V.Mykhaylenko, R. Fylypiuk,
M. Prun’, L.Petraschuk, N.Stefak
Bukovyna State
Finance Academy
Chernivtsi, Ukraine
THE CONCEPT OF MONEY LEXICAL REPRESENTATION
Words: The
paper is focused on the various on the semantic (definitional and
componentional) analysis of the lexeme money which represents the
concept money in the anglophone
world view.
Key units:
concept, conceptual system, lexeme, lexical domain, component, semantics,
cognitive.
There are
four
approaches in cognitive research bearing the name
semantics: logical semantics, linguistic semantics, psychological semantics,
and cognitive semantics.. It is currently leaning toward describing experience
and consciousness (→CONSCIOUSNESS, EXPERIENCE), which brings
it closer to phenomenology and transcendental philosophy [2].For
Mark Johnson, universal semantic structures condition our experience and the
formation of selfhood (→IDENTITY) [3, 999–1008].
He
therefore concludes along with R.Jackendoff that the
semantic structure is the conceptual structure (→CONCEPT), or as R.W.Langacker
put it, that meaning is identified with conceptualization (→MEANING AND SIGNIFICATION) [4]. There are many different ways
to approach the problems of meaning, since meaning is related to many different
functions of language. Within Cognitive
Semantics, one attempts to account for prototype effects of concepts. A concept
is often represented in the form of an image schema and such schemas can show
variations just like concepts normally do [1, 24-25]
If one challenges logical theories of
the concept—as every approach to cognitive semantics has done to a greater or
lesser extent—then one must devise a theory of ideas that fits
into a linguistic framework. This is the pathway
proposed in particular by R.W.Langacker, in
his statement that linguistic semantics must undertake the structural
analysis and explicit description of abstract entities like thoughts and
concepts.
Money is considered as anything
accepted by people in exchange for the
things the sell or the work the do. But today, money consists mainly of paper
bills, coins made of various metals, and checking account deposits [6,
704-705]. The function of money in
economy are the following:
Money supply is total stock of money in
the economy, consisting primarily of currency in circulation and deposits in
savings and checking accounts. Too much money in relation to the output of
goods tends to push interest rates down and push prices and inflation up; too
little money tends to push interest rates up, lower prices and output, and
cause unemployment and idle plant capacity.
Money has
three main uses: a medium of exchange, second, a unit of account, third, a
store of wealth.
Thus, in
cognitive linguistics money is a concept which is a constituent of the
conceptual system of “money”. And then in the process of a further cognition
three subsystems can be revealed:
1) a medium of exchange,
2) a unit of account,
3) a store of wealth.
The whole
system with its subsystems can be represented by the dominant lexeme “money”.
Here we can speak of lexical domain membership principal, according to which
the lexical domain membership is determined by the genus constituting the
nucleus of the meaning of a lexeme: money à
a medium of exchange; a unit of account; a store of wealth [see: Semantic
Graphic Thesaurus]. The number of
components is not limited and it may expand due to special branch
dictionaries. Let’s compare the definitions of the lexeme money in the
encyclopedic and special dictionaries.
The
Encyclopedic Dictionary gives a universal definition including economic and
non-economic components:
1.
Standard
pieces of gold, silver, copper, nickel, etc., stamped by government authority
and used as a medium of exchange and measure of value; coin or coins (also
called hard money).
2.
Any
paper note issued by a government or an authorized bank and used in the same
way; bank notes; bills (also called paper money).
3.
Any
substance or article used as money, as bank notes, checks, etc.
4.
Any
definite or indefinite sum of money.
5.
Property;
possessions; wealth.
6.
Very
wealthy persons or groups.
7.
Any
form or denomination of legally current money.
8.
Money of account.
9.
Money
won as a prize.
10.Sums of money.
As for its broad specialization (Economy) the
definition ‘money’ in the Dictionary of Economic Terms includes the following
constituents:
1) a
medium of exchange for payments between consumers, businesses, and government;
2) a unit of account for
measuring purchasing power, or the prices paid for goods and services;
3) a
store of value for measuring the economic worth of current income deferred for
spending in future years
The
Dictionary of Finance and Investment Terms defines that money – it legal tender
as defined by a government and consisting of currency and coin. In a more
general sense, money is synonymous with cash, which includes negotiable
instruments, such as checks, based on bank balances.
Then
we shall consider the definition of “money” with the one given in The
Dictionary of Banking Terms from the point of its narrow specialization
(Banking):
1.A medium that can be exchanged for
goods and services and is used as a measure of their values on the market,
including among its forms a commodity such as gold, an officially issued coin
or note, or a deposit in a checking account or other readily liquefiable
account.
2.The official currency, coins, and
negotiable paper notes issued by a government.
