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Types
of word meaning (classifications):
-
According
to the aspect relation
of a word to the components of the situation
where it is used:
-
Referential
meaning
— determined by the relation of linguistic sign to the referent
in the material world -
Significative
meaning
— determined by the relation of a linguistic sign to its user,
the speaker’s intention -
Differential
(systematic) meaning
— determined by the relation of the given linguistic sign to
other signs in the language system of speech
-
Another
typology is based on the conception
of word meaning as specific structure:
-
Part-of-speech
meaning (functional) -
Grammatical
—
may be defined as the component of meaning recurrent in identical
sets of individual forms of different words, as, e.g.,
the tense meaning in the word-forms of verbs (asked, thought,
walked, etc.) or the case meaning in the word-forms of various
nouns (girl’s, boy’s, night’s, etc.) -
Lexical
— may
be described as the component of meaning proper to the word as a
linguistic unit, i.e. recurrent in all the forms of this word.
E.g.
the word-forms go, goes, went, going, gone possess different
grammatical meanings of tense, person and so on, but in each of
these forms we find one and the same semantic component denoting
the process of movement. -
Denotational
(reference
of a word or other lexical unit to individual object or concept)
REVEALED IN THE DICTIONARY DEFINITION -
CONNOTATIONAL
(includes
ideas or emotions) -
Emotional
implications (personal,
studied by pragmatics) -
Emotive
charge (may
be inherent in word meaning or created by prefixes and suffixes) -
Stylistic
reference (refers
the word to a certain style register (neutral, colloquial,
literary) This may be best illustrated by comparing words almost
identical in their denotational meaning,
e. g., ‘parent — father — dad’.
In comparison with the word father which is stylistically
neutral, dad stands out as colloquial and parent is felt as
bookish.
Motivation
is the
suggestion of the meaning of the word by the lexical form of the
word.
-
Morphological
motivation
implies
a direct connection between the lexical meaning of the component
morphemes, the pattern of their arrangement and the meaning of the
word. The degree of morphological motivation may be different
varying from the extreme of complete motivation to lack of
motivation. (The
words finger-ring
and
ring-finger,
e.g.,
contain two morphemes, the combined lexical meaning of which is the
same; the difference in the meaning of these words can be accounted
for
by
the difference in the arrangement of the component morphemes). -
Phonetical
motivation
implies
a direct connection between the phonetic structure of the word and
its meaning. Phonetical motivation is not universally recognised in
modern linguistic science.
-
It
is argued that speech sounds may suggest spatial and visual
dimensions, shape, size, etc. Experiments carried out by a group of
linguists showed that back
open vowels
are suggestive of big size, heavy weight, dark colour, etc. -
Words
as swish,
sizzle, boom, splash, etc.
may be defined as phonetically motivated because the soundclusters
[swi∫, sizl, bum, splæ∫] are a direct imitation of the sounds
these words denote.
-
Semantic
motivation
implies
a direct connection between the central and marginal meanings of
the word. This connection may be regarded as a metaphoric extension
of the central meaning based on the similarity of different classes
of referents denoted by the word. (For
example, a woman who has given birth is called a
mother; by
extension, any act that gives birth is associated with being a
mother, e.g. in
Necessity
is the mother of invention. The
same principle can be observed in other meanings: a mother looks
after a child, so that we can say She
became a mother to her orphan nephew, or
Romulus
and Remus were supposedly mothered by a wolf. Cf.
also mother
country, a mother’s mark (=a birthmark), mother tongue, etc.)
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SEVEN TYPES OF MEANING
A word is the smallest unit of spoken language which has meaning and can stand alone, it is a written representation of one or more sounds which can be spoken to represent an idea, object, action, etc. in order to be understood by the people, a word must have a meaning.
Most words have more than one meaning, it is the characteristic of words that a single word may have several meaning, in fact, words may play an enormous part in our life. Words are used to express something and also conveys feelings about we are describing. Words are used not in isolation but related to human situation. It is through our experience with them in human situation that they take on meaning.
If we talk about words, we can not avoid talking about the study of meaning (semantics). The meaning of word is often complex, having such component as a picture, an idea, a quality, a relationship and personal feelings and association. Lyons 1977:643 in Palmer1981:40-41) suggested that we should draw a distinction between sentence meaning and utterance meaning, the sentence meaning being directly predictable from the grammatical and lexical features of the sentence, while utterance meaning includes all the various types of meaning, then, is the part of meaning of a sentence that we are going to discuss in the next following. Lyons states that, utterance meaning is the part of meaning of a sentence that is directly related to grammatical and lexical features, but is obtained either from associated prosodic and paralinguistic features or from the content, linguistic and non-linguistic. The seven types of meaning are as follows:
- Conceptual Meaning.
Conceptual meaning is sometimes called denotative meaning or cognitive meaning, it is widely assumed to be the central factor in linguistic communication. Larson noted that denotative meaning is also called as primary meaning, that is the meaning suggested by the word when it used alone. It is the first meaning or usage which a word will suggest to most people when the word is said in isolation. it is the meaning learned early in life and likely to have reference to a physical situation (Larson, 1984: 100)
The denotation of word is its agreed-upon sense-what it refers to, stands for, or designates, a part from the feeling it may call up, and this again is able for a good deal on the context the words that appears in.
It is said that the aim of denotative meaning is to provide, for any given interpretation of a sentence, a configuration of abstract symbols, in which shows exactly what we need to know if we are to distinguish that meaning from all other possible sentence meaning in the language.
- Connotative Meaning.
As we experience, words are human situations, they not only take on certain denotation, but also often acquire individual flavors. They have come to have emotive tone, the associations, and suggestiveness of the situation in which they have been a part. For example let us examine the words “brink”. This denotes on “edge”. However in the phrase “The brink of the cliff” or” the brink of disaster”, this word suggest danger and its emotive tone is that of fear.
According to Leech (1974: 40-41) connotative meaning is the communicative value an expression has by virtue of what it refers to, over and above its purely conceptual content. It will be clear if we are talking about connotation, we are in fact talking about the “real word experience”. Someone associates with an expression when someone uses and hears it. The fact that if we compared connotative meaning with denotative meaning is that connotations are relatively unstable; that is they vary considerably we have seen, according to culture, historical period, and the experience of the individual. Although all the speaker of particular language speaks the language exactly the same conceptual framework, actually each of them has individual perception of words. Connotative meaning is indeterminate and open in the same way as our knowledge and belief about the universe are opened-ended. Connotations play a major role in the language of literature, of politics, of advertising, and a greeting card.
- Stylistic Meaning.
Stylistic meaning is that which a piece of language conveys about the circumstances of its use. A recent account of English has recognized some main dimensions of stylistic variation. For instance:
1. They chucked a stone at the cops, and then did a bunk with the loot.
2. After casting a stone at the police, they absconded with the money.
Sentence (1) could be said by the two criminals, talking casually about the crime afterwards; sentence (2) might be said by the chief of the police in making the official report; both could describe the same happening (Leech, 1974: 15)
- Affective Meaning.
Affective meaning is a sort of meaning which an effect the personal feeling of speakers, including his/her attitude to the listener, or his/her attitude to something he/she talking about. In order to get people attention to be quiet, we might say either (1)”I’m terribly sorry to interrupt, but I wonder if you would be so kind as to lower your voice as a little” or (2) “Will you belt up”. Factors such as intonation and voice timbre are also important here. The impression of politeness in the sentence (1) can be reserved by tone of biting sarcasm; sentence (2) can be turn into a playful remark between intimates if delivered with the intonation of a mild request.
- Reflected Meaning.
Reflected meaning involves an interconnection on the lexical level of language, it is the meaning, which arises in case of multiple conceptual meaning, when one senses of word forms part of our response to another sense. For instance, on hearing the Church service, the synonymous expressions The Comforter and The Holy Ghost both refer to the Third Trinity, but the Comforter sounds warm and comforting, while the Holy Ghost sounds awesome.
- Collocative Meaning.
Collocative meaning consists of the associations a word acquire s on account of the meanings of the words, which tends to occur in its environment. For instance the words pretty and handsome share common ground in the meaning of good looking. But may be distinguished by the range of noun in which they are like to occur or collocate; Pretty woman and handsome man. The ranges may well match although they suggest a different kind of attractiveness of the adjectives.
