The structure of a polysemantic word in the cognitive-semantic aspect

Abstract

The article presents the results of the study of the semantic structure of the polysemantic word in the aspect of cognitive semantics. The study is based on the position of cognitive lexicology that "the semantics of a word is not limited only to a meaning; it is wider than the meaning". Therefore, the meaning of a word can be studied in the aspect of cognitive semantics. The cognitive-semantic aspect of studying the meanings of a polysemantic word implies its multilevel analysis, so the semantic structure of a polysemic word is studied not only from the outside, surface semantics but also from the inside, at the cognitive level of semantics. The study proposes a methodology of multilevel analysis of the structure of a polysemous word and also approves the methodology of its interdisciplinary study on the basis of the integral methodological paradigm involving the values and methods of different sciences (lexicology, cognitive semantics, pragmatics, cultural studies, associative linguistics). The aim of the study is to identify and describe the meanings of a polysemous word and its meanings in terms of different approaches to their research. In the article on the basis of the analysis of different meanings, the polysemous word is considered with also its meanings as denotative, figurative, pragmatic, connotative, and associative meanings of the word. The novelty of the research consists in the author's attempt to apply the cognitive-semantic approach to the analysis of the multivalued word structure. This approach differs from the linguistic and lexicological one, which considers polysemantic words as the nuclear meaning of the word and its lexical-semantic variant. In the course of the research, scientific results were obtained: 1. The disciplinary approach in the process of multilevel analysis of polysemantic words revealed new meanings and meanings of this phenomenon; 2. The role of the subject in the formation of meanings of a polysemous word was revealed; 3. The structure of the polysemantic word is described on the basis of taking into account the principle of conceptual unity of language and speech.