Whats the meaning of the word

1. The object of semasiology.
   Two approaches to the study of meaning.

2. Types of meaning.

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 wīfman
was
motivated morphologically: wīf
+ 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).

Соседние файлы в предмете [НЕСОРТИРОВАННОЕ]

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

The meaning of the word is
made up of the grammatical and lexical meaning.

GM
is the component of meaning, recurrent in identical sects of
individual forms of different words. Eg.: the tense meaning in the
word forms “asked, thought, worked”, or the case meaning in the
word forms of various nouns “girls-boys”, so the GM unites words
in the big groups such as parts of speech or lexical grammatical
clauses.

LM (semantical component)
comparing word forms of one word we observe that LM is indentical in
all forms of the words. Eg.: the word forms “go, goes, went, going,
gone” possess different GM of tense, person…, but one and the
same component denoting the process of movement.

Lexical denotational and
connotational component.

The
denotational meaning
makes communication possible. It partially and incompletely describes
the meaning of the corresponding words, to give >< full picture
of the meaning of the word.

Lonely adj – alone without
company

Notorious adj – widely known

Celebrated
-^-

To glare – to look

To glance -^-

The
connotational component denotes
supplementary meaning or complementary semantic/ stylistic shape,
which services to express all sorts of emotional expressive
evaluative overtone.

So,
many words not only refer to some object but have aura of
associations expressing the attitude of the speaker. Connotation is
what the word conveys about the speakers attitude to the social
circumstances and the appropriate functional style.

Lonely
adj – melancholicsad

Notorious adj – criminal
acts

Celebrated — special
achievement in smth

To glare – to look steadily
in anger

To glance – to look briefly/
passionly

The 4 main types of
connotation

1. Stylistic.
   When association concern the situation in which the word is uttered
   the social circumstances (formal, familiar…), the social
   relationships between the interlocutors (polite, rough…), the type
   of purpose of communication (poetic, official…) Eg.: horse —
   neutral, steed – poetic, nag – slang, geegee – baby l-ge.

2. Emotional.
   Is acquired by the word as a result of its frequent use in context
   corresponding to emotional situation or cause the R-nt is associated
   with emotions.

3. Evaluative.
   Expresses approval disapproval.

4. Expressive
   intensifying.

Componential Analysis

Denotational
meaning is segmented into semantic components (semes). In terms of CA
the meaning of a word is defined as a set of elements of meaning
which are not part of the vocabulary of the language itself, but
rather theoretical elements postulated in order to describe the
semantic relations between the lexical elements of a given language.

Man-woman

Boy-girl

Bull-cow

The meanings of first words
and the second have smth in common. This distinctive picture we call
semantic component or seme. In this case the distinctive feature is
of sex: male/female.

Another
possible correlation is man-boy,
woman-girl.
(Age: adult/ non adult).

“Man-woman”
– “Bull-cow”.
(Human and animal being).

So
CA is an attempt to describe the meaning of words in terms of a
universal inventory of semes and their possible combinations.

Соседние файлы в предмете [НЕСОРТИРОВАННОЕ]

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

According to traditional grammar, a word is defined as, “the basic unit of language”. The word is usually a speech sound or mixture of sounds which is represented in speaking and writing.

Few examples of words are fan, cat, building, scooter, kite, gun, jug, pen, dog, chair, tree, football, sky, etc.

You can also define it as, “a letter or group/set of letters which has some meaning”. So, therefore the words are classified according to their meaning and action.

It works as a symbol to represent/refer to something/someone in the language.

The group of words makes a sentence. These sentences contain different types of functions (of the words) in it.

The structure (formation) of words can be studied with Morphology which is usually a branch (part) of linguistics.

The meaning of words can be studied with Lexical semantics which is also a branch (part) of linguistics.

Also Read: What is a Sentence in English Grammar? | Best Guide for 2021

The word can be used in many ways. Few of them are mentioned below.

1. Noun (rabbit, ring, pencil, US, etc)
2. Pronoun (he, she, it, we, they, etc)
3. Adjective (big, small, fast, slow, etc)
4. Verb (jumping, singing, dancing, etc)
5. Adverb (slowly, fastly, smoothly, etc)
6. Preposition (in, on, into, for, under, etc)
7. Conjunction (and, or, but, etc)
8. Subject (in the sentences)
9. Verb and many more!

Now, let us understand the basic rules of the words.

Rules/Conditions for word

There are some set of rules (criteria) in the English Language which describes the basic necessity of becoming a proper word.

Rule 1: Every word should have some potential pause in between the speech and space should be given in between while writing.

For example, consider the two words like “football” and “match” which are two different words. So, if you want to use them in a sentence, you need to give a pause in between the words for pronouncing.

It cannot be like “Iwanttowatchafootballmatch” which is very difficult to read (without spaces).

But, if you give pause between the words while reading like, “I”, “want”, “to”, “watch”, “a”, “football”, “match”.

Example Sentence: I want to watch a football match.

We can observe that the above sentence can be read more conveniently and it is the only correct way to read, speak and write.

• Incorrect: Iwanttowatchafootballmatch.
• Correct: I want to watch a football match.

So, always remember that pauses and spaces should be there in between the words.

Rule 2: Every word in English grammar must contain at least one root word.

The root word is a basic word which has meaning in it. But if we further break down the words, then it can’t be a word anymore and it also doesn’t have any meaning in it.

So, let us consider the above example which is “football”. If we break this word further, (such as “foot” + “ball”), we can observe that it has some meaning (even after breaking down).

Now if we further break down the above two words (“foot” + “ball”) like “fo” + “ot” and “ba” + “ll”, then we can observe that the words which are divided have no meaning to it.

So, always you need to remember that the word should have atleast one root word.

Rule 3: Every word you want to use should have some meaning.

Yes, you heard it right!

We know that there are many words in the English Language. If you have any doubt or don’t know the meaning of it, then you can check in the dictionary.

But there are also words which are not defined in the English Language. Many words don’t have any meaning.

So, you need to use only the words which have some meaning in it.

For example, consider the words “Nuculer” and “lakkanah” are not defined in English Language and doesn’t have any meaning.

Always remember that not every word in the language have some meaning to it.

Also Read: 12 Rules of Grammar | (Grammar Basic Rules with examples)

More examples of Word

Words List	Words List
apple	ice
aeroplane	jam
bat	king
biscuit	life
cap	mango
doll	nest
eagle	orange
fish	pride
grapes	raincoat
happy	sad

Quiz Time! (Test your knowledge here)

Summary: (What is a word?)

• Generally, the word is the basic and smallest unit in the language.
• It is categorised based on its meaning.
• Morphology is the study of Words structure (formation) and Lexical semantics is the study of meanings of the words. These both belong to a branch of Linguistics.
• A word should have at least one root and meaning to it.

Also Read: What is Grammar? | (Grammar definition, types & examples) | Best Guide 2021

If you are interested to learn more, then you can refer wikipedia from here.

I hope that you understood the topic “What is a word?”. If you still have any doubts, then comment down below and we will respond as soon as possible. Thank You.

I

(

рд.

чего́,

дт.

чему́,

вн.

что,

тв.

чем,

пр.

чём)

что э́то (тако́е)? — what is this?

что зна́чит э́то сло́во? — what does this word mean?

он не зна́ет, что э́то зна́чит — he does not know what this means

что (вы сказа́ли)? — what did you say?

что е́сли он не придёт? — what if he does not come?

что де́лать? — what is to be done?

для чего́ э́то употребля́ется / слу́жит? — what is it (used) for?

что он из себя́ представля́ет? — what kind of person is he?