3.Assets and property considered in
terms of monetary value; wealth.
4.A current medium of exchange
in the form of coins and banknotes, coins and banknotes.
In the “Money” fragment of the
English world view the lexeme “money” distinguishes between three core
components:
- Component 1 is currency held by the public, plus travelers' checks,
demand deposits. –
- Component 2 includes Component 1 plus savings and small denomination
time deposits,Money Market Demand Accounts, shares in Money Market Mutual Fundsheld by individual
investers.
- Component 3 includes Component 2 plus large time deposits, large
denomination repurchase agreements, shares in Money Market Mutual Funds held by
institutional investors, and certain Eurodollar deposits in foreign branches of
U.S. banks.
The meanings of words in a
language are interrelated and they are defined in part by their relations with
other words in the language. After the careful
examination of all data from the available lexicographic manuals, we arrive to
a new definition that is to be regarded as a cluster of semantic components.
However this cluster is not arranged in a casual (taxonomic) manner since the
criterion for lexical domain membership becomes its overriding factor.
The componential
analysis
of a set of related linguistic items, especially
the components of the meaning of the lexeme, into combinations of
features in terms of which each item may be compared with every other, as in the analysis
of the meaning of the lexeme “money” into the
semantic components (or semes):
1. officially coined or
stamped metal currency;
2. money of account;
3. paper
money;
4. wealth reckoned in terms of money;
5. an amount of money;
6.(plural) sums of money: funds;
7. a form or denomination of coin or paper money.
Analyzed in the same semantic domain, words can be classified according to
shared and differentiating features. Breaking down the sense of a word into its
minimal distinctive features, the componential analysis of meaning can be a
semantic approach to determine the meaning of a word. The
lexical semantic domain of “money” as a medium of exchange,
a measure of value, or
a means of payment may include: bread,
bucks, cabbage, cash, change, chips, coin, currency, dough, gold, green, jack,
kale, legal tender, long green, loot, lucre, needful, pelf, scratch, shekels,
tender, wampum, etc.
The
lexeme “money” (N1) reveals its
semantic components due to the lexical grammatical combinability in the
following word combinations:
bank money, be short of money, big money, blood money, for love or money,
make money on the side,
money belt, money box, money changer, money cowry,
money dealer, money doesn't grow on trees, money handler, money laundering, money lender, money loan, money manager, money market, money match, money order, money plant, money supply, money talks,
money value, money-bag, money-box, money-grubber, money-making, money-making business, money-making venture, money-market liquidity, money-spinner, old money, paper money, pay in money, pay money into, pay money into a bank, pocket money, pocket-money, public money, put money into,
ready money, soft money, deposit money, money market, money supply.
We have analyzed the combinability oh the phrase level, on the
semi-sentence level, and on the sentence level:
N + N1; N1 + N; Adj+ N1; N1 + Ving; N1 + Ving +
N; V + N1 + Prep; V + N1 + Prep + N; Prep + N + Conj + N1; V + N1 + Prep + det + N; N1 + Vaux + Neg +
Vinf + Prep +N (pl.); Vbe + Adj + Prep.G. + N1.
The
linguistic cognitive analysis helped to model the conceptual system of “money”
and its representation in language – a lexical semantic domain of “money’ [see
the applicative result of the analysis: 5, 173-175]. Cognitive semantics is
still rather undeveloped but has also offered new insights into the mechanisms
of metaphors. Its strength lies mainly in the analysis of lexical items
Although componential analysis has some difficulties and limitations in its
application, it is still used alongside with the definitional one modern
linguistics.
REFERENCE:
1. Allwood Jens S.,
Gärdenfors Peter. Cognitive
Semantics: Meaning and cognition / Jens S. Allwood, Peter Gärdenfors . - Amsterdam ; Philadelphia : J.
Benjamins Pub. Co., 1999. – 201p.
2. Jackendoff R. Foundations of Language: Brain, Meaning, Grammar,
Evolution. / R. Jackendoff.
- Oxford, England; New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
-709 p.
3. Johnson-Laird P. Mental Models, Deductive
Reasoning, and the Brain / P.Johnson-Laird // M.Gazzaniga (Ed.). The Cognitive
Neurosciences. - Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995. - Pp. 999–1008.
5. Mykhaylenko V.
V. Conceptual analysis in finance
domain teaching // ²Õ ̳æí.
íàóê.-ïðàêò. êîíô. «Ñòðàòåã³ÿ òà ìåòîäè íàâ÷àííÿ ìîâ äëÿ ñïåö³àëüíèõ ö³ëåé.
Êè¿â, 2009. – Ñ.173-175.
6. The World Book Encyclopedia.-Vol.13. -
Chicago: World Book, Inc., 1994. - Pp.704-719.