语言学05--Chapter Five Meaning

Chapter Five Meaning1

1. The Study of Meaning

Semantics:The meaning of words: Lexical semantics The meaning of sentences: Propositional meaning, compositional meaning Linguistic semantics vs. Logical semantics/philosophical semantics

Pragmatics:

The meaning of utterances2

2. Semantic Meaning

Semantics is the study of meaning in language. Meaning has been studied for thousands of years by philosophers, logicians and linguists. E.g. Plato & Aristotle.

Logicians and philosophers have tended to concentrate on a restricted range of sentences (typically, statements, or propositions ) within a single language. The linguistic approach is broader in scope, aiming to study the properties of meaning in a systematic and objective way, with reference to as wide a range of utterances and languages as possible.

3. The meaning of meaning

C. K. Ogden & I. A. Richards (1923). The Meaning of Meaning. John means to write. A green light means to go.

Health means everything.

His look was full of meaning.

What is the meaning of life?

What does capitalist mean to you?

What does cornea mean? The transparent, convex, anterior portion of the outer fibrous coat of the eyeball that covers the iris and the pupil and is continuous with the sclera.

Geoffrey Leech (1974, 1981). Semantics: The Study of Meaning. Seven types of meaning:Conceptual meaning Connotative meaning Social meaning Affective meaning Reflected and meaning Collocative meaning Thematic meaning

Associative Meaning

(1) Conceptual meaning

Also called denotative or cognitive meaning.Refers to logical, cognitive or denotative content. Concerned with the relationship between a word and the thing it denotes, or refers to.

(2) Connotative meaning

The communicative value an expression has by virtue of what it refers to, over and above its purely conceptual content.

A multitude of additional, non-criterial properties, including not only physical characteristics but also psychological and social properties, as well as typical features.

Involving the real world experience one associates with an expression when one uses or hears it.

Unstable: they vary considerably according to culture, historical period, and the experience of the individual.

Any characteristic of the referent, identified subjectively or objectively, may contribute to the connotative meaning of the expression which denotes it.13

Step mother

(3) Social meaning

What a piece of language conveys about the social circumstances of its use.Dialect: the language of a geographical region or of a social class. Time: the language of the 18th c., etc. Province: language of law, of science, of advertising, etc. Status: polite, colloquial, slang, etc. Modality: langua

ge of memoranda, lectures, jokes, etc. Singularity: the style of Dickens, etc. 18

domicile: very formal, official residence: formal abode: poetic home: generalsteed: poetic horse: general nag: slang gee-gee: baby language19

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