The grammatical meaning of the word. Definition
The word is one of the basic units of grammar. A word combines its sound matter and its meaning – lexical and grammatical.
Grammatical meaning -generalized, abstract linguistic meaning inherent in a number of words, word forms and syntactic structures, finding its regular (standard) expression in the language, for example, the meaning of the case of nouns, verb tense, etc.
The grammatical meaning is contrasted with the lexical meaning, which is devoid of regular (standard) expression and does not necessarily have an abstract character.
Criteria for distinguishing lexical and grammatical meanings:
2. LZ is individual for each word (is this always true?), and GZ is typical for a whole group of words with different LZ, for example, nouns.
3. LZ remains the same in all forms of the word, GZ changes in different forms of the word.
4. When the LZ changes, new words are formed, and when the GZ changes, new forms of words are formed.
A characteristic feature of grammatical meaning is also recognized standardity, regularity of way of expression. In most cases, meanings traditionally classified as grammatical are actually directly expressed using fairly regular and standard means of expression.
Grammatical forms and grammatical categories. Grammatical form– this is a form of a word in which grammatical meaning finds its regular (standard) expression. Within the grammatical form, the means of expressing grammatical meanings are special grammatical indicators (formal indicators).
Grammatical category– a system of opposed series of grammatical forms with homogeneous meanings. A necessary sign grammatical category is the unity of meaning and its expression in the system of grammatical forms as two-way linguistic units.
The concept of a grammatical category is closely related to the concept of grammatical meaning. In this regard, any grammatical category is a combination of two or more grammatical meanings. On the other hand, it is known that each grammatical meaning has its own way of expression or grammatical form (or a series of forms).
a) inflectional – manifest themselves in the process of forming the forms of a given word (for example, case and number of Russian nouns, gender and number of French adjectives, mood and tense of the verb);
b) classification categories are inherent in a given word in all its forms and relate it to a class of similar words.
Members of classification categories are represented by different words, for example, the category of gender of nouns in Russian ‘table’ – masculine gender, ‘desk’ feminine gender, ‘window’ – neuter. genus.
33. Means of expressing grammatical meanings.
I. Synthetic products
1. Affixation consists of using affixes to express grammatical meaning: books; read-l-i; mәktәp-lәr. Affixes are service morphemes.
2. Suppletivism. By suppletivism we mean the expression of grammatical meaning by a word with a different stem: I go - walked (GZ past tense), person - people (GZ plural), we - us (GZ R. or V.p), I - me, good - best.
Words with different roots are combined into one grammatical pair. Their LZ is one and the same, and the difference serves to express the GZ.
3. Reduplication(repetition) consists of complete or partial repetition of parts of a word to express grammatical meaning. Yes, in Malay orang – ‘ Human' , orang-orang –'People' .
4. Alternation(internal inflection) is a use. changes in sounds. root composition to express grammatical meaning: ‘avoid – avoid’; ‘collect – collect’; ‘sing – sang’.
II. Analytical tools –
GZs receive their expression outside the main word, often in other words.
1. Function words can be used for express.GZ: I will read (weekend time), I would read (conventional mood).
We went to the cafe (V.p.). – We were leaving the cafe (R.p.).
2. Word order.The house (I.p.) obscured the forest (V.p.). – The forest (I.p.) obscured the house (V.p.).
Particularly important, for example, for isolating languages.
The material means of expressing grammatical meaning is not always segmental, i.e. consisting of a chain (linear sequence) of phonemes. It can be supersegmental, i.e. can be superimposed on the segment chain.
3. Accent: hands (I. and V. p. plural) – hands (R. p. singular).
4. Intonation:You will go! - You will go?
Thus, in Russian adjectives we distinguish three forms: ‘ big-big-big’. They express masculine, feminine and neuter meanings. This gives us grounds to assert that the adjectives of the Russian language are characterized by the grammatical category of gender.
The grammatical meaning (plan of content) and the formal indicator of this meaning (plan of expression) form a grammatical sign - a grammatical form, a gramme. Grammema– component of a grammatical category, representing in its meaning species concept in relation to the grammatical category as a generic concept.
A grammeme can have multiple meanings.
Grammema plural nouns in Russian have the meaning: set ‘ tables’, ‘trees’; varieties ‘ oils’, ‘wine’; a large number of ' snow', 'sand'.
