Lexical compatibility of words

Words in speech are used not in isolation, one at a time, but in combinations. Not all of them freely connect with each other. Lexical compatibility of words is their ability to connect with a certain range of other words. Sometimes, because of the complexity of this choice, lexical errors are allowed in the speech .

In the sentence, words are related to each other in terms of meaning, and grammatically. In the latter case, such a connection ensures grammatical correctness of speech. Semantic connections provide the correctness of the utterance in content. The words used in the speech must be consistent with the others. This is expressed in two types of compatibility - lexical and semantic.

Lexical compatibility means the ability of words to enter into combinations only with a limited number (or units) of words.

The semantic is expressed in the ability of words to correlate with a whole class of other words that unites the common sense. For example, a group of verbs describing a person's state (think, laugh, etc.), can be combined with all the words that denote people (doctor, passer-by).

In some cases, when it is not a question of specific things, but of their relations (abstract, abstract vocabulary), then lexical compatibility is conditional. For example, you can "give advice," "inspect," "resist", etc. All these verbs play one role, they can easily be replaced by synonyms ("advise", "inspect", "resist"), but it is almost impossible to confuse them. A Russian-speaking person will never say, for example, "to give advice".

The human language consciousness is endowed with selective power. This property was formed by centuries, in the process of everyday practice. However, in order to correctly use words in speech, knowledge of their meanings is not enough. It is necessary when drawing up phrases to pay attention to the compatibility of words. You have to be careful with synonyms. For example, the adjectives "authentic" and "true" are identical in meaning, but we do not say "true friend" or "true document", because a true friend and documents can be genuine. This is the lexical compatibility.

Examples of such word compounds are very numerous. Often they may have limitations in combinations. First of all, they may simply be incompatible in meaning: "overland restaurant", "orange hare", etc. In addition, incongruity can be due to their grammatical nature ("beautiful singer", "my house") or lexical features (you can "cause grief", but you can not say about joy, we say "all year round", but not "round the clock ").

Sometimes the disturbed lexical compatibility is perceived rather comically ("the near past"). However, in literary works, violations are used consciously to achieve certain effects: to strike the reader, pay attention to something, amuse, etc. For example, the "merry widow", "hung with beards", "forgiveness of other people's virtues", "the last attack of youth", etc. In this case, consider incongruity as a stylistic device.

Some variants of incorrect compatibility are of a mass character (very often different people use them in speech with the same mistakes): "the meeting is convened" (it is necessary: "the meeting took place"), "develop the horizon" (need: "broaden horizons"). This is due to the fact that different stable phrases can be used in one situation, and often the replacement of components leads to a semantic inaccuracy. The traditional phrase "Allow me to raise a toast!" Is also incorrect. You can either "raise a glass" or "say a toast."

Also, a typical error in which lexical compatibility is violated is the phrase "the level of service has improved." The level can be improved, but quality can improve.