To say welcoming words is lexical compatibility. Features of violation of lexical compatibility

Dictionary of compatibility -- a dictionary containing material on lexical compatibility.

Semantic errors

Violation of lexical compatibility is caused by semantic errors of two types - logical and linguistic.

Logical errors are associated with not distinguishing between concepts that are close in any respect. Often people do not distinguish between areas of activity, cause and effect, part and whole, related phenomena.

So, in the sentence "Residents of the seaside city witnessed a large theatrical performance", an error is found in the phrase "witnesses of the performance". The word "witness" means "eyewitness" - this is the name of a person who finds himself at the scene of an incident. This word is associated with the sphere of judicial and legal activity. In the field of theatrical and concert activity, which is referred to in the proposal, the word "spectator" is used. This error is associated with a lack of distinction between areas of activity.

The erroneous combination “prices have risen in price” is associated with a lack of distinction between the related concepts of “prices” and “goods”: goods rise in price, and prices rise. Examples of similar errors in the sentences can be given: “The timely start-up of the plant causes concern”; “52 trees have been planted in the park”; "As a result of the plague, people left the city." All these errors are not explained by a distinction between related phenomena: they fear not that the combine will be launched, but that it will not be launched at the scheduled time; lay not trees, but a park; people leave the city not as a result, but because of the plague. Possible corrections in these cases: “There is concern that the plant will not be launched at the scheduled time”; “52 trees planted in the park”; "As a result of the plague, the city was deserted."

Linguistic errors are associated with not distinguishing denoting words that are in any semantic relationship. These are mostly synonyms and paronyms.

Not distinguishing between synonyms, words that are close or coinciding in meaning, leads to errors in use. For example, the words "role" and "function" in the sense of "work, circle of activity" are synonymous, but genetically they are associated with different designations: the role - with the sphere of theater and cinema, and the function - with logic. Hence the established lexical compatibility: the role is played (played), and the function is performed (performed). The words “brave” and “brave” are synonyms, but “brave” is associated with the external manifestation of the called quality, and “brave” is associated with both external and internal, so a thought, decision, idea can only be bold, but not brave.

Not distinguishing between paronyms, i.e. words that partially coincide in sound also lead to errors in use; most of the paronyms are single-root words that differ in suffixes or prefixes and, as a result, shades of meaning, as well as stylistic coloring. For example, a misdemeanor (offense) is an act (action committed by someone); guilty (who committed a crime) - guilty (guilty of something, violating the rules of morality, politeness, etc.); pay (for something) - pay (for something).

Paronyms may be associated with different options common root. For example, short (small in size, the opposite of long) - short (stated briefly, in a few words). Therefore, they say a short text, but a brief retelling of the text. Borrowed words may also appear in paronymic relations: parity (equality) - priority (primacy, advantage), dequalification (loss of qualification) - disqualification (deprivation of qualification), etc. To distinguish between paronyms of foreign origin, it is necessary to refer to dictionaries of foreign words.

The following are frequency pairs of paronyms:

• - fulfill - fulfill have the general meaning "to carry out, put into practice", for example, to fulfill (fulfill) an order, but the second verb has a book character;
• - long - long coincide in the meaning of "ongoing, long", for example, a long (long) conversation, a long (long) pause, but "long" indicates the length in time, and "long" emphasizes the procedural meaning of the noun; "long" is usually combined with the names of periods of time (long night, long winter), and "long" - with the names of actions and states designed for long term(long flight, long treatment);
• - agreement - agreement differ in that "agreement" means a written or oral agreement, a condition of mutual obligations (friendship and cooperation agreement), and "agreement" - an agreement reached through negotiations (an agreement to include an issue on the agenda);
• - truth (truth, the actual state of affairs) - truth (correspondence to the truth). For example, the desire for truth is the truth of the assumptions put forward;
• - ordinary - ordinary differ in that in the first word unremarkable, unremarkable is emphasized, and in the second - typicality. For example, an ordinary person is an ordinary day.