The languages of the world differ in the number and composition of grammatical categories. Each language is characterized by its own set of grammatical categories, grammes and grammatical ways expressions of grammatical meaning. When comparing the grammatical structure of languages, one should take into account
the following criteria:
Presence/absence of a corresponding grammatical category;
Number of grammes of a grammatical category;
Ways of expressing grammatical meanings of a given grammatical category;
Word categories with which this grammatical category is associated
34. Methods of linguistics
General scientific methods.
Humanity is accumulating research techniques that help identify the hidden specifics of an object. Methods of scientific research are being formed.
Method– the path and method of cognition of an object, depending on the properties of the object, aspect and purpose of the study.
In linguistics there are:
general methods– generalized sets of theoretical principles, language research methods associated with a specific linguistic theory and methodology,
private– individual techniques, techniques, operations – technical means research into a specific aspect of language.
Each method is based on the knowledge of objects and phenomena of objective reality, based on the properties of realities, but nevertheless it is a mental formation, one of the most important categories of subjective dialectics.
General scientific methods include observation, experiment, induction, analysis, synthesis.
Observation carried out in natural conditions based on sensory perception of objects of study. Observation concerns only the external side of phenomena; its results may be random and not reliable enough.
Experiment makes it possible to repeatedly reproduce observations in the process of deliberate and strictly controlled influences of the researcher on the object being studied.
Induction and deduction refer to intellectual ways of knowing. Induction is a generalization of the results of individual private observations. The data obtained as a result of experience is systematized, and a certain empirical law is derived.
Under analysis refers to the mental or experimental division of an object into its component parts or the isolation of the properties of an object for studying them separately. This is the basis for understanding the general through the individual. Synthesis– mental or experimental connection components an object and its properties and studying it as a whole. Analysis and synthesis are connected and mutually determined.
Particular methods of linguistics.
Comparative historical method– a scientific method, with the help of which, through comparison, the general and special in historical phenomena are revealed, knowledge of the various historical stages of development of the same phenomenon or two different coexisting phenomena is achieved;
The comparative historical method is a set of techniques that allow you to prove kinship certain languages and restore the most ancient facts of their history. The method was created in the 19th century, its founders were F. Bopp, J. Grimm, R. Rask, A. Kh. Vostokov.
Descriptive method– a system of research techniques used to characterize language phenomena at a given stage of its development; This is a synchronous analysis method.
Comparative method– research and description of a language through its systematic comparison with another language in order to clarify its specificity. The method is aimed primarily at identifying differences between the two languages being compared and is therefore also called contrastive. Underlies contrastive linguistics.
In modern linguistics, considerable attention is given to the study of linguistic phenomena statistical methods of mathematics.
Grammatical meaning.
Ways of expressing grammatical meanings.
Grammatical categories of words
Grammar as a science.
Word forms are constructed by means of inflectional morphemes. Thus, a morpheme can be considered a separate unit of the grammatical structure of a language. Grammar is the science that studies regular and common features devices of linguistic signs and their behavior. The object of grammar is 1) the patterns of changing words and 2) the principles of their combination when constructing a statement. According to the duality of the object, traditional sections of grammar are distinguished - morphology and syntax. Everything related to the abstract grammatical meanings of a word and its form refers to morphology. All phenomena related to the syntagmatics of a word, as well as the construction and syntagmatics of a sentence, belong to the syntactic sphere of language. These subsystems (morphology and syntax) are in the closest interaction and intertwining, so that the attribution of certain grammatical phenomena to morphology or syntax often turns out to be conditional (for example, the categories of case, voice).
The generalizing nature of grammar allows it to reveal the most essential features of the structure of a language, therefore grammar is rightly considered the central part of linguistics. In the process of development of grammar as a science, the understanding of its object changed. From the study of word forms, scientists moved on to the connection between grammar and the vocabulary of a language, as well as to the study of speech functioning.
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Plungyan: Cognition is always asymmetrical: just fragments
in reality, a person tends to perceive as if through a magnifying glass
glass, while others - as if through inverted binoculars. “Cognitive
“deformation” of reality is one of the main properties of human cognition.
Grammatical meanings are exactly those meanings that fall into the field
magnifying glass vision; this is the most important for the user
given linguistic system of meaning.
