Linguistic Structures: Conjunctions, Semantics, and Lexicon
Types of Conjunctions and Connectives
Words are connected with others, conceived as an essential element. The primary types include:
- Adversative: Denotes opposition (e.g., but).
- Causal: Denotes cause (e.g., because).
- Comparative: Denotes the idea of comparison (e.g., como).
- Full: Subordinate clauses that give way to substance (e.g., that).
- Concessive: Expresses objection or difficulty (e.g., though).
- Conditional: Denotes a condition or the need to verify (e.g., if).
- Copulative: Coordinates and adds one sentence to another (e.g., y).
- Distributive: Applies to options (e.g., ora... ora).
- Disjunctive: Denotes exclusion or alternation (e.g., o).
- Temporal: Denotes the idea of time (e.g., where the war).
Understanding Semantic Change
Semantic change refers to the change in the relationship between the signifier and the signified.
Consequences and Causes
Consequences: These include the extension of meaning or restricting the meaning of a term's extension to something else.
Causes:
- Social History: Using things that change while the names with which they are designated remain the same (e.g., Villano, from village dweller to evil).
- Psychological: The subjective assessment of speakers regarding reality and human behavior.
- Language: Spreading a word to another in the proximity of meaning in certain contexts (e.g., pure cane).
Mechanisms of Semantic Change
- Metaphor: A relation of resemblance or a natural shift in meaning (e.g., foot of the mountain).
- Metonymy: Occurs when you use the name of an object to designate another with which it has some relationship of proximity (e.g., he bought a Picasso).
- Euphemism: A soft or decorous manifestation of ideas whose free expression would be hard or objectionable (e.g., the service).
- Dysphemism: Appointing a reality with a pejorative expression or with the intent to downgrade (e.g., pushing up the daisies).
Lexicon: Lexemes and Morphemes
Lexeme: The minimum unit with lexical meaning that lacks grammatical morphemes (e.g., sun).
Morpheme: The smallest analyzable unit that has only grammatical meaning.
Types of Morphemes
- Prefixes: These take precedence over the lexeme (e.g., archi- for intensity, extra- for outside).
- Infixes: Morphemes that lack significant value and are used for phonetic reasons (e.g., body-ec-ito).
- Suffixes: Morphemes located at the end of the word (e.g., -ada for a blow or sudden action, -pipelining for a place or something derogatory, -ment for action or effect, and -dad/-tad for abstraction).
Semantic Phenomena and Semes
Semantics: Phenomena related to the scope of the meaning of the linguistic sign.
Semes: These are minimal semantic features that define and distinguish a word from other meanings. They can be:
- Denotative: Basic meanings of the term (e.g., pet = dog).
- Connotative: Secondary and subjective meanings (e.g., one = negative).
The set of semes of a word is called a sememe.