WORD-GROUPS

I. VALENCY OF WORDS
 Words put together to form lexical units
make phrases or word-groups.
 The largest two-facet lexical unit
comprising more than one word is the
word-group observed on the syntagmatic
level of analysis.
 The two main linguistic factors are the
lexical and the grammatical/syntactic
valancy of words.
 1.1. LEXICAL VALENCY

 Words are used in certain lexical contexts (in combination

with other words).
 The noun question + adjectives: vital, pressing, urgent,
disputable, delicate, etc.
 Verb + question: to raise a question, a question of great
importance, a question of the agenda, of the day.
 Lexical valency is the possibility of lexico-semantic
connections of a word with other words.
 Lexical collocability is the realisation in speech of the
potential connections of a word with other words.
 Lexical valency acquires special importance in case
of polysemy – through the lexical valency different
meanings of a polysemantic word can be
distinguished, e.g.
 heavy weight (book, table, etc.),
 heavy snow (storm, rain, etc.),
 heavy drinker (eater, etc.),
 heavy sleep (disappointment, sorrow, etc.),
 heavy industry (tanks, etc.), and so on.
 These word-groups are called collocations or such
combinations of words which condition the realization
of a certain meaning
 The range of the lexical valency of words is
linguistically restricted by the inner structure of the
English word-stock.
 Though the verbs lift and raise are treated as
synonyms, only raise is collocated with the noun
question.
 The verb take may be interpreted as ‘grasp’, ’seize’,
‘catch’, etc. but only take is found in collocations with
the nouns examination, measures, precautions, etc.,
only catch in catch smb. napping and grasp in grasp
the truth.
 The restrictions of lexical valency of words may
manifest themselves in the lexical meanings of the
polysemantic members of word-groups.

 The adjective heavy, e.g., is combined with the

words food, meals, supper, etc. in the meaning
‘rich and difficult to digest’.
 But not all the words with the same component of
meaning can be combined with this adjective
*heavy cheese or *heave sausage.
 1.2. GRAMMATICAL/SYNTACTIC
VALENCY

 Syntactic valency is the aptness of a word to appear in

different syntactic structures.

 The minimal syntactic context in which words are used

when brought together to form word-groups is described
as the pattern of the word-groups.

 E.g., the verb to offer can be followed by the infinitive

(to offer to do smth) and the noun (to offer a cup of tea).
 The verb to suggest can be followed by the gerund (to
suggest doing smth) and the noun (to suggest an idea).
The syntactic valency of these verbs is different.
 The adjectives clever and intelligent are seen to
possess different syntactic valency as clever can
be used in word-groups having the pattern:
 Adjective-Preposition at+Noun: clever at
mathematics, whereas intelligent can never be
found in exactly the same word-group pattern.

 The syntactic valency of correlated words in

different languages is not identical,
 E.g.: in English to influence a person, a decision, a
choice (verb +noun) - in Ukrainian впливати на
людину, рішення, вибір (verb+ preposition+noun).
TASK. State meanings of the given
polysemantic adjectives on the basis of their
lexical valency, i.e. with the help of nouns they
are combined with.
 dry: 1) shirt, soil, paint; 2) climate, month, heat,
summer; 3) sherry, wine; 4) book, subject,
lecture, text; 5) joke, answer, humour, thanks,
manners;
 ugly: 1) face, man, houses, furniture, building,
picture, surroundings; 2) scene, wound,
confrontation, clouds; 3) ideas, feelings,
rumours, moment;
 full: 1) bottle, glass, train, drawer, mouth; 2)
truth, name, address year, height; 3) speed,
marks, force, gallop.
II. SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE OF
WORD-GROUPS
 Syntactic structure (formula) is the
description of the order and arrangement
of member-words in word-groups as
parts of speech.

 E.g.an old woman, a blue dress - A+N;

 to wash a car, to read books – V+N.
 The structure of word-groups may also be
described in relation to the head-word.
Thus, it is usual to speak of the pattern but
not of formulas.
 E.g., the patterns of the verbal groups to
read a book, to wash a car are to read +
N, to wash + N.
 Syntactic pattern implies the description
of the structure of the word-group in which
a given word is used as its head.
III.CLASSIFICATION OF WORD-GROUPS
 According to the syntactic pattern:
1. predicative word-groups have a syntactic
structure similar to that of a sentence, they
comprise the subject and the predicate, e.g. he
went, John works.
2. non-predicative word-groups do not comprise
the subject and the predicate and may be
subdivided into
a) subordinative (e.g. red flower, a man of
wisdom);
b) coordinative (e.g. women and children, do or
die).
According to the criterion of distribution:

1.ENDOCENTRIC WORD-GROUPS (having one

central member functionally equivalent to the
whole word-group).

In the word-group blue dress, kind to

people, the head-words are the noun dress
and the adjective kind correspondingly.
2. EXOCENTRIC WORD-GROUPS (having no
central component and the distribution of the
whole word-group is different from either of its
members).

