Lexical Field Research Articles

Linguistic and cultural image of a volunteer firefighter on the material of the online chronicle of the Volunteer Fire Brigade in Skwierzyna

The article presents an outline of the history of firefighting in Poland and contains an analysis of the content of entries on the website of firefighters in Skwierzyna in the context of the linguistic and cultural image of a volunteer firefighter. The excerpted material includes 75 entries posted in the online chronicle of the Skwierzyna Volunteer Fire Brigade in the period from 1 January to 31 December 2023, including a total of 88 events. The research subject was classified according to 5 lexical fields: person, equipment, activities, places, events. Based on the results of the study, an attempt was made to determine the linguistic and cultural image of a volunteer firefighter.

Rethinking lexical semantic fields: relevance and local holism

Abstract This paper aims to single out some pathologies of current lexical semantics, which suffers from both the trauma of immanence and the opposite anxiety of rooting all knowledge in the pre-semiotic dimension, or entrusting sense-making entirely to context. To untangle these pitfalls, the dialogue with a phenomenological cognitive semiotics may prove fertile to focus on the lexicon as a type of storage and a type of memory; that is, a type of accumulated and sedimented knowledge based on the dynamical re-pertinentization of invariants. In particular, the perspective developed by Sonesson shows striking coincidences with De Mauro’s semiotic semantics, which already provides a solid foundation for rethinking the notion of lexical field drawing on an “authentic” Humboldtian and Saussurean heritage. Therefore, I will briefly review some principles of lexical structural semantics, with the aim of showing how these notions, once emancipated from the Saussurean vulgata, can not only be compatible with a cognitive phenomenological approach, but also facilitate the rehabilitation of a theoretical apparatus still valuable for both (lexical) semantics and semiotics. Although focused on lexical fields, some of the issues addressed can be extended to language and languages, as well as to other types of semiotic systems, to shed light on controversial themes such as the embodiment of signs and the autonomy of linguistics and semantics.

Lexical field theory: Key concepts and contemporary approaches

ABSTRACT The article aims to discuss the ideas and principles of Trier’s theory of lexical field and to demonstrate how the concept of field can be fruitfully employed outside of the domain of lexicology. The first part of the article deals with Trier’s main idea that no lexical-semantic element can be considered outside of its systemic relations: a given element (word) can be ascribed a certain significance only depending on the place it occupies in some system called a lexical field (Wortfeld). The second part of the article demonstrates how the field principle can be applied to the analysis of grammatical categories using the ‘functional-semantic field’ approach and the analysis of communicative behaviour using the ‘communicative-pragmatic field’ approach. The former helps to reveal and systematize sets of language elements of a specific language with respect to the coding of a certain categorial function. The latter makes it possible to summarize different possibilities for the realization of speech behaviour patterns and to rank them according to the degree of their usage frequency. These two cases prove that the field concept can be used to solve issues that are deemed unsolvable if one applies the framework of the traditional level-oriented linguistic analysis.

Transferring meaning in a context of multilingual lexicology and terminology

This paper aims to show that there is no perfect fit between the dictionary definition of a term and the various uses it is put to in different contexts, especially in a multilingual perspective. When a term is used repeatedly in various contexts, the concept it designates becomes wider and wider because its conceptual traits keep increasing. As a result, the definitions of the concepts that we find in dictionaries are not comprehensive. The concepts change with time whereas the terms that designate them do not change. Translating a term into a foreign language also widens up its lexical field because several denominations are sometimes used in the target language to account for a single SL term. The method used in this research is qualitative. It starts from the terms to get to the concepts and adopts a semasiological and cognitive approach. In specialised translation, the information on a particular term is contained in the texts in which it is used and these (texts) are the sole repositories of its meaning. One of the main findings of this research is that the interpretation of terms in various contexts leads to new definitions that are sometimes wider than the dictionary definitions. This research has also found that concepts are likely to change because the realities they refer to, change.

Bibliometric analysis of the literature on business Intelligence systems adoption and acceptance, trends and perspectives

In today's economic landscape, marked by a rapid surge in data, information has grown in volume, speed, and volatility. This has led to heightened competitive pressures within the business environment. As a result, organizations must adopt improved techniques and tools for information management. Business Intelligence is one of these tools, seen as a crucial technological advancement for improving the decision-making process, then Business Intelligence Systems (BIS) assist companies and organizations in making well-informed strategic decisions. Despite of the importance of these tools, literature shows that most BI projects do not deliver the expected results and BIS’s full benefits have largely been missed by organizations. In this respect, this work aims to analyze papers published between 2000 and 2022 that have focused on the adoption of BI. It presents bibliometric data, including high-frequency words, disciplinary distribution, lexical fields, approaches, trends, and evolution of research in this area. The study also presents some factors influencing the Business Intelligence Adoption (BIA).

Collective memories and social roles: the case of the Paris terrorist attacks of 13 November 2015.

The present study was based on empirical data collected during the first phase (2016) of Study 1000, part of the 13-November Program: a corpus of 934 individual interviews conducted 6-11 months after the events. To process this empirical material, the authors used integrated TXM software, which provides several classic textometry tools. They mainly used the lexical specificity analysis tool, which statistically measures the irregularity of the word distribution according to the parts of the corpus. They also analyzed the concordances of certain very specific lexical forms. Analysis revealed the important influence of social roles on the construction of memories and narratives of this event. Application of textometry tools highlighted lexical fields specific to the different social roles played by the interviewees in this social drama, and showed that it was through these specific vocabularies that they remembered and recounted this extraordinary story. Social roles therefore influence the formation of memories both individual and collective, by modulating the way in which individuals select what to remember and what to forget. The article opens up several interesting avenues for future analyses, mainly a longitudinal perspective (including phases 2 and 3 of Study 1000) for the study of flashbulb memories and the gender issue to fine-tune the analysis of social roles.

Lexico-syntactic analysis of antonyms in some speeches of John Dramani Mahama

Language and politics are intertwined. This is because in order to champion political interest, politicians rely on some powerful linguistic resources to communicate with their audience. Available literature suggests that one of such linguistic resources is antonyms. However, researchers have not paid attention to the use of antonyms in political discourse, especially, in Ghana. On account of this, the present study investigated the lexico-syntactic features of antonyms in some speeches of John Dramani Mahama, a former President of the Republic of Ghana. The study is an interface between cognitive semantics and political discourse which sought to discover the lexico-syntactic features and the functional implications of the antonym pairs used in the speeches of John Dramani Mahama. The study was conducted within the framework of the Lexical Field Theory and the speeches were analysed, using the qualitative research method. Through the use of purposive sampling method, sixteen (16) political speeches of John Dramani Mahama were selected for the analysis. The study relied on Cruse’s (1986) outlined features of antonymy and Murphy’s (2003) theoretical view on context-derived antonymy to identify the antonym pairs in the speeches. The study discovered one hundred and seventy-three (173) antonym pairs in the sixteen (16) selected speeches. The outcome of the study further revealed the noun phrase pair as the largest grammatical category in the selected speeches. The study again showed that John Dramani Mahama usually uses noun antonymic pairs and the coordinated frame X and Y in his political speeches. The study concluded that John Dramani Mahama uses antonyms in his speeches to persuade his audience, establish association, inspire hope and confidence, call for patriotism and hardworking towards national development, and finally, to present his political vision to Ghanaians.

What Are Investors Most Interested in about Sustainability? An Approach from the Scientific Literature

In the midst of the development of international frameworks for the dissemination of information on sustainability, the European Union published the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) in order to meet user requirements on sustainability. To achieve its objectives, the Directive assigns large companies and investors a key role in the transmission of sustainability-related information, leveraging their capacity to influence. An increased separate use of the term “investor” has been noted in the sustainability-related literature regarding the overall “stakeholder” that contains it. Our research applies a methodology based on analysis of the content of the abstracts from 260 articles published prior to the approval of the CSRD, with the aim of identifying whether that separate use implied that investors’ interests are concentrated on sustainability-related aspects. The results of the research concluded that there is no statistical significance between the separate, growing use of the term “investor” and a generalised use in the lexical field related to sustainability that might characterise the influence of investors. This work encourages future research directions to examine how the enactment of the CSRD may affect the trend in investor influence on the dissemination of sustainability-related information.

