Cover not available
Part of
Gender, Language and the Periphery: Grammatical and social gender from the margins
Edited by Julie Abbou and Fabienne H. Baider
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 264] 2016
► pp. 195–224

The lexical paradigm based on sex distinction and the semantics of its constituents in English and Belarusian

The basic idea developed in the paper is that the constituents of the lexical paradigm based on sex distinction may share other common characteristics apart from such core semantic features as ‘male/female’ ‘animate’ ‘being’. A complex contrastive analysis of the paradigm under investigation in English and Belarusian reveals a wide spectrum of perceptual, physiological, psychological and behavioural gender-based attributes profiled in the meanings of its members in both languages studied. The research makes it obvious that characteristics based on gender may accompany different nouns denoting animate beings of opposite sex and, therefore, have systematic character.

Keywords: Belarusian, English, lexical paradigm, meaning, pragmatic component, profiling, semantic feature, sex distinction
Published online: 16 December 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.264.08tur
References
Allan, Keith
2001 Natural language semantics. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.Google Scholar
Bach, Kent
1999 “The Semantics-Pragmatics Distinction: What It Is and Why It Matters.” In The Semantics, Pragmatics Interface from Different Points of View, ed. by Ken Turner, 65–84. Oxford: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Bianchi, Claudia
2004 “Semantics and Pragmatics: The Distinction Reloaded.” In The Semantics and Pragmatics Distinction ed. by Claudia Bianchi, 1–11. Stanford, Calif.: CSLI.Google Scholar
Bolinger, Dwight. L
1965 “The Atomization of Meaning.” Language 41 (4): 555–573. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Borg, Emma
2012 “Semantics without Pragmatics?” In Handbook of Pragmatics, ed. by Allan Keith, and Kasia M. Jaszczolt, 513–528. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Börjesson, Kristin
2014 The Semantics-Pragmatics Controversy. Berlin; Boston: Walter De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Carston, Robyn
1999 “The Semantics/Pragmatics Distinction: A View from Relevance Theory.” In The Semantics, Pragmatics Interface from Different Points of View, ed. by Ken Turner, 85–124. Oxford: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Cruse, Allan D
2000 Meaning in language: An introduction to semantics and pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford university press.Google Scholar
Evans, Vyvyan, and Andrea Tyler
2007 The Semantics of English Prepositions: Spatial Scenes, Embodied Meaning and Cognition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Evans, Vyvyan
2009 How Words Mean: Lexical Concepts, Cognitive Models, and Meaning Construction. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fillmore, Charles J
1978 “On the Organization of Semantic Information in the Lexicon.” In Papers from the Parasession on the Lexicon, ed. by Donka Frakas, et al. 148–173. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.Google Scholar
Greenberg, Joseph H
1990 “A Quantitative Approach to the Morphological Typology of Language.” In On Language: selected writings of Joseph H. Greenberg, ed. by Keith Denning. 3–25. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Jackendoff, Ray
2002 Foundations of Language: Brain, meaning, grammar, evolution. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kamp, Hans
2013 “Semantics versus Pragmatics.” In Meaning and the Dynamics of Interpretation: Selected Papers of Hans Kamp, ed. by Klaus von Heusinger, 185–217. Leiden: Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kharitonchik, Zinaida A
2009 “Lexical Meaning as a Dynamic Entity of Variant Semantic Components.” In Probleme Actuale de Linguistică, Glotodidactică i Ştiintă literară, ed. by Zbant Ludmila, and Veronica Păcuraru, 113–121. Chişinău: CEP USM.Google Scholar
Lakoff, George
1987 Women, Fire and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal about the Mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Langacker, Ronald W
1987 Foundations of Cognitive Grammar: Volume I: Theoretical Prerequisites. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
2008 Cognitive Grammar: A Basic Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lopez Rodríguez, Irene
2009 “Of women, bitches, chickens and vixens: animal metaphors for women in English and Spanish.” Cultura, Lenguaje y Representación. Culture, Language and Representation 7: 77–100.Google Scholar
Lyons, John
1987 “Semantics.” In New Horizons in Linguistics 2, ed. by Lyons John et al., 152–178. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Moseley, Christopher
(ed.) 2010 Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger 3rd edition. Paris: UNESCO Publishing.Google Scholar
Putnam, Hilary W
1975 Mind, Language and Reality: Philosophical Papers vol. 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Recanati, Francois
2012 “Contextualism: Some varieties.” In Handbook of Pragmatics, ed. by Allan Keith, and Kasia M. Jaszczolt, 135–151. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sapir, Edward
1970 Language: an Introduction to the Study of Speech, 2nd impr. London: Hart-Dawis.Google Scholar
Swanepoel, Piet H
1992 “Linguistic motivation and its lexicographical application.” South African Journal of Linguistics 10(2): 49–60. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Steinberg, Danny D., Hiroshi Nagata, and David P. Aline
2001 Psycholinguistics: Language, Mind and World, 2nd edition. Harlow: Longman.Google Scholar
Woolhiser, Curt
2014 “The Russian Language in Belarus: Language Use, Speaker Identities and Metalinguistic Discourse.” In The Russian Language outside the Nation, ed. by Lara Ryazanova-Clarke, 81–116. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Аракин, Владимир Д [Arakin, Vladimir D] 2005 Сравнительная типология английского и русского языков. 3-е изд [ Contrastive Typology of the English and Russian Languages 3rd impr.]. Москва: ФИЗМАТЛИТ.Google Scholar
Будникова, Елена И [Boudnikova, Helena I] 2010 “К методике определения значимости семантических компонентов лексического значения (на материале наименований животных английского языка)” [On the Methodology of Assessing Feature Salience in a Word Meaning (on the Material of English Animal Names)]. ВестникМГЛУ. Филология 5(48): 54–62.Google Scholar
Кронгауз, Максим А. [Krongauz, Maksim A] 1996 “Sexus, или Проблема пола в русском языке” [Sexus, or the Problem of Sex in the Russian Language]. In Русистика. Славистика. Индоевропеистика[Rusistika. Slavistika. Indoevropeistika], отв. ред. Т.М. Николаева и др. [T.M. Nikolaeva et al.], 510–525, Москва: Индрик.Google Scholar
Нехай, Ольга А., и Татьяна В. Поплавская [Nehaj, Olga A., and Tatiana V. Poplavskaya] 1983 Сравнительная типология английского и белорусского языков [Contrastive Typology of the English and Belarusian Languages]. Минск: Вышэйш. шк.Google Scholar
Турчинская, Мария В. [Turchynskaya Maryia V] 2013 “Семантическая категория пола и способы ее выражения (на материале наименований живых существ современного белорусского и английского языков)” [Semantic Sex Category and Means of its Identification (Based on Names of Living Beings in the Belarusian and English languages)]. Вестник МГЛУ. Филология 4(65): 34–43.Google Scholar
Харитончик, Зинаида А. [Kharitonchik, Zinaida A] 2014 “Семантика и прагматика языковых единиц в зеркале деривационных процессов.” [Semantics and Pragmatics of Language Units in the Process of Derivation]. Slavische Wortbildung im Vergleich. Theoretische und pragmatische Aspekte. – Berlin: LIT-Verlag Dr. W. Hopf ( Slavica Varia Halensia, Bd. 12): 17–33.Google Scholar

