Verbalization of the Notion of Time in Present-Day English

The universal notion of time, alongside the basic notion of space, is believed to determine the formation of a huge number of other notions of the human mind. The results of time interpretation are fixed first and foremost in the semantics of the lexical units of national languages. The novelty of this research is that the noun synonyms to the lexeme time in present-day English have been established and analyzed with their subsequent grouping in synonymic rows within the core of the nominative field of time. The structure of the polysemous lexeme time, which consists of nine lexico-semantic variants, was chosen as guidance for synonymic rows organization. On the ground of the established obligatory and optional ties between them, among which hyper-hyponymic relations turn out to be fundamental, the semantic network of the core of the nominative field of time has been revealed and visualized. The network is based on four central hypersemes that represent the main features of the notion of time verbalized by the noun units of present-day English. A clear tendency of synonyms to express time metaphorically and metonymically in terms of ‘quantity’ in close connection to the components ‘something that happens’ and ‘state’ has been established.


Introduction
In any case, all events happen in time and without its tangible consequences there can be no objective succession and subjective experience of duration (Evans, 2005, p. 3). The idea of time is fixed in the mental unit 'the notion of time' (see Khairullina, 2018, p. 308-309). It plays a special role in the process of thinking (Janda, 2013;Lakoff, 1993;Plungian & Rakhilina, 2013), as, alongside the notion of space, it is a logical structure of the highest level of abstraction, i.e., a higher-order notion on the basis of which the notions of mind can be constructed (Evans & Green, 2006, p. 231). Together with all the other units that reflect the interpreted objects or phenomena of reality and are embodied in verbal forms, it constitutes language (Nordlander, 1997, p. 3-4), or the world of rationally considered ideas formulated linguistically (Rastall, 2006, p. 34-35).
As the questions about the interconnection of the notion, meaning and representation are in the focus of modern philology (Khairullina, 2018, p. 308; Moghaddas & Dekhnich, 2015, p. 26;Vasylieva, 2016, p. 4.16;Wierzbicka, 1996, p. 3), the issue of time phenomenon verbalization is also rather topical (Evans, 2013). Thus, the goal of the article is to establish and describe the noun nominations of the notion of time in present-day English. The analysis of the corresponding fragment of language with a further reconstruction of its semantic network enables us to reveal the structure of the notion of time and explain the principles of organization of the lexical units. More than that, as mental structures verbalized in language contain cultural ideas of the world (Barcelona, 2002, p. 211), such investigation reveals the cultural specificity of time interpretation represented in the semantics of the noun lexical units of present-day English.
As a part of a more general problem of the relationship between language and cognition, the issue of time verbalization presupposes a scientific consideration of its mental grounds. The framework of the notion of time is modelled on the basis of the meanings of the lexical means that represent it. Even though the mental unit of time has been the subject of a number of studies (Huang, 2016;Janda, 2013;Lakoff, 1993;Makarova & Nesset, 2013;Nordlander, 1997;Plungian & Rakhilina, 2013;Tatsenko, 2009), only a few linguists have attempted to answer the question about its basic semantic structure. So, for example, Evans (2005) reduced all the possible meanings of the noun time to eight senses based on the meaning, concept elaboration and grammatical criteria. They are as follows: 1) the Duration Sense (the Sub-sense 1 : protracted duration; the Sub-sense 2 : temporal compression); 2) the Moment Sense; 3) the Instance Sense; 4) the Event Sense; 5) the Matrix Sense; 6) the Agentive Sense; 7) the Measurement-system Sense; 8) the Commodity Sense (Evans, 2005, p. 107-183). In the scholar's opinion, these lexical senses and their interrelations lie in the basis of the semantic network of time (Evans, 2005, p. 120).
Bondarenko (2014) describes TIME as a complex matrix of domains that consists of 'warm' and 'cold' components represented in English in the form of the lexico-semantic field. The 'warm' domain is MODE OF ACTION, whereas the domains LOCATION ON THE TIME AXIS and RHYTHM are called 'cold'. The DURATION and SUC-CESSION ON THE TIME AXIS are defined as intermediate cognitive structures (Bondarenko, 2014, p. 53).
