Monosemantic and Polysemantic Words

In the course of historic development of the English language words have undergone many changes. When we analyse the semantic structure of the words we notice that they are not units of a single meaning.

Monosemantic words, i.e. words having only one meaning, are compara­tively few in number; they are mainly scientific terms such as molecule, hy­ drogen and the like.

Most words convey several notions and thus have several meanings; they are called polysemantic words. A well-developed polysemy is a great advan­tage in a language.

Semantic Structure of a Word

The system of meaning of a word is called its semantic structure, and not only due to the sum of meaning: each separate meaning is subject to further subdivision and possesses an inner structure of its own.

Therefore, the semantic structure of a word should be investigated at both these levels:

1. of different meanings;

2. of semantic components within each separate meaning.

Let us treat the semantic structure of the polysemantic word fire on the first level:

flame - огонь

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1) fire - пожар (a forest fire),

2) burning material in a stove - огонь, жар (a fire in the room),

3) орудийный огонь, стрельба (to open fire),

4) огонь, жар, страсть, энтузиазм (a speech lacking fire).

Meaning 1 holds a kind of dominance over other meanings conveying it in the most general way. Meanings 2-5, 2-4 in the words given below are asso­ciated with special circumstances, aspects and instances of the same phenome­non:

table: 1) плита, 2) стол, З) пища, стол, 4) таблица, 5) застолье;

bridge: 1) мост, мостик, 2) капитанский мостик, 3) переносица, 4) мост (для зубов).

Each separate meaning may be represented as a set of semantic compo­nents (semes). In terms of componental analysis the meaning of a word repre­sents a set of elements of meaning which are rather theoretical elements.

Polysemy can be approached to diachronically and synchronically. By diachronic approach we see the change in the semantic structure of the word; the word may keep its previous meaning or meanings and at the same time it gets one or several new ones.

Then the problem or interrelation and interdependence of different mean­ings of a polysemantic word may be roughly formulated as follows: did the word always have all the meanings, or did some of them appear earlier than the others? Are the new meanings dependent on the meanings already exist­ing? What is the nature of this dependence?

Primary and Secondary Meanings

By diachronic approach we distinguish the primary meaning: table - a flat slab of stone and wood (плита), and secondary meanings (all the other mean­ings): стол, пища, таблица - as they are derived from the primary meaning of the word and appeared later than the primary meaning.

The terms «secondary» (вторичное) and «derived» (производное) meanings are to a certain extent synonymous. The term «secondary» denotes (implies) that this meaning appeared after the primary meaning.

When we refer to the meaning «derived» we do not only stress the fact that the meaning appeared after the primary one, but also that it is dependent on the primary meaning and somehow subordinate to it. E.g. in the case of the word table we may say that the meaning «food put on the table» is derived from the meaning «a piece of furniture on which meals are laid». As this par­ticular meaning is derived through metonymic shift (change), we can also de­scribe it as secondary and metonymic.

It follows that the main source of polysemy is a change in the semantic structure of the word.

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Basic and Minor Meanings

Synchronically we understand polysemy as the coexistence of different meanings of the same word at a certain historical period of the development of the English language. Here the problems are as follows: are all the meanings equal in the semantic structure of this word? Is the order in which the mean­ings are enumerated in dictionaries arbitrary, or does it reflect the comparative value of individual meanings?

By synchronic approach we must distinguish the basic (the central) mean­ ing of the word and the minor meanings. The basic meaning of the word is representative of the word in isolation, while the minor meanings are observed only in certain contexts, e.g.: table - «a piece of furniture» (central meaning). All the other meanings are minor.

A proper objective criterion of the comparative value of individual mean­ings is the frequency of their occurence in speech, which may be different:

table 1) стол (52% of all the uses of the word);

2) таблица (35% of all the uses of the word);

3) all the other meanings (13%).

Of great importance is the stylistic stratification of meanings of a polysemantic word because not only words but individual meanings too may differ in their stylistic reference, e.g., there is nothing colloquial in the word yellow in the meaning «a certain colour», but when yellow is used in the mean­ing of «sensational», it is both slang and American.

The semantic structure of words is never static, and the relationship be­tween the diachronic and synchronic evaluation of individual meanings may be different in different periods of the historical development of language.