To identify the specifics of words related by paronymic relations, it is necessary to correctly represent the morphological composition of the word and the method of its formation. For example, in pairs, learn - master, complicate - complicate, make heavier - make words with the prefix o- more important high degree manifestations of action. In pairs hygienic - hygienic, logical - logical, practical - practical, economic - economical, differing in suffixes -ichesk- / -n-, the second adjective denotes a sign that can manifest itself to a greater or lesser extent ( quality adjective). This implies compatibility: hygienic norm - hygienic fabric, logical laws - a logical conclusion, practical application - practical clothing, economic policy- economic device.

Stylistic mistakes

Stylistic errors are a violation of the requirements of the unity of the functional style, the unjustified use of emotionally colored, stylistically marked means. Stylistic errors are associated with ignoring the restrictions that its stylistic coloring imposes on the use of a word.

The most common stylistic mistakes include:

• 1. The use of clericalism - words and phrases characteristic of formal business style. For example, "As the revenue side of my budget increased, I decided to buy a new car for permanent use" - "I began to receive a lot of money, so I decided to buy a new car."
• 2. The use of words (expressions) of inappropriate stylistic coloring. So, in a literary context, the use of jargon, vernacular, abusive vocabulary is inappropriate; in a business text, colloquial and expressively colored words should be avoided. For example, "Guardian charitable establishments sucks up to the auditor "-" The trustee of charitable institutions curry favor with the auditor.
• 3. Mixture of styles - unjustified use in one text of words, syntactic constructions characteristic of different styles Russian language. For example, a mixture of scientific and colloquial styles.
• 4. Mixing vocabulary from different historical eras. For example, "On the heroes of chain mail, trousers, mittens" - "On the heroes of chain mail, armor, mittens."
• 5. Incorrect sentence construction. For example, "Despite his youth, he good man". There are several ways to correct these errors. Firstly, change the word order in the sentence: "There are many works that tell about the author's childhood in world literature" - "In world literature there are many works that tell about the author's childhood."
• 6. Secondly, redo the sentence: “From other sporting events, let's talk about the bar” - “From other sporting events, barbell competitions should be highlighted.”
• 7. Pleonasm - verbal excess, the use of words that are unnecessary from a semantic point of view. In order to avoid pleonasm, you must do the following:
  • - replace the word with a single root, for example, a monumental monument - a monument;
  • - remove a word from a phrase, for example, main point- essence, valuable treasures - treasures;
  • - remove a word from the text without reducing the quality. For example, "Operation is the way in which an action is performed" - "Operation is a way of performing an action"; "Building a model in accordance with known rules» - «Building a model according to the rules».
• 8. Tautology - the use of single-root words within the boundaries of one sentence. For example, "Tell a story"; "Ask a question." Ways to correct tautologies are:
  • - replace one of the words with a synonym. For example, “Torrential downpour did not stop all day” - “Torrential rain did not stop all day”;
  • - delete one of the words. For example, "Along with these signs, there are a number of others" - "Along with these signs, there are others."

The tautology is easily detected when reading the text aloud. Overused words usually include which, so that and can.

• 9. Lexical repetitions in the text. For example, "In order to study well, students must pay more attention to learning." Words that are repeated should be replaced with synonyms, nouns can be replaced with pronouns, or a repeating word can be removed altogether, if possible - "To achieve success, students must pay more attention to classes."
• 10. Substitution of the concept. This error occurs as a result of missing a word. For example, “Patients who have not visited the outpatient clinic for three years are laid out in the archive” (we are talking about patient cards, and from the text of the proposal it follows that the patients themselves were handed over to the outpatient clinic).
• 11. This error, which arose as a result of the author's stylistic negligence, can be easily corrected: it is necessary to insert an accidentally omitted word or phrase. For example, "Farmers strive to increase the number of sheep on the farm" - "Farmers strive to increase the number of sheep on the farm."
• 12. Choice of single or plural. Often there are problems with the use of the singular or plural. Examples of correct use are combinations: two or more options, three or more forms, there are several options, there are some options.

For correct use, agreement in meaning is increasingly used: if a single whole is meant, then singular, and if you want to emphasize individual items - plural.

