Answers for lexicology 1

Q.11. Lexical meaning of the word?

Lexical meaning of a word is the relization of the notion by mean of the definite language system.

The notion content of the word is expressed by the denotative meaning and the emotional content of the word is expressed by the connotative meaning.

Q.12. What is metaphor? Types of metaphor?

- Metaphor is the transfer of name based on the association of similarity and thus is actually a hidden comparison.

- Types of metaphor:

+ Similarity of shape or function.

Eg. head of cabbage, the key to a mystery…

+ Similarity of position.

Eg. foot of a page, foot of mountain…

+ Similarity of behaviour.

Eg. a bookworm, a fox, etc.

+ Analogy between duration of time and space.

Eg: a short path - a short time

+ Transition of proper name into common one.

Eg. Don Juan, Vandal…

Q.13. What is metonymy? Types of metonymy (Hoán dụ)?

- Metonymy is the transfer based upon the association of contiguity. It is a shift of names between things that are known to be in some way or other connected in reality. The transfer may be conditioned by spatial(không gian), temporal, causal, symbolic, instrumental, functional and other relations.

- Types of metonymy:

+ Spatial relations:

the name of place is used for the people occupying it.

Eg. the pulpit

the name of container is used instead of the thing contained

Eg: the kettle is boiling

+ Causal relations:

 State or properties serves as names for objects and people possessing them.

Eg. youth, authoritied, forces…

 Name of action serves to name result of the action.

Eg. kill (O.E – means ‘hit on the head’)

 Emotion may be named by movements that accompanied them.

Eg. to start, to frown…

+ Symbolic relation: the symbol is used to replace the thing symbolized

Eg: “crown” for “monarchy”

+ Intrumental relation Instrument is used for action or the doer.

Eg. saxophone, violin are used to denote not the instrument but the musicians who play them.

+ Functional change: the shift is between names of things substituting one another inhuman practice. Eg: “steerman” was called “pilot”, the man operating the flying controls of an aircraft was also called pilot.
+ Common name derived from proper one, named after the inventor.

Eg. macadam, diesel…

+ Physical, technical units are named after great scientists.

Eg. volt, watt, ohm, ampare, farad…

+ Name of establishment is used not only for the establishment itself but also its staff or the policy.

Eg. the White House, the Pentagon, the Downing Street…

+ Geographical names used for goods originating where there are axceedingly numerous.

Eg. china, bikini, boston…

+ Garments came to be known by the name of those who brought them into fashion.

Eg. mackintosh, wellingtons, CK…

+ Material for particular article.

Eg. glass, iron, nickel…

Q.14. What is homonym( từ đồng âm khác nghĩa)? Classify homonym? State the origin of homonym?

14.1. Definition:

Two or more words identical in sound and spelling but different in meaning, distribution and (in many cases) origin are called homonym.

14.2. Classification:

- According to the sound: (sound form)

+ Homonym proper: same sound and spelling, but different meaning.

Eg. back (adv) – back (v)

+ Homophone: same sound, but different spelling and meaning.

Eg. by – buy – bye

+ Homograph: same spelling, but different sound and meaning.

Eg. row (n) /rou/ - row (v) /rau/; lead (n) /led/ - lead (v) /li:d/

- According to lexico-grammatical criteria:

+ Full homonym: same sound, spelling and grammatical function (part of speech), but different meaning.

Eg. match (n): in ‘football match’ and ‘matchbox’

spring (n): wound wire device and first season of the year

+ Partial homonym:

 Simple lexico-grammatical homonym: same sound, spelling and part of speech, but different meaning.

Eg. found (v): PP of ‘to find’

to found: to build, to establish

 Complex lexico-grammatical homonym: same sound and spelling, but different part of speech and meaning.

Eg. rose (n) – rose (v)_past tense of rise

 Partial-lexical homonym: same sound, spelling and part of speech, but different meaning and change in part of speech.

