FREEWORD COMBINATIONS Definition of a wordgroup and its

FREE-WORD COMBINATIONS

§ 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 e. g. at least, by means of, take place – semantically and structurally inseparable e. g. 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 e. g. question – vital/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 e. g. to put forward a question

Lexical Valency (Collocability) § lexical valency of correlated words in different languages is different e. g. flower garden flowers hot-house flowers pot flowers цветок садовые цветы оранжерейные цветы комнатные цветы

Lexical Valency (Collocability) § different meanings of one and the same word may be revealed through different type of lexical valency e. g. heavy table, book heavy snow, rain heavy drinker, eater heavy sorrow, sleep heavy industry

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

Grammatical Valency § 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 e. g. an adjective + noun, infinitive, prepositional group a kind man, kind to people, heavy to lift § limited by the inner structure of the language e. g. 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 e. g. enter the room - войти в комнату

Classifications of wordgroups § 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 e. g. red flower ( I saw § exocentric – the distribution of the whole word-group is different from either of its components a red flower – I saw a e. g. side by side, flower) grow smaller, John runs

Word-groups according to the head word § nominal groups e. g. red flower § adjectival groups e. g. kind to people § verbal groups e. g. to speak well

Word-groups according to the syntactic pattern § predicative – § nonhave a syntactic predicative – structure similar to that of a sentence e. g. John went, he works do not have a structure similar to a sentence e. g. red flower, running John

Non-predicative and endocentric word-groups § coordinative – § subordinative – elements of a word-group are coordinated with each other one member of a word-group is subordinated to the central element e. g. day and night, do or die e. g. 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 e. g. atomic weight, atomic warfare

Lexical meaning § polysemantic words are used only in one of their meanings e. g. man and wife, blind man § stylistic reference of a word-group may be different from that of its components e. g. old, boy, bags, fun – old boy (дружище), bags of fun

Structural meaning § meaning conveyed by the arrangement of components of a word-group e. g. school grammar – grammar school

Structural meaning § structural and lexical meanings are interdependent and inseparable e. g. school children – to school children all the sun long – all the night long, all the week long

Motivation in Word-groups § lexically motivated - the combined lexical meaning of a group is deducible from the meanings of its components § lexically nonmotivated – the meaning of the whole is not seen through the meanings of the elements

Motivation in Word-groups § lexically motivated § lexically nonmotivated e. g. red flower e. g. red tape – ‘official bureaucratic methods’

Motivation in Word-groups § e. g. apple sauce – ‘a sauce made of apples’ apple sauce – ‘nonsense’

Motivation in Word-groups § Non-motivated word-groups are called phraseological units or idioms