For instance, the distribution of the word-groups side

by side, at first, grow smaller is not identical with
the distribution of their component-members, i.e.
the component-members are not syntactically
substitutable for the whole word-group.
According to their central members:

a) nominal groups or phrases (blue dress),

b) adjectival groups (kind to people),
c) verbal groups (to sing well),
d) adverbial (very fluently),
e) numerical (five of them),
f) pronominal (nothing to do),
g) statival (aware).
 According to the motivation:

a) lexically motivated - if the combined lexical

meaning of the group is deducible from the meaning
of its components (heavy table, read a book);

b) lexically non-motivated - if the combined lexical

meaning of the group is not deducible from the
meaning of its components, such a word-group is
(take place = occur, red tape = official bureaucratic
methods).
TASK. Classify each word group according to the four
principles of classification:
Distribution – Endocentric or Exocentric
Syntactic Pattern – Predicative, Non-Predicative
(Coordinative, or Subordinative)
Part of Speech of the Head Word – Nominal, Adjectival,
Verbal, Adverbial, Numerical, Pronominal, or Statival
Motivation – Lexically Motivated or Non-Motivated

 Cold water
 Rather sharply
 Kick the bucket
 Five of them
 Live and learn
 III. TYPES OF MEANING OF WORD-GROUPS
3.1. The lexical meaning

 of the word-group may be defined as the combined

lexical meaning of the component words, e.g. blind
man may be described denotationally as the combined
meaning of the words blind and man.
 However, in most cases the lexical meanings of the
word-group predominates over the lexical meanings of
its components, e.g. blind date.
 Polysemantic words are used in word-
groups only in one of their meanings.
These meanings of the component
words in such word-groups are mutually
interdependent and inseparable.
Semantic inseparability of word-groups
treats them as self-contained lexical
units.
 4.2. The structural meaning

of the word-group is the meaning conveyed

mainly by the pattern of arrangement of its
components,
e.g., such word-groups as school grammar
and grammar school are semantically
different because of the difference in the
pattern of arrangement of the component
words.
 4.3. Interrelation of lexical and structural meaning in
word-groups
The lexical and structural components of meaning in
word-groups are interdependent and inseparable. The
structural pattern in all the day long, all the night long,
all the week long in ordinary usage and the word-
group all the sun long is identical. The generalised
meaning of the pattern ‘a unit of time’.
Replacing day, night, week by the sun structural
meaning of the pattern does not change. The group all
the sun long functions semantically as a unit of time.
But the noun sun included in the group continues to
carry the semantic value or the lexical meaning that it
has in word-groups of other structural patterns (cf. the
sun rays, African sun, etc.).
 Compare two nominal phrases a factory hand − ‘a
factory worker’ and a hand bag − ‘a bag carried in
the hand’. Though the word hand makes part of
both its lexical meaning and the role it plays in the
structure of word-groups is different which accounts
for the difference in the lexical and structural
meaning of the word-groups under discussion.

 Thus, the meaning of the word-group is derived

from the combined lexical meanings of its
constituents and is inseparable from the meaning of
the pattern of their arrangement.
V. MOTIVATION IN WORD-GROUPS
 A word-group is lexically-motivated if the
combined lexical meaning of the group is
deducible from the meaning of its components,
e.g. white snow, strong tea, give a lesson.

 If the combined lexical meaning of a word-

group is not deducible from the lexical
meanings of its constituent components, such a
word-group is lexically non-motivated, e.g.
red tape (official bureaucratic methods) take
place (occur).
 The degree of motivation can be different.
Between the extremes of complete motivation
and lack of motivation there are innumerable
intermediate cases.

 E.g., the degree of lexical motivation in the

nominal group black market is higher than in
black death, but lower than in black dress,
though none of the groups can be considered
completely non-motivated.
 Identical word-groups are sometimes
found to be motivated or non-motivated
depending on their semantic
interrelation:
E.g., apple sauce is lexically motivated
when it means ‘a sauce made of apples’
but when used to denote ‘nonsense’ it is
clearly non-motivated.

 Completely non-motivated or partially

motivated word-groups are called
phraseological units or idioms.
TASK. Define whether the word-groups
are lexically-motivated or non-
motivated:

 Hot tea, Cold-blooded, Bookworm, Heavy rain,

Kick the bucket, Sweet dreams, Fast food,
Strong coffee, Green-eyed monster, Open-
minded, Break the ice, Slow motion, Couch
potato, Hard worker, Spill the beans, Soft
music, Piece of cake, Bitter truth, Black sheep.
Summary and Conclusions
1. Words put together to form lexical
units make up phrases or word-
groups. The main factors active in
bringing words together are lexical
and grammatical valency of the
components of word-groups.
2. Lexical valency is the aptness of a
word to appear in various
collocations. All the words of the
language possess a certain norm of
lexical valency.
3. Lexical valency of polysemantic
words is observed in various
collocations in which these words are
used.
4. Lexical collocability is the
realisation in speech of the potential
connections of a word with other
words.
4. Syntactic valency is the aptness of a
word to appear in various syntactic
structures. All words possess a certain
norm of syntactic valency.

5. Individual meanings of a polysemantic

word may be described through its
syntactic valency.
6. Structurally, word-groups may be
classified by the criterion of
distribution into endocentric and
exocentric.
8. Semantically all word-groups may be
classified into motivated and non-
motivated. Non-motivated word-
groups are usually described as
phraseological units.
Questions?
*
Thank you!