2.Grammatical meaning.
The focus of grammar is on grammatical meanings and ways of expressing them. Grammatical meaning is 1) a generalized meaning inherent in 2) a series of words or syntactic structures, which finds its regular and typified 3) expression in the language. For example, in the sentence Petrov - student The following grammatical meanings can be distinguished:
the meaning of a statement of some fact (the meaning inherent in a number of syntactic constructions is regularly expressed by falling intonation)
the meaning of the fact being related to the present tense (expressed by the absence of a verb; cf.: Petrov was a student, Petrov will be a student)
singular meaning (the meaning inherent in a series of words is expressed by the absence of an ending ( Petrovs, students),
as well as a number of others (the meaning of identification, the meaning of the unconditional reality of a fact, male).
The grammatical meaning of a word includes the following types of information:
information about the part of speech to which the word belongs
information about the syntagmatic connections of the word
information about the paradigmatic connections of the word.
Let us recall the famous experimental phrase of L.V. Shcherby: The glokka kuzdra shteko budlanula bokr and curls the bokrenka. It includes words with artificial roots and real affixes that express the entire complex of grammatical meanings. For example, it is clear to the listener which parts of speech all the words of this phrase belong to, what between budlanula And bokra there is a relationship between object and action, that one action has already taken place in the past, and the other actually continues in the present.
The grammatical meaning is characterized by the following main features:
generality
obligatory: if nouns, for example, have the meaning of number, then it is consistently expressed in each word in one way or another, regardless of the goals and intentions of the speaker.
Prevalence over a whole class of words: for example, all verbs in the Russian language express the meanings of aspect, mood, person and number.
Closedness of the list: if the lexical system of each language is open in nature and is constantly replenished with new units and new meanings, then grammar is characterized by a strictly defined, relatively small number of grammatical meanings: for example, for Russian nouns these are the meanings of gender, number and case.
Typical expression: grammatical meanings are conveyed in languages in strictly defined ways - using specially assigned means: affixes, function words, etc.
Languages differ from each other in what meanings they choose as grammatical meanings. So, the meaning of a number is, for example, grammatical in Russian and English languages, but ungrammatical in Chinese and Japanese, since in these languages a name can serve as the name of one or several objects. The meaning of definiteness/indeterminacy is grammatical in English, German, French and many other languages and ungrammatical in Russian, where there are no articles.
3. Ways of expressing grammatical meaning
The ways of expressing grammatical meanings are varied. There are two leading methods: synthetic and analytical, and each method includes a number of particular varieties.
The synthetic way of expressing grammatical meanings assumes the possibility of combining several morphemes (root, derivational and inflectional) within one word. The grammatical meaning in this case is always expressed within the word. The synthetic way of expressing grammatical meanings includes:
affixation (use of various types of affixes: going - going);
reduplication (full or partial repetition of the stem: fari - white, farfaru - white in the Hausa language in Africa);
internal inflection (grammatically significant change phonemic composition of the root: foot-feet in English);
suppletivism (combining words of different roots into one grammatical pair to express grammatical meanings (Idu - Shel)
The analytical way of expressing grammatical meanings involves separate expression of the lexical and grammatical meanings of a word. Grammatical forms are a combination of fully significant morphologically unchangeable lexical units and service elements (function words, intonation and word order): I will read, more important, let him go). The lexical meaning is expressed by an unchangeable full-valued word, and the grammatical meaning is expressed by a auxiliary element.
Depending on whether synthetic or analytical ways of expressing grammatical meanings predominate in a language, two main morphological types of languages are distinguished: a synthetic type of language (in which the synthetic way of expressing grammatical meanings dominates) and an analytical type (in which the tendency towards analytism predominates). The nature of the word in it depends on the predominance of a tendency towards analyticism or synthetism in a language. In synthetic languages, a word retains its grammatical characteristics outside of a sentence. In analytical languages, a word acquires grammatical characteristics only in a sentence.
