What is the relationship between extralinguistic reality and the word

Lecture 1

1. What are the basic elements of the relationship between a language and extralinguistic world?

The relation of language to the extralinguistic world involves three basic sets of elements: language signs, mental concepts

and parts of the extralinguistic world (not necessarily material or physically really existing) which are usually called denotata

(Singular: denotatum).

2. What is a language sign, a concept and a denotatum? Give definitions. Show the relation between them?

The LS is a sequence of sounds (in spoken language) or symbols (in written language) which is associated with a single

concept in the minds of speakers of that or another language. Те, що ми написали чи сказали.

The MC is an array of mental images and associations related to a particular part of the extralinguistic world (both really

existing and imaginary), on the one hand, and connected with a particular language sign, on the other. Тлумачення. Яка який

яке?

Denotata- parts of the extralinguistic world (not necessarily material or physically really existing)- object + concept.

Denotatum is the actual object or meaning of a word, rather than the feeling or ideas connected with the word.

The relation between words (language signs) and parts of the extralinguistic world (denotata) is only indirect and going

through the mental concepts.

The relationship between a language sign and a concept is ambiguous: it is often different even in the minds of different

people, speaking the same language, though it has much in common, hence, is recognizable by all the members of the

language speakers community.

3. What is a lexical meaning, a connotation and an association? Give definitions and examples.

LM is the general mental concept corresponding to a word or a combination of words.

noodle — 1. type of paste of flour and water or flour and eggs pre- pared in long, narrow strips and used in soups, with a sauce,

etc.; 2. fool.

Connotation is an additional, contrastive value of the basic usually designative function of the lexical meaning. (emotional

attitude). For example, blue is a color, but it is also a word used to describe a feeling of sadness, as in: “She’s feeling blue.”

Connotations can be either positive, negative, or neutral.

Compare the words to die(померти) and to peg out(здихати). It is easy to note that the former has no connotation, whereas

the latter has a definite connotation of vulgarity.

An association is a more or less regular connection established between the given and other mental concepts in the minds of

the language speakers.

A rather regular association is established between green and fresh {young) and between green and environment protection.

4. What is the range of application of a word? Give examples.

The peculiarities of conceptual fragmentation of the world by the language speakers are manifested by the range of

application of the lexical meanings (reflected in limitations in the combination of words and stylistic peculiarities). This is

yet another problem having direct relation to translation — a translator is to observe the compatibility rules of the language

signs (e. g. make mistakes, but do business).

5. What are the main sources of translation ambiguity stemming from the sign-concept relationship?

The concepts being strongly subjective and largely different in different languages for similar denotata give rise to one of the

most difficult problems of translation, the problem of ambiguity of translation equivalents(неоднозначність

еквівалентів перекладу).

Denotata — parts of the extralinguistic world (not necessarily material or physically really existing)- object + concept.

Denotatum is the actual object or meaning of a word, rather than the feeling or ideas connected with the word.

Another source of translation ambiguity is the polysemantic nature of the language signs: the relationship between the signs

and concepts is very seldom one-to-one, most frequently it is one-to-many or many-to-one, i.e. one word has several meanings

or several words have similar meanings.

The
extralinguistic causes are determined by the social nature of the
language: they are observed in changes of meaning resulting from the
development of the notion expressed and the thing named and by the
appearance of new notions and things. In other words, extralinguistic
causes of semantic change are connected with the development of the
human mind as it moulds reality to conform with its needs.

Languages are powerfully
affected by social, political, economic, cultural and technical
change. The influence of those factors upon linguistic phenomena is
studied by sociolinguistics. It shows that social factors can
influence even structural features of linguistic units: terms of
science, for instance, have a number of specific features as compared
to words used in other spheres of human activity.

The
word being a linguistic realisation of notion, it changes with the
progress of human consciousness. This process is reflected in the
development of lexical meaning. As the human mind achieves an ever
more exact understanding of the world of reality and the objective
relationships that characterise it, the notions become more and more
exact reflections of real things. The history of the social, economic
and political life of the people, the progress of culture and science
bring about changes in notions and things influencing the semantic
aspect of language. For instance, OE eorde
meant
‘the ground under people’s feet’, ‘the soil’ and ‘the
world of man’ as opposed to heaven that was supposed to be
inhabited first by Gods and later on, with the spread of
Christianity, by God, his angels, saints and the souls of the dead.
With the progress of science earth
came
to mean the third planet from
the
sun and the knowledge is constantly enriched. With the development of
electrical engineering earth
n means
‘a connection of a wire

¹For
ellipsis combined with metonymy see p. 68.

73

conductor
with the earth’, either accidental (with the result of leakage of
current) or intentional (as for the purpose of providing a return
path). There is also a correspond ing verb earth.
E.
g.: With
earthed appliances the continuity of the earth wire ought to be
checked.

The
word space
meant
‘extent of time or distance’ or ‘intervening distance’.
Alongside this meaning a new meaning developed ‘the limitless and
indefinitely great expanse in which all material objects are
located’. The phrase outer
space was
quickly ellipted into space.
Cf.
spacecraft,
space-suit, space travel, etc.

It
is interesting to note that the English word cosmos
was
not exactly a synonym of outer
space but
meant ‘the universe as an ordered system’, being an antonym to
chaos.
The
modern usage is changing under the influence of the Russian language
as a result of Soviet achievements in outer space. The OED Supplement
points out that the adjective cosmic
(in
addition to the former meanings ‘universal’, ‘immense’) in
modern usage under the influence of Russian космический
means
‘pertaining to space travel’, e. g. cosmic
rocket ‘space
rocket’.

The
extra-linguistic motivation is sometimes obvious, but some cases are
not as straightforward as they may look. The word bikini
may
be taken as an example. Bikini, a very scanty two-piece bathing suit
worn by women, is named after Bikini atoll in the Western Pacific but
not because it was first introduced on some fashionable beach there.
Bikini
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.

The
tendency to use technical imagery is increasing in every language,
thus the expression to
spark off in chain reaction is
almost international. Live
wire ‘one
carrying electric current’ used figuratively about a person of
intense energy seems purely English, though.

Other
international expressions are black
box and
feed-back.
Black box formerly
a term of aviation and electrical engineering is now used
figuratively to denote any mechanism performing intricate functions
or any unit of which we know the effect but not the components or
principles of action.

Feed-back
a
cybernetic term meaning ‘the return of a sample of the output of a
system or process to the input, especially with the purpose of
automatic adjustment and control’ is now widely used figuratively
meaning ‘response’.

Some
technical expressions that were used in the first half of the 19th
century tend to become obsolete: the English used to talk of people
being
galvanised into activity, or
going
full steam ahead but
the phrases sound dated now.

The
changes of notions and things named go hand in hand. They are
conditioned by changes in the economic, social, political and
cultural history of the people, so that the extralinguistic causes of
semantic change might be conveniently subdivided in accordance with
these. Social relationships are at work in the cases of elevation and
pejoration of meaning discussed in the previous section where the
attitude of the upper classes to their social inferiors determined
the strengthening of emotional tone among the semantic components of
the word.

74

Sociolinguistics
also teaches that power relationships are reflected in vocabulary
changes. In all the cases of pejoration that were mentioned above,
such as boor,
churl, villain, etc.,
it was the ruling class that imposed evaluation. The opposite is
rarely the case. One example deserves attention though: sir
+
-ly
used
to mean ‘masterful¹
and now surly
means
‘rude in a bad-tempered way’.

D.
Leith devotes a special paragraph in his “Social History of
English” to the semantic disparagement of women. He thinks that
power relationships in English are not confined to class
stratification, that male domination is reflected in the history of
English vocabulary, in the ways in which women are talked about.
There is a rich vocabulary of affective words denigrating women, who
do not conform to the male ideal. A few examples may be mentioned.
Hussy
is
a reduction of ME huswif
(housewife), it
means now ‘a woman of low morals’ or ‘a bold saucy girl’;
doll
is
not only a toy but is also used about a kept mistress or about a
pretty and silly woman; wench
formerly
referred to a female child, later a girl of the rustic or working
class and then acquired derogatory connotations.

Within
the diachronic approach the phenomenon of euphemism
(Gr
euphemismos
<
eu
‘good’
and pheme
‘voice’)
has been repeatedly classed by many linguists as tabоо,
i.e.
a prohibition meant as a safeguard against supernatural forces. This
standpoint is hardly acceptable for modern European languages. St.
Ullmann returns to the conception of taboo several times illustrating
it with propitiatory names given in the early periods of language
development to such objects of superstitious fear as the bear and the
weasel. He proves his point by observing the same phenomenon, i.e.
the circumlocution used to name these animals, in other languages.
This is of historical interest, but no similar opposition between a
direct and a propitiatory name for an animal, no matter how
dangerous, can be found in present-day English.

With
peoples of developed culture and civilisation euphemism is
intrinsically different, it is dictated by social usage, etiquette,
advertising, tact, diplomatic considerations and political
propaganda.

From
the semasiological point of view euphemism is important, because
meanings with unpleasant connotations appear in words formerly
neutral as a result of their repeated use instead of words that are
for some reason unmentionable, cf.
deceased
‘dead’,
deranged
‘mad’.

Much
useful material on the political and cultural causes of coining
euphemisms is given in “The Second Barnhart Dictionary of New
English”. We read there that in modern times euphemisms became
important devices in political and military propaganda. Aggressive
attacks by armadas of bombers which most speakers of English would
call air
raids are
officially called protective
reaction, although
there is nothing protective or defensive about it. The CIA agents in
the United States often use the word destabilise
for
all sorts of despicable or malicious acts and subversions designed to
cause to topple an established foreign government or to falsify an
electoral campaign. Shameful secrets of various underhand CIA
operations, assassinations, interception of mail, that might, if
revealed, embarrass the government, are called family
jewels.

75

It
is decidedly less emotional to call countries with a low standard of
living underdeveloped,
but
it seemed more tactful to call them developing.
The
latest terms (in the 70s)
are
L.D.C.
—
less
developed countries and
M.D.C.
—
more
developed countries, or
Third
World countries or
emerging
countries if
they are newly independent.

Other
euphemisms are dictated by a wish to give more dignity to a
profession. Some barbers called themselves hair
stylists and
even hairologists,
airline stewards and
stewardesses
become
flight
attendants, maids
become
house
workers, foremen become
supervisors,
etc.

Euphemisms
may be dictated by publicity needs, hence ready-tailored
and
ready-to-wear
clothes instead
of ready-made.
The
influence of mass-advertising
on language is growing, it is felt in every level of the language.

Innovations
possible in advertising are of many different types as G.N. Leech has
shown, from whose book on advertising English the following example
is taken. A kind of orange juice, for instance, is called Tango.
The
justification of the name is given in the advertising text as
follows: “Get
this different tasting Sparkling Tango. Tell you why: made from whole
oranges. Taste those oranges. Taste the tang in Tango. Tingling tang,
bubbles —
sparks.
You drink it straight. Goes down great. Taste the tang in Tango. New
Sparkling Tango”. The
reader will see for himself how many expressive connotations and
rhythmic associations are introduced by the salesman in this
commercial name in an effort to attract the buyer’s attention. If
we now turn to the history of the language, we see economic causes
are obviously at work in the semantic development of the word wealth.
It
first meant ‘well-being’, ‘happiness’ from weal
from
OE wela
whence
well.
This
original meaning is preserved in the compounds commonwealth
and
commonweal.
The
present meaning became possible due to the role played by money both
in feudal and bourgeois society. The chief wealth of the early
inhabitants of Europe being the cattle, OE feoh
means
both ‘cattle’ and ‘money’, likewise Goth faihu;
Lat
pecus
meant
‘cattle’ and pecunia
meant
‘money’. ME fee-house
is
both a cattle-shed and a treasury. The present-day English fee
most
frequently means the price paid for services to a lawyer or a
physician. It appears to develop jointly from the above mentioned OE
feoh
and
the Anglo-French fee,
fie, probably
of the same origin, meaning ‘a recompense’ and ‘a feudal
tenure’. This modern meaning is obvious in the
following example: Physicians
of the utmost fame were called at once, but
when they came they answered as they took their fees, “There is no
cure for this disease.” (Belloc)

The
constant development of industry, agriculture, trade and transport
bring into being new objects and new notions. Words to name them are
either borrowed or created from material already existing in the
language and it often happens that new meanings are thus acquired by
old words.

Соседние файлы в предмете [НЕСОРТИРОВАННОЕ]

• #
• #
• #
• #
• #
• #
• #
• #
• #
• #
• #