STRUCTURE OF LEXICAL AND SEMANTIC FIELD “EVIL”

The article describes lexical semantic field “Evil” on the material of English adjectives. Using the methods of definitional and contextual analysis allows us to state that lexical semantic field “Evil” has all the characteristic features of a lexical semantic field – hierarchical structure, blurred boundaries and specificity of its elements for each language. Adjectives of lexical semantic field “Evil” express characteristics of a person and his emotional state, maliciousness of actions, absence of positive qualities (pity, mercy, kindness, sensitivity to other people’s feelings, understanding), evaluation of people, phenomena or circumstances. On the basis of the conducted research close connection of this field with philosophical and religious aspects is revealed, as well as symbolism of its elements, tendency to a wide combination of its elements with objects, which are atypical for their semantics and, as a result, to obtaining evaluative meaning. В данной статье описано лексико-семантическое поле «Зло» на материале английских прилагательных. На основе использования методов дефиниционного и контекстного анализа можно утверждать, что лексико-семантическое поле «Зло» имеет все характерные черты лексико- семантического поля: иерархическую структуру, размытые границы и специфику его элементов в каждом языке. Прилагательные лексического семантического поля «Зло» выражают характеристики человека и его эмоционального состояния: злонамеренность действий, отсутствие положительных качеств (жалость, милосердие, доброта, эмоциональная отзывчивость к чувствам других людей, понимание), способ оценки людей, явлений или обстоятельств. На основе проведенного исследования выявлена тесная связь этой области с философскими и религиозными аспектами, а также символизм ее элементов, тенденция к широкому сочетанию ее элементов с объектами, которые нетипичны для их семантики и, как результат, к получению оценочного значения.

« Errance est mon héritage ». Le labyrinthe en tant qu’une figure de l’expérience postcoloniale d’après les Enfants du lichen de Maya Cousineau Mollen

« Wandering is my heritage » The Labyrinth as a Figure of the Postcolonial Experience According to Enfants du lichen by Maya Cousineau Mollen The aim of the paper is to analyze Enfants du lichen, a book of poems by Maya Cousineau Mollen, an Innu poet born in 1975, in order to see if the labyrinth can be considered as a figure of the postcolonial Native American experience. Although the word « labyrinth » does not make its explicit emergence in the poems, their lexical field evokes a whole imagination which makes it emerge implicitly and allows us to believe that the figure of the labyrinth corresponds to the situation of the former colonized. Our contribution is divided into three parts. The first characterizes the postcolonial Native American experience, as described in the poems, and explains why it may be seen as a labyrinth. The second shows the exploration of the paths of possible escape and the last focuses on the exit, the « passage from darkness to light », which can be read as a new era in the life of Canadian Native Americans.

Comparative Analysis of Word-Building Potential of English Adverbial Suffix -ly and Its Tajik Equivalents

The article dwells on the issues beset with the comparative analysis of wordbuilding potential of English adverbial suffix -ly and its Tajik equivalents. It is noted that adverb is recognized as an independent part of speech in the comparative languages. However, its classification as a special category in these languages is uncertain, their lexical boundaries are wide, and their functional types are diverse. It is underscored that the lexical fields of adverbs are very broad and their functional types are different. It is concluded that adverbs are divided into simple, derivative, compound and composite groups based on their structure in the comprative languages and depending on their meaning they are singled out into the following sub-groups, such as: place, time, direction, frequency, modal (English), cause and purpose, manner of action and quantity and degree.

SELECTED LEGAL CONCEPTS IN HISTORICAL-LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS JURISLINGUISTICS AND THE METHODOLOGY OF DIACHRONIC LINGUISTICS

The legal lexicon covering the lexical field of words related to the financial collapse of a company in Polish has changed significantly over the years. The most important word today, upadłość (from the verb upadać, Eng. to fall/fail) used to have a general meaning, while 200 years ago, the two words used in this sense were bankructwo (from Italian) and konkurs (from Latin). This latter word is also mentioned in sources from 100 years ago, when it occurred alongside a new word plajta (from German), referring to a specific, premeditated type of bankruptcy. In the following decades of the 20th century, the word upadłość became a specialist term, in contrast to bankructwo, which took on a general meaning, while konkurs fell out of use and plajta began to refer to fields other than economics. The presented analysis, which uses the method of lexical paradigmatic fields, is one of the historical-linguistic tools that can be used in jurislinguistics. Also other methods and concepts, e.g. syntagmatic fields, grammatical analyses, the use of utterance frame or modal frame offer many possibilities to conduct cognitively valuable diachronic analyses of legal language.