2) which

он пришёл по́здно, что бы́ло необы́чно — he came late, which was unusual

3) that, which;

(та) кни́га, что на столе́ — the book that / which is on the table

(та) кни́га, что он дал ей — the book (that) he gave her

э́то всё, что там напи́сано — that is all that is written there

всё, что он знал — all he knew

э́то та са́мая кни́га, что он дал ей — this is the very book he gave her

да́йте ему́ не э́то письмо́, а то, что она́ принесла́ вчера́ — don’t give him this letter, but the one she brought yesterday

е́сли что случи́тся — if anything happens

5)

что… что (одно… другое) — this… that; some… other

что оста́вил, что взял с собо́й — this [some things] he left, that [other things] he took with him

••

что вы! (нет, не верно) — no!, by no means!, far from it!

что до — as for; with regard to, concerning

что до него́, он согла́сен — as to / for him, he agrees

что до меня́ — as for me; as far as I am concerned

что ему́ до э́того — what does he care for / about it; what does it matter to him

что ж, он сде́лает э́то сам — well [all right], he will do it himself

что ж(е) из э́того?, ну и что ж(е)? — well, what of that?; so what does it mean?

(ну и) что ж(е), что… — what does it matter if…

ну и что ж, что он не умён — what does it matter if he is not too bright

что за, что… за разг. (при вопросе: какой) — what; what kind / sort of; what

что за кни́ги там?, что там за кни́ги? — what books are those?

что э́то за де́рево? — what kind of tree is it?

что и говори́ть вводн. сл. разг. — there is no denying; it has to be admitted; let’s face it

что к чему́ — what is what

не понима́ть, что к чему́ — not know what is what

знать, что к чему́ — know the how and why of things; know a thing or two

что ли разг. — perhaps, may be

оста́вить э́то здесь, что ли? — shall I perhaps leave it here?

что ни день, пого́да меня́ется — the weather changes every day

что он ни ска́жет, интере́сно — whatever he says is interesting

что бы ни случи́лось — whatever happens

что по́льзы / про́ку / то́лку разг. — what is the use / sense

что с ва́ми? — what is the matter with you?

что тут тако́го? — what’s wrong with that?

в чём де́ло?, что случи́лось? — what is the matter?

не что ино́е как — nothing other than, nothing less than, nothing short of

ни за что — 1) not for anything in the world 2) for nothing at all

оста́ться ни при чём — get nothing for one’s pains

с чего́ бы э́то вдруг? — what’s the cause?, now, why?

то, что — what

он по́мнит то, что она́ сказа́ла — he remembers what she said

э́то не то, что он ду́мал — it is not what he thought

э́то не то, чего́ он ожида́л — it is not what he expected

уйти́ ни с чем — go away empty-handed; get nothing for one’s pains

чего́ бы… не — what… wouldn’t

чего́ бы он не дал за э́то! — what wouldn’t he give for that!

чего́ до́брого разг. — may… for all I know

он чего́ до́брого опозда́ет — he may be late for all I know

чего́ сто́ит…! — см. стоить

чего́ там разгова́ривать — what is the use of talking

чего́ то́лько… не — what… not

чего́ то́лько он не ви́дел! — what hasn’t he seen!, the things he has seen!; there’s precious [‘pre-] little he hasn’t seen!

II

союз

он сказа́л, что она́ придёт — he said (that) she would come

э́то так про́сто, что ка́ждый поймёт — it is so simple that anybody can understand it

э́то тако́е тру́дное сло́во, что он не мо́жет его́ запо́мнить — it is such a difficult word that he cannot remember it

то, что — (the fact) that

то, что он э́то сде́лал, их удиви́ло — (the fact) that he did it surprised them

он узна́л о том, что она́ уе́хала — he learnt that she had left

они́ узна́ли [ду́мали, вообража́ли, предполага́ли], что он у́мный челове́к — they knew [thought, imagined, supposed] him to be a clever man

они́ ожида́ли, что он придёт — they expected him to come

2)

что… что (как… так и) — whether… or

он всегда́ мра́чный — что до́ма, что на рабо́те — he is always gloomy, whether at home or at work

••

потому́… что — см. потому I

III

разг.

что ты не ложи́шься спать? — why aren’t you going to bed?

что же ты молча́ла? — why didn’t you say anything?