The results of the research by Afanasieva (2007) and Nilsen (2010) are also of great interest. According to Nilsen (2010), six blocks constitute the semantics of time in present-day English: 1) Time as value; 2) Time as higher power; 3) Time as motion (3а -linear time; 3b -cyclical time); 4) Absolute time; 5) Time as container; 6) Time as a measurement system. To single out the blocks, the scientist used data from the survey of English-speaking informants as well as paremiology material (Nilsen, 2010, p. 20-21).
According to the other approach embodied in the widely known NSM (The Natural Semantic Metalanguage) theory, there is a certain number of initial universal meanings -semantic primitives (or primes), presumably inherent to all human languages (Goddard, 2001;Wierzbicka, 1996). So, eight primes of TIME are distinguished: WHEN, AFTER, BEFORE, NOW, A LONG TIME, A SHORT TIME, FOR SOME TIME, MOMENT (Goddard, 2002

Background of the Research
Our investigation was conducted in the frame of structural semantics. Though the above-mentioned works devoted to the analysis of the contents of the mental unit of time follow the line of the cognitive approach in linguistics, it is in no way contradictory. First, 'the concept' and 'the notion' are in 'whole-part' relations, and, second, being a logical nucleus of the concept, it is the notion that primarily forms the semantic structure of nominative fragments of the language (Borysov, 2010, p. 63-64;Khairullina, 2018, p. 308-310). In other words, the notion serves as a basis for the grouping of lexical means within a thematically oriented nominative fragment of language called 'the nominative field'. The term denotes the number of synonymic units of different parts of speech that verbalize the notion in the language (Borysov, 2005, p. 58). 'The core of the nominative field' (henceforth, CNF) is formed by the noun synonyms to the key lexeme (Borysov, 2005). The value of our research is that it complements the scientific papers devoted to the study of the structure of time and the lexical means of its representation in present-day English through the systematization of the numerous noun synonyms to the lexeme time and establishing correlations between synonymic groups in the corresponding CNF. These semantic connections should obviously be based on the integral meaningful components functioning in the synonymic sets. Such an approach allows us to define the semantic structure of the CNF of time and reconstruct the structure of the notion of time in English language consciousness most accurately.

Methods and Material
To achieve the goal of the article, the following methodological procedure was elaborated and implemented.
Step 1. First of all, we found and analyzed all the lexico-semantic variant(s) (=LSV(s)) of the noun time available in present-day English dictionaries with a consequent construction of a logically structured list of all the LSVs of the lexeme. The term 'LSV' is used in this paper either as one of the meanings of the polysemous lexeme or the word (i.e., a union of the form of the lexeme and one of its meanings) and in this case the number of all LSVs construct the lexeme (Lyons, 1995;Palmer, 1976).
As Kövecses (2015, p. 273) states, 'dictionaries of various kinds must be consulted before one obtains all, or at least most or much, of the lexical information that pertains to the lexeme we are interested in'. Following this approach, we used present-day (contemporary) British lexicographical sources and added several authoritative American dictionaries to get most of the lexical contents of time nominations. Here we also follow the idea that dictionaries based on large corpora are vastly preferred to ones that are not (Kövecses, 2015, p. 273).
LSV 1 , which is a basic meaning of the polysemous lexeme, is specified or expanded (metaphorically or metonymically) by the meanings of the other LSVs (Goldberg, 1988;Lakoff, 1993). So, it was important to present an all-embracing informational content of LSV 1 of the unit time, as it was crucial for determining metaphorical and metonymical meanings further. While constructing a generalized definition of LSV1, we took into consideration the core of the meaning suggested by most of the dictionaries. For example, if the lexeme time is presented in the dictionaries as unlimited progress of existence… (LED) / continuous passing… (CCD) / nonspatial continuum… (AHDEL), etc., when only in one source it is defined as a period… (MWD), then a synthesized definition of LSV 1 starts as follows: unlimited continued progress of existence. The meaning period is then referred to one of the subsequent LSVs of the lexeme. In the same way, we determine the other LSVs.
