Семантика англійських прикметників на позначення розумових здібностей людини

The article deals with the adjectives of the English language which denote mental abilities of a person. The subject of the research is functional and semantic specific features of the systematic relations of the groups of adjectives within the microfield “The level of mental abilities”. The topicality of the research is specified, firstly, by the fact that the English adjectives of mental abilities are frequently used in the language. Secondly, there is a need to outline functional and semantic characteristics of the adjectives of this system in order to state their speech peculiarities and the role of extralingual factors in the formation of their meaning and pragmatic potential. The aim of the article is to reveal semantic peculiarities of the systematic relations within the blocks of mental abilities adjectives of the English language which form a semantic microfield “The level of mental abilities”. The tasks of the research are: 1) to analyze systematic relations in lexical and semantic groups of adjectives which form a macrofield “Mental abilities of a person”; 2) to define micro-fields and lexical and semantic groups within the macrofield “Mental abilities of a person”; 3) to single out the seme content of the constituents of the microfield “The level of mental abilities”. The research findings: 1) three microfields and some lexical and semantic groups have been defined within the macrofield “Mental abilities of a person”; 2) the seme content of the constituents of the microfield “The level of mental abilities” has been given; 3) 66 adjectives have been chosen on the basis of integral denotative and significant semes, many of them have been characterized as emotionally coloured and stylistically marked. We have come to the conclusion that there are complex functional and semantic peculiarities in the system of adjectives within the microfield “The level of mental abilities”.