Thus, the primary meaning of the word may become synchronically one of the minor meanings, and diachronically a secondary meaning may function as the central meaning of the word, e.g., revolution in 1600 in the meaning «revolving motion» (восстание) was both primary (diachronically) and central (synchronically), while the meaning «a complete overthrow of the established government» (свержение) and other meanings were minor ones. In Modern English the meaning «revolving motion» is primary diachronically, but it is no longer synchronically central, as the arrangement of meanings in the semantic structure of the word «revolution» has greatly changed, and the most frequent meaning is «a complete overthrow of the established government or regime».

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SYNONYMS

1. The definition of synonyms.

2. The synonymic dominant.

3. Classification of synonyms.

4. Types of connotations.

5. Sources of synonymy.

The Definition of Synonyms

Synonymy is one of the most difficult and controversial problems, and the most controversial point is the problem of criteria of synonymy and the definition of synonyms.

Traditional linguistics solved the problem with the notional criterion and defined synonyms as words of the same part of speech conveying the same notion but differing either in shades of meaning or in stylistic characteristics.

Some aspects of this definition have been criticised. It has been pointed out that linguistic phenomena should be defined in linguistic terms and the term «notion» makes this an extralinguistic definition.

In contemporary linguistics the semantic criterion of synonymy is fre­quently used. In terms of componental analysis synonyms may be defined as words with the same or nearly the same denotation (or the denotative compo­nents) but differing in connotations (in emotive charge or in stylistic character­istics).

to begin - to start - to commence (stylistic reference),

to put - to place - to lay - to set - to deposite (shades of meaning),

to tremble - to shiver - to shudder (shades of meaning),

to like - to admire - to love (emotive charge).

The verbs to like - to admire - to love describe feelings of attraction, fondness, but each of them describes it in its own way:

to like - certain warm feeling;

to admire - a stronger emotive charge;

to love - the strongest feeling.

denotation connotations

to like - to like (warm feeling)

to admire - to like (warmer feeling)

to love - to like (the strongest possible emotion)

to stare - tolook (lastingly, in surprise, curiosity)

to gaze - to look (lastingly, in admiration, wonder)

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to glare - to look (lastingly, in anger, fury)

to glance - to look (briefly, in passing)

to peep - to look (lastingly, stealingly through an opening or from

a concealed location)

to peer - to look (lastingly, with difficulty or strain)

The common denotation convincingly shows that according to the semantic criterion, these words are synonyms. The connotative components are different.

to look

to glance - to look quickly, suddenly,

to glimpse - to look still quicker, to have a momentary look.

In great number of cases the semantic difference between two or more synonyms is supported by the difference in their valency, syntactical or lexical. Valency denotes the combining power or typical co-occurrence of a linguistic element.

to tremble - to shiver from cold, to shudder from disgust;

high tree - tall man;

beautiful woman - handsome man;

to answer a question - to reply to a question;

to say something to somebody - to tell somebody;

to finish school - to graduate from university;

to offer a concrete thing - to suggest an idea: going; that he go.

The Synonymic Dominant

Each synonymic group has a dominant element. The synonymic dominant is the most general term potentially containing the specific features rendered by all other members of the group.

to look - to stare - to gaze - to glance - to peep;

to leave - to depart - to retire - to clear out;

to ask - to inquire - to question - to interrogate.

The synonymic dominant is characterized by the following features:

- high frequency of usage;

- broad combinability, i.e. ability to be used in combinations with various
classes of words;

- broad general meaning;

- lack of connotations.

The synonymic dominant should not be confused with a generic term. It is relative and serves as the name for the notion of the genus as dintinguished from the names of the kinds, e.g.: the -word furniture is a generic term for a table, a chair, a stool, a bookcase, a wardrobe, etc.

Classification of Synonyms

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Acad. V.V. Vinogradov established the following classification of syno­nyms: ideographic, stylistic, ideographic-stylistic, contextual, absolute (total).

Ideographic synonyms are words conveying the same notion but differing in shades of meaning or emotions expressed: a piece - a lump - a slice; to tremble - to shiver - to shudder; anger - fury; to like - to admire - to love.

Stylistic synonyms are words conveying the same notion but different in stylistic characteristics:

to begin - to start - to commence;

sky - heaven (poetic);

to see - to behold (archaic);

horse - steed (poetic);

to try - to endeavour (bookish).

Stylistic colouring may also be accompanied by a difference in emotional colouring or some other shades of meaning:

to say - to pronounce;

head - onion;

money - cabbage;

face - puss.

Such synonyms are called ideographic-stylistic.

Contextual synonyms are similar in meaning only under some specific distributional conditions. Thus, the words bear, stand, suffer are synonyms only when used in the negative form: can't stand it - can't suffer it - can't bear it. Otherwise, all these verbs are semantically different.

