Lexical meaning
is the realization of the notion by means of a definite language
system.
If we compare the word-forms
of one and the same word we can observe that besides grammatical
meaning they possess another component of word-meaning.
Let us compare, for example
the following word-forms: go, goes, went, going, gone. They
all have different grammatical meanings of tense, person and aspect,
but each of these forms contains one and the same semantic component
denoting the process of movement. This is the lexical meaning of the
given verb-forms.
So lexical meaning may be
described as the component of word-meaning proper to the word as a
linguistic unit and recurrent in all the forms of this word.
By lexical meaning we
designate the meaning proper to the given linguistic unit in all its
forms and distributions, while by grammatical meaning we designate
the meaning proper to sets of word-forms common to all words of a
certain class.
Both the lexical and
grammatical meanings make up the word-meaning as a whole because
neither of them can exist without the other. The lexical meaning of a
word is dependent upon its grammatical meaning.
1.3.3. Part-of-speech meaning
Lexical items or words are
generally classified into major word-classes such as nouns,
adjectives, verbs, adverbs and into minor word-classes such as
articles, prepositions, conjunctions and so on.
All members of the same
word-class share a distinguishing semantic component which can be
viewed as the lexical component of part-of-speech
meaning. The grammatical aspect of part-of-speech
meaning is conveyed as a rule by a set of forms. Here we may
speak about the meaning of lexico-grammatical groups or classes of
words and, consequently, about lexico-grammatical meaning.
A lexico-grammatical
class may be defined as a class of lexical elements
possessing the same lexico-grammatical meaning and a common system of
forms in which the grammatical categories inherent in these units are
expressed. So every lexico-grammatical group or class is
characterized by its own lexico-grammatical meaning forming the
common denomenator of all the meanings of the words which belong to
this group. The lexico-grammatical meaning may be also regarded as
the feature according to which these words are grouped together.
As it was mentioned above, the
lexical meaning of every word depends upon the part of speech to
which this word belongs. In the lexical meaning of every separate
word the lexico-grammatical meaning common to all the words of the
class to which this word belongs is enriched by additional features
and becomes particularized.
Let us take, for example, such
words as bright, clear, good. These adjectives denote the
properties of things capable of being compared and so have degrees of
comparison. In the lexical meanings of these words in the forms
brighter, clearer and better the lexico-grammatical
meaning of qualitative adjectives common to all the words of this
class is enriched the additional meaning of the comparative degree of
the quality these words denote.
If we describe the word as a
noun we mean to say that it is bound to possess a set of forms
expressing the grammatical meanings of number, case, sometimes gender
and so on. A verb is understood to possess sets of forms expressing
the grammatical meanings of tense, aspect, mood and so on.
The part-of-speech meaning of
words that possess only one form, for example, prepositions, is
observed only in their distribution; compare, for example, to come
in and in the table.
One of the levels at which
grammatical meaning operates is that of minor word class like
articles, prepositions and pronouns.
One criterion for
distinguishing these grammatical items from lexical items is in terms
of closed and open sets of units.
Grammatical items form closed
sets of units usually of small membership, such as articles,
prepositions, pronouns. New items are practically never added there.
Lexical items proper belong to
open sets of units which have indeterminately large membership; new
lexical items which are constantly coined to name new objects of
reality are added to these open sets of units.
The interrelation of the
lexical and grammatical meanings within the word-meaning and the role
played by each of them varies in different word-classes and even in
different groups of words within one and the same class. In some
parts of speech the prevailing component of the word-meaning is the
lexical meaning, in others – the grammatical meaning.
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Автор: • Декабрь 21, 2017 • Лекция • 589 Слов (3 Страниц) • 1,896 Просмотры
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Lecture (December, the 4th)
WORD MEANING
Introduction
There exist various theories of word meaning — in philosophy, linguistics, psychology, neuroscience and artificial intelligence, since research on word meaning is highly interdisciplinary. There have been too many attempts to define lexical meaning, we’ll consider the shortest one: lexica meaning is the realization of a concept (a fragment of knowledge) by means of a definite language system.
Why is it difficult to define lexical meaning?
- Every word combines lexical and grammatical meaning: books.
