Скачать материал
Скачать материал
- Сейчас обучается 268 человек из 64 регионов
Описание презентации по отдельным слайдам:
-
1 слайд
Word Meaning
Lecture # 6
Grigoryeva M. -
2 слайд
Word Meaning
Approaches to word meaning
Meaning and Notion (понятие)
Types of word meaning
Types of morpheme meaning
Motivation
-
3 слайд
Each word has two aspects:
the outer aspect
( its sound form)
catthe inner aspect
(its meaning)
long-legged, fury animal with sharp teeth
and claws -
4 слайд
Sound and meaning do not always constitute a constant unit even in the same language
EX a temple
a part of a human head
a large church -
5 слайд
Semantics (Semasiology)
Is a branch of lexicology which studies the
meaning of words and word equivalents -
6 слайд
Approaches to Word Meaning
The Referential (analytical) approachThe Functional (contextual) approach
Operational (information-oriented) approach
-
7 слайд
The Referential (analytical) approach
formulates the essence of meaning by establishing the interdependence between words and things or concepts they denotedistinguishes between three components closely connected with meaning:
the sound-form of the linguistic sign,
the concept
the actual referent -
8 слайд
Basic Triangle
concept (thought, reference) – the thought of the object that singles out its essential features
referent – object denoted by the word, part of reality
sound-form (symbol, sign) – linguistic sign
concept – flowersound-form referent
[rәuz] -
9 слайд
In what way does meaning correlate with
each element of the triangle ?In what relation does meaning stand to
each of them? -
10 слайд
Meaning and Sound-form
are not identical
different
EX. dove — [dΛv] English sound-forms
[golub’] Russian BUT
[taube] German
the same meaning -
11 слайд
Meaning and Sound-form
nearly identical sound-forms have different meanings in different languages
EX. [kot] Russian – a male cat
[kot] English – a small bed for a childidentical sound-forms have different meanings (‘homonyms)
EX. knight [nait]
night [nait] -
12 слайд
Meaning and Sound-form
even considerable changes in sound-form do not affect the meaningEX Old English lufian [luvian] – love [l Λ v]
-
13 слайд
Meaning and Concept
concept is a category of human cognitionconcept is abstract and reflects the most common and typical features of different objects and phenomena in the world
meanings of words are different in different languages
-
14 слайд
Meaning and Concept
identical concepts may have different semantic structures in different languagesEX. concept “a building for human habitation” –
English Russian
HOUSE ДОМ+ in Russian ДОМ
“fixed residence of family or household”
In English HOME -
15 слайд
Meaning and Referent
one and the same object (referent) may be denoted by more than one word of a different meaning
cat
pussy
animal
tiger -
16 слайд
Meaning
is not identical with any of the three points of the triangle –
the sound form,
the concept
the referentBUT
is closely connected with them. -
17 слайд
Functional Approach
studies the functions of a word in speech
meaning of a word is studied through relations of it with other linguistic units
EX. to move (we move, move a chair)
movement (movement of smth, slow movement)The distriution ( the position of the word in relation to
others) of the verb to move and a noun movement is
different as they belong to different classes of words and
their meanings are different -
18 слайд
Operational approach
is centered on defining meaning through its role in
the process of communicationEX John came at 6
Beside the direct meaning the sentence may imply that:
He was late
He failed to keep his promise
He was punctual as usual
He came but he didn’t want toThe implication depends on the concrete situation
-
19 слайд
Lexical Meaning and Notion
Notion denotes the reflection in the mind of real objectsNotion is a unit of thinking
Lexical meaning is the realization of a notion by means of a definite language system
Word is a language unit -
20 слайд
Lexical Meaning and Notion
Notions are international especially with the nations of the same cultural levelMeanings are nationally limited
EX GO (E) —- ИДТИ(R)
“To move”
BUT !!!
To GO by bus (E)
ЕХАТЬ (R)EX Man -мужчина, человек
Она – хороший человек (R)
She is a good person (E) -
21 слайд
Types of Meaning
Types of meaninggrammatical
meaninglexico-grammatical
meaning
lexical meaning
denotational
connotational -
22 слайд
Grammatical Meaning
component of meaning recurrent in identical sets of individual forms of different wordsEX. girls, winters, toys, tables –
grammatical meaning of pluralityasked, thought, walked –
meaning of past tense -
23 слайд
Lexico-grammatical meaning
(part –of- speech meaning)
is revealed in the classification of lexical items into:
major word classes (N, V, Adj, Adv)
minor ones (artc, prep, conj)words of one lexico-grammatical class have the same paradigm
-
24 слайд
Lexical Meaning
is the meaning proper to the given linguistic unit in all its forms and distributionsEX . Go – goes — went
lexical meaning – process of movement -
25 слайд
PRACTICE
Group the words into 3 column according to the grammatical, lexical or part-of –speech meaning
Boy’s, nearest, at, beautiful,
think, man, drift, wrote,
tremendous, ship’s, the most beautiful,
table, near, for, went, friend’s,
handsome, thinking, boy,
nearer, thought, boys,
lamp, go, during. -
26 слайд
Grammatical
The case of nouns: boy’s, ship’s, friend’s
The degree of comparison of adj: nearest, the most beautiful
The tense of verbs: wrote, went, thoughtLexical
Think, thinking, thought
Went, go
Boy’s, boy, boys
Nearest, near, nearer
At, for, during (“time”)
Beautiful, the most beautifulPart-of-speech
Nouns—verbs—adj—-prep -
27 слайд
Aspects of Lexical meaning
The denotational aspectThe connotational aspect
The pragmatic aspect
-
28 слайд
Denotational Meaning
“denote” – to be a sign of, stand as a symbol for”establishes the correlation between the name and the object
makes communication possibleEX booklet
“a small thin book that gives info about smth” -
29 слайд
PRACTICE
Explain denotational meaningA lion-hunter
To have a heart like a lion
To feel like a lion
To roar like a lion
To be thrown to the lions
The lion’s share
To put your head in lion’s mouth -
30 слайд
PRACTICE
A lion-hunter
A host that seeks out celebrities to impress guests
To have a heart like a lion
To have great courage
To feel like a lion
To be in the best of health
To roar like a lion
To shout very loudly
To be thrown to the lions
To be criticized strongly or treated badly
The lion’s share
Much more than one’s share
To put your head in lion’s mouth -
31 слайд
Connotational Meaning
reflects the attitude of the speaker towards what he speaks about
it is optional – a word either has it or notConnotation gives additional information and includes:
The emotive charge EX Daddy (for father)
Intensity EX to adore (for to love)
Imagery EX to wade through a book
“ to walk with an effort” -
32 слайд
PRACTICE
Give possible interpretation of the sentencesShe failed to buy it and felt a strange pang.
Don’t be afraid of that woman! It’s just barking!
He got up from his chair moving slowly, like an old man.
The girl went to her father and pulled his sleeve.
He was longing to begin to be generous.
She was a woman with shiny red hands and work-swollen finger knuckles. -
33 слайд
PRACTICE
Give possible interpretation of the sentences
She failed to buy it and felt a strange pang.
(pain—dissatisfaction that makes her suffer)
Don’t be afraid of that woman! It’s just barking!
(make loud sharp sound—-the behavior that implies that the person is frightened)
He got up from his chair moving slowly, like an old man.
(to go at slow speed—was suffering or was ill)
The girl went to her father and pulled his sleeve.
(to move smth towards oneself— to try to attract smb’s attention)
He was longing to begin to be generous.
(to start doing— hadn’t been generous before)
She was a woman with shiny red hands and work-swollen finger knuckles.
(colour— a labourer involved into physical work ,constant contact with water) -
34 слайд
The pragmatic aspect of lexical meaning
the situation in which the word is uttered,
the social circumstances (formal, informal, etc.),
social relationships between the interlocutors (polite, rough, etc.),
the type and purpose of communication (poetic, official, etc.)EX horse (neutral)
steed (poetic)
nag (slang)
gee-gee (baby language) -
35 слайд
PRACTICE
State what image underline the meaningI heard what she said but it didn’t sink into my mind.
You should be ashamed of yourself, crawling to the director like that.
They seized on the idea.
Bill, chasing some skirt again?
I saw him dive into a small pub.
Why are you trying to pin the blame on me?
He only married her for her dough. -
36 слайд
PRACTICE
State what image underline the meaning
I heard what she said but it didn’t sink into my mind.
(to understand completely)
You should be ashamed of yourself, crawling to the director like that.
(to behave humbly in order to win favour)
They seized on the idea.
(to be eager to take and use)
Bill, chasing some skirt again?
(a girl)
I saw him dive into a small pub.
(to enter suddenly)
Why are you trying to pin the blame on me?
(to blame smb unfairly)
He only married her for her dough.
(money) -
37 слайд
Types of Morpheme Meaning
lexical
differential
functional
distributional -
38 слайд
Lexical Meaning in Morphemes
root-morphemes that are homonymous to words possess lexical meaning
EX. boy – boyhood – boyishaffixes have lexical meaning of a more generalized character
EX. –er “agent, doer of an action” -
39 слайд
Lexical Meaning in Morphemes
has denotational and connotational components
EX. –ly, -like, -ish –
denotational meaning of similiarity
womanly , womanishconnotational component –
-ly (positive evaluation), -ish (deragotary) женственный — женоподобный -
40 слайд
Differential Meaning
a semantic component that serves to distinguish one word from all others containing identical morphemesEX. cranberry, blackberry, gooseberry
-
41 слайд
Functional Meaning
found only in derivational affixes
a semantic component which serves to
refer the word to the certain part of speechEX. just, adj. – justice, n.
