Section : LEXICAL , PHRASEOLOGICAL SEMANTICS AND TRANSLATION THEORY SEMANTIC CLASSIFICATION OF THE VERBS IN THE NORTH AMERICAN AREA OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

The article deals with the problem of semantic classification of the verbs of the North American continent. 60 verbs marked in the dictionaries (Hornby, Webster, Gage) as British, American, Canadian have been chosen for the investigation. The classification of verbal lexemes according to their semantic meaning suggested by A.A. Ufimtseva has been taken for the basis of this research. According to this classification all the verbs fall into two groups: lexemes of active action and lexemes of non-active action.


INTRODUCTION
The recognition of lexis as a system presupposes the examining of lexical units of language within the groups of semantic proximity (semantic fields).The studying of their substance and structure gives us an opportunity to present the part of lexis of a certain language which is under review as a systematic and structural organization.
Very often dealing with semantic classification of words the term "lexico-semantic group of words" is used.Though in linguistics there doesn't still exist synonymous usage of this term.The notion "lexico-semantic group" was examined in the works of F.P. Filin, A.A. Ufimtseva, V.I.Kozhukhov, V.A. Zviahintsev, A.I. Kuznietsova.Taking into account the critical analysis of the works of the above mentioned linguists, we suggest "lexico-semantic group of words" be treated as the union of words on the basis of both semantic proximity and similarity of their lexical meaning.
The majority of scientists also consider that one lexico-semantic group may consist of words related to only one part of speech that enables them to interact and influence each other more deeply.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Being guided by the definition of I.V. Arnold that "a certain lexical meaning forms the content of two-faced linguistic sign -lexico-semantic variant" [1, p. 168], we can speak about the rightfulness of singling out classes and groups of lexico-semantic variants of the words which are under study.As a Semantic Classification of the Verbs in the North American Area of the English Language 49 result of the whole selection of words marked as Br., Am., Cn. in the dictionaries (Hornby, Webster, Gage) 60 verbs have been chosen for this article; among them there are 56 verbs marked as British, 3 verbs marked as American and only 1 verb marked as Canadian.They are: Br. -barrack, belt up, black, book, breast, bucket, cant, cast, chair, chat, chunter, come over, cosh, crow, cry off, down, fly over, fly past, gate, go, indent, keep, kip, knock back, knock up, lash, lay on, levant, lionize, muck, muck up, nip, part, peg, rate 2 , post, ring, rusticate, sain, scorch, sky, sledge, stash, stone-wall, stop, swob, tine, tump, tup, turf, turn off, turn out, vet, wassail, winkle, worry, wot.

DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS
As among the chosen words there are verbs denoting different actions, semantic classification of verbal lexemes according to their semantic meaning presented in the work of A.A. Ufimtseva has been borrowed as the one which reveals the character of verbs best of all.[

Tab. 1. Semantic Classification of Verbal Lexemes according to Their Semantic Meaning
The given division of verbs is rather relative as it is based on a subjective evaluation of the character of verbs.Thus, the verb "repeat" marked in the dictionaries as American is related to the lexemes of active action of objective-subjective group of verbs which denote the process (the result of the object being involved in action) as in the British variant of the English language it means "to say or to do something once more"; at the same time in the American variant of the English language it means "to vote more than once at the election".
One of the verbs related to the lexemes of nonactive action of subjective verbs that denote peculiarities of relations of the subject (the doer of the action) is the Canadian variant of the verb "acclaim" which means "to elect for the post unanimously", though in the British variant it means "to greet noisily".

CONCLUSIONS
The given examples highlight the fact that semantic classification of verbal lexemes according to their semantic meaning contributes to our better understanding of the semantic structure of English words at the present stage of their development and functioning and British, American, Canadian variants in particular.