scholarly journals Lexical-Semantic Analysis of the Adjective Poor in English: Definitions, Synonyms, and Antonyms

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 256-264
Author(s):  
M. M. Mendesheva

 The article introduces the lexical-semantic aspect of the adjective poor in English, its synonyms, and antonyms. The analysis featured five English dictionaries: Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus, Cobuild Advanced English Dictionary, The Free Dictionary, Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, and Merriam-Webster Dictionary. The author analyzed the lexical-semantic variants of the adjective and determined its meanings. The component analysis allocated 46 semes and sememes, which were combined into eight thematic groups: 1. People: (poor) people / a group, poverty, emaciated, not very skilful (in a particular activity), needy, humble, meek; 2. Animal: (hungry) animal; 3. Material means: having, material, possessions, mean, petty / (little) money / insufficient wealth, used of land, barren (land), unproductive (land); 4. Lack / shortage: lacking / deficient; 5. Something material: very little of the substance, (little of a particular) substance, (poor) food; 6. Resources: supply (of something specified – resources, materials), (poor) country; 7. Evaluation: bad / not good, (being of a very low) quality, (being of a very low) quantity, (being of a very low) standard, inferior / very little (in quality), inferior (in value), (less) amount, (less) rate, (less) number, little / few, (in bad) condition, not normal, less (than adequate) / scanty / inadequate, negative, small (in worth), quality; 8. Emotional attitude: exciting , pity, (deserving) sympathy, unlucky, disappointing , disagreeable, indifferent, unfavorable, no pleasure. The adjective poor appeared to have 37 synonyms and 13 antonyms.

Author(s):  
Liudmyla Nizhnik

The article considers verbalization of the DOUBT concept by means of epistemic modality, namely epistemically marked words and phrases. The relevance of the study is due to the tendency to study epistemic modality (Palmer F., Halliday M.), epistemic words (Biber D., Wierzbicka A.), phrases of harmonious / disharmonious type (Aijmer K., Hoye L.) and intensifier words (Quirk R.). However, the verbalization of the DOUBT concept by these units has not yet been studied. The object of research is the ways of verbalization of the DOUBT concept by means of epistemic modality, and the subject of research is the meaning of epistemic words and phrases Adv + V / V + Adv, Modal V + Adv, Adv + Adj, Adj + N, where the main words are epistemically marked words, and adverbs and adjectives act as modifiers and intensifiers of meaning. Material of the research ‒ dictionary definitions of epistemic words, word combinations of epistemic words with adverbs-intensifiers in the Oxford Collocations Dictionary, modern English fiction from the 90s of the XX century until now. The research methodology consists in using component analysis of epistemic words to determine words with the “uncertain” seme, lexical-semantic analysis to distinguish verbalizing words of the DOUBT concept, in analyzing the compatibility of epistemic words with intensifier words and pragmatic analysis of epistemic words and phrases. The results of the study are the identification of the semantic features that are inherent in the words verbalizing the concept DOUBT and their grouping by semantic features. Studies of harmonic / disharmonious type phrases allow to refer to the phrases-verbalizers of the DOUBT concept those that contain units that express a weak force of modality (e.g. could possibly), and those whose meaning is modified by intensifier words in the direction of intensification of uncertainty (e.g. will possibly). In the phrases Adv + V / V + Adv, Adv + Adj, Adj + N the influence of the adverb of degree on the meaning of the phrase was traced. The compatibility of epistemic words to denote the DOUBT concept and epistemic words of confidence and probability with amplifiers, emphasizers and downtoners (Quirk R. terms) has been studied. It has been found that the use of epistemic words of confidence and probability with downtoners mitigates the confidence of such a phrase and contributes to its attribution (e.g. hardly believe) to the traditional verbalizers of the DOUBT concept.


2000 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 622-634 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matti Laine ◽  
Riitta Salmelin ◽  
Päivi Helenius ◽  
Reijo Marttila

Magnetoencephalographic (MEG) changes in cortical activity were studied in a chronic Finnish-speaking deep dyslexic patient during single-word and sentence reading. It has been hypothesized that in deep dyslexia, written word recognition and its lexical-semantic analysis are subserved by the intact right hemisphere. However, in our patient, as well as in most nonimpaired readers, lexical-semantic processing as measured by sentence-final semantic-incongruency detection was related to the left superior-temporal cortex activation. Activations around this same cortical area could be identified in single-word reading as well. Another factor relevant to deep dyslexic reading, the morphological complexity of the presented words, was also studied. The effect of morphology was observed only during the preparation for oral output. By performing repeated recordings 1 year apart, we were able to document significant variability in both the spontaneous activity and the evoked responses in the lesioned left hemisphere even though at the behavioural level, the patient's performance was stable. The observed variability emphasizes the importance of estimating consistency of brain activity both within and between measurements in brain-damaged individuals.


10.29007/vmrh ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryo Tsutahara

This paper shows the semantic differences and similarities between Spanish active deverbal adjectives with the -dor and -nte suffixes. Minimal pairs of derivatives with the suffixes will be quantitatively analyzed, as the patterns of modification are the center of the interest. This study concludes that the derivatives’ modification patterns are parallel with the denotation patterns of nominal derivatives with the same suffixes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (103) ◽  
pp. 54-65
Author(s):  
JELENA LEPOJEVIC

This paper considers, from the point of view of modern theory of language in contact, words loaned from the Russian language or through the Russian language that are still in active use in the modern Serbian language. The aim of this paper is to determine the corpus of these elements in the dictionaries of the modern Serbian literary language, as well as to conduct a morphological and lexical-semantic analysis of the collected material. Many of these words are not perceived as borrowings by speakers of the Serbian language, but it is a fact that these elements came to the Serbian language from Russian. The author studies the words with the label rus. , identified by the analysis of Serbian language dictionaries. Words of Russian origin that are on the periphery of the lexical fund of the Serbian language, such as archaisms and historicisms, have not been taken into consideration.


Litera ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 51-62
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Andreevna Fomicheva

Based on the compositions of pre-courteous epic poetry and chivalric romance written in the Middle High German language, this article reviews the problem of lexical polysemy in relation to the phenomena of homonymy and synonymy, as well as the problem of structural description of lexis. The need for comprehensive examination of polysemous lexemes in the Middle High German language, which includes structural analysis of the meaning of polysemous word and the lexical-thematic group and/or synonymic row it belongs to, well as the study of contextual implementation of the meanings of polysemous word, is substantiated by the principle of diffusivity of meanings of polysemous word that complicates comprising dictionary definitions and creates difficulties for the researcher in distinguishing the meanings of a polysemous word and separating polysemy from homonymy. Based on the example of lexical-thematic group for denomination of edged weapon in the Middle High German Language, the author demonstrates the appropriateness of using lexical-semantic analysis for establishing systemic relations between the analyzed lexemes, as well as postulates the importance of the context in determination of the structure of polysemous word. Discussion of the given examples from the compositions of pre-courteous epic poetry and chivalric romance written in the Middle High German language is accompanied by the author’s clarifications to the dictionary definitions of the lexemes under review. The conclusion is made on feasibility of the authorial approach towards detection of the discrepancies between lexicographic data and use of the lexeme in the texts written in the Middle High German language. The author also believes that this research is valuable from the perspective of lexicographic practice.


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