language thus being superfluous, unnecessary: e.g. chagrin (vexation); chic (stylish); bon mot (a clever or witty saying). Nevertheless they are considered to be part of the vocabulary of the given language constituting its peripheral layer. They are usually registered in dictionaries (apropos, vis-a- vis, etc.) while foreign words are, as a rule, not found in dictionaries. In the

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belles-lettres they are often used to deride the character. e.g. "…what a distingué girl she was…"

But it would also be true to say that no straight line of demarcation can be drawn between the two groups.

· Neologisms are new words or expressions. These words have the connotation of novelty. The following classification of neologisms can be observed:

Øneologisms proper: both new form and new meaning, such words soon enter common literary group of vocabulary mainly as terms: e.g. audio typing; computer-buyer; to telecommute – осуществлять связь с работодателем через компьютер; electronic cottage автоматизированное домашнее хозяйство

Øtransnomination: new form but the meaning already exist in another form. Such words shift to common colloquial group of vocabulary and enlarge synonymous rows. e.g. big C - cancer; sudser (suds – мыльная пена) - soap opera; I’m burned out – tired/exhausted

Øsemantic innovations: using existing words in a new meaning, thus developing polysemy: e.g. mafia – any closed society; sophisticated – earlier: “умудренный опытом” now “sophisticated computer” – прогрессивный компьютер; bread – money.

Øoccasionalisms/ nonce-words: words which appear only for special situations. They are not usually registered by dictionaries and never claim to enter the language; they are valid for one occasion only. They usually have the author and are called individual formations, we usually quote them. Occasionalisms are very expressive, humorous; usually follow already existing word-formation patterns: e.g. sexaphonist – о Клинтоне. Clinton’s sexcapades (escapade

– wild, exciting adventure); balconyful – балкон, полный

людей.

Due to this classification we cannot refer neologisms to the stratum of literary vocabulary only, as new words tend to shift to both stylistically marked groups of vocabulary.

3.4. Informal (colloquial, common) vocabulary

This layer also includes several subgroups:

·General colloquial words. They are words with a tinge of famili-

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arity or inofficiality about them. There is nothing ethically improper in their stylistic coloring, except that they cannot be used in official forms of speech. Colloquial words mark the message as informal, non-official, conversational.

To colloquialisms may be referred:

Øcolloquial words proper (colloquial substitutes of neutral words), e. g., chap;

Øphonetic variants of neutral words: baccy (tobacco), fella (fellow);

Ødiminutives of neutral words: daddy, piggy, as well as diminutives of proper names – Bobby, Becky, Johny;

Øwords the primary meaning of which refer them to neutral sphere while the figurative meaning places them outside the neutral sphere, making them lightly colloquial. E. g., spoon as a colloquial word means "a man with a low mentality".

Ømost interjections belong to the colloquial sphere: gee! Er? Well, etc

·Slang words are highly emotive and expressive and as such, lose their originality rather fast and are replaced by newer formations: e.g. go crackers (go mad); guru (god); belt up (keep silence); big-head (a boaster).

This tendency to synonymic expansion results in long chains of synonyms of various degrees of expressiveness, denoting one and the same concept. So, the idea of a "pretty girl" is worded by more than one hundred ways in slang. In only one novel by S. Lewis there are close to a dozen synonyms used by Babbitt, the central character, in reference to a girl: "cookie", "tomato", "Jane", "sugar", "bird", "cutie", etc.

The substandard status of slang words and phrases, through universal usage, can be raised to the standard colloquial: cowboy, girlfriend, boyfriend, movie, make-up.

The main functions of the slang words used in fiction are:

Øthe reproduction of the character's individual traits in the dialogues;

Øthe description of a definite social environment;

Øthe hero's speech characterization;

Øthe creation of comic effect.

·Jargonisms replace those words which already exist in the language and stand close to slang, also being substandard, expressive and emotive, but, unlike slang they are used by limited groups of people, united either professionally (in this case we deal with professional jargonisms, or professionalisms), or socially (here we deal with jargonisms proper).