Eg. to lie – lay – laid

to lie – lied – lied

14.3. Origin of homonym:

 Convergent development of sound form:

- Homonyms through convergent sound development when 2 or 3 words of different origins accidently concide in sound.

- It may consist of:

+ Phonetic change.

+ Phonetic change combined with loss of affixes.

+ Independent formation from homonymous bases by means of homonymous morpheme.

 Devergent semantic development:

- Homonyms developed from polysemy through devergent sense development, both may be combined with loss of ending and other morphorlogical process.

- It may be:

+ Limited within lexico-grammatical class of words.

+ Combined with differences in lexico-grammatical class and therefore different in grammatical function and distribution.

+ Based on independent formation from the same base by homonymous morpheme.

Q.15. What is synonym(từ đồng nghĩa)? What are the criteria of synonym? State the types of synonym?

- Definition: Synonym can be defined as 2 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 denotational meaning, but differing in morphemic composition, phonemic shape, shades of meaning, connotation, affective value, style, valency and idiomatic use.

- Criteria of synonym:

+ Interchangeability: only in some contexts synonym can be changed without any alteration in denotational and connotational meaning.

+ Substitution: only in some contexts without changing the denotational meanings, and in others the substitution may destroy the precision.

+ Notional criterion: synonyms convey the same notion but different shade of meaning or stylistic charateristic.

- Types of synonyms:

+ Absolute (total) synnonym: the member of synonymic group can replace each other in any given context without any alteration in denotational meaning. This is rare in vocabulary.

+ Contextual synonym: is similar in meaning only under some specific distributional conditions.

Eg. to buy ticket ≈ to get ticket.

Q.16. What are the types of connotation?

- The connotation of degree or intensity.

Eg. to surprise – to astonish – to amaze – to astound

to like – to admire – to love – to adore – to worship

- The connotation of duration.

Eg. to stare: quick look – to glance: longer look

- Emotive connotation.

Eg. daddy (emotion) – father; mum (emotion) – mother

- Evaluative connotation.

Eg. well-known, famous, celebrate – positive meaning

notorious – negative meaning

- Causative connotation.

Eg. to shiver: to shake (with cold) – to shudder (with fear)

- Connotation of manner.

Eg. to stare – to glare – to gaze – to glance – to peep : # ways of looking at sth.

- Connotation of attendant circumstances.

Eg. to peep: to look at sth quickly, secretary (through a small opening)

to peer: to look at sth carefully when it is unable to see well

- Connotation of attendant feature.

Eg. pretty: delicate feature

beautiful: classical feature

- Stylistic connotation.

Eg. snack, bite (colloqual); snap (dialect); refreshment (formal)

Kid (slang); child (neutral); infant (literature)

Q.17. What is euphemism (uyển ngữ)? State the reasons for euphemism?

- Definition: A source of synonyms from social linguistics is euphemism in which by a shift of meaning, a word of more or less pleasant or at leasr inoffensive connotation substitutes one harsh, obsence, indelicate or unleasant.

- Reasons for euphemism:

+ To avoid social taboos: eg. in the family way (pregnant).

+ To avoid getting hurt someone’s feeling: eg. to die is replaced by – to pass away

+ Religious taboos: eg. Devil – replaced by – the Prince of Darkness, Old Nick

+ For mental diseases: eg. mad – described as – unbalanced, insane.

The use and existence of euphemisms are caused by social conventions or by certain psychological factors.

Q.18. What is antonym(từ trái nghĩa)? What are the types of antonym?

- Antonyms may be defined as 2 or rarely more words of the same language belonging to the same part of speech, identical in style and nearly identical in distribution, associated and use together so that their denotative meanings render (form) contrary or contradictory notions.

The antonyms are used to increase the positive or nagative aspect.

- Types of antonyms:

+ Absolute antonyms: formulae (A,B – antonyms; X,Y – the words they serve to qualify respectively).

