Onomasiological and Semasiological Characteristics of Different Units of Lexicon

Irrespective of the lexico-grammatical class to which a word belongs, it may be characterised in the contrasted languages from two sides: a) from its onomasiological side, i.e. from its structure and nomination capacity and b) from its semasiological or content side.

The onomasiological characteristics of a word are displayed through its morphological structure and its categorial (if any) meaning. Thus, the verb goes (the root go + es inflexion) has the categorial meanings of person, tense, aspect and voice, whereas the noun songs (song + s inflexion) has only the category of number (singular and plural).

From the semasiological side words may be monosemantic or polysemantic. The semantic structure of the bulk of English nouns, for example, is richer than that of the Ukrainian nouns. Thus, the English noun boat can mean човен, судно/корабель, шлюпка; the noun coat in English can mean верхній одяг, пальто, піджак, кітель, хутро (тварин), захисний шар фарби на предметі.

Ukrainian words may sometimes have a complicated semantic structure as well. For example, the noun подорож may mean cruise, journey, travel, trip, tour, voyage; or the word ще may mean still, yet, as yet, more, any more, again, else, but.

Isomorphic if not universal is also the existence of monosemantic words which are sometimes represented by a whole lexico-grammatical class, as it is in case of all pronouns, numerals, conjunctions and various nomenclature words (terms). For example: we, she, nobody, ten, thirty, and, or, atom, oxygen, sugar, today; він, вони, десять, перший, і/та, чи, кисень, цукор, сьогодні, торік, etc.

Common in the contrasted languages are also other means of nomination, which can be of two types: a) inner means and b) outer (borrowed) means, which can be separate morphemes, words, word-groups and even separate sentences.

The inner means of nomination include: 1) morphemes; 2) words; 3) phrases/word-groups and 4) sentences.

Words in all languages constitute the main means of nomination. Thus, in English and Ukrainian they constitute about 75 % of all nominations Structurally they may be: a) simple words (book, boy, new, alone, be, this, known, ten, there, soon; книжка, хлопець, новий, сам, знати, п'ять, скоро, там, добре, etc.); b) compound words (blackboard, classroom, homework, schoolboy, steamship, railway, etc.). Or in Ukrainian: добродій, легковажити, літописець, книголюб, мовознавець, першочергово, перекотиполе, лиходій, чортзнащо, Білогородка, Незовибатько, Добридень, Панібудьласка, etc.

Very productive in present-day English but rare in present-day Ukrainian is the wholophrasal compounding; cf. break-through, sit-in, commander-in-chief, merry-go-round and occasionalisms like a to-be-or-not-to-be question, a don't-beat-me-or-I-shall-cry expression (on his face), etc. Compounds of this type belong to rare stylistic exotisms in Ukrainian. Cf. Наталка " теє того як його" (І. Котляревський), Грицько " чи то я, чи не я" (Г.Тютюнник), " Йосип з гроша здачі" (Б. Харчук). Common and equally productive in the contrasted languages is the nomination by means of word-groups and sentences (usually nominative): fine weather гарна погода, take part брати участь, throw light проливати світло. The rain. The welcome rain. (Longfellow) Вечір. Ніч. (Тичина). These same sentences are nominative in English: Twilight. Night. Nominative sentences may also be extended in both contrasted languages. Cf. A lady's chamber in Bulgaria in a small town near the Dragoman Pass late in November in the year 1885. (B. Shaw) Мокрий сніг, дощі і тумани, тумани. (М. Стельмах).

The onomasiological and semasiological status and structure of words may be changed in the contrasted languages by affixal morphemes as can be seen from the following words: miss - dismiss, elect - reeled, man — mankind, relation — relationship; Київ — киянин — київський, переможний - переможений - непереможний, вибори - перевибори — довибори — виборний — виборчий, післявиборчий, etc.

The prosodic means, especially accent, can sometimes greatly influence the onomasiological and semasiological status of words in English

and Ukrainian as well. This can be seen from the following words: б' conduct (n) - con'duct (v); б'mankind - man'kind; 'замок - за'мок, за'няття - заня'ття, 'колос - ко'лос, пере'їзд - пе'реїзд, ко'рови -коро'ви, 'вівці - вів'ці, 'руки - ру'ки, 'поперек - попе'рек, etc.