ØThe group of professional jargonisms, or professionalisms consists of denominations of things, phenomena and proc-

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ess characteristic of the given profession opposed to the official terms of this professional sphere. Thus, professional jargonisms are unofficial substitutes of professional terms. They are used by representatives of the profession to facilitate the communication. e.g. bull (one who buys shares at the stock-exchange); bear (one who sells shares); sparks (a ra- dio-operator); tin-hat (helmet), etc.

So, in oil industry, e.g., for the terminological "driller" (буровщик) there exist "borer", "digger", "wrencher", "hogger", "brake weight"; for "pipeliner" (трубопроводчик)- "swabber", "bender", "cat", "old cat", "collarpecker", "hammerman"; for "geologist" - "smeller", "pebble pup", "rock hound", "witcher", etc.

From all the examples at least two points are evident: professionalisms are formed according to the existing wordbuilding patterns or present existing words in new meanings, and, covering the field of special professional knowledge, which is semantically limited, they offer a vast variety of synonymic choices for naming one and the same professional item.

ØThe group of social jargonisms is made up of words used to denote non-professional thing relevant for representatives of the given social group with common interests (e.g. music fans, drug-addicts and the like). Such words are used by representatives of the given group to show that the speaker also belongs to it (I-also-belong-to-the-group function). Very often they are used for the purpose of making speech incoherent to outsiders. When used outside the group in which they were created, such words impart expressiveness to speech. In literary works jargonisms indicate to the fact that the speaker belongs to a certain professional or social group.

e.g. Was you never on the mill? – Сидел когда-нибудь в тюрьме?, Greenland – тюрьма, darkies – фонарики воров, to be on a plant – пойти на дело.

Chair-warmer – хорошенькая актриса в роли без слов. Tear-bucket – пожилая женщина, роль несчастной матери. Turkey – провал. Ham – плохой актер. To sit on one's hands – не хлопать. To milk – выжимать аплодисменты.

·Vulgarisms are coarse words with a strong emotive meaning,

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mostly derogatory, normally avoided in polite conversation. e.g. There is so much bad shit between the two gangs that I bet there will be more killings this year.

The border-line between colloquialisms, slangisms and vulgarisms is often hard to draw for there are hardly any linguistic criteria of discrimination. This explains why one finds so many discrepancies in how these stylistic subgroups are labelled in various dictionaries.

· Dialectal words are normative and devoid of any stylistic meaning in regional dialects, but used outside of them, carry a strong flavour of the locality where they belong. e.g. baccy (tobacco), unbeknown (unknown), winder (window), etc

In Great Britain four major dialects are distinguished: Lowland Scotch, Northern, Midland (Central) and Southern. In the USA three major dialectal varieties are distinguished: New England, Southern and Midwestern (Central, Midland). These classifications do not include many minor local variations. Dialects markedly differ on the phonemic level: one and the same phoneme is differently pronounced in each of them. They differ also on the lexical level, having their own names for locally existing phenomena and also supplying locally circulating synonyms for the words, accepted by the language in general. Some of them have entered the general vocabulary and lost their dialectal status ("lad", "pet", "squash", "plaid").

Interaction of Stylistically Coloured Words and the Context

The following general rules of stylistic interaction may be stated:

·An elevated word placed in a stylistically neutral context imparts the latter a general colouring of elevation, i. e. makes the whole utterance solemn or poetic, provided the subject of speech is consistent with the stylistic colouring of elevation.

·An elevated word in a neutral context produces an effect of comicality if the subject of speech or the situation is inconsistent with elevated colouring.

·Sub-neutral words in a neutral context lower the stylistic value of the whole.

·Sub-neutral words in a super-neutral context (or vice versa) produce a comic effect.

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Lecture 4: Word and its semantic structure

4.1.The notion of the meaning

4.2.Lexical meaning of a word, its components. Connotative meanings of a word.

