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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17. Types of meaning. Semantic structure
of the word.
Types of meaning
Типы значений
There are two main types of meaning:
1) the grammatical meaning,
2. the lexical meaning.
Есть два основных типа значения:
1) грамматический смысл,
2. лексический смысл.
1. The grammatical meaning is the formal meaning of a word. It is
defined as the meaning belonging to the lexico-grammatical classes and
grammatical categories. It is expressed by the word’s form. Every word
belongs to a definite part of speech and every part of speech has a certain
grammatical categories. E.g. verbs have tense, voice, mood, person etc. Nouns
have the categories of case, number etc. E.g. the words “asked”, “thought”,
“talked”, “took, ran” have the grammatical meaning of tense. The grammatical
meaning unites words into big groups such as parts of speech.
1.Грамматический смысл — это формальный смысл слова.
Он определяется как значение, относящееся к лексико-грамматическим классам и
грамматическим категориям. Это выражается формой слова. Каждое слово
принадлежит определенной части речи, и каждая часть речи имеет определенные
грамматические категории. Ex. Глаголы имеют напряженный,
голос, настроение, лицо и т. Д. Существительные имеют категории случаев,
число и т. Д. Пример. Слова «спросили», «подумали», «поговорили», «взяли,
побежали», имеют грамматический смысл времени. Грамматический смысл
объединяет слова в большие группы, такие как части речи
2. The lexical meaning is the material meaning of a word. This is
a meaning which gives the concept of a word. By the lexical meaning the word
expresses the basic properties of the thing the word denotes.
2.Лексический смысл — это
материальный смысл слова. Это значение, которое дает понятие слова. По
лексическому значению слово выражает основные свойства вещи, которую
обозначает слово.
The lexical meaning of a word falls into two:
1) the denotational meaning,
2) the connotational meaning.
Denotational meaning makes communication
possible because words denote things, concepts, they name them.
E.g. the denotational meaning of the word
“table” is a piece of furniture consisting of a flat top with four supports
(called legs).
The denotational meaning is associated with
emotions (e.g. He besought a favour of the judge: Here the word “beseech”
means “to ask eagerly and also anxiously”). Evaluative connotation denotes
approval or disapproval relations to the thing or phenomena,
E.g. colt, a young male horse used for a young
inexperienced person; pup- a young dog used for a person. These words have
negative evaluation.
But in English we have words which have positive
evaluation (ex. bunny — кролик, bunting-лапочка).
Intensifying connotation is the reinforcement of
the sign: it indicates the special importance of the thing expressed. E.g.
awfully glad, terribly important.
Лексический смысл слова делится на два:
1) денотационный смысл,
2) коннотационный смысл.
Денотационный смысл делает общение
возможным, потому что слова обозначают вещи, понятия, они называют их.
Ex. Денотационный смысл слова «стол» —
это предмет мебели, состоящий из плоской вершины с четырьмя опорами
(называемых ногами).
Денотационный смысл связан с эмоциями
(например, он просил о помощи судьи: здесь слово «умолять» означает «спросить
с нетерпением, а также с тревогой»). Оценочная коннотация означает одобрение
или неодобрение отношений с вещью или явлениями, например.
Colt — молодой мужской конь,
используемый для молодого неопытного человека; Pup — молодая собака,
используемая для человека. Эти слова имеют отрицательную оценку.
Но на английском языке мы имеем слова,
которые имеют положительную оценку (например, кролик — кролик,
bunting-лапочка.
Усиление связи — это усиление знака: оно
указывает на особую важность выраженной вещи. Ex. Ужасно рад, ужасно важно
The connotational meaning is
a meaning which has a stylistic shade. It serves to express all sorts of
emotions, expressiveness. Connotation may be shortly defined as emotional and
evaluative component of the lexical meaning, Comparing the meanings of
English words “well-known”, “famous”, “notorious” we see that all these words
express the denotational meaning “widely known”. But the word “famous” has a
positive evaluative meaning and “notorious has a negative evaluation. So, the
words “well-known”, “famous”, “notorious” differ in their emotional colouring
and evaluation.
The connotational meaning may be expressed also
either in the emotive charge or in stylistic reference.
E.g. “aunt” and “auntie”. These words have the
same denotational meaning but the word “aunt” has no emotive charge but
“auntie” has it.
Коннотационный смысл — это значение,
имеющее стилистический оттенок. Он служит для выражения всех видов эмоций,
выразительности. Коннотация может быть коротко определена как эмоциональная и
оценочная составляющая лексического значения. Сравнивая значения английских
слов «хорошо известные», «знаменитые», «печально известные», мы видим, что
все эти слова выражают денотационное значение «широко известно». Но слово
«знаменитый» имеет положительный оценочный смысл, а «печально известная»
отрицательная оценка. Итак, слова «хорошо известны», «знаменитые», «печально
известные» отличаются своей эмоциональной окраской и оценкой.
Коннотационный смысл может быть выражен либо в
эмоциональном заряде, либо в стилистической ссылке.
Ex. «Тетя» и «тетушка». Эти слова имеют
одинаковый денотационный смысл, но слово «тетя» не имеет эмоционального
заряда, но «тетушка» имеет его.
Stylistically words can be subdivided into literary,
neutral and colloquial
layers.
