Introduction
The modern level of development of linguistic science involves a serious study of the issues of the systemic organization of the vocabulary of language, the analysis of words taken not by itself, but in all its relationships.
The study of semantic changes in language is carried out thanks to such a system as a semantic field. The development of semantic system has begun in the nineteenth century. Despite the fact that the theory of the field is more than a hundred years, interest in it does not weaken at the moment.
Thus, the relevance of this study is determined by the fact that it is, firstly, performed in line with the important for modern linguistics direction-research problems of lexical consistency on the material of a separate semantic field; secondly, aimed at the study of lexical units that reflect "wealth" the English lingual picture of the world.
Lexico-semantic fields unite words which have common meaning. All words included in this field, as if concretize one general concept, adding to it private values. For example, the semantic field of verbs of motion covers verbs to move, go, run, come, pass, sail, etc.
The object of the study is the semantic field "wealth" in the modern English language. The subject of the research is the lexical units of the semantic field "wealth" in the modern English language.
The material of the study was the lexical units of the modern English language with the values of "wealth", showing a complete (the whole lexical-semantic structure) or partial (one or more lexical-semantic variants) belonging to this semantic field, extracted as a result of sampling from dictionaries of the modern English language: Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms, Merriam Webster dictionary, Fernald J. English Synonyms and Antonyms, McCarthy Michael, O'Dell Felicity. English Collocations In Use, Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary.
The aim of the study is to analyze the main characteristics of the lexical units of the semantic field "wealth" in the modern language. The aim of the work implies the solution of some issues:
1) to study scientific literature on the subject of research;
2) consider the concepts of "semantic field", "national identity", "national mentality", "wealth";
3) select lexical units with the meaning "wealth" in the modern English language;
4) analyze the structure of the semantic field "wealth" in the modern English language;
1. The notion of a semantic field
1.1 Factors which create semantic field: national identity and national mentality
The majority of linguists nowadays agree that the vocabulary should be
studied as a system. We must study interrelated systems. For different purposes of study different types of grouping of words may be effective. Words joined together by one common semantic component form semantic fields. For example the semantic field of time.
The German linguist Jost Trier shows that the significance of each unit in the semantic field is determined by its neighbors, A. Shaikevitch says that
semantically related words must occur near one another in the text. If the words often occur in the text together they must be semantically related and they form a semantic field [3, p. 243]. For example, faint, feeble, weary, sick, tedious and healthy form one semantic field. Face, head, aim, hand, foot make up the semantic field with the notion of body. Examples of lexical fields are: the system of colors, the network of family relations; or, among abstract experiences, the terms for intellectual qualities, ethical and aesthetic values, religious and mystical experiences.
The semantic field in each language is created by national identity and national mentality, which differ in each country.
National identity is one's identity or sense of belonging to one state or to one nation. It is the sense of a nation as a cohesive whole, as represented by distinctive traditions, culture, language and politics. National identity may refer to the subjective feeling one shares with a group of people about a nation, regardless of one's legal citizenship status. National identity is viewed in psychological terms as "an awareness of difference", a "feeling and recognition of 'we' and 'they'".
2. Peculiarities of semantic meaning of the word «wealth»
2.1 The analysis of examples
Lexico-semantic system is a hierarchy of semantic fields, combined, on the one hand, in the larger areas of vocabulary, and on the other – includes less numerous in the number of units and quite visible microfields.
So, in the famous Roger dictionary (p. M. Roget. Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases) English vocabulary is divided into six large spheres (abstract relations, space, matter, mind, will, feelings), which are divided into twenty-four classes (for example, the first sphere into classes: genesis, relations, number, order, time, change, causality) and then into a thousand themes, each of which contains close to the meaning of lexical units.
With such a systematization of the vocabulary, its units are arranged not alphabetically, but according to the thematic (conceptual) principle: they are grouped as language means of expressing a certain content. This description of the vocabulary is called ideographic.
For comparative analysis it was necessary to select some lexical items that most clearly represent the notion. Such words are synonyms selected according to the dictionary. Based on the following definitions, the word “wealth”:
In the dictionary facing the same determination, we selected the following synonyms: riches, luxury, capital, money.
These are the closest lexical units within the meaning (according to the intelligent Collin’s dictionary of sinonyms.
What does the word “wealth” mean? The answer to this question varies from culture to culture. In the modernised, industrial world that we live in. “Wealth” generally means all the collected store of valuable things that belong to a person (or family, company or country). Wealth can include money saved in bank accounts, or invested in pension schemes. It can include land, houses or other property and valuable belongings such as works of art or precious jewels.
Conclusion
At the present level of linguistics development there is a keen interest in system formations in the language, studied not only from the point of view of the peculiarities of their internal structure, but also from the point of view of the specific values of their components. Research of the language system on the basis of the field model has become an important and well-established direction of modern Linguistics. The field approach to the description of many linguistic phenomena is very fruitful, as it helps to reveal the system connections and the system organization of the language at all its levels. Semantic field in vocabulary and semantics is an object which sufficiently studied, more often it is defined as a set of words covering a certain area of human experience, and, therefore, related in meaning.
As a result of our research:
1. considered the concepts of "semantic field", "national identity", " national mentality";
2. revealed and analyzed semantic field of the word “wealth” and its synonyms;
3. expanded the idea of phraseology as a stable combination of lexemes and means of expression;
4. features of phraseological units, their classification are designated.
We have revealed four main meanings of the word “wealth”:
5. wealth (Noun)
Weal; welfare; prosperity; good; well-being; happiness; joy.
6. wealth(Noun)
Riches; valuable material possessions.
7. wealth(Noun)
A great amount; an abundance or plenty.
She brings a wealth of knowledge to the project.
8. wealth(Noun)
