X Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2018

Today cognitive science is especially attracted to the problem of cognitive semantics – notably the conceptualization of language units. When we receive information we compare it with the knowledge already available and conceive new meanings and ideas. One constantly cognizes the surrounding world, transforming the received knowledge into concepts with the appropriate content.

Attribute comes from Latin and as a part of a sentence may be interpreted in a number of ways. Thus, it is generally comprehended as not only related to a noun, but also to an adverb and a verb, or an attribute is interpreted as a secondary part of a sentence.

Attributes have different semantic functions in a sentence:

To denote a feature of an object (color, taste, size):

- Withdrawing his other hand from captain Harrington's, he …wept until the tears sprung out from between his thin and bony fingers.

It should be noted that an attribute may state any feature of an object.

To denote the relation of an object to some sphere, time, order, material:

- It was a stone building standing well on the rising ground…

To denote the relation of an object to public and political organizations, cultural institutions, nationalities, estate:

- Your haughty religious people would have held their heads up to see me as I am to-night…

To denote the belonging of an object to an animate being:

- Their sister’s wedding day arrived.

An attribute is syntactically closely interconnected with the defined word, but sometimes it is not necessary to put an attribute before a noun. If it is – the non-linguistic factors are considered.

To avoid misunderstanding in such case a whole attributive chain must be used, where two attributes are its minimal parts. Accordingly, the order of attributes will be fixed with the first attribute accounting for the second and the adjective closest to the noun will be compulsory, expressing an integral quality of an object. For example:

- He had small twinkling eyes and a pork-marked face; wоre a fur cap, a dark corduroy jacket, greasy fustian trousers and an apron.

In some cases it is more important to consider the pragmatic semantics, where this exact feature is most important for the speaker at the moment of speaking.

The connection of an attribute with a defined word affects the logical sequence. Thus, the most common types of lexical connection of an attribute and a defined word are the so-called “invariable context” types. Such word combinations are called set-phrases. For example:

- He didn’t want to sound like someone watching a really good disease-of-the-week film.

Besides, an attribute and the defined word may add to the rhythmical organization of a sentence and influence the order of attributes.

Attributes are very frequent in any language and are very important for communication. An attribute may most often be expressed by an adjective, a pronoun, a participle, a numeral, a subordinate clause. For example:

- May I ask you whether these pleasing attentions proceed from the impulse of the moment, or are they result of previous study? (participle)

- The boom of every iron bell came laden with one, deep, hollow sound – Death. (numeral)

- If he could have known that he was an orphan, left to the tender mercies of churchwardens and overseers, perhaps he would have cried the louder. (a subordinate clause)

As for the order of attributes in a sentence, they may be put before a defined noun or after it. We take into consideration the ones before a noun.

Concerning the main defined word, the position of an attribute depends on the morphological and stylistic peculiarities of attributes.

An attribute, consisting of a word combination with a preposition, expressed by an infinitive, a cardinal numeral, an adverb – may only follow the defined word, while attributes expressed by an adjective, ordinal numerals, names are only before the defined word.

The research shows that the order of attributes in a sentence depends on many factors – both linguistic and extra-linguistic. The factors are:

The world pattern of an individual;

The major inner meaning making feature;

Idioms;

The rhythmical organization of a sentence.

SOURCES

1. Копкова Е.В. Атрибутивные цепочки в английском и русском языках: факторы, определяющие топологию компонентов./Сопоставительные исследования. – Истоки. – Воронеж, 2006. – 217 с.

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3. Морской бой (морские рассказы на английском языке). Утверждено Управлением учебных заведений Министерства морского флота в качестве учебного пособия для высших и средних учебных заведений ММФ. Изд. «Транспорт», М. – 1967. – 108 с.

4. Книга для чтения на английском языке. Вып. 18. Миссия в Бретани. Сост. вып. Е.Е. Речицкая. М., Воениздат, 1987.

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