• 13. Agreement of words in a sentence. Often there are errors in the agreement of words in a sentence, especially with regard to the control of verbs. For example, "This section talks about opening, working and saving a document" - "This section describes the procedures for opening and saving documents, as well as working with them."
• 14. Creation of verbal nouns. You should be careful to create verbal nouns, because. many of the created words are not in the dictionary, and their use is considered illiterate (order - ordering, not ordering; collapse - folding, not folding).
• 15. Stringing the same forms. Avoid stringing the same case forms, for example, using the words "to" and "which". For example, "In order to avoid the possibility of danger" - "To avoid the occurrence of danger."
• 16. Poverty and monotony of syntactic constructions. For example, “The man was wearing a burnt padded jacket. The quilted jacket was roughly darned. The boots were almost new. Moth-eaten socks” - “The man was dressed in a roughly darned burnt padded jacket. Although the boots were almost new, the socks were moth-eaten.

Stylistically unjustified use of tropes. The use of tropes can cause a variety of speech errors. Unsuccessful imagery of speech is a fairly common flaw in the style of authors who have poor pen skills.

For example, “The judge was just as simple and humble.

Words in speech are not used in isolation, one at a time, but in combinations. Not all of them freely connect with each other. Lexical compatibility words is their ability to connect with a certain circle of other words. Sometimes, due to the complexity of such a choice, speech is allowed

In a sentence, words are related to each other both in meaning and grammatically. In the latter case, such a connection provides a grammatical one. Semantic connections ensure the correctness of the statement in terms of content. The words used in speech should be consistent with others. This is expressed in two types of compatibility - lexical and semantic.

Lexical compatibility refers to the ability of words to enter into combinations with only a limited number (or units) of words.

Semantic is expressed in the ability of words to correlate with a whole class of other words that share a common meaning. For example, a group of verbs that describe the state of a person (think, laugh, etc.) can be combined with all words that designate people (doctor, passerby).

In a number of cases, when it is not about specific things, but about their relations (abstract, abstract vocabulary), then lexical compatibility is conditional. For example, you can "give advice", "inspect", "resist", etc. All these verbs play the same role, they are easy to replace with synonyms (“advise”, “examine”, “resist”), but it is almost impossible to confuse them. A Russian-speaking person will never say, for example, "produce advice."

Some variants of incorrect compatibility are massive (very often different people they are used in speech with the same errors): “a meeting has been called” (need: “the meeting took place”), “develop one’s horizons” (need: “broaden one’s horizons”). This is due to the fact that in one situation different set phrases can be used, and often the replacement of components leads to a semantic inaccuracy. The traditional phrase "Let me raise a toast!" is also incorrect. You can either "raise a glass" or "make a toast."

Also a typical mistake in which lexical compatibility is violated is the phrase “the level of service has improved”. The level can go up, but the quality can go up.

Vocabulary. Types of lexical units

The concept of lexical norm and typical lexical errors

Violation of accuracy, clarity, consistency, brevity of speech as a result of lexical errors

1. Vocabulary. Types of lexical units

Vocabulary – vocabulary a language that covers single words and stable combinations of words. All words can be divided into several groups depending on their lexical features.

Depending on the number of lexical meanings, single-valued and polysemantic words are distinguished. single word can have only one lexical meaning ( book, table, monologue, alert). polysemantic word has two or more values endure, green). In the explanatory dictionary, all meanings of a polysemantic word are given in one dictionary entry, each meaning is numbered, and before interpreting the word there may be a note, for example, trans.(figurative meaning). The direct meaning is the basic meaning of the word. Figurative meaning - secondary meaning, which arose on the basis of direct.

Lexical units, depending on the semantic relationships between words, are divided into synonyms, homonyms, antonyms, paronyms. Synonyms- these are words of the same part of speech, different in sound, the same or close in meaning. Synonyms can differ from each other in shades of meaning, stylistic coloring, or both. Antonyms- Words that are opposite in meaning. Antonyms denote contrasting concepts that are correlated with each other. Antonyms can express opposite concepts of time (a long time ago - recently), place (up - down), space (north - south), etc. Homonyms- words that are identical in spelling and sound, related to one part of speech, but not related in meaning, for example: In dictionaries, homonyms, unlike polysemantic words, are given in different dictionary entries, since homonyms, unlike polysemantic words, are not have a common value component. Paronyms words are called that are similar in sound, but different in meaning, having, as a rule, the same root and belonging to the same part of speech, for example: spectacular - effective, addressee - addresser, tactical - tactful.

