The meaning of a word can be clarified in

In one of the previous posts I presented some practical ways of revising and recycling vocabulary in class. But, of course, before we get to the fun stage of revision games and activities, we need first to get the meaning of the new vocabulary item(s) across. And this is what I wanted to talk about in this post.
The lexis that is taught in class can basically be divided into two categories:

• planned for (as part of our lesson aims)
• unplanned for or incidental (spontaneously arising from the in-class discussion)

Whichever the case might be, we need to be able to clarify the meaning of new lexis in a way that ideally is:

• concise
• clear
• unambiguous
• comprehensible to everybody

It is much easier to do so with lexis that we have planned to teach, because we can prepare the clarification in advance. However, being called on the spot to clarify a word that has just come up unexpectedly can be much more difficult. But it is also something that happens more than once every class, so it is good to have a few tricks up your sleeve which can help you clarify meaning of incidental lexis.
Below is a list of different techniques you can use:

1. Realia:

   This approach works well with concrete objects that can be found around you. It’s quick and efficient. Leaves little room for ambiguity, but its usefulness is rather limited.

2. Mime:

   This involves not only gestures but also making sounds and noises. Very useful for certain verbs (e.g. jump). Efficient and quite unambiguous although there are certain country, language or culture specific gestures. A good comic relief when your students are falling asleep.

3. Definition in English:

   Arguably the one teachers use most often. Useful for practically any lexis and level, but difficult to come up with a simple and clear one off the top of your head. Often can end up being lengthy and using language that is more difficult than the actual target item.

4. Drawings/Pictures:

   Great if you have artistic inclinations and talents, and comical if you don’t (like me). Can be very efficient and clear, and if you’re good at it, applicable to both concrete and abstract terms. Helps visual learners. If you don’t feel like drawing, you can easily and quickly find appropriate pictures on the Internet.

5. Synonyms/Antonyms:

   Very quick and useful for words which have clear opposites (e.g. happy vs sad) or synonyms (e.g.brilliant = fantastic). The obvious downside is that there are very few (if any) words which have 100% exact synonyms/antonyms. Although it might be helpful to say that hop is kind of like jump, you’ll have to think how to convey the additional shades of meaning (e.g. consider: look vs stare vs gaze vs glare vs glance)

6. Students teach each other:

   Often there might be student(s) who know the new word and can explain it to the others. This has the advantage of passing the responsibility for learning to students, putting them in the centre and taking the pressure off you. However, quite often you’ll end up clarifying the explanation given by the student yourself, which is more time-consuming and can potentially be confusing for the learners

7. Examples/context:

   If the students came across the new word in a reading or listening activity (i.e. in context) get them to deduce the meaning themselves, if need be guiding them accordingly (i.e. through questions which will step by step guide them to the meaning). Alternatively, you can give some examples with the new word and get the students to deduce the meaning from there. Although this is more natural, reflecting how we learn lexis in real life, and thus beneficial for the students, it can be more time-consuming.

8. Dictionaries:

   I always try to have at least one dictionary per 3 students in the classroom. And nowadays most students will have smart phones. Getting them to look up the word can be very beneficial as using dictionaries is an important skill. It also promotes learner autonomy and equips learners with useful skills they can use outside the class. And it gives you a chance to rest a bit too.

9. Students ask questions to discover the meaning:

   You give students an example sentence with the new vocabulary item, e.g. Last night I felt quite maudlin. Students ask you questions to find out what the word means (you can decide whether they are yes/no or open questions – obviously, what does it mean is not allowed!), such as: Where were you? Were you sad? This technique can be very engaging and motivating, because it sparks students’ curiosity. I’d say it makes the word quite memorable as well.

10. Translate:

    I left this one until the end on purpose. I know it’s one of the 7 deadly sins, and many teachers will argue against it. Of course there are clear disadvantages of it which we should bare in mind. But at the same time, if you happen to know the students’ L1, translation can have many advantages in some cases. Take the word “trout” for example. You could go into a detailed explanation and description or even show the students a picture of the fish. But wouldn’t it be easier, faster and more effective just to give the L1 equivalent?

To finish off, I’d like to pose a few discussion question which I hope you will comment on below. And please let me know if you know other effective techniques for clarifying meaning we could add to the list. Looking forward to your comments. Thanks!

• How often do you use the techniques from above (1 = almost never; 2 = sometimes; 3 = usually (my standard technique)? Why?
• Are there any approaches you’ve never used? Why?
• Are some more effective than others?
• Which of the ones you don’t often use could you try out in your next class?

You might also find this post interesting. I describe 7 practical ways for checking understanding of new language.

Read up on clarifying meaning:

• Lewis, M. 1997. Implementing The Lexical Approach. Language Teaching Publications
• Thornbury, S. 2002. How to Teach Vocabulary (p.81) Pearson Education Limited
• Nik Peachey “Conveying meaning”

Semasiology

• 30/Semasiology.
  Types of meaning. Meaning of a morpheme.

Semasiology is a
branch of semantics that studies meaning in the direction from the
linguistic form to its meaning / meanings. The
principal task of semasiology is to
explain the meanings designated by word
sound forms and to show the difference between these meanings.

Semasiology studies

• polysemy,

• homonymy and

• paronymy.

Meaning – the
reverberation in the human consciousness of an object, a quality of
extralinguistic reality (a phenomenon, a relationship, a quality, a
process), which becomes a fact of language because of its constant
indissoluble association with a definite linguistic
expression. Meaning conveyed
by a speaker is the speaker’s communicative intent in using an
expression, even if that use departs from the expression’s meaning.
Accordingly, any discussion of m. should distinguish speaker’s m.
from linguistic m. – See Sense.

