The
semantic structure of the word. Types of lexical meaning.
The branch
of Linguistics which studies the meaning of different linguistic
units is called Semantics.
The
part of Lexicology which studies the meaning and the development of
meaning of words is called Semasiology.
There
are different approaches to the problem of word meaning: 1) The
referential,
or denotational
approach
is characterized by the thought that (тем
что)
the essence (суть)
of meaning lies in the interconnection and interdependence between:
the word as the soundform, the referent, and the concept. Here
meaning
is the realization of the concept/notion by means of a definite
language system. 2)The functional,
or contextual
approach
is characterized by the idea that the meaning of a linguistic unit
may be studied only through its relation to other linguistic units.
Thus, meaning
is understood as the function of linguistic signs, or their use in
context.
Word
meaning is represented by different types of meaning: grammatical,
lexical, lexico-grammatical.
Grammatical
meaning
is the component of word meaning, recurrent in identical sets of
individual forms of different words. It is expressed by:
-
word-form (such as books,
girls, boys – the meaning of plurarity; looked, asked – tense
meaning); -
the position of the word in
relation to other words (e.g. He sings well, She dances badly –
‘sings’ and ‘dances’ are found in identical positions
between a pronoun and an adverb, their identical distribution proves
that they have identical gr.m.)
Lexico-grammatical
meaning
of the word is the common denominator (знаменатель)
to all the meanings of the words belonging to a certain
lexico-grammatical class or group of words.
Lexical
meaning
is the component of word meaning recurrent in all the forms of the
word. The word forms go, goes, went, gone, going have different
gr.m., but they have one and the same l.m. ‘the process of
movement’.
The main
component of L.m.
are:
-
the
denotational
meaning
of words is the same for all the speakers. It is the realization of
the concept by means of the given language. -
The
pragmatic
aspect
of l.m. is the part of meaning, that conveys information on the
situation of communication: information on the ‘time and space’
relationship of the participants, information on the participants in
the given language community, information on the register of
communication. -
The
connotational
meaning
conveys the speaker’s attitude toward what he is speaking about.
There are 4 main types of connotations: a) The emotional
connotation
expresses human emotions and feelings (e.g. daddy, father); b) The
evaluative
connotation expresses approval or disapproval (e.g. agent and spy,
planning and scheming=planning secretly); c) The intensifying
connotation adds emphasis (усиление)
to the meaning. (e.g. enormous, huge, tremendous=very); d) The
stylistic
connotation determines the functional speech style characteristic of
the word usage (dad-father-parent; colloquial-neutral-bookish).
Polysemy is the
abbility of a word to have more than one m-g. The causes of the
development of polysemy in Eng. are:1) the great amount of
monosyllabic root words; 2) an abundance of words of long duration,
which in the course of time were used to express more new m-gs thus
becoming highly polysemantic. Monosemantic words, i.e. words which
have only one m-g form. They are mostly names of birds
(blackbird,swallow), animals (walrus, weasel), fishes (ruff, perch) &
special terms (systole, phoneme). The bulk of Eng. words are
polysemantic,i.e. they have several m-gs. The m-g in speech is
contextual. In a definite context any polysemantic word expresses
only one m-g. A word in one of its m-g in which it is used in speech
is called a lexico-semantic variant of a word. The semantic structure
of a polysemantic word presents a set of interrelated &
interdependent lexico-semantic variants. WE distinguish on the
synchronic level: — the basic (major) & the minor; — the central
& the marginal; -direct & transferred(figurative); -. Every
LSV is connected with the major m-g due to the existence of the
common semantic components/ semes. The seme is the smallest further
indivisible unit of m-g, the smallest unit of the plan of content.
The analysis of the m-g into these components, or semes, is called
the componential analysis.
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1. LEXICAL MEANING AND SEMANTIC STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH WORDS
2. LECTURE 3
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WORD AS THE BASIC UNIT OF
LANGUAGE;
PHONETIC, MORPHOLOGICAL AND SEMANTIC
MOTIVATION OF WORDS;
LEXICAL MEANING AND SEMANTIC STRUCTURE
OF ENGLISH WORDS;
DENOTATIVE AND CONNOTATIVE MEANING;
CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS;
COMPONENTIAL ANALYSIS;
TYPES OF SEMANTIC CHANGE.
3. LITERATURE
Арнольд И. В. Лексикология современного английского
языка. // М.: 2012;
Бабич Г. Н. Lexicology: A Current Guide. Лексикология
английского языка. // М.: 2010;
Лексикология английского языка – Г.Б. Антрушина, 1999.
Semantics, Cowie A.P., Oxford, 2009
http://grammar.about.com/od/words/a/connotations.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denotation
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Denotation_and_
connotation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Componential_analysis
4. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WORD AS THE BASIC UNIT OF LANGUAGE
The simplest word has:
— a sound form;
— morphological structure;
— different word forms;
— different syntactic functions;
— various meanings.
5. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WORD AS THE BASIC UNIT OF LANGUAGE
the – boy – s – walk – ed – slow – ly – up – the – hill
slow – ly – the – boy – s – walk – ed – up – the – hill
up – the – hill – slow – ly – walk – ed – the – boy – s
s – the – boy – ly – slow – ed – walk
6. SEMANTIC TRIANGLE
F. de Saussure,
C.K. Ogden and I.A. Richards
7. SEMANTIC TRIANGLE
8. PHONETIC, MORPHOLOGICAL AND SEMANTIC MOTIVATION OF WORDS
phonetical: bang, buzz, cuckoo, giggle, hiss,
purr, whistle,
morphological motivation: ex-filmstar, expresident, ex-wife,
numb :: number; smoker
semantic motivation: mouth, jacket
9. PHONETIC, MORPHOLOGICAL AND SEMANTIC MOTIVATION OF WORDS
flap, flip, flop, flitter, flicker, flash, flare, flush
glare, glitter, glow, glimmer
sleet, slush, slime
10. LEXICAL MEANING AND SEMANTIC STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH WORDS
Semasiology
— from the Greek
sēmasiā ‘signification’
(from sēma ‘sign’ sēmantikos
‘significant’ and logos ‘learning’).
11. LEXICAL MEANING AND SEMANTIC STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH WORDS
Father :: daddy
Polysemy (Greek: poly-, «many» and sêma,
«sign») is the capacity for a sign (such as a
word) to have multiple meanings (that is,
multiple semes and thus multiple senses),
usually related by contiguity of meaning
within a semantic field.
12. LEXICAL MEANING AND SEMANTIC STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH WORDS
Bank
a financial institution
the building where a financial institution offers services
a synonym for ‘rely upon’ (e.g. «I’m your friend, you can
bank on me»)
Wood
–
–
a piece of a tree
a geographical area with many trees
13. LEXICAL MEANING AND SEMANTIC STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH WORDS
Youth –
an abstract uncountable noun;
a countable personal noun ‘a young man’
(plural youths);
a collective noun ‘young men and women’.
14. LEXICAL MEANING AND SEMANTIC STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH WORDS
“Why did they hang this picture?”
“Perhaps, they could not find the artist.”
15. DENOTATIVE AND CONNOTATIVE MEANING
Denotation is a translation of a sign to its
meaning
16. DENOTATIVE AND CONNOTATIVE MEANING
Connotation – is the emotional and
imaginative association surrounding a word.
17. DENOTATIVE AND CONNOTATIVE MEANING
18. DENOTATIVE AND CONNOTATIVE MEANING
stylistic connotations horse :: steed :: nag :: gee-gee
emotional or affective connotation
evaluative connotation
intensifying connotation magnificent, gorgeous, splendid,
superb
19. CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS
Сontext is a combination of an indicator or
indicating minimum and the dependant, that
is the word, the meaning of which is to be
rendered in a given utterance
(N. N. Amosova ).
20. CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS
Сontext:
lexical,
syntactical,
mixed
21. COMPONENTIAL ANALYSIS
man :: woman, boy :: girl, bull :: cow
man, boy, girl, woman :: bull, cow
man :: boy :: bull
woman :: girl :: cow
22. TYPES OF SEMANTIC CHANGE
specialisation (narrowing);
generalisation (widening);
metaphor;
metonymy;
hyperbole;
litotes;
euphemisms
SEMASIOLOGY LEXICAL MEANING AND SEMANTIC STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH WORDS
SEMASIOLOGY branch of linguistics which studies the meaning of linguistic units, first of all, that of words and word equivalents. Lexical meaning reflects the concept expressed by the given word. The interrelation between the structural pattern of the word and its lexical meaning is called motivation.
TYPES OF MOTIVATION • Phonetical motivation is observed in words whose sound clusters imitate the sounds they signify, e. g. boom, cuckoo, hiss, titter, whisper, murmur, etc. • Morphological motivation is apparent in derived words and nonidiomatic compounds due to their word formation pattern, e. g. worker (work + er) = «one who works»; rewrite (re + write) = «write again or anew»; shoemaker (shoe + make + er) = «one who makes shoes»; bathroom (bath + room) = «room with a bath», etc. • Semantic motivation is the relationship between the direct and the trans ferredmeaning of the word, e. g. a mother tongue, a summit meeting, the mouth of a river, a green beginner, etc.
TYPES OF WORDS LEXICAL MEANING § Nominative meaning which is the direct meaning of the word, immediately referring to objects in extra linguistic reality. § Syntactically conditioned meaning which manifests itself in different colligations. Cf. ask smth. : : ask smb. about (after, for) smth. : : ask for smb. : : ask for smth. : : ask smb. to smth. ; consist in smth. : : consist of smth. : : consist with smth. § Phraseologically bound meaning which is idiomatic and manifests itself only in certain phraseological units, e. g. tall story, buy smth. for a song, catch a cold, a great gun, etc.