Lexical units are subdivided in terms of the scope of use. Common called vocabulary, understandable to all native speakers of the Russian language. Uncommon words are used only by one or another social group. These words are jargon(emotionally expressive words that are used by a particular social group and have a correspondence in the literary language), dialectisms(words that are used only by residents of a certain territory), argotisms ( words used in the speech of people of a certain social environment in order to hide the content of speech from representatives of others social groups), professionalism, terms.

Lexical units may be characteristic of only one style of speech, or they may be neutral i.e. to be used in any style.

Depending on the origin, the words are native Russian and borrowed. Native Russian Borrowings(foreign vocabulary) - words that came into the Russian language from other languages ​​​​and are used according to the laws of the Russian language.

Depending on the frequency of use, passive and active vocabulary is distinguished. Vocabulary of everyday use is active (table, house, work, contract, tax, etc.). Passive vocabulary is rarely used. Passive vocabulary includes obsolete words that have gone out of active use. They are divided into two groups: historicisms and archaisms. Historicisms - words denoting objects, phenomena that are not in modern life: corvee, quitrent, veche, arshin. Archaisms- words whose lexical meaning has changed. Archaisms have synonyms in the modern Russian language, because the objects and phenomena denoted by these words have not been lost. For example, forehead (forehead), fingers (fingers), shame (spectacle), shuytsa ( left hand), right hand (right hand). In addition to obsolete words, passive vocabulary includes neologisms(new vocabulary units). Neologisms can be individually-author's and general language. Individual author's neologisms belong to book speech, are created consciously, are not widely used, and are not recorded in dictionaries. Such neologisms are created in order to give expressiveness to speech. General language neologisms arise when there is a need to name the desired subject.

Syntagmatic relations in vocabulary

Syntagmatics - a set of rules and patterns that determine the relationship between units in the speech chain. Syntagmatic relations are based on the linear nature of speech, which excludes the possibility of pronouncing two linguistic elements at the same time, and allows this pronunciation only in a linear temporal sequence.

B.A. Larin identifies 4 aspects of word compatibility: 1) compatibility may depend on the part of the word; 2) compatibility may be due to the real meaning of the word; 3) compatibility may be due to the stylistic gravity of the word; 4) compatibility can be associated with the tradition of word usage.

According to the features of compatibility V.V. Vinogradov divided all the meanings of the word into free and bound. Features of word compatibility are already visible in a minimal context, cf .: a holey skirt, a jacket, a rag, a roof, a saucepan - a holey memory.

The phraseologically related meaning of a word can be characterized by three features. A word with a phraseologically related meaning requires an obligatory companion word, it is semantically dependent (1); its compatibility with other words is semantically and lexically limited (2), it has a narrow quantitative compatibility (3), cf.: a bosom friend, an excellent student.

Syntactically limited meanings are realized in a word only when it is used as a specific member of a sentence or in a characteristic syntactic environment, cf.: A girl is a picture! I haven’t seen such a bear for a long time: he crushed all my legs while they were dancing; It is simply impossible to dance with this bear; Well, a bear! V.V. Vinogradov called syntactically limited meanings predicative-characterizing.

Lexical meaning inseparable from strictly certain forms the compatibility of a word with other words, which is realized only when the word is used in a special syntactic construction, V.V. Vinogradov called it constructively conditioned, cf.: play ┘, play ┘, play whom, etc. This meaning most often turns out to be both syntactically limited or phraseologically related, so the issue of singling out constructively conditioned meanings into a special type remains controversial.

The stylistic affiliation of words can act as a factor limiting their compatibility. A significant part of stylistic synonyms, according to the observations of V.V. Vinogradov, is devoid of a direct, free nominative meaning. These words do not express their main meaning directly, but through that semantically basic or supporting word, which is the base of the corresponding synonymic series and whose nominative meaning is directly directed to reality, cf. royal attire, but not in a tracksuit, jacket, padded jacket, etc.

Lexical compatibility For the correct use of words in speech, it is not enough to know their exact meaning, it is also necessary to take into account the features of the lexical compatibility of words, that is, their ability to connect with each other. So, “similar” adjectives long, long, long, long-term, long-term are “attracted” to nouns in different ways: long period, long period (but not long, long, long-term period); long haul, a long way; long-term fees, long-term credit.

Often words with the same meaning can have different lexical compatibility (cf .: a true friend is a genuine document). The doctrine of lexical compatibility is based on the position of academician V.V. Vinogradov about phraseologically related values words that have a single compatibility (bosom friend) or limited opportunities compatibility (stale bread, loaf; stale person, but you can’t say “stale candy” (chocolate), “stale comrade” (father, son). To develop a theory of lexical compatibility great importance Vinogradov singled out phraseological combinations and established the main types of lexical meanings of words in the Russian language. See: V.V. Vinogradov. The main types of lexical meanings of words in the Russian language // Selected Works: Lexicology and Lexicography. M., 1977. S. 162-189. Phraseology deals with phraseological combinations, the subject of lexical stylistics is the study of the combination in speech of words that have free meanings, and the definition of those restrictions that are imposed by the language on their lexical compatibility. Many linguists emphasize that the lexical compatibility of a word is inseparable from its meaning. Some scientists, studying the problems of lexical compatibility, come to the conclusion that there are no absolutely free combinations of lexemes in the language, there are only groups of words with different possibilities of compatibility. With such a formulation of the question, the difference between free combinations and phraseologically connected ones is destroyed. Combining words into phrases can run into various kinds of restrictions. Firstly, words may not be combined due to their semantic incompatibility (purple orange, leaned back, water is on fire); secondly, the combination of words into a phrase can be excluded due to their grammatical nature (mine - swim, close - cheerful); thirdly, the combination of words can be prevented by their lexical features(words denoting seemingly connected concepts do not combine; they say to cause grief, trouble, but one cannot say to cause joy, pleasure). Depending on the restrictions governing the combination of words, there are three types of compatibility: semantic semantic compatibility (from the term "semantics" - the meaning of the word), grammatical grammatical compatibility (more precisely, syntactic) and lexical lexical compatibility. Semantic compatibility is broken, for example, in such cases: By today, there is no information yet; It is necessary to speed up the settlement of the bloodshed; Maiden name my father Sobakin; After the death of Lensky, no duel, Olga married a hussar ... Funny combinations of words, isn't it? But if you think about it, in other cases a very undesirable underlying meaning arises: not to stop, but only to settle the bloodshed? .. A parodic example of a violation of grammatical compatibility is known: possessive adjectives cannot be combined with verbs in the personal form). More examples: Our leader is healthy inside and out; Most of the time deputies spend on discussions. The most drastic violation of the laws of “attraction of words” is lexical inconsistency: The voice of numbers is not comforting; In the recent past, we all had our tongues clamped down. The bright effect of "deceived expectations" is played by comedians in caustic jokes: We have won and no longer have the right to delay; Reached the yawning peaks. Violation of lexical compatibility

Violation of lexical compatibility is often explained by the incorrect use of polysemantic words. So, in its basic meaning, the word deep can be freely combined with any other, suitable in meaning: deep (that is, having great depth) well, bay, pond, lake, river. However, in the meaning of “reached the limit, complete, perfect”, this word is combined with a few (deep autumn, winter, but not summer, not spring, deep night, silence, but not morning, not day, not noise; deep old age, but not youth). Therefore, the statement makes us laugh: In deep childhood, he was like his mother. The word to take place is interpreted in dictionaries by means of synonyms to happen, to come true, however, unlike them, this verb is appropriate if the planned events were being prepared, planned (A meeting was held; A meeting of the candidate for the Duma with voters took place). And if the correspondent writes: Armed clashes took place on the streets of the city, one might think that armed clashes were being prepared, planned by someone. As you can see, a violation of lexical compatibility can lead to a distortion of the meaning of the statement. Lexical stylistics should focus on the assessment of lexical compatibility. However, the boundaries between various types combinability is very fuzzy, therefore, in the stylistic analysis of the text, one has to talk not only about “pure” lexical combinability, but also take into account various transitional cases. All significant words that have free meanings can be conditionally divided into two groups. Some are characterized by compatibility, practically unlimited within their subject-logical connections; such are, for example, adjectives characterizing physical properties objects - color, volume, weight, temperature (red, black, large, small, light, heavy, hot, cold), many nouns (table, house, person, tree), verbs (live, see, work, know). Another group is formed by words that have limited lexical compatibility (and in the case of polysemy of words, this restriction can only apply to their individual meanings). This group of words is of particular interest. Lexical compatibility restrictions are usually inherent in words that rarely occur in speech. Words with the maximum frequency of use (they are included in the 2500 most frequent words of the Russian language) easily enter into lexical relationships. For example, when comparing the compatibility of the words fear and fear, it turned out that the word fear is more actively combined with various verbs. The lexical compatibility of words has an intralinguistic character. In our native language, we usually "predict" possible options lexical connections words (mostly by intuition). Marks of lexical compatibility in explanatory dictionaries are rare and inconsistent.

The question of the nominativeness of the phrase. a. Recognition of the concept of nomanativity of the word combination by Vinogradov. Therefore, the phrase is a nominative unit, since it has the property of language units to name objects and phenomena reflected in concepts (a sad look, joyful events) EVIDENCE: -expanding the meaning of the term "nominativity": single word(sea) – minimal nomination, phrase (blue sea) – extended, ornamented nomination. - Rethinking the concept of "nominativity": a word, a phrase, and a sentence have a specific nominativity. The nominative nature of the sentence is communicative in nature: the sentence describes the situation as a whole (propositive nomination). b. Denial of the concept of nominative phrases. EVIDENCE: -Not all phrases have nominativity (buy a book, put on a ring, wave hands): "an action is not unity with the objects it is directed at and with the accompanying circumstances." (Gvozdev) - The main feature of the phrase is not nominativity, but relativity! Since the phrase denotes at least 2 realities in their relationship and describes a fragment of the situation.

How are phrases and sentences related? 1) The phrase as an independent nominative unit of the language is building material for the proposal and there is “before the proposal” (Vinogradov, Shvedova, Prokopovich, Sirotinin, Babaitseva, Valgina). 2) The phrase as a non-independent unit of language is isolated from the sentence, “before the sentence” (Chess, Sukhotin, Gvozdev, Moiseev, Shmelev, Raspopov). 3) Phrases are functionally heterogeneous: some of them exist in the language, “before the sentence”, and by their reproducibility are functionally close to words (phraseological units, synlexemes); others are formed only in the process of constructing an utterance, they are not reproducible, they are not units of a dictionary (Thulin).

Phraseologism

Phraseologists? ЗМ (phraseological unit, phraseological turn) - a stable phrase that has a definition. lexical meaning, constant component composition and the presence of grammatical. categories. F. arises and develops in yaz. by rethinking specific phrases. Differ F. with a completely rethinking. the composition of its component words (often retaining an archaic grammatical form and / or not justified by the norms of the modern lit. language syntactic connection). Such F. called. phraseological fusions (idioms), for example: beat with a forehead, rattle weapons, for once, pull a gimp. F., in which phraseological. value to some extent motivated by otd. the meanings of its component words, called. phraseological unity, for example: throw a fishing rod, lather your head, throw dust in your eyes, go into your shell, the first pancake is lumpy. F., images, from word-components with free and phraseologically connected. meaning, phraseological the value of which is formed from the values ​​of these components, called. phraseological a combination, for example: frown eyebrows, bloody nose, bare teeth, biting frost, a tricky question. F. may have one or several. phraseological values, for example, F. behind the shoulders is used in two meanings: 1) directly. proximity, near (in time or space) and 2) in the past (about lived, experienced). F., like words, can be synonymous. and antonymic. relations with each other, may have homonyms. F. are antonymous in their semantics: soul to soul - like a cat with a dog, at hand - in the middle of nowhere, in the sweat of your face - through your sleeves. From phraseological meaning "very strictly, severely, limiting freedom of action" F.-synonyms are used: in tight irons, in a black body, in a bridle, in a string, in a vice, in blinders, in the fear of God. All of them are used in the function of the circumstance with the verb "keep". Phraseological synonyms are placed in the explanatory dictionaries of Russian. lit. language, in phraseological dictionaries. synonyms. F. are distinguished by active and passive use. For example, they went out of active use: to keep the army - to fight, without any warning - without slander, the blue uniform - the gendarme. Originated in Russian language quite recently: white death, does not knit brooms, to the light bulb, call on the carpet, pull the blanket over himself, under the cap. In a sentence, F. perform the same functions as words, acting as a determinant. member suggestions. F., as a rule, correlates with a part of speech, is included in the definition. lexico-grammatical ranks, for example, nominal are: shadow cabinet, green gold, star disease. In a sentence, F. is used in the function of the subject, the nominal part of the compound predicate, etc. Decl. F. form phraseological. language composition.

