英语词汇学五、六章

Chapter 5 Word Meaning

本章为难点和重点

学习目标：

了解“意义”的不同含义，词义的理据；弄懂几种常见的意义类型。

考核要求：本章的三大要点

1. “意义”的意义

领会弄懂：所指、概念、语义de 内涵及其区别。

2. 词义的理据：

记忆：拟声理据、形态理据、语义理据、词源理据

领会：词义的理据与“conventional”之间的关系。

3. 词义的类别

领会和运用：语法意义、词汇意义、概念意义、关联意义、内含意义、文体意义、搭配意义

5.1 The meaning of …meaning‟ P81

In linguistics, semantics is generally considered to be the study of meaning in language.

词汇学中研究的意义的是词汇的意义Lexical meaning:

Reference (referent) ：~ is the relation between language and the world.

Concept：definition, difference from reference

Sense: definition

Words do not have meaning before they acquire reference.

Reference and referent (所指物): Only when a connection is established between the linguistic sign ——the word, and a referent does the sign have meaning.

只有当语言符号与其所指物之间建立起关系时，该语符才有了意义。

…By means of reference, a speaker indicates which things in the world are being talked about‟

(Hurford & Heasley 1983: 25).

A referent: an object, a phenomenon, a person, etc.

The reference of a word to a thing outside the language is arbitrary and conventional. This is the

result of generalization and abstraction.

人类的概括化和抽象导致了事物和指称某事物的语言符号之间的任意性和约定俗成性关系。

The same thing (referent) can have different referring expressions.

同一事物可以有许多不同的语言表达式（不同的语言、同一种语言）

In specific contexts, reference can refer to something specific.

在没有特定语境时，指称指的是笼统的概念，即泛指（general）。但在特定语境中，指称可以指具

体的事物，即特指（specific）。

Examples:

These are Persian cats.

This is Wangwang. It is my son‟s dog. The dog named …行善‟.

This animal is a cat.

S/he is a cat.

思考题：

Does every word have reference?

Idea, fear, love, probable, enthusiasm, encouragement

5.1.2 Concept概念

Meaning is usually used in the sense of …concept‟. They are closely related but not identical. 意义

通常指的是概念。两者紧密联系而又不同。

They are both related to referents, both are notions of the words, but belong to different categories.

两者都与指称物相关，都是词的内容，但却属于不同的范畴。

Concept is beyond language. It is the result of human cognition of the objective world in human mind. 概念在语言之外。它是人类对客观世界的事物认知的结果。

concept (human cognition in mind)

Word referent (objects)

比如，the relation between the word …tree‟ and the actual plant.

There is no direct link between word and referent (language and the world), the link is via human

concept in our minds.

词与指称物之间没有直接联系，联系是通过人类大脑中对客观事物形成的概念建立起来的。

A concept can be expressed in many different ways.

Dialects of the same language, such as Shanghainese, Cantonese, Putong Hua上海话、广东话

Different languages could express the same concept. For example, in different cultures, there

are different words for the concept of …snow‟.

…snow, flake, grue (Scotland), 雪xue；うき‟

Shu (树), tree, き（ki:）

5.1.3 Sense 语言的内部意义

Sense denotes the relationship inside the language. 语言内部的关系。