THE NOMINATIVE MEANING COMPONENTS • Denotation is the ex pressionof the direct meaning proper of the word without any emotive evalua tionor stylistic colouring, e. g. father, friend, girl, dog, begin, great, love. • Connotation is the supplementary expressive meaning presented either by emotive charge (e. g. girlie, doggy, tremendous, worship, sheepish or by sty listic reference (cf. girl (neutral denotation): : maiden (poet. ): : lass (folk. ): : chic (slang); father (neutr. ): : parent (book. ): : dad (col. ): : governor (slang); friend (neutr. ): : chum (col. ); begin (neutr. ): : commence (book. ); great/plea sure/ (neutr. ): : terrific /pleasure/ (col. ).
WORDS MAIN SEMANTIC STRUCTURES • Monosemy is the existence within one word of only one meaning. Mono semantic words are comparatively few in number. They are mainly scientific terms, e. g. biochemistry, cybernetics, molecule, radar, tungsten, etc. • Polysemy is the existence within one word of several connected meanings. One of them is the main (central) meaning, whereas the rest are associated (mar ginal meanings. ) Associated meanings of the word become evident in certain lexical and grammatical contexts. Polysemantic words constitute the bulk of the English vocabulary. E. g. face (n. ) 1. the front of the head /the main meaning/. 2. the expression of the countenance. 3. the main or front surface. 4. the surface that is marked, as of a clock. 5. appearance; outward aspect. 6. Dignity; self || respect/associated meanings//After Webster’s New World Dictionary/.
WORDS MAIN SEMANTIC STRUCTURES • Semantic diffusion is observed in words with a very wide conceptual volume. Such words denote, in fact, one concept, but can name an indefinitely large number of objects (referents). For instance, the word thing denotes «any object of our thought». Hence it can name various inanimate objects, living beings, facts, affairs, problems, possessions, pieces of writing, composition, etc.
TYPES OF MEANING The word retains its original meaning, but at the same time acquires several new ones. I. The direct meaning, subdivided into: § the primary (etymological) meaning, e. g. wall (n. ) < L. vallum «ram part», «fortification»; § the derived meaning: wall — «upright structure, forming part of a room or building». II. The secondary meaning, subdivided into: § the secondary denotative meaning: wall «inside surface of cavity or vessel», e. g. walls of the heart; reactor wall; § the figurative meaning, e. g. wall of partition /between persons/; wall of fire; wall of hostility.
CHANGE OF MEANING Semantic changes in denotation may lead to: § the extension (generalization) of meaning, e. g. barn OE bern «a place for storing barley» → «a covered building for storing grain, hay, etc. » § the narrowing (specialization) of meaning, e. g. voyage n. OF vayage «any trip or journey»→ «a journey by sea or water» Semantic changes in connotation may result in: § the pejorative development of meaning (degradation), e. g. knave n. OE cnafa «a boy», «a male servant» → «a tricky rascal, » «a rogue» § the ameliorative development of meaning (elevation), e. g. fame n. OF fame «common talk», «rumour» → «reputation, esp. for good»
TRANSFERENCE OF MEANING Linguistic metaphor is associating two referents which resemble each other. Metaphors may be based on various types of similarity, for example, similarity of shape, function, position, colour, temperature. E. g. the teeth of a saw, the key to a test, the foot of a mountain, cold reason, black in gratitude, to catch an idea, etc. Words denoting animals and their actions may be used metaphorically to denote human qualities. Such cases belong to zoosemy, e. g. a fox («a crafty person»), an ass («a stupid person»), to wolf «to eat greedily»), etc. Metaphoric epithets, denoting human qualities, are often applied to in animate objects: cruel heat, a sorrowful bush, a sullen sky, etc.
TRANSFERENCE OF MEANING Simile which is closely related to metaphor is a comparison of two refer ents. Main types of linguistic simi les § stable idiomatic similes, for instance, /as/ merry as a cricket, /as/ thin as a pole, like a bolt from the blue § comparative nominals. Collocations with comparative nominals, the latter func tioning as comparative epithets, are easily transformed into comparative con structions: the catlike creature → the creature is like a cat; the inky water → the water is like ink; his Quixotish behaviour → his behaviour is like that of Quixot; an apple-cheeked girl → the girl with cheeks like apples, etc.
TRANSFERENCE OF MEANING Linguistic metonymy is associating two referents which are in some way or other connected in reality. § synecdoche, the name of a part is applied to the whole (L. pars pro toto) or vice versa, (L. totum pro parte), e. g. a fleet of twenty sail; to earn one’s bread; I don’t want to provoke the police (a single policeman is meant), etc. § the symbol for the thing signified (from the cradle to the grave); § the instrument for the agent (the pen is stron ger than the sword ); § the container for the thing contained (the kettle is boil ing ); § the material for the thing made (a copper, a glass); § the name of a scientist (an author, an inventor, etc. ) § for physical units, inventions, etc. (ohm, volt, watt, diesel, a mauser, a sandwich); § the geographical name for the things produced there (astrakhan, china, champagne, madeira, jeans) § the proper name for a common one (Don Juan, a Quixot, a hooligan).