Transcript DENOTES - Contact

Lexis, Morphology & Semantics
for English Language Teaching
Exploration of semantic operations 5:
Denotation & Connotation
Collocation & Concordances
Exploration of semantic operations 5
Denotation vs Connotation
– Denotation
• as reference (or not)
– utterance-independent (vs utterance-dependent)
– potential (vs actual)
• as derived from sense
– conceptual (vs expressive)
• as (objective) “truth”
– Connotation
• as conventional / cultural
• as (subjective) “distortion”
Collocation
– word association / idiom-aticity
– collocational operations
• below the word level
• “at” the word level
• “above” the word level
Concordance (KWIC)
Exploration of semantic operations 5
Denotation as reference?
(the word)
“dog”
DENOTES
all dogs
(in the world)
Exploration of semantic operations 5
Denotation as reference?
(the word)
“dog”
word
form
SENSE
RELATIONS
word
meaning/sense
DENOTES
all dogs
(in the world)
Exploration of semantic operations 5
Denotation as
utterance-independent
(the word)
“dog”
word
form
SENSE
RELATIONS
word
meaningS/senseS
DENOTES
a l l potential d o g s
(in all “possible worlds”)
Exploration of semantic operations 5
Denotation as
utterance-independent
(the word)
“dog”
word
form
SENSE
RELATIONS
word
meaningS/senseS
DENOTES
[ means]
( the c o n c e p tS of )
a l l potential d o g s
(in all “possible worlds”)
Exploration of semantic operations 5
Denotation as
utterance-independent
(the word)
“dragon”
word
form
SENSE
RELATIONS
word
meaningS/senseS
DENOTES
[ means ]
(the c o n c e p tS of)
all
potential
dragons
(in all “possible worlds”)
Exploration of semantic operations 5
Denotation as
utterance-independent
(the word)
“freedom”
word
form
SENSE
RELATIONS
word
meaningS/senseS
DENOTES
all
potential
freedoms
(in all “possible worlds”)
Exploration of semantic operations 5
Denotation as
utterance-independent
(the word)
“freedom”
word
form
SENSE
RELATIONS
word
meaningS/senseS
DENOTES
(the c o n c e p tS of)
all
potential
freedoms
(in all “possible worlds”)
Exploration of semantic operations 5
Denotation as
utterance-independent
(the word)
“freedom”
word
form
SENSE
RELATIONS
word
meaningS/senseS
DENOTES
[ means]
(the c o n c e p tS of)
all
potential
freedoms
(in all “possible worlds”)
Exploration of semantic operations 5
Denotation
as utterance-dependent reference
(the word)
“freedom”
word
form
SENSE
RELATIONS
word
meaningS/senseS/
referenceS
CONNOTES
[ means]
?conventional / cultural?
references (perhaps referents too)
Exploration of semantic operations 5
… foreign
moons
P A R A D I G M (S)
S Y N T A G M S
suns
stars
planets
winds
storms
typhoons
hurricanes
cyclones
snow
sleet
thunder
lightning
overseas
alien
local
native
indigenous
western
eastern
northern
southern
African
American
Chinese
are
rounder …
longer
shorter
bigger
smaller
dearer
cheaper
stronger
weaker
lighter
heavier
Exploration of semantic operations 5
S Y N T A G M S
… foreign
moons
are rounder …
… foreign moons …
… moons are …
… are rounder …
… foreign moons are …
… moons are rounder …
… foreign moons are rounder …
Exploration of semantic operations 5
Denotation vs Connotation
(J. S. Mill)
proper names = denotative;
no meaning / no information
“…whenever the names given to objects
convey any information … whenever they
have … any meaning, the meaning resides
not in what they denote, but in what they
connote. The only names of objects which
connote nothing are proper names …”
Exploration of semantic operations 5
Denotation vs Connotation
(J. S. Mill)
proper names = denotative;
no meaning / no information
“…whenever the names given to objects convey
any information … whenever they have … any
meaning, the meaning resides not in what they
denote, but in what they connote. The only
names of objects which connote nothing are
proper names …”
Do these proper names, in Hong Kong,
denote OR connote:
“Donald”, “C.H.”, “C.Y”, “Kelly”,
“Yumiko”, “Angelababy”
Exploration of semantic operations 5
Denotation vs Connotation
Do these names, to you,
denote OR connote:
Land of the Morning Calm
Land of the Rising Sun
the Roof of the World
Land of Smiles
the Aloha State
the Lion City
the Treasure Island
the Rainbow Nation
Pearl of the Orient
Exploration of semantic operations 5
Denotation vs Connotation
Kreidler, C.W. (1998) Introducing English Semantics. London: Routledge. p.45:
A denotation identifies the central aspect of
word meaning, which everybody generally
agrees about …
... Connotation refers to the personal
aspect of meaning, the emotional
associations that the word arouses.
Connotations vary according to the
experience of individuals but, because
people do have common experiences, some
words have shared connotations.
Exploration of semantic operations 5
Denotation vs Connotation
Kreidler, C.W. (1998) Introducing English Semantics. London: Routledge. p.45:
A denotation identifies the central aspect of
word meaning, which everybody generally
agrees about …
... Connotation refers to the personal aspect
of meaning, the emotional associations that
the word arouses. Connotations vary
according to the experience of individuals
but, because people do have common
experiences, some words have shared
connotations.
