The analysis of synonymous and antonymous relations in the lexico-semantic field "transport"

Korotaeva Irina Eduardovna, Kapustina Daria Mikhailovna

The article is devoted to the problem of lexicon systematization of the semantic field «Transport» and to the analysis of the main types of semantic relations in it: synonymy and antonymy. The investigation of the structure of lexico-semantic fields and of the relations of its constituents is an urgent problem. The transport lexical units of the American and British varieties of the English language and of the Russian language are the object of investigation. The approaches of both cognitive linguistics and traditional structural linguistics are used to systemize the lexicon. The semantic essence of synonymy is analyzed. Synonymous groups are examined by means of cognitive methods using the concepts of macroframe and frame. The synonymous constituents of the macroframe “travel” are considered. The definitions of these lexical units are compared; the distinctions between the frames and cognitive models are brought out. The examples are given to confirm that the frame theory can be used in translation practice for determining translation techniques and choosing an adequate translation equivalent from a series of synonyms. The lexical units of the semantic field under examination relate to the vocabulary of concrete non-evaluative semantics, so antonymous relations are not represented strikingly in the field. The combination of traditional and cognitive approaches to the investigation of the relations inside the thematic linguo-systems is stated to be essential for deeper understanding of the shades of the meanings of the lexical units.

Keywords:lexico-semantic field, synonymy, antonymy, cognitive linguistics, frame, macroframe