Transcript Document

Chapter 5 Semantics
Word Meaning
The Second Week
5.3.1 Sense and Reference
5.3.2 Seven types of meaning
Key points:
Sense
and reference
Seven types of meaning
Difficulties:
The
relation between sense and
reference
Conceptual meaning
Connotative meaning
Social meaning
Affective
meaning
Reflective meaning
Collocative meaning
Thematic meaning
Sense and reference
The Definition of sense
Sense refers to the inherent
meaning of the linguistic form; it
is concerned only with intralinguistic relations. It is the
collection of all the semantic
features of the linguistic form; it
is abstract and de-contextualized.
Samples:
 Dog:
a domesticated canine mammal,
occurring in many breeds that show a
great variety in size and form
 Desk: a piece of furniture with a flat
top and four legs, at which one reads
and writes
 I: first person, indicating the speaker
The definition of reference:
Reference
means what a
linguistic form refers to in the
real, physical world; it deals with
the relationship between the
linguistic element and the nonlinguistic world of experience.
Samples:
I
am your linguistics teacher. I
refers to SYT.
The screen in the classroom is
not clear.
The relation between Sense and
Reference:
 All
linguistic forms have sense, but
not reference.
 The linguistic forms with the same
sense may have different references
in different situations.
 Some linguistic forms with the same
reference might differ in sense.
Exercises:
Identify the nature of the bold words.
 Boys are fewer than girls in our class.
 Wu kanke is a girl. She is our monitor.
 China will be the second airbus
producer in the world.
 I went to Los Angeles by the airbus last
November.
Problem:
Problem:
whether language
determines the shape of the world
or vice versa is probably a
“chicken and egg” dilemma.
Which came into being first,
sense or reference?
5.3.2 Seven types of meaning
British
linguist G. Leech
classified meaning into:
conceptual, associative
meaning.
Associative meaning into:
connotative, social, affective,
reflective, collocative and
5.3.2.1Conceptual meaning
（概念意义）
 It
is the essential and inextricable
part of what language is, and is
widely regarded as the central factor
in verbal communication. It is also
called logical, cognitive, or
denotative meaning.
Semantic features
Man:
[+HUMSN+SDULT+MALE]
 Women: [+HUMAN+ADULT+FEMALE]
 Girl:
[+HUMAN-ADULT+FEMALE]
 Boy:
[+HUMAN –ADULT+ MALE]
 Bull:
[-HUMAN +ADULT +MALE]

5.3.2.2 Connotative meaning
（内涵意义）
 Connotative
meaning is the
communicative value that an
expression has by virtue of what it
refers to, over and above its purely
conceptual content. It can vary from
age to age, from society to society,
and from individual to individual.
Samples:
father---strength,
strong will,
tolerance
businessperson---wealth,
generosity
Internet cafe---uncleanliness,
unpleasant affairs
Differences between conceptual
and connotative meaning
 Compared
with conceptual meaning,
connotative meaning is peripheral, and
relatively unstable, that is, it may vary
according to culture, historical period,
and the experience of the individual. In
addition, connotative meaning is
indeterminate and open-ended in a sense
in which conceptual meaning is not.
5.3.2.3 Social meaning
Social
meaning is the meaning
which an expression conveys
about the contexts or social
circumstances of its use. It
chiefly includes stylistic meaning
of an utterance. It is the formality
of the expression.
Samples:
 mother
(formal), mom (colloquial),
mama (child’s language)
 dollar (neutral) buck (slang)
 father, papa, old boy
5.3.2.4 Affective meaning
（情感意义）
 The
level of meaning that conveys
the language user’s feelings,
including his attitude or evaluation in
shaping his use of language is called
affective meaning or emotive
meaning.
 Ex. Politician---statesman
5.3.2.5 Reflective meaning
（反射意义）
 Therefore,
reflective meaning is the
meaning which arises in cases of
multiple conceptual meanings, when
one sense of a word forms part of our
response to another sense. It is the
product of people’s recognition and
imagination.
Samples:
He
took the drugs.
Enjoy yourself.
5.3.2.6 Collocative meaning
（搭配意义）
collocative meaning is the
associations a word gets because
of the meanings of words which
tend to occur in its linguistic
context.
Samples:
 fast
reading/friendship/color/road/car
 have a fast; a period of fasting
 Fast has such collocative meanings
as quick moving, capable of high
speed, firmly fixed, or abstaining
from food for a time.
5.3.2.7 Thematic meaning
主位意义
The
meaning arising out of the
way in which the writer or
speaker organizes his message is
called thematic meaning.
Samples:
1.
2.

Tomorrow I plan to have an outing.
I plan to have an outing tomorrow.
S1seems to answer the question:
When will you have an outing?; S2
What will you do tomorrow?
Assignments:
I. Give definition to the following
terms:
1. sense
2. reference
3. conceptual meaning
4. connotative meaning
II. What connotations or connotative
meanings do you think the following
nouns have in English?
charity iron mole snow
street