Step 2. The CNF of time was established through the synonymic extension of the nucleus lexeme. Employing the 'lexical method' (Kövecses, 2015), we searched for the noun lexical items that refer to the notion of time in present-day English monolingual dictionaries, thesauri, and idiom dictionaries of various sorts. It was revealed that the synonyms of the lexeme time found in synonymic dictionaries could be chosen by lexicographers as those ones that generally relate to the topic under investigation (see Lyons, 1995, p. 60-62). There are no uniform established criteria for their grouping and that is why the synonymic groups are constructed in such sources differently. We believe that it is a synthesized list of its LSVs that can be viewed as a 'waymark' for the synonymic extension of the nucleus time lexeme.
In the thesauri (CD; CT; CRS; CET; FDF; LET; LDCE; MT; MWT; RT; SD; TC; WNLDE), all the words that reflect the meanings of each LSV of the lexeme time were checked and selected. In its turn, each synonym (456 units) has LSVs that allow referring it to the CNF of time. All in all, 2887 definitions have been gathered and analyzed.
However, it was not sufficient to gather all the words fixed by thesauri for this or that meaning of the lexeme time. The fact is that not all the units turn out to be true synonyms as they were united on the grounds of a thematic feature and, in this way, they represent the denotatum approximately. That is why a contextual criterion of synonym identification was applied and numerous illustrations from the dictionaries were looked through. For example, the interchangeability of the lexeme time and high tide seems doubtful on the surface. However, due to the examples in LED, it becomes clear that in the sentence But he took the news well, in part because he knows his time will come soon, the lexeme can be substituted with high tide with a minimum sense difference. Accordingly, we can rightfully refer high tide to the group of synonyms of time (LSV8.2.) -the successful, fortunate, or influential part of a person's life or career.
Step 3. The semantic analysis of the gathered definitions was done via the componential method. It is carried out by dividing the meaning into minimal components, identifying their classification valeur ('value') and, therefore, establishing hierarchical relations within the semantic structure (Lyons, 1995). The semantic classification employed in the article includes 1) the superior categorial seme of the part of speech, which is always implicitly present; 2) the generic seme (hyperseme or archeseme) as the most general sense in the structure of the meaning, which refers a cognized denotatum to a definite mental category; 3) the differential seme (or hyposeme), which specifies an arсheseme and reveals a definite feature of the denotatum (Filipec, 1994, p. 171). If we apply this typology, for instance, to the unit infinity (unlimited extent of time, space, or quantity (MWD)), a categorial seme of 'noun', an archeseme 'extent' and differential semes 'unlimited', 'time', 'space' and 'quantity' are established in its meaning.
One more type of semes called integral (i.e., common for two or more meanings) is singled out when different meanings are compared (Goldberg, 1988, p. 30). The more integral semes (either a hyperseme or hyposeme) the words possess, the closer they are in their semantics. For example, the hyperseme 'period' and hyposeme 'history' are integral in the definitions of era (a long and distinct period of history) and chapter (a distinctive period in history (LED)).
Step 4. The synonyms of the CNF of time were grouped into synonymic row(s) (=SR(s)) based on the archesemes in their semantics. Describing the SRs, we pointed out the specific LSV of the unit time, to which an SR belongs. SRs are headed by the synonymic dominant(s) (=SD(s)), i.e., the most stylistically neutral and general unit(s) among other synonyms (Palmer, 1976, p. 60-63). The meaning of the SD functions as an archeseme for the meanings of the SR. The percentage of the synonyms distribution in the SRs was calculated.
Step 5. Finding out semantic ties between SRs helps to organize uncoordinated SRs into a coherent system or the semantic network of CNF of time. The semantic network is a universal model of knowledge presentation. It is interpreted as a data structure consisting of nodes and semantic ties between them (Hartley & Barnden, 1997). The whole lexical structure of language is regarded as a network of sense relations (Lyons, 1995, p. 102). In our case, it is the integral archesemes represented by the SRs that are the nodes of the network.
