Solodilova I.A., Schepelja I.V.
EVALUATIVENESS AND EMOTIVENESS IN THE WORD SEMANTIC ^{[№ 11 ' 2015]}
The article focuses on the disputable problem of correlation between objective and subjective language factors and, in particular, evaluative and emotive categories represented on the level of lexical semantics. Opinions differ due to variable understanding of evaluation and its interplay with emotional attitude expressed by a speaker. The author of the article does not follow the traditional approach on this issue that tends to unite evaluativity, emotionality/emotivity and expressivity into a single connotative block of lexical unit semantics. The given categories have to be defined on the basis of the phenomenon character and the type of information provided by these components. According to this approach evaluativity and emotivity are differentiated as originating respectively to evaluative and emotional human activity that in their turn represent independent systems. In addition pure evaluation with no emotional attitude is based on cognitive functions of human conscience thus having a rational character. Emotions refer to the mental sphere though they are closely connected with pre-, post- and metacognitive evaluative activity. The author concludes that evaluation in language as a result of interpretative conscience activity provides information concerning essential features of the object while emotionally coloured speech informs us about the speaker's emotional attitude. Following this line of reasoning, evaluativity and emotivity as semantic components of a lexical unit differ in information blocks they refer to, i.e. denotative (outlining essential features of the object) and connotative (providing extra information), respectively. Furthermore these two categories with their own semantic status are opposed to expressivity as a category referring not to the content plane but to the expression plane. The article contains a comprehensive review of various points on the issue under study and their critical analysis.