Chapter 5 Semantics
⏹Semantics----the study of language meaning.
⏹Semantics is defined as the study of meaning. However, it is not the only linguistic discipline that studies meaning.
⏹Semantics answers the question “what does this ntence mean”. In other words, it is the analysis of conventional meanings in words and ntences out of context.
⏹Meaning is central to the study of communication.
⏹Classification of lexical meanings. Here are G. Leech’s ven types of meaning. ( British linguist)
⏹1. Conceptual meaning (also called denotative or cognitive meaning) is the esntial and inextricable part of what language is, and is widely regarded as the central factor in verbal communication. I你有权保持沉默t means that the meaning of words may be discusd in terms of what they denote or refer to.
⏹2. Connotative meaning – the communicative value an expression has by virtue of what it refers to, embraces the properties of the referent, peripheral
⏹3. Social meaning (stylistic meaning) – what is conveyed about the social circumstances of the u of a linguistic expression美国专业排名雅思
⏹4. Affective meaning (affected meaning)– what is communicated of the feeling or attitude of the speaker/writer towards what is referred to
⏹5. Reflected meaning – what is communicated through association with another n of the same expression
⏹Taboos
⏹6. Collocative meaning – the associated meaning a word acquires in line with the meaning of words which tend to co-occur with it
⏹(2, 3, 4, 5, 6 can be together called associative meaning– meaning that hinges on referential meaning, less stable, more culture-specific )
7. Thematic meaning—what is communicated by the way in which the message is organized in terms of order and emphasis.
Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang | Joly | Hawkes and Minford |
Go home | On my way back | Begin my journey | |
alrightPass away | Be no more | Dead | |
Death | The breath is just gone out of the body | Death | |
Has gone | Her spirit has retired | Be taken from us | |
Depart this world | Depart this life | Gone | |
Gone | Be no more | Death | |
| | | |
⏹What is meaning?---- Scholars under different scientific backgrounds have different understandings of language meaning. of cour
Some views concerning the study of meaning
⏹pipe是什么意思Naming theory (Plato)
⏹The conceptualist view
⏹Contextualism (Bloomfield)
⏹Behaviorism
Naming theory (Plato): Words are names or labels for things.csic
The linguistic forms or symbols, in other words, the words ud in a language are taken to be labels of the objects they stand for; words are just names or labels for things
⏹Limitations:
1) Applicable to nouns only.
2) There are nouns which denote things that do not exist in the real world, e.g. ghost, dragon, unicorn, phenix…
英语作文网 3) There are nouns that do not refer to physical objects but abstract notions, e.g. joy, impul, hatred…
The conceptualist view
⏹The conceptualist view holds that there is no direct link between a linguistic form and what it refers to (i.e. between language and the real world); rather, in the interpretation of meaning they are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind.
Ogden and Richards: mantic triangle
understand什么意思Thought/reference undefined concept or notion, mental image
Words/phras/ntences
Symbol/Form (words), signifier Referent undefined(signified, real object, re
如何欲擒故纵ality)
⏹The symbol or form refers to the linguistic elements (words and phras);
⏹The referent refers to the object in the world of experience;
⏹Thought or reference refers to concept.
汽车挂件⏹The symbol or a word signifies things by virtue of the concept associated with the form of the word in the minds of the speaker; and the concept looked at from this point of view is the meaning of the word.
The contextualism
John Firth
The situational context: in a particular spatiotemporal situation
Linguistic context (co-text): the probability of a word’s co-occurrence or collocation with a
nother word
⏹Meaning should be studied in terms of situation, u, context—elements cloly linked with language behavior. Two types of contexts are recognized:
⏹Situational context: spatiotemporal situation
⏹Linguistic context: the probability of a word’s co-occurrence or collocation.
⏹For example, “black” in black hair & black coffee, or black sheep differs in meaning; “The president of the United States” can mean either the president or presidency in different situation.
Behaviorism
Bloomfield bad on contextualist view
Behaviorists define meaning of a language form as the situation in which the speaker utters it and the respon it calls forth in the hearer
⏹Behaviorists attempted to define meaning as “the situation in which the speaker utters it and the respon it calls forth in the hearer”.
⏹The story of Jack and Jill:
