1. FREE-WORD COMBINATIONS

2. Definition of a word-group and its basic features
Structure of word-groups
Meaning of word-groups
Motivation in word-groups

3. Word-Group
the largest two-facet language unit
consists of more than one word
studied in the syntagmatic level of analysis

4. the degree of structural and semantic cohesion may vary
Word-Group
the degree of structural and semantic cohesion may vary
e.g. at least, by means of, take place – semantically and structurally inseparable
e.g. a week ago, kind to people – have greater semantic and structural independence

5. Free-Word Combination
word-groups that have a greater semantic and structural independence
freely composed by the speaker in his speech according to his purpose

6. Features of Word-groups
Lexical Valency
Grammatical Valency

7. Lexical Valency (Collocability)
The ability of a word to appear in various combinations with other words, or lexical contexts
e.g. question – vital/pressing/urgent/etc.,
question at issue, to raise a question, a question on the agenda

8. Lexical Valency (Collocability)
words habitually collocated in speech make a cliché
e.g. to put forward a question

9. Lexical Valency (Collocability)
lexical valency of correlated words in different languages is different
e.g. flower цветок
garden flowers садовые цветы
hot-house flowers оранжерейные цветы
pot flowers комнатные цветы

10. Lexical Valency (Collocability)
different meanings of one and the same word may be revealed through different type of lexical valency
e.g. heavy table, book
heavy snow, rain
heavy drinker, eater
heavy sorrow, sleep
heavy industry

11. Grammatical Valency
The ability of a word to appear in specific grammatical structures, or grammatical contexts

12. Grammatical Valency
the minimal grammatical context in which the words are used when brought together to form a word-group is called the pattern of the word-group

13. Grammatical Valency restricted by the part of speech
e.g. an adjective + noun, infinitive, prepositional group
a kind man, kind to people, heavy to lift
limited by the inner structure of the language
e.g. to propose a plan – to suggest a plan
to propose to do smth -

14. Grammatical Valency
grammatical valency of correlated words in different languages is different
e.g. enter the room войти в комнату

15. Classifications of word-groups
according to the distribution
according to the head-word
according to the syntactic pattern

16. Word-groups according to distribution
endocentric – central member functionally equivalent to the whole word-group
e.g. red flower ( I saw a red flower – I saw a flower)
exocentric – the distribution of the whole word-group is different from either of its components
e.g. side by side, grow smaller, John runs

17. Word-groups according to the head word
nominal groups
e.g. red flower
adjectival groups
e.g. kind to people
verbal groups
e.g. to speak well

18. Word-groups according to the syntactic pattern
predicative – have a syntactic structure similar to that of a sentence
e.g. John went, he works
non-predicative – do not have a structure similar to a sentence
e.g. red flower, running John

19. Non-predicative and endocentric word-groups
coordinative – elements of a word-group are coordinated with each other
e.g. day and night, do or die
subordinative – one member of a word-group is subordinated to the central element
e.g. red flower, a man of wisdom

20. Meaning of Word-Groups
lexical meaning
structural meaning

21. Lexical meaning the combined lexical meaning of the component words
BUT the meaning of the word-group predominates over the lexical meanings of its components
e.g. atomic weight, atomic warfare

22. Lexical meaning
polysemantic words are used only in one of their meanings
e.g. man and wife, blind man
stylistic reference of a word-group may be different from that of its components
e.g. old, boy, bags, fun – old boy (дружище), bags of fun

23. Structural meaning
meaning conveyed by the arrangement of components of a word-group
e.g. school grammar – grammar school

24. Structural meaning
structural and lexical meanings are interdependent and inseparable
e.g. school children – to school children
all the sun long – all the night long, all the week long

25. Motivation in Word-groups
lexically motivated - the combined lexical meaning of a group is deducible from the meanings of its components
lexically non-motivated – the meaning of the whole is not seen through the meanings of the elements

26. Motivation in Word-groups
lexically motivated
e.g. red flower
lexically non-motivated
e.g. red tape – ‘official bureaucratic methods’

27. Motivation in Word-groups
e.g. apple sauce – ‘a sauce made of apples’
apple sauce – ‘nonsense’

28. Motivation in Word-groups
Non-motivated word-groups are called phraseological units or idioms