Types of Nomination and Motivation of Lexical Units

As it follows from what has been said above the word is characterized by complexity. It involves various aspects and relations. The word denotes an object and gives a name to it, it has some sense, i.e. it signifies something, the sense, or content represents certain properties, or qualities of the object in people’s minds.

The outer facet (external structure, plane of expression), the phonetic and graphical shape of the word, is the sign of its sense – inner facet (internal structure, plane of content). The word as the unity of its outer and inner facets represents the object, or referent.

The word’s relation to object, its being a sign makes it possible to use words for giving names to things, phenomena, qualities, actions, etc. Words come into being when there is a need to give names to things. Hence the main function of the word is nominating. “... Nоmination is the process of converting the facts of extra-linguistic reality to the facts of language-as-a-system, its structure and meanings reflecting the human experience in the people’s minds” [Языковая номинация I 1977: 13]. Onomasiology is the science of names, the nature and types of nomination.

The peculiarity of the nominative aspect of the language is first of all that the linguistic signs, unlike all other ones, have twofold reference to the objects: 1) as nominative signs – words and word combinations – in language-as-a-system, its paradigmatic relations; 2) as predicative signs – phrases or utterances – in actual speech – language-in-action, its syntagmatic relations [Языковая номинация I, 1977:8].

There are distinguished the following types of nomination according to the language units employed in each case: a) lexical nomination – nomination by word, phraseological unit or word combinations; b) propositional nomination – nomination by sentence; c) discourse nomination – nomination by text.

The objects of lexical nomination, or nominants are such elements of reality as object (thing), quality (property), process, relations, any real or imaginary object. Nominants make up a system, nomenclature, which along with some semantic and functional peculiarities, serves as the basis of subdividing all the words primarily into the classes of notional and formal words.

Further on the notional words are subdivided according to the qualitative characterization of the objects into those naming the objects (substantival) – the nouns; and those naming the features, or manifestations of the objects – the verbs, naming processes, actions and states; the adjectives, naming qualities and properties; the adverbs, naming certain circumstances and conditions. The quantitative characterization of the objects is realized by numerals. Pronouns, prepositions, connectives, conjunctions, particles, articles refer to formal words. Thus the elements of nomination form the basis for the main classes of words – the categories of parts of speech, known since the times of Aristotle.

The object of propositional nomination by sentence is a microsituation (an event, a fact), involving certain substances and elements.

The object of discourse nomination – nomination by text – is a more complicated string of situations.

The complexity of nominating means increases with the increase of the complexity of the nominated object. More complex nominations (word combinations, sentences and texts) are constructed by combinations of words – the initial and simple nominating units.

The nominant of the sentence, or utterance, is a complex referent, a certain interrelation of real phenomena (objects, qualities, processes) in various combinations. Even the simplest sentence, e.g. The child is playing presents a combination of two elements: the agent of the action and the action itself.

Text is a complex multi-structural integrity arranged in accordance with the communicative intention, genre specifics. The nominants of the text are information blocks.

A new name comes into being when a certain sound complex is associated with meaning. This meaning refers to some fragment of extra-linguistic reality, a new object, phenomenon, quality, action, etc. When such act of nomination happens for the first time it is known as direct or primary nomination. Byprimary lexical nomination is understood the interrelation of a fragment of extra-linguistic reality reflected in one’s mind and the sound complex, which has got the function of a name for the first time [Языковая номинация I 1977: 73]. Such primary meanings of the words were called by Academician V.V.Vinogradov ‘direct nominative meaning’.

There is a constant need in new names with new developments in the life of speech communities. The process of nomination is endless. But it is impossible to create an entirely new name for each new object, phenomenon, etc. It would make the language system too bulky and unmanageable. Human memory would not be able to cope with such a great amount of names. That is why a name of a certain object can be used for naming another object, phenomenon, quality, action, etc. Secondary / indirect nomination is using the name of one object for naming another object. Of course, secondary nomination cannot be done at random. There must be something in common between the two objects, certain associations (of similarity or contiguity, see ch. 2).

For example the word ‘hand’ in its primary function means 1) part of the human arm beyond the wrist. As a result of secondary nomination it got the meanings: 2) (pl) power, possession, responsibility: The property is no longer in my hands; 3) influence or agency: The hand of an enemy has worked here; 4) person from whom news, etc. comes: I heard the news at first hand; 5) skill in using one’s hands: She has a light hand at pastry; 6) person who does what is indicated by the context, performer: He is a good hand at this sort of work; 7) workman, e.g. in a factory or dockyard: All hands on deck!; 8) turn, share in an activity: Let me have a hand now; 9) pointer or indicator on the dial of a watch, clock or other instrument: hands of a watch; 10)position or direction (to right or left): on all hands 11) handwriting: He writes a good hand and other meanings. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English by A.S.Hornby registers 16 meanings of this word and many derivatives and idioms with ‘hand’. This is an example of language economy and flexibility.

To cases of secondary lexical nomination also refer lexemes, coined by compounding, joining together two derivational bases (see ch. 4): such as arm-chair, keyhole, red-haired, affixation (coining words by means of derivational affixes): uneasy, kindness, musician and also many other words coined by various means of word-formation. Secondary nomination plays a very important role in language functioning as it a) enables to use the means available in the language for giving a name to an object that had no name before, e.g. a mouse ‘device used to control a cursor on a computer monitor’; b) creates a stylistic effect: lexical stylistic devices such as metaphor, metonymy, irony and others are based on making use of already existing names to characterize some other objects, for instance, names of animals can be used to characterize people possessing some negative traits: cat ‘excitable woman’, goose ‘simpleton’; c) provides the means for functioning of various communicative types of sentences: the usage of the verbs be, have, do etc. as auxiliaries.

The relation between the external structure of the word (its phonetic shape, morphological composition, structural pattern) and its meaning is called motivation. Three basic kinds of motivation are distinguished: phonetic, morphological and semantic.

To phonetically motivated words refer examples as bang, buzz, cuckoo, giggle, gurgle, hiss, purr, whistle, etc., i.e. onomatopoetic words. Such words are phonetically motivated because there can be traced the relation between the sound form of the word and its meaning, they are coined by imitation of natural sounds.

To morphologically motivated words refer lexical units with a complex morphological structure, i.e. consisting of more than one morpheme. The meaning of such words can be deduced from the meanings of the morphemes constituting them and the structural pattern which determines the order of the components. For example, the word reread is morphologically motivated inasmuch as its meaning can be deduced from the meanings of its component morphemes and the structural pattern. This is the case with affixal derivatives and compound words like: winner, coolness, employee, mispronounce, discomfort, hairdo, nightwatch, theatre-goer, sky-blue, etc.

Semantic motivation is conditioned by the synchronic co-existence of the direct nominative and nominative-derivative meanings. The word is semantically motivated if its derivative meaning (metaphoric, metonymical) is perceived through the direct nominative one. For instance the word head in the contexts Heads or tales?, the head of the family, at the head of the page is semantically motivated inasmuch as its meaning is perceived through the direct nominative meaning of this word. Unlike the phonetic motivation, the morphological and semantic motivations are relative as the direct nominative meanings of the word and meanings of morphemes are not motivated.

If there cannot be traced the connection between the phonetic or morphological structure of the word and its meaning or the direct and derivative meanings of the word, the word is unmotivated. The overwhelming majority of simple non-derivative words are like cat, dog, man, girl, good, young, take, read, etc. are unmotivated. It is considered that initially such words were motivated but in the course of time motivation was lost.

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