Neutral words are words of
general use. E.g. the words “to begin” (начинать) and “to commence”(начинать) “dad”
and “ father” have the same denotational meanings but “to begin” and “father”
are stylistically neutral words, whereas “dad” is a colloquial word and “ to
commence” stylistically is a literary word.
Стилистически
слова можно подразделить на
литературные,
нейтральные и
разговорные слои.
Нейтральные слова —
это слова общего пользования. Ex. Слова «начать» (начинать) и «начать»
(начинать) «папа» и «отец» имеют одинаковые денотационные значения, но
«начать» и «отец» являются стилистически нейтральными словами, тогда как
«папа» — это разговорный Слово и «начать» стилистически — это литературное
слово.
Besides the lexical and grammatical meanings we
can observe
differential,
functional and
distributional meanings of a word.
Differential meaning is the semantic component
that serves to distinguish one word from other in words containing the same (identical)
morphemes.
E.g. “note-book”. The morpheme “note” serves to
distinguish the word from other words: exercise-book, copy-book or:
bookshelf, bookcase.
The functional meaning may be seen in derivational
morphemes. If we see words with the suffixes -ment, -er, -ity, -or, we say
that they are nouns.
E.g. establishment, plurality, teacher,
translator, sailor.
If -ful, -less, -able, -al etc. are present in
words we say adjectives.
E.g. helpful, handless, guiltless, readable,
national, writable, operational, openable, proposal.
The distributional meaning is found in all words
having more than one morpheme. It is found in the arrangement and order of
morphemes making up the word.
E.g. “teacher” but not *erteach.
“boyishness”
but not *nessboyish.
Помимо лексических и грамматических
значений, мы можем наблюдать
дифференциальные,
функциональные и
распределительные значения слова.
Дифференциальное значение — это
семантическая составляющая, которая служит для того, чтобы отличить одно
слово от другого в словах, содержащих одни и те же (зубные) морфемы.
Ex. «блокнот». Морфема
«примечание» служит для того, чтобы отличить слово от
Другими словами: тетрадь, тетрадь или
книжная полка, книжный шкаф.
Функциональное значение можно увидеть в
деривационных морфемах. Если мы видим слова с суффиксом, -er, -ity, -или, мы
говорим, что они существительные.
Например. Создание, множественность,
учитель, переводчик, матрос.
If -ful, -less, -able, -al и т. Д.
Присутствуют в словах, мы говорим прилагательные.
Ex. Полезный, бесшумный, невинный,
читаемый, национальный, доступный для записи, операционный, открываемый,
предложение.
Значение распределения содержится во
всех словах, имеющих более одной морфемы. Он находится в расположении и
порядке морфем, составляющих слово.
Ex. «Учитель», но не * erteach.
«Боязливость», но не
* nessboyish.
Different types of the lexical meaning of one and the same word
are considered its lexico-semantic variants. Lexico-semantic variants in
their correlations and interconnection form the semantic structure of the
word. In the semantic structure of the word there is special information on
the members and the conditions of communication. The intercourse and personal
contacts in real situations may reveal the pragmatic aspect of the lexical
meaning of the word.
E.g. “Hello” is used in unofficial situations giving a signal at
the same time to the friendly relations of the members of the communication.
Различные лексические значения одного и того же слова считаются
его лексико-семантическими вариантами. Лексико-семантические варианты в их
корреляциях и взаимосвязи образуют семантическую структуру слова. В
семантической структуре слова есть специальная информация о членах и условиях
общения. Взаимоотношения и личные контакты в реальных ситуациях могут выявить
прагматический аспект лексического значения слова.
Ex. «Hallo» используется в неофициальных ситуациях, давая сигнал
в то же время к дружеским отношениям членов сообщения.
Semantic
structure of the word.
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 characterised by
the thought that (тем что) the essence (суть) of meaning lies in the
interconnection and interdependence between: the word as the sound form, the
referent, and the concept. Here meaning is the realisation of the
concept/notion by means of a definite language system.
2) The functional, or contextual approach is characterised 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 plurality;
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 realisation of the concept
by means of the given language.
Семантическая структура слова. Типы лексического значения.
Филиал Лингвистики, изучающий значение различных языковых
единиц, называется семантикой. Часть Лексикологии, которая изучает смысл и
развитие смысла слов, называется Семасиология.
Существуют различные подходы к проблеме смыслового значения:
1) ссылочный или денотационный подход характеризуется мыслью,
что (тем что) суть (суть) смысла заключается в взаимосвязи и
взаимозависимости между: словом как звуковой формой, Референт и концепция.
Здесь смысл заключается в реализации понятия / понятия с помощью определенной
языковой системы.
2) Функциональный или контекстуальный подход характеризуется
тем, что значение лингвистической единицы может изучаться только через ее
связь с другими лингвистическими единицами. Таким образом, смысл понимается
как функция лингвистических знаков или их использование в контексте.
Значение слова представлено различными типами значений:
грамматическим, лексическим, лексико-грамматическим.
Грамматический смысл — это компонент значения слова,
повторяющийся в идентичных наборах отдельных форм разных слов. Это
выражается:
Слово-форма (например, книги, девочки, мальчики — значение
плюрализма, взгляд, заданное значение);
Положение слова по отношению к другим словам (например, он поет хорошо,
она плохо танцует — «поющие» и «танцы» находятся в одинаковых положениях
между местоимением и наречием, их идентичное распределение доказывает, что
они имеют одинаковые грамм .)
