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)
Word Association is a common word game involving an exchange of words that are associated together. The game is based on the noun phrase word association, meaning «stimulation of an associative pattern by a word»[1] or «the connection and production of other words in response to a given word, done spontaneously as a game, creative technique, or in a psychiatric evaluation».[2]
DescriptionEdit
Once an original word has been chosen, usually randomly or arbitrarily, a player will find a word that they associate with it and make it known to all the players, usually by saying it aloud or writing it down as the next item on a list of words so far used. The next player must then do the same with this previous word. This continues in turns for any length of time, but often word limits are set, so that the game is agreed to end after, for instance, 400 words.
Usually, players write down the next word by merely using the first word that comes to their mind after they hear the previous one. Sometimes, however, they may put in more thought to find a more creative connection between the words. Exchanges are often fast and sometimes unpredictable (though logical patterns can usually be found without difficulty). Sometimes, a lot of the game’s fun can arise from the seemingly strange or amusing associations that people make between words.
The game can be played actively or passively, sometimes taking many weeks to complete, and can in fact be played with any number of players, even one. Example: Soda, Sprite, Fairy, Tinkerbell, Peter Pan, Pans, Skillet, Kitchens, Refrigerator, Drinks, Soda
VariantsEdit
In some games, extra limitations are added; for instance:
- The associations between words must be strictly obvious, rather than the usual «first word that comes to mind», which can often require explaining to see how it is connected with the previous word.
- If played in-person, a time limit of two or three seconds can be placed to make a very fast-paced game, often combined with the previous rule of an ‘explicit’ connection, and extra emphasis on the idea that a previously used word cannot be repeated.
- Word Disassociation (sometimes called Dissociation) is sometimes played. In this game, the aim is to say a word that is as unrelated as possible to the previous one. In such games, however, it is often found that creativity is lowered and the words stray towards[colloquialism] having obvious associations again. This game is sometimes known as «Word for Word».
- Sometimes, repeated words are forbidden or otherwise noted on a separate list for interest.
- A variant with an arbitrary name (sometimes called Ultra Word Association) involves associating words in a grid, where the first word is placed in the top-left, and where each word must be placed adjacent to another one and must associate with all those words adjacent to it.
PsychologyEdit
It is believed[3][by whom?] that word association can reveal something of a person’s subconscious mind (as it shows what things they associate together), but others[who?] are skeptical of how effective such a technique could be in psychology.
Often, the game’s goal is to compare the first and final word, to see if they relate, or to see how different they are, or also to see how many words are repeated. Likewise, players often review the list of words to see the pathways of associations that go from beginning to end.
Word association has been used by market researchers to ensure the proper message is conveyed by names or adjectives used in promoting a company’s products. For example, James Vicary, working in the 1950s, tested the word ‘lagered’ for a brewing company. While about a third of his subjects associated the word with beer, another third associated it with tiredness, dizziness and so forth. As a result of the study, Vicary’s client decided not to use the word.[4]
In the early years of psychology, many doctors noted that patients exhibited behavior that they were not in control of. Some part of the personality seemed to have an influence on that person’s behavior that was not in their conscious control. This part was, by function, unconscious, and became so named the Unconscious. Carl Jung theorized that people connect ideas, feelings, experiences and information by way of associations … that ideas and experiences are linked, or grouped, in the unconscious in such a manner as to exert influence over the individual’s behavior.[] These groupings he named Complexes.[5]
See alsoEdit
- Implicit Association Test
- iAssociate
- Password
ReferencesEdit
- ^ Dictionary.com
- ^ Dictionary.com’s 21st Century Lexicon
- ^ Gough, Harrison G. Studying creativity by means of word association tests. Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol 61(3), Jun 1976, 348-353
- ^ Vance Packard, The Hidden Persuaders, Penguin, 1961 paperback edition, p. 129
- ^ Jung, Carl G. (1910). «The Association Method». American Journal of Psychology. 21 (2): 219–269. doi:10.2307/1413002. hdl:11858/00-001M-0000-002B-AD55-2. JSTOR 1413002. Retrieved 16 November 2013.
External linksEdit
- Critical Stimulus — Psychoanalysis based on Carl Jung’s Association Method
- powerhouse.me.uk
- WordAssociation.org
- Scientific study on word associations in various languages
- Funny Farm Online Association Game
- Online game of word association
- Word Associations Network
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.
- A Short Background on Semantics
- Conceptual Meaning: What Does It Mean?
- What Does Associative Meaning Pertain to?
- Types of Meaning in Semantic Studies
- Connotative Meaning
- Social Meaning
- Affective Meaning
- Reflected Meaning
- Collocative Meaning
- Types of Meaning in Semantic Studies
- Examples of Words and Their Conceptual and Associa
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.
Geoffrey Leech, an English linguist and scholar of corpus linguistics and pragmatics, noted the seven types of meaning in semantics. The seven types of meanings in his list are:
- Conceptual meaning
- Connotative meaning
- Social meaning
- Collocative meaning
- Reflected meaning
- Affective meaning
- Thematic meaning
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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PRONUNCIATION OF WORD ASSOCIATION
GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF WORD ASSOCIATION
Word association is a noun.
A noun is a type of word the meaning of which determines reality. Nouns provide the names for all things: people, objects, sensations, feelings, etc.
WHAT DOES WORD ASSOCIATION MEAN IN ENGLISH?
Word Association
Word Association is a common word game involving an exchange of words that are associated together. The game is based on the noun phrase word association, meaning «stimulation of an associative pattern by a word» or «the connection and production of other words in response to a given word, done spontaneously as a game, creative technique, or in a psychiatric evaluation.»…
Definition of word association in the English dictionary
The definition of word association in the dictionary is an early method of psychoanalysis in which the patient thinks of the first word that comes into consciousness on hearing a given word. In this way it was claimed that aspects of the unconscious could be revealed before defence mechanisms intervene.
Synonyms and antonyms of word association in the English dictionary of synonyms
Translation of «word association» into 25 languages
TRANSLATION OF WORD ASSOCIATION
Find out the translation of word association to 25 languages with our English multilingual translator.
The translations of word association from English to other languages presented in this section have been obtained through automatic statistical translation; where the essential translation unit is the word «word association» in English.
Translator English — Chinese
词语联想
1,325 millions of speakers
Translator English — Spanish
asociación de palabras
570 millions of speakers
Translator English — Hindi
शब्द एसोसिएशन
380 millions of speakers
Translator English — Arabic
جمعية الكلمة
280 millions of speakers
Translator English — Russian
Игра в ассоциации
278 millions of speakers
Translator English — Portuguese
associação de palavras
270 millions of speakers
Translator English — Bengali
শব্দ অ্যাসোসিয়েশন
260 millions of speakers
Translator English — French
association de mots
220 millions of speakers
Translator English — Malay
Persatuan perkataan
190 millions of speakers
Translator English — German
Wortassoziations
180 millions of speakers
Translator English — Japanese
言語連想法
130 millions of speakers
Translator English — Korean
단어 협회
85 millions of speakers
Translator English — Javanese
Tembung asosiasi
85 millions of speakers
Translator English — Vietnamese
hiệp hội từ
80 millions of speakers
Translator English — Tamil
சொல் சங்கம்
75 millions of speakers
Translator English — Marathi
शब्द असोसिएशन
75 millions of speakers
Translator English — Turkish
Kelime birliği
70 millions of speakers
Translator English — Italian
associazione di parole
65 millions of speakers
Translator English — Polish
Skojarzenia
50 millions of speakers
Translator English — Ukrainian
гра в асоціації
40 millions of speakers
Translator English — Romanian
asociere de cuvinte
30 millions of speakers
Translator English — Greek
σύνδεση λέξεων
15 millions of speakers
Translator English — Afrikaans
woord assosiasie
14 millions of speakers
Translator English — Swedish
word association
10 millions of speakers
Translator English — Norwegian
Assosiasjons
5 millions of speakers
Trends of use of word association
TENDENCIES OF USE OF THE TERM «WORD ASSOCIATION»
The term «word association» is regularly used and occupies the 74.579 position in our list of most widely used terms in the English dictionary.
The map shown above gives the frequency of use of the term «word association» in the different countries.
Principal search tendencies and common uses of word association
List of principal searches undertaken by users to access our English online dictionary and most widely used expressions with the word «word association».
FREQUENCY OF USE OF THE TERM «WORD ASSOCIATION» OVER TIME
The graph expresses the annual evolution of the frequency of use of the word «word association» during the past 500 years. Its implementation is based on analysing how often the term «word association» appears in digitalised printed sources in English between the year 1500 and the present day.
Examples of use in the English literature, quotes and news about word association
10 ENGLISH BOOKS RELATING TO «WORD ASSOCIATION»
Discover the use of word association in the following bibliographical selection. Books relating to word association and brief extracts from same to provide context of its use in English literature.
1
Connected Words: Word Associations and Second Language …
What does this tell us about the way L2 speakers’ vocabularies grow and develop? This volume provides a user-friendly introduction to a research technique which has the potential to answer some long-standing puzzles about L2 vocabulary.
2
Birkbeck Word Association Norms
This is a reference work containing free association norms for over 2000 words in the English language collected over the last eight years from groups of 40-50 British English speakers aged between 17 and 45.
Helen Moss, Lianne Older, 1996
3
Read, Write, & Color: Word Association 1
Remedia Publications. Need more practice? Try these other books from . ♢♢♢♢
REMEDIA PUBLICATIONS ♢♢♢♢ Math Real Life Math— Grades 1-3/Rdg. Level 1-
2 Menu Math for Beginners Item Number REM 1 1 1 A Market Math for Beginners
…
4
Neuropsychological Interpretation of Objective Psychological …
Section VII: Executive Skills CONTROLLED ORAL WORD ASSOCIATION TEST (
COWAT) The purpose of the Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT) is
to evaluate the spontaneous production of words beginning with a given letter or
…
Patricia Espe-Pfeifer, Jana Wachsler-Felder, 2000
5
Educational Psychology: Its Problems and Methods
CHAPTER IX PSYCHO-ANALYSIS Word Association — Complexes — The
Unconscious — Psycho-analysis —The Sexual Theory WORD ASSOCIATION
THE easiest approach to the doctrines of psycho-analysis is by way of
experiments on …
6
Critique of Word Association Reactions: An Experimental …
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.
