Chapter Five(1)

The indirect theory
Leech uses SENSE(涵义) (系统意义）as a briefer term for his conceptual meaning. “Sense” may be used in the same way as “connotation” is used in philosophy. It may refer to the properties an entity has. In this sense, “sense” is equivalent to “concept”. The definition of desk may also be called the sense of desk.
Meanings The
of “meaning”
referential theory （指称论） relations（涵义关系）
Sense
Componential
Sentence
analysis（成分分析）
meaning
Introduction to Semantics
The
More
Two
study subjects: Meaning of Words, Meaning of Sentences
the 1960s, linguists paid so much attention to the meaning of words, and neglected the meaning of sentences.
conceptual
meaning: 概念意义 connotative meaning: 内涵意义 social meaning:社会意义 affective meaning: 感情意义 reflected meaning: 反射意义 collocative meaning: 搭配意义 thematic meaning: 主位意义 P106: table 5--1
?古希腊哲学家柏拉图认为语言形式是语言中的一个词语义是它所代表所指示所表示的世界上的实体指称referent
Chapter Five MEANING
意义
BY ZHANG JIANHUA
What
is MEANING?
MEANING
in language study: the meaning of words the meaning of sentences
The semantic triangle （语义三角）
proposed by Ogden and Richards in their The Meaning of Meaning. It is a theory which explicitly employs the notion “concept”.
Connotation and denotation (内涵与外延) in philosophy: Connotation: the properties of the entity a word denotes. Ex. the connotation of “human” is “biped”, “featherless”, “rational”, etc. Denotation: the entity a word denotes. Ex. the denotation of “human” is anybody.
Associative
(联想意义)
Conceptual meaning: ☻ Logical, cognitive, or denotative content ☻ It makes up the central part. ☻ “Denotative（外延的）”: it is concerned with the relationship between a word and the thing it denotes, or refers to. ☻ In this sense, conceptual meaning overlaps to a large extent with the notion of REFERENCE（指 称）.
In
the case of proper nouns and definite noun phrases, this is especially true, that is, to explain the meaning of a word by pointing to the thing it refers to. The most influential linguist Noam Chomsky teaches at MIT.

concept word thing


The relation between a word and a thing it refers to is not direct. It is mediated by concept.
Richards
invented the semantic triangle to demonstrate the relationship between symbols and their referent. One part of the triangle is the symbol, or the word. An example would be a blanket. Another peak on the triangle is the thought (concept). This is the words that one would use to describe the referent such as warm, cozy, cotton. The referent, the last part, is the thing that one would picture in his mind.
The referential theory
The
theory of meaning which relates the meaning of a word to the thing it refers to, or stands for, is known as the referential theory. 古希腊哲学家柏拉图认为语言形式是语言中 的一个词，语义是它所代表、所指示、所表 示的世界上的实体——指称（referent）。比 如dog这个词代表了属于这一类的实体。
Before
Meanings of “meaning”
The
study of the meanings of “meaning”:
C. K. Ogden & I. A. Richards in their The Meaning of Meaning (1923) distinguished 22 types of meaning; G. Leech in his Semantics (1974) distinguished 7 types of meaning.
涵义是词语之间的语义关系 ；更概括地看，是语言单位之间的语义关系。 它体现的是语言内关系。
Reference
is concerned with the relation between a word and the thing it refers to, or more generally between a linguistic unit and a non-linguistic entity it refers to.
Problem
of the theory: There is something behind the concrete thing we can see with our eyes. And that something is abstract, which has no existence in the material world and can only be sensed in our minds. This abstract thing is usually called concept(概念).
2.
Every word has a sense, i. e. some conceptual content. But not every word has a reference.
Grammatical words like but, if, and do not refer to anything. And words like unicorn, Santa Claus , God, ghost , fairy, demon and dragon refer to imaginary things, which do not exist in reality. Abstract words like sincerity, love don’t have a concrete referent in the world.
Besides
the above, there are different ways to explain the meaning of a word. ♠ By pointing to the object the word stands for; ♠ By describing the object’s shape, color, functions, etc.; ♠ By paraphrasing it; ♠ By translating it into an equivalent object in na be defined as the semantic relations between one word and another, or more generally between one linguistic unit and another. It is concerned with the intra-linguistic relations.
subject concerning the study of meaning is called SEMANTICS. specifically, SEMANTICS is the study of the meaning of linguistic units, words and sentences in particular.
In
Leech’s system, “connotation” refers to some additional, especially emotive meaning. The difference between politician and statesman is connotative in that the former is derogative while the latter is favorable.
指称体现的是词和所指事物之间的关系；或者说，是语言单位和它所指非 语言实体之间的关系。

“sense” （系统意义）and “reference”（指称意
义）
1.
The distinction between them is comparable to that between “connotation” and “denotation”. The former (sense) refers to the abstract properties of an entity, while the later (reference) refers to the concrete entities having these properties.