ASSOCIATIVE SIGNS IN THE PROCESS OF SECONDARY NOMINATION

Abstract

In the article we’ve shown, that associations can be both individual and collective in their nature. In the first case they influence the use of any lexical unit by the individual. In the second case individual and collective associations determine the place of this or that lexical unit in the coordinate system of the English and Ukrainian languages as a whole. In this way, Extra-linguistic associations, by their very nature, are fixed in any language and become its facts. We indicate, that in Linguistics nouns of primary nomination are also defined as unmotivated terms; they are perceived by native speakers as some “primitive ones”. The way or motives of the formation of lexical units of primary nomination can only be determined through etymological or historical analysis. Thus, we paid a great attention in our research to the secondary nomination, the units of which are perceived as morphological or semantic derivatives of it. We showed, that the following concepts were closely related to the concept of secondary nomination: motivation, motivated, motivational sign (a motivator) and the internal forms of this word. Motiveness is understood as different characteristics of surrounding us word, which implies on the connection of sounds and structures of lexical units. In such a way the meaning of lexical units can be explained by the correlation of this word with mono-root and/or mono-structural forms of words. Motivation is defined as a process, which includes some internal form and its means of conveying signs or characteristics of the denotation of lexical units. So, we think, that motivation itself is the result of the word-forming act. The authors of the article consider motivation to be a kind of preverbal psychologized act, the purpose of which is to reflect some basic dominant features of the denotation of lexical units in the semantic space of the word. It is shown that the internal form of a linguistic sign is a predictable way of the explication in the semantic structure of the word’s extra-linguistic content, a motivational sign of it. In such a way the motivation of any lexical unit is the result of a nominative act, which reflects the motivational sign of the word’s denotation. It was proved, that qualifying interpretations of the object of designation were carried out, at the same time, through a sign, having been chosen by a social group, which also belongs not to a single object, but to a class of objects and, accordingly, represented a generalized and typified representation of a quality, property, characteristics of the designation object. We, in turn, adhere to the point of view that an equal sign can be placed between the most noticeable item that is marked and points out the main sign. Probably, we can talk about a certain subjectivity of associative features, which are taken into account as the basis for the formation of a new unit, at the stage of its appearing. We showed, that the main concept of the theory of word formation was the concept of a derived word, based on which we’ll describe the word formation system of a specific language and define its boundaries. So, we will consider derived words from the onomasiological aspect, from the point of view of how new names, new designations, new nominative signs arise, develop and functioned within the derived word.