Word meaning the best example

Exemplar, perhaps.

So, for example, as applied to people —

A person whose conduct is regarded as an object of imitation or as an influence on the behaviour of others; esp. a person considered worthy of imitation; a paragon of a particular quality or virtue.

Example usages from the OED show how widely it has been used:

1920 R. Fry in Burlington Mag. Oct. 162/2 The exemplar which men put before themselves was the civilization of Greece and Rome.

1975 B. Gill Here at New Yorker 27 Ross liked to be thought of as an exemplar of common sense.

2004 Internat. Gas Engin. & Managem. May 9/2 The European Commission..singled out the UK programme as an exemplar to follow.

2009 Time Out N.Y. 12 Mar. 47/1 Levittown, the Long Island housing development,..became a Stepfordlike exemplar of postwar suburbia.

And, of course, exemplars are exemplary —

A model for imitation, a pattern, a prototype; someone or something to be imitated; esp. a person whose conduct is considered worthy of imitation.(OED)

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,Cf. also mother
country, a mother’s mark (=a birthmark), mother tongue, etc.)

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In semantics and pragmatics, meaning is the message conveyed by words, sentences, and symbols in a context. Also called lexical meaning or semantic meaning.

In The Evolution of Language (2010), W. Tecumseh Fitch points out that semantics is «the branch of language study that consistently rubs shoulders with philosophy. This is because the study of meaning raises a host of deep problems that are the traditional stomping grounds for philosophers.»

Here are more examples of meaning from other writers on the subject:

Word Meanings

«Word meanings are like stretchy pullovers, whose outline contour is visible, but whose detailed shape varies with use: ‘The proper meaning of a word . . . is never something upon which the word sits like a gull on a stone; it is something over which the word hovers like a gull over a ship’s stern,’ noted one literary critic [Robin George Collingwood].»
(Jean Aitchison, The Language Web: The Power and Problem of Words. Cambridge University Press, 1997)

Meaning in Sentences

«It may justly be urged that, properly speaking, what alone has meaning is a sentence. Of course, we can speak quite properly of, for example, ‘looking up the meaning of a word’ in a dictionary. Nevertheless, it appears that the sense in which a word or phrase ‘has a meaning’ is derivative from the sense in which a sentence ‘has a meaning’: to say a word or phrase ‘has a meaning’ is to say that there are sentences in which it occurs which ‘have meanings’; and to know the meaning which the word or phrase has, is to know the meanings of sentences in which it occurs. All the dictionary can do when we ‘look up the meaning of a word’ is to suggest aids to the understanding of sentences in which it occurs. Hence it appears correct to say that what ‘has meaning’ in the primary sense is the sentence.» (John L. Austin, «The Meaning of a Word.» Philosophical Papers, 3rd ed., edited by J. O. Urmson and G. J. Warnock. Oxford University Press, 1990)

Different Kinds of Meaning for Different Kinds of Words

«There can’t be a single answer to the question ‘Are meanings in the world or in the head?’ because the division of labor between sense and reference is very different for different kinds of words. With a word like this or that, the sense by itself is useless in picking out the referent; it all depends on what is in the environs at the time and place that a person utters it. . . . Linguists call them deictic terms . . .. Other examples are here, there, you, me, now, and then. «At the other extreme are words that refer to whatever we say they mean when we stipulate their meanings in a system of rules. At least in theory, you don’t have to go out into the world with your eyes peeled to know what a touchdown is, or a member of parliament, or a dollar, or an American citizen, or GO in Monopoly, because their meaning is laid down exactly by the rules and regulations of a game or system. These are sometimes called nominal kinds—kinds of things that are picked out only by how we decide to name them.» (Steven Pinker, The Stuff of Thought. Viking, 2007)

Two Types of Meaning: Semantic and Pragmatic

«It has been generally assumed that we have to understand two types of meaning to understand what the speaker means by uttering a sentence. . . . A sentence expresses a more or less complete propositional content, which is semantic meaning, and extra pragmatic meaning comes from a particular context in which the sentence is uttered.» (Etsuko Oishi, «Semantic Meaning and Four Types of Speech Act.» Perspectives on Dialogue in the New Millennium, ed. P. Kühnlein et al. John Benjamins, 2003)

Pronunciation: ME-ning

Etymology

From the Old English, «to tell of»

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Описание презентации по отдельным слайдам:

• 

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  Word Meaning
  Lecture # 6
  Grigoryeva M.

