THE FUNCTIONING OF LEXICAL-SEMANTIC FIELD “METAL” IN JACK LONDON’S SHORT STORY “ALL GOLD CANYON”
Journal Title: Записки з романо-германської філології - Year 2014, Vol 1, Issue
Abstract
The article is dedicated to the investigation of the functioning of lexical-semantic field “Metal” in the literature. The contents of the lexical-semantic field is being determined and the cases of direct and transferred usage of metal nominations observed in the given text are being analyzed. The thematic group “Metal” is being picked out. In modern linguistics lexical-semantic field is defined as a set of lexical units which are integrated through common content. LSF is characterised by the presence of a common semantic feature, which brings together all the units of the field and which is usually expressed by a generalized meaning. This integral feature, which combines the constituents of an LSF, is known in linguistic literature as "archseme" according to Z.D. Popova. With the development of modern linguistics, the so-called concrete vocabulary, which includes the constituents of LSF "Metal", has not been thoroughly investigated, particularly in the English language fiction, which determines the relevance of this work. Based on the above, we made an attempt to study a literary text in order to research the functional peculiarities of LSF "Metal" and to single out thematic group "Metal" by continuous sampling of lexical units belonging to semantic field "metal". The material of this study is based on a selection of samples from short story "All Gold Canyon" by Jack London. Thematic group "Metal" was singled out through continuous sampling of the text. The constituents of the present thematic group were selected on the basis of the commonality of content and are represented by the following nominations: gold, golden, gold-pan, golden speck, golden herd, gold-bearing dirt, golden dust, golden stream, virgin gold, gold trace, chunk of gold, uprooted gold, heart of the gold, gold colors, metal, steel, iron- fillings, nails. A total of 18 constituents of the thematic group were singled out. The nominations occur in the text 79 times. Gold mining is symbolically represented as the abuse of nature. In the analyzed text we singled out two oppositional artistic concepts: MAN VS METAL, and MAN VS NATURE, where Man shows love and affection for a precious metal while being associated with a destructive force in relation to nature. The study helped to single out thematic group "Metal", where nomination "gold" was selected as the center of the group since it is the most recurrent of all the registered nominations. The analysis of all the cases of nominations of metal in the literary text helps to determine that the constituents of LSF "Metal" function in such areas as: the description of emotional state, the description of natural phenomena and the direct nomination of various metals.
Authors and Affiliations
A. Belotsercovets
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP415543
- DOI -
- Views 89
- Downloads 0
STRATEGY AS A BASIC INSTRUMENT OF COGNITIVE ANALYSIS OF COMMUNICATION
The article attempts at integration of the communicative strategy concept into the framework of cognitive linguistics. It makes a case for application of such an instrument of cognitive analysis as a script of communicat...
THE LINGUISTIC-CULTURAL CONCEPT YANKEE IN THE ENGLISH-LANGUAGE WORLD-PICTURE
The article is dedicated to the analysis of the nominative, connotative and image constituents of the concept YANKEE in the English-language world-picture and to the determination of discrepancies in the perception of th...
LEXICAL MEANS OF THEME AND RHEME DEFINITION IN UKRAINIAN AND ENGLISH
Lexical means of Theme and Rheme definition in Ukrainian and English are analyzed in the article. Among them are: negative pronouns, negative particles, special questions, parenthetic and modal words, approximators. The...
THE FUNCTIONING OF LEXICAL-SEMANTIC FIELD “METAL” IN JACK LONDON’S SHORT STORY “ALL GOLD CANYON”
The article is dedicated to the investigation of the functioning of lexical-semantic field “Metal” in the literature. The contents of the lexical-semantic field is being determined and the cases of direct and transferred...
PROSODIC INTERFERENCE IN THE SPEECH OF ENGLISH SPEAKING CITIZENS OF QUEBEC
The article deals with the problem of prosodic interference in the English speech of Quebec’ citizens. Canada is the second after France French speaking country in the world. But the majority of the country is inhabited...