A considerable number of semasiologically identical English lexemes often have different onomasiological/structural expression in Ukrainian and vice versa, eg: akimbo — (тримати) руки в боки/взявшись руками в боки; to ski — їздити/ходити на лижвах; to skate — їздити на ковзанах; закохатися/покохати — to fall in love, зрячий — one who can see/one who is not blind; награтися — to play to one's heart's content, реготати - to laugh very loudly, etc.

Genuine internationalisms, naturally, maintain their complete identity of semasiological and onomasiological structures in both contrasted languages, cf.: basis, comedy, drama, biology, parliament, student, transport, opera, the heel of Achilles, sword of Damocles, tabula rasa, finita la comedia; базис, комедія, драма, парламент, опера, ахіллесова п'ята, табула раса, дамоклів меч, фініта ла комедія (справі кінець), etc.

Other borrowings, which do not have the status of internationalisms, mostly maintain their semasiological and onomasiological structure in the source languages and in the borrowing languages. This can be seen from the Turkic or German borrowings in Ukrainian (cf. башлик, баштан, кавун, могорич, хабар, чабан; бинт, лазарет, бухгалтер, бляхар, цех, фельдшер, дах, стільвага, стельмах, деко, etc).

The general correlation of borrowed lexical units as compared with their use in spoken contrasted languages is far from equal, however. Its percentage in English is over 70 % and in Ukrainian only ab. 10 % of their universal lexicons.

Among other common features of lexicon testifying to its systemic arrangement are the common types of motivation, the main of which in English, Ukrainian and in many other languages are three: phonetical, morphological and semantic by nature.

1. All phonetically motivated words have their sounding structure somewhat similar to the sounds which they convey. Due to this, some of these English, Ukrainian and other languages' words thus motivated sound

almost or quite alike. For example: to cade - кудкудакати, cock-a-doodle-doo — кукуріку, bang — бух/бухнути, bark - гав/гавкати, buzz - дзижчати, chirp/chirrup - цвірінькати, cuckoo - кукукати/ кукувати, crack — трісь/тріщати, gagle - ґелґотати, hey! — гей!, hiss - шипіти/сичати, hoop - 'гукати (сигналити), howl - вити, smack (one's lips) цмокати, moo - мукати, mewl - нявкати, baa / ba: / бе-е, бекати (вівці), etc.

These are naturally far from all the words whose notional meaning in the contrasted languages is based on sound imitation. Nevertheless, their number in comparison to other types of motivated words is not large, constituting in English about 1.08 % and in Ukrainian only about 0.8 %.

2. The morphological motivation in the contrasted languages remains the major one. It is characteristic of numerous notional words, in which it is clearly indicated by the affixal morphemes. For example, by suffixes: doer one who does smth; flyer one who flies; detainee one who is detained; examin ee one who is examined; chang able that which is subjected to change/can be changed; mov able smth. that can be moved, etc. A similar function may be performed by some prefixal morphemes in both contrasted languages. Cf.: asleep the one who is in the state of sleeping; bedew to cover with dew; overturn to turn smth. over; ex-president the one who was president, etc.

Similarly in Ukrainian: оповідач той, хто оповідає/розповідає; писар той, хто пише; співець той, хто співає; ношений якого (що) носили; смажений якого (що) смажили; читаючий який читає, носач той, що має великого носа; митець той, хто творить якийсь вид мистецтва (швидко чи дуже якісно/майстерно) малює, будує, співає, танцює; злітати підніматися вище попереднього місця перебування; переказати (щось) розповісти вдруге вже раз сказане чи написане; передісторія історія, що була перед цією/відомою історією; вчетверте те, що повторюється четвертий раз; поверх (чогось) - щось понад чимсь чи додатково до чогось, etc.

