Lecture 4 the semantic structure of words

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Lecture 4 
THE SEMANTIC STRUCTURE OF WORDS 
1. Semasiology as a branch of Linguistics. 
2. The word and its semantic structure. 
3. Types of meaning. 
4. The main semantic processes. 
5. Polysemy of English and Ukrainian words.
 
1. SEMASIOLOGY AS A BRANCH OF LINGUISTICS 
 
The branch of the study of language concerned with the meaning of words and 
word equivalents is called semasiology. The name comes from the Greek word 
semasia meaning signification. As semasiology deals not with every kind of meaning 
but with the lexical meaning only, it may be regarded as a branch of Lexicology. 
The main objects of semasiological study are as follows: semantic development of 
words, its causes and classification, relevant distinctive features and types of lexical 
meaning, polysemy and semantic structure of words, semantic grouping and 
connections in the vocabulary system. 
This does not mean that a semasiologist need not pay attention to the 
grammatical meaning. On the contrary, the grammatical meaning must be taken into 
consideration in so far as it bears a specific influence upon the lexical meaning. 
If treated diachronically, semasiology studies the change in meaning which 
words undergo. Descriptive synchronic approach demands a study not of individual 
words but of semantic structures typical of the language studied and of its general 
semantic system. 
Sometimes the words semasiology and semantics are used indiscriminately. 
They are really synonyms but the word semasiology has one meaning, the word 
semantics has several meanings. 
Academic or pure semantics is a branch of mathematical logic originated by 
Carnap. Its aim is to build an abstract theory of relationships between signs and their 
referents. It is a part of semiotics – the study of signs and languages in general, 
including all sorts of codes (traffic signals, military signals). Unlike linguistic 
semantics which deals with real languages, pure semantics has as its subject 
formalised language. 
Semasiology is one of the youngest branches of linguistics, although the 
objects of its study have attracted the attention of philosophers and grammarians 
since the times of antiquity. A thousand years before our era Chinese scholars were 
interested in semantic change. We find the problems of word and notion relationship 
discussed in the works of Plato and Aristotle and the famous grammarian Panini. 
For a very long period of time the study of meaning formed part of philosophy, 
logic, psychology, literary criticism and history of the language. 
Semasiology came into its own in the 1830’s when a German scholar Karl 
Reisig, lecturing in classical philology, suggested that the studies of meaning should 
be regarded as an independent branch of knowledge. Reisig’s lectures were published 
by his pupil F. Heerdegen in 1839 some years after Reisig’s death. At that time, 
however, they produced but little stir. It was Michel Breal, a Frenchman, who played 

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a decisive part in the creation and development of the new science. His book “Essai 
de semantique” (Paris, 1897) became widely known and was followed by a 
considerable number of investigations and monographs on meaning not only in 
France, but in other countries as well. 
The treatment of meaning throughout the 19
th
century and in the first decade of 
the 20
th
was purely diachronistic. Attention was concentrated upon the process of 
semantic change and the part semantic principles should play in etymology. 
Semasiology was even defined at that time as a science dealing with the changes in 
word meaning, their causes and classification. The approach was “atomistic”, i.e. 
semantic changes were traced and described for isolated words without taking into 
account the interrelation of structures existing within each language. Consequently, it 
was impossible for this approach to formulate any general tendencies peculiar to the 
English language. 
As to the English vocabulary, the accent in its semantic study, primarily laid 
upon philosophy, was in the 19
th
century shifted to lexicography. The Golden age of 
English Lexicography began in the middle of the 19
th
century, when the tremendous 
work on the many volumes of the Oxford Dictionary of the English Language on 
Historical Principles was carried out. The English scholars R.C. Trench, J. Murray, 
W. Skeat constantly reaffirmed the primary importance of the historical principle, and 
at the same time elaborated the contextual principle. They were firmly convinced that 
the complete meaning of a word is always contextual, and no study of meaning apart 
from a complete context can be taken seriously. 
Since that time indications of semantic change were found by comparing the 
contexts of words in older written records and in contemporary usage, and also by 
studying different meanings of cognate words in related languages. 
In the 20
th
century the progress of semasiology was uneven. The 1930’s were 
said to be the most crucial time in its whole history. After the work of F. de Saussure 
the structural orientation came to the forefront of semasiology when Jost Trier, a 
German philologist, offered his theory of semantic fields, treating semantic 
phenomena historically and within a definite language system at a definite period of 
its development. 
In the list of current ideas stress is being laid upon synchronic analysis in 
which present-day linguists make successful efforts to profit by structuralist 
procedures combined with mathematical statistics and symbolic logic.