英语词汇学 chapter 5

nullnull English Lexicology Chapter 5 Word Meaning This chapter attempts to expound the meanings of “meaning”, the four types of motivation from a linguistic perspective and discusses the different types of meaning and their characteristics. nullMain Points 1.The meanings of “meaning” Reference Concept Sense 2. Four types of motivation Onomatopoeic motivation Morphological motivation Semantic motivation Etymological motivation 3. Types of meaning Grammatical meaning Lexical meaning Conceptual meaning Associative meaning Connotative meaning Stylistic meaning Affective meaning Collocative meaningnull 5.1 Reference Reference is the relationship between language and the world, or the connection between the linguistic symbols and what these symbols refer to in the objective world. The reference of a word to a thing outside the language is arbitrary and conventional. This connection is the result of generalization and abstraction.(所指关系是指语言与周围世界的关系或是指语言符号和其在客观世界中的所指对象之间的关联。词对语言以外事物的指称是任意的和约定俗成的。 词与事物的联系是高度概括的， 是从同类事物中抽象出来的。)null 5.1 Reference Concept, which is beyond language, is the result of human cognition, reflecting the objective world in the human mind. That is , it is the reflection of the objective world in the human mind, known as notion or idea. It is not affected by language. The same concept is the same to speakers of all languages. However, speakers of different languages can have different linguistic forms to express the same concept.(概念是语言以外的东西，是人类认识的结果， 是客观事物在人脑中的反映。概念不受语言的影响。同一概念在操不同语言的人类是一样的， 但不同语言的人类可用不同语言形式 表 关于同志近三年现实表现材料材料类招标技术评分表图表与交易pdf视力表打印pdf用图表说话 pdf 达同一概念。)null 5.1 Reference Sense denotes the relationship inside the language. Every word that has meaning has sense. Sense is simply the meaning of a word in a language. (语义是指语言内部的关系。有意义的每个词都有语义，语义就是一个词在语言中的意义。)nullMeaning is closely related to a concept. A concept is the base of the meaning of a word. A word is used to label a concept. The concept is abstracted from the person, thing, relationship, idea, event, and so on, that we are thinking about. We call this the referent. The word refers to the referent through a concept. This approach to meaning can be diagrammed as following: word concept referent. nullTriangle of significance（词义三角） Meaning (Concept) Word Form …………. Referentnull 5.2 Motivation Motivation accounts for the connection between the linguistic symbol and its meaning. But since the relationship between the word-form and meaning is conventional and arbitrary, words should be non-motivated. Nevertheless, many words are motivated to a certain extent in terms of sound, morphology, semantics and etymology.(理据是指语言符号与意义之间的关联。然而，由于词的形式和意义的关系是任意的和约定俗称的，词应该是没有理据的。 然而， 英语的许多词汇有拟声，形态，语义和词源理据。)null 5.2 Motivation Classification of motivation： 1) Onomatopoeic Motivation explains the word whose sounds suggest their meanings, because these words were created by imitating the natural sounds or noises. For example, bang, ping-pong, miaow, cuckoo, tick-tack, ha ha, etc. But it has to be pointed out that onomatopoeic words constitute only a small part of the vocabulary; some onomatopoeic words are not completely motivated phonetically and are conventional to quite a large extent. If you throw a stone into water, the sound you hear is by no means the same as when you say splash. Flies do not exactly make the sound of buzz. null2)Morphological Motivation concerns the words whose morphological structures suggest their meanings, for generally speaking, the meaning of a derived word or a compound is based on the meaning of the word-building elements. Or We say the word is morphologically motivated, for a direct connection can be observed between the morphemic structure of the word and its meaning. This is called morphological motivation. For example, airmail, reading-lamp, miniskirt, hopeless, etc. null Derivational words are morphologically motivated. If one knows the meaning of the affix and the base, then one can immediately tell the meaning of the word. Compound words may be morphologically motivated too. The meanings of words like good-looking, spaceman, moonscape, daydream and many others derive from the combined meaning of the component parts. null It should be pointed out that there are a lot of words whose structures are opaque, i. e. their meanings are not the combinations of the separate parts. Black market, eggplant, pineapple, sweet-tooth, greenhorn, etc. null3) Semantic Motivation refers to the mental association suggested by the conceptual meaning of a word. It explains the connection between the literal sense and figurative sense of the word. Here it is the figurative usage that provides the semantic motivation. Examples: When we speak of a stony heart we are comparing the heart with a stone. when we say the leg of a table, we are comparing the table’s leg with one of the lower limbs of a human being. null Types of semantic motivation Metaphor Metonymy Synecdoche Analogy nullMetaphor Metaphor（隐喻）is a figure of speech containing an implied comparison, in which a word or phrase ordinarily and primarily used of one thing is applied to another. It is a simile without like or as. null Metaphor The world is a stage. A sea of troubles. a tide of popular applause. The city is a jungle where no body is safe after the dark. Some books are to be tasted, others swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested. ----- Bacon Of Studies null Metonymy Metonymy（借代） is the device in which we name something by one of its attributes. The substitution of the name of one thing for that of another with which it is closely associated. null For example He is too fond of bottles. The hall applauded. I have never read Li Bai. The pen is mightier than the sword. He succeeded to the crown. Uncle Sam; the Pentagon; Hollywood; the White House; Beijing null Synecdoche Synecdoche（提喻）means using a part for a whole, an individual for a class, a material for a thing, or vice versa. There are about 500 hands working in this factory. This newspaper—and probably the country—will wait its time and see how the new faces perform before judging them. The