Лексико-грамматический смысл слова является общим знаменателем
(знаменатель) ко всем значениям слов, относящихся к определенному
лексико-грамматическому классу или группе слов.
Лексическое значение — это компонент слова, повторяющийся во
всех формах слова. Слово «формы» уходит, уходит, уходит, уходит, уходит
разное gr.m., но у них одно и то же l.m. «Процесс движения».
Основной компонент L.m. находятся: Денотационный смысл слов для всех динамиков
одинаковый. Это реализация концепции с помощью данного языка
The pragmatic aspect is the part of the 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 large); d) The stylistic
connotation determines the functional speech style characteristic of the word
usage (dad-father-parent; colloquial-neutral-bookish).
Прагматический аспект Является частью смысла, которая передает
информацию о ситуации коммуникации: информацию о взаимоотношениях участников
«времени и пространства», информацию об участниках данного языкового
сообщества, информацию о реестре сообщений.
Коннотационный смысл передает отношение говорящего к тому, о чем
он говорит. Существует четыре основных типа коннотаций: а) эмоциональная
коннотация выражает человеческие эмоции и чувства (например, папа, отец); Б)
оценочная коннотация выражает утверждение или неодобрение (например, агент и
шпион, планирование и интриги = планирование тайно); В) Усиление коннотации
добавляет акцент (усиление) на смысл. (Например, огромные, огромные, огромные
= очень); D) Стилистическая коннотация определяет функциональный стиль речи,
характерный для использования слова (отец-отец-родитель,
разговорный-нейтральный-книжный).
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The semantic structure of word and its analysis Lecture
§ 1. Componential Analysis the meaning of every lexeme can be analyzed in terms of a set of more general semantic components or semantic features ( semes ), some or all of which will be common to several different lexemes in the vocabulary Make logical pairs of words so that each pair has smth in common with the rest: man, woman, boy, girl, bull, cow man : : woman = boy : : girl = bull : : cow (sex — male : : female) man : : boy = woman : : girl (age — adult : : non-adult) man : : bull = woman : : cow (human : : animal) The sense of man on the basis of these oppositions might be held to combine the concepts male, adult, and human
Thus, meaning may be regarded as semantic oppositions because the word’s meaning is reduced to its contrastive elements. The segmentation is continued as far as we can have markers needed for a group of words , and stops when a unique feature is reached (like classification of species in biology). A spinster — noun, count noun, human, adult, female, who has never married
§ 2. Polysemy and Semantic structure of the word The word is a structured set of interrelated lexical variants realized in different contexts and thought of as a group because manifested with one form and have a common semantic component. Polysemy is the ability of a word to possess several meanings (or lexico-semantic variants — LSV ). All lexico-semantic variants of a word taken together form its semantic structure or semantic paradigm. Some LSV are lexico-grammatical variants of a word, i. e. they belong to different lexico-grammatical groups of the same part of speech. Ex. run is intransitive in / ran home, but transitive in / run this office. Some of the variants demand an object naming some vehicle as in to run a car off the road ( go or take off course ), and so on.
The semantic structure of the word ““ youth” Includes three lexico-grammatical variants: 1) an abstract uncountable noun, as in the friends of one’s youth It includes two LSV recognized due to the lexical peculiarities of distribution : a) the state of being young b) the time of being young In “ to feel that one’s youth has gone” they are blended together because both the time and the state can be meant 2) a countable personal noun ‘a young man’ (plural youths) 3) a collective noun ‘young men and women’ having only singular form
Types of LSV as elements of a word’s semantic structure 1. Direct (nominates the referent in isolation, i. e. in one word sentences ex. fire-screen ) vs. figurative (the object named is characterized through its similarity with another object ex. smoke screen ) 2. Concrete vs. abstract ( screen actor, screen version ) 3. main/primary (the highest frequency) vs. secondary 4. Central vs. peripheral ( derived; ex. screen as ‘a silver-colored sheet on which pictures are shown ‘) 5. Narrow vs. extended (due to the scope of corresponding concept) 6. General vs. special/particular (terminological) 7. present-day vs. obsolete 8. stylistically neutral vs. stylistically coloured
Contexual meaning 9. language meaning vs. speech meaning (contextual/implicational) Contextual/implicational is the communicative value of a word based on latent possibilities which are not realized in a particular LSV but able to create new derived meanings; the information implied by virtue of what the speakers know about the referent Ex. A wolf is known to be greedy and cruel but the denotative meaning of this word does not necessarily include these features ( He is a wolf = a cruel greedy person ) Ex. Some men have acted courage who had it not; but no man can act wit (=pretend + irony because of unusual LG meaning of transitivity and the lexical meaning of objects to this verb) Ex. bomb implies great power the new colloquial meanings ‘great success ‘ and ‘great failure ‘
§ 3. Semantic change: ways of semantic structure development The semantic structure of a word is a flexible category, it changes with the development of the language. radiation and chain-development # 1 # 2 # 3 # 4 # 1 # 2 # 4 # 3 # 5 the split of polysemy; homonyms
3. 1. Classification of semantic changes A) based on associations of similarity or of contiguity : linguistic metaphor & metonymy Metaphor is a transfer of the name of one object onto another on the basis of comparison. It can be based on different types of similarity: similarity of shape: head of a cabbage, the teeth of a saw similarity of function: head of the school, the key to a mystery similarity of position: foot of a page/of a mountain, the leg of a chair or table similarity of behaviour: bookworm
Metonymy is a transfer of the meaning on the basis of contiguity ( closeness or contact ). Wall Street is in a panic The White House isn’t saying anything the crown for ‘monarchy‘ hand for ‘handwriting‘ diesel engine — a type of compression ignition engine invented by a German mechanical engineer Rudolf Diesel I want to have a word with you (part for the whole)
B) identified on the basis of comparing logical notions: specialization & generalisation Specialization — the content of the notion is being enriched, as it includes a greater number of relevant features by which the notion is characterized but the word can name fewer objects (fewer referents). Ex. Originally meat meant any kind of food. In the course of time the word meat was specialized in its meaning and nowadays it means « the flesh of an animal » . Fowl originally meant any kind of a bird; now it means home birds. OE deor ‘ — wild beast’ Mod. E ‘deer‘ — wild ruminant of a particular species’ Sometimes a word passes from a general sphere to some special area of communication. case is specialized in its meaning when used in law or in medicine.
