Associated meaning of a word

In semantics, associative meaning refers to the particular qualities or characteristics beyond the denotative meaning that people commonly think of (correctly or incorrectly) in relation to a word or phrase. Also known as expressive meaning and stylistic meaning.

In Semantics: The Study of Meaning (1974), British linguist Geoffrey Leech introduced the term associative meaning to refer to the various types of meaning that are distinct from denotation (or conceptual meaning): connotative, thematic, social, effective, reflective, and collocative.

Cultural and Personal Associations

«A word can sweep by your ear and by its very sound suggest hidden meanings, preconscious association. Listen to these words: blood, tranquil, democracy. You know what they mean literally but you have associations with those words that are cultural, as well as your own personal associations.»
(Rita Mae Brown, Starting From Scratch. Bantam, 1988)

«[W]hen some people hear the word ‘pig’ they think of a particularly dirty and unhygienic animal. These associations are largely mistaken, at least in comparison with most other farm animals (although their association with various cultural traditions and related emotional responses are real enough), so we would probably not include these properties in the connotations of the word. But the associative meaning of a word often has very powerful communicative and argumentative consequences, so it is important to mention this aspect of meaning.»
(Jerome E. Bickenbach and Jacqueline M. Davies, Good Reasons for Better Arguments: An Introduction to the Skills and Values of Critical Thinking. Broadview Press, 1998)

Unconscious Association

«A good example of a common noun with an almost universal associative meaning is ‘nurse.’ Most people automatically associate ‘nurse’ with ‘woman.’ This unconscious association is so widespread that the term ‘male nurse’ has had to be coined to counteract its effect.»
(Sándor Hervey and Ian Higgins, Thinking French Translation: A Course in Translation Method, 2nd ed. Routledge, 2002)

Conceptual Meaning and Associative Meaning

«We can … make a broad distinction between conceptual meaning and associative meaning. Conceptual meaning covers those basic, essential components of meaning that are conveyed by the literal use of a word. It is the type of meaning that dictionaries are designed to describe. Some of the basic components of a word like «needle» in English might include ‘thin, sharp, steel instrument.’ These components would be part of the conceptual meaning of «needle.» However, different people might have different associations or connotations attached to a word like «needle.» They might associate it with ‘pain,’ or ‘illness,’ or ‘blood,’ or ‘drugs,’ or ‘thread,’ or ‘knitting,’ or ‘hard to find’ (especially in a haystack), and these associations may differ from one person to the next. These types of associations are not treated as part of the word’s conceptual meaning.
[P]oets, songwriters, novelists, literary critics, advertisers, and lovers may all be interested in how words can evoke certain aspects of associative meaning, but in linguistic semantics, we’re more concerned with trying to analyze conceptual meaning.»
(George Yule, The Study of Language, 4th ed. Cambridge University Press, 2010)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

According to the semantic analysis of Geoffrey Leech, the associative meaning of an expression has to do with individual mental understandings of the speaker. They, in turn, can be broken up into five sub-types: connotative, collocative, social, affective and reflected (Mwihaki 2004).

• The connotative meanings of an expression are the thoughts provoked by a term when in reference to certain entities. Though these meanings may not be strictly implied by relevant definitions, they show up in common or preferred usage regardless. This is not to be confused with what is historically referred to as connotation, which more closely describes rigid definitions of words.
• Collocative meaning, or «collocation», describes words that regularly appear together in common use (within certain contexts).
• Social meaning, where words are used to establish relationships between people and to delineate social roles. For example, in Japanese, the suffix «-san» when added to a proper name denotes respect, sometimes indicating that the speaker is subordinate to the listener; while the suffix «-chan» denotes that the speaker thinks the listener is a child or childlike (either for purposes of affection or derision).
• Affective meaning has to do with the personal feelings or attitudes of the speaker.
• Reflected meaning has to do with when one sense of a particular word affects the understanding and usage of all the other senses of the word.
• Thematic meaning concerns itself with how the order of words spoken affects the meaning that is entailed.

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• Mwihaki, Alice. (2004)

Language is a powerful yet complicated aspect of life. It doesn’t only come in verbal form, but also written and somatic or sign language. It is the bridge that both connects and separates our identities from one another.

In the world today, there are over 7,111 languages being spoken, dialects not yet included. Yet, a major problem is that 40% of these languages are endangered. Most of them are native languages of remote and old tribes. Indeed, languages are growing fewer. This is why it’s important to continue the study of language, especially the endangered ones.

When you study language, two major aspects that you must understand are conceptual and associative meanings.

A Short Background on Semantics

When you look up the word “semantics” in the dictionary, it’s defined as the study of meanings. Semantics professor, R.F. Palmer, says semantics focuses on the meaning of words, phrases, or sentences.

“That’s just semantics,” is something you might’ve heard someone say a few times in your life. When they say this, they mean to say that different parties have different understandings of a word that means the same thing.

These types are breakdowns of “meaning” in their widest sense. Of these seven types of meanings, there are three classifications. Those classifications are conceptual, associative, and thematic meanings. All the other types of meanings, except for thematic and conceptual meaning, are under the classification of associative meaning.

Conceptual Meaning: What Does It Mean? 

When we talk about conceptual meaning, we’re referring to the clear and logical definition of a word based on the structure and form of the word. In other words, you define a word based on only its most basic form.

Linguists also describe this as designative, cognitive, descriptive, or denotative meaning. Leech, G. considers this type of meaning as primary. His reason is that it is comparable in the organization and structure of a language.

An example is the word “cat”. When you say, “I have a cat,” you mean that you own a furry feline. In this case, you are using the literal use of a word. When someone says “New York,” they often connote the metropolitan city on the US east coast.

If you’re using a writing service for your term paper, make sure you make clear any jargon with multiple meanings outside of the field.

What Does Associative Meaning Pertain to?

When we talk about associative meaning, we are taking into account various factors that may describe a word, not only the base form and definition of a word. We’re also considering other aspects, like cultural context, emotional state, social circumstances, and personal associations.

Types of Meaning in Semantic Studies

As mentioned above, associative meaning includes five types of meanings:

Connotative Meaning 

This is the stylistic meaning or connotation of a word as communicated by virtue of what language refers to. It may refer to physical and sociological properties. For example, the word “woman” connotes “adult, female, and human.”

Social Meaning 

This is understood through the recognition of different dimensions and levels of style within the same language. To reveal social meaning, Leech includes the aspects of pronunciation, intonation, sentence structure, and others. For example, the words “died,” “passed away,” “deceased,” and “kicked the bucket” have different meanings.

Affective Meaning 

It communicates the feelings and attitudes of the speaker or writer. For example, politely asking someone to be quiet as opposed to telling someone to shut up.

Reflected Meaning 

It is what gets communicated through associated with another sense of the same expression. Words with multiple meanings may get misunderstood as taboo words. Examples are cock, erection, and contact.

Collocative Meaning

The synonymy, collocation, or associations a word requires on account of the meanings of words that tend to occur in the environment of another word. The word “pretty” often goes with “girl, boy, garden, village, and flower,” while “handsome” often goes with “car, man, and boy.”

When you’re writing a custom paper for school, use new words and their various meanings to enrich your coursework.

Examples of Words and Their Conceptual and Associative Meanings

A single word can mean a lot of things.

Let’s take the denotation of the word “cougar.” In conceptual language use, it refers to the wild cat. In other colloquial uses, cougar takes new semantic roles. It may refer to an older and mature woman who prefers a younger partner.

Certain words and phrases may have the same referent but also hold contrastive meanings. For example, “clip” is an interesting word because it can denote “to cling” or “to split apart.” The verb “dust” is another example. You may say “dust the cake with powdered sugar,” as in to add sugar. Or say “dust the house,” as in to remove dust. As you can see, the two meanings of “cut” and “dust” are antonyms.

Your grammatical competence will reflect in your language use. Various social circumstances will also change the meanings of the words you use and choose to say.

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