CHAPTER VCHAPTER VWORD MEANINGWORD MEANING

• Word meaning

• Conventionality and Motivation

• Main types of word meaning

Word meaning

1) What is the meaning of ‘sesquipedalian’?

2) Life without faith has no meaning.3) What do you mean by the word

‘concept’?4) Dark clouds mean rain.

Word meaning

• The relationship between language and the world

concept

world language

Word meaning

Thought or reference (concept)

Referent Symbol

(object in the world) (word, sentence )

Ogden & Richards’ the semiotic triangle

Word meaning

• The concept looked at from this point of view is the meaning of the word.

• Part of the word meaning is the reference.

Conventionality and Motivation

• Conventionality House maison 家屋 房子（ fang zi) homophones: write right rite

[rait]

Conventionality and Motivation

what’s in a name?what’s in a name? That which we call a roseThat which we call a rose By the other name By the other name Would smell as sweetWould smell as sweet

----- shakespeareshakespeare

Conventionality and Motivation

名称本无意 此物谓玫瑰 若以他名易 香气亦相宜

Conventionality and Motivation

– Most English words are conventional, arbitrary symbols; consequently, there is no intrinsic relation between the sound-symbol and its sense.

• Motivation– Motivation refers to the connection

between word-symbol and its sense.

Phonetic motivation

echoic words or onomatopoeic words the bow-wow or woof-woof of a do

g the moo of a cow the miaow of a cat

（汪汪） （哞哞） （喵喵）

Phonetic motivation

the bang of a door the crack of a pistol shot 溪水潺潺 babble, purl 雷声隆隆 rumble, roll

Morphological motivation

The connection of meaning of the word to its form from morphological point

of view readable (-able and read )

anticancer, kilogram and modernize(against, one thousand and to, cause to be)

Morphological motivation

Compound words

good-looking, headache, daydream

Not all compounds are motivated

eggplant, Indian summer, dog days

（茄子，小阳春，伏天）

Semantic motivation

The relationships between the literal sense and the figurative sense through associations

a stony heart

the hour hand

the minute hand

the leg of a table

Semantic motivation

Her favorite dish is steak.

(the container) (the thing contained)

He manages to earn bread.

( the part) (the whole)

Etymological motivation

The meanings of words can be explained with reference to etymological informati

on china porcelain or ceramic war

e (originally imported from China) japan a hard varnish (brought fr

om Japan) braille from the creator Louis Br

aille Walkman from a trade mark

Main types of word meaning

Word meaning is made up of various components which are interrel

ated and interdependent.

Main types of word meaning

1. Grammatical meaning

2. Lexical meaning

Main types of word meaning

1. Grammatical meaning

may be defined as the component of meaning recurrent in identical sets of individual forms of different words

Main types of word meaning

1.1 Word-class (the part of speech)

1.2 Inflectional paradigm (Nouns are declined, gradable adjectives have degrees of comparison, Verbs are conjugated)

Main types of word meaning

2. Lexical meaning Lexical meaning is identical in all the

forms of the word while the grammatical meaning varies from one word-form to another;

every word has a different lexical meaning, whereas the grammatical meaning is the same in identical sets of individual forms of different words.

Main types of word meaning

2.1Denotative meaning

The denotative (extensional) or conceptual meaning of a word is its definition in a dictionary.

chair: “it is a piece of furniture for one person to sit on, having a back and usually, four legs”.

Main types of word meaning

2.2 Connotative meaning

Connotative (intentional) meaning refers to the emotional association which a word or a phrase suggests in one’s mind;

female parent• mother

love, care, and tenderness

Main types of word meaning

2.3 Social or stylistic meaning

Social meaning is that which a piece of language conveys about the social circumstances of its use.

dad father parentColloquial stylistically neutral bookish

Main types of word meaning

2.4 Affective meaning Affective meaning is concerned with the

expression of feelings and attitudes of the speaker or writer.

Scholar, masterpiece and generous Gang, boast and politician A B slender skinny statesman politician confidence complacency

CONCLUSION

• What is word meaning and how to understand the relation between a word symbol and its meaning

• The relation between a word symbol and its meaning in any language is mostly conventional, arbitrary. What do we mean by motivation?

• the difference between grammatical meaning and lexical meaning, the four main types of lexical meaning

Thank you

• THE BEST WISHES TO YOUTHE BEST WISHES TO YOU