Generalization (reverse to specialization) is the way of transforming the meaning when a word acquires a broader meaning. Due to the change of use: to serve was a clerical term, now it is used in everyday speech To arrive was a nautical term, which meant to reach the land by water. Now it means to reach the place of destination in any way: by land, by water, by air. The transfer from a concrete meaning to an abstract one: Journey was borrowed from French with the meaning one day trip , now it means a trip of any duration. Fly originally meant ‘to move through the air with wings ‘; now it denotes any kind of movement in the air or outer space
C) Changes depending on the social attitude to the object named and change of emotional tone: amelioration & pejoration Words change semantic structure because their referents come up or down the social scale Pejoration (degradation) is the way of transforming the meaning when the meaning becomes worse: villain originally meant working on a villa. Then it acquired the meaning of scoundrel. Churl means ‘an ill-mannered and surly fellow, a boor ‘ ceorl of the 13 th century denoted the lowest rank of a freeman, later — a serf clown — the original meaning was also ‘peasant’ or ‘farmer’.
Amelioration ( elevation) is the way of transforming the meaning when it becomes better in the cause of time: knight meant a boy , then became a servant , at last it acquired a meaning о f a noble man. OE cwen ‘a woman’ Mod. E queen noble as ‘ possessing high ideals or excellent moral character ’ from ‘belonging to the nobility’
3. 2. Causes of semantic changes A) linguistic 1) Differentiation of synonyms is a gradual change observed in the course of language history, sometimes involving the semantic assimilation of loan words Ex. time and tide used to be synonyms. Then tide took on its more limited application to the shifting waters , and time alone is used in the general sense. The word beast was borrowed from French into Middle English. Before it appeared the general word for animal was deer which after the word beast was introduced became narrowed to its present meaning ‘a hoofed animal of which the males have antlers’
2) changes taking place in connection with ellipsis and with fixed contexts The qualifying words of a frequent phrase get omitted, what’s left acquiring the meaning of the whole: sale comes to be used for cut-price sale propose for propose marriage be expecting for be expecting a baby summit for summit meeting 3) changes resulting from ambiguity in certain contexts One can be doubtful about a doubtful question, in a healthy climate children are healthy
B) The extralinguistic causes are determined by the social nature of the language 1) the development of the notion expressed and the thing named The word space meant ‘extent of time or distance’. Alongside this meaning a new meaning developed ‘the limitless and indefinitely great expanse in which all material objects are located’ 2) the appearance of new notions and things The word bikini as ‘a very scanty two-piece bathing suit worn by women ’, is named after Bikini atoll in the Western Pacific because it appeared at the time when the atomic bomb tests by the US in the Bikini atoll were fresh in everybody’s memory. The associative field is emotional referring to the «atomic» shock the first bikinis produced.
Practical task # 4 1. Guess whether words below are homonyms (different words accidentally having one form) or LSV of one word a) 26 letters of the ABC vs. to receive letters regularly b) To be a foot long vs. at the foot of the mountain c) A hand of the clock vs. to hold a pen in one’s hand
2. Match types of LSV on the right to the meanings of the word on the left as compared to the 1 st one (more than one characteristic is possible) Clock 1. a freestanding device that measures and records time 2. a ny measuring instrument with a dial or a digital display, especially the odometer ( records the distance traveled ) 3. an electronic circuit that generates pulses at a constant rate in order to synchronize the internal operations in a computer 4. the fluffy white seed head of a dandelion (одуванчик) a) Special b) Figurative c) Peripheral d) Extended e) Secondary
3. Define the type of semantic change in the semantic structure of the word a) “ case” from ‘circumstances in which a person or a thing is’ to ‘a patient’, ‘an illness’ (in medicine) b) “ cat” from ‘ a small domesticated mammal that has soft fur, sharp claws, pointed ears, and, usually, a long furry tail ’ to ‘ a spiteful or malicious woman ’ c) “ iron” from ‘ a heavy, magnetic, silvery white metallic element ( Symbol Fe ) to ‘ a small electrical appliance with a flat metal base that is heated and used to press clothes ’
Chair 1. 1. a seat with a back support, usually for one person 2. 2. somebody presiding over something such as a committee, board, or meeting 3. 3. somebody who holds an endowed professorship at a university 4. 4. the ranked position of a musician in an orchestra 5. 5. a device to keep reinforcing rods in place during the pouring of concrete
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THE SEMANTIC STRUCTURE OF WORDS LECTURE 4
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1. Semasiology as a branch of Linguistics. 2. The word and its meaning. 3. Types of meaning. 4. Polysemy of English words. 5. The main semantic processes.
