CrossLingua’2013 < 11 — 15.05.13 < Ukraine, Crimea, Parthenit
SEMANTIC SPACE OF WORDS DENOTING WEATHER PHENOMENA nOTIONS
Like other inquiries central to human experience, questions about language and how it functions are not new to the twenty-first century. People have elaborated different means of conveying their thoughts, feelings, desires and intentions. They may be classified into two groups lingual and extralingual. Language being a lingual means represents the sign system of our states, feelings and thoughts expressions [Chomsky, p.25]. The expression is embodied into some particular words having the sense of their own in their content. A word as a language unit represents a hierarchy of semes one of which is being activated during our conversation, or communication, namely in some certain context [Arnold, p.32]. On this ground we build up the idea of language as a complex unity of expression, content and context.
On this ground a big emphasis is laid upon the investigation of correlation and cooperation of language units on different levels. It conditions attempts to structure the inner set of language into several sub-systems. One of them represents words revealing the same concepts and is called a semantic, or lexical field. This very problem of lexical semantics was investigated by many linguists such as, – K.Reuning, A.Lehrer, N.Chomsky, J.Lyons, Ch.Fillmore, E.Rosch, L.Talmy, G.Lakoff, M.Johnson, W.Labov and R.Sanjek [Verschueren, p.3-6]. Several semantic fields constitute a semantic space, which together with discourse space make up language picture of the world. Few is known about the structure of the semantic space of weather phenomena notions in present-day English. This research “Linguocognitive Aspect of Weather Phenomena Notions in Present-day English” is to fulfill this aim.
With regard to this point and on the ground of frequency of use of the referents in speech and the belonging of this or that referent to some certain part of the language (either noun, verb or adjective) we have compiled the structure of semantic space of words denoting weather phenomena notions, “weather phenomena”, “season”, “precipitation”, “temperature”, “atmosphere”, “rain”, “snow”, “wind”, “heat v”, “cold n”, “cold v”, “cold adj”, “air”, “snow n”, “snow”, “wind ”, “air”, “storm”, “windy adj”, “stormy”, “blow”, “rain n”, “moisture”, “mist”, “wet”, “cloud”, “rain v”, “be wet” and “moisten” are hyponyms. A hyponymis a term whose referent is totally included in the referent of another term (the prefix hypo-in hyponymmeans ‘below’). Wet is a rain, drizzle is a rain and so forth. The relationship may be illustrated by the following scheme, in which the terms in box are the hyponyms (The term – in this case, rain – is sometimes called the hyperonym).
rain
| smirr wet drizzle shower storm |
In the semantic space of words denoting weather phenomena notions hyponymy often exists at a more than one level: a term may at the same time both be a hyponym and hyperonym, that’s why if we treat the above hyponyms (“weather phenomena”, “season”, “precipitation”, “temperature”, “atmosphere”, “rain”, “snow” and “wind”) as central elements of their own fields, they appear to be hyperonyms of a new less abstract field structure, possessing hyponyms with more concrete meanings. We can single out less and more marked members of the lexical field of weather phenomena notions. Less marked members of the lexical field of weather phenomena notions are more usual, easier to learn and remember than more marked members. The less marked member of a lexical field cannot be described by using the name of another member of the same field, while more marked members can be thus described (“storm” is a kind of “wind”). Less marked terms also tend to be used more frequently than more indicated terms; for example, “rain” occurs considerably more frequently in conversation and writing than “the wet”, moreover a child learns the word “rain” before he learns the word “ the wet” or “drizzle”;
The same lexical variant may refer to different subfields with various hyperonyms. For example, “storm” may be a hyponym of the hyperonym “wind”, “snow”, “air” and “rain” or “hot wind” may be a hyponym of the hyperonym of “heat”, “wind” and “air”; thus the assumption that lexical meaning is the reflection of a thing in our mind, hence, it presupposes the existence of mental image of a thing;
There are nucleus (main) and periphery (subordinate) semes, nucleus semes reflect permanent and obligatory signs of an object, periphery semes – those which are temporal and not obligatory. For example, in the meaning of a word “blizzard” semes “wind”, “storm” and “snow” are nucleus and semes “severe”, “strong” and “violent” are periphery;
The type of connotation of a word denoting weather phenomena notions is determined by extralinguistic conditions: the succession of bad or good events in the life of people, which followed or preceded them; The cases of negative connotations are: 1) when the word ‘snow’ is used to signify distance in the relationships: “I remembered how we had walked out of the bar after last call and found the snow blanketing 105th Street, how she had put her arm in mine, after telling me never to hope” [Acimen, p.13]; 2) when the word ‘snow’ is used as a bad sign: “I wandered into a deli, but I already knew that this would lead to no good. I caught the bus just in time and watched the triangular park fade behind the snowstorm” [Acimen, p.12];The cases of positive connotation are: 1) when the word ‘snow’signifies the beginning of a new life full of promise and hope: “I got out of the bed and looked out my window and saw how peacefully the snow had settled over the rooftops and side streets. It was a stunning spectacle, and the joy I was nursing at that moment cast so limitless a spell, that it seemed almost easy to resolve never to think of her again” [Acimen, p.12];
The process of cognition is unique for all people, the discrepancies in the interpretation of the same situation with various means of lingual and extralingual symbols and signs consist in different practical significance, or active character of the system, this system is compiled of a subject of expression and a man as a reflecting system.
We have elaborated the following results on the basis of the mentioned above investigations:
- as a concept “weather” may be treated in several aspects: as a kind of season, climate, precipitation or weather phenomena;
- the fact of ambiguous sense of the word “weather” makes it the nucleus of the lexical field of words denoting weather phenomena notions;
LITERATURE
- Arnold I.V. The English Word. – M.: Higher School Publishing House, 1986.– 295 p.
- Bolinger D. Generality, Gradience, and the All-or-None. – The Hague: Mouton, 1961. – 324 p.
- Chomsky N. Knowledge of Language. Its Nature, Origin and Use. – N.Y.: Praeger, 1986. – 309 p.
- Verschueren J. Handbook of Pragmatics. – Philadelphia: Publishing Company Amsterdam Press, 1997. – 197 p.
REFERENCE LITERATURE
- Acimen A. Cat’s Cradle // English Learners’ Digest. – 2001. – № 12. – р. 12-13