- The lexical meaning very often includes denotational and connotational meanings: skinny vs thin.
- The denotational meaning is not homogenous, it encompasses semantic components (semes): book -“a handwritten or printed work of fiction or nonfiction, usually onsheets of paper fastened or bound together within covers”.
- Most words are polysemantic (poly′semous).
Types of meaning
The grammatical meaning is more abstract and generalized. It characterizes all individual forms of different words: cats, books, children, etc. the grammatical meaning of plurality); asked, did, translated, etc. the grammatical meaning Past Simple.
The lexical meaning is concrete and individual. It characterizes all grammatical word-forms: cracks, cracked, cracking, has cracked, etc. – these grammatical forms have the same lexical meaning.
Aspects of meaning
The lexical meaning is characterized by three aspects – semantic, syntactic and pragmatic.
In the semantic aspect two sides are singled out – ′deno′tative and sig′nificative.
Deno′tatum involves all the objects of reality named by this word. Significant is the reflection of the properties of the denoted object in the human mind.
The pragmatic meaning encompasses different connotations.
Stylistic connotations (social connotations) refer to the social situation (social circumstances) characterizing communication: bog – toilet – restroom.
Emotional connotations in a word point to some emotion accompanying the denotative component: glare – to look in anger.
…
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3.1. The object of semasiology. Two approaches to the study of meaning.
3.2. Types of meaning.
3.3. Meaning and motivation.
3.1. The branch of lexicology which studies meaning is called » semasiology «. Sometimes the term » semantics » is used as a synonym to semasiology, but it is ambiguous as it can stand as well for (1) the expressive aspect of language in general and (2) the meaning of one particular word.
Meaning is certainly the most important property of the word but what is » meaning»?
Meaning is one of the most controversial terms in lexicology. At present there is no generally accepted definition of meaning. Prof. Smirnitsky defines meaning as » a certain reflection in the mind of objects, phenomena or relations that makes part of the linguistic sign, its so-called inner facet, whereas the sound form functions as its outer facet». Generally speaking, meaning can be described as a component of the word through which a concept is communicated, enabling the word to denote objects in the real world.
There are two approaches to the study of meaning: the referential approach and the functional approach. The former tries to define meaning in terms of relations between the word (sound form), concept (notion, thought) and referent (object which the word denotes). They are closely connected and the relationship between them is represented by » the semiotic triangle» (= the basic triangle) of Ogden and Richards (in the book » The Meaning of Meaning» (1923) by O.K. Ogden and I.A. Richards).
concept
 |
symbol referent
(sound form)
This view denies a direct link between words and things, arguing that the relationship can be made only through the use of our minds. Meaning is related to a sound form, concept and referent but not identical with them: meaning is a linguistic phenomenon while neither concept nor referent is.
The main criticism of this approach is the difficulty of identifying » concepts»: they are mental phenomena and purely subjective, existing in the minds of individuals. The strongest point of this approach is that it connects meaning and the process of nomination.
The functional approach to meaning is less concerned with what meaning is than with how it works. It is argued, to say that » words have meanings» means only that they are used in a certain way in a sentence. There is no meaning beyond that. Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951), in particular, stressed the importance of this approach in his dictum: » The meaning of the word is its use in the language». So meaning is studied by making detailed analyses of the way words are used in contexts, through their relations to other words in speech, and not through their relations to concepts or referents.
Actually, the functional approach is basically confined to the analysis of sameness or difference of meaning. For example, we can say that in » take the bottle » and » take to the bottle » take has different meaning as it is used differently, but it does not explain what the meaning of the verb is. So the functional approach should be used not as the theoretical basis for the study of meaning, but only as complementary to the referential approach.
3.2. Word meaning is made up of different components, commonly known as types of meaning. The two main types of meaning are grammatical meaning and lexical meaning.
Grammatical meaning belongs to sets of word-forms and is common to all words of the given part of speech,
e.g. girls, boys, classes, children, mice express the meaning of » plurality».
Lexical meaning belongs to an individual word in all its forms. It comprises several components. The two main ones are the denotational component and the connotational component.
