Chapter 5. Word Meaning 10002026 박건희

INDEX 5.1 The meaning of 'meanig' 5.2 Motivation 5.3Types of Meaning

We know that a word is the combination of form and meaning. Meaning is what the form stands for. The linguistic form Cat is used to denote ‘a small four-legged animal with soft fur and sharp claws’ . It can be said that ‘a small four-legged animal with soft fur and sharp claws’ is the meaning of the word cat. But ‘meaning’ is not as simple as it seems to be. There are some related concepts which need further explanation. We shall discuss different types of meaning in the chapter.

INDEX 5.1 The meaning of 'meanig'

5.1.1 Reference. Words are symbols, many of which have meaning only when they have acquired reference. Reference is the relationship between language and the 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. cat refers to a whole set of animals of the same species without the distinction of size, color, region, owner and other factors. It is the extension of all cats in the universe. Although reference is a kind of abstraction, yet with the help of context, it can refer to something specific. The same thing can have different referring expressions without causing any confusion. The cat can be referred to by or say Animal, my dear, Jassy, this, she and so on.

5.1.2. Concept In many cases meanig is used in the sense of 'concept' Meaning and concept are closely connected buy not identical. Concept, which is beyond language, is the result of human cognition, reflecting the objective world in the human mind. Even in the same language, the same concept can be expressed in different words. Many Much Synonymous pairs. die- pass away, ask-question, quarrel-argue many people many books much time much money

5.1.3 Sense. The meaning of 'meaning' is perhaps what is termed 'sense'. The sense of an expression is its place in a system of semantic relationships with other expressions in the language. Every word has meaning has sense ( not every word has reference. ) probable, nearly, and, if, but, yes

INDEX 5.2 Motivation.

5.2 Motivation. Motivation accounts for the connection between the linguistic symbol and its meaning. As we know, the relationship between the word-form and meaning is conventional and arbitrary. And most words can be said to be non-motivated. That is, the connection of the sign and meaning does not have a logical explanation. Nevertheless, English does have words whose meaning can be explained to a certain extent.

5.2.1 Onomatopoeic Motivation (의성어) In modern English one may find some words whose sounds suggest their meanings, for these words we the are created by imitating the natural sounds or noises. bow-wow , bang, ping-pong, miaow, cuckoo, tick-tuck, ha ha, Knowing the sounds of the words means understanding the meaning. All the words based on the sounds made by birds, animals, insects and so on belong to this crow-cocks , buzz-bees, squeak-mice, neigh-horses, bleat-goats, roar-lions Such echoic words are also largely conventional, for the sounds we say in English may not be the same in other languages.

5.2.2 Morphological Motivation Compounds and derived words are multi-morphemic words and the meanings of many are the sum total of the morphemes combined. If one knows the meaning of each morpheme, namely affix or stem, one can Figure out the meaning of the word. Airmail – means to ‘mail by air’. Reading-lamp – ’lamp for reading’ miniskirt- ’small skirt’ Hopeless- ’without hope’ It should be pointed out that there are a lot of words whose structures are opaque. Black market, by no means the ‘market black in color.’ but it refers to ‘illegal selling and buying.’

5.2.3 Semantic Motivation mouth of a river – Semantic Motivation refers to the mental associations suggested by the conceptual meaning of a word. It explains the connection between the literal sense and figurative sense of the word. mouth of a river – we associate the opening part of the river with the mouth of a human being or an animal. Foot of the mountain - we are comparing the lower part of the mountain to the foot of a human being.

5.2.4 Etymological Motivation. The meaning of many words often relate directly to their origins. In other words the history of the word explains the meaning of the word. Pen feathers All the words commonized from proper nouns can be interpreted in terms of their origins. laconic - meaning ‘brief’ or ‘short’ Laconic is derived from Lacons, a tribe of people who were known for their ‘brevity of speech’ and for their habit of never using more words than necessary. So a laconic answer is a ‘short answer.’

INDEX 5.3 Types of meaning.

5.3 Types of Meaning. Word meaning is not monogeneous but a composite consisting of different parts. These are Known in familiar terms as different types of meaning. These meaning are not all found in every word. A word may have one type of meaning or a combination of types. Some types of meanings may appear more prominent in certain words than in others. Some meanings are constant, and others may be transient, existing only in actual contexts.

5.3.1 Grammatical Meaning and Lexical Meaning. Grammatical meaning refers to that part of meaning of the words which indicates grammatical concept or relationships such as part of speech of words.(nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs), singular and plural meaning of nouns. Tense meaning of verbs and their inflectional forms (forget, forgets, forgot, forgotten, forgetting). Grammatical meaning of a word becomes important only when it is used in actual context The dog is chasing a cat. Dog and cat are nouns, both are singular used as subject and object. ~is chasing is predicative verb in present continuous tense. The and a are determiners, restricting the referent and indicating number.

The same word may have different grammatical meanings as shown in forget, forgets, forgot, forgotten, forgetting. Functional words having little lexical meaning, possess strong grammatical meaning whereas content words have both meanings. