The present article is devoted to the development issue of the English language polysemy of the lexemes included into the notions “good” and “evil”. The work has been done within the frame of the graduation thesis “The Development of Polysemy in the English language”.

In order to trace the development of polysemy in various situations it was decided to analyze words in diachronic and synchronic aspects. A diachronic analysis implies the study of etymology, or the history of words origin. A synchronic analysis requires simultaneous consideration of the entire set of the different definitions of the same word. Exactly these two analyses in the whole enable us to trace the polysemy of words through the time, in other words its development. In that way it has been decided to make a list of words for these analyses. Notions have been chosen the themes "good” and “evil". The reason is the importance of these notions for humanity. Goodness is the highest moral value; doing good is the main regulator of moral conduct. The opposite of good is evil. It is the antivalue -something incompatible with moral behavior. There is no wonder thousands of essays, papers, diplomas, theses and books in various languages on the theme of good and evil have been written, what gives us a great material to work with.

As a result of studying of such works as “Антропологический смысл полемики о природе добра и зла в русской духовно-философской традиции” by A.G Dolgii, “Концептуальная оппозиция "добро-зло" в этноязыковой картине мира” by L.V. Lotrya, “Нравственно-оценочные категории "добро" и "зло" в лингвокогнитивном аспекте” by O.A. Yegorova, “Good and evil. Essay on Moral Philosophy” by V.N. Sherdakov, “The dialectics of good and evil: the socio-philosophical aspect” by E.Yu.Vavilova, and such outstanding dictionaries as “Толковый словарь живого великорусского языка” by V.I. Dahl, “The Explanatory Dictionary o Russian” by S.I. Ozhegov, Longman dictionary of contemporary English and “The Big Book of Aphorisms" by K.V. Dushenko we have composed two lists of words on the notions “good” and “evil”. Each of the lists containe 15 words.

Each word from the above lists have been subjected to diachronic analysis, with the help of the online work, and the use of such sources as Online Etymology Dictionary by Douglas Harper, and “The concise dictionary of English etymology” by Walter W. Skeat. Each word has also been subjected to synchronic analysis by means of searching the different meanings of the words, in order to ensure that the word is polysemantic. This work is also carried out online. Particular attention should be paid to the site dictionary.com, which was the most helpful and informative in finding different meanings and confirming the fact of polysemy. This site is a compilation of a huge number of dictionaries, mostly explanatory, as well as medical, etymological, slang, scientific and cultural ones.

There are fifteen words on the notion "good ", which were subject to diachronic and synchronic analysis: pleasure, beauty, glory, order, freedom, harmony, peace, love, decent, justice, honor, help, advantage, pure, merit. As an example, we would like to lead the analysis of the word “merit”:

The word merit is used its beginning circa 1300, and was formed from Old French merite. The word merite appeared from Latin meritum – “desert, reward, merit," neutrer of meritus, and past participle of merere, meriri - "to earn, deserve, acquire, gain," from Proto-Indo-European base mer - "to allot, assign". The verb meaning "to be entitled to" is from 1520s, from Latin meritare, frequentative of mereri, meant "to earn (money);" also "to serve as a soldier”.

The given word “merit” has less than 10 different meanings in three various parts of speech. That enable us to refer call this word as a polysemantic. At first we should consider the meanings that the word has as a noun:

1. Claim to respect and praise; excellence; worth.

2. Something that deserves or justifies a reward or commendation; a commendable quality, act, etc.: The book's only merit is its sincerity.

3. Merits, the inherent rights and wrongs of a matter, as a lawsuit, unobscured by procedural details, technicalities, personal feelings, etc.: The case will be decided on its merits alone.

4. Often, merits, the state or fact of deserving; desert: to treat people according to their merits.

5. Roman Catholic Church: worthiness of spiritual reward, acquired by righteous acts made under the influence of grace.

6. Obsolete: something that is deserved, whether good or bad.

Verb (used with object)

7. To be worthy of; deserve.

Verb (used without object)

8. Chiefly Theology: to acquire merit.

Adjective

9. Based on merit: a merit raise of $25 a week.

The polysemy of the word “merit” is shown from the above 9 meanings. All the meanings are formed with the help of radiation from the direct meaning of the word “achievement, respect, praise, payment”. By the means of conversion the word formed two other parts of speech – a verb in meaning “to deserve something” and an adjective in meaning “something based on merit”. Thus, we can conclude that there are two processes, which have influenced the development of the polysemy of the given word: radiation and conversion. Besides the influence of Proto-Indo-European, Latin and Old French languages also have had a great impact.