Absolute (total) synonyms are words coinciding in all their shades of meaning and in all their stylistic characteristics. Absolute synonyms are usu­ally technical and scientific terms, they are rare in the vocabulary and tempo­rary. The vocabulary system tends to reject one of the absolute synonyms or to develop differentiation of characteristics in one or both (or all) of them: noun -substantive; flection - ending; oculist - eye-specialist.

Types of Connotations

A more modern and effective approach to the classification of synonyms may be based on the definition describing synonyms as words differing in connotations:

- connotation of degree or intensity:
to surprise - to astonish - to amaze;
to shout - to yell - to bellow - to roar;

to like - to admire - to love - to adore - to worship;

- connotation of duration of the action:

to stare - to glare - to gaze - to glance - to peep - to peer; to say (brief) - to speak - to talk (lasting);

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to shudder ( brief) - to shiver (lasting);

- emotive connotations:

to stare (surprise) - to glare (anger, fury) - to gaze (admiration, tender­ness);

to tremble - to shudder (with horror, disgust);

alone - lonely (feeling of melancholy);

to sparkle (with positive emotions) - to glitter (with negative emotions);

- the evaluative connotation (labelling something as good or bad):
well-known - famous - notorius (negative connotation) - celebrated

(positive one);

- the causative connotation:

to sparkle (with positive emotions, e.g., happiness, high spirit, etc.) - to glitter (with negative emotions - anger, rage, hatred);

to tremble - to shiver (from cold) - to shudder (from disgust, fear, hor­ror);

to blush (from modesty, shame, embarassment) - to redden (from anger, indignation);

- the connotation of manner of the action:
to run - to dash (to run very quickly);

to stroll (прогуливаться) - to stride (идти широким шагом) - to trot (бежать рысью) - to pace (ходить взад и вперед, шагать) - to stagger (идти шатаясь) - to stumble (идти, запинаясь о неровности) - to shamble (идти, тяжело волоча ноги);

- the connotation of attendant circumstances:

to peep (look stealingly through a hole, crack or opening, from behind a newspaper, a fan or a curtain) - to peer (in darkness, through the fog, dimmed glasses or windows, from a great distance);

- the connotation of attendant features:

handsome (a tall stature, fine proportions) - beautiful (usually - classical features and a perfect figure) - pretty (small delicate features);

- stylistic connotations:

girl - lass (dial.) - girlie (coll.) - maiden (poetic) - clamsel (arch.) - bird (slang); to be off, to clear out (coll.) - to take the air (slang) - to depart, to re­tire, to withdraw (formal).

Synonyms are one of the language's most important expressive means. They are the basis of language culture. To speak correctly and well one must know a lot of synonyms and differences between them.

To define the character of the synonymic relations between the words it is necessary to analyse all the meanings and occurrences of the words. It can be done with the help of contextual, componental and contrastive analyses.

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Sources of Synonymy                        „, ₀

Wide synonymity in English is due to a great number of borrowings^

Quite a number of words in a synonymic set are usually of Latin or French

origin.

fair (native) - beautiful (Fr.)

begin (native) - commence (Fr.) - initiate (L.).

EUPHEMISMS

1. Superstitious taboos.

2. Social taboos.

Superstitious Taboos

A special source of synonymy is the so-called euphemism (eu - well, phemi -1 speak).

Euphemism is a way of speaking by which an unpleasant, improper _or offensive thing is designated by an indirect and milder term.

The roots of euphemisms lie in religious taboos which dictated the avoid­ance of certain terms, such as words connected with death, sacred beings, devil, etc. Such euphemisms are called superstitious taboos.

Superstitious taboos have their roots in the distant past of mankind when people believed that there was a supernatural link between a name and the ob­ject or creature it represented. Therefore, all the words denoting evil spirits, dangerous animals, or the powers of nature were taboo. If uttered, it was be­lieved that unspeakable disasters would result not only for the speaker but also for those near him.

That is why all creatures, objects and phenomena threatening danger were referred to in a round-about descriptive way. So, a dangerous animal might be described as the one-lurking-in-the-wood, a mortal disease - the black death.

The Christian religion also makes certain words taboo. The fear of calling the devil by name (proverb «Speak of the devil and he will come») was inher­ited from ancient superstitious beliefs. So, the word devil became taboo, and a number of euphemisms began to substitute it: the Prince of Darkness, the black one, dickens (coll.), (Old) Nick (coll.).

