Towards a Typology of Lexical Semantic Derivation Models: Linguistic and Psycholinguistic Aspects

Abstract

Objective. The paper focuses on lexical semantic derivation models and the ways they are explicated in experiential vocabulary. The study substantiates linguistic and psycholinguistic features of the models in the contrastive aspect (based on the Ukrainian and Polish languages).
 Materials and Methods. The material for the analysis is the Ukrainian and Polish adjectives-stimuli that represent the concepts of experiential situation. The psycholinguistic validity of the models is verified based on the results of associative experiments. The results are supposed to help establish types of associations that underlie the experiential vocabulary extensions.
 Results. The study appeals to the conceptions that uphold the idea of a dynamic conceptualization of the world of discourse (of a certain situation or its fragment). On that ground, the lexical semantic derivation models are considered as theoretical constructs that represent information on derivational strategies in Ukrainian and Polish. Such an approach has allowed not only to reveal cognitive mechanisms that underlie lexical (experiential) items’ semantic extensions but also to systematize the semantic shifts that occur in the contrasted languages. The extensions are considered within four lexical semantic derivation models: componential (the level of semantic components and their configurations), actantial (the level of predicate-actant structures), topological (the level of image-schema transformations) and constructional (the level of lexical constructions).
 Conclusions. The results show the relevance of both linguistic and psycholinguistic modelling in analysis of lexical semantic derivation. The choice of a semantic derivation strategy correlates with an informant’s response to a word-stimulus. The similarities and differences in semantic shifts are determined by constraints that set limits on the target situation extensions.