Free word groups and phraseological units
A word-group is the largest two-facet lexicalunit comprising more than one word but expressing one global concept.
The lexical meaning of the word groups is thecombined lexical meaning of the component words. The meaning of the word groupsis motivated by the meanings of the component members and is supported by thestructural pattern. But it's not a mere sum total of all these meanings!Polysemantic words are used in word groups only in 1 of their meanings. Thesemeanings of the component words in such word groups are mutually interdependentand inseparable (blind man - В«a human being unable to seeВ», blind type - В«thecopy isn't readable).
Word groups possess not only the lexical meaning,but also the meaning conveyed mainly by the pattern of arrangement of theirconstituents. The structural pattern of word groups is the carrier of a certainsemantic component not necessarily dependent on the actual lexical meaning ofits members (school grammar - В«grammar which is taught in schoolВ», grammarschool - В«a type of schoolВ»). We have to distinguish between the structuralmeaning of a given type of word groups as such and the lexical meaning of itsconstituents.
It is often argued that the meaning of wordgroups is also dependent on some extra-linguistic factors - on the situation inwhich word groups are habitually used by native speakers.
Words put together to form lexical units makephrases or word-groups. One must recall that lexicology deals with words,word-forming morphemes and word-groups.
The degree of structural and semantic cohesion ofword-groups may vary. Some word-groups, e.g. at least, point of view, by means,to take place, etc. seem to be functionally and semantically inseparable. Theyare usually described as set phrases, word-equivalents or phraseological unitsand are studied by the branch of lexicology which is known as phraseology. Inother word-groups such as to take lessons, kind to people, a week ago, thecomponent-members seem to possess greater semantic and structural independence.Word-groups of this type are defined as free word-groups or phrases and arestudied in syntax.
Before discussing phraseology it is necessary tooutline the features common to various word-groups irrespective of the degreeof structural and semantic cohesion of the component-words.
There are two factors which are important inuniting words into word-groups:
- the lexical valency of words;
- the grammatical valency of words.
Lexical valency
Words are used in certain lexical contexts, iein combinations with other words. E.g. the noun question is often combined withsuch adjectives as vital, pressing, urgent, delicate, etc.
The aptness of a word to appear in variouscombinations is described as its lexical valency. The range of the lexicalvalency of words is delimited by the inner structure of the English words.Thus, to raise and to lift are synonyms, but only the former is collocated withthe noun question. The verbs to take, to catch, to seize, to grasp aresynonyms, but they are found in different collocations:
to take - exams, measures, precautions, etc.;
to grasp - the truth, the meaning.
Words habitually collocated in speech tend toform a cliche.
The lexical valency of correlated words in differentlanguages ​​is not identical, because as it was said before, it depends on theinner structure of the vocabulary of the language. Both the English flower andthe Russian квіткаmaybe combined with a number of similar words, e.g. garden flowers, hot houseflowers (cf. the Russian - садові квіти, оранжерейні квіти), but in English flowercannot be combined with the word room, while in Russian we say кімнатні квіти (in English wesay pot-flowers).
Words are also used in grammatical contexts. Theminimal grammatical context in which the words are used to form word-groups isusually described as the pattern of the word-group. E.g., the adjective heavycan be followed by a noun (A + N) - heavy food, heavy storm, heavy box, heavyeater. But we cannot say В«heavy cheeseВ» or В«heavy to lift, to carryВ», etc.
The aptness of a word to appear in specificgrammatical (or rather syntactical) structures is termed grammatical valency.
The grammatical valency of words may bedifferent. The grammatical valency is delimited by the part of speech the wordbelongs to. Eg, no English adjective can be followed by the finite form of averb.
Then, the grammatical valency is also delimitedby the inner structure of the language. E.g., to suggest, to propose aresynonyms. Both can be followed by a noun, but only to propose can be followedby the infinitive of a verb - to propose to do something.
Clever and intelligent have the same grammaticalvalency, but only clever can be used in word-groups having the pattern A + prep + N- Clever at maths.
Structurally word-groups can be considered indifferent ways. Word-groups may be described as for the order and arrangementof the component-members. Eg, the word-group to read a book can be classifiedas a verbal-nominal group, to look at smb. - as averbal-prepositional-nominal group, etc.
By the criterion of distribution all word-groupsmay be divided into two big classes: according to their head-words andaccording to their syntactical patterns.
Word-groups may be classified according to theirhead-words into:
nominal groups - red flower;
adjective groups - kind to people;
verbal groups - to speak well.
The head is not necessarily the component thatoccurs first.
Word-groups are classified according to theirsyntactical pattern into predicative and non-predicative groups. Suchword-groups as he went, Bob walks that have a syntactic structure similar tothat of a sentence are termed as predicative, all others are non-predicativeones.
Non-predicative word-groups are divided intosubordinative and coordinative depending on the type of syntactic relationsbetween the components. Eg, a red flower, a man of freedom are subordinativenon-predicative word-groups, red and freedom being dependent words, while dayand night, do and die are coordinative non-predicative word-groups.
The lexical meaning of a word-group may bedefined as the combined lexical meaning of the component members. But it shouldbe pointed out, however, that the term В«combined lexical meaningВ» does notimply that the meaning of the word-group is always a simple additive result ofall the lexical meanings of the component words. As a rule, the meanings of thecomponent words are mutually dependent and the meaning of the word-groupnaturally predominates over the lexical meaning of the components. The interdependenceis well seen in word-groups made up of polysemantic words. E.g., in the phrasesthe blind man, the blind type the word blind has different meanings - unable tosee and vague.
So we see that polysemantic words are used inword-groups only in one of their meanings.
The term motivation is used to denote therelationship existing between the phonemic or morphemic composition andstructural pattern of the word on the one hand and its meaning on the other.
There are three main types of motivation:
1) phonetical
2) morphological
3) semantic
1. Phonetical motivation is used when there is acertain similarity between the sounds that make up the word. For example: buzz,cuckoo, gigle. The sounds of a word are imitative of sounds in nature, or smththat produces a characteristic sound. This type of motivation is determined bythe phonological system of each language.
2. Morphological motivation - the relationshipbetween morphemic structure and meaning. The main criterion in morphologicalmotivat...