4.3.The Role of the Context in the Actualization of Meaning.

4.1. Word and its semantic structure. The notion of the meaning

The most essential feature of a word is that it expresses the concept of a thing, process, phenomenon, naming (denoting) them. Concept is a logical category, its linguistic counterpart is meaning. Meaning, as the outstanding scholar L. Vygotsky put it, is the unity of generalization, communication and thinking. Stylistics is a domain where meaning assumes paramount importance, as the term "meaning" is applied not only to words, wordcombinations, sentences but also to the manner of expression into which the meaning is cast.

The problem of meaning in general linguistics deals mainly with such aspects of the term as the interrelation between meaning and concept, meaning and sign, meaning and referent. The general tendency is to regard meaning as something stable at a given period of time. This is reasonable; otherwise no dictionary would be able to cope with the problem of defining the meaning of words. Moreover, no communication would be possible.

In stylistics the category of "meaning" includes also those meaning of the words imposed by the context. Such meanings are called contextual. This category also takes under observation meanings, which have fallen out of use.

In stylistics it is important to discriminate shades or nuances of meaning, to atomise the meaning, the component parts of which are now called the semes, i.e. the smallest units which the meaning of a word consists of.

It is now common knowledge that lexical meaning differs from grammatical meaning in more than one way. Lexical meaning refers the mind to some concrete concept, phenomenon, or thing of objective reality, whether real or imaginary. Lexical meaning is thus a means by which a word-form is made to express a definite concept.

Grammatical meaning refers our mind to relations between words or to some forms of words or constructions bearing upon their structural functions in the language-as-a-system. Grammatical meaning can thus be adequately called “structural meaning”. But each of the meanings, being closely interwoven and interdependent, can none the less be regarded as relatively autonomous and therefore be analysed separately. It is significant that words acquire

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different status when analysed in isolation or in the sentence. This double aspect causes in the long run the growth of the semantic structure of a word.

4.2. Lexical meaning of a word, its components. Connotative meaning of a word.

An entity of extreme complexity, the meaning of a word is liable to historical changes, which are responsible for the formation of an expanded semantic structure of a word. This structure is constituted of various types of lexical meanings, the major one being denotative, which informs of the subject of communication. The property of the word enabling it to denote a concrete thing as well as a generalized concept of a thing is an objective feature which has been worked out in the course of a people's history. The knowledge of the word-denotation is shared by all those who speak in the given language and this is what makes communication possible. Denotative meaning is thus the loading task of any notional word.

Lexical meaning also includes connotative meaning, which informs about the participants and conditions of communication. The list and specifications of connotative meanings vary with different linguistic schools and individual scholars and include such entries as pragmatic (directed at the perlocutionary effect of utterance), associative (connected, through individual psychological or linguistic associations, with related and nonrelated notions), ideological, or conceptual (revealing political, social, ideological preferences of the user), evaluative, emotive, expressive, stylistic.

A word is always characterized by its denotative meaning, but not necessarily by connotation. The connotative components may all be present at once (but rarely), or in different combinations or they may not be found in the word at all.

Emotive connotations, revealing the emotional layer of cognition and perception, express the speaker's emotional attitude to the denotatum, various feelings or emotions. Emotions are more short-lived (joy, disappointment). Feelings imply a more stable state or attitude (love, respect, pride). The emotive component of the meaning may be usual or occasional, i.e. inherent and adherent.

e.g. chi-chi – сногсшибательный, модный, вычурный (inherent emotional connotation supposing admiration or sometimes despise).

puppet – марионетка (adherent emotional connotation supposing despise, disapproval).

It is important to distinguish words with emotive connotations from words, describing or naming emotions and feelings like anger or fear, be-

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cause the latter are a special vocabulary subgroup whose denotative meanings are emotions.

e.g. You should be able to control feelings of anger, impatience and disappointment dealing with a child. (stylistically neutral).

He is a BIG boy already! (mother’s proud description).

