Курс лекций по лексикологии английского языка для студентов факультетов иностранных языков

Lecture IV. Working Definitions of Principal Concepts 
Semasiology is a branch of linguistics concerned with the meaning of words 
and word equivalents. The main objects of semasiological study are as follows: types 
of lexical meaning, polysemy and semantic structure of words, semantic development 
of words, the main tendencies of the change of word-meanings, semantic grouping in 
the vocabulary system, i.e. synonyms, antonyms, semantic fields, thematic groups, 
etc. 
Referential approach to meaning. The common feature of any referential 
approach is that meaning is in some form or other connected with the referent (object 
of reality denoted by the word). The meaning is formulated by establishing the 
interdependence between words and objects of reality they denote. So, meaning is 
often understood as an object or phenomenon in the outside world that is referred to 
by a word. 
Functional approach to meaning. In most present-day methods of lexicological 
analysis words are studied in context; a word is defined by its functioning within a 
phrase or a sentence. This functional approach is attempted in contextual analysis, 
semantic syntax and some other branches of linguistics. The meaning of linguistic 
unit is studied only through its relation to other linguistic units. So meaning is viewed 
as the function of a word in speech. 
Meaning and concept (notion). When examining a word one can see that its 
meaning though closely connected with the underlying concept is not identical with it. 
To begin with, concept is a category of human cognition. Concept is the 
thought of the object that singles out the most typical, the most essential features of 
the object. 
So all concepts are almost the same for the whole of humanity in one and the 
same period of its historical development. The meanings of words, however, are 
different in different languages. That is to say, words expressing identical concept 
may have different semantic structures in different languages. E.g. the concept of "a 

building for human habitation" is expressed in English by the word "house", in 
Russian - "дом", but their meanings are not identical as house does not possess the 
meaning of "fixed residence of family or household", which is part of the meaning of 
the Russian word дом; it is expressed by another English word home. 
The difference between meaning and concept can also be observed by 
comparing synonymous words and word-groups expressing the same concept but 
possessing linguistic meaning which is felt as different in each of the units, e.g. big, 
large; to die to pass away, to join the majority, to kick the bucket; child, baby, babe, 
infant. 
Concepts are always emotionally neutral as they are a category of thought. 
Language, however, expresses all possible aspects of human consciousness. Therefore 
the meaning of many words not only conveys some reflection of objective reality but 
also the speaker's attitude to what he is speaking about, his state of mind. Thus, 
though the synonyms big, large, tremendous denote the same concept of size, the 
emotive charge of the word tremendous is much heavier than that of the other word. 
Meaning is a certain reflection in our mind of objects, phenomena or relations 
that makes part of the linguistic sign - its so-called inner facet, whereas the sound-
form functions as its outer facet. 
Grammatical meaning is defined as the expression in Speech of relationships 
between words. The grammatical meaning is more abstract and more generalised than 
the lexical meaning. It is recurrent in identical sets of individual forms of different 
words as the meaning of plurality in the following words students, boob, windows, 

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