Compound words are either morphologically or semantically motivated in the contrasted languages. All morphologically motivated compounds have their component lexical meaning composed of lexical meanings pertaining to each of their parts, eg: air-crew is a crew of an aircraft;

after-effect effect that occurs after some action; to blackboard to write on a black board. Similarly in other words as good-neighbourhood being near good neighbours, classroom (room for classes or for schoolchildren), drawbridge, halfpenny, landowner, minethrower (thrower of mines), note-book (book for notes), self-defence, a schoolboy, Zululand (land of the Zulus), etc. Their meaning is also made by their component parts. Or in Ukrainian: вільнодумець (думає про волю), добродійник (робить добро), домовласник (володіє домом), електродояр, кожум'яка (мне шкуру тварин), кораблеводіння, користолюбство (любить корисливість), лизогуб (облизує губи), лісовод, маслоробня, марнотратство (витрата чогось без користі, марно), etc.

Morphologically motivated words in the contrasted languages naturally constitute the largest part of their motivated lexicons: 88, 5 % in English and 91.8 % in Ukrainian.

3. Semantic motivation of lexical units is displayed by the figurative/ connotative meaning of words or phrases, representing the transferred meanings of their denotata. This is expressed by many semantically motivated words and word-groups in both contrasted languages. Cf. foot of a mountain підніжжя гори, hand/hands of a watch стрілка/стрілки (схожі на руки) годинника, to keep house вести домашнє господарство, an ancient house стародавній рід (династія); the house of Tudor династія Тюдорів; the first/second house перший/другий сеанс (у кінотеатрі); bed of roses легке/розкішне життя; bed of a river русло річки; bed of honour поле бою; arm рука, but: secular arm світська влада; the arm of the law сила закону; the arm of the sea вузька затока; the arms of a coat рукава (піджака, пальта); the arms of a tree великі гілляки дерева; the arms of a chair бильця (крісла), a coat of arms герб, etc.

Many similar examples of semantic motivation of words are also observed in Ukrainian: легка/важка рука (дегко/дошкульно б'є), легкий/ важкий на руку, липкі руки/липкий на руку (злодій); купатися в розкошах, купатися в славі/купатися в промінні південного сонця, братися за справу (діло), etc. Their meanings are very transparent and mostly need no further explanation.

Some words denoting in the contrasted languages popular names of flowers, trees, birds, and animals have a transparent etymological motivation as well. Thus, in English and Ukrainian bluet (flower) is васильок, bluebell is дзвоник, blue-bottle is васильок which is blue (синій), blackbird is чорний дрізд, blackcock is тетерук, black berry means ожина, horse-tail/cat's tail means хвощ, redwood means секвоя, umbrella-tree means американська магнолія, violet means фіалка. More similar examples may also be found in English and Ukrainian: жовтець (yellow gold), чорниця (bilberry), чорнобривці (French marigold), чорногуз (чорне гузно), чорнослив (smocked prunes), соняшник (sunflower), куцохвостий (заєць), круторогі (воли), серпокрилець (стриж).

A brilliant example of etymological semantic motivation present in Ukrainian and Byelorussian (or Polish) names of months. Cf. січень (сніг січе), лютий (мороз лютує), березень (береза сік пускає), квітень (перші квіти - проліски з'являються і зацвітають), липень (липа зацвітає), серпень (серпами жали і жнуть збіжжя), etc.

Semantic motivation may be observed in idiomatic expressions as well. Cf. not to have a farthing (не мати копійки/шеляга за душею); not for time or money/not for the world (ні за що в світі/ні за які гроші), cold war/paper war; to bare resemblance; to make both ends meet; like two drops of water; не знати ні бе ні ме (ні кукуріку); хоч з мосту та в воду; язик до Києва доведе; наговорити сім кіп/мішків гречаної вовни to say (talk) much nonsense; хмари згущуються (над кимось); ходячі мощі, ходяча енциклопедія, etc.

Semanticallу motivated lexical units constitute in English about 10 % and in Ukrainian about 7.4 % of their total motivated lexicons. Generally, however, a great many words in English, Ukrainian and in other languages have no clear motivation, i. e. their etymology remains obscure, far from explicable at present. It has been lost in the course of semantic development of these words. As a result, one can not say why the " sun" is named the sun and the " head" or the " heart" have been named this way and not otherwise. Because of the obscure etymology most words and some collocations/idiomatic expressions remain non-motivated in the contrasted languages. In other words, their motivation is impossible to identify nowadays on the basis of their componental meanings.