There
exist a number of definitions of meaning:

• — a
  reciprocal relation between name and sense, which enables them to
  call up one another (St.Ullmann);

• — function
  in a context. Meaning, then, we use the whole complex of functions
  which a linguistic form may have (J.R.Firth);

• — a
  function of the descriptions at all levels (M.A.K.Halliday) and many
  others.

• 1.
  Nominative.

• 2.
  Nominative- derivative

• 3.
  Collegationally and collocationally conditioned.

• 4.
  Phraseologically bound.

1.
Nominative is the basic meaning of a word,
which refers to objects of extra linguistic reality in a direct way
and reflects their actual relations.

2.
Nominative-Derivative meaning comes into
being when the word is “stretched out” semantically to cover new
facts and extra linguistic phenomena.

When
the speaker uses the word metaphorically he extends it’s
content.
The
metaphorical use is based on certain similarities observed by the
speaker.
 Sweet not only taste, but pleasant,
attractive
 Sweet face, voice, little baby.
 Here we
speak

Different
meaning- the identity of the word remains intact, because the
difference in meaning is not great enough to split the word into 2
different units.

When
the speaker observes similarities between the objects, the semantic
content of a word is made elastic to be stretched out and cover new
bits of reality.

Metaphoric
meanings are registered in dictionaries.

Such
meanings are often poetically present in the semantic structure of
the word.

Some
words (adj-s) are characterized by broad meaningness, it allows them
to develop new meanings.
 cool, chilly, frozen, hot
 eyes
were frozen with terror
For parts of the body:
 Hand-
рука, стрелка часов  face-лицо,
циферблат часов (of a clock)
 Foot- нога,
подножие горы leg- нога, ножка
стула
 Tongue-язык, языки пламени eye-глаз,
ушко иголки (~of a needle)
If nominative meaning is a
direct meaning: Nominative-Derivative meaning is a transferred
meaning.

3. Collegiationally and collocationally conditioned meanings are not free, but bound.

a. Collegationally
conditioned meaning is determined by morphosyntactic combinability of
words. Some meanings are realized only without a given
morphosyntactic pattern (colligation)
to tell- рассказать,
сказать
In passive constructions means to order/to
direct
 You must do what you’re told.
 To carry-
нести
In passive construction= to accept
 The
amendment to the bill was carried.
b. Collocationally
conditioned meaning is determined by lexical- phraseological
combinality of words.
There are meaning which depend on the word
association with other words (collocation)
 A herd of cows, a
flock of sheep
Collocation is used here as a typical behaviour of
a word in speech.
Firth: U shall know a virt by the company he
keeps.
Mccarthy: Collocation is a marriage contract between words;
some words are more firmly married to each other than others.
Certain
meanings belong only to a given collocation, q word is habitually
associated with another word to form a natural sounding combinations.

4. Phraseologically bound meaning.

Collocations
should be distinguished from idioms and phraseological units.
Idioms
and phraseological units are devoid of referential meanings.
The
meanings of the individual words can’t be summed together to
produce the meaning of the idiomatic expression.
to kick the
bucket = to die
This idiom is opaque (непрозрачный)

To
pass the buck = to pass the responsibility
This idiom is
semiopaque.
To see the light = to understand
This idiom is
transparent.
The word combimation is literal in meaning, because
its degree of idiomatic is low it’s called phraseological unit.

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Lexical Meaning Versus Gramatical Meaning

CHAPTER
I

INTRODUCTION

The subject
concerning the study of meaning is called Semantics. The
word semantic (from French sémantique) was invented by Michel Bréal during the 19th century.Some people would like semantics to
pursue study of meaning in a wider sense of ‘all that is communicated by
language’; others (among them most modern writers within the framework of
general linguistics) limit it in practice to the study of logical or conceptual
meaning. It needs no great insight to see that semantics in the former, wider
sense can lead us once again into the void from which Bloomfield retreated with
understandable misgivings- the description of all that may be the object of
human knowledge or belief. On the other hand, we can, by carefully
distinguishing types of meaning, show how they all fit into the total composite
effect of a linguistic communication, and show how method of study appropriate
to one type may not be appropriate to another.

It has been observed that there is tremendous renewal of
interest in semantic theory among linguists in the last few years. The main
reason is the development of generative grammar with its emphasis on the
distinction between ‘deep structure’ and ‘surface structure’. On the one hand
semantics deals with the way words are and sentences are related to objects and
processes in the world. On the other hand, it deals with the way in which they
are related to one another in terms of such notions as ‘synonymy’, entailment’,
and ‘contradiction’. According to John I Saeed, Semantics is the study of
meaning communicated through language. He further says that a speaker’s
semantic knowledge is an exciting and challenging task.

The semantic analysis, generally, must explain how the
sentences of a particular language are understood, interpreted, and related to
states, processes and objects in the world.

More specifically, semantics is the study
of the meaning of linguistic units, words and sentences in particular.

     Meaning has always been a central topic in
human scholarship, though the term «semantics» has only a history of
a little over a hundred years. There were discussions of meaning in the works
of the Greek philosopher Plato as early as in the fifth century before Christ.
In China, Lao Zi had discussed similar questions even earlier. The fact that over the years numerous
dictionaries have been produced with a view to explaining the meaning of words
also bears witness to its long tradition. Nevertheless, semantics remains the
least known area in linguistics, compared with phonetics, phonology, morphology
and syntax. Here, the writer
focus on the specific of class of word in semnatics that is lexical meaning and
grammatical meaning..

       To know or understand about meaning and preliminary
points need to be clarified In connection with word meaning .

CHAPTER
II

DISCUSSION

Based on the Oxford
Advance Leaner’s Dictionary, lexical meaning is “the meaning of a word considered in
isolation from the sentence containing it, and regardless of its grammatical
context, e.g. of love in or as
represented by loves, loved, loving,
etc”.

According
to the free dictionary , lexical is “the
meaning of a word in relation to the  physical world or to abstract concepts, without reference
to any sentence in which the word may occur Compare grammatical meaning, content word.

Lexical words,
also known as content words, have concrete meaning that goes beyond their
function in a sentence. These words refer to things, people, actions,
descriptions, or other ideas that have more than just a grammatical usage.
Their meaning is easily identified by a clear concept
or item.

The
categories of English words that are lexical include
nouns, adjectives, most verbs, and many adverbs. Nouns, for example, refer to
specified ideas, people, places, or things. The concepts behind words like
«dog,» «love,» or «Brazil,» for example, are veryclear.

Adjectives
describe nouns in well-defined ways, providing information about colors,
texture, number, size, and so on. Likewise, adverbs can be lexical words if
they specifically describe nouns or verbs. Because they evoke specific ideas,
descriptors like «red,» «quickly,» «heavy,» or
«effectively» are considered lexical.

Most
verbs also fall into the lexical category because they refer to specific
actions. For example, the meanings of words like «think,»
«sing,» «understand,» and «jump» are easy to
grasp.

B.     Grammatical Meaning

According to
Lyons (1995: 52) a lexeme may have different word-forms and these word-forms
will generally differ in meaning: their grammatical meaning – the meaning in
terms of grammar. For example, the forms of student and students
differ in respect of their grammatical meaning, in that one is the singular
form (of a noun of a particular class) and the other is plural form (of a noun
of a particular class); and the difference between singular forms and plural
forms is semantically relevant: it affects sentence-meaning. The meaning of a
sentence is determined partly by the meaning of the words (i.e. lexemes) of
which it consists and partly by its grammatical meaning.

Lyons
introduces the term “categorial meaning” which is part of grammatical meaning:
it is that part of the meaning of lexemes which derives from their being
members of one category of major parts of speech rather than another (nouns
rather than verbs, verbs rather than adjectives, and so on). Thus, all lexemes
with full word-forms have a grammatical, more particularly, a categorical,
meaning.

For example,
the lexemes ‘easy’ and ‘difficult’ have the same categorial meaning: they are
both adjectives. Each lexemes, however, has certain semantically relevant
grammatical properties. The two word-forms easy and easier of the
lexeme ‘easy’, though sharing some part of their categorical meaning, differ
grammatically in that: one is the absolute form and the other the comparative
form. This difference does not occur to the lexeme ‘difficult’ for this lexeme
has only one form difficult, which does not accept any inflection.

Though
‘easy’ and ‘difficult’ belong to the same category of adjectives, having the
same categorial meaning, they do not share all the grammatical features each has
in terms of morphology and syntax. Likewise, all the lexemes sharing categorial
meaning do not have all the grammatical meanings in common.

Grammatical words,
also known as function words, have little definite meaning on their own and are
ambiguous without context. Some also function to impart the speaker’s attitude
or perspective onto other words. These kinds of words define the structure of a
sentence and relate lexical words to each other.

Grammatical words
include prepositions, modals and auxiliary verbs, pronouns, articles,
conjunctions, and some adverbs.

Grammatical meaning consists of word-class and inflectional paradigm.

When a dictionary lists the function of a
word, the definition does at least two things: it describes the word’s lexical
meaning and also gives what is traditionally known as the part of speech of the
word, which modern linguists call the word-class; e.g. modern will be marked as
a n adjective, modernize as a verb, and modernization as a noun.  The word-class is essential, for when we use
a word in a sentence, we have to take into consideration two factors: its
specific lexical meaning and the position it normally occupies in a sentence,
which is determined by the word class to which the word belongs.

Lexical meaning is dominant in content words,
whereas grammatical meaning is dominant in function words, but in neither is
grammatical meaning absent.  The two
kinds of meaning can be demonstrated by nonsense verse.  Nonsense sentences of verses are not strings
of random words put together.  The words
are combined according to regular rules of syntax with grammatical signals,
i.e. function words, except that the content words are arbitrarily invented
without lexical meaning and what is left is only grammatical meaning.  Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky”, which appears
in his book through the Looking Glass, 1871, is probably the most famous poem
in which most of the content words have no meaning – they do not exist in the
vocabulary of the English language.  Yet
all the sentences “sound” as if they should be English sentences.  The following is the first stanza of
“Jabberwocky” (Note: the author have italicized all the content words):

“Twas brillig,
and the slithy toves

Did gyre
and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy
were the borogoves,

And the mome
raths outgrabe.”

When used in actual speech, words (mainly
nouns and verbs) appear in different forms; e.g. cat –cats, mouse – mice, to
walk, walks, walked, to write,
writes, wrote, written, etc.  The set
of grammatical forms of a word is called its paradigm.  Nouns are declined, verbs are conjugated, and
gradable adjectives have degrees of comparison. 
The lexical meaning of a word is the same throughout the paradigm; that
is, all the word-forms of one and the same word have the same lexical meaning,
yet the grammatical meaning varies from one word-form to another, e.g. cat is grammatically singular in meaning
while cats is plural; writes denotes third person, singular,
present tense, whereas wrote denotes
past tense.