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1. Semasiology as a Branch of Linguistics
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Semasiology is the branch of the study of language concerned with the meaning of words and word equivalents. As semasiology deals not with every kind of meaning but with the lexical meaning only, it may be regarded as a branch of Lexicology.
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2. The Word and its Meaning
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There are two schools of thought in present- day linguistics representing the main lines of contemporary thinking on the problem: the referential approach which seeks to formulate the essence of meaning by establishing the interdependence between words and things or concepts they denote the functional approach, which studies the functions of a word in speech and is less concerned with what meaning is than with how it works
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All major works on semantic theory have so far been based on referential concepts of meaning.
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The essential feature of this approach is that it distinguishes between the three components closely connected with meaning: the sound form of the linguistic sign, the concept underlying this sound form and the referent. The best known referential model of meaning is the so-called basic triangle.
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CONCEPT SOUND FORM REFERENT
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The sound form of the linguistic sign, e.g. [teibl], is connected with our concept of the piece of furniture which it denotes and through it with the referent, i.e. the actual table. The common feature of any referential approach is the implication that meaning is in some form or other connected with the referent.
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Meaning and Sound Form
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The sound form of the word is not identical with its meaning. The connections are conventional and arbitrary. This can be easily proved by comparing the sound forms of different languages conveying the same meaning: стіл- стол- table – tisch.
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For more convincing evidence of the conventional and arbitrary nature of the connection between sound form and meaning all we have to do is to point to homonyms. The word case means something that has happened and case also means a box, a container.
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Meaning and Concept
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Concept is the category of human cognition. Concept is the thought of the object that singles out its essential features. Our concepts reflect the most common and typical features of different objects. Being the result of abstraction and generalisation all concepts are thus almost the same for the whole of humanity in one and the same period of its historical development.
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e.g.: The concept of the physical organism is expressed in English by the word body but the semantic range of the English word is not identical. The word body is known to have developed a number of secondary meanings and may denote: a number of persons and things, a collective whole (the body of electors) as distinguished from the limbs and the head; hence, the main part as of an army, a structure of a book (the body of a book).
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The difference between meaning and concept can also be observed by comparing synonymous words and word-groups expressing the same concepts but possessing a linguistic meaning which is felt as different in each of the units under consideration. e.g.: — to fail the exam, to come down, to muff; — to be ploughed, plucked.
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Meaning and Referent
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Meaning is linguistic whereas the denoted object or the referent is beyond the scope of language. We can denote the same object by more than one word of a different meaning. e.g.: a table can be denoted by the words table, a piece of furniture, something, this as all these words may have the same referent.
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Functional Approach to Meaning
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The functional approach maintains that a linguistic study of meaning is the investigation of the relation of sign to sign only. The meaning of a linguistic unit may be studied only through its relation to either concept or referent.
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e.g.: We know that the meaning of the two words a step and to step is different because they function in speech differently. To step may be followed by an adverb, a step cannot, but it may be proceeded by an adjective.
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3.Types Of Meaning
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Meaning grammaticallexical
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Grammatical Meaning Word-forms such as tables, chairs, bushes though denoting widely different objects of reality have something in common. This common element is the grammatical meaning of plurality.
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Grammatical meaning may be defined as the component of meaning recurrent in identical sets of individual forms of different words. e.g.: the tense meaning in the word-forms of verbs (asked, spoke) or the case meaning in the word-forms of various nouns (the girls, the nights).
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Lexical Meaning Unlike the grammatical meaning this component of meaning is identical in all the forms of the word. e.g.: the words write – writes – wrote – written possess different grammatical meanings of tense, person but in each of these forms we find the same semantic component denoting the process of putting words on the paper. This is the lexical meaning of the word which may be described as a linguistic unit recurrent in all the forms of the word and in all possible distributions of these forms.
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lexical meaning denotationalconnotational
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The denotational meaning is component of the lexical meaning which makes communication possible. E.g. a doctor knows more about pneumonia than a dancer does but they use the word and understand each other.
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The second component of the lexical meaning is the connotational component which has some stylistic value of the word, the emotive charge.
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Words contain an element of emotive evaluation as part of the connotational meaning. The word hovel denotes a small house or cottage and besides implies that it is a miserable dwelling place, dirty, in bad repair and unpleasant to live in.
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Many connotations associated with names of animals, birds, insects are universally understood and used. e.g.: calf (теленок)– a young inexperienced person; donkey (осел)– a foolish person; monkey (обезьяна)– a mischievous child; serpent (змея)– a treacherous, malicious person.
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4. Polysemy of Words
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A word that has more than one meaning in the language is called polysemantic.
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The word face meaning front part of a human head was made to serve as the name of the front part of the watch where all the changes of time were shown; the word hand meaning part of a human body used to work and indicate things with was made to serve as the name of the indicator.
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Monosemantic words are comparatively rare in the English language. These are pronouns and numerals. The greatest number of monosemantic words can be found among terms, the very nature of which requires precision. But even here we must mention that terms are monosemantic only within one branch of science. e.g.: to dress – to bandage a wound (medical terminology); to dress – to prepare the earth for sowing (terminology of agriculture); to dress – to decorate with flags (naval terminology).