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  Word Meaning

  Approaches to word meaning

  Meaning and Notion (понятие)

  Types of word meaning

  Types of morpheme meaning

  Motivation

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  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

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  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

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  Semantics (Semasiology)
  Is a branch of lexicology which studies the
  meaning of words and word equivalents

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  Approaches to Word Meaning
  The Referential (analytical) approach

  The Functional (contextual) approach

  Operational (information-oriented) approach

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  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

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  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 – flower

  sound-form referent
  [rәuz]

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  In what way does meaning correlate with
  each element of the triangle ?

  In what relation does meaning stand to
  each of them?

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  Meaning and Sound-form
  are not identical
  different
  EX. dove — [dΛv] English sound-forms
  [golub’] Russian BUT
  [taube] German
  the same meaning

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  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]
  night [nait]

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  Meaning and Sound-form
  even considerable changes in sound-form do not affect the meaning

  EX Old English lufian [luvian] – love [l Λ v]

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  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

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  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

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  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

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  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.

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  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

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  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

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  Lexical Meaning and Notion
  Notion denotes the reflection in the mind of real objects

  Notion 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

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  Lexical Meaning and Notion
  Notions are international especially with the nations of the same cultural level

  Meanings 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)

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  Types of Meaning
  Types of meaning

  grammatical
  meaning

  lexico-grammatical
  meaning
  lexical meaning
  denotational
  connotational

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  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

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  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

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  24 слайд

  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

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  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.

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  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, thought

  Lexical
  Think, thinking, thought
  Went, go
  Boy’s, boy, boys
  Nearest, near, nearer
  At, for, during (“time”)
  Beautiful, the most beautiful

  Part-of-speech
  Nouns—verbs—adj—-prep

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  Aspects of Lexical meaning
  The denotational aspect

  The connotational aspect

  The pragmatic aspect

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  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”

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  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

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  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

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  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”

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  32 слайд

  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 work-swollen finger knuckles.

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  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)

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  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)

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  35 слайд

  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.

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  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)

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  Types of Morpheme Meaning
  lexical
  differential
  functional
  distributional

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  38 слайд

  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”

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  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

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  Differential Meaning
  a semantic component that serves to distinguish one word from all others containing identical morphemes

  EX. cranberry, blackberry, gooseberry

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  41 слайд

  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.

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  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- = ?

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  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

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  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

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  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”

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  46 слайд

  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)

• 

• 

  48 слайд

  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

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  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

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  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

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  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 motivation

  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

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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

The subject matter of semantics is meaning. ‘Semantics is the technical used to refer to the study of meaning, and, since meaning is a part of language, semantics is part of linguistics.’ (FR Palmer: 1). Man has always been interested in language, and mainly in the relations of linguistic symbols, and over the centuries these relations have been viewed differently from various angles.

The term semantics was first used in the seventeenth century in the phrase semantick philosophy.

M. Breal is credited with coining the word semantics in his Essai de semantique (1897) ‘as a name for philosophical enquiries’. ‘Chwistek meant by it what Carnap called logical syntax, it is often used to refer to such inquiries into meaning as Peirce’s theory of signs, Frege’s distinction between Sense and Reference, and Wittgensteins picture theory.

In ancient times, in the days of pre-platonic philosophizing association between sense and reference, name and concrete things was recognised. This stand has not substantially changed in that the basic premises and processes of meaning recognise it.

In 1894 the English word semantics occurred in a paper presented to the American Philosophical Association : ‘Reflected meaning a point in semantics’. As a branch of language study considering language in terms of semantic units, structured in a certain way, being linked to phonetic units, semantics is recent development, yet to develop its tools, analytical procedures and somewhat uncertain of its theoretical foundations. Linguistics had not much to do with it till the thirties.

Leonard Bloomfield tried to form the theoretical basis by equating semantics to the stimulus – response formula.

As Wallace Chafe observes,

‘Linguistics thus finds itself at the present time in an awkward position, for of all things it has learned about the various parts of language, it has learned the least about semantics … It has left semantics to a very large extent to philosophers, behavioural scientists and others who have had no scientific paradigm within which knowledge about language could be systematically integrated’.

Emergence of structuralism on the linguistic scene marks the watershed in the realm of semantics, which highlighted that ‘Linguistic units are but points in a system, or network of relations, they are the terminals of these relations and they have no prior and independent existence’ (Lyons). In 1966 A. J. Greimas produced Structural Semantics which viewed semantics as an exploration of signification anchored in the world perceived through senses’.