Sources of language data

BNC – The British National Corpus
2007 (BNC XML Edition) (Computer file): Oxford University Computing Services on behalf of the BNC Consortium: Oxford, 2 CD-ROM.Google Scholar
CED – Collins
2006 (for ABBYY Lingvo x3) (Computer file): Collins English Dictionary, 8th Edition: HarperCollins Publishers.Google Scholar
CLCB – Collins Cobuild
2008 (for ABBYY Lingvo x3) (Computer file): Collins Cobuild Advanced Learner’s English Dictionary. New Digital Edition: HarperCollins Publishers.Google Scholar
LC – Longman Communication 3000 (Electronic resource)
Mode of access: [URL].
MWD
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary (Electronic resource). Mode of access: [URL].
OxfD – Oxford Dictionary
2005 (for ABBYY Lingvo x3) (Computer file): Oxford Dictionary of English, Revised Edition: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
PHRD – Idioms
2006 (for ABBYY Lingvo x3) (Computer file): The Comprehensive English-Russian Phraseological Dictionary, ed. by Aleksander V. Kunin: Russkiy Yazyk – Media.Google Scholar
NC – Беларускі N-корпус
Mode of access: [URL].
СФ
– Слоўнік фразеалагізмаў беларускай мовы: каля 7000 фразеалагізмаў 2008 І.Я. Лепешаў: у 2 т. Мінск: Беларуская Энцыклапедыя.Google Scholar
ТСБЛМ
– слоўнiк беларускай лiтаратурнай мовы: Больш за 65.000 слоў 1996 Пад рэдакцыяй М.Р. Суднiка, М.Н. Крыўко. Мінск: Беларуская Энцыклапедыя.Google Scholar
ТСБМ
– Тлумачальны слоўнік беларускай мовы 1977–1984 АН БССР, Інстытут мовазнаўства імя Я. Коласа; пад агульнай рэдакцыяй Кандрат К. Атраховіча (К. Крапівы): у 5 т. Мінск: Беларуская Савецкая Энцыклапедыя.Google Scholar
ЧСБМ – Частотны слоўнік беларускай мовы
2006 Надзея С. Мажэйка. Мінск: Зоркі гор.Google Scholar