On static/dynamic variants of sememes of english spatial adverbs

Abstract

The article is devoted to the semantics of English spatial adverbs that have static and dynamic variants. The study of the semantics of adverbs is a complicated process in the English language. The paper examines the peculiarities of this class of words, analyzes the existing classifications of English spatial adverbs and approaches to categorization of spatial adverbs into adverbs of place and movement. An assumption is made about the impossibility of constructing an unambiguous semantic classification due to the prevalence of the functional-positional criterion for differentiating parts of speech in English over the semantic one. The ability of English spatial adverbs to describe static and dynamic situations is understood as semantic variation. A classification of spatial adverbs is proposed on the basis of their real functioning in a sentence and the ability of the same adverb to designate situations of location and movement, depending on a verb-adverb combination. 96 spatial adverbs recorded in dictionaries have been used as the material of this study. The methods of seme and sememe analysis have been used to identify spatial sememes with static and dynamic variants. The actual functioning of these sememes in speech has been studied in contexts taken from the British National Corps. Using the comparative-parametric method of linguistic research and the indices and scales proposed within this method, the semantics of the adverbs has been analyzed and conclusions about its peculiarities have been drawn, semantic types of adverbs have been proposed.