Grammatical meaning is revealed as a result of contrasting one linguistic unit with another. Thus, the meaning of the present tense is revealed by contrasting several forms of the verb: knew - knows - will know. Grammatical oppositions or oppositions form systems called grammatical categories. A grammatical category can be defined as a series of homogeneous grammatical meanings opposed to each other, expressed by formal indicators (affixes, function words, intonation, etc.) In the above definition, the word “homogeneous” is very important. In order for meanings to be contrasted on some basis, they must also have some common feature. Thus, the present tense can be contrasted with the past and future, since they all relate to the sequence of events being described. In this regard, we can give another definition of a grammatical category: it is a unity of a certain grammatical meaning and the formal means of its expression that actually exists in a language. These definitions do not contradict each other. If we compare them, it becomes clear that the grammatical category includes a generalized grammatical meaning (for example, the meaning of time), particular grammatical meanings (for example, present tense, past tense, future tense), they are called grammemes, and means of expressing these meanings (for example , suffix, function word, etc.)
Classification of grammatical categories
by the number of opposing members. There are two-term categories (number in modern Russian: singular-plural), three-term (person: first-second-third), polynomial (case). The more grammemes in a given grammatical category, the more complex the relationships between them, the more features there are in the content of each grammeme.
Formative and classifying. In formative categories, grammatical meanings belong various forms the same word. For example, the category of case. Every noun has a nominative, genitive, etc. form. case: table, table, table, table, table, about the table. In classifying categories, grammatical meanings belong to different words. The word cannot be changed according to the classifying criterion. For example, the category of gender for nouns. A noun cannot change by gender, all its forms belong to the same gender: table, table, table - masculine gender; but bed, beds, bed is feminine. However, the gender of a noun is important from a grammatical point of view, since the forms of agreeing adjectives, pronouns, verbs, etc. depend on it: the big table, this table, the table stood; but: there was a bed, a large bed.
By the nature of the transmitted values
Objective (reflect real connections and relationships that exist in reality, for example, the number of a noun)
Subjective-objective (reflect the angle from which reality is viewed, for example, the voice of a verb: workers are building a house - a house is being built by workers)
Formal (do not reflect objective reality, indicate the connection between words, for example, the gender of adjectives or inanimate nouns)
5. Grammatical categories of words
It is necessary to distinguish grammatical categories of words from grammatical categories. A grammatical category necessarily has a system of grammatical forms opposed to each other with a homogeneous meaning. In the lexico-grammatical category such a system of forms is not traced. Lexico-grammatical categories are divided into semantic-grammatical and formal.
The semantic-grammatical category has semantic features that distinguish it from other categories and influence grammatical features words of this category. The largest of these categories are parts of speech. Thus, a noun has the meaning of objectivity and is combined with an adjective. The verb has the meaning of action and is combined with an adverb. Within parts of speech, smaller groups are distinguished, for example, among nouns - animate and inanimate, countable and uncountable, concrete and abstract.
Formal categories differ in the way the grammatical forms of the words included in them are formed. These are groupings of words by type of conjugation (conjugative classes), by type of declension (declination classes). In principle, there are no relations of semantic opposition between formal categories: these are parallel ways of expressing the same grammatical meanings. The assignment of a word to one of the categories is determined by tradition.
Words have lexical and grammatical meanings. Lexical meanings are studied by lexicology, grammatical meanings are studied by grammar - morphology and syntax.
Lexical meaning words are a reflection in a word of one or another phenomenon of reality (object, event, quality, action, relationship, etc.).
Grammatical meaning a word is a characteristic of it as an element of a certain grammatical class (for example, table- masculine noun) as an element of the inflectional series ( table, table, table etc.) and as an element of a phrase or sentence in which a word is associated with other words ( table leg, put the book on the table).
Lexical meaning of the word individually: it is inherent in a given word and thereby distinguishes this word from others, each of which has its own, also individual meaning.
Grammatical meaning, on the contrary, characterizes entire categories and classes of words; it is categorical .
Let's compare the words table, house, knife. Each of them has its own lexical meaning, denoting different objects. At the same time, they are characterized by common, one and the same grammatical meanings: they all belong to the same part of speech - the noun, to the same grammatical gender - masculine and have the form of the same number - singular.
An important sign of grammatical meaning What distinguishes it from the lexical meaning is the obligatory expression: we cannot use a word without expressing its grammatical meanings (using endings, prepositions, etc.). So, saying the word table, we not only name a specific object, but also express such characteristics of this noun as gender (masculine), number (singular), case (nominative or accusative, cf.: There was a table in the corner. — I see the table). All these signs of form table the essence of its grammatical meanings, expressed by the so-called zero inflection.