7. Thematic Meaning.
This is the final category of meaning, thematic meaning is the meaning that is communicated by the way in which the speaker or writer organizes the message, in terms of ordering, focus, and emphasis. It is often felt an active sentence such as (1) below has a different meaning from its passive equivalent (2) although in conceptual content they seem to be the same (Leech. 1974: 19)
1. Mrs. Bessie Smith donated the first prize.
2. The first prize was donated by Mrs. Bessie Smith
We can assume that the active sentence answers an implicit question “what did Mrs. Bessie Smith donate?”, while the passive sentence answer the implicit question “who donates the first prize?”, that in other words (1) in contrast to se (2) suggest that we know who Mrs. Bessie Smith.
References:
Larson, Mildred, L. 1984. Meaning based Translation. USA: University Press of America.
Leech, G.N. 1979, Semantics. Auxland: Pengin Books.
Palmer, I.R. 1981, Semantics, Cambridge University Press.
Tarigan, Guntur Henry. Prof. Dr. 1993. Pengajaran Semantik. Penerbit Angkasa Bandung.
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).
3.1. The object of semasiology. Two approaches to the study of meaning.
3.2. Types of meaning.
3.3. Meaning and motivation.
3.1. The branch of lexicology which studies meaning is called » semasiology «. Sometimes the term » semantics » is used as a synonym to semasiology, but it is ambiguous as it can stand as well for (1) the expressive aspect of language in general and (2) the meaning of one particular word.
Meaning is certainly the most important property of the word but what is » meaning»?
Meaning is one of the most controversial terms in lexicology. At present there is no generally accepted definition of meaning. Prof. Smirnitsky defines meaning as » a certain reflection in the mind of objects, phenomena or relations that makes part of the linguistic sign, its so-called inner facet, whereas the sound form functions as its outer facet». Generally speaking, meaning can be described as a component of the word through which a concept is communicated, enabling the word to denote objects in the real world.
There are two approaches to the study of meaning: the referential approach and the functional approach. The former tries to define meaning in terms of relations between the word (sound form), concept (notion, thought) and referent (object which the word denotes). They are closely connected and the relationship between them is represented by » the semiotic triangle» (= the basic triangle) of Ogden and Richards (in the book » The Meaning of Meaning» (1923) by O.K. Ogden and I.A. Richards).
concept
 |
symbol referent
(sound form)
This view denies a direct link between words and things, arguing that the relationship can be made only through the use of our minds. Meaning is related to a sound form, concept and referent but not identical with them: meaning is a linguistic phenomenon while neither concept nor referent is.
The main criticism of this approach is the difficulty of identifying » concepts»: they are mental phenomena and purely subjective, existing in the minds of individuals. The strongest point of this approach is that it connects meaning and the process of nomination.
The functional approach to meaning is less concerned with what meaning is than with how it works. It is argued, to say that » words have meanings» means only that they are used in a certain way in a sentence. There is no meaning beyond that. Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951), in particular, stressed the importance of this approach in his dictum: » The meaning of the word is its use in the language». So meaning is studied by making detailed analyses of the way words are used in contexts, through their relations to other words in speech, and not through their relations to concepts or referents.
Actually, the functional approach is basically confined to the analysis of sameness or difference of meaning. For example, we can say that in » take the bottle » and » take to the bottle » take has different meaning as it is used differently, but it does not explain what the meaning of the verb is. So the functional approach should be used not as the theoretical basis for the study of meaning, but only as complementary to the referential approach.
3.2. Word meaning is made up of different components, commonly known as types of meaning. The two main types of meaning are grammatical meaning and lexical meaning.
Grammatical meaning belongs to sets of word-forms and is common to all words of the given part of speech,
e.g. girls, boys, classes, children, mice express the meaning of » plurality».
Lexical meaning belongs to an individual word in all its forms. It comprises several components. The two main ones are the denotational component and the connotational component.
The denotational (= denotative) component, also called » referential meaning» or » cognitive meaning», expresses the conceptual (notional) content of a word; broadly, it is some information, or knowledge, of the real-world object that the word denotes. Basically, this is the component that makes communication possible.
e.g. notorious » widely-known», celebrated » known widely».
The connotational (connotative) component expresses the attitude of the speaker to what he is saying, to the object denoted by the word. This component consists of emotive connotation and evaluative connotation.
1) Emotive connotation (= » affective meaning», or an emotive charge),
e.g. In » a single tree » single states that there is only one tree, but » a lonely tree » besides giving the same information, also renders (conveys) the feeling of sadness.
We shouldn’t confuse emotive connotations and emotive denotative meanings in which some emotion is named, e.g. horror, love, fear, etc.
2) Evaluative connotation labels the referent as » good» or » bad»,
e.g. notorious has a negative evaluative connotation, while celebrated a positive one. Cf.: a notorious criminal/liar/ coward, etc. and a celebrated singer/ scholar/ artist, etc.
It should be noted that emotive and evaluative connotations are not individual, they are common to all speakers of the language. But emotive implications are individual (or common to a group of speakers), subjective, depend on personal experience.
e.g. The word » hospital » may evoke all kinds of emotions in different people (an architect, a doctor, an invalid, etc.)
Stylistic connotation, or stylistic reference, another component of word meaning, stands somewhat apart from emotive and evaluative connotations. Indeed, it does not characterize a referent, but rather states how a word should be used by referring it to a certain functional style of the language peculiar to a specific sphere of communication. It shows in what social context, in what communicative situations the word can be used.
Stylistically, words can be roughly classified into literary, or formal (e.g. commence, discharge, parent), neutral (e.g. father, begin, dismiss) and non-literary, or informal (e.g. dad, sack, set off).
3.3. The term » motivation » is used to denote the relationship between the form of the word, i.e. its sound form, morphemic composition and structural pattern, and its meaning.
There are three main types of motivation: phonetic, morphological and semantic.
1) Phonetic motivation is a direct connection between the sound form of a word and its meaning. There are two types of phonetic motivation: sound imitation and sound symbolism.
a) Sound imitation, or onomatopoeia: phonetically motivated words are a direct imitation of the sounds they denote (or the sounds produced by actions or objects they denote),
e.g. buzz, swish, bang, thud, cuckoo.
b) Sound symbolism. It’s argued by some linguists that the sounds that make up a word may reflect or symbolise the properties of the object which the word refers to, i.e. they may suggest size, shape, speed, colour, etc.
e.g. back vowels suggest big size, heavy weight, dark colour, front vowels suggest lightness, smallness, etc.
Many words beginning with sl- are slippery in some way: slide, slip, slither, sludge, etc. or pejorative: slut, slattern, sly, sloppy, slovenly; words that end in -ump almost all refer to some kind of roundish mass: plump, chump, rump, hump, stump.
Certainly, not every word with these phonetic characteristics will have the meaning suggested. This is, perhaps, one of the reasons why sound symbolism is not universally recognized in linguistics.
2) Morphological motivation is a direct connection between the lexical meaning of the component morphemes, the pattern of their arrangement and the meaning of the word.
Morphologically motivated words are those whose meaning is determined by the meaning of their components,
e.g. re-write » write again», ex-wife » former wife».
The degree of morphological motivation may be different. Words may be fully motivated (then they are transparent), partially motivated and non-motivated (idiomatic, or opaque).
a) If the meaning of the word is determined by the meaning of the components and the structural pattern, it is fully motivated: e.g. hatless.
b) If the connection between the morphemic composition of a word and its meaning is arbitrary, the word is non-motivated, e.g. buttercup » yellow-flowered plant».
c) In hammer -er shows that it is an instrument, but what is » hamming «? » Ham » has no lexical meaning in this word, thus the word is partially motivated. Cf. also cranberry.
Motivation may be lost in the course of time,
e.g. in OE wī fman was motivated morphologically: wī f + man » wife of a man»; now it is opaque; its motivation is said to be faded (woman).
3) Semantic motivation is based on co-existence of direct and figurative meanings of the same word,
e.g. butterfly – 1) insect; 2) showy and frivolous person.(= metaphorical extension of the direct meaning).
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