Exploration of semantic operations 5
Denotation vs Connotation
Kreidler, C.W. (1998) Introducing English Semantics. London: Routledge. p.45:
A denotation identifies the central aspect of word meaning,
which everybody generally agrees about …
denotation OR connotation
cow : beef = ngou-yuk (cow meat)
dog : X = gou-yuk (dog meat)
(French) mouton : mouton
(English) sheep: mutton
... Connotation refers to the personal aspect of meaning,
the emotional associations that the word arouses.
Connotations vary according to the experience of
individuals but, because people do have common
experiences, some words have shared connotations.
Exploration of semantic operations 5
Denotation vs Connotation
Carter, R. (1998) Applied Linguistic Perspectives. 2nd edn. London: Routledge.p.264:
denotation
conceptual meaning
(“objective”)
“truth”
vs
connotation
expressive meaning
stylistic meaning
associative meaning
(“subjective”)
“distortion”
Exploration of semantic operations 5
Denotation vs Connotation
open university
oriental
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/law-bans-use-of-oriental-in-state-documents/
(Accessed 08 June 2012)
September 9, 2009, 5:35 pm Law Bans Use of ‘Oriental’ in State Documents
girl / lady / woman
http://www.headbloom.com/index.php/resources/post/girl_lady_or_woman_a_question_of_language_and_gender/
(Accessed 08 June 2012)
native / indigenous / aboriginal
natives / aborigines / first people / first nation
Exploration of semantic operations 5
Denotation vs Connotation
Leech, G. (1974) Semantics. Middlesex: Penguin.p.26:
1. Conceptual Meaning
or Sense
Logical, cognitive, or denotative content
2.Connotative What is communicated by virtue of what language
refers to.
Meaning
3. Stylistic
Meaning
2. – 6.
Associative 4. Affective
Meaning
Meaning
5. Reflected
Meaning
What is communicated of the social circumstances
of language use.
What is communicated of the feelings and attitudes
of the speaker/writer.
What is communicated through association with
another sense of the same expression.
6. Collocative What is communicated through association with
words which tend to occur in the environment of
Meaning
another word.
7. Thematic Meaning
What is communicated by the way in which the
message is organised in terms of order & emphasis.
Exploration of semantic operations 5
Collocation
… the company that words keep …
… idiosyncratic combinability of lexical items …
… syntagmatic aspects of the relations between words …
(  paradigmatic aspects of words in a semantic/ lexical field )
free
combinations
of words
idiom-aticity
fixed
expressions
Exploration of semantic operations 5
Collocation
“below” the word level
The less productive (morphs of) morphemes, i.e. those wordparts with restricted distribution:
e.g. the plural morpheme realised as the morphs
-ren children (child)
-en oxen (ox)
-ae formulae (formula)
-ora corpora (corpus), genera (genus)
-a
curricula (curriculum)
-i
syllabi (syllabus)
the reflective morpheme for pronouns realised as the morph
-self
herself, himself, ( ?hisself )
-selves themselves, ourselves ( ?usselves )
Compound words: bookworm ( ?bookinsect )
Exploration of semantic operations 5
Collocation
“at” the word level
strawberry and cream ( ?cream and strawberry )
ladies and gentlemen ( ?gentlemen and ladies )
salt and pepper ( ?pepper and salt )
fish and chips ( ?chips and fish )
forgive and forget ( ?forget and forgive)
your money or your life ( ?your life or your money)
to fall in love ( ?to soar in love )
to take a walk ( ?to give a walk )
to walk the dog ( ?to walk with the dog )
to start a fire ( ?to finish a fire )
Exploration of semantic operations 5
Collocation
“at” the word level
… can be contacted on telephone number 911
… can be contacted at telephone number 911
… travel on foot or by car / bike / boat / plane
… travel by foot / car / bike / boat / plane
… travel on a bike
… travel on / in a car
… travel on / in a boat
… fly on / in a plane
… fly in a hot-air balloon
Exploration of semantic operations 5
Collocation
“above” the word level
Idioms / proverbs
an apple a day
chase the dragon
chasing rainbows
eat, drink and be merry
kicked the bucket
out of the blue
pull one’s leg
raining cats and dogs
http://oels.byu.edu/student/idioms/idiomsmain.html
Exploration of semantic operations 5
Concordance (KWIC)
• word frequency list
e.g. http://ucrel.lancs.ac.uk/bncfreq/
http://www.edict.biz/textanalyser/wordlists.htm
• lexical density: word type & word token
e.g. http://textalyser.net/
• a list of key words in context (KWIC)
e.g. http://www.chs.nihon-u.ac.jp/eng_dpt/tukamoto/kwic_e.html
http://webascorpus.org/
• seeing collocation as statistical / probabilistic
(language as use in everyday life)
• corpus / corpora
e.g. http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/index.xml
• teaching ideas
e.g. http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/articles/concordancers-elt
Exploration of semantic operations 5
Denotation vs Connotation
– Denotation
• as reference (or not)
– utterance-independent (vs utterance-dependent)
– potential (vs actual)
• as derived from sense
– conceptual (vs expressive)
• as (objective) “truth”
– Connotation
• as conventional / cultural
• as (subjective) “distortion”
Collocation
– word association / idiom-aticity
– collocational operations
• below the word level
• “at” the word level
• “above” the word level
Concordance (KWIC)