Semantics Meaning

The meanings of words are constantly changing and we cannot say what the words we use today will come to mean in future. Words are not exact signs for definite and unchanging conceptions as are the formulas of mathematics, circumstances and the trend of a people’s thought exercise decisive influence upon the signification of words. Moreover, the word meanings are greatly modified by the adoption of foreign words bearing the similar meanings. That the words have no essential meanings but are merely conventional signs is borne out by the semantic changes.

Consider, for example, the sentence from Chaucer’s Prologue to the Canterbury Tales “He was veray parfit gentil knight”. If we take the words of the sentence in the significations they have to day, the sentence will mean, “He was a very perfect gentle knight.” Our meaning is, however, far from what Chaucer meant, because Chaucer meant, “He was a true, complete and noble knight”. In the days of Chaucer veray meant ‘true’ (not very), parfit complete (not perfect), gentil ‘noble’ (not gentle). In their sense-development words are often seen to pursue some well-marked tendencies. Among the more common of these are extension (or generalization of meaning, narrowing, (or specializing) of meaning, degeneration of meaning and elevation of meaning. Besides these common tendencies, semantic changes also occur through popular misunderstanding and emotional addition.

The Process of Semantics Change

1. Extension or Generalization of Meaning

By extension of meaning is meant the widening of a word’s signification until it covers much more than the idea originally conveyed.

Semantics Examples

The word box offers a good example of the extension of meaning. It originally meant a small receptacle, furnished with a lid, and intended to contain drugs, ointment, jewels or money. Gradually the sense grew wider and the word came to denote other things resembling a box in shape and use. Down to the end of the seventeenth century the word’s signification was restricted to objects of comparatively small size. After 1700 this restriction disappeared so that a chest or the like for holding clothes could be called a box. The meaning of box has now been so wide as to be equally applicable to what would formerly have been called a box, and to what would formerly have been called a chest. We now say a pill-box, a bandbox, a box for clothes, a box in a stable, a box in a theatre, a shooting box etc.

Rival (Latin rivus ‘river’) meant originally “neighbours who got water from the same brook.” Gradually it came to suggest the contest arising between neighbours respecting their riparian rights. But today we use the word to designate competitors in politics, or business or love.

The verb to carry which is an adaptation of an Old French word meant, etymologically, to convey something in a wheeled vehicle. In English it was applied to signify other modes of conveyance, perhaps at first by joke, as when we speak of carting some object from one room to another. “In the end, the verb became the most general expression”, as Dr. Bradley says, “for the act of removing a thing from one place to another by lifting it from the ground.” In this sense, the older verb to bear has come to be superseded, to a great extent, by the verb to carry.

Take also the word lovely which originally meant “worthy to be loved”. But today its signification has become so general that a girl may be lovely, a box of chocolate may be lovely, a dinner may be lovely, a chair may be lovely, a day may be lovely.

In many words the extension of meaning has gone so far that they mean nothing in particular. There are many English words which once had a precise and definite meaning, but now they can be applied to so many things that they mean really almost nothing, just as a man who is equally intimate with everybody has no real friends. Circumstances illustrates best this see mantic phenomenon. It means literally “things that stand round one”, but it has now become so vague that we say without hesitation, under the following circumstances”. The phrase includes, as Greenough and Kittredge say, “three inconsistent expressions of direction or position: under, after and around. Yet we do not feel the inconsistency.”

Presently originally meant immediately, but since the seventeenth century it has passed to its rather vague and indefinite meaning of today. Thing which originally meant discussion and also ‘legislative assembly’ has now come to mean a variety of things with the result that it means nothing definitely. There are many words which once meant something rather definite, but have gradually faded into their present vague and shadowy condition. Such words are, in Modern English, affair, business, concern, regard, account, article, fact, state, condition, position, situation, way, means, respect, matter etc. According to G.L. Brook, “Another extreme form of extension is the tendency, particularly noticeable in slang, for adjectives of the most varied origins to become either vague terms of approval or vague terms of disapproval. Standard English examples are good, nice, fine, excellent, admirable, beside, bad, worthless, mean, evil, vile, and many others.”

2. Specialization of Meaning

Sometimes words which are originally of wide reference are seen to have undergone specialization in meaning or to have become restricted in use.