Lexical Field Theory and the Translation of Philosophical Works into Chinese

Abstract The translation of philosophical works is a topic that merits our attention both in respect of philosophical understanding and linguistic structure, although it is the former rather than the latter that prevails in discussions in Chinese academia. By drawing upon that branch of modern linguistics known as the lexical field theory, this paper attempts to analyze a host of related problems, including the following: readability as a basic requirement of translation, difficulties in translation caused by the syntactic-typological distance of source and target languages, consistency of translated terms in general, consistency of semantically related terms in translation, consistency of translated terms regarding the syntagmatic axis and the paradigmatic axis, the use of monosyllabic, disyllabic, or polysyllabic Chinese terms in translation, translation of long or rare terms into Chinese, the middle way between ‘under-translation’ and ‘over-translation,’ identification of lexical fields for the systematic treatment of translated terms, and finally the in-depth understanding of original texts in their source languages as a prerequisite of any serious attempt of translation.

Problems of Contemporary French Ethnolinguistics

The article analyses theoretical and methodological basis underlying modern French ethnolinguistics, which studies the correlation between language and culture of an ethnos. Every nation creates its own picture of the world, defines spiritual and moral priorities, forms ethnic self-consciousness and the system of life values in synchronic and diachrony. At the same time, language, religion, anthropological attributes of an ethnos can be repeated in other peoples with its rituals, rituals, beliefs, perceptions finding their expression, it always distinguishes one linguoculture from another. The relevance of the topic is determined by the need to evaluate the development of contemporary French ethnolinguistics and to correlate traditional and French linguistic terminology. The material for the study is contemporary articles on French ethnolinguistics and discourse analysis. The aim of the study is to establish and analyse the specificities of theoretical works on contemporary French ethnolinguistics. To achieve this goal we used general theoretical methods of comparison, description and linguistic methods of logical comparison and structural method. The study of individual semantic groups and lexical fields and the interaction between ethnolinguistics and the French school of discourse analysis form the specific methodological basis of modern French ethnolinguistics. Ethnolinguistics stands out as a specific interdisciplinary and independent field of linguistics, combining the study of linguistic, social and cultural aspects of language. As a result of the study it was found that the specificity of the methodology of French ethnolinguistics is manifested in its connection with the school of discourse analysis, which allows the study of linguistic existence of small social groups and different forms of language realization - oral and written - to be included in the research material.

The Lexical Field of the Adjective მცირე mtsire “Small” on Different Stages of Development of the Georgian Language

The Lexical Field of the Adjective მცირე mtsire “Small” on Different Stages of Development of the Georgian Language

The Role of Richard Hakluyt’s The Principall Nauigations (1589) in the Introduction and Dissemination of Spanish Loanwords in the English Language

Richard Hakluyt’s Principall Nauigations (1589) was a landmark in the history of English travel literature which compiled and glorified the naval deeds and expeditions undertaken by the English throughout the world. This article focuses on the third volume of Hakluyt’s compilation devoted to America which gathers first-hand accounts describing the way of life and the natural environment of the new territories conquered and populated by the Spaniards. The incorporation in these texts of almost 100 borrowings from Spanish to designate elements related to sea voyages and experiences in the Spanish colonies has raised the following research questions: What kind of terms were most likely to be introduced? And, given that these Spanish terms were unfamiliar to English readers, did the authors resort to any kind of strategy to explain the meaning of the new words? This article will address these questions by setting the following objectives. (i) to compile an inventory of the Spanish terms that have been incorporated into the English texts; (ii) to classify these terms according to the lexical fields they refer to; (iii) to analyse how the meaning of these new words is explained to English readers.

Германо-славянские лексические параллели – имитативы ‘lecken’ – ‘лизать’: этимология, диахрония, современное состояние

The aim of the study is to identify common phonetic and morphological features and differences, as well as their possible determinants in the system of imitative naming of Germanic and Slavic lexical fields using the example of the correlates ‘lecken’ – ‘лизать’ (lick). The paper also pays attention to semantic changes in the lexical units under consideration as an important stage of the presented linguistic reconstruction. The scientific novelty of the study lies in taking a multi-aspect approach, involving research materials in the field of phraseology, dialectology and onomastics, in order to clarify and expand the currently available linguistic data on the formation and development of lexical parallels in distantly related languages; in revising not only the new features that the Germanic and Slavic lexical systems have acquired, but also those which have been lost in the process of linguistic ontogenesis, starting from the single Indo-European foundation. The studied correlates were considered from the diachronic perspective in the context of the similarity/difference of the presented phonetic transitions, morphological transformations and semantic shifts. As a result of the analysis, the vectors of formation of these lexical parallels from the common Indo-European archetype in the Germanic and Slavic language backgrounds were determined applying certain postulates of the theory of imitative words.

