语义学复习要点

语义学复习要点及习题

1.The naming theory（命名说）is one of the oldest notions concerning meaning. According to

this theory, the linguistic forms or symbols, in other words, the words used in a language are simply labels of the objects they stand for.

2.The conceptualist view（概念论）is one concerning meaning. According to this view, there

is no direct link between a linguistic form and what it refers to.

3.Behaviorism: According to this view, the meaning of a language form is the “situation in

which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer”. (Bloomfield 1933: 139)

4.Contextualism（语境论）：is a view concerning meaning which holds that meaning should be

studied in terms of situation, use, context.

5.Same reference but different sense:

e.g. Venus

The evening star west. (sunset)

The morning star east. (sunrise)

Same object (same reference) but different sense (different aspect); different ways of referring to the same thing.

6.Conceptual meaning is also called “denotative”（外延义）or “cognitive”meaning. This

refers to the definition given in the dictionary.

7.Connotative meaning may vary according to culture, historical period and the experience of

the individual, and thus are indeterminate and open-ended.

8.Affective meaning indicates the speaker’s attitude towards the person or thing in question.

9.Homonymy refers to cases where lexemes with the same phonological or morphological

shape have different meanings.

10.According to the semantic relationship, antonyms can be loosely divided into three categories:

1) Complementary antonyms互补性反义Complementary antonyms are also called

non-gradable antonyms. They are lexemes or expressions whose crucial semantic features are mutually exclusive. The positive of one suggests the negative of the other.

male---female; married---single; alive---dead;

2) Gradable antonyms (可分等级的反义词) There are often intermediate form between the

two members of a pair of antonyms . So it is a matter of degree. “old”and “young”

3) Relational antonyms（关系反义词）They are pairs of lexemes or expressions whose

crucial semantic features display a reciprocal (相互的) relationship.

husband --- wife

My only love sprung from my only hate!

Too early seen unknown, and known too late.

Antonyms can also be used as a rhetorical device to make the expressions more contrastive and impressive.

To achieve emphasis by putting contrasting ideas together, to express economically the opposite of a particular thought.

11.Meronymy is a term used to describe a part-whole relationship between lexical items.

12.Hyponymy is used to refer to a specific-general semantic relationship between lexical items.