Persitsky dragged the stubborn Lapis into the next room. The audience followed them. There, on the wall, hung a large newspaper clipping, surrounded by a mourning border.
- Did you write this essay in The Captain's Bridge?
- I wrote.
- This seems to be your first experience in prose? Congratulations! “The waves rolled over the pier and fell down with a swift jack ...” Well, you made the “Captain's Bridge” happy! "Bridge" will not forget you for a long time, Lapis!
- What's the matter?
- The thing is... Do you know what a jack is?
- Well, of course I know, leave me alone ...
- How do you imagine a jack? Describe in your own words.
- Such... Falls, in a word.

We have brought this passage from The Twelve Chairs to show that it is not enough to know many beautiful, expressive or smart words you need to know how to use them correctly.

Lexical style is a science that studies the lexical means of a language and develops norms for their use.

We already briefly mentioned it in the third lesson, when we looked at functional styles. The selection of vocabulary when writing a text is an extremely important and difficult task. It depends on your goals, audience and functional style. In the third lesson, we described what vocabulary is inherent in a particular style, and pointed out that it is undesirable to mix different types of vocabulary in one text, only if you do not want to achieve a special artistic effect in this way. In this lesson, we will talk in more detail about the basic principles of lexical stylistics, which are useful for every author to know.

The meaning of the word and its connotations

The most important characteristic of a word is its meaning. The meanings of words, along with other types of signs, are studied by semantics. In semantics, there are several approaches to the definition of meaning. We will not describe in detail the differences between them, we will only say that the meaning can be understood as a set of objects, processes, phenomena, a concept, generally accepted rules for using a word, etc. However the meaning is defined, it is important that it is fixed in the language, and we ourselves cannot change it arbitrarily. Therefore, if you are not one hundred percent sure of the meaning of a word, never be too lazy to look into the dictionary, otherwise you risk becoming the above-described Lyapis Trubetskoy.

In addition to the direct meaning, which is sometimes denoted by the term denotate, each word also has additional meanings, or connotations. They are designed to convey the attitude of the speaker or writing person to the subject of speech. Therefore, when choosing vocabulary, they also need to be taken into account. They will help to effectively explain your thought or your attitude. At the same time, if you have not thought about connotations, then the reader may have them and develop not the associations that you sought. To illustrate how connotations work, here are the following synonyms: respect, devotion, servility. Respect- a neutral term meaning a feeling of respect, which is the result of recognition of someone's merits, merits and achievements. Term devotion clearly bears positive connotations: a person who is devoted to someone not only respects him, but also will not leave him in difficult times. Servility but it has negative connotations: this is stupid ostentatious respect, which has selfish goals behind it and manifests itself in flattery, servility, servility.

Speech errors

The use of a word without taking into account its meaning and connotations leads to speech errors. “The waves fell down with a swift jack” is a vivid example of a speech error. Lyapis Trubetskoy did not know the exact meaning of the word jack, and therefore inserted it into a completely inappropriate context. It is clear that this example is an exaggeration: most often people confuse words that are similar in sound ( addressee and addressee, incident and precedent) or value ( development and improvement, accompany and favor). Once again, the main way to eliminate such errors is to check the meanings of words in the dictionary. This is also useful because dictionary entries most often contain common examples of the correct use of the word.

In addition to errors that directly stem from ignorance of the meaning of a word, there are the following types of speech errors: euphemism, anachronism, alogism, substitution of a concept, unjustified expansion or narrowing of a concept. Let's dwell on them in more detail.

Euphemism is a word or expression used to replace other words that are considered obscene or inappropriate. For example, a woman, instead of saying that she is pregnant or expecting a child, is said to be in an interesting position. By and large, euphemism is not a mistake, but its inappropriate and excessive use creates the effect of bad style.