Pronouncing a word form table (for example, in the sentence The passage was blocked by a table), we use the ending -оm to express grammatical meanings instrumental case(cf. endings used to express case meanings: table-a, table-u, table-e), masculine (cf. the ending that nouns have in the instrumental case female: water-oh), singular (cf. tables). Lexical meaning words table- “a piece of home furniture that is a surface made of hard material, supported by one or more legs, and used to put something on it” - remains unchanged in all case forms of this word. In addition to the root base table-, which has the specified lexical meaning, there are no other means of expressing this meaning, similar to the means of expressing the grammatical meanings of case, gender, number, etc.
TYPES OF LEXICAL MEANINGS OF WORDS IN THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE
A comparison of various words and their meanings allows us to identify several types of lexical meanings of words in the Russian language.
1. By nomination method straight lines and figurative meanings words
Direct(or basic, main) meaning of a word is a meaning that directly correlates with the phenomena of objective reality.
For example, words table, black, boil have the following basic meanings:
1. “A piece of furniture in the form of a wide horizontal board on high supports or legs.”
2. "The color of soot, coal."
3. “Burgle, bubble, evaporate from strong heat” (about liquids).
These values are stable, although they may change historically. For example, the word table in the Old Russian language it meant “throne”, “reign”, “capital”.
The direct meanings of words depend least of all others on context, on the nature of connections with other words. Therefore, they say that direct meanings have the greatest paradigmatic conditionality and the least syntagmatic coherence.
Portable(indirect) meanings of words arise as a result of the transfer of names from one phenomenon of reality to another on the basis of similarity, commonality of their characteristics, functions, etc.
Yes, word table has several figurative meanings:
1. “An item of special equipment or a part of a machine of a similar shape”: operating table, raise the machine table.
2. "Nutrition, food": rent a room with a table.
3. “A department in an institution in charge of some special range of affairs”: information desk.
At the word black such figurative meanings:
1. "Dark, as opposed to something lighter called white": blackbread.
2. “Taken a dark color, darkened”: blacksunburn.
3. "Kurnoy" (only full form, obsolete): blackhut.
4. "Gloomy, bleak, heavy": blackthoughts.
5. “Criminal, malicious”: blacktreason.
6. “Not main, auxiliary” (full form only): blackmove in the house.
7. “Physically difficult and unskilled” (long form only): blackJob etc.
Word boil has the following figurative meanings:
1. “Manifest to a strong degree”: work is in full swing.
2. “To manifest something with force, to a strong degree”: boilindignation.
As we see, indirect meanings appear in words that are not directly correlated with the concept, but are closer to it through various associations that are obvious to speakers.
Figurative meanings can retain imagery: black thoughts, black betrayal, seething with indignation. Such figurative meanings are fixed in the language: they are given in dictionaries when interpreting a lexical unit.
In their reproducibility and stability, figurative meanings differ from metaphors that are created by writers, poets, publicists and are of an individual nature.
However, in most cases, when transferring meanings, imagery is lost. For example, we do not perceive as figurative names such as pipe elbow, teapot spout, clock ticking and under. In such cases, they talk about extinct imagery in the lexical meaning of the word, about dry metaphors.
Direct and figurative meanings are distinguished within one word.
2. According to the degree of semantic motivation values are highlighted unmotivated(non-derivative, primary), which are not determined by the meaning of morphemes in the word, and motivated(derivatives, secondary), which are derived from the meanings of the generating stem and word-forming affixes. For example, words table, build, white have unmotivated meanings. words dining room, tabletop, dining, completion, perestroika, anti-perestroika, whiten, whiten, whiteness motivated meanings are inherent, they are, as it were, “derived” from the motivating part, word-formative formants and semantic components that help to comprehend the meaning of a word with a derivative base.
For some words, the motivation of the meaning is somewhat obscured, since in modern Russian it is not always possible to identify their historical root. However, etymological analysis establishes ancient family ties words with other words makes it possible to explain the origin of its meaning. For example, etymological analysis allows us to identify historical roots in words fat, feast, window, cloth, pillow, cloud and establish their connection with words live, drink, eye, knot, ear, drag(envelop). Thus, the degree of motivation for one or another meaning of a word may not be the same. Moreover, the meaning may seem motivated person with philological training, while to a non-specialist the semantic connections of this word seem lost.