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Words belonging to the most active, vitally important and widely used part of the English vocabulary are generally polysemantic.
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5. The Main Semantic Processes
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Extension of meaning means extension of the word range. In most cases it is naturally combined with a higher degree of abstraction than implied in the earlier meaning of the word.
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Most words begin as specific names for things. however, this precise denotation is lost ant the meaning of the word gets extended and generalised. e.g.: Season once had the meaning spring, time for sowing. Now it embraces all parts of the year.
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Salary once had the meaning the money to buy salt for. Now it means money to buy anything. Town once meant fence. Now it denotes a settlement. Arrive once meant to land, to reach the shore. Now any place of destination is presupposed.
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Narrowing of meaning is the process when a word acquires a specialised sense in which it is applicable only to some of the objects it had previously denoted or a word of wide usage is restricted in its application and comes to be used only in a special sense.
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Coffin once meant a box. Then it began to mean a special box for the dead.
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These are the cases in which narrowing took place due to the concretization of meaning. Sometimes narrowing takes place due to the differentiation of concepts. This is the case when two words were synonyms once and then they acquired different meanings. e.g.: Stool once meant табурет і стул. After the word chair was borrowed from French, the word stool began to be used only for табурет.
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Elevation of meaning presupposes the following thing. Words often rise from humble beginnings to positions of greater importance.
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Some highly complimentary words were originally applied to things of comparatively slight importance. e.g.: Fame meant news (good or bad). Now it means glory.
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To adore had the meaning to speak with, to greet, to address. Now it means to love, to worship. The words офис, менеджмент, курьер are considered to have better meanings than контора, управления, посыльный.
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Degradation of meaning is the process whereby for one reason or another a word falls into disrepute. Words once respectable may become less respectable. Some words reach such a low point that it is considered improper to use them at all. e.g.: Idiot meant private in Greek and uneducated in Latin. Now it has a negative meaning of a fool in both languages.
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Metaphor is a transfer of name based on the association of similarity and thus is actually a hidden comparison.
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Metaphors may be created on the similarity of different physical properties, such as: — similarity of shape : needles eye, tables leg; — similarity of size: midget, elephantine; — similarity of colour: orange, violet; — similarity of function: hand, finger-post; — similarity of position: back of the chair, foot of the mountain; — similarity of firmness: egg-shell china, steel resolution.
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Metonymy is a device in which the name of one thing is changed for that of another to which it is related by association of ideas as having close relationship to one another.
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The simplest case of metonymy is synecdoche. Synecdoche means giving a part for the whole or vice versa. e.g.: The word violin is often used to denote not the instrument but the musician who plays it.
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Faded metonymy can be found in the political vocabulary when the place of some establishment is used not only for the establishment itself or its staff but also for its policy: the White House, the Pentagon, Інститут святкує своє десятиріччя.
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Other examples of metonymy include: 1. The sign for the thing signified: grey hair (old age). 2. The instrument for the agent: the best pens of the day (the best writers). Он – первая скрипка. 3. The container for the thing contained: He drank a cup. Чайник закипел.
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4. The names of various organs can be used in the same way: head can be used for brains; heart often stands for emotions. Honey tongue, a heart of gall.У нее золотое сердце.
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5. A part of species substituted for a whole or genus: He manages to earn his bread (the necessaries of life).
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6. A whole or genus substitutes for a part or species: He is a poor creature (man). Он – бедное существо.
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7. The name of the material which stands for the thing made of this material: iron, kid, фарфор, фаянс. Due to a great variety of associations there are a lot of cases where metonymy is disguised. e.g.: sandwich is named after John Montague, earl of Sandwich, who invented this kind of meal; champagne – a white sparkling wine made in the province of Champagne (France);
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THANKS FOR COMING AND YOUR ATTENTION!
Слайды и текст этой презентации
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Plan:
Semantics / semasiology. Different approaches to word-meaning.
Types of word-meaning.
Polysemy. Semantic structure of words. Meaning and context.
Change of word-meaning: the causes, nature and results.
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List of Terms:
semantics
referent
referential meaning
grammatical meaning
lexical meaning
denotational meaning
connotational meaning
polysemantic word
polysemy
lexical-semantic variants
basic meaning
peripheral meaning
primary meaning
secondary meaning
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It is meaning that makes language useful.
George A. Miller,
The science of word, 1991
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1. Semantics / semasiology. Different approaches to word-meaning
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The function of the word as a unit of communication is possible by its possessing a meaning.
Among the word’s various characteristics meaning is the most important.
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«The Meaning of Meaning» (1923) by C.K. Ogden and I.A. Richards – about 20 definitions of meaning
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This linguistic study was pointed out in 1897 by M. Breal
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Semasiology is a synonym for ‘semantics’
(from Gk. semasia ‘meaning’ + logos ‘learning’)
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Different Approaches to Word Meaning:
ideational (or conceptual)
referential
functional
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The ideational theory can be considered the earliest theory of meaning.
It states that meaning originates in the mind in the form of ideas, and words are just symbols of them.
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A difficulty:
not clear why communication and understanding are possible if linguistic expressions stand for individual personal ideas.
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Meaning:
a concept with specific structure.
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Do people speaking different languages have different conceptual systems?
If people speaking different languages have the same conceptual systems why are identical concepts expressed by correlative words having different lexical meanings?
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finger ‘one of 10 movable parts of joints at the end of each human hand, or one of 8 such parts as opposed to the thumbs‘
and
палец ‘подвижная конечная часть кисти руки, стопы ноги или лапы животного’
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Referential theory is based on interdependence of things, their concepts and names.
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The complex relationships between referent (object denoted by the word), concept and word are traditionally represented by the following triangle:
Thought = concept
Symbol = word Referent = object
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an animal, with 4
legs and a tail, can bark and bite
dog
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Meaning concept
different words having different meanings may be used to express the same concept
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Concept of dying
die
pass away
kick the bucket
join the majority, etc
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Meaning symbol
In different languages:
a word with the same meaning have different sound forms (dog, собака)
words with the same sound forms have different meaning (лук, look)
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Meaning referent
to denote one and the same object we can give it different names
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A horse
in various contexts:
horse,
animal,
creature,
it, etc.
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Word meaning:
the interrelation of all three components of the semantic triangle: symbol, concept and referent, though meaning is not equivalent to any of them.
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Functionalists study word meaning by analysis of the way the word is used in certain contexts.
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The meaning of a word is its use in language.
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cloud and cloudy
have different meanings because in speech they function differently and occupy different positions in relation to other words.
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Meaning:
a component of the word through which a concept is communicated
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2. Types of word-meaning
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According to the conception of word meaning as a specific structure:
functional meaning: part of speech meaning (nouns usually denote «thingness», adjectives – qualities and states)
grammatical: found in identical sets of individual forms of different words (she goes/works/reads, etc.)
lexical: the component of meaning proper to the word as a linguistic unit highly individual and recurs in all the forms of a word (the meaning of the verb to work ‘to engage in physical or mental activity’ that is expressed in all its forms: works, work, worked, working, will work)
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Lexical Meaning:
denotational
connotational
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Denotational lexical meaning provides correct reference of a word to an individual object or a concept.
It makes communication possible and is explicitly revealed in the dictionary definition (chair ‘a seat for one person typically having four legs and a back’).
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to glare – to look
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Connotational lexical meaning is an emotional colouring of the word. Unlike denotational meaning, connotations are optional.
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Connotations:
Emotive charge may be inherent in word meaning (like in attractive, repulsive) or may be created by prefixes and suffixes (like in piggy, useful, useless).
It’s always objective because it doesn’t depend on a person’s perception.
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2. Stylistic reference refers the word to a certain style:
neutral words
colloquial
bookish, or literary words
Eg. father – dad – parent .
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3. Evaluative connotations express approval or disapproval (charming, disgusting).
4. Intensifying connotations are expressive and emphatic (magnificent, gorgeous)
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Denotative component
Lonely = alone, without company
To glare = to look
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3. Polysemy. Semantic structure of words. Meaning and context
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A polysemantic word is a word having more than one meaning.
Polysemy is the ability of words to have more than one meaning.
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Most English words are polysemantic.
A well-developed polysemy is a great advantage in a language.
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Monosemantic Words:
terms (synonym, bronchitis, molecule),
pronouns (this, my, both),
numerals, etc.
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The main causes of polysemy:
a large number of:
1) monosyllabic words;
2) words of long duration (that existed for centuries).
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The sources of polysemy:
1) the process of meaning change (meaning specialization: is used in more concrete spheres);
2) figurative language (metaphor and metonymy);
3) homonymy;
4) borrowing of meanings from other languages.
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blanket
a woolen covering used on beds,
a covering for keeping a house warm,
a covering of any kind (a blanket of snow),
covering in most cases (used attributively), e.g. we can say: a blanket insurance policy.
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Meanings of a polysemantic word are organized in a semantic structure
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Lexical-semantic variant
one of the meanings of a polysemantic word used in speech
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A Word’s Semantic Structure Is Studied:
Diachronically (in the process of its historical development): the historical development and change of meaning becomes central. Focus: the process of acquiring new meanings.
Synchronically (at a certain period of time): a co-existence of different meanings in the semantic structure of the word at a certain period of language development. Focus: value of each individual meaning and frequency of its occurrence.
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The meaning first registered in the language is called primary.
Other meanings are secondary, or derived, and are placed after the primary one.
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table
a piece of furniture (primary meaning)
the persons seated at the table
the food put on the table, meals
a thin flat piece of stone, metal, wood
slabs of stone
words cut into them or written on them
an orderly arrangement of facts
part of a machine-tool on which the work is put to be operated on
a level area, a plateau
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The meaning that first occurs to our mind, or is understood without a special context is called the basic or main meaning.
Other meanings are called peripheral or minor.
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Fire
1. flame (main meaning)
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Processes of the Semantic Development of a Word:
radiation (the primary meaning stands in the center and the secondary meanings proceed out of it like rays. Each secondary meaning can be traced to the primary meaning)
concatenation (secondary meanings of a word develop like a chain. It is difficult to trace some meanings to the primary one)
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crust
hard outer part of bread
hard part of anything (a pie, a cake)
harder layer over soft snow
a sullen gloomy person
Impudence
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Polysemy exists not in speech but in the language.
It’s easy to identify the main meaning of a separate word. Other meanings are revealed in context.
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Context:
linguistic
1. lexical – a number of lexical units around the word which enter into interaction with it (i.e. words combined with a polysemantic word are important).