Since the 16th century, when the use of the words god, Jesus and the Trinity was forbidden in profane language many synonymic substitutes to des­ignate these ideas were developed, e.g. instead of god - cock, cot, gog, gosh, goodness, goodness gracious, Lord, the Maker, Good, by Heavens.

Even in modern times most people are reluctant to use the verb to die. It has the following euphemisms: to pass away, to be taken, to breathe one's last,

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to depart this life, to close one's eyes, to go the way of all flesh, to go West (si.), to kick off (si.), to kick the bucket (si.), to join the majority, to go to an­other world.

In the insurance companies people write: «If anything should happen to me...» (if I should die).

Instead of dead it is common to say: the departed, the deceased, the late Mr. Smith, etc.

Social Taboos

Euphemism is a frequent occurrence in Modem English, it is a wider phe­nomenon than a taboo was, and it has spread to many spheres of life. Such euphemisms can be called social taboos.

The word lavatory has produced a great number of euphemisms: powder room, washroom, restroom, retiring room, comfort station, ladies' room, gen­tlemen's room, water-closet, W.C., Windsor Castle (comical phrase for deci­phering), this is it! (coll.), to spend a penny, to wash one's hands; where is what do you call it?

Pregnancy is another topic for «delicate» references: to have a belly, she eaten beans, (big) with child, with a baby coming, in an interesting condition, in a delicate condition, in the family way.

The word trousers not so long ago, had a great number of euphemisms: unmentionables, unwhisperables, indescribables, inexpressibles, sit-upons, etc.

The adjective drunk is often substituted by: merry, fresh, overcome, full (coll.); drunk as a Lord (coll.), drunk as an owl (coll.), soaked (si.), half-seas-over (si.), high as a kite (si.), tight (si.), intoxicated (formal), under the influ­ence (form.).

Euphemisms may be used due to concern not to hurt someone's feelings, e.g., a liar can be described as a person who does not always strictly tell the truth, untruthful; a stupid man - not exactly brilliant, unwise; dirty - untidy, unclear; slattern - inaccurate, etc.; naked- in one's birthday shirt; overeating -indigestion; sweat - perspiration.

Mental diseases also cause wide use of euphemisms: a mad person may be described as insane, mentally unstable, mentally deficient (m.d.), unbal­anced, not quite right (coll.), not all there (coll.), off one's head (coll.), wrong in the upper storey (coll.), cuckoo (si.), loony (si.), etc.

A clinic for such patients can be referred to as asylum, sanitarium, sana­torium (mental) institution, and less discreetly (осторожно) - a nut house (si.), loony bin (si.), etc.

As we see by the above-mentioned examples, the main types of euphe­ misms are:

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- learned or scientific terms (which are less familiar and less offensive),
e.g. indigestion;

- words with the negative prefixes un-, in-: unwise, untidy;

- phraseological units: to kick the bucket; in one's birthday shirt ;

- slang, colloquial words and phrases;

- abbreviations: m.d., T.B., W.C.

So, originally closely connected with religion euphemisms have been ex­tended to words denoting different diseases, criminal activities or anything which is considered improper in a given society. They have become a social phenomenon of wide semantic range.

Special euphemistic language penetrates literally into all spheres of life. In the USA euphemisms are especially widely used in the language of advertisements, slang and professional jargon. Some examples:

pawnshops (ломбардные лавки) are called in the USA advertisements loan and jewelry companies (компании ювелирных изделий и по представлению займов);

used cars (second-hand cars) - pre-owned cars (ранее находившиеся во владении);

fall (спад) - easing (затишье в деловых операциях).

То avoid words revealing bad state of economy instead of chronic infla ­ tion gradual increase in prices and wages (постепенный рост цен и зарпла­ты) is used; the poor - the neediest (очень нуждающиеся), the needy (нуж­дающиеся), the ill-provided (плохо обеспеченные), the deprived (лишенные благ), the underpriviledged (мало привилегированные), the disadvantaged (попавшие в менее благоприятные жизненные обстоятельства), low-income people (малообеспеченные).

Euphemisms are of great interest in the sphere of classifying professions. Very unusual words are often used:

garbage collector (уборщик мусора) - sanitation engineer (инженер по вопросам санитарии);

rat-catcher (человек, устанавливающий ловушки для крыс) -extermination engineer (специалист по истреблению грызунов);

dog-catcher (ловец бродячих собак) - animal welfare officer (сотруд­ник по вопросам охраны животных);

stool pigeon (доносчик) - police informant (полицейский информа­тор).