We used the classification of semantic ties between the separate units developed by Goldberg (1988) to establish the connections specifically between the SRs, which is also the novelty of our research. There are obligatory and optional semantic ties (Goldberg, 1988, p. 13). The obligatory tie is defined by the term 'inclusion' based on the identity of at least one seme in the meanings of the units. Inclusion is revealed in several types. Hyper-hyponymic relations are viewed as hierarchical between the units with wider and narrower semantics (hypernym / hyponym). Intersecting means that the units possess one or more common semes. Partitive relations are revealed between the words that name a whole object and its parts (Goldberg, 1988, p. 13-16).
The optional tie is realized in the phenomena of convergence and divergence. Convergence is based on the closeness of the contents of the semes (Goldberg, 1988, p. 13). It includes the 1) phase ties established through the components that mark the initial, intermediate and final stages of the action; 2) attraction ties revealed by the semes that point out a state or action that follows the preceding one; 3) reminiscent ties that signify the state or action that precedes another one; 4) temporal ties that reflect time reference of the action (Goldberg, 1988, p. 16-17).
Divergence is based on the contrast of senses. It has three types. Antonymic ties reflect polarity of the elements, inconsistency demonstrates contradiction of the elements, and the opposition suggests contrariety in meanings (Goldberg, 1988, p. 18).
Step 6. The task of this stage was to find out the semes that are central to the whole network, i.e., hypersemes to all the other semes uniting the SRs of time. These semes of the highest level of semantic hierarchy are those components that represent the main features of the notion of time. After this procedure, the semantic network of the CNF of the notion of time was visualized.
Step 7. With a great number of LSVs of the analyzed synonyms, it was logical to suggest that the relations between the integral hypersemes of the time nominations should also be based on these associations. Time is an abstract phenomenon and humans usually operate the notions of material objects, more understandable to them, to interpret things like that (Barcelona, 2002, p. 225-226;Lakoff, 1993, p. 207). That is why the reconstruction of the CNF of time was finally finished with consideration of the semantic 'traces' left by metaphor and metonymy in its boundaries. Though metonymical ties are realized, for example, in partitive or hyper-hyponymic relations mentioned above, this type is considered separately in this study.
To sum up, the following linguistic methods of analysis were used in the article: lexical, componential, descriptive, interpretative, quantitative methods as well as grouping and modelling.

Results and Discussion
The elaborated methodological procedure made it possible to establish the composition and structure of the CNF of time headed by the noun lexical unit time. The study of all the LSV 1 of the lexeme and their synthesis into one generalized meaning (to avoid certain lexicography subjectivity of the present-day English dictionaries) enabled us to compose its all-embracing definition: time (LSV 1 ) is the unlimited continued progress of existence that is measured in terms of events that succeed one another from past through the present to the future regarded as a whole.
Taking into account all the other LSVs of the unit time, we offer the following arrangement and specification of the LSVs within an expanded semantic structure: a LSV 1.   The 'amount of time' is a complex seme that unites SR 2 . The union of the semes 'indefinite' (lasting for an unknown or unstated length of time) and 'long period' (with gradational semes 'very'/ 'relatively'/ 'seemingly') forms SR 4 .

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The SD of SR 5  The semes 'indefinite' and 'short period' integrate the units into SR 5 . SR 6 (the most extended SR: 13.2%), with the SD period (LSV 1 ) (a particular length of time with a beginning and an end), possesses the units that belong to LSV 2 , LSV 5 and LSV 6 of time and is subdivided into six sub-rows.
The synonyms of SR 6 The seme 'rate' (a quantity, amount, or degree of something measured per unit of something else; the number of times something happens within a particular period of time) is pivotal to the units of SR 27 .
As the research proves, the established SRs are united through a great variety of semantic ties. Firstly, we shall deal with the obligatory ties of the CNF of time.
Hyper-hyponymic relations can be demonstrated on the example of the units of SR 2 with an integral seme 'amount of time', which are hypernyms to the units of SR 4 and SR 6 with the components 'indefinite' and 'long period' / 'short period' being at a higher level of hierarchical organization. The logic of the presentation of the established relations (twenty-nine cases) is that the first SR stands for a hyperonym, while the second SR is viewed as a hyponym: 1 SR 2 and SR 4 -SR 6 ; 2 SR 6 and SR 7 -SR 20 ; 3 SR 6.1. and SR 6.2. , SR 6.3. ; 4 SR 6.1. and SR 6 11 SR 23 and SR 24 .