-
42 слайд
Distributional Meaning
the meaning of the order and the arrangement of morphemes making up the word
found in words containing more than one morpheme
different arrangement of the same morphemes would make the word meaningless
EX. sing- + -er =singer,
-er + sing- = ? -
43 слайд
Motivation
denotes the relationship between the phonetic or morphemic composition and structural pattern of the word on the one hand, and its meaning on the othercan be phonetical
morphological
semantic -
44 слайд
Phonetical Motivation
when there is a certain similarity between the sounds that make up the word and those produced by animals, objects, etc.EX. sizzle, boom, splash, cuckoo
-
45 слайд
Morphological Motivation
when there is a direct connection between the structure of a word and its meaning
EX. finger-ring – ring-finger,A direct connection between the lexical meaning of the component morphemes
EX think –rethink “thinking again” -
46 слайд
Semantic Motivation
based on co-existence of direct and figurative meanings of the same wordEX a watchdog –
”a dog kept for watching property”a watchdog –
“a watchful human guardian” (semantic motivation) -
-
48 слайд
Analyze the meaning of the words.
Define the type of motivation
a) morphologically motivated
b) semantically motivatedDriver
Leg
Horse
Wall
Hand-made
Careless
piggish -
49 слайд
Analyze the meaning of the words.
Define the type of motivation
a) morphologically motivated
b) semantically motivated
Driver
Someone who drives a vehicle
morphologically motivated
Leg
The part of a piece of furniture such as a table
semantically motivated
Horse
A piece of equipment shaped like a box, used in gymnastics
semantically motivated -
50 слайд
Wall
Emotions or behavior preventing people from feeling close
semantically motivated
Hand-made
Made by hand, not machine
morphologically motivated
Careless
Not taking enough care
morphologically motivated
Piggish
Selfish
semantically motivated -
51 слайд
I heard what she said but it didn’t sink in my mind
“do down to the bottom”
‘to be accepted by mind” semantic motivationWhy are you trying to pin the blame on me?
“fasten smth somewhere using a pin” –
”to blame smb” semantic motivationI was following the man when he dived into a pub.
“jump into deep water” –
”to enter into suddenly” semantic motivationYou should be ashamed of yourself, crawling to the director like that
“to move along on hands and knees close to the ground” –
“to behave very humbly in order to win favor” semantic motivation
Найдите материал к любому уроку, указав свой предмет (категорию), класс, учебник и тему:
6 210 150 материалов в базе
- Выберите категорию:
-
Выберите учебник и тему
- Выберите класс:
-
Тип материала:
-
Все материалы
-
Статьи
-
Научные работы
-
Видеоуроки
-
Презентации
-
Конспекты
-
Тесты
-
Рабочие программы
-
Другие методич. материалы
-
Найти материалы
Другие материалы
- 22.10.2020
- 141
- 0
- 21.09.2020
- 530
- 1
- 18.09.2020
- 256
- 0
- 11.09.2020
- 191
- 1
- 21.08.2020
- 197
- 0
- 18.08.2020
- 123
- 0
- 03.07.2020
- 94
- 0
- 06.06.2020
- 73
- 0
Вам будут интересны эти курсы:
-
Курс повышения квалификации «Формирование компетенций межкультурной коммуникации в условиях реализации ФГОС»
-
Курс профессиональной переподготовки «Клиническая психология: теория и методика преподавания в образовательной организации»
-
Курс повышения квалификации «Введение в сетевые технологии»
-
Курс повышения квалификации «История и философия науки в условиях реализации ФГОС ВО»
-
Курс повышения квалификации «Основы построения коммуникаций в организации»
-
Курс повышения квалификации «Организация практики студентов в соответствии с требованиями ФГОС медицинских направлений подготовки»
-
Курс повышения квалификации «Правовое регулирование рекламной и PR-деятельности»
-
Курс повышения квалификации «Организация маркетинга в туризме»
-
Курс повышения квалификации «Источники финансов»
-
Курс профессиональной переподготовки «Техническая диагностика и контроль технического состояния автотранспортных средств»
-
Курс профессиональной переподготовки «Осуществление и координация продаж»
-
Курс профессиональной переподготовки «Технический контроль и техническая подготовка сварочного процесса»
-
Курс профессиональной переподготовки «Управление качеством»
Word Meaning Lecture # 6 Grigoryeva M.
Word Meaning Approaches to word meaning Meaning and Notion (понятие) Types of word meaning Types of morpheme meaning Motivation
Each word has two aspects: the outer aspect ( its sound form) cat the inner aspect (its meaning) long-legged, fury animal with sharp teeth and claws
Sound and meaning do not always constitute a constant unit even in the same language EX a temple a part of a human head a large church
Semantics (Semasiology) Is a branch of lexicology which studies the meaning of words and word equivalents
Approaches to Word Meaning The Referential (analytical) approach The Functional (contextual) approach Operational (information-oriented) approach
The Referential (analytical) approach formulates the essence of meaning by establishing the interdependence between words and things or concepts they denote distinguishes between three components closely connected with meaning: the sound-form of the linguistic sign, the concept the actual referent
Basic Triangle concept – flower concept (thought, reference) – the thought of the object that singles out its essential features referent – object denoted by the word, part of reality sound-form (symbol, sign) – linguistic sign sound-form [rәuz] referent
In what way does meaning correlate with each element of the triangle ? • In what relation does meaning stand to each of them? •
Meaning and Sound-form are not identical different EX. dove — [dΛv] English [golub’] Russian [taube] German sound-forms BUT the same meaning
Meaning and Sound-form nearly identical sound-forms have different meanings in different languages EX. [kot] Russian – a male cat [kot] English – a small bed for a child identical sound-forms have different meanings (‘homonyms) EX. knight [nait]
Meaning and Sound-form even considerable changes in sound-form do not affect the meaning EX Old English lufian [luvian] – love [l Λ v]
Meaning and Concept concept is a category of human cognition concept is abstract and reflects the most common and typical features of different objects and phenomena in the world meanings of words are different in different languages
Meaning and Concept identical concepts may have different semantic structures in different languages EX. concept “a building for human habitation” – English Russian HOUSE ДОМ + in Russian ДОМ “fixed residence of family or household” In English HOME
Meaning and Referent one and the same object (referent) may be denoted by more than one word of a different meaning cat pussy animal tiger
Meaning is not identical with any of the three points of the triangle – the sound form, the concept the referent BUT is closely connected with them.
Functional Approach studies the functions of a word in speech meaning of a word is studied through relations of it with other linguistic units EX. to move (we move, move a chair) movement (movement of smth, slow movement) The distriution ( the position of the word in relation to others) of the verb to move and a noun movement is different as they belong to different classes of words and their meanings are different
Operational approach is centered on defining meaning through its role in the process of communication EX John came at 6 Beside the direct meaning the sentence may imply that: He was late He failed to keep his promise He was punctual as usual He came but he didn’t want to The implication depends on the concrete situation
Lexical Meaning and Notion denotes the Lexical meaning is reflection in the realization of a mind of real objects notion by means of a definite language system Notion is a unit of Word is a language thinking unit
Lexical Meaning and Notions are Meanings are internationally limited especially with the nations of the same EX GO (E) —- ИДТИ(R) cultural level “To move” BUT !!! To GO by bus (E) ЕХАТЬ (R) EX Man -мужчина, человек Она – хороший человек (R) She is a good person (E)
Types of Meaning Types grammatical meaning of meaning lexico-grammatical meaning lexical meaning denotational connotational
Grammatical Meaning component of meaning recurrent in identical sets of individual forms of different words EX. girls, winters, toys, tables – grammatical meaning of plurality asked, thought, walked – meaning of past tense
Lexico-grammatical meaning (part –of- speech meaning) is revealed in the classification of lexical items into: major word classes (N, V, Adj, Adv) minor ones (artc, prep, conj) words of one lexico-grammatical class have the same paradigm
Lexical Meaning is the meaning proper to the given linguistic unit in all its forms and distributions EX. Go – goes — went lexical meaning – process of movement
PRACTICE Group the words into 3 column according to the grammatical, lexical or part-of –speech meaning • • Boy’s, nearest, at, beautiful, think, man, drift, wrote, tremendous, ship’s, the most beautiful, table, near, for, went, friend’s, handsome, thinking, boy, nearer, thought, boys, lamp, go, during.
• Grammatical 1. The case of nouns: boy’s, ship’s, friend’s 2. The degree of comparison of adj: nearest, the most beautiful 3. The tense of verbs: wrote, went, thought • Lexical 1. Think, thinking, thought 2. Went, go 3. Boy’s, boys 4. Nearest, nearer 5. At, for, during (“time”) 6. Beautiful, the most beautiful • Part-of-speech Nouns—verbs—adj—-prep
Aspects of Lexical meaning The denotational aspect The connotational aspect The pragmatic aspect
Denotational Meaning “denote” – to be a sign of, stand as a symbol for” establishes the correlation between the name and the object makes communication possible EX booklet “a small thin book that gives info about smth”
PRACTICE Explain denotational meaning • • A lion-hunter To have a heart like a lion To feel like a lion To roar like a lion To be thrown to the lions The lion’s share To put your head in lion’s mouth
PRACTICE • A lion-hunter A host that seeks out celebrities to impress guests • To have a heart like a lion To have great courage • To feel like a lion To be in the best of health • To roar like a lion To shout very loudly • To be thrown to the lions To be criticized strongly or treated badly • The lion’s share Much more than one’s share • To put your head in lion’s mouth
Connotational Meaning reflects the attitude of the speaker towards what he speaks about it is optional – a word either has it or not Connotation gives additional information and includes: The emotive charge EX Daddy (for father) Intensity EX to adore (for to love) Imagery EX to wade through a book “ to walk with an effort”
PRACTICE Give possible interpretation of the sentences • She failed to buy it and felt a strange pang. • Don’t be afraid of that woman! It’s just barking! • He got up from his chair moving slowly, like an old man. • The girl went to her father and pulled his sleeve. • He was longing to begin to be generous. • She was a woman with shiny red hands and workswollen finger knuckles.
PRACTICE Give possible interpretation of the sentences • She failed to buy it and felt a strange pang. (pain—dissatisfaction that makes her suffer) • Don’t be afraid of that woman! It’s just barking! (make loud sharp sound—-the behavior that implies that the person is frightened) • He got up from his chair moving slowly, like an old man. (to go at slow speed—was suffering or was ill) • The girl went to her father and pulled his sleeve. (to move smth towards oneself— to try to attract smb’s attention) • He was longing to begin to be generous. (to start doing— hadn’t been generous before) • She was a woman with shiny red hands and work-swollen finger knuckles. (colour— a labourer involved into physical work , constant contact with water)
The pragmatic aspect of lexical meaning the situation in which the word is uttered, the social circumstances (formal, informal, etc. ), social relationships between the interlocutors (polite, rough, etc. ), the type and purpose of communication (poetic, official, etc. ) EX horse (neutral) steed (poetic) nag (slang) gee-gee (baby language)
PRACTICE State what image underline the meaning • I heard what she said but it didn’t sink into my mind. • You should be ashamed of yourself, crawling to the director like that. • They seized on the idea. • Bill, chasing some skirt again? • I saw him dive into a small pub. • Why are you trying to pin the blame on me? • He only married her for her dough.
PRACTICE State what image underline the meaning • I heard what she said but it didn’t sink into my mind. • (to understand completely) • You should be ashamed of yourself, crawling to the director like that. (to behave humbly in order to win favour) • They seized on the idea. (to be eager to take and use) • Bill, chasing some skirt again? (a girl) • I saw him dive into a small pub. (to enter suddenly) • Why are you trying to pin the blame on me? (to blame smb unfairly) • He only married her for her dough. (money)
Types of Morpheme Meaning lexical differential functional distributional
Lexical Meaning in Morphemes root-morphemes that are homonymous to words possess lexical meaning EX. boy – boyhood – boyish affixes have lexical meaning of a more generalized character EX. –er “agent, doer of an action”
Lexical Meaning in Morphemes has denotational and connotational components EX. –ly, -like, -ish – denotational meaning of similiarity womanly , womanish connotational component – -ly (positive evaluation), -ish (deragotary) женственный женоподобный
Differential Meaning a semantic component that serves to distinguish one word from all others containing identical morphemes EX. cranberry, blackberry, gooseberry
Functional Meaning found only in derivational affixes a semantic component which serves to refer the word to the certain part of speech EX. just, adj. – justice, n.
Distributional Meaning the meaning of the order and the arrangement of morphemes making up the word found in words containing more than one morpheme different arrangement of the same morphemes would make the word meaningless EX. sing- + -er =singer, -er + sing- = ?
Motivation denotes the relationship between the phonetic or morphemic composition and structural pattern of the word on the one hand, and its meaning on the other can be phonetical morphological semantic
Phonetical Motivation when there is a certain similarity between the sounds that make up the word and those produced by animals, objects, etc. EX. sizzle, boom, splash, cuckoo
Morphological Motivation when there is a direct connection between the structure of a word and its meaning EX. finger-ring – ring-finger, A direct connection between the lexical meaning of the component morphemes EX think –rethink “thinking again”
Semantic Motivation based on co-existence of direct and figurative meanings of the same word EX a watchdog – ”a dog kept for watching property” a watchdog – “a watchful human guardian” (semantic motivation)
• PRACTICE
Analyze the meaning of the words. Define the type of motivation a) morphologically motivated b) semantically motivated • Driver • Leg • Horse • Wall • Hand-made • Careless • piggish
Analyze the meaning of the words. Define the type of motivation a) morphologically motivated b) semantically motivated • Driver Someone who drives a vehicle morphologically motivated • Leg The part of a piece of furniture such as a table semantically motivated • Horse A piece of equipment shaped like a box, used in gymnastics semantically motivated
• Wall Emotions or behavior preventing people from feeling close semantically motivated • Hand-made Made by hand, not machine morphologically motivated • Careless Not taking enough care morphologically motivated • Piggish Selfish semantically motivated
what she said but it didn’t sink in my mind “do down to the bottom” ‘to be accepted by mind” semantic motivation I heard Why are you trying to pin the blame on me? “fasten smth somewhere using a pin” – ”to blame smb” semantic motivation I was following the man when he dived into a pub. “jump into deep water” – ”to enter into suddenly” semantic motivation You should be ashamed of yourself, crawling to the director like that “to move along on hands and knees close to the ground” – “to behave very humbly in order to win favor” semantic motivation
Word-meaning is made up of
various components described as meaning types. There are several
types of meaning.
Lexical
meaning is the meaning proper to the given linguistic unit in all its
forms and distributions.
The most significant features of the lexical meaning of the word are:
the word’s interrelationship with the denoted objects and phenomena
of the world; the word’s interrelationship with the conceptual
matter that appears in people’s mind on perceiving a language unit;
the word’s interrelationship with the other words in a context so
lexical meaning possesses several aspects.
According
to D.
Crystal,
lexical
items are viewed upon as signs within the sign system of the language
vocabulary
so
signification
is that aspect of the word’s meaning which stresses the sign
function of the word, in other words, it is the relation between sign
and thing or sign and concept.
Denotation
involves the relationship between a linguistic unit (a lexical item)
and the non-linguistic entities to which it refers. Denotational
meaning is the part of lexical meaning that makes communication
possible. Denotational
meaning conceptualises
and classifies our experience and names objects so that our knowledge
of reality is embodied in words having essentially the same meaning
for all speakers of the language. Denotational meaning can be
segmented into semes
(seme is a minimal unit of the matter).
This procedure is known as componential analysis which seeks to set
up minimal semantic oppositions in order to arrive at meaning
differentiating features.
When words are used in their
factual direct meanings denotation and signification coincide
Connotational
meaning comprises the emotive charge and the stylistic value of the
word that are closely connected and even interdependent. In
other words, connotation is supplementary emotive, evaluative,
expressive and stylistic shade which is added to the word’s
denotational meaning and which serves to express the emotional
content of the word — that is its capacity to evoke or directly
express emotion.
The
list and specification of connotational meanings varies with
different linguistic schools and individual scholars and includes
such entries as pragmatic
(directed at the perlocutionary effect of utterance), associative
(connected, through individual psychological or linguistic
associations, with related and non-related notions), ideological,
or conceptual (revealing
political, social, ideological preferences of the user), evaluative
(stating the value of the indicated notion), emotive
(revealing the emotional layer of cognition and perception),
expressive
(aiming at creating the image of the object in question), stylistic
(indicating «the register», or the situation of the
communication).
Let’s
illustrate four
main components of connotational meaning: emotive,
evaluative, expressive (intensifying), stylistic.
Emotive
meaning or charge is associated with emotions.
In the following sets of words with the same denotational meaning to
like, to love, to worship; big, large, tremendous; girl, girlie;
dear, dearie — to
worship, tremendous, girlie, dearie
have
heavier emotive charge than others members of sets. We shouldn’t
confuse the emotive
charge
with emotive
implications:
what is thought and felt when the word hospital
is used by an architect who built it, a doctor or a nurse working
there, the invalid staying there after an operation.
Evaluative
meaning expresses approval or disapproval, e.g.,
magic
has
attractive connotation while its synonym witchcraft
has sinister accentuation.
Expressive
component serves to
emphasise
the subjective attitude to the content of the utterance or the person
addressed, e.g.,
magnificent,
splendid, superb
may be viewed as exaggerations.
Stylistically
words
can be subdivided into literary
(bookish), neutral and colloquial layers (parent
— father — dad).
Literary
words can be subdivided into general literary words (harmony,
calamity);
scientific terms; poetic words and archaisms (albeit
— although);
barbarisms and foreign words (bon
mot — a clever or witty saying, bouquet). The
colloquial words may be subdivided into common colloquial (dad);
slang (gag
for a joke);
professionalisms (lab); jargonisms (a
sucker — a person who is easily deceived);
vulgarisms (shut
up);
dialectical words (lass);
colloquial coinages (allrightnik).
The
above-mentioned meanings are classified as connotational not only
because they supply additional (and not the logical / denotational)
information, but also because, for the most part, they are observed
not all at once and not in all words either. Some of them are more
important for the act of communication than the others. Very often
they overlap (частично совпадают). So, all words
possessing an emotive meaning are also evaluative (rascal,
ducky),
though this rule is not reversed, as we can find non-emotive,
intellectual evaluation (good,
bad).
Also, almost all emotive words are also expressive, while there are
hundreds of expressive words which cannot be treated as emotive
(take, for example the so-called expressive verbs, which not only
denote some action or process but also create their image, as in to
gulp — to swallow in big lumps, in a hurry; to sprint — to run fast).
The number, importance and the
overlapping character of connotational meanings incorporated into the
semantic structure of a word, are brought forth by the context, i. e.
a concrete speech act that identifies and actualizes each one. More
than that: each context does not only specify the existing semantic
(both denotational and connotational) possibilities of a word, but
also is capable of adding new ones, or deviating rather considerably
from what is registered in the dictionary. Because of that all
contextual meanings of a word can never be exhausted or
comprehensively enumerated.
Grammatical
meaning is the component of meaning recurrent in identical forms of
individual forms of different words.
On the one hand, grammatical meaning unites words in such large
groups as parts of speech, e.g., the grammatical meaning of
substuntivity
for
nouns, the grammatical meaning of process
for
verbs, and so on. On the other hand, it is the property of identical
sets of word-forms. It may be defined as the indication in certain
grammatical categories, e.g., such word-forms as tables,
books
manifest the grammatical meaning of plurality. Grammatical meaning
may also de defined as the realization of a concept or a notion by
means of a definite language system, e.g., the word forms go,
goes, went, gone, going
express one and the same concept, that of the process of movement,
which is restricted in their lexical meaning. It follows that by
lexical meaning we understand the meaning proper to the linguistic
unit in all its forms, by grammatical meaning we understand the
meaning proper to the sets of word-forms common to all words of a
certain class, e.g., the word takes
has the same lexical meaning as took,
taken,
but its grammatical meaning is that which is shared by works,
stands;
the same is true about grammatical meaning of the following examples:
boys, girls; boy’s, girl’s; helped, met; better, smaller.
Соседние файлы в предмете [НЕСОРТИРОВАННОЕ]
- #
- #
- #
- #
- #
- #
- #
- #
- #
- #
- #
Before we discuss what syntagmatic relation is, let’s first have a look at semiotics, saussure, and syntagms.
Semiotics, saussure, and syntagms
The term ‘syntagmatic’ is closely related to the field of semiotics. Semiotics is the study of how meanings are produced by signs.
Road signs are a good example. You can understand the meaning of the signs even though there aren’t any words to explain what they mean. Look at the two road signs below. You know that the left one means ‘no u-turns’ and the right one means ‘slippery road’.
Fig. 1 — No u-turns.Fig. 2 — Slippery road.
Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) argued that:
- Words in a sentence are meaningfully related to each other. Saussure called this relationship syntagmatic, and the combinations of two or more words that create the chain of words he called syntagms.
When a single word or element of the chain is altered, the overall meaning is also changed. This chain concept is the basis of syntagmatic relations.
What is a syntagmatic relation?
Syntagmatic relation defines the relationship between words that co-occur in the same sentence. It focuses on two main parts: how the position and the word order affect the meaning of a sentence. Let’s look at an example:
↤ Syntagmatic relations ↦
Paul is roasting a chicken
The syntagmatic relation in this sentence explains:
- The word position and order: Paul + is roasting + a chicken
- The relationship between words gives a particular meaning to the sentence:
- It is a chicken that Paul is roasting, not something else.
- It is Paul who is roasting a chicken, not someone else.
Thus, the syntagmatic relation refers to a word’s ability to combine with other words, and the syntagmatic dimension (syntagm) always refers to the horizontal axis or linear aspect of a sentence.
The syntagmatic relation can also explain why specific words are often paired together (collocations), such as have + a party in ‘We had a party on Saturday’. If you hear someone say, ‘We made a party on Saturday’, you’ll probably cringe because make + a party doesn’t sound right.
The opposite of syntagmatic relation is paradigmatic relation. Paradigmatic relation refers to the relationship between words that can be substituted within the same word class (on the vertical axis).
Study tip: Syntagmatic relation is about word order and position. The meaning of syntagmatic is similar to syntax (the arrangement of words and phrases in a sentence).
Syntagmatic relations examples
Some examples of syntagmatic relations are shown in the table below:
↤ Syntagmatic relations ↦ | ||||
Subject | verb | Object | ||
Determiner | Adjective | Noun | Noun | |
The | beautiful | woman | buys | some brioche |
handsome | man | sold | some cake | |
tall | boy | is eating |
a hotdog |
From these sentences, the syntagmatic relations are all the relationships between words within the same sentence. That means there is a syntagmatic relation in:
- The beautiful woman + buys + some brioche (sentence level).
- The + beautiful + woman (phrase level).
- The handsome man + sold + some cake; and the + handsome + man.
- The tall boy + is eating + a hotdog; and the + tall + boy.
Additionally, in all three sentences above, each grammatical function (ie, subject, verb, and object) is at the same level. But in some cases, if you change the order of the sentence structure, it can change the meaning completely. For example:
- The tall boy is eating a hotdog.
- A hotdog is eating the tall boy.
The two sentences use the same words (syntagms) but differ in order (syntagmatic relationship), which changes the meaning of the sentence.
Types of syntagmatic relations
Because syntagmatic relations have to do with the relationship between words, the syntagms can result in collocations and idioms.
Collocations
Collocations are word combinations that frequently occur together.
1. There are three interesting facts about collocations:
- There isn’t a specific rule for the way words go together (why A is commonly paired with B). It is based on what the speakers of a language commonly combine, and eventually, what sounds natural. That’s why when you read, ‘a handsome girl’ instead of ‘a pretty girl’ it feels odd.
2. Word substitution is possible
- Sticking with the example of handsome girl, technically, it isn’t wrong to say handsome girl because handsome means ‘good-looking’ (Oxford Learner’s Dictionary) which is gender-neutral. Therefore, you can say handsome girl, but it just doesn’t sound natural.
3. The collocation’s meaning can be traced back to the meaning of each component
- For instance, catch a cold means ‘getting a cold’ and office hours means ‘the hour someone dedicates to work’. The definition of each component forms the meaning of a collocation.
Here are some examples of collocations:
Verb + noun: do homework, take a risk, catch a cold.
Noun + noun: office hours, interest group, kitchen cabinet.
Adjective + adverb: good enough, close together, crystal clear.
Verb + preposition: protect from, angry at, take advantage of.
Adverb + verb: strongly suggest, deeply sorry, highly successful.
Adjective + noun: handsome man, quick shower, fast food.
1. The word combination is not interchangeable (fixed expressions).
- You can’t substitute the words in idioms, even with their synonyms. For instance, in ‘kill two birds with one stone’ the stone is substituted with rock and becomes ‘kill two birds with one rock’. This version of the idiom simply doesn’t exist, even though the overall meaning and construction of the sentence remains unchanged.
2. The meaning of each component is not equal to the meaning of the idiom
- It is difficult to find the meaning of an idiom based on the definition of the words alone. For example, red herring. If you define the idiom word by word, it means ‘red fish’, not ‘something that misleads’, which is the real meaning.
- Because of this, idioms can’t be translated to or from another language because the word definition isn’t equivalent to the idiom interpretation.
Here are some examples of popular idioms:
Break a leg.
Miss the boat.
Call it a day.
It’s raining cats and dogs.
Kill two birds with one stone.
Syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations examples in grammar
Paradigmatic relation describes the relationship between words that can be substituted for words with the same word class (eg replacing a noun with another noun). A paradigm in this sense refers to the vertical axis of word selection. This explains why paradigmatic relation is the opposite of syntagmatic relation.
Now that we have covered the paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations, we can say that:
- Paradigmatic relation describes a substitution relationship between words of the same word class. The substitution occurs on the vertical axis.
- Syntagmatic relation illustrates the linear relationship / position between the words in a sentence. The syntagmatic relation occurs on the horizontal axis.
↥ Paradigmatic relations ↧ |
↤ Syntagmatic relations ↦ | |||
Subject | verb | Object | ||
Determiner | Adjective | Noun | Noun | |
The | beautiful | woman | buys | some brioche |
The | unattractive | lady | buys | some bread |
That | handsome | man | ate | some chicken |
Paradigmatic relation:
Let’s take ‘The beautiful woman buys some brioche‘.
- The beautiful woman can choose to buy: some bread or chicken instead of brioche.
- Brioche, bread, and chicken are parts of a paradigm of food that the beautiful woman can buy.
- All the items in the paradigm share some kind of function (in this example: the object of the sentence) and this paradigm represents the category they belong to (in this example: food).
- Some words from the sentence can also be substituted vertically: ‘An unattractive (antonym) lady (synonymy) buys some bread (hyponymy)’.
Syntagmatic relation:
Let’s take ‘That handsome man ate some chicken‘.
- The combination of ‘that handsome man + ate + some chicken’ forms a syntagmatic relationship.
- If the word position is changed, it also changes the meaning of the sentence, eg ‘Some chicken ate the handsome man’.
- Furthermore, the linear relationship also occurs at phrase-level: it is ‘handsome + man’, not ‘handsome + woman’ (collocation).
Syntagmatic Relations — Key takeaways
- Syntagmatic relation illustrates the relationship between words that co-occur in the same sentence. It occurs on the horizontal axis.
- Syntagmatic relation explains the concept of collocations and idioms.
- Collocations are words that frequently occur together. The word pairings in collocations are not fixed, but changing the word pairing will make the combination sound unnatural, eg handsome man vs. handsome girl.
- Idioms are fixed expressions that possess a meaning other than their literal one. The words in idioms can’t be substituted, eg miss the boat becomes miss the ship, which is not an idiom.
- Paradigmatic relation illustrates the relationship between words that can be substituted within the same grammatical position.
-
#1
As the title indicates, what’s the difference between «on the same order» and «in the same order»?
I doubt is there «on the same order»?
-
#4
Hello, natasha. We need a complete sentence, please, and a description of the context in which you would like to use the phrases. At first glance, they are entirely different.
Sorry,Nunty.I do try to give the context. But this is the question raised by my classmate. They just assumed this two phrase have same meaning but slight difference. So he asks me to distinguish one from the other.
Could you just tell me the usage and meaning using some reference? Would it be alright?