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Section 6. Comparative-historical, typological and comparative linguistics
Опираясь на такие понятия противоположного значения в позиции и миропознании рода и племени, как «моё — твоё — его», «наше — их — чужое», а также «дальний — ближний», «ближний — чужой», группируя часть до появления рода, уместно рассматривать за основу в систематизации ответвлений слова поколение (потомки), предок, происхождение (династия).
Подытоживая сказанное, слово род, сыгравшее ведущую роль в сохранении целостности казахов, нужно рассматривать не как «приверженность родовых отношений» или «трайбализм» и «тоталитарная система», а в комплексном порядке как этноязычные сведения, рассматривать с современной точки зрения генеалогической, исторической, общественно-политической, иде-
ологической, военной и казахского духа, а также духовно-культурные отрасли. Говоря словами политика Н. А. Назарбаева: «Родоплеменная идентификация сегодня — это инерционное явление пройденного этапа этногенетического развития казахского народа. Задача нации сделать так, чтобы эта инерция служила консолидации нашего народа» [2, 52], — передать в качестве наказа будущему поколению в рамках национальной идеологии нашей страны, «Одна Отчизна, одна судьба, одна цель», казахский народ, сформировавшийся благодаря тому, что некогда разные роды, объединившись, сплотились в один центр, единство наций, проживающих в Казахстане — главная обязанность сегодняшнего старшего поколения.
Список литературы:
1. Кайдаров А. Проблемы казахской терминологии. - Алматы: Наука, 1986. - 168 с.
2. Назарбаев Н. А. В потоке истории. - Алматы: Атамура, 1999. - 296 с.
3. Жанузаков Т. Некоторые проблемы ономастики казахского языка//Ют.: Некоторые проблемы истории и диалектологии казахского языка. - Алматы., 1960. 3-вып. - 214 с.
4. Сейд1мбек А. Устная история казахов: Исследование. - Астана: Фолиант, 2008. - 728 с.
Myzyn Tetiana, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, PhD in Philology, the Faculty of Philology E-mail: [email protected]
Semantic changes as a means of English geographical terms formation
Abstract: The article seeks to study the productivity of semantic changes by means of which English geographical terms are formed. It focuses on the main groups of metaphorical nominations in the terminology of geography, metonymical transfer of meaning, narrowing, widening and ellipsis. Keywords: semantic change, metaphor, metonymy, narrowing, widening, ellipsis.
Philologists have for a long time been concerned with questions connected with term formation. Structural peculiarities of terminological vocabulary have often been objects of research.
In this paper I intend to provide some insights into the nature of semantic shifts as a means of English geographical terms formation.
9185 terminological lexical units registered in dictionaries of geographical terms serve as material for the research [1; 2; 3].
The main sources of the English vocabulary enrichment are generally agreed upon in the literature. O. Jespersen and H. Marchand state that these are different types of morphological, syntactic and morphological-syntactic types of word-building [4; 5].
Geographical terminology is not an exception. Our research shows that the most productive type of English geographical terms formation is affixation (51%) while the least productive is conversion
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Semantic changes as a means of English geographical terms formation
(4%). Composition constitutes 44%. Shortening, sound and stress interchange, sound imitation, backformation have not been registered.
But word-building processes include not only morphological and syntactical types of word-building. It is also important to study semantic changes. How frequent and productive are these means of word-building?
We must admit that all living languages are susceptible to change. During their development the majority of words have changed their meanings at least partially. Types of semantic changes are thoroughly researched. Philologists have tackled semantic shifts in different ways. Different approaches to meaning changes have appeared — logical, linguistic, psychological and others. G. Stern worked out the empirical system [6]. H. Paul developed the system based on the logical principle [7]. The system of semantic shifts elaborated by S. Ullmann is based on the differentiation of two main directions of changes — association between meanings and names. Each direction covers shifts based on the association of similarity and the association of contiguity [8].
Semantic changes have been variously classified into such categories as: narrowing, widening, metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, hyperbole, litotes, degeneration, elevation and others. Which of these are used in the formation of English geographical terms?
A transfer of name based on the association of similarity or metaphor is one of the most widespread means of the vocabulary enrichment. It gives names to objects that belong to different spheres of real life. That is one of the reasons why this process has come into linguists’ notice. The phenomenon is to be found in belletristic literature, but that does not mean that metaphor is restricted only to this functional style.
According to M. Makarova terminology of the majority of sciences is greatly based on metaphor [9, 98].
What is the nature of this process? How does it work? These are just a few questions that have claimed our attention.
The metaphorical usage of a word stirs up emotional associations. At the time of their formation terminological metaphors are characterized by distinct
motivation and imagery which with time become feebly marked and later fade away and even disappear. In such cases metaphors are not stylistic any more as they lose the obligatory feature of a stylistic metaphor — its novelty and unpredictability. If the secondary meaning is often used it becomes inseparable from the word. Terminological metaphors are conditioned by such faded metaphors which have lost their originality, unexpectedness of associative connections between things.
Due to their cognitive nature terminological metaphors do not only denote definite objects or phenomena in the most concise way, very often they are the only nominative units denoting certain notions.
Like stylistic metaphors which appear on the basis of analogy, similarity, function, associations the mechanism of terminological metaphors formation occurs due to the similarity of objects belonging to different conceptual branches of knowledge.
Hence it seems reasonable to classify metaphors according to the type of similarities.
Firstly, anthropomorphic metaphors. Terminological metaphors, like metaphors in general, are based on our experience [10]. That is why it is possible to assert that typical means of nomination in any terminology is of anthropocentric nature. Our research shows that anthropomorphic metaphors are the most widespread among geographical terms: foothills (the low hills next to high mountains), river mouth (estuary), shoulder (prominent part of a hill), solifluction lobe (a lobe formed due to a slow downhill movement of soil, saturated with meltwater over a permanently frozen subsoil in tundra regions). They account for 38,3% of all terminological metaphors of Geography.
Secondly, metaphors that are based on the similarity with their outward appearance: continental plate (one of the large pieces into which the surface of the Earth is divided), shelf (a narrow piece of rock or ice that sticks out from a mountain or under water), ice cap (a large piece of ice that covers the land and sea around the North or the South Pole), ribbon lake (a long narrow lake formed in the valley that was created when a glacier moved over an area containing bands of hard and soft rock). They make up 24,6% of all metaphors.
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Section 6. Comparative-historical, typological and comparative linguistics
Thirdly, metaphors based on the similarity of position (13,8%): inface (a steep slope of a cuesta), face (a side of a mountain or building that is high and very steep), water table (the level below the Earth’s surface where water is found), saddle (a fold that is convex up and has its oldest beds at its core).
Fourthly, metaphors based on the correlation of content and form (9,6%): bedrock (the solid rock under the ground that supports the soil above it), blowhole (a hole at an inland end of a sea cave through which waves funnel up and out), breakwater (a strong wall that protects a beach from the force of the waves), hanging valley (a tributary valley that enters a main valley high up because the main valley has been deepened through glacial erosion), rapids (a part of a river where the water moves extremely quickly over rocks and is usually dangerous).
Fifthly, metaphors based on the similarity of characteristics: shock wave (the force of an explosion or earthquake, especially when it affects places far away), bogburst (the mass movement of saturated peat downslope). They constitute 9,2% of the metaphors.
Finally we may notice terminological metaphors that are based on the conditional analogy: wandering dune (unsettled dune), standing wave (not flowing wave). Their part among terminological metaphors is 4,5%.
It can be maintained that terminological metaphors are an integral part of scientific texts. According to our observation their quantity is about 20% among all geographical terms.
But the geographical term formation is not restricted only to cases of metaphor. Another frequently used type of semantic change, metonymy, is based upon the association of contiguity, a regular or occasional transfer of a name from one class of objects onto another. This transfer can be conditioned by space, temporal, instrumental, functional and other links.
A special group of metonymy registered in geographical dictionaries is represented by a type of the proper names formation from common nouns. It is a characteristic feature of toponymy: the Highlands (the mountainous part of Scotland), the City (the business part of London).
On the other hand, exceedingly numerous are examples of proper names turning into geographi-
cal terms: atlas (a collection of maps in a volume) goes back to the Titan Atlas whose picture holding up the world appeared on the frontispiece of early map collections. Volcano is derived from Latin Vul-canus, the Roman god of fire. America got its name after Amerigo Vespucci who made two trips to the New World and claimed to have discovered it. Terms created by means of metonymy make up 5%.
A very widespread type of semantic change takes place when the meaning of the word is narrowed. The narrowing of meaning can be manifested in its specialization. We adhere to the opinion that as soon as a lexical unit transfers from a common use to some special sphere of communication it automatically undergoes the process of narrowing of its meaning. Thus, all terms undergo this process. But it is important to stress that most scientific words have acquired specialized meanings that have no close relationship to the non-scientific use.
When the meaning is narrowed, the word can name fewer objects, i. e. have fewer referents. At the same time the content of the notion is enriched, as it involves a greater number of relevant features by which the notion is characterized. Thus, the lexical unit tide (the cyclic rise and fall of sea level caused by the gravitational pull of the sun and moon) comes from the Proto-Indoeuropean word di-ti (division of time), and the word summer (hot season of the year) is borrowed from Sanskrit with the meaning season, half year [11].
An opposite process, widening of meaning, reflects the generalization of the semantic content of the word and its spread onto a bigger amount of things. The scope of the new notion is broader than that of the original one, whereas the content of the notion is poorer. Thus, the meaning of the word weather (Proto-Germanic wind) spread onto the day-to-day meteorological conditions, and the word zone (Greek zone — a belt, the girdle worn by women at the hips) widened to the meaning region, area, or section characterized by some distinctive feature or quality). Winter (the coldest season of the year) must have been related to the Proto-Indoeuropean word wed — water, wet (liquid, wet) [11]. This process makes up 1,2% of the terms.
One more type of the meaning change is ellipsis which is used to mean a case when in a word combi-
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Complex sentences at the beginning stage of teaching Russian as a foreign language
nation that consists of two words, one of the words is not used and its meaning is transferred onto the second word. For instance, we can relate the word continent to the Latin word combination terra conti-nens (continuous land) [11]. This process accounts for 0,7% of the terms.
Thus, by way of concluding we can say: terms formed due to a semantic change denote geographical notions that have long become constituent elements of the scientific picture of the world. The results of our research show that the sphere of special vocabulary under research began to be formed on the basis of the basic vocabulary of the English language. In the language of a special branch of
knowledge metaphor, metonymy, narrowing, widening, ellipsis not only name some specific concept, but they are the only nominative units that denote a specific notion. Semantic changes make up for 26,9% of all types of the English geographical terms formation. As a factor of building and development of the English geographical terminology they give rise to the appearance of new terms. The most productive semantic change is metaphor; the least frequently used is ellipsis. The revealed facts give a good reason to assert that boundaries between different layers of the vocabulary are flexible due to what terminology is enriched with new lexical units.
References:
1. Keith K. Geography. MacMillan Vocabulary Practice Series. Oxford, 2009.
2. Дахно I. I. Англо-укра'шський географiчний глосарш. Кшв, 2007.
3. Марчук Ю. Н., Яковлев С. А. Русско-английско-испано-французско-китайский словарь географических терминов. Москва, 2005.
4. Jespersen O. Essentials of English Grammar. London, 1964.
5. Marchand H. Word-building in the English Language. Cambridge, 1980.
6. Stern G. Meaning and Change of Meaning. Elander, Göteborg, 1932.
7. Пауль Г. Принципы истории языка (Prinzipen der Sprachgeshchihte). Москва, 1960.
8. Ullmann St. The Principles of Semantics. Glasgow, 1959.
9. Макаров М. Л. Основы теории дискурс. - Москва, 2003.
10. Lakoff G. Metaphors we Live by. Chicago and London, 2003.
11. Online Etymology Dictionary [Electronic Resource]. - Mode of Access: http://www.etymonline./ com/index.php?term
Poselenova Anna Valentinovna, Ataturk University, Associate Professor, Doctor, Faculty of Literature E-mail: [email protected]
Complex sentences at the beginning stage of teaching Russian as a foreign language
Abstract: Teaching students syntactic structure of the Russian language is one of the complicated challenges in teaching Russian as a foreign language to the Turkish audience. Russian and Turkish are unrelated languages with different systems. In this regard for successful learning by the Turkish students a complex sentence syntax of the Russian language it is necessary to apply clear teaching strategy and to take into account the grammatical system of the Turkish language, which is native to the students. In the formation of teaching method we have to take into consideration the differences of interpretation of the term “complex sentence” in the Russian and Turkish linguistics, the almost complete absence of Turkish complex sentences similar to the Russian ones as well as most
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