The denotational (= denotative) component, also called » referential meaning» or » cognitive meaning», expresses the conceptual (notional) content of a word; broadly, it is some information, or knowledge, of the real-world object that the word denotes. Basically, this is the component that makes communication possible.
e.g. notorious » widely-known», celebrated » known widely».
The connotational (connotative) component expresses the attitude of the speaker to what he is saying, to the object denoted by the word. This component consists of emotive connotation and evaluative connotation.
1) Emotive connotation (= » affective meaning», or an emotive charge),
e.g. In » a single tree » single states that there is only one tree, but » a lonely tree » besides giving the same information, also renders (conveys) the feeling of sadness.
We shouldn’t confuse emotive connotations and emotive denotative meanings in which some emotion is named, e.g. horror, love, fear, etc.
2) Evaluative connotation labels the referent as » good» or » bad»,
e.g. notorious has a negative evaluative connotation, while celebrated a positive one. Cf.: a notorious criminal/liar/ coward, etc. and a celebrated singer/ scholar/ artist, etc.
It should be noted that emotive and evaluative connotations are not individual, they are common to all speakers of the language. But emotive implications are individual (or common to a group of speakers), subjective, depend on personal experience.
e.g. The word » hospital » may evoke all kinds of emotions in different people (an architect, a doctor, an invalid, etc.)
Stylistic connotation, or stylistic reference, another component of word meaning, stands somewhat apart from emotive and evaluative connotations. Indeed, it does not characterize a referent, but rather states how a word should be used by referring it to a certain functional style of the language peculiar to a specific sphere of communication. It shows in what social context, in what communicative situations the word can be used.
Stylistically, words can be roughly classified into literary, or formal (e.g. commence, discharge, parent), neutral (e.g. father, begin, dismiss) and non-literary, or informal (e.g. dad, sack, set off).
3.3. The term » motivation » is used to denote the relationship between the form of the word, i.e. its sound form, morphemic composition and structural pattern, and its meaning.
There are three main types of motivation: phonetic, morphological and semantic.
1) Phonetic motivation is a direct connection between the sound form of a word and its meaning. There are two types of phonetic motivation: sound imitation and sound symbolism.
a) Sound imitation, or onomatopoeia: phonetically motivated words are a direct imitation of the sounds they denote (or the sounds produced by actions or objects they denote),
e.g. buzz, swish, bang, thud, cuckoo.
b) Sound symbolism. It’s argued by some linguists that the sounds that make up a word may reflect or symbolise the properties of the object which the word refers to, i.e. they may suggest size, shape, speed, colour, etc.
e.g. back vowels suggest big size, heavy weight, dark colour, front vowels suggest lightness, smallness, etc.
Many words beginning with sl- are slippery in some way: slide, slip, slither, sludge, etc. or pejorative: slut, slattern, sly, sloppy, slovenly; words that end in -ump almost all refer to some kind of roundish mass: plump, chump, rump, hump, stump.
Certainly, not every word with these phonetic characteristics will have the meaning suggested. This is, perhaps, one of the reasons why sound symbolism is not universally recognized in linguistics.
2) Morphological motivation is a direct connection between the lexical meaning of the component morphemes, the pattern of their arrangement and the meaning of the word.
Morphologically motivated words are those whose meaning is determined by the meaning of their components,
e.g. re-write » write again», ex-wife » former wife».
The degree of morphological motivation may be different. Words may be fully motivated (then they are transparent), partially motivated and non-motivated (idiomatic, or opaque).
a) If the meaning of the word is determined by the meaning of the components and the structural pattern, it is fully motivated: e.g. hatless.
b) If the connection between the morphemic composition of a word and its meaning is arbitrary, the word is non-motivated, e.g. buttercup » yellow-flowered plant».
c) In hammer -er shows that it is an instrument, but what is » hamming «? » Ham » has no lexical meaning in this word, thus the word is partially motivated. Cf. also cranberry.
Motivation may be lost in the course of time,
e.g. in OE wī fman was motivated morphologically: wī f + man » wife of a man»; now it is opaque; its motivation is said to be faded (woman).
3) Semantic motivation is based on co-existence of direct and figurative meanings of the same word,
e.g. butterfly – 1) insect; 2) showy and frivolous person.(= metaphorical extension of the direct meaning).
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