On the other hand the grammatical meaning is
the same in identical sets of individual forms of different words, for example,
the past-tense meaning in the word-forms of different verbs (played, sang, worked, etc.), or the
grammatical meaning of plurality in the word-forms of various nouns (desks, data, boxes, etc.).

CHAPTER III

CONCLUSION

lexical meaning is “the most outstanding individual of
the word that makes it different from any other word”. The lexical meaning of a
word may be thought of as the specific value it has in a particular language
system, and the ‘personality’ it acquires through usage within that system.

The categories of English words that are lexical include nouns, adjectives,
most verbs, and many adverbs.

Lexical
meaning is dominant in content words, whereas grammatical meaning is dominant
in function words, but in neither is grammatical meaning absent.

Grammatical words include prepositions,
modals and auxiliary verbs, pronouns, articles, conjunctions, and some adverbs.

Word Meaning Lecture # 6 Grigoryeva M.

Word Meaning Approaches to word meaning Meaning and Notion (понятие) Types of word meaning Types of morpheme meaning Motivation

Each word has two aspects: the outer aspect ( its sound form) cat the inner aspect (its meaning) long-legged, fury animal with sharp teeth and claws

Sound and meaning do not always constitute a constant unit even in the same language EX a temple a part of a human head a large church

Semantics (Semasiology) Is a branch of lexicology which studies the meaning of words and word equivalents

Approaches to Word Meaning The Referential (analytical) approach The Functional (contextual) approach Operational (information-oriented) approach

The Referential (analytical) approach formulates the essence of meaning by establishing the interdependence between words and things or concepts they denote distinguishes between three components closely connected with meaning: the sound-form of the linguistic sign, the concept the actual referent

Basic Triangle concept – flower concept (thought, reference) – the thought of the object that singles out its essential features referent – object denoted by the word, part of reality sound-form (symbol, sign) – linguistic sign sound-form [rәuz] referent

In what way does meaning correlate with each element of the triangle ? • In what relation does meaning stand to each of them? •

Meaning and Sound-form are not identical different EX. dove — [dΛv] English [golub’] Russian [taube] German sound-forms BUT the same meaning

Meaning and Sound-form nearly identical sound-forms have different meanings in different languages EX. [kot] Russian – a male cat [kot] English – a small bed for a child identical sound-forms have different meanings (‘homonyms) EX. knight [nait]

Meaning and Sound-form even considerable changes in sound-form do not affect the meaning EX Old English lufian [luvian] – love [l Λ v]

Meaning and Concept concept is a category of human cognition concept is abstract and reflects the most common and typical features of different objects and phenomena in the world meanings of words are different in different languages

Meaning and Concept identical concepts may have different semantic structures in different languages EX. concept “a building for human habitation” – English Russian HOUSE ДОМ + in Russian ДОМ “fixed residence of family or household” In English HOME

Meaning and Referent one and the same object (referent) may be denoted by more than one word of a different meaning cat pussy animal tiger

Meaning is not identical with any of the three points of the triangle – the sound form, the concept the referent BUT is closely connected with them.

Functional Approach studies the functions of a word in speech meaning of a word is studied through relations of it with other linguistic units EX. to move (we move, move a chair) movement (movement of smth, slow movement) The distriution ( the position of the word in relation to others) of the verb to move and a noun movement is different as they belong to different classes of words and their meanings are different

Operational approach is centered on defining meaning through its role in the process of communication EX John came at 6 Beside the direct meaning the sentence may imply that: He was late He failed to keep his promise He was punctual as usual He came but he didn’t want to The implication depends on the concrete situation

Lexical Meaning and Notion denotes the Lexical meaning is reflection in the realization of a mind of real objects notion by means of a definite language system Notion is a unit of Word is a language thinking unit

Lexical Meaning and Notions are Meanings are internationally limited especially with the nations of the same EX GO (E) —- ИДТИ(R) cultural level “To move” BUT !!! To GO by bus (E) ЕХАТЬ (R) EX Man -мужчина, человек Она – хороший человек (R) She is a good person (E)

Types of Meaning Types grammatical meaning of meaning lexico-grammatical meaning lexical meaning denotational connotational

Grammatical Meaning component of meaning recurrent in identical sets of individual forms of different words EX. girls, winters, toys, tables – grammatical meaning of plurality asked, thought, walked – meaning of past tense

Lexico-grammatical meaning (part –of- speech meaning) is revealed in the classification of lexical items into: major word classes (N, V, Adj, Adv) minor ones (artc, prep, conj) words of one lexico-grammatical class have the same paradigm

Lexical Meaning is the meaning proper to the given linguistic unit in all its forms and distributions EX. Go – goes — went lexical meaning – process of movement

PRACTICE Group the words into 3 column according to the grammatical, lexical or part-of –speech meaning • • Boy’s, nearest, at, beautiful, think, man, drift, wrote, tremendous, ship’s, the most beautiful, table, near, for, went, friend’s, handsome, thinking, boy, nearer, thought, boys, lamp, go, during.

