STYLISTIC SEMASIOLOGY

OF THE ENGLISH
LANGUAGE

WHAT IS SEMASIOLOGY?

SEMASIOLOGY is a branch of
linguistics which studies semantics or
meaning of linguistic units belonging
to different language levels.
 Semasiology can be of two types:
1- lexical
semasiology 2- stylistic
analyses the semasiology is
meaning of words concerned only with
and word those semantic
combinations, relations and changes
relations between
which form the basis
these meaningsand
the changes these of EM and SD.
meanings undergo
The subject-matter of stylistic semasiology is stylistics
semantics, i.e. additional meaning of a language unit
which may be given rise to by:

-the unusual denotative reference of words, word-

combinations, utterances and texts (EM)
- the unusual distribution of the meanings of these
units (SD)

Semasiological EM are figures of substitution. It is based

on the usage of existing words and word combinations to
denote new notions or to give a new name to the already
known objects.
 Secondary nomination isn’t completely arbitrary, so it is
carried out according to certain principles.
Most commonly the transfer of a name occurs:

1) On the basis of
similarity or
likeness of 2
objects belonging to 2) On the basis of
different areas of contiguity or some logical
reality which are relations or associations
regarded as such between different objects. (
due to individual or chicken – food)
collective
perception ( rat –
spy, rabbit -
coward)
So, figures of substitution are secondary nomination units which
may exist in a language a s a system or be formed in speech on the
basis of recurrent patterns. Secondary nomination units stand in
paradigmatic relations to corresponding primary nomination units.
They are marked members of stylistic oppositions because they
have connotations or additional stylistic meaning.

Figures of substitution

Figures of quantity Figures of qualification

Figures of quantity are based on the comparison of
two different objects or phenomena having in
common feature expressed with a certain degree of
intensity. Between them we may distinguish:

Hyperbole (this Meiosis and Litotes

feature characterizes (deliberately less
the referent in a degree).
deliberately greater
degree)
•Hyperbole can be considered only
when the exaggeration is deliberate and
both the speaker and the listener are
aware of it.
•Hyperbole is mainly used to intensify
physical qualities of objects or people
such as size, colour, quantity, age etc..
But also it may show the overflow of
emotions.
 Meiosis

(used mainly in oral speech) is a figure of speech opposite to

hyperbole. This is a deliberate understatement or
underestimation of some feature of an object or phenomena
with the aim of intensifying the expressiveness of speech.
The features stressed are usually size, volume, distance,
time etc.

She wore a pink hat, the size of

the button (J. Reed)
 Litotes
differs from meiosis by both its contents and structure.
Litotes presents a statement in the form of negation.
Litotes has a specific semantic and syntactic structure :
the usage of not before a word with a negative prefix.