3. If possible, lexical compatibility The meanings of words are divided into free and non-free. The first ones are based only on subject-logical connections of words. For example, the word drink combined with words denoting liquids ( water, milk, tea, lemonade etc.), but cannot be combined with words such as stone, beauty, run, night. The compatibility of words is regulated by the subject compatibility (or incompatibility) of the concepts they denote. Thus, the “freedom” of combining words with unrelated meanings is relative.
Non-free meanings of words are characterized by limited possibilities of lexical compatibility, which in this case is determined by both subject-logical and linguistic factors. For example, the word win goes with words victory, top, but does not fit with the word defeat. You can say lower your head (look, eyes, eyes), but you can’t —“ lower your hand» ( leg, briefcase).
Non-free meanings, in turn, are divided into phraseologically related and syntactically determined. The first are realized only in stable (phraseological) combinations: archenemy, bosom friend (you cannot swap the elements of these phrases).
Syntactically determined meanings words are realized only if it performs an unusual for itself in the sentence syntactic function. Yes, words log, oak, hat, acting as a noun compound predicate, get the values " stupid man"; "stupid, insensitive person"; "sluggish, uninitiative person, bungler". V.V. Vinogradov, who first identified this type of meaning, called them functionally and syntactically determined. These meanings are always figurative and, according to the method of nomination, are classified as figurative meanings.
As part of the syntactically determined meanings of words, the meanings are also distinguished structurally limited, which are realized only under certain conditions syntactic construction. For example, the word vortex with the direct meaning "impetuous" Roundabout Circulation wind" in a construction with a noun in the genitive case receives a figurative meaning: whirlwind of events- "rapid development of events."
4. By the nature of the functions performed Lexical meanings are divided into two types: nominative, the purpose of which is nomination, naming of phenomena, objects, their qualities, and expressive-synonymous, in which the predominant is the emotional-evaluative (connotative) sign. For example, in the phrase A tall man word high points to a big increase; this is its nominative meaning. And the words lanky, long in combination with the word Human, not only indicate great growth, but also contain a negative, disapproving assessment of such growth. These words have an expressive-synonymous meaning and are among the expressive synonyms for neutral word high.
5. By the nature of the connections of one meaning with another V lexical system languages can be distinguished:
1) autonomous meanings possessed by words that are relatively independent in language system and denoting mainly specific objects: table, theater, flower;
2) correlative meanings that are inherent in words that are opposed to each other according to some characteristics: close - far, good - bad, youth - old age,
3) deterministic values, i.e. such “which are, as it were, conditioned by the meanings of other words, insofar as they represent their stylistic or expressive variants...”. For example: nag(cf. stylistically neutral synonyms: horse, horse), wonderful, wonderful, magnificent (cf. good).
Thus, the modern typology of lexical meanings is based, firstly, on conceptual-subject connections of words (i.e. paradigmatic relationships), secondly, derivational (or derivational)) connections between words, thirdly, the relationship of words to each other ( syntagmatic relations). Studying the typology of lexical meanings helps to understand the semantic structure of a word, to penetrate deeper into the systemic connections that have developed in the vocabulary of the modern Russian language.
Introduction:
Language is a set of words and the rules for their formation and change, as well as the rules for combining word forms in a sentence.
Language as a communication system ensures the transmission of various types of information. This includes information about objects, phenomena, states of affairs in external reality, and information about subjective acts of cognitive (cognitive) activity and personal experiences of the speaker, and information of a service nature concerning the methods used for constructing coherent speech and the characteristics of the behavior of the language units used in it and their options. Thus, our speech is not a mechanical collection of words. But to be understandable, you need not only to choose the words correctly, but also to put them in the appropriate grammatical form, skillfully connect and arrange the forms of words in a sentence.
The word is studied in different sections of linguistics, as it has a sound design, meaning, grammatical characteristics, that is, it combines the characteristics of different aspects of language.
A word is a two-way unity: it combines form (a certain sound or letter complex) and meaning. A sound or letter sequence becomes a word only when it acquires meaning. There are lexical and grammatical meanings.