• Grammatical 1. The case of nouns: boy’s, ship’s, friend’s 2. The degree of comparison of adj: nearest, the most beautiful 3. The tense of verbs: wrote, went, thought • Lexical 1. Think, thinking, thought 2. Went, go 3. Boy’s, boys 4. Nearest, nearer 5. At, for, during (“time”) 6. Beautiful, the most beautiful • Part-of-speech Nouns—verbs—adj—-prep

Aspects of Lexical meaning The denotational aspect The connotational aspect The pragmatic aspect

Denotational Meaning “denote” – to be a sign of, stand as a symbol for” establishes the correlation between the name and the object makes communication possible EX booklet “a small thin book that gives info about smth”

PRACTICE Explain denotational meaning • • A lion-hunter To have a heart like a lion To feel like a lion To roar like a lion To be thrown to the lions The lion’s share To put your head in lion’s mouth

PRACTICE • A lion-hunter A host that seeks out celebrities to impress guests • To have a heart like a lion To have great courage • To feel like a lion To be in the best of health • To roar like a lion To shout very loudly • To be thrown to the lions To be criticized strongly or treated badly • The lion’s share Much more than one’s share • To put your head in lion’s mouth

Connotational Meaning reflects the attitude of the speaker towards what he speaks about it is optional – a word either has it or not Connotation gives additional information and includes: The emotive charge EX Daddy (for father) Intensity EX to adore (for to love) Imagery EX to wade through a book “ to walk with an effort”

PRACTICE Give possible interpretation of the sentences • She failed to buy it and felt a strange pang. • Don’t be afraid of that woman! It’s just barking! • He got up from his chair moving slowly, like an old man. • The girl went to her father and pulled his sleeve. • He was longing to begin to be generous. • She was a woman with shiny red hands and workswollen finger knuckles.

PRACTICE Give possible interpretation of the sentences • She failed to buy it and felt a strange pang. (pain—dissatisfaction that makes her suffer) • Don’t be afraid of that woman! It’s just barking! (make loud sharp sound—-the behavior that implies that the person is frightened) • He got up from his chair moving slowly, like an old man. (to go at slow speed—was suffering or was ill) • The girl went to her father and pulled his sleeve. (to move smth towards oneself— to try to attract smb’s attention) • He was longing to begin to be generous. (to start doing— hadn’t been generous before) • She was a woman with shiny red hands and work-swollen finger knuckles. (colour— a labourer involved into physical work , constant contact with water)

The pragmatic aspect of lexical meaning the situation in which the word is uttered, the social circumstances (formal, informal, etc. ), social relationships between the interlocutors (polite, rough, etc. ), the type and purpose of communication (poetic, official, etc. ) EX horse (neutral) steed (poetic) nag (slang) gee-gee (baby language)

PRACTICE State what image underline the meaning • I heard what she said but it didn’t sink into my mind. • You should be ashamed of yourself, crawling to the director like that. • They seized on the idea. • Bill, chasing some skirt again? • I saw him dive into a small pub. • Why are you trying to pin the blame on me? • He only married her for her dough.

PRACTICE State what image underline the meaning • I heard what she said but it didn’t sink into my mind. • (to understand completely) • You should be ashamed of yourself, crawling to the director like that. (to behave humbly in order to win favour) • They seized on the idea. (to be eager to take and use) • Bill, chasing some skirt again? (a girl) • I saw him dive into a small pub. (to enter suddenly) • Why are you trying to pin the blame on me? (to blame smb unfairly) • He only married her for her dough. (money)

Types of Morpheme Meaning lexical differential functional distributional

Lexical Meaning in Morphemes root-morphemes that are homonymous to words possess lexical meaning EX. boy – boyhood – boyish affixes have lexical meaning of a more generalized character EX. –er “agent, doer of an action”

Lexical Meaning in Morphemes has denotational and connotational components EX. –ly, -like, -ish – denotational meaning of similiarity womanly , womanish connotational component – -ly (positive evaluation), -ish (deragotary) женственный женоподобный

Differential Meaning a semantic component that serves to distinguish one word from all others containing identical morphemes EX. cranberry, blackberry, gooseberry

Functional Meaning found only in derivational affixes a semantic component which serves to refer the word to the certain part of speech EX. just, adj. – justice, n.

Distributional Meaning the meaning of the order and the arrangement of morphemes making up the word found in words containing more than one morpheme different arrangement of the same morphemes would make the word meaningless EX. sing- + -er =singer, -er + sing- = ?

Motivation denotes the relationship between the phonetic or morphemic composition and structural pattern of the word on the one hand, and its meaning on the other can be phonetical morphological semantic

Phonetical Motivation when there is a certain similarity between the sounds that make up the word and those produced by animals, objects, etc. EX. sizzle, boom, splash, cuckoo

Morphological Motivation when there is a direct connection between the structure of a word and its meaning EX. finger-ring – ring-finger, A direct connection between the lexical meaning of the component morphemes EX think –rethink “thinking again”

Semantic Motivation based on co-existence of direct and figurative meanings of the same word EX a watchdog – ”a dog kept for watching property” a watchdog – “a watchful human guardian” (semantic motivation)

• PRACTICE

Analyze the meaning of the words. Define the type of motivation a) morphologically motivated b) semantically motivated • Driver • Leg • Horse • Wall • Hand-made • Careless • piggish

Analyze the meaning of the words. Define the type of motivation a) morphologically motivated b) semantically motivated • Driver Someone who drives a vehicle morphologically motivated • Leg The part of a piece of furniture such as a table semantically motivated • Horse A piece of equipment shaped like a box, used in gymnastics semantically motivated

• Wall Emotions or behavior preventing people from feeling close semantically motivated • Hand-made Made by hand, not machine morphologically motivated • Careless Not taking enough care morphologically motivated • Piggish Selfish semantically motivated

what she said but it didn’t sink in my mind “do down to the bottom” ‘to be accepted by mind” semantic motivation I heard Why are you trying to pin the blame on me? “fasten smth somewhere using a pin” – ”to blame smb” semantic motivation I was following the man when he dived into a pub. “jump into deep water” – ”to enter into suddenly” semantic motivation You should be ashamed of yourself, crawling to the director like that “to move along on hands and knees close to the ground” – “to behave very humbly in order to win favor” semantic motivation

We are continuing to introduce the best practical tips from the books of prominent ELT experts that can be suitable in your classes.

