FREQUENCY ANALYSIS OF SEMANTIC SUBCLASSES
OF PROCCESSUAL NOUNS WITH SOCIAL MEANING
(BASED ON THE NOVEL «TAFT» BY ANN PATCHETT)
The research objective is analysis of the semantic structure of processual nouns with social meanings. The «processual» nouns are understood as those that model a process. The «social meaning» is viewed as a social process that goes beyond the sphere of an individual personality’s personal interests. The social process from the semantic point of view is a more complicated type than other processes since its semantic structure includes obligatory participants of this process which are called «actants» in the terminology of verb-centric theory.Four main components of the social situation are defined: three of them are actant ones («a subject of the process», «an object of the process», «an adject of the process») and one component is «processual» implying realization of social impact without an explicit reference to one of the actants. These semantic subclasses represent «categorical» characteristics of processual nouns with social meaning. In addition to them, «criterial» semantic features are highlighted, which can be divided into two subclasses. The first one is a group of «situational » semantic characteristics, which include features that identify the correlation between simple situations within the complex ones: «temporal», «theleological» and «motivational» plans. The «semantic plan» includes a generalized semantic category, which is implemented through the opposition of at least two specific semantic features. The features that consider the correlation between actants situation are called «interactant» ones, including features of «interactive», «hierarchical » and «axiological» semantic plans. Thereafter, the researcher considers the frequency representation of the abovementioned semantic categorial and criterial semantic features of the processual nouns with social meanings based on the material of the modern novel «Taft»by an American author Ann Patchett. The book is highly acclaimed by foreign critics and received Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize and Nashville Banner Tennessee Writer of the Year Award in 1994. Frequency analysis enables to identify relevant and irrelevant features which constitute the components of the semantic structure in the novel under the study.