Литература по учебной дисциплине «Практика устной и письменной речи»

(3) Primary vs. secondary/derived. According to the tradition of lexicography, the primary meaning is placed first in the dictionary. When we describe the meaning of the word as secondary, we imply that it could not have appeared before the primary meaning was in existence. When we refer to the meaning as derived, we imply not only that, but also that it is dependent on the primary meaning and somehow subordinate to it. E.g., in the word table the primary meaning is “a piece of furniture”, but “the food put on the table” is secondary as it is derived from the first one.
(4) Direct vs. figurative. The meaning is direct when it nominates the referent without the help of the context—in isolation. The meaning is figurative when the object is named and at the same time characterized through its similarity with another object. E.g., mouth – “part of a face” (dir.), “some opening” (fig.).
If we are interested in the historical perspective, the meaning will be classified according to their genetic characteristics. Here the following terms are used: etymological, i.e. the earliest known meaning, archaic, i.e. the meaning superseded at present by a newer one but still remaining; obsolete, i.e. gone out of use; present-day meaning, which is the one most frequent in the present-day language and the original meaning serving as basis for the derived ones.
According to the style and sphere of language in which the words may occur, they are classified into: stylistically neutral vs. stylistically coloured.
Polysemy viewed diachronically is a historical change in the semantic structure of the word. It implies that a word may retain its previous meanings and at the same time acquire one or several new ones. We distinguish between two schemes of the development of polysemy: radiation and concatenation.
(1) Radiation is a semantic process in which the primary meaning stands in the centre and the secondary meanings proceed out of it in every direction like rays. Each of them is independent of all the rest and may be traced back to the central signification. E.g., paper—scientific article, money, promissory note, document, written word (literature), newspaper, examination work.