Previously we have shared Five — minute activities from Penny Ur for group lessons

Practical tips and favourite activities from the Book of Scott Thornbury “How to Teach Speaking”

Natural Grammar (Scott Thornbury)

Today we are going to present some practical tips from the book of Scott Thornbury “How to teach vocabulary” that may come in handy.

How to present vocabulary?

By saying “vocabulary presentation” we mean to prepare proper lesson stages in which students will be taught pre-selected vocabulary items. While choosing a set of words to teach, the following things should be taken into account:

— The level of the learners.

— The learners’ likely familiarity with the words.

— The number of new words (they shouldn’t overstretch the learners’ capacity to memorise them, so better to include 8 — 12 new words).

— The sequence of presentation (meaning first, then form, or form first, then meaning).

— The means of presentation (through translation, real things, pictures, actions/gestures, definitions, situations).

How to illustrate the meaning of a word?

An obvious way to present a set of specific objects is by demonstrating them. This can be carried out by using real objects, pictures or miming. This was actually a defining technique of the Direct Method. Visual aids take many forms: flashcards, wall charts and board drawings. Pictures of items belonging to the following sets are found very helpful in the ESL classroom: food and drink, clothing, house and furniture, jobs, sports, nationalities and appearance.

Here are some activities to illustrate the meaning of the words by using flashcards.

1. The teacher shows a card and elicits the word it represents. Periodically the teacher backtracks and changes the order of the cards ( 8 -12 cards). Then he/she sticks the cards on the board and asks students to come up and write them.
2. Stick a collection of picture cards on the board and number them. Get your learners to ask you about the words they don’t know. For example: What’s number 3? Before giving the answer, check if someone else knows it. Make sure all words are introduced and explained. Then turn the cards around and ask: “What’s number 3?”, etc. Finally, write the words on the board alongside each picture so that students get familiar with the spelling.
3. Ask your students to work in pairs. Give them a selection of cards. Ask them to use dictionaries to find out the word for each picture. Then get your students to mingle and ‘to teach’ the rest of the class the words they have learnt.

How to explain the meaning?

Despite the practical usefulness of the Direct Method and the technique of illustration, it can be applied in limited cases. The words like perspective, trustworthy, meaningful, etc can’t be explained through demonstration. Here there are different ways to use for clarifying the meaning of the words, such as:

— Providing an example situation.

— Giving several example sentences.

— Giving synonyms or antonyms.

— Giving a definition.

A situational presentation involves providing a scenario which clearly contextualises the target words. Here is a situation for teaching frightened/frightening.

Last night when Ann was coming back home, she had to walk the empty streets alone. Suddenly she heard some noises and saw a shadow of a man. She got afraid and screamed loudly. Ann ran as quickly as possible till she reached her place.

Ann was really very frightened because it was a very frightening situation.

Giving several example sentences includes the target word used in different sentences with the same meaning. For example, if you want to explain the meaning of “break into” you can provide the following sentences:

Someone has broken into our house through the bedroom window.

Last night the thief broke into my car and stole my wallet.

Explaining words through their synonyms and antonyms is perhaps the easiest way, that requires no preparation and no time. However, not for all words, you can find proper synonyms and antonyms. Here you can use definitions, which are easily found in monolingual dictionaries. To practise the words you can also use Taboo game, where the learners have to explain the meaning of the word without using Taboo words in the card. To simplify the game, you can just ask your students to give the definition of the word.

These were the tips and recommendations suggested by Scott Thornbury in his book “How to teach vocabulary”. We really hope that the article will be useful not only for new teachers but also for the experienced ones.

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  1 слайд

  Word Meaning
  Lecture # 6
  Grigoryeva M.

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  2 слайд

  Word Meaning

  Approaches to word meaning

  Meaning and Notion (понятие)

  Types of word meaning

  Types of morpheme meaning

  Motivation

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  3 слайд

  Each word has two aspects:

  the outer aspect
  ( its sound form)
  cat

  the inner aspect
  (its meaning)
  long-legged, fury animal with sharp teeth
  and claws

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  4 слайд

  Sound and meaning do not always constitute a constant unit even in the same language

  EX a temple

  a part of a human head
  a large church

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  5 слайд

  Semantics (Semasiology)
  Is a branch of lexicology which studies the
  meaning of words and word equivalents

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  6 слайд

  Approaches to Word Meaning
  The Referential (analytical) approach

  The Functional (contextual) approach

  Operational (information-oriented) approach

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  7 слайд

  The Referential (analytical) approach
  formulates the essence of meaning by establishing the interdependence between words and things or concepts they denote

  distinguishes between three components closely connected with meaning:
  the sound-form of the linguistic sign,
  the concept
  the actual referent

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  8 слайд

  Basic Triangle
  concept (thought, reference) – the thought of the object that singles out its essential features
  referent – object denoted by the word, part of reality
  sound-form (symbol, sign) – linguistic sign
  concept – flower

  sound-form referent
  [rәuz]

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  9 слайд

  In what way does meaning correlate with
  each element of the triangle ?

  In what relation does meaning stand to
  each of them?