birds sing to welcome the smiling year. to earn one’s bread. He is a clever creature . null Analogy Analogy（类比）is a process whereby words or phrases are created in imitation of existing patterns in the language. The motivation is that the meaning or sense of the created word shares similarity with the existing language pattern. Color: black list---white list, gray list; blue-color workers---white-collar workers, gray-collar workers, pink-collar workers, and gold-collar workers Number: the First World---the Second World, the Third world, the Fourth World Place and space: landscape---moonscape, marscape; sunrise---earthrise; spaceman---earthman, moonmanlelelenullSimilarity: missile gap---generation gap, development gap, income gap, credibility gap Antonym: hot line---cold line; baby boom---baby bust; nightmare---daymare; cold-war---hot war; high-rise---low-rise. null 4) Etymological Motivation explains the words, whose meanings are closely associated with their origins, i.e. the meanings of the words suggested by their sources. For example a laconic answer----a short answer. 5.3 Types of Meaning 5.3 Types of Meaning null Grammatical meaning refers to that part of the meaning of the word which indicates grammatical concept or relationships such as part of speech of words, singular and plural meaning of nouns, tense meaning of verbs and their inflectional forms. (forget, forgets, forgot, forgotten, forgetting). Lexical meaning is that part of the word-meaning when the grammatical meaning is removed. It embraces two components: conceptual and associative meaning. e.g. “go, goes, went, gone, going” possess different grammatical meanings. But they have the same lexical meaning expressing the process of movement. null 1) Conceptual meaning (also known as denotative meaning or referential meaning ) is the meaning given in the dictionary and it forms the core of word-meaning. It is universal, fairly fixed, and relatively stable. 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. null 2) Associative meaning is the secondary meaning supplemented to the conceptual meaning and is open-ended and indeterminate, liable to the influence of such factors as culture, experience, religion, geographical region, class background, education ,etc. Associative meaning comprises four types: connotative, stylistic, affective and collocative. nullSubdivision of Associative Meaning 1) Connotative meaning refers to the overtones or associations suggested by the conceptual meaning, traditionally known as connotations. It might occur in the mind of a particular user of a language. Connotative meaning is unstable, varying considerably according to culture, historical period and the experience of the individual. e.g. 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”. Diagram1Diagram1Diagram2Diagram2null 2) Stylistic meaning refers to its stylistic features, which make words appropriate for different contexts. These stylistic features are clearly marked as “formal”, “informal”, “literary”, “archaic”, “slang”, and so on, in some dictionaries. Martin Joos (1962) in his book The Five Clocks suggests five degrees of formality: ‘frozen’, ‘formal’, ‘consultative’, ‘casual’ and ‘intimate’. In general, there are three types: formal, neutral and informal. e.g. charger, steed, horse, nag, plug. Among them, the terms charger and steed should be marked ‘formal’, nag and plug ‘informal’, horse ’neutral’ or ’general’. null3) Affective meaning indicates the speaker’s attitude towards the person or thing in question. This meaning can be clearly conveyed simply by the choice of the right words since many have emotive content in themselves. Words that have emotive values may fall into two categories: appreciative and pejorative. Look at the following diagram nullnull4) Collocative meaning refers to the associations a word acquires in its collocation, that is, it is that part of the word-meaning suggested by the words before or after the word in discussion. e.g. “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, sensitive…; wide awake, fully awake, sound asleep, far apart (“Very” is inappropriate here); tremble with fear, quiver with excitement. null ㈠ Questions 1. What is reference? Reference is the relationship between language and the world, or the connection between the linguistic symbols and what these symbols refer to in the objective world. The reference of a word to a thing outside the language is arbitrary and conventional. This connection is the result of a generalization and abstraction. 2. What is concept? Concept, which is beyond language, is the result of human cognition, reflecting the objective world in the human mind. That is , it is the reflection of the objective world in the human mind, known as notion or idea. It is not affected by language. The same concept is the same to speakers of all languages. However, speakers of different languages can have different linguistic meaning to express the same concept.null 3. What is sense? Sense denotes the relationship inside the language. Every word that has meaning has sense. Sense is simply the meaning of a word in a language. 4. What is motivation? Motivation accounts for the connection between the linguistic symbol and its meaning. But since the relationship between the word-form and meaning is conventional and arbitrary, words should be non-motivated. Nevertheless, many words are motivated to a certain extent in terms of sound, morphology, semantics and etymology.null㈡ Decide whether the following statements are true or false. 1. Motivation explains why a particular form has a particular meaning. 2. Grammatical meaning refers to the part of speech, tenses of verbs and stylistic features of words. 3. Unlike conceptual meaning, associative meaning is unstable and indeterminate. 4. Affective meaning refers to the part of the word-meaning which indicates the attitude of the user. 5. By etymological motivation, we mean that the meaning of a particular word is related to its origin. 6. The connotative meaning is also known as connotations, which are generally found in the dictionary. T, F, T, T, T,F.