A similar analysis was done with all the fifteen words, thus we can conclude the following: various proto-languages, participating in the history of the words origin, influenced the development of polysemy in all cases. In addition to languages, there are still a lot of different processes affecting the development of the polysemy of the given words:

According to the analysis, the most common process that influences the development of polysemy among the lexemes of the notions "good", is radiation. This process occurs in 66% of the words. The combinative power of words affects 53% of the words, diachronically and synchronically analyzing through polysemy. Conversion is observed in 47% of lexemes, which makes this process a little less popular. Processes such as concatenation and transference of meanings of the word occupy about a third part each, namely 34% of the lexemes of the notion "good". The least popular processes are revaluation and elevation of the meaning; they occupy only 13% and 20% of words.

There are fifteen words on the notion "evil", which are subject to diachronic and synchronic analysis: anger, apprehension, chaos, dark, disease, envy, fear, hazard, horror, power, revenge, sin, trouble, vice, violence. As an example, we would like to lead the analysis of the word “horror”:

The word horror is from the late 14^th century, and was formed from Old French horreur. In turns horreur appeared from Latin horror "bristling, roughness, rudeness, shaking, trembling," earlier from horrere "to bristle with fear, shudder". The Proto-Indo-European base ghers-"to bristle" served as a basis for the Latin word. The meaning as a genre in film is from 1936. The polysemy of the given word can be traced in following synchronic scale, thus, it has 9 different meanings nowadays. That gives us the full right to call this word a polysemantic. At first we should consider the meanings that the word has as a noun:

1. An overwhelming and painful feeling caused by something frightfully shocking, terrifying, or revolting; a shuddering fear: to shrink back from a mutilated corpse in horror.

2. Anything that causes such a feeling: killing, looting, and other horrors of war.

3. Such a feeling as a quality or condition: to have known the horror of slow starvation.

4. A strong aversion; abhorrence: to have a horror of emotional outbursts.

5. Informal: something considered bad or tasteless: That wallpaper is a horror. The party was a horror.

6. Horrors:

· Delirium tremens.

· Extreme depression.

Adjective

7. Inspiring or creating horror, loathing, aversion, etc.: The hostages told horror stories of their year in captivity.

8. Centered upon or depicting terrifying or macabre events: a horror movie.

Interjection

9. Horrors (used as a mild expression of dismay, surprise, disappointment, etc.)

The polysemy of the word “horror” is shown from the above nine meanings. All of them have a meaning of fear, frustration, disgust or dislike, for example “to have known the horror of slow starvation”, “the party was a horror” or “a horror movie”, all of this we can express in one word horror. All of them also are the result of the radiation. By means of conversion the given word formed two other parts of speech – an adjective and an interjection, which in its turn might have 3 different meanings depending on context. Thus, we can conclude that many factors influenced the development of polysemy of the given word: radiation, conversion, widespread use of the word and such languages as Proto-Indo-European, Latin and Old French.

Each of the words in this group has been subjected to analogous analysis, due to which we can conclude the following: various proto-languages, participating in the history of the words origin, influenced the development of polysemy in all cases, as well as the lexemes of the notion “Good”. In addition to languages, there are still a lot of different processes affecting the development of the polysemy of the given words:

According to the analysis, the most common process that influences the development of polysemy among the lexemes of the notion "evil" is radiation. This process occurs in 100% of the words. This number is 44% more than number of the words on the notion “good”. The second popular process that influences the development of polysemy among the lexemes of the notion "evil" is conversion. Conversion covers 73% of words. This number even larger than the number of radiation among the words on the notion “good”, despite the fact that what this process is the most common of “good” lexemes. Concatenation observed in 47% of lexemes, which makes this process a little less popular. Combinative power of words affects 26% of the words, diachronically and synchronically analyzing through polysemy.

Such process as revaluation of meaning of the word occupies 13% of the lexemes of the notion "evil". The least productive processes are transference and elevation of the meaning; they occupy only 6% each.

After analyzing the lexemes on the notions "good " and "evil" in the diachronic and synchronic aspects in practical part we can deduce the following results of practical research: radiation is more productive way of polysemy development among the words on the notions of "good" and "evil" than the concatenation, it is found in 83% of cases, while the concatenation only in 33% of cases.

Conversion is a very productive way, as occurs in more than half of the cases, namely in 60% of the words. Conversion is the cause of various parts of speech such as verb, used with and without noun, noun, adjectives and even participles.

Combinative power of the word affects the development of polysemy of words in 40% of cases. In this case, the most common prepositions, which combines the words are «in», «at», «for» «on» «of», as well as such words as «keep», «take», "have", "be "," do "," make "," no "," out ".

Among the transference, revaluation and elevation of meaning, the most productive factor is the transference of meaning; it is seen in 20% of the words, revaluation and elevation of the meanings of words occupied by 13% each.

Proto-languages affect the development of words in all the cases. The most productive languages are Latin, Old French, Anglo-Norman, Proto-Germanic, Proto-Indo-European, Old English and Greek.