2. grammatical – a number of lexical units around the world viewed on the level of parts of speech.
3. thematic – a very broad context, sometimes a text or even a book.
extralinguistic – different cultural, social, historical factors
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4. Change of word-meaning: the causes, nature and results
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The meaning of a word can change in a course of time.
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Causes of Change of
Word-meaning:
1. Extralinguistic (various changes in the life of a speech community, in economic and social structure, in ideas, scientific concepts)
e.g. “car” meant ‘a four-wheeled wagon’; now – ‘a motor-car’, ‘a railway carriage’ (in the USA)
“paper” is not connected anymore with “papyrus” – the plant from which it formerly was made.
2. Linguistic (factors acting within the language system)
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Linguistic Causes:
1. ellipsis – in a phrase made up of two words one of these is omitted and its meaning is transferred to its partner.
e.g. “to starve” in O.E. = ‘to die’ + the word “hunger”. In the 16th c. “to starve” = ‘to die of hunger’.
e.g. daily = daily newspaper
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Linguistic Causes:
2. differentiation (discrimination) of synonyms – when a new word is borrowed it may become a perfect synonym for the existing one. They have to be differentiated; otherwise one of them will die.
e.g. “land” in O.E. = both ‘solid part of earth’s surface’ and ‘the territory of the nation’. In the middle E. period the word “country” was borrowed as its synonym; ‘the territory of a nation’ came to be denoted mainly by “country”.
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Linguistic Causes:
3. linguistic analogy – if one of the members of the synonymic set acquires a new meaning, other members of this set change their meaning too.
e.g. “to catch” acquired the meaning ‘to understand’; its synonyms “to grasp” and “to get” acquired this meaning too.
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The nature of semantic changes is based on the secondary application of the word form to name a different yet related concept.
Conditions to any semantic change: some connection between the old meaning and the new.
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Association between Old Meaning and New:
similarity of meanings or metaphor – a semantic process of associating two referents one of which in some way resembles the other
contiguity (closeness) of meanings or metonymy – a semantic process of associating two referents one of which makes part of the other or is closely connected with it
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Types of Metaphor:
a) similarity of shape, e.g. head (of a cabbage), bottleneck, teeth (of a saw, a comb);
b) similarity of position, e.g. foot (of a page, of a mountain), head (of a procession);
c) similarity of function, behavior, e.g. a bookworm (a person who is fond of books);
d) similarity of color, e.g. orange, hazel, chestnut.
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Types of Metonymy:
‘material — object of it’ (She is wearing a fox);
‘container — containее’ (I ate three plates);
‘place — people’ (The city is asleep);
‘object — a unit of measure’ (This horse came one neck ahead);
‘producer — product’ (We bought a Picasso);
‘whole — part’ (We have 10 heads here);
‘count — mass’ (We ate rabbit)
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Results of Semantic Change:
changes in the denotational component
changes in the connotational meaning
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Changes in the Denotational Component:
restriction – a word denotes a restricted number of referents.
e.g. “fowl” in O.E. = ‘any bird’, but now ‘a domestic hen or chicken’
extension – the application of the word to a wider variety of referents
e.g. ‘‘a cook’’ was not applied to women until the 16th century.
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generalization – the word with the extended meaning passes from the specialized vocabulary into common use and the meaning becomes more general.
e.g. “camp” = ‘the place where troops are lodged in tents’; now – ‘temporary quarters’.
specialization – the word with the new meaning comes to be used in the specialized vocabulary of some limited group.
e.g. “to glide” = ‘to move gently and smoothly’ and now has acquired a special meaning – ‘to fly with no engine’.
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Changes in the Connotational Meaning:
pejorative development (degradation) – the acquisition by the word of some derogatory emotive charge.
e.g. “accident” ‘a happening causing loss or injury’ came from more neutral ‘something that happened’;
ameliorative development (elevation) – the improvement of the connotational component of meaning.
e.g. “a minister” denoted a servant, now – ‘a civil servant of higher rank, a person administering a department of state’
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List of Literature:
Антрушина, Г. Б. Лексикология английского языка: учебник для студ. пед. ин-тов по спец. № 2103 «Иностр. яз.» / Г. Б. Антрушина, О. В. Афанасьева, Н. Н. Морозова; под ред. Г. Б. Антрушиной. – М.: Высш. школа, 1985. – С. 129–142, 147–160.
Воробей, А. Н. Глоссарий лингвистических терминов / А. Н. Воробей, Е. Г. Карапетова. – Барановичи: УО «БарГУ», 2004. – 108 с.
Дубенец, Э. М. Современный английский язык. Лексикология: пособие для студ. гуманит. вузов / Э. М. Дубенец. – М. / СПб.: ГЛОССА / КАРО, 2004. – С. 74–82, 123–127.
Лексикология английского языка: учебник для ин-тов и фак-тов иностр. яз. / Р. З. Гинзбург [и др.]; под общ. ред. Р. З. Гинзбург. – 2-е изд., испр. и доп. – М.: Высш. школа, 1979. – С. 13–23, 28–39, 47–51.
Лещева, Л. М. Слова в английском языке. Курс лексикологии современного английского языка: учебник для студ. фак-в и отдел. английского языка (на англ. яз.) / Л. М. Лещева. – Минск: Академия управления при Президенте Республики Беларусь, 2001. – С. 36–56.