Semantics Examples

A classic example of this specialization of meaning is the word doctor. Formerly the word meant learned men in theology, law, and in many other fields besides medicine, but nowadays it is applied only to the practitioner of the healing art, whether having a University degree or not. In Old English fide (cognate with German zeit) signified “time.” But in Middle English its application was restricted, and came to mean chiefly the time of the periodical rise or fall of the sea, after wards it was used to name these phenomena of the sea, the older sense being sufficiently expressed by the synonym time.

Starve (OE. Steorfan) like its German cognate sterben originally meant “to die”. Now the meaning has been specialized in Standard English to signify “to die of hunger” while in many dialects it means “to die of cold.”

Deer (OE déor) meant ‘animal’ of any sort down to the sixteenth century, but is now applied to one particular kind of animal.

Cattle formerly meant ‘property’ and it was used in this sense down to the sixteenth century. In an agricultural society living animals like cows, oxen, goats, hens, bees, lambs etc., are one of the chief forms of property and from the beginning of the fourteenth century the word (cattle) was specialized to mean ‘live-stock’- living creatures that could be kept or dealt in for profit or use. Afterwards the word has undergone another round of specialization, so that it now means bovine animals only.

There are some words in English which were originally used to mean either good or bad things, but now they have been specialized to mean either one or the other. Censure originally meant ‘opinion’, favourable or unfavourable. “And your name is great in mouths of wisest censure” (Othello, 11.3.193), it has now come to mean “unfavourable opinion”. Retaliate which was originally applied to benefits as well as to ill-treatment is now limited only to ill-treatment.

When a word has acquired a restricted sense, it is not uncommon to find the older sense preserved in proverbial phrases, compounds etc. Thus the older sense of meat (OE. mete), which originally meant food, is preserved in the compound sweetmeat, or in the proverb “One man’s meat is another man’s poison.” The original signification of play (OE plega), which was ‘motion’ of almost any kind is preserved in technical usage, as in “The piston-rod does not play freely“, “the play of the valve.”

When a word has been specialized in meaning the restricted sense does not always drive out the other sense the two (or more) senses exist side by side for centuries. When Edgar says in King Lear (111,4,149), “Rats and mice and such small deer”. he is using deer in its original sense of animal The specialized and the wider sense of cousin existed side by side down to the 18th century when the wider sense “kinsman or kinswoman” became obsolete, except for special use.

3. Degeneration of Meaning

The tendency of a word to acquire a less favourable sense than it originally had is commonly known as degeneration (of meaning).

Semantics Examples

Curiosity meant formerly the desire to learn, a feeling of interest that led to inquiry, Dr. Johnson used curiosity in this sense when he wrote “Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.” Recently the word has undergone degeneration in meaning and has come to mean “inquisitiveness, in reference to trifles or matters which do not concern one.”

Sensual originally possessed no evil meaning and was used in the sense of sensuous. In the sixteenth century the word came to imply something bad or vicious, and so Milton was compelled to coin the word sensuous to fill up the gap caused by the degeneration of sensual. It is interesting to note that Keats uses the word sensual with the old and innocent signification in his Ode on a Grecian Urn:

“……. Ye, soft pipes, play on:

Not to the sensual car…….” (Lines 12-13)

Ghost once meant ‘spirit in general, with the introduction of the Latin word ‘spirit’ it deteriorated in meaning, and came to acquire the dishonorable sense of the apparition of a dead person. The older sense of the word survives in religious phrases like “Holy Ghost.” Coleridge uses the word (ghost) with the original and honourable sense in his “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”

“I thought that I had died in sleep,

And was blessed ghost.” (Lines 307-8)

Fiend, in Old English and down to the middle of the 14th century was used in the sense of ‘enemy’ (contrary of friend. But with the introduction of the French word enemy, its use in the sense of ‘enemy’ was usurped by the French intruder, except its use with reference to the unseen enemies of the souls of man. In the end the original meaning of fiend was quite forgotten, and it became simply equivalent to devil.

Silly (OE. Saelig) originally meant ‘blessed’ or ‘happy like’ its German cognate selig. “In the Middle English it was often used satirically in a tone of mock, envy or admiration, and hence acquired the disparaging sense which it now has” (Dr. H. Bradley).

The adjective base which now implies moral unworthiness originally meant “of humble birth.” Marlowe uses the word in the original sense in Edward II. When the Younger Mortimer says, “The glozing head of thy base minion thrown” (1.,133), he uses base in the sense of “of humble birth”. Shakespeare also uses it in the original sense. When Hamlet says that he once regarded it as “baseness to write fair” (V, ii, 34) he means that he once thought that the ability to write fair belonged to those who were of humble birth, and not that it was morally unworthy.