 A and (or) B = all. Eg. good and bad; pros and cons

 Not A but (on the contrary) B. eg. it is not big but small

 A or B. eg. right or wrong

 X is A, and Y (on the contrary) is B.

eg. unity is strong, and seperation is weak; the whole is big, onself is little

+ Derivational antonyms: the affixes in them serve to deny the quality stated in stem.

 Negative prefixes: dis-, il-, im-, in-, un-, ir-.

Eg. polite – impolite; courage – discourage

 Suffix “-less”.

Eg. useful – useless; hopeful – hopeless

Q.19. What are the main characteristics of Phraseological units (Pus)? How can PUs can be distinguished from Free word groups (FWGs)?

19.1. Charateristics:

- Double sense: the current mening of constituent words build up certain picture but the atual meaning (hidden one) of the whole unit has little or nothing to do with that picture, it creates an entirely new image.

- Using PUs with care especially to foreigner to aviod misunderstanding.

19.2. The differnces between the PUs and FWGs:

- Semantic criterion:

+ FWG has one sense meaning which can be total meaning of the constituents expressing in the utterances.

+ PUs has double sense (real and imagine), it can be total or partial change with the meaning of the constituents.

- Strutural criterion:

+ Restriction in substitution:

 PUs convey single notion, the constitution can’t be changed – if they are changed, the total meaning will be changed.

 FWGs: the constituents can be changed without any considerable change in total meaning.

+ Reatriction in introducing any additional components:

 FWGs: such change can be made without affecting the general meaning of the utterance.

 PUs: no additional components can be introduced.

+ Restriction in grammatical invariability:

 FWGs: grammar can be changed

 PUs: grammar can’t be changed.

Q.20. Principles of classification of PUs?

- Traditional principle:

+ Based on original content of PUs, may be alluded as “thematic”.

+ Has real merit but it does’t take into consideration the linguistic charateristic feature of PUs.

- Semantic principle:

+ Phraseological combinations: are word-group with a partially changed meaning.

Eg. to be good at sth

+ Phraseological unities: are word-groups with a completely changed meaning, the meaning of the unit doesn’t correspond to the meaning of its constituent parts. The whole meaning of the unit can be duduced from its components.

Eg. to stick to one’s gun

+ Phraseological fusions: are word-groups with a completely changed meaning, but in contrast to unities, their meaning can’t be deduced from the meanings of the constituents.

Eg. neck and crop (entirely)

- Structural principle:

+ Verbal: eg. to run for one’s life

+ Substantive (noun): eg. cat and dog

+ Adjectival: eg. safe and sound, brand new

+ Adverbial: eg. high or low, for love or money

+ Interjectional: eg. my god!, good heavens!

Q.21. Structural classification of PUs?

- Functioning like nouns:

 N + N eg. maiden name, calf love, brain trust

 N’s + N eg. cat’s paw (personized)

 Ns’ + N eg. ladies’ man

 N + preposition + N eg. the day after the fair (miss the chance)

 N + adj eg. brand new, knight errant

 N + and + N eg. lord and master (husband), neck and crop (completely)

 Adj + N eg. brown study, green room (the general reception room of a theatre)

 N + subordinate clause eg. the ship that pass in the night

- Functioning like verbs:

 V + N eg. to take advantage

 V + postpositive eg. to give up

 V + and/or + V eg. to pick and choose, to kill or cure

 V + (one’s) + N + (prep) eg. to snap one’s fingers at

 V + one + N eg. to give one the bird ‘to fire smb’

 V + subordinate clause eg. to see how the land lies (to discover the state of affairs)

- Functioning like adjectives:

 Adj + and + adj eg. safe and sound, high and mighty

 (As) + adj + as + N eg. as old as the hills, as mad as hatter

- Functioning like adverbs:

 N + N eg. tooth and nail

 Prep + N eg. by heart, of course

 Adv + preposition + adj + N eg. once in a blue moon

 Prep + N + or + N eg. by hook or by crook

 Conj + clause eg. before one can say jack Robinson

- Funtioning like prepositions:

 Prep + N + prep eg. in consequence of

- Functioning like interjections: eg. god bless you, take your time

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