Arthur Howard Sutherland, 2011
7
Conceptual Structures: Knowledge Architectures for Smart …
Bilingual word association networks can be beneficial as a tool in foreign
language education because they show relationships among cognate words of
different languages and correspond to structures in the mental lexicon. This
paper …
Uta Priss, Simon Polovina, Richard Hill, 2007
8
Current Trends in linguistics
However, a recent set of norms by D. S. Palermo and J. J. Jenkins [Word
association norms, grade school through college (Minneapolis, 1963)] employs
some stimulus words from grammatically marked categories. In formulating an
hypothesis …
Thomas Albert Sebeok, 1963
9
Measuring Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition
Measuring Vocabulary Knowledge with Word Association Tasks If controlled and
elicitation tasks can be criticised because they may not measure a learner’s
ability to produce vocabulary in a range of communicative tasks and free
production …
10
Neuropsychology for Psychologists, Health Care …
He was also given the Controlled Oral Word Association Test, which required him
to generate as many words as possible beginning with specific letters of the
alphabet. He became very tense as the test began and after he had provided this
…
Robert J. Sbordone, Ronald E. Saul, Arnold D. Purisch, 2007
10 NEWS ITEMS WHICH INCLUDE THE TERM «WORD ASSOCIATION»
Find out what the national and international press are talking about and how the term word association is used in the context of the following news items.
Watch: Zlatan plays word association: Messi, Ronaldo, Guardiola …
Paris Saint-Germain striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic played word association involving some of soccer’s biggest names, among other topics, as part of his … «SI.com, Jul 15»
Lightning Round! Playing Word Association with The Doctor and …
HitFix Harpy is always up for a game. So when Peter Capaldi and Steven Moffat of “Doctor Who” agreed to a lightning round of word association, we knew it was … «HitFix, Jul 15»
The Bachelorette Plays the Word Association Game
{«id»:32061987,»title»:»The Bachelorette Plays the Word Association Game»,»duration»:»1:05″,»description»:»Her answers might surprise you. «ABC News, Jun 15»
Tamra Judge Plays «Real Housewives» Word Association
Tamra Judge holds nothing back and, quite frankly, that’s why we love her. The Real Housewives of Orange County star has taken viewers on a wild ride … «BuzzFeed News, Jun 15»
Watch the Cast of ‘Entourage’ Play a Game of Word Association …
The stars of HBO’s television series-turned-film share what words come to mind … the cast gathered to play an Entourage-themed game of word association. «Hollywood Reporter, Jun 15»
Melissa McCarthy and Jimmy Fallon play Random Word Association
The Spy and recent EW cover star played a game of Random Word Association on The Tonight Show. While it may not exactly displace Saturday Night Live’s … «Entertainment Weekly, Jun 15»
We Played 2016 Presidential Word Association With Donald Trump …
Business and reality television mogul, Donald Trump, who is perhaps most famous for uttering the words “you’re fired,” had a few words for some of the … «ABC News, May 15»
2016 Word Association with Brad Woodhouse
2016 Word Association with Brad Woodhouse. More. The president of the Democratic American Bridge PAC on the GOP presidential field. 0:39 | 05/07/15 … «ABC News, May 15»
VIDEO: Grant Shapps plays our political word association game
Take one party chairman, put him in a newspaper office with a bunch of journalists and see what happens when you ask him to say one word on a range of … «Melton Times, Apr 15»
Let’s play Word Association with Chrissy Teigen!
One might call it a perk of the job, but there are some days that you get to leave the office and go have a quick chat with the stunning Chrissy Teigen. Today was … «SI.com, Mar 15»
REFERENCE
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noun
stimulation of an associative pattern by a word.
QUIZ
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Words nearby word association
Worcestershire sauce, Worcs, word, word accent, wordage, word association, word association test, word-blind, word blindness, wordbook, wordbreak
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Words related to word association
How to use word association in a sentence
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Sometimes I tell people, if you do word association before covid and then today of the phrases drone, robot, AI—two years ago, the reaction would’ve been negative on all three of those.
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Now, since The Voice is coming back, we wanted to play a little “word association” game.
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PLUS watch a fun video of the group playing word association, giving their thoughts on everyone from Anthony Weiner to A-Rod.
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When I ask him to do a little word association game, he has a few choice words for some of his opponents.
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If word association evidence produced strong evidence (high confidence scores) then that is what Watson goes with.
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Melroy could hear a recording of somebody being given a word-association test.
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The word association properly signifies a society or convention of things in some respects similar to each other.
British Dictionary definitions for word association
noun
an early method of psychoanalysis in which the patient thinks of the first word that comes into consciousness on hearing a given word. In this way it was claimed that aspects of the unconscious could be revealed before defence mechanisms intervene
Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012