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  10 слайд

  Meaning and Sound-form
  are not identical
  different
  EX. dove — [dΛv] English sound-forms
  [golub’] Russian BUT
  [taube] German
  the same meaning

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  11 слайд

  Meaning and Sound-form
  nearly identical sound-forms have different meanings in different languages
  EX. [kot] Russian – a male cat
  [kot] English – a small bed for a child

  identical sound-forms have different meanings (‘homonyms)
  EX. knight [nait]
  night [nait]

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  12 слайд

  Meaning and Sound-form
  even considerable changes in sound-form do not affect the meaning

  EX Old English lufian [luvian] – love [l Λ v]

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  13 слайд

  Meaning and Concept
  concept is a category of human cognition

  concept is abstract and reflects the most common and typical features of different objects and phenomena in the world

  meanings of words are different in different languages

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  14 слайд

  Meaning and Concept
  identical concepts may have different semantic structures in different languages

  EX. concept “a building for human habitation” –
  English Russian
  HOUSE ДОМ

  + in Russian ДОМ
  “fixed residence of family or household”
  In English HOME

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  15 слайд

  Meaning and Referent

  one and the same object (referent) may be denoted by more than one word of a different meaning
  cat
  pussy
  animal
  tiger

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  16 слайд

  Meaning
  is not identical with any of the three points of the triangle –
  the sound form,
  the concept
  the referent

  BUT
  is closely connected with them.

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  17 слайд

  Functional Approach
  studies the functions of a word in speech
  meaning of a word is studied through relations of it with other linguistic units
  EX. to move (we move, move a chair)
  movement (movement of smth, slow movement)

  The distriution ( the position of the word in relation to
  others) of the verb to move and a noun movement is
  different as they belong to different classes of words and
  their meanings are different

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  18 слайд

  Operational approach
  is centered on defining meaning through its role in
  the process of communication

  EX John came at 6
  Beside the direct meaning the sentence may imply that:
  He was late
  He failed to keep his promise
  He was punctual as usual
  He came but he didn’t want to

  The implication depends on the concrete situation

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  19 слайд

  Lexical Meaning and Notion
  Notion denotes the reflection in the mind of real objects

  Notion is a unit of thinking
  Lexical meaning is the realization of a notion by means of a definite language system
  Word is a language unit

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  20 слайд

  Lexical Meaning and Notion
  Notions are international especially with the nations of the same cultural level

  Meanings are nationally limited

  EX GO (E) —- ИДТИ(R)
  “To move”
  BUT !!!
  To GO by bus (E)
  ЕХАТЬ (R)

  EX Man -мужчина, человек
  Она – хороший человек (R)
  She is a good person (E)

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  21 слайд

  Types of Meaning
  Types of meaning

  grammatical
  meaning

  lexico-grammatical
  meaning
  lexical meaning
  denotational
  connotational

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  22 слайд

  Grammatical Meaning
  component of meaning recurrent in identical sets of individual forms of different words

  EX. girls, winters, toys, tables –
  grammatical meaning of plurality

  asked, thought, walked –
  meaning of past tense

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  23 слайд

  Lexico-grammatical meaning
  (part –of- speech meaning)
  is revealed in the classification of lexical items into:
  major word classes (N, V, Adj, Adv)
  minor ones (artc, prep, conj)

  words of one lexico-grammatical class have the same paradigm

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  24 слайд

  Lexical Meaning
  is the meaning proper to the given linguistic unit in all its forms and distributions

  EX . Go – goes — went
  lexical meaning – process of movement

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  25 слайд

  PRACTICE
  Group the words into 3 column according to the grammatical, lexical or part-of –speech meaning
  Boy’s, nearest, at, beautiful,
  think, man, drift, wrote,
  tremendous, ship’s, the most beautiful,
  table, near, for, went, friend’s,
  handsome, thinking, boy,
  nearer, thought, boys,
  lamp, go, during.

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  26 слайд

  Grammatical
  The case of nouns: boy’s, ship’s, friend’s
  The degree of comparison of adj: nearest, the most beautiful
  The tense of verbs: wrote, went, thought

  Lexical
  Think, thinking, thought
  Went, go
  Boy’s, boy, boys
  Nearest, near, nearer
  At, for, during (“time”)
  Beautiful, the most beautiful

  Part-of-speech
  Nouns—verbs—adj—-prep

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  27 слайд

  Aspects of Lexical meaning
  The denotational aspect

  The connotational aspect

  The pragmatic aspect

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  28 слайд

  Denotational Meaning
  “denote” – to be a sign of, stand as a symbol for”

  establishes the correlation between the name and the object
  makes communication possible

  EX booklet
  “a small thin book that gives info about smth”

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  29 слайд

  PRACTICE
  Explain denotational meaning

  A lion-hunter
  To have a heart like a lion
  To feel like a lion
  To roar like a lion
  To be thrown to the lions
  The lion’s share
  To put your head in lion’s mouth

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  30 слайд

  PRACTICE

  A lion-hunter
  A host that seeks out celebrities to impress guests
  To have a heart like a lion
  To have great courage
  To feel like a lion
  To be in the best of health
  To roar like a lion
  To shout very loudly
  To be thrown to the lions
  To be criticized strongly or treated badly
  The lion’s share
  Much more than one’s share
  To put your head in lion’s mouth

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  31 слайд

  Connotational Meaning
  reflects the attitude of the speaker towards what he speaks about
  it is optional – a word either has it or not

  Connotation gives additional information and includes:
  The emotive charge EX Daddy (for father)
  Intensity EX to adore (for to love)
  Imagery EX to wade through a book
  “ to walk with an effort”

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  32 слайд

  PRACTICE
  Give possible interpretation of the sentences

  She failed to buy it and felt a strange pang.
  Don’t be afraid of that woman! It’s just barking!
  He got up from his chair moving slowly, like an old man.
  The girl went to her father and pulled his sleeve.
  He was longing to begin to be generous.
  She was a woman with shiny red hands and work-swollen finger knuckles.