Associative Meaning of the Word <i>Life</i> in the Udmurt, Tatar, and Bashkir Languages: An Interlanguage Comparative Study

The research featured experimental material obtained from Udmurt, Bashkir, and Tatar respondents as part of a psycholinguistic approach to the study of lexical meaning by its associative field. This approach is connected with the knowledge representation in the linguistic consciousness of native speakers and the specifics of ethnic stereotypes. The study owes its scientific novelty to the fact that it is a first of its kind comparative psycholinguistic study of the word semantics that involves the speakers of Udmurt, Bashkir, and Tatar. The study identified the semantic content and structure of the associative fields of the lexeme life in the abovementioned languages. It relied on the associative reactions received from the native speakers of Udmurt, Bashkir, and Tatar. The results of the psycholinguistic associative experiments served as the basic linguistic material for further cross-cultural research. The associative fields included the correlates of the lexeme life in the three languages: ulon (Udmurt), gumer (Bashkir), and gomer (Tatar). The quantitative and qualitative parameters allowed the author to identify universal and distinctive components in the content of the associative structures. The responses of Bashkir and Tatar speakers were mostly stereotypical in the core of the associative field. Paradigmatic reactions prevailed over syntagmatic ones in all associative fields. The qualitative interpretation of cognitive strategies appeared to be universal for the Udmurts, Bashkirs, and Tatars. The identification process was based on a specific mental image of a subject or object, as well as on emotionally-colored and evaluative signs as part of a semanteme. Unlike the Udmurt speakers, the Bashkirs and Tatars gave lengthy and explanatory reactions to the stimulus. The results can be used in teaching these national languages or as an effective tool for the formation of a multilingual personality through the study of associative lexical fields. In linguistic theories of semantics, an associative field can be used as a structured model for analyzing semantic representations of a word. The obtained results contribute to solving a certain range of theoretical issues related to the problem of mental vocabulary and human speech activity.

Recipes, Poems, and Memory in Contemporary Louisiana Francophone Literature

Louisiana French literature, like its cuisine, is fluid, plural, and forever evolving. Language and food are two vital mediums through which Louisianans express identity, emotions, memory, and culture. Even as Louisiana’s French language faced a near erasure in the mid-twentieth century due to Americanization, cultural expression and evolution thrive at the intersection of oral literature and cuisine. Food, as a theme, lexical field, and symbol helps contemporary cooks and writers define their own identity. In the review of creative writing, Feux Follets (1991–Present), food plays a vital role in the quest for identity among its contributors. The creolization of Louisiana culture manifests itself in creative expression, be it a dish in Melissa Martin’s Mosquito Supper Club (2020), or a poem in Feux Follets. This article demonstrates how the intersection of emblematic food items and creative writing provides a space for the evolution of a literary identity that is as vibrant and creolized as Louisiana cuisine and culture in general. Despite the fluidity and plurality of identities, writers of cookbooks and poetry write Louisiana cuisine as a metaphor, image, and cultural object to amplify Franco-literary voices in the twenty-first century.

Substrate Words Examined from the Perspective of Linguistic Geography (III)

In this article we have proposed to present results of the research of the layer of autochthonous words from the Romanian language, namely the letter C (căciulă – ciucă). It is about research from the perspective of the linguistic geography of the substrate words căciulă, călbează/gălbează, căpuşă, cătun, ceafă, cioară, cioc, ciucă in the Romanian language spoken east of the Prut, according to the data provided by linguistic atlases (ALM, ALRR. Bas., ADCC/ОКДА), dialect texts, the dialectological archive/Dialectal dictionary, etc., elaborated by researchers from Chisinau. The identification of native words from the Romanian-speaking area in the east of the Prut with those from the vocabulary of the Daco-Romanian dialects on the right of the Prut, but also with those from the southern dialects – Aromanian, Megleno-Romanian, IstroRomanian – allow us to note some similarities regarding their character as preservers of old elements in the lexical field.