A course In Modern English Lexicology

§ 3. Distribution as the Crite-
in various ways. We know that word-groups
rion of Classi- may be described through the order and arrangement of the component members. The word-group to see something can be classified as a verbal — nominal group, to see to smth as verbal —
prepositional — nominal, etc.
All word-groups may be also analysed by the criterion of distribution into two big classes. If the word-group has the same linguistic distribution as one of its members, it is described as endocentric, i.e. having one central member functionally equivalent to the whole word-group. The wordgroups, e.g., red flower, bravery of all kinds, are distributionally identical with their central components flower and bravery (cf., e.g.,-I saw a red flower — I saw a flower).
If the distribution of the word-group is different from either of its members, it is regarded as exocentric, i.e. as having no such central member, for instance side by side or grow smaller and others where the component words are not syntactically substitutable for the whole word-group.
In endocentric word-groups the central component that has the same distribution as the whole group is clearly the dominant member or the head to which all other members of the group are subordinated. In the wordgroup red flower, e.g., the head is the noun flower and in the word-group kind to people the head is the adjective kind, etc.
It follows that word-groups may be classified according to their head-words into n o m i n a l groups or phrases (e.g. red flower), a d j e c -
t i v a l , groups (e.g. kind to people), v e r b a l groups (e.g. to speak well), etc. The head is not necessarily the component that occurs first in the word-group. In such nominal word-groups as, e.g., very great bravery, bravery in the struggle the noun bravery is the head whether followed or preceded by other words.
Word-groups are also classified according to their syntactic pattern into predicative and non-predicative groups. Such word-groups as, e.g., John works, he went that have a syntactic structure similar to that of a sentence, are classified as predicative, and all others as non-predicative.1 Non-predicative word-groups may be subdivided according to the type 1 This classification was the issue of heated discussion in Soviet linguistics. It was argued that the so-called predicative word-groups actually comprise the subject and the predicate, i.e’, the main components of the sentence and should be regarded as syntactical rather than lexical units. Here we are concerned only with non-predicative word-groups.
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of syntactic relations between the components into subordinative and coordinative. Such word-groups as red flower, a man of wisdom and the like are termed s u b o r d i n a t i v e because the words red and of wisdom are subordinated to flower and man respectively and function as their attributes. Such phrases as women and children, day and night, do or die are classified as c o o r d i n a t i v e .
MEANING OF WORD-GROUPS
As with word-meaning, the meaning of word-groups may be analysed into l e x i c a l and g r a m m a t i c a l components.
The lexical meaning of the word-group may
§ 4. Lexical Meaning be defined as the combined lexical meaning of the component words. Thus the lexical meaning of the word-group red flower may be described denotationally as the combined meaning of the words red and flower. It should be pointed out, however, that the term c o m b i n e d l e x i c a l m e a n i n g is not to imply that the meaning of the word-group is a mere additive result of all the lexical meanings of the component members. As a rule, the meanings of the component words are mutually dependent and the meaning of the word-group naturally predominates over the lexical meaning of its constituents.
Even in word-groups made up of technical terms which are traditionally held to be monosemantic the meaning of the word-group cannot be described as the sum total of the meanings of its components. For example, though the same adjective atomic is a component of a number of terminological word-groups, e.g. atomic weight, atomic warfare, etc., the lexical meaning of the adjective is different and to a certain degree subordinated to the meaning of the noun in each individual word-group and consequently the meaning of the whole group is modified.
Interdependence of the lexical meanings of the constituent members of word-groups can be readily observed in word-groups made up of polysemantic words. For example, in the nominal group blind man (cat, horse) only one meaning of the adjective blind, i.e. ‘unable to see’, is combined with the lexical meaning of the noun man (cat, horse) and it is only one of the meanings of the noun man — ‘human being’ that is perceived in combination with the lexical meaning of this adjective. The meaning of the same adjective in blind type (print, handwriting) is different.
As can be seen from the above examples, polysemantic words are used in word-groups only in one of their meanings. These meanings of the component words in such word-groups are mutually interdependent and inseparable. Semantic inseparability of word-groups that allows us to treat them as self-contained lexical units is also clearly perceived in the analysis of the connotational component of their lexical meaning. Stylistic reference of word-groups, for example, may be essentially different from that of the words making up these groups. There is nothing colloquial or slangy about such words as old, boy, bag, fun, etc. when taken in isolation. The word-groups made up of these words, e.g. old boy, bags of fun, are recognisably colloquial.
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As with polymorphemic words word-groups
§ 5. Structural Meaning possess not only the lexical meaning, but also the meaning conveyed mainly by the pattern of arrangement of their constituents. A certain parallel can be drawn between the meaning conveyed by the arrangement of morphemes in words and the structural meaning of word-groups.1 It will be recalled that two compound words made up of lexically identical stems may be different in meaning because of the difference in the pattern of arrangement of the stems. For example, the meaning of such words as dog-house and house-dog is different though the lexical meaning of the components is identical. This is also true of wordgroups. Such word-groups as school grammar and grammar school are semantically different because of the difference in the pattern of arrangement of the component words. It is assumed that the structural pattern of word-groups is the carrier of a certain semantic component not necessarily dependent on the actual lexical meaning of its members. In the example discussed above (school grammar) the structural meaning of the wordgroup may be abstracted from the group and described as ‘quality-substance’ meaning. This is the meaning expressed by the pattern of the word-group but not by either the word school or the word grammar. It follows that we have to distinguish between the structural meaning of a given type of word-group as such and the lexical meaning of its constituents.
The lexical and structural components of