胡壮麟语言学9

(2) Connotative meaning
Also the associative meaning: the communicative value an expression has by virtue of what it refers to, over and above its purely conceptual content. Involving the „real world‟ experience one associates with an expression when one uses or hears it. eg. Woman; home; dragon;

(4) Affective meaning
Reflecting the personal feelings of the speaker, including his attitude to the listener, or his attitude to something he is talking about. It is parasitic in that it depends on the mediation of other categories of meaning as conceptual, connotative or social.
Theories of meaning

The referential theory Mentalism or conceptualism Contextualism (meaning as context) Instrumentalism the behaviorist theory (meaning as behavior)
Mentalism/ conceptualism



F. de Saussure‟s sign theory The linguistic sign to consist of a singnifier and singnigied, i.e. a sound image and a concept, linked by a psychological associative bond. concept (the meaning of the word)
Semantic triangle theory

the relation between a word and a thing it refers to is not direct. It is mediated by concept. thought/reference
semantics
------the study of meaning
Essentials




Definition of semantics Theory of the semantic triangle Leech‟s seven types of meaning Different kinds of meaning Sense relations Can recognize sense relations between words and sentences,i.e. entailment and presupposition, conversational implicature, and synonymous, incompatible, contradictory, abnormal relations Can use componential analysis to distinguish synonyms, antonyms and sentence meanings Know the types of antonyms and can give examples
(1) Conceptual meaning

பைடு நூலகம்

Also called „denotative‟ or „cognitive‟ meaning. The central part of a word meaning. usually it can be studied in terms of contrastive or binary features. e.g. man [+HUMAN +ADULT +MALE] girl [+HUMAN -ADULT +FEMALE] eg. dog ; hospital; foot
The referential theory


It is the theory of meaning which relates the meaning of a word to the thing it refers to, or stands for. It is especially true in the case of proper nouns and definite noun phrases. But it cannot refer to the abstract concepts.



domicile: very formal, official residence: formal abode: poetic home: general steed: poetic horse: general nag: slang gee-gee: baby language


(6) Collocative meaning

The associations a word acquires on account of the meanings of words which tend to occur in its environment. pretty: girl, boy, woman, flower, garden, village, etc. graceful, charming, elegant … handsome: boy, man, car, vessel, overcoat, airliner, typewriter, etc. smart, generous, vigorou energetic, dignified …
Definition of semantics

Semantics is the study of the meaning of linguistic units, words and sentences in particular.

Lexical semantics Sentential sematics
the behaviorist theory (meaning as behavior)


meaning is the “situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer.” It is linked with psychological interest S→r……s →R

(3) Social meaning

What a piece of language conveys about the social circumstances of its use.



Dialect: the language of a geographical region or of a social class. Time: the language of the 18th c., etc. Province: language of law, of science, etc. Status: polite, colloquial, slang, etc. Modality: language of memoranda, lectures, jokes, etc. Singularity (idiolect): the style of Dickens
Instrumentalism


‘The meaning of a word is its use in the language‟. Meaning is studied by making detailed analyses of the way words and sentences are used in specific contexts.
(7) Thematic meaning

What is communicated by the way in which a speaker or writer organizes the message, in terms of ordering, focus, and emphasis.

Sally stands on the table. On the stable stands Sally.
Word meaning

Sense and reference Connotation and denotation
Semantic triangle theory

Proposed by Ogden and Richards In the book THE MEANING OF MEANING
Leech‟s seven types of meaning



Conceptual meaning Connotative meaning Social meaning Affective meaning Reflected meaning Collocative meaning Thematic meaning

Eg. (1) I was near that bank yesterday. (2) a. I don‟t like her. She‟s tall and thin and moves like a crane. b. I do like her. She‟s tall and thin and moves like a crane.

e.g. Tom is a pig.
(5) Reflected meaning


Arises in cases of multiple conceptual meaning, when one sense of a word forms part of our response to another sense. a product of people‟s recognition and imagination. eg. Taboo words; euphemistic expressions;
signifier..……………………….signified
Contextualism (meaning as context)



One can derive meaning from observable contexts which include situational context and the linguistic context. situational context involves 1) the speaker and the hearer; 2)the actions they are performing at the time; 3) various external objects and events; 4) deictic features. linguistic context considers the probability of one word‟s co-occurrence or collocation with another, which forms of the meaning, and an important factor in communication.