5
Word Meaning

Word Meaning
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Two aspects of a word :
1. form—sound and spelling
2. content—meaning cat /k
æ t/ = a small four-legged animal with soft fur and sharp claws
Word-meaning is what the word denotes.

5. 1. 1. Reference
 the meaning triangle concept/idea referent train
/trein/ reference

5. 1. 1. Reference
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Meaning is reference .
Reference is the connection between the word form and what the form refers to in the world .
Reference is the relationship between language and the world.

5.1.2 Concept
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5.1.2 Concept
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Meaning and concept are closely connected but not identical .
Concept is beyond language .
It is the result of human cognition , reflecting the objective world in the human mind.

5. 1. 1. Concept
 the meaning triangle concept/idea train
/trein/ reference referent

5.1.2 Concept
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Concept is universal to all men alike regardless of culture, race, language and so on, whereas meaning belongs to language , so is restricted to language use.

5.1.2 Concept
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妇女
Frau femme concept language

5.1.2 Concept
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很多
(concept) much time much money much water many people many books many buildings

5. 1. 3. Sense
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5. 1. 3. Sense
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Difference:
Reference is connected with language.
Concept is beyond language.
Sense is within the language .

5. 1. 3. Sense
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Every word that has meaning has sense , but not reference .
probable, nearly, and, if, but, yes pavement—sidewalk pal—chum

5. 1. 3. Sense
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So in most cases, when we talk about the meaning of a word, we actually mean sense .

5.2 Motivation

5.2 Motivation
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Motivation accounts for the connection between the linguistic symbol and its meaning.
Since the relationship between the wordform and meaning is conventional and arbitrary , most words can be said to be non-motivated .

5.2 Motivation
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But English does have words whose meanings can be reasonably explained to a certain extent .
There are mainly four types of motivation.

5. 2. 1. Onomatopoeic
Motivation
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Words whose sounds suggest their meanings = onomatopeic words
Two types of words according to their sound similarity

5. 2. 1. Onomatopoeic
Motivation
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1. Primary onomatopoeia bow wow ha ha ping-pong cuckoo miaow tick-tuck

5. 2. 1. Onomatopoeic
Motivation
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2. Secondary onomatopoeia
cock —crow duck —quack frog —croak mice —squeak horse —neigh goat —bleat

5. 2. 2. Morphological
Motivation
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Examples: airmail : mail by air reading-lamp : lamp for reading miniskirt : small skirt
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The morphological structure suggests the meanings of the words .

5. 2. 2. Morphological
Motivation
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BUT blackmail ≠ mail black in colour 讹诈
 greenhand ≠ hand green in colour 新手
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They are morphologically non-motivated .

5. 2.3. Semantic
Motivation
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Examples : the tongue of the bell
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 the mouth of the river
The Yellow River is the cradle of
Chinese civilization.
These words are not used in their literal sense, but figurative meaning.

5. 2.3. Semantic
Motivation
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We can understand them because there is a kind of resemblance between the two.
The figurative meaning is suggested by the literal meaning .

5. 2. 4. Etymological
Motivation
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Examples : pen = feather → quill pen → any writing tool
笔 =bamboo + hair → modern writing tool quisling = Quisling → traitor braille = Braille → language for the blind
The meanings are related to their origins .
The meanings can be etymologically explained.

5.3 Types of Meaning
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Word-meaning has different components.
These different components can be called different types of meaning.

5. 3.1. Grammatical and
Lexical Meaning
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Grammatical meaning
Examples :
 singular and plural meaning of nouns
 countable and uncountable
 tense meaning of verbs and their inflectional forms
 transitive and intransitive

5. 3.1. Grammatical and
Lexical Meaning
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Grammatical meaning show grammatical concepts or relationships .
What is left of the meaning of a word is the lexical meaning.
Lexical meaning is the basic meaning of the word, which is listed in the dictionary.

5. 3.1. Grammatical and
Lexical Meaning
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Characteristics :
1. Different lexical items, which have different lexical meanings, may have the same grammatical meaning: table s , m e n, ox en , potato es

5. 3.1. Grammatical and
Lexical Meaning
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2. The same word may have different grammatical meaning: for get , for gets , for got , for gotten , for getting

5. 3.1. Grammatical and
Lexical Meaning grammatical meaning word-meaning lexical meaning

5. 3.1. Grammatical and
Lexical Meaning conceptual meaning(CM) lexical meaning associative meaning(AM)

5. 3. 2 Conceptual and associative meaning
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Conceptual meaning (denotative meaning) is the meaning given in the dictionary and forms the core of word-meaning.
Associative meaning is the secondary meaning supplemented to the conceptual meaning.

5. 3. 2 Conceptual and associative meaning
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Compare :
CM fundamental universal stable
AM secondary contextual changing/ open-ended/ indeterminate

5. 3. 2 Conceptual and associative meaning
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Associative meaning may change according to contextual factors such as: social background, role relationship, culture, age, sex, time , etc.)

5. 3. 2 Conceptual and associative meaning associative M connotative M (ConM) stylistic M (SM) affective M (AfM) collocative M (ConM)

5. 3. 2 Conceptual and associative meaning
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Connotative meaning
Definition :
Connotative meaning refers to the overtones or associations suggested by the conceptual meaning, traditionally known as connotations .

5. 3. 2 Conceptual and associative meaning
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Example : dragon
Chinese power prosperity
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 good fortune royalty
Western violence monster killing

5. 3. 2 Conceptual and associative meaning
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Be a man .
strength decisiveness wisdom courage etc.

5. 3. 2 Conceptual and associative meaning
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2. Stylistic meaning
The stylistic meaning of a word is its stylistic feature: formal , informal , neutral .
Examples: room finish send try chamber complete dispatch endeavour
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5. 3. 2 Conceptual and associative meaning
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Martin Joos’ five scales: frozen formal consultative casual intimate

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5. 3. 2 Conceptual and associative meaning charger steed horse nag plug
frozen formal consultative casual intimate

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5. 3. 2 Conceptual and associative meaning father, dad, daddy, pa, pappa, governor, male parent

5. 3. 2 Conceptual and associative meaning
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3. Affective meaning
Affective meaning indicates the speaker’s attitude towards the person or thing in question. This meaning can be overtly and explicitly conveyed.
love, hate, anger, happy

5. 3. 2 Conceptual and associative meaning
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 appreciative pejorative famous determined slim/slender notorious pigheaded skinny/bony/skeletal

5. 3. 2 Conceptual and associative meaning
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4. Collocative meaning
The part of the word-meaning is reflected in the collocation.

5. 3. 2 Conceptual and associative meaning
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Examples : green on the job green fruit
(inexperienced)
(unripe) green with envy (envious) green -eyed monster (green colour)

5. 3. 2 Conceptual and associative meaning
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1. Every dog has his day.
2. Let sleeping dogs lie.
3. Love me, love my dog .
person troubles friend

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