SEMANTIC ALTERNATION FROM ANIMAL TO HUMAN UNDER SEMANTIC FIELD PERSPECTIVES

Concerning linguistic aspects, especially the meanings of words have been deeply studied by linguists in recent years, which have achieved diversely lexicology-related results. However, determining the meanings of language units in general and words, in particular, is a long-term and complicated process. For this reason, theory-applied research still needs to be deeply continued. It can be admitted that traditional culture is deeply rooted in the subconscious of each ethnic group exposed in their language. As a result, linguistic research into the interrelation of cognition and culture is necessary and urgent in the world and Vietnam as well. The research results show the contextual changes in the meanings of words from animal to human concerning semantic fields. When semantic change takes place in a semantic field, the semantically changed words remain their originally semantic nuances, which form two socio-linguistic trendsthe positive and negative. According to the primary data, the number of positive words showed only 2 cases while the words with negative meaning made up 44 cases. The majority of words tend to be transformed negatively. These stems were coined based on the Vietnamese's cognition about the animals. It is quite noteworthy that whenever Vietnamese people argue in informal contexts, they tend to employ animal-related words that verbally shape typically exclusive features in the Vietnamese language.


A. Introduction
The meanings of words in particular and the semantic changes have been examined under various linguistic theories by various linguists. However, to determine the meanings of language units in general and words, in particular, is not simple for everyone. The studies on the semantic issues of languages have achieved outstanding results so far in linguistics. It can be admitted that traditional culture is deeply rooted in the subconscious of each ethnic group exposed through their language, adding that culture is only revealed through language. As a result, linguistic research into the interrelation of cognition and culture is a necessary and urgent domain in socio-linguistics. As we know, the phenomenon of semantic change from one semantic field to another one is a universal concept in natural languages, which helps languages form a wide range of meanings based on the finitely natural sounds and thereby enrich the meanings of words. However, the research into a semantic alternation of a specific semantic field from one to another has remained inherent gaps to be bridged. In Vietnam, the studies on lexicology related to the semantic field have acquired certain achievements; however, there are no other researches into the semantic changes between the animal and human semantic fields. Each author has just focused on research into certain words which appear at the center of semantic fields. To meet the linguistic research demands, the semantic changes between the animal semantic field and the human semantic field will be further discussed in this article.

Researches on the semantic field
The development of the semantic field theory originally started from the work of American anthropologists and German linguists in the early 20th century. These scholars were influenced by Humboldt, whose theory was related to the inner speech-form of language.
This theory reflected the unique cognitive ability about the world of each ethnic group which was known as the premise for all semantic field theories. In addition to Humboldt's theory of the relationship between language and consciousness, the semantic field theory has been also based on the premise of Saussure's structuralism (Guo, Changhong, 2010, 188). In 1973, F. de Saussure once stated that "the value of any factor is determined by the other surrounding". He also used the example of a chessboard and chess pieces to persuade that no matter the material and the handle of the chess pieces, the key was its relation with other chess pieces in the chessboard. In other words, we must put a single chess piece into their strategically overall system. This idea was a decisive inspiration to formulate the semantic field theories. Thanks to this basic principle, a great number of researchers also had acquired the semantic field theory, such  Besides, some detailed studies on the semantic field should be mentioned such as R. Hallig and W. Von Warburg (Chau, 1998, 247), P.M. Roget (Chau, 1998, 246) and W.P. Zaleskij analyzed some verbs related to the eye activity in English (Chau, 1998).

2.
The semantic field theory

a. The semantic field definition
A semantic field is a set of words or lexemes related to meaning. Chau, D. H (1970, p.170) has defined semantic field relations more specifically as "a set of lexemes which cover a certain conceptual and bear certain specific relations to one another". Hence, the semantic relation between words has to be considered in the semantic field system. The lexemes in the same semantic field have common semantemes and of course they also have their semantemes. Moreover, when analyzing the semantic relations between semantic fields, the key point is to position them in the broader semantic field system.

b. Semantic field categories
According to Chau penetrate each other, but the core characteristics are also preserved, especially in prototypes. To determine a significate semantic field, we base on a certain significate semantic structure as the root. -

Horizontal semantic field
The horizontal semantic field first comes from the linearity of the linguistic signal; the signals take turn successively into a sequence that cannot occur simultaneously. Therefore this relationship is called horizontal relation

-Associative semantic field
An associative semantic field is a set of words representing things, phenomena, activities, and properties, etc which have an associative relationship with the root word. To form an associative semantic field, the words first and foremost must belong to the horizontal and vertical semantic fields. Besides, words in an associative semantic field depend on the possible associative meanings of the given word. The associative semantic field also has many associative words that simultaneously appear with the root of words in relatively homogeneous and repetitive themes. Therefore, the associative semantic field has features of nationalism, age, and individuality.
They may have words with similar denotatum but also have different connotative meanings. As can be seen that each associative semantic field is established thanks to the similarities which are not related to the position in the speech sequence as well as to the substitution for each other.

c. The central and boundary of the semantic field
A semantic field is characterized by systematic, hierarchical, synonymous, antonymous, central, and boundary features. However, only the central and

Linguistic methods and tactics
a. The method of seme analysis This method is an essential factor for analyzing the transformation of the meanings of words from the animal semantic field to the human semantic field in Vietnam.

b. Method of description
This method is used to describe the semantic change and phenomena in the study.

Tactics of statistics and classification:
These tactics determine the number of words at the center of each semantic field as well as the words in the intersecting area.

D. Findings
Every semantic field has words in the center and boundary. It is undeniable that there are large intersections between human and animal semantic. Thus, the data showed that 46 words were in the central region of the animal semantic field, and their semantic change transformed from the animal semantic field to the human semantic field.
The semantic change of the 46 remaining words has a new meaning related to people but still retains nuances of their original negative meaning, for instances: in the sentence: 'Thằng này chả làm được tích sự gì, chỉ được cái hót là giỏi', (This guy can do nothing, except for being good at "twittering"). There is another case as "sủa" (bark) in a collocation: "mày đừng có sủa nữa D ơi!" (don't bark anymore D!). When the center words of the animal semantic field are transformed into the human semantic field, they almost remain the negative meanings. About Vietnamese culture, many animals even bear symbols of evil, the cruelty of the fox, the stupidity and filth of a dog, but the bird's song has a beautiful symbol in transformed meaning.
This is the Vietnamese people's unique cognition of animals.

F. Conclusion
To sum up, the research shows the semantic field theory in several aspects such as the concept of the semantic field, semantic field categories, the phenomena of the center and boundary of the semantic field, and semantic field change. A total of 234 common words were figured out in the intersecting area of both human and animal semantic fields. The center region of the animal semantic field includes 46 words which can change their meaning from animal to human semantic field to describe the human characteristics. In the semantic field change process, these words still maintain their original nuances of meaning and combined with the new meaning either positive or negative. However, the number of negative words is only 2 cases while the negative words make up 44 cases. Therefore, most of the words are changed from the animal semantic field to the human semantic field in a negative way. For example, to some extent the Vietnamese residents argue in some geographically informal contexts, they partly tend to employ words in the animal semantic field. These stems are derived from the awareness of the animals of the Vietnamese.