Записки з романо-германської філології (Apr 2015)
English lexical semantic field “precious stones” (motivation aspect)
Abstract
The given article deals with the investigation of the lexical semantic field “precious stones” in the English language, namely its motivation aspect. The etymology of the precious stones nominations is being analyzed and the features upon which the inner form of the investigated nominations are defined in the article. The aim of our research is to analyze the motivational aspect of English nominations of precious stones from the retrospective point of view. The analysis of the etymology of the nominations of precious stones is based on the explanatory and etymological dictionaries of the English language. The research of the etymology in the above mentioned dictionaries, allows to determine not only the source language, the initial meaning and the form of the word - etymon, but also certain motivation and patterns of nomination of the precious stones. All the dictionaries used in the study contain data about the source language, according to which the majority of English names of precious stones were borrowed directly from French, which can be explained by prolonged impact of this language on English and by the peculiarities of the socio-cultural context of this action. Thus, it is clear why the French borrowing make up 53% of our selection. Four times fewer nominations were borrowed from German - 13%, from Latin were borrowed 19% of considered nominations. We single out also a group of names of precious stones of so-called Eastern origin (borrowed from Arabic, Persian and other languages), which make up 13%. As for the rest of the nominations (about 2%), the explanatory dictionaries do not give the information about their origin and etymological dictionaries do not contain these nominations. It should be noted that most of the names were borrowed indirectly, for example, a nominative unit of Greek origin was borrowed by Latin, then - by French, and from French as the source language – it was borrowed by English. We estimate that 43% of analysed nominations are of the Greek origin. The analysis of the lexicographic data of the origin of the names of precious stones allowed to identify several features being the basis of the given nominations. The largest group - 36% - is made up by nominations which reflect the color characteristic of precious stones. For example, the word "ruby" comes from the Latin "rubeus, red". Another group comprises 13 nominations (10%), based on the form of precious stones such as cabochon - way round-cut gems - got its name from the resemblance to head: "cabochon - F. caboche, head". In addition to the above, we distinguish several groups of nominations by such factors as: composition of minerals, for example, the name Titanite comes from the name of a chemical element that is part of the mineral: "titanite - a silicate of calcium and titanium"; lustre, for example, mineral augite: "augite - Gr. auge, brightness "; transparency: "dioptase - Gr. dia, through, optazein, to see "; hardness: "diamond - a doublet of adamant, unconquerable" (as it is known, diamond is the hardest precious stones). All considered examples determine the inner form of nomination – that is color, shape, composition, luster, hardness and transparency. Another group - 39 nominations – is made up by names, which are based on the relative features reflecting relationships of an object with other objects, which often belong to another class. This includes names of precious stones, that got its name from the location - 18%: “chalcedony – after Khalkedon, ancient town in Asia Minor”; names of countries and different localities: “turquoise – fr. OF turqueise, Turkish (because it was first introduced into Europe from Turkey)”; names of people: “zoisite – named after its discoverer, Baron S. Zois von Edelstein, Slovenian nobleman”; magic and healing properties: “amethyst – f. Gk amethustos, not drunken, the stone being supposed to prevent intoxication”. So, the analysis of constituents of lexical semantic field "precious stones " in English on motivational level from retrospective point of view, showed that the basis of nominations of precious minerals is their characteristics (in our case - the appearance (color, shape, luster, transparency, hardness and composition of precious stones), and the relative feature (in our case gems that got their nomination from the location, from the name of a person and form different functions). The color is a conceptual feature, one of the most productive features for the names of precious stones.
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