The evaluative component, stating the value of the indicated notion, charges the word with negative, positive, ironic or other types of connotation conveying the speaker’s attitude in relation to the object of speech. Very often this component is a part of the denotative meaning, which comes to the fore in a specific context.

e.g. out-of-date method (negative evaluation) – time-tested method

(positive evaluation)

firm (positive evaluation) – obstinate (negative evaluation) – pig-headed (negative and sarcastic evaluation)

The verb to sneak means “to move silently and secretly, usually for a bad purpose”. This dictionary definition makes the evaluative component bad quite explicit. Two derivatives a sneak and sneaky have both preserved a derogatory evaluative connotation. But the negative component disappears in another derivative: sneakers (shoes with a soft sole). Thus, even words of the same root may either have or lack an evaluative component in their inner form.

Expressive connotation, aiming at creating the image of the object in question either increases or decreases the expressiveness of the message. There are words which are expressive inherently, e.g. emotive adjectives and intensifiers: marvelous, extraordinary, absolutely; or e.g. poeticisms or slang words – woe (grief), go crackers (go mad). They are originally different from their neutral synonyms, and being used create a brighter image. A lot of words, originally neutral, attain their expressive connotation in a definite context (see part 3 of this lecture).

The above-mentioned meanings are classified as connotative not only because they supply additional (and not the logical/ denotative) information, but also because, for the most part, they are observed not all at once and not in all words either. Some of them are more important for the act of communication than the others. Very often they overlap.

So, all words possessing an emotive meaning are also evaluative (e.g. rascal, ducky), though this rule is not reversed, as we can find non-emotive, intellectual evaluation (e.g. good, bad). Again, practically all emotive words are also expressive, while there are hundreds of expressive words which cannot be treated as emotive (take, for example the so-called expressive verbs,

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which not only denote some action or process but also create their image, as in "to gulp" = to swallow in big lumps, in a hurry; or "to sprint" = to run fast).

Stylistic connotation indicates "the register", or the situation of the communication, it is usually immediately recognizable. A word possess stylistic connotation if it belongs to a certain functional style or a specific layer of vocabulary (such as barbarisms, slang).

e.g. Foe, slumber immediately connote poetic or elevated writing. I wouldn't wish such a lot even to an implacable foe.

He slumbers underneath this tomb.

4.3. The Role of the Context in the Actualization of Meaning

However, we cannot assert that the units commonly called neutral denote without connoting. Occasionally, in a certain context, in a specific distribution one of many implicit meanings of a word which we normally consider neutral may prevail. Specific distribution may also create unexpected additional coloring of a generally neutral word.

Connotations may be inherent and adherent. Stylistically colored words possess inherent connotation. Stylistically neutral words will have only adherent (occasional) connotations acquired in a certain context.

e.g. A luxury hotel for dogs is to be opened at Lima, Peru a city of 30.000 dogs. The furry guests will have separate hygienic kennels, top medical care and high standard cuisine, including the best bones. (Mailer)

This passage demonstrates how both stylistically marked and neutral words may change their coloring due to the context. The inherently formal/ bookish words luxury and cuisine acquire adherent – lowered/ humorous – connotation in the context. The word stylistically neutral bones acquires adherent – elevated/ humorous – connotation in the context.

The number, importance and the overlapping character of connotative meanings incorporated into the semantic structure of a word, are brought forth by the context, i.e. a concrete speech act that identifies and actualizes each one. In the semantic actualization of a word the context plays a dual role: on one hand, it cuts off all meanings irrelevant for the given communicative situation. On the other, it foregrounds one of the meaningful options of a word, focusing the communicators' attention on one of the denotative or connotative components of its semantic structure.

More than that: each context does not only specify the existing semantic (both denotative and connotative) possibilities of a word, but also is capable of adding new ones, or deviating rather considerably from what is registered in the dictionary. Due to this contextual meanings of a word can never be exhausted or comprehensively enumerated.

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