In class struggle people do the following:

sit-down strike - work ceasation on premises (прекращение работы в помещении);

to exploit - to use without reward (пользоваться чьими-либо услугами без вознаграждения).

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So we see that euphemisms are a very complex and contradictory phe­nomenon. In some cases euphemisms are just to the point. So, in fiction usage of euphemisms is an effective stylistic means for writers, and they do it to de­pict their characters. In medicine, in the language of diplomacy euphemisms are also appropriate. In general, euphemism has become a wide social phe­nomenon.

ANTONYMS

1. The definition of antonymy.

2. Types of antonymy.

3. Kinds of antonyms.

The Definition of Antonymy

Antonymy is a lexical opposition of meaning. The words are different in form and opposite in meaning. It is also a relative phenomenon (same lexical field identical in style) and it has contradictory meaning. Antonyms are a cou­ple of words that belong to the same part of speech, share the same lexical field, similar in many respects and share all the features but one that meaning. E.g. big and red are not antonyms because they don't share the same lexical field, but tall and short belong to the same lexical field, share most of the fea­tures and differ in one dimension. Antonymy is used in lexicology as a process that defines the meaning of the word by maintaining its opposite counterpart.

Markedness is a category that operates with pairs of words which are an­tonyms but not lexically specified. It is definite for roots of words where there is some oppositeness. It means two members, one marked and the other un­marked. E.g. play (unmarked) - played (marked); married - unmarried. An­tonymy means the positive and the negative members of a pair, e.g. old -young; beautiful — ugly; wide — narrow; How old are you?; How beautiful is she? How wide is the room? The positive members are conceptualised first and than find their antonyms. This is primary lexicalisation of the positive member of the pair. Markedness also operates in the field of derivational mor­phology, e.g. boy - boyhood.

Relativity of Antonymy

Small elephants are big animals. Small and big is antonymy and ele­ phants and animals hyponymy. The antonyms are always compared in terms of a given standard; in the given example there is no absoluteness. E.g. small is bigger than big in this case.

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Types of Antonymy

Complementary (contradictory/binary) antonymy. Complementary anto­nyms come in pairs that exhaust all the possibilities within a mixed lexical filed. One denies the other and together they make a whole. E.g. husband -wife', married — single', dead— alive.

Gradation

Also operates with two members of a pair but they can be graded and compared. There is an application of the grammatical comparison in: richer - richest - very rich; hot - cold are two extremes that include several middle members such as: warm, lukewarm, slightly warm, a bit hot, hotter etc. in be­tween the two extremes there are a couple of other lexemes. So if one is not beautiful she or he is not necessarily ugly. The denial of the one is not neces­sarily affirmation of the other.

Converse (relational) antonymy.

This can be defined as a sort of symmetrical antonymy. It involves a third member besides the pair. E.g. give - take - when you take something there has to be someone to give it to you. Therefore there is something and someone,e.g. John gave the book to Mary. This sentence implies that Mary has taken the book.

Multiple incompatibility

This kind of antonymy involves more than three members. It does not op­erate in pairs but with multiple number of members. It is relation of opposite-ness that should be established between more than three members. E.g. north -south - east - west. In cards - hearts - diamonds - clubs - spades. Here you can not establish mono-relational opposition. The opposition functions within all the members. For example in the days of the week, months, colours, planets etc. One member in the system enters in relation of opposition with any other member of the system. The denial of one means affirmation of all the other members. Denial of the colour of red is affirmation of all the other colours and vice versa. Whenever there is a small lexical system with more than three ele­ments there is multiple incompatibility.

Kinds of Antonyms

Absolute/root vs. Derivational antonyms..Absolute (root) antonyms such as: hot - cold, short - long are lexically words. The derivational antonyms are

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formed by adding negative prefixes such as: anti-freeze; in-complete; un-fair and the suffix -less: senseless. The derivational antonymy is achieved by add­ing negative prefixes.

Semantic antonymy. There are two derivational antonyms of the root predicate - happy - unhappy. Not happy is a syntactic antonymy but semanti-cally it does not necessarily imply unhappiness. Unhappy is stronger in mean­ing than not happy. The syntactic antonymy is achieved by adding the negative particle not.

Phrasal antonymy. This involves words in phrases, e.g. by accident - on purpose.

Polysemy and antonvmy. In some sense antonymy can easily be estab­lished but in other it can be difficult to establish. E.g. tall - short; but firm can be soft or loose depending on the sense.