Anachronism- violation of chronology when using words related to any era. For example, "Medieval peasants, dissatisfied with the conditions of their existence, organized rallies." Word rally appeared much later, and its use in relation to medieval peasants is inappropriate.

Alogism is a comparison of disparate concepts. For example, "The lexicon of literary texts is richer compared to other texts." In this case, it turns out that the lexicon is compared with texts, although it can only be compared with another lexicon. Correct option: "The lexicon of literary texts is richer compared to the lexicon of other texts."

Concept substitution- an error caused by the replacement of one concept with another: "The bookshelves were full of boring names." It is clear that the titles cannot stand on the shelves, there were books on them. It would be correct to say: "The bookshelves were full of books with boring titles."

Unjustified expansion or narrowing of the concept is an error resulting from the confusion of generic categories. It has two varieties: the use of a generic concept instead of a specific one (“Twice a day we walk with our pet”, it’s correct to say with our dog) and, conversely, the use of a specific concept instead of a generic one (“School is important for the socialization of girls,” it must be said children boys need to be socialized too.

Lexical compatibility

Lexical compatibility is the ability of words to combine with each other. Understanding whether words go together or not is just as important as knowing their meaning. Words may not match for several reasons. Firstly, they may be incompatible in meaning: black sun, cold fire, slowly rushing. Secondly, restrictions can be imposed by grammar: I go to breathe, my good. Finally, the combination of words is influenced by their lexical features: we can say best friends , but not best enemies.

Violation of lexical compatibility also leads to speech errors. Most often, errors occur for three reasons:

1. Confusion in the use of synonyms. Not always synonyms can be included in the same phrases. Take, for example, synonyms long, long, lasting. We can say a long day and long day, but not long day.
2. Incorrect use of ambiguous words. Often, polysemantic words in one of their meanings are easily included in various phrases, while in another meaning they can be combined with only a few words. For example, the word deep in the meaning of "having great depth" is easily combined with all words that are suitable in meaning: deep well, deep lake, deep river etc. However, in the meaning of "reached the limit, complete, perfect" this word has already limited compatibility: one can say late at night, but not deep in the day, in deep old age but not in deep childhood.
3. Contamination, or mixing of superficially similar phrases. Common examples of contamination are the mixing of phrases play the role and matter, satisfy the requirements of and meet the needs etc.

To avoid such mistakes, it is necessary to use the "Dictionary of the compatibility of words of the Russian language".

Lexical insufficiency and lexical redundancy

Lexical insufficiency- this is the omission of words necessary for the exact expression of thought. It is most typical for conversational oral speech but also found in written texts. The result of lexical insufficiency is a comic effect or loss of meaning. As an illustration, at a dog show: "Dear participants, wipe your muzzles and get ready for the parade!" It is obvious that the participants must wipe the muzzles not of themselves, but of the dogs.

Lexical redundancy- unjustified verbosity. It is an indispensable attribute of bad style. There are several types of lexical redundancy:

1. idle talk, or transfusion from empty to empty: "Walks on fresh air very helpful. Everyone should walk: children, adults, old people. it good habit which must be instilled from childhood. Do I need to walk every day? Of course you need to." Such reasoning is of no informative value.
2. Lapalissiada- the statement of the obvious truth: "Ten minutes before the soup was ready, it was not yet ready."
3. Pleonasm- the use of words that are close in meaning in one phrase: main point, illogical paradox, foresee in advance. Often pleonasms arise from the combination of synonyms: "By this example, he showed and illustrated his thought."
4. Tautology- this is a kind of pleonasm that occurs when the same-root words are repeated, in other words - buttered butter. Vivid examples tautologies: tell a story, ask a question. Also tautological is the combination of a Russian word and a word of foreign origin, duplicating its meaning: interior design, memorabilia, leading leader.

To avoid such mistakes, you just need to be careful. Always reread your text several times. Sometimes it is better to do this a few hours after finishing work on the text. This will help create the necessary distance: you will look at your text through the eyes of your reader.

Test your knowledge

If you want to test your knowledge on a topic this lesson, you can take a short test consisting of several questions. Only 1 option can be correct for each question. After you select one of the options, the system automatically moves on to the next question. The points you receive are affected by the correctness of your answers and the time spent on passing. Please note that the questions are different each time, and the options are shuffled.