Sakhnova O. Semantic Divergence in National Varieties of the English Language.

The thesis is devoted to the study of types and mechanisms of lexico-semantic divergence in five national varieties of the English language. The notion of lexico-semantic divergence has been defined. The cause-and-effect relations of semantic divergence, polysemy, enantiosemy and homonymy have been traced. The role of semantic divergence in the evolution of language varieties has been clarified, the problem of its classification has been outlined. A corpus of lexico-semantic divergents has been formed on the basis of the standard and substandard English, and the economic and legal terminology of British, American, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand varieties of English. The semantic-areal classification of divergents has been developed in an attempt to solve the problem of classification of semantic divergence. The specific character of semantic divergence in the standard, substandard and terminological vocabulary of the national varieties of English has been revealed through identification of the subtypes of lexico-semantic divergents and the oppositions that they form. The productive and non-productive mechanisms of semantic derivation that cause semantic divergence in the national varieties of the English language have been described.