FREE-WORD COMBINATIONS

Lecture # 11

Grigoryeva M.

Word-groups Definition of a word-group and its basic

features

Structure of word-groups

Meaning of word-groups

Motivation in word-groups

Word-Group

the largest two-facet language unit

consists of more than one word

studied in the syntagmatic level of analysis

Word-Group

the degree of structural and semantic cohesion may vary

at least, by means of, take place – semantically and structurally inseparable

a week ago, kind to people – have greater semantic and structural independence

Free-Word Combination

word-groups that have a greater semantic and structural independence

freely composed by the speaker in his speech according to his purpose

Features of Word-groups

Lexical Valency

Grammatical Valency

Lexical Valency (Collocability)

The ability of a word to appear in various combinations with other words, or lexical contexts

question – pressing / urgent/etc.,question at issue, to raise a question, a question on the agenda

Lexical Valency (Collocability)

words habitually collocated in speech make a cliché

to put forward a question

Lexical Valency (Collocability)

lexical valency of correlated words in different languages is different

flower цветокgarden flowers

садовые цветыhot-house flowers оранжерейные цветыpot flowers комнатные цветы

Lexical valency acquires special importance in case of polysemy as through the lexical valency different meanings of a polysemantic word can be distinguished

heavy table, book heavy snow, rainheavy drinker, eaterheavy sorrow, sleep heavy industry

The range of the lexical valency of words is linguistically restricted by the inner structure of the English word-stock

Lift synonymsRaise

Lift a question Raise a question

Grammatical Valency

The ability of a word to appear in specific grammatical structures, or grammatical contexts

the minimal grammatical context in which the words are used when brought together to form a word-group is called the pattern of the word-group

Grammatical Valency

restricted by the part of speech

an adjective + noun, infinitive, prepositional groupa kind man, kind to people, heavy to lift

limited by the inner structure of the language to propose a plan – to suggest a plan to propose to do smth -

Grammatical Valency

grammatical valency of correlated words in different languages is different

Enter the room - войти в комнатуTo influence __a person - влиять на человека

Classifications of word-groups

according to the distribution

according to the head-word

according to the syntactic pattern

Word-groups according to distribution

endocentric – central member functionally equivalent to the whole word-group

red flower ( I saw a red flower – I saw a flower)

exocentric – the distribution of the whole word-group is different from either of its components

side by side, grow smaller, John runs

Word-groups according to the head word

nominal groupsred flower

adjectival groupskind to people

verbal groups to speak well

Word-groups according to the syntactic pattern predicative – have a syntactic structure similar to that of a sentence

John went, he works

non-predicative – do not have a structure similar to a sentence

red flower, running John

Non-predicative and endocentric word-groups coordinative – elements

of a word-group are coordinated with each other

day and night, do or die

subordinative – one member of a word-group is subordinated to the central element

red flower, a man of wisdom

Meaning of Word-Groups

lexical meaning

structural meaning

Lexical meaning

the combined lexical meaning of the component words

BUT the meaning of the word-group predominates over the lexical meanings of its components

atomic weight, atomic warfare

Lexical meaning

polysemantic words are used only in one of their meanings

man and wife, blind man

stylistic reference of a word-group may be different from that of its components

old, boy, bags, fun – old boy (дружище), bags of fun

Structural meaning

meaning conveyed by the arrangement of components of a word-group

school grammar – grammar school

Structural meaning

structural and lexical meanings are interdependent and inseparable

all the sun long – all the night long, all the week long (a unit of time)

Motivation in Word-groups

lexically motivatedThe meaning of the group is deducible from the meaning of its components

red flower = “red+flower”

Apple sauce = “a sauce made of apple”

lexically non-motivated

red tape – ‘official bureaucratic methods’

Apple sauce = nonsence

Motivation in Word-groups

Non-motivated word-groups are called phraseological units or idioms

Arrange word groups according to the degree of their motivation, starting with the highest

Ex: Gay bird-beautiful bird, blackbird beautiful bird, blackbird, gay bird (весельчак)

Cold wind, cold feet, cold warLight hand, light supper, light artilleryBlue funk, blue skirt, blue foxBig cheese, Swiss cheese, white cheeseBig boy, big money, big talkAngry tone, high tone, mental tone