1. 3psl. External structure it is morphological structure. E.g. post-impressionists the following morphemes can be distinguished: prefixes “post-“”-im” the root “press” The noun forming suffixes “ion” “ist” and the grammatical suffix of plurality “-s”. All these morphemes constitute the external structure of the word.
Internal structure of the word or it’s meaning is referred to as “the word semantic structure.
2. 4psl. Referential approach seeks to formulate the essence of meaning by establishing the interdependence between words and things or concepts they denote. The referential approach distinguishes between three components closely connected with meaning: the sound form of the word, the concept underlining this sound form, actual referent that part or aspect of reality to which the linguistic sign refers. The best-known referential model of meaning is the semiotic triangle. ConceptSound referent
Form
The dotted line shows that there is no immediate relation between word and referent: it is established only through the concept. Those three components are interdependent but are not identical with the meaning.
3. 8psl. The two main types of word meaning are the grammatical and lexical meanings to be found in words and word forms. Lexical meaning refers to the phenomena of objective reality. Grammatical meaning refers to the correlations between the words in the sentence.
Besides the grammatical meaning there is another component of meaning: Lexical meaning to be found in words and word forms. Unlike the grammatical meaning this component of meaning is identical in all the forms of the word, e.g.: the word forms “go, went, gone, going” posses different grammatical meanings of tense, person etc, but each of these forms possesses the same semantic component denoting the process of movement. Lexical meaning of the word is the same throughout its paradigm. It means that all the forms of one and the same word are lexically identical. But in English language are some words, which have no lexical meaning, only the grammatical one: prepositions, conjunctions and participles. Also some words may loose their lexical meaning and be used only in their grammatical form. Eg I have read this book. Did you go? Have and do in these sentences have entirely lost their lexical meanings they have only grammatical forms. They are called desemantized. The degree of desemantization may vary and grammatical meaning of the word and the context. “E.g., I must have my hair cut”, or “ she turned pale” have and turned retain their lexical meaning to a certain degree and are partly desementized words
4. 9psl. Lexical meaning includes denotational and conotational components. The denotational component expresses the conceptual content of the word. Every word or a word group must have only one meaning. Without this component the communication between people who speaks the same language would be impossible. Conotational components we can define like augmentation of meaning.
Denotative connotative
Lonely alone melancholy
5.11psl. The connotational component includes emotive charge and stylistic reference.
Words differ in their emotive charge. In these three synonyms : liking, love, worship” the emotive charge of the word “worship” is the heaviest. Many words acquire an emotive meaning only in a definite context. In that case it has only contextual emotive meaning. E. g. “I feel so darned lonely today”. In the vocabulary of any language there are many words, which are undoubtedly bearers of emotive meaning. These are interjections; swear words, exclamatory words and a great number of qualitative and intensifying adjectives. Some of them practically have no logical meaning, only an emotive one. Oh ah pooh darn gosh Christ God etc.
Words differ not only in emotive charge, but in stylistic reference. When placed in different situations, people instinctively choose different kinds of words and structures to express their thoughts. The suitability or unsuitability of a word for each particular situation depends on the functional style it represents.
6. 13psl. Change of lexical meaning. In the course of historical development word change their meaning. The cause of the change of meaning is the change of notion of the word. E.g., “earth” in O.E. meant “soil” but nowadays it means “planet”. Different kinds of changes in a nation’s social life, in it’s culture, science, technology, arts lead to gaps appearing in the vocabulary which must be filled. The process is being carried either by making new words or borrowing foreign words or by applying some old word to a new object or notion.
14psl. all the factors accounting for the semantic changes of the words may be grouped into: extra-linguistic and linguistic causes. By extra linguistic causes we understand various changes in the life of speech community. The changes in all spheres of human activities are reflected in word meaning. E.g. the word “carrus” in Latin meant a four-wheeled wagon drawn by a horse. At present it denotes other means of transport a motorcar. Very frequently functional semantics has to do with the change of meaning. In the course of history one word is ousted by another but the name of the previous thing is transferred to a new thing because of the resemblance of
the functions of two things. E.g., “pen” goes back to Latin “penna” a feather of the bird. Goose feathers were used in writing.