Semantic structure of Polysemy, Homonymy, Diffusion
A term is polysemic when it has more than one meaning.
Two terms are homonyms when their etymology is different although their form is the same –both homonym terms represent different concepts.
Two terms are paronyms when they look similar (but they are different) because nof their form or sound.
Homonyms can be homophones (same pronunciation) and homographs (same spelling). Some examples are as follows:
• Homophones and homographs at the same time: o bark: the characteristic short loud cry of a dog (from old English beorcan).
Bark: the tough largely corky exterior covering of a woodyroot or stem
(from old Norse bǫrkr). o Stalk: the main stem of an herbaceous plant often with its dependent parts (from middle English stalken).
Stalk: to hunt stealthily (from old English bestealcian). o Left: opposite of right. Left: past tense of leave.
o Bow: to bend the head, body, or knee in greeting reverence, respect, or submission (from old English būgan).
Bow: a weapon for shooting arrows (from old English boga).
Bow: the forward part of a chip (from middle English bowe).
Polysemy is very frequent, it is produced as a consequence of extending the meaning of a previously existing word toname a new thing, it means, a word
with one (monosemic) or several (polysemic) meanings to adopt another meaning. In this way, polysemy allows to increase the number of named concepts without enlarging a lexicon or terminology.
A word can have several meanings in the standard register, in the standard register and in one or several specialised fields, or in one specialised subject.
Terminology will only consider the specialised meanings, so there will be a difference in the treatment of polysemic and homonym terms by Lexicography and Terminology. In a lexicographic work (ageneral dictionary)all the meanings of a word are included, while in a terminology (a dictionary specialised in the lexicon of a subject) only the meaning or meanings related to the subject are included, omitting the rest of meanings.
• A word with meanings in the standard register and in a specialised field: reactor.
o Standard register: one that reacts.
o Chemical industry: a vat for industrial chemical reaction
o Energy industry: a devise for the controlled release of nuclear energy.
* Only if the word is used wit the two last meanings itwill be considered as a term, and it will be included in the chemical or nuclear energy terminology respectively.
• A word with meanings in several subjects ray.
o Geometry: any of a group of lines diverging from a common centre.
o Zoology: one of the bony rods thatextend and support the membrane in the fin of a fish.
• A word with several meanings in a subject: arm.
o Anatomy: a human upper limb.
30. Actual division of the sentence. The notions of the theme and rheme. Thematic subjects in English
In the sentence one part contains given info that is already supplied by the context, and the other part - new info. Аnу sentence is written or uttered for the sake of new info. This theory about the division of the sentence is called the Actual Sentence Division (ASD). Old info is called theme, new- rheme.
The theme is placed in the beginning of the sentence, and the rheme - in the end. The subject often coincides with the theme, and the predicate with the rheme. In the end position we put the most important info:
# John goes to London.
John stays at the Browns.
These means depend on the structure of the language. Mathesuis and Firbas elaborated the theory of ASD: In languages with free word-order and developed morphological system word order is used to show the difference between theme and rheme.
In Russian: в расследовании участвовали многие эксперты и криминалисты. It's easy to put the new info in the end.
In contrast to Russian, English word-order is to a certain extent fixed. Sometimes it can be changed according to requirement of the ASD.
Means to make the subject thematic:
1- Passive Voice - that is to change the word order
# The Brown family bought the house. - The house was bought by the Brown family.
In Russian besides Passive Voice we use indefinite personal sentences: Стол был накрыт. -
Стол накрыли.
In the majority of the English passive sentences the agent of the sentence is not mentioned.
Jesperson: 70-74% don't contain the mention of the agent # His flat was burgled yesterday. He
was fined for speeding.
The passive voice makes the subject thematic and places the rheme at the end of the sentence.
•Reasons (наверное for frequent use of passive):
- There are several passive constructions in English instead of one in Russian (direct, indirect, prepositional, adverbial).
- English has more verbs that take a direct object (in Russian we often have prepositional object
- no passive construction).
2. The use of
- personal predicative sentences
- benefective sentences
A person experiencing some feeling or benefiting from sth is made the subject.
#I’т sorry to hear that.
We have a splendid company.
The English thematic subject becomes a thematic object in Russian. But the positions of the theme and rheme remain the same.
Мне жаль это слышать. У нас великолепная компания.
3. The English subject may denote the circumstances of an event. In the semantic structure it is represented as locative & instrumental.
#: The room turned silent. – В комнате стало тихо.
30. Actual division of the sentence. The notions of the theme and the rheme. Thematic subjects in English.
S-ce is a very complicated unit. To understand it we have to study it from dif. angles:
1) the structural aspect 2) the semantic aspect (deals with the meaning if the S-ce) 3) the actual aspect (deals with the division of the S-ce into 2 parts – theme and rheme) 4) the pragmatic aspect (deals with S as a unit of communication)
The 3d aspect presupposes the dividing the S in to 2 parts:
Given information (the theme) – the part of the S that supplies info already known to the speaker $ the listener
New information (the rheme) – info for the sake of which the S has been uttered or written
This theory. is The Actual S Division (актуальное членение предл-ния)=it’s a functional S perspective=it’s the topic-comment articulation (division into topic and comment)