Metaphorical antonymy. E.g. hot news - cold news: the first one means very interesting, this term is so frequently used by reporters that it resulted in the appearance of its antonym as an ordinary word. It is a metaphor in the ap­pearance of an antonym which is an ordinary word. The meaning is transferred and we cannot establish its antonym.

NEOLOGISMS AND ARCHAISMS

1. The definition of neologism.

2. Kinds of neologisms.

3. Ways of word-forming of neologisms.

4. Archaisms.

The Definition of Neologism

The vocabulary does not remain the same, but changes constantly. New notions come into being, requiring new words to name them. On the other hand, some notions and things become outdated and the words that denote them drop out of the language. Sometimes a new name is introduced for a thing or notion that continues to exist, and the older name ceases to be used. The number of words in a language is therefore not constant.

New words and expressions, or neologisms, are created for new things ir­respective of their scale of importance. They may be very important, e.g. Peo­ ple 's Republic, nuclear war, or quite insignificant and short-lived, e.g. pony-tail (a hair-do), jitterbag (one who loves to dance to jazz-music), jitter (con­version) - a nervous man. Whenever a neologism appears

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1. either an old word is appropriately changed in meaning, or

2. new words are borrowed, or

3. more other words are coined out of the existing language material ac­
cording to the patterns and ways productive in the language at a given stage of
its development.

Thus, a neologism is any word or word-equivalent formed according to the productive structural patterns or borrowed from another language and felt by the speakers as something new.

The intense development of science and industry introduced an immense number of new words and changed the meanings of old ones: computer, nu­clear fission - расщепление, feedback - обратная связь (радио), penicillin, tape-recorder, supermarket, sputnik, lunokhod, cosmic-ship, cosmodrome, etc.

There are many problems concerning neologisms: first of all the term «neologism» itself. The dictionary gives the explanation of a neologism as a new word or a new meaning of some word existing in the language. Hence there appear the problems: during what period of time is this new word or the new meaning of the word considered to be a neologism? Are the words, e.g. docking, cosmic flight, etc. registered in the dictionary neologisms or already not neologisms? Some scientists consider new words, which are already regis­tered by the dictionaries, not to be neologisms. Then a new question arises: does it mean that neologisms are the words of oral speech?

Kinds of Neologisms

The intense development of science and industry, changes in economy, social and political life introduced a great number of new words, denoting new notions in these fields. Prof. I.R.Galperin called such neologisms terminologicalneologisms; they differ from the neologisms having a great emotional-stylistic colouring. They are called by I.R. Galperin stylistic neologisms. Both types of neologisms have different stylistic functions and are used with different aims.

Terminological neologisms referring to the bookish vocabulary, as a rule, in the course of time become part of the language system and they become an important source of replenishment of the vocabulary of the language. Gradu­ally they penetrate into the common literary colloquial vocabulary and become widely used by the majority of the people. Here we can mention, e.g., neolo­gisms connected with space researches. The people have a great interest in this problem. Besides, radio, TV, press play a great role in it. Here are some neolo­gisms of this sphere: space, docking, cosmonaut, cosmic food, carrier-rocket, cosmonaut, cosmic-ship, orbital laboratory, manned rocket, etc.

Many new words and word-phrases, referring to science and technic, are formed in English as well as in other languages from the Latin and Greek root-

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morphemes available in the language, and they are international words, e.g.: isotope, isotron, cyclotron, supersonic plane.

As it was said, some neologisms are created to express greater emotional and stylistic shades of the existing notions, when it is necessary a) to underline some extra features of the phenomenon, or b) to express one's attitude to the facts of reality, and the old words are not precise and expressive enough, e.g.: космоплавание, троирование.

When the first Soviet sputniks were launched, the Russian suffix -uk ap­peared in English, in the words denoting rockets, with one which failed to launch, e.g.: kaputnik, flopnik, stay-putnik. Later on this suffix appeared in occasionalisms, e.g.: knowhownik - специалист, умелец, nofoodnik, re-fusenik (человек, которому отказали в получении визы).

Neologisms of this type (the main function of which is to show some ex­tra features of the phenomenon) are met mainly in press, in newspaper style, i.e. in the style which immediately reflects all the events in the country and the world. Such neologisms often penetrate into other languages as cliche (кальки) either in their national form, or translated. E.g. in English we have from Chinese: a great leap; in German from English - die Teenagers. They are formed for use at the moment of speech.

In fiction the main function of neologisms is the function of expressing the author's attitude to the facts of reality, that's why the greater part of the writers' neologisms are characterised by a great emotional meaning, the greater part of them do not live long. They are occasionalisms.

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