Lexical meaning:
Lexical meaning is the content of a word, reflecting in the mind and consolidating in it the idea of an object, property, process, phenomenon, etc.
The lexical community of words is, as a rule, contained in the root morpheme - the bearer of a conceptual idea. The lexical meaning, therefore, represents the semantic side of the word and is devoid of a standard (regular) expression. According to the classical definition of V.V. Vinogradov, the lexical meaning of a word is “subject-material content, designed according to the laws of grammar of a given language and is an element of the general semantic system of the dictionary of this language”
In the semantic structure of a word, as in other aspects of language, there are elements of the new, living, developing elements, and elements of the old, dying elements, receding into the past.
A word can have several free meanings, which directly reflect different objects and phenomena of reality (cf. cap - “headdress” and “heading in large font, common to several articles”).
1) an object for which a word is used (“a word is the most important structural and semantic unit of language, used to name objects, processes, properties” - the definition of a word proposed by O.S. Akhmanova);
2) sound shell (the following definition: a word is a sound or a complex of sounds that have meaning and are used in speech as an independent whole - A.V. Kalinin);
3) the concept of a named object that arises in the human mind (cf. a word is the shortest unit of language that expresses the concept of an object, process, phenomenon of reality, their properties or relationships between them - D.E. Rosenthal).
All three elements are interconnected, forming a so-called semantic triangle, the vertex of which is the phonetic shell of the word, and the two opposite corners are the subject and the concept. The phonetic shell of a word (i.e., the sequence of its sounds) is connected in the human mind and in the language system, on the one hand, with the object of reality (phenomenon, process, sign), and on the other, with the concept, with the idea of this object. The concept is the basis for the formation of the meaning of a word.
The meaning of a word is the reflection in the word of an idea about an object (phenomenon, process, sign), this is a product of human mental activity. It is associated with such types of mental processes as comparison, classification, generalization.
The meaning of a word as its content is connected with the concept as a reflection in the human mind of objects and phenomena of the external world. In this sense, the dialectical unity of linguistic and extra-linguistic content is enshrined in the meaning of the word. The lexical meaning of a word is determined, therefore, through its correlation, on the one hand, with the corresponding concept, and on the other, with the rest of the words of the language, i.e. through its place in the lexical system of the language. Meaning and concept are therefore closely related to each other.
A concept is a category of logic and philosophy. It is “the result of generalization and identification of objects (or phenomena) of a certain class according to certain general and generally specific characteristics for them. From the point of view of linguistics, “a concept is a thought that reflects objects and phenomena of reality in a generalized form by fixing their properties and relationships.” Both definitions indicate the generalizing nature of this category, since the concept captures the most general and essential features of cognizable objects (for example, the concept of “man” captures such essential characteristics in the thinking of the cognizer as the ability to think, morally evaluate one’s actions, create complex tools, etc.). The concept expressed by a word corresponds not to a separate, specific object, but to a whole class of homogeneous objects, thus representing the highest form of generalization.
The meaning of a word can be broader than the concept, since there is only one concept in a word, but there can be several meanings, especially for polysemantic words (the word core, for example, expressing the concept “inner part of something”, has several meanings: 1) the inner part of the fruit, enclosed in a hard shell (kernel of a nut)", 2) the internal, central part of something (nucleus of an atom)", 3) the most important part of the cell of an animal and plant organism, etc.);
Grammatical meaning:
Grammatical meaning is a generalized, abstract linguistic meaning inherent in a number of words, word forms, syntactic structures and finding its regular expression in grammatical forms.
The grammatical meaning differs from the lexical one more high level abstractions, because “this is an abstraction of characteristics and relationships” (A.A. Reformatsky). The grammatical meaning is not individual, since it belongs to a whole class of words, united by a commonality of morphological properties and syntactic functions. Some particular grammatical meanings can change in a word in its different grammatical forms (for example, a change in the meaning of number and case in nouns or tense in verb forms, while the lexical meaning of the word remains unchanged in them). Unlike the lexical meaning, the grammatical meaning is not called a word directly, directly, but is expressed in it “in passing”, in a strictly defined way, with the help of specially assigned grammatical means (affixes). It accompanies the lexical meaning of the word, being its additional meaning.
The grammatical meaning of a word often includes its word-formation meaning (if the word is derivative), since word-formation is part of the grammatical structure of the language. Derivative meaning is a generalized meaning inherent only to motivated words, expressed by word-forming means.
Despite the fact that the grammatical meaning is, as it were, a side meaning of the word, it plays a significant role in creating the holistic meaning of the sentence (for example, I put a gift for a friend... and I put a gift for a friend...,), changing the grammatical meaning of the case in the word friend leads to a change in the meaning of the sentence.
Grammatical and lexical meanings represent the main types of content plan of linguistic units. In a word they appear in unity, and for some categories of words they are simply indivisible. For example, about the semantics of pronouns it can be argued that it has an intermediate, transitional character between vocabulary and grammar.
The functional classification of word elements - morphemes - is based on the opposition of lexical and grammatical meanings. However, division into roots, prefixes, suffixes, inflections, etc. requires a more detailed differentiation of meanings.
Some grammatical meaning may, over time, losing its binding nature and narrowing the scope of its application, turn into a lexical meaning.
In general, despite all the borderline and transitional cases, lexical and grammatical meanings retain their global opposition in the language system.
Lexical meaning words (also called material) are the content of a word, which reflects one or another element of reality (object, event, quality, action, attitude, etc.); This is the meaning contained in the word, the content.
Grammatical meaning words are a generalized meaning that characterizes a word as an element of a certain grammatical class (for example, table - noun, m.p.), as an element of an inflectional series (table, table, table, etc.) and as an element of a phrase or sentence, in in which the word is connected with other words (table leg, put the book on the table). Each part of speech is characterized by a certain set of grammatical meanings. For example, nouns that have singular forms. and many more numbers or singular parts only, express three grammatical meanings - number, case, gender; Nouns used only in the plural have two grammatical meanings - number and case.
Lexical and grammatical meaning are the two most important properties of a word. Lexical meaning allows us to talk about the world, naming its phenomena in words. Grammar makes it possible to connect words with each other and construct statements from them.
How does lexical meaning differ from grammatical meaning?
1. Lexical meaning of the word individually- only this word has it.
Grammatical meaning, on the contrary, is inherent in entire categories and classes of words; it categorically.
Each of the words - road, book, wall– has its own, unique lexical meaning. But their grammatical meaning is the same: they all belong to the same part of speech (they are nouns), to the same grammatical gender (feminine), and have the form of the same number (singular).
2. An important feature of grammatical meaning that distinguishes it from lexical meaning is obligatory expression. The grammatical meaning is necessarily expressed in the text or in the statement using endings, prepositions, word order, etc. A word cannot be used without expressing its grammatical characteristics (exception: indeclinable words like metro, taxi out of connection with other words).
So, saying the word table, we not only name a specific object, but also express such characteristics of this noun as gender (masculine), number (singular), case (nominative or accusative, cf.: There was a table in the corner. - I see a table). All these signs of form table the essence of its grammatical meanings, expressed by the so-called zero inflection.
Pronouncing a word form table(for example, in the sentence The passage was blocked by a table), we are using the ending -ohm We express the grammatical meanings of the instrumental case, masculine gender, singular.
The lexical meaning of the word table– ‘a piece of household furniture that is a surface made of hard material, supported by one or more legs, and used to put something on it’ – remains unchanged in all case forms of this word.
In addition to the root base -table-, which has the specified lexical meaning, there are no other means of expressing this meaning, similar to the means of expressing the grammatical meanings of case, gender, number, etc.
3. Compared to the grammatical meaning, the lexical meaning is more subject to change: the lexical meaning can expand, narrow, acquire additional evaluative components of meaning, etc.
The distinction between lexical and grammatical meanings should not be understood as their opposition in a word. Lexical meaning is always based on the grammatical (more general, classifying) meaning and is its direct concretization.
Lexical meaning can be considered in two aspects. On the one hand, the word names specific objects, objects, phenomena of reality that the speaker has in mind in this particular situation. IN in this case the word performs only a nominative function and has denotative lexical meaning.
On the other hand, the word names not only individual objects and phenomena, but also entire classes of objects and phenomena that have common characteristic features. The word in this case performs not only a nominative function, but also a generalizing one (the word denotes a concept) and has significative lexical meaning.