• 

  33 слайд

  PRACTICE
  Give possible interpretation of the sentences
  She failed to buy it and felt a strange pang.
  (pain—dissatisfaction that makes her suffer)
  Don’t be afraid of that woman! It’s just barking!
  (make loud sharp sound—-the behavior that implies that the person is frightened)
  He got up from his chair moving slowly, like an old man.
  (to go at slow speed—was suffering or was ill)
  The girl went to her father and pulled his sleeve.
  (to move smth towards oneself— to try to attract smb’s attention)
  He was longing to begin to be generous.
  (to start doing— hadn’t been generous before)
  She was a woman with shiny red hands and work-swollen finger knuckles.
  (colour— a labourer involved into physical work ,constant contact with water)

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  34 слайд

  The pragmatic aspect of lexical meaning

  the situation in which the word is uttered,
  the social circumstances (formal, informal, etc.),
  social relationships between the interlocutors (polite, rough, etc.),
  the type and purpose of communication (poetic, official, etc.)

  EX horse (neutral)
  steed (poetic)
  nag (slang)
  gee-gee (baby language)

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  35 слайд

  PRACTICE
  State what image underline the meaning

  I heard what she said but it didn’t sink into my mind.
  You should be ashamed of yourself, crawling to the director like that.
  They seized on the idea.
  Bill, chasing some skirt again?
  I saw him dive into a small pub.
  Why are you trying to pin the blame on me?
  He only married her for her dough.

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  36 слайд

  PRACTICE
  State what image underline the meaning
  I heard what she said but it didn’t sink into my mind.
  (to understand completely)
  You should be ashamed of yourself, crawling to the director like that.
  (to behave humbly in order to win favour)
  They seized on the idea.
  (to be eager to take and use)
  Bill, chasing some skirt again?
  (a girl)
  I saw him dive into a small pub.
  (to enter suddenly)
  Why are you trying to pin the blame on me?
  (to blame smb unfairly)
  He only married her for her dough.
  (money)

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  37 слайд

  Types of Morpheme Meaning
  lexical
  differential
  functional
  distributional

• 

  38 слайд

  Lexical Meaning in Morphemes
  root-morphemes that are homonymous to words possess lexical meaning
  EX. boy – boyhood – boyish

  affixes have lexical meaning of a more generalized character
  EX. –er “agent, doer of an action”

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  39 слайд

  Lexical Meaning in Morphemes
  has denotational and connotational components
  EX. –ly, -like, -ish –
  denotational meaning of similiarity
  womanly , womanish

  connotational component –
  -ly (positive evaluation), -ish (deragotary) женственный — женоподобный

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  40 слайд

  Differential Meaning
  a semantic component that serves to distinguish one word from all others containing identical morphemes

  EX. cranberry, blackberry, gooseberry

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  41 слайд

  Functional Meaning
  found only in derivational affixes
  a semantic component which serves to
  refer the word to the certain part of speech

  EX. just, adj. – justice, n.

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  42 слайд

  Distributional Meaning
  the meaning of the order and the arrangement of morphemes making up the word
  found in words containing more than one morpheme
  different arrangement of the same morphemes would make the word meaningless
  EX. sing- + -er =singer,
  -er + sing- = ?

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  43 слайд

  Motivation
  denotes the relationship between the phonetic or morphemic composition and structural pattern of the word on the one hand, and its meaning on the other

  can be phonetical
  morphological
  semantic

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  44 слайд

  Phonetical Motivation
  when there is a certain similarity between the sounds that make up the word and those produced by animals, objects, etc.

  EX. sizzle, boom, splash, cuckoo

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  45 слайд

  Morphological Motivation
  when there is a direct connection between the structure of a word and its meaning
  EX. finger-ring – ring-finger,

  A direct connection between the lexical meaning of the component morphemes
  EX think –rethink “thinking again”

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  46 слайд

  Semantic Motivation
  based on co-existence of direct and figurative meanings of the same word

  EX a watchdog –
  ”a dog kept for watching property”

  a watchdog –
  “a watchful human guardian” (semantic motivation)

• 

• 

  48 слайд

  Analyze the meaning of the words.
  Define the type of motivation
  a) morphologically motivated
  b) semantically motivated

  Driver
  Leg
  Horse
  Wall
  Hand-made
  Careless
  piggish

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  49 слайд

  Analyze the meaning of the words.
  Define the type of motivation
  a) morphologically motivated
  b) semantically motivated
  Driver
  Someone who drives a vehicle
  morphologically motivated
  Leg
  The part of a piece of furniture such as a table
  semantically motivated
  Horse
  A piece of equipment shaped like a box, used in gymnastics
  semantically motivated

• 

  50 слайд

  Wall
  Emotions or behavior preventing people from feeling close
  semantically motivated
  Hand-made
  Made by hand, not machine
  morphologically motivated
  Careless
  Not taking enough care
  morphologically motivated
  Piggish
  Selfish
  semantically motivated

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  51 слайд

  I heard what she said but it didn’t sink in my mind
  “do down to the bottom”
  ‘to be accepted by mind” semantic motivation

  Why are you trying to pin the blame on me?
  “fasten smth somewhere using a pin” –
  ”to blame smb” semantic motivation

  I was following the man when he dived into a pub.
  “jump into deep water” –
  ”to enter into suddenly” semantic motivation

  You should be ashamed of yourself, crawling to the director like that
  “to move along on hands and knees close to the ground” –
  “to behave very humbly in order to win favor” semantic motivation

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