The semantic history of minion is also very interesting, Minion (from French mignon) was formerly used in a good sense of “darling” but now it has acquired the contemptuous sense of a base, unworthy favourite. Marlowe uses the word in the modern contemptuous sense, as in “The glozing head of thy base minion thrown.” Shakespeare uses it both in the good and bad senses. Sergeant’s description of Macbeth as “valour’s minion” contains the original (also good) sense while the line, “Go, rate thy minions, proud insulting boy” (Henry VI, Part 3,II,ii,84) contains the modern bad sense.

According to A.C. Baugh, the degeneration of meaning may take the form of the gradual extension to so many senses that any particular meaning which the word may have had is completely lost. In other words, degeneration results sometimes from generalization or widening of meaning. Great originally meant ‘large in size’ the opposite of ‘small’. But today anything from a ball game to the weather may be great. Other words which have suffered this type of degeneration are lovely awful, terrible, etc.

4. Elevation of Meaning

If words sometimes go downhill, they sometimes undergo the opposite process known as elevation Fame (Latin fama) originally meant report, talk’, but the word is now used in a good sense. The older sense is preserved in the phrase “a house of ill fame”.

Semantics Examples

Many words which were formerly slang have now undergone elevation of meaning. Thus in the eighteenth century snob and sham were slang, but in the nineteenth century they attained respectability, the former partly through the influence of Thackeray.

The word sturdy which originally meant “harsh, rough or intractable” is now used in a wholly complimentary sense. Smock was applied to a woman’s undergarment down to the 18th century. But now the word has been uplifted in caste and has come to be applied to a woman’s outer garment. We also speak, nowadays, of an artist’s smock.

“Extension of meaning”, as G.L. Brook says “has often led to elevation. A word which once had quite a precise meaning is liable to become a vague expression of approval if it describes a quality which many people regard as admirable“. The word ‘nice’ best illustrates this semantic development. This French word found its way into English in the thirteenth century, and was used in derogatory senses. In the sixteenth century it was specialized in the sense of “fastidious, difficult to please”. In the eighteenth century the word again underwent an extension of meaning and became a term of praise. Nowadays we use the word in many senses – a nice book, a nice girl, a nice picture, a nice dinner, a nice journey. The word has been raised in caste, but has become vague in signification

5. Semantic changes through Emotional Addition

There are in English a large number of words which have undergone semantic change through the addition of emotional connotation to their primary meaning Illustrative examples of this semantic process are the adjectives enormous, extraordinary, extravagant. In their etymological sense these words merely express the fact that something passes the ordinary or prescribed limits. Thus “an enormous appetite” formerly meant what we now call an abnormal appetite; “an extraordinary event” was simply not an ordinary event: “extravagant conduct” was conduct which did not conform to the established rules of conduct. Now the employment of these adjectives not only indicates something that is unusual or abnormal, but also excites our wonder, indignation or contempt, while referring to the abnormal or unusual character of their nouns.

Semantics Examples

Grievous has also undergone this kind of change. The word, now-a-days, implies sympathy on the part of the person speaking while formerly it did not signify any such emotional association.

Great and large mean to the understanding very much the same thing, but great has emotional implication which large has not.

6. Change of meaning through Popular Misunderstanding

There are many words which have undergone semantic changes because they have been popularly misunderstood.

Semantics Examples

The use of the verb to transpire in the sense of ‘to happen’ or ‘to take place’ is not uncommon now-a-days, specially in newspapers, Literally to transpire means ‘to emit or to be emitted through the pores of the skin’ and a circumstance may be correctly said to have transpired in the sense of becoming known, becoming public gradually. But the use of transpire in the sense of ‘to happen’ has arisen, Jespersen thinks, through a vulgar misunderstanding of the English signification of an English word.

Preposterous is another word which illustrates this process of semantic change. Literally it means only “placed in reversed order”. If a letter written today is delivered before the letter written yesterday, the delivery of the letter should be called preposterous in accordance with the original sense of the word. But from the use of the word in contexts in which its exact meaning was not obvious, the unlearned people wrongly took it to mean something like “outrageously absurd”. This mistaken sense is now firmly established. Other words belonging to this class of semantic change are emergency (as used in the sense of urgency), premises, ingenuity etc.