As an example of intersecting, there is a unit lifetime that belongs to both SR 4 and SR 12 . While it denotes a very long period of time (LED) in SR 4 , it names the duration of a person's life (LED) in SR 12 . Therefore, SR 4 and SR 12 intersect on the basis of the nomination lifetime. There are seventeen examples revealed between the SRs: As for partitive relations, an example of the tie between SR 6 (with an integral seme 'period'), SR 13 As we see, hyper-hyponymic relations are the dominant type of obligatory ties in the CNF of time.
All the subtypes of optional ties were established. The subtype of convergence is realized in 1) phase relations (between 1. SR 8 , SR 10 , SR 11 , and 2. SR 10 , SR 13 , SR 14 ); 2) attraction (SR 16  When it comes to the polarity in the lexical structure of the same unit, then this phenomenon is called enantiosemy (Melikyan et al., 2016, p. 129). As the results show, lexeme time turns out to be a bright example of enantiosemy.
The opposition between the SRs of time is absent. Thus, convergence (forty-one cases) is the most represented subtype of the ties with dominating temporal relations.
Undoubtedly, all the SRs of the CNF of time are interlinked. After establishing all the ties, we have reconstructed a hierarchically organized semantic network of the CNF of time (see Fig. 1). It is clear that the SRs verbalize a complex system of four hypersemes: 1) 'progress of existence ('time'), reification'; 2) 'quantity' (a blue circle on Fig. 1); 3) 'something that happens' (a yellow circle on Fig. 1), 4) 'state' (a pink circle on Fig. 1). The singled out semantic components are of the highest degree of generalization as they represent the basic features of the verbalized notion of time.
The combinations of the hypersemes determine the semantics of time (LSV 1 ) and are present in the meaning of every synonym of the CNF of time. Let us take a closer look at the semantic components. The complex seme 'progress of existence ('time'), reification' is an integral component on the background of which all the other hypersemes are profiled. It is an inseparable union of the semes that fixes the attempt of English-speaking people to understand the abstract essence of time phenomenon in more concrete forms, as, for example, the units of SR 1 , SR 3 , SR 14  In this paper, the noun lexemes that verbalize the notion of time in present-day English were established, analyzed and grouped into synonymic rows within the CNF of time headed by the lexeme time. The semantic network of the CNF was revealed and thus the contents of the notion of time was reconstructed.
The starting point for the research was the study of the key lexeme time, which was discovered to possess nine LSVs. The selection of the synonyms to these LSVs from the contemporary English lexicographical sources enabled us, first, to define the composition of the CNF of time (456 units), and, second, to construct twenty-seven SRs of its structure with such SDs as time (SR 1 ), period (SR 2, 6,9 ), infinity (SR 3 ), aeon (SR 4 ), moment (SR 5 ), season (SR 7 ), past (SR 8 ), present (SR 10 ), future (SR 11 ), life (SR 12 ), beginning (SR 13 ), end (SR 14 ), spare time (SR 15 ), work (SR 16  The research proves that all the hypersemes are profiled on the background of the semantic union of 'progress of existence ('time'), reification'. This is because various aspects of time fixed by the synonyms are interpreted in terms of 'quantity' in close connection to 'something that happens' and 'state'. It is clear that to understand the phenomenon of time, the notions of less abstract things are actively employed by English-speaking people by association. As a result, the nominations of time represent -metaphorically and metonymically -such aspects of reality as living beings or objects, their qualitative and quantitative measurement, events or particular conditions that someone or something is in. In sum, it also means that obligatory and optional ties between the SRs of the CNF of time coexist with the metaphorical and metonymical connections revealed in the synonyms. The results of the research demonstrate that the semantic network of the CNF is mainly based on hyper-hyponymic relations as the most fundamental among the other semantic ties.
The proposed study will be continued. It is necessary to carry out further research on the other constituents (adjectival, adverbial, verbal) of the nominative field of time to widen our understanding of time interpretation fixed in present-day English.

Research interests
Structural linguistics, cognitive linguistics, contrastive linguistics, dialogical studies