Lexical field theory: Key concepts and contemporary approaches.

The article aims to discuss the ideas and principles of Trier’s theory of lexical field and to demonstrate how the concept of field can be fruitfully employed outside of the domain of lexicology. The first part of the article deals with Trier’s main idea that no lexical-semantic element can be considered outside of its systemic relations: a given element (word) can be ascribed a certain significance only depending on the place it occupies in some system called a lexical field (Wortfeld). The second part of the article demonstrates how the field principle can be applied to the analysis of grammatical categories using the ‘functional-semantic field’ approach and the analysis of communicative behaviour using the ‘communicative-pragmatic field’ approach. The former helps to reveal and systematize sets of language elements of a specific language with respect to the coding of a certain categorial function. The latter makes it possible to summarize different possibilities for the realization of speech behaviour patterns and to rank them according to the degree of their usage frequency. These two cases prove that the field concept can be used to solve issues that are deemed unsolvable if one applies the framework of the traditional level-oriented linguistic analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]