Main Types of Word Meaning
1、Grammatical Meaning
Grammatical meaning refers to that part of meaning of the word which indicates grammatical concept or relationships such as the word class, singular and plural forms of nouns, ten meaning of verbs and their inflectional forms (forget, forgets, forgot, forgotten, forgetting).
2、Lexical meaning
Lexical meaning is the meaning of an isolated word in a dictionary. This component of meaning is identical in all the forms of the word. E.g. ‘go, goes, went, gone, going’ posss different grammatical meaning. But they have the same lexical meaning expressing the process of movement.
3、Contextual Meaning
The context generally shows in what n the word is ud, in its primary n or its figurative n. The meaning of the word is defined by the context. e.g. 1) Some of this country are much warmer than others.2) What does a farming country mean? 3) The country is oppod to war.
4、Conceptual meaning
Conceptual meaning (also known as denotative meaning) is the meaning given in the dictionary and forms the core of word meaning. Conceptual meaning forms the basis for communication as the same word has the same conceptual meaning to all the speakers of the same language. e.g. Sun: a heavenly body which gives off light, heat,and energy；Mother: a female parent .
5、Associative meaning
Associate meaning is the condary meaning supplemented to the conceptual meaning. Comparing with conceptual meaning, it is condary and open-ended. It varies according
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to culture, experience, religion, geographical region, class background, education and other contextual factors.
6、Connotative meaning
In contrast to denotative meaning, connotative meaning refers to the overtones or associations which a word suggests or implies. It shows the ur’s emotions, attitudes towards what the word refers to. e.g. sob, cry, weep, wail龙兄虎弟电影；Mother (a female parent) is often associated with ‘love’, ‘care’, ‘tenderness’, ‘forgiving’, etc；Home (a dwelling place) may suggest ‘family, warmth, safety, love, convenience’, etc. ‘East or west, home is best’.
For people with different cultural backgrounds, a word might evoke different associations.
| China | Britain |
| 拌海蜇头 对联上下联怎么分左右magpie | Good luck, good will | wordiness |
owl | bad luck, malignance | composure, wisdom |
red | happiness, good luck, success | ‘red-light district’ ‘red flags’ ‘in the red” |
| | |
7、Stylistic meaning
Words may have stylistic features, which make them appropriate for different contexts. This stylistic difference is especially true of synonyms. It is obrved that there are few words which have both the same conceptual meaning and stylistic meaning. e.g. male parent, father, daddy
倒贴福字Example:
(1)Common words: brother, mother, hand, arm, grass, moon, bed, home. Eat, hear, big, good夏尔图片
(2)Formal words: purloin (steal) overtones( hint, suggestion)
(3)Informal words: a) Colloquialisms: nippy (nimble) daddy (father) tell of (to scold) b) Slang: bread dough lolly chickenfeed ---money c) Vulgarisms: gent (gentleman)d) Jargon: sucker e) Argot: can-opener dip (pickpocket)
8、Affective meaning
Affective meaning indicates the speaker’s attitude towards the person or thing in question. Words that have emotive values may fall into two categories: Appreciative or commendatory: words of positive overtones ud to show appreciation or approval. Pejorative or derogatory: words of negative connotations imply disapproval, contempt or criticism.
This affective difference is especially true of synonyms.
Appreciative | Neutral | Pejorative |
gathering | crowd | mob |
nior citizen | old person | fossil |
slender,slim | 妇炎康胶囊 thin | skinny |
unique | unusual | bizarre |
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晚上喝红酒
9、Collocative meaning
Collocative meaning consists of the associations a word acquires in its collocation. In oth
er words, it is that part of the word meaning suggested by the words before or after the word in discussion. ‘A bit or a little’ collocates with words of negative connotations: drunk, jealous, gloomy, tired, worried…‘Highly’ collocates with words of positive connotations: important, significant, intelligent, nsitive…
