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 цветок garden flowers садовые цветы hot-house flowers оранжерейные цветы pot 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, rain heavy drinker, eater heavy 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 synonyms Raise 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 group a 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 комнату To 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 groups red flower adjectival groups kind 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 motivated The 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

Ex: Gay bird-beautiful bird, blackbird 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 war Light hand, light supper, light artillery Blue funk, blue skirt, blue fox Big cheese, Swiss cheese, white cheese Big boy, big money, big talk Angry tone, high tone, mental tone