Olha Meiko
Kamyanets-Podilsky Ivan Ohiienko National University
Scientific Supervisor: Matkovska M.V., Associate Professor
THE SEMANTIC AND PRAGMATIC PECULIARITIES OF WORD FORMATION
The article deals with the semantic and pragmatic peculiarities of word formation, namely synonyms, antonyms, hyperonyms and hyponyms in “Pygmalion” by George Bernard Shaw. The author tries to analyze different linguistic models of word formation so that to depict adequately all the components that constitute this notion.
Keywords: semantics, pragmatics, word formation, synonyms, antonyms, conversion, derivation, context.
The central concepts in lexical semantics are the lexical connections and the notions of synonymy, antonymy, hyperonymy, hyponymy, as well as significant and official words. A broad definition of these phenomena is reflected in the works of O. Akhmanova, V. Klyuev, N. Kolesnikova, Ye. Miller et al.
Word formation is the process of word creation by combining affix morphemes and root according to certain regularities which are used to characterize the language (affixation, syllable), or without any external means of word formation (conversion, semantic derivation). Words in language do not exist in isolation. They are united by common values in groups and microsystems. Each word in its microsystem has a certain place, and its meaning is determined by this place, because the semantic meaning of the word is determined by the relationships that are formed in the network of oppositions of the word to other words of the same microsystem. The lexical-semantic system is the most mobile one among all other language systems. But when changing, it has the ability to self-regulate, and such restructuring would not violate the system, which is necessary for constant communicative suitability [6, p. 38].
Semantics is the study of meaning, or rather, the study of the relationship between linguistic expressions and their meanings. Pragmatics is the study of context or rather, the study of how context can affect our understanding of linguistic utterances. Both semantics and pragmatics belong to semiotics [2, p.142–143].
According to G. Leech pragmatics can be usefully defined as the study of how utterances matter in situations. This definition helps us understand the differences between semantics, syntax, and pragmatics [3, p. 6–10].
David Crystal says that pragmatics studies the factors that determine our choice of language in the social interaction and the consequences of our choice. This definition emphasizes the absolute role that language users (listener/speaker) and context play. The former is important in formulating users’ language choices to achieve the optimal communicative outcomes, while the latter are solely responsible for understanding the context or language environment in which they must perform certain functions through language or for specific purposes, using available linguistic tools within their opportunities [1, p. 120].
- Levinson defines pragmatics as “the study of those aspects of the relationship between context and language that both are important for writing grammar”. In this definition, the main interest lies mainly in the relationship between language and the principles of language use, which depend on the context [4, p. 9]. Deixis plays an important role in the study of pragmatics. It helps people interpret the meaning of a particular sentence based on its context. This is supported by Levinson, who defines deixis in five main types: personal deixis, local deixis, temporal deixis, social deixis, and discourse deixis [4, p. 68–94].
Deixis means pointers. In order, indexes are expressions or linguistic forms that relate to other things. In a sense, deixis can be synonymous with linguistic expressions and can be roughly divided into five types. These are: person’s deixis (nominal deixis), place deixis (spatial deixis), time deixis (temporal deixis), and discourse deixis (discursive deixis), deixis for social purposes (social deixis) [4, p. 98].
One of the most popular novels “Pygmalion” written by George Bernard Shaw represents a girl from East London called Eliza. She works as a flower girl (and in the novel, firstly, she is called in this way), and after sudden meeting with The Note Taker (Henry Higgins), who paid a lot attention to her pronunciation, made her his subject of an “experiment” and had a bet that he can change the way she spoke [5]. The story is a perfect example of a live and contextual portrait of how language, particularly socio-semantics, plays a huge and massive role in the achievement of communicative competence [5, p. 56]. Looking at Eliza, who spoke in the first act, it is easy to see that she speaks a non-standard English language, which is hardly understandable and answered. This is a true reflection of the social background of a girl who was raised in a low-class family and received a poor education due to the tragic economic situation of the family. Such difficult circumstances strongly influence her promise, as promise cannot be improved if her educational data are not taken into account by social factors.
Eliza demonstrates what can be called the poor language performance in her dialogues with others. For example, in her dialogue with Freddie, Eliza puts it this way: “Nah then, Freddy: look wh’ y’ gowin, deah” [5, p. 16]. This statement is obviously a non-standard English language, used mainly by uneducated people. This is an example of limited code at the syntactic and phonological levels. At the syntactic level, Eliza uses the above grammatical structure instead of the standard form. Thus, Eliza’s speech is a clear departure from the standard form of English.
Shortly, the flower girl in the above excerpts appears as a bad interlocutor compared to her addressee. At both the macro- and micro linguistic levels, she could not tolerate eloquent expression, free expression, and convincing arguments. Thus, the general impression of her language is quite disappointing, and that B. Shaw can successfully portray her as a lady whose language shows who she is, what class she belongs to, and what type of education she has gone through.
But later after classes we will see how dramatically Eliza’s language changes as a result of language training and learning. Professor Higgins, who is attempting social transformation for lower-class lady, believes that the first step to achieving this fundamental social shift begins with language. According to Higgins, Eliza’s linguistic discrepancy with the norms of Standard English is the main reason for her social unacceptability. This is considered the “deep bay”, which separates the working class from the upper class. Thus, Higgins’ mission is to close this gap between the two classes. Eliza herself is aware of this obstacle because she declares, “I want to speak like a lady” [5].
Looking at Eliza’s speech after Higgins language training, we find a significant improvement in her language skills. No language errors are visible, and when she makes a mistake, she corrects it immediately. Her conversational turn is full of strong expressions that can indicate her self-confidence in front of the addressee.
At the phonological level, it makes sounds very clearly, and her pronunciation is similar to any other native English person. At the syntactic level, she produces well-structured grammatical sentences, which are usually produced by standard native English speakers. At the socio-linguistic level, Eliza can choose the most appropriate style that suits both the communicative situation and the addressee, the art that she mostly missed when she was limited by the language of the code. In this excerpt, Eliza is able to successfully demonstrate her argumentative skill, which is illustrated in the use of various types of verbal acts [5, p. 112–119]. Language can reveal many social aspects of the speaker (character), such as social class, socio-economic status, level of education, conversation efficiency, etc.
Through an analysis of Eliza’s speech, it can be concerned that there is an inevitable link between language performance and education. These relationships could be easily observed by comparing Eliza’s language performance before and after studying Standard English by Professor Higgins [5, p. 20].
So, to sum it all up we may conclude that language reflects the national mentality, deep cultural traditions and itself becomes a fact of the spiritual culture of the people. When choosing words in the process of communication, the speaker consciously or involuntarily takes into account their paradigmatic and syntagmatic connections that are in one’s linguistic consciousness.
References
- Crystal, D. (1987). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Finch, (2000). Semantics and Pragmatics. In: Linguistic Terms and Concepts. Palgrave Study Guides. Palgrave, London.
- Leech, (1983). Principles of Pragmatics. London : Longman.
- Levinson, S. (1983). Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
- Shaw, B.G. (1994). New York : Dover Publications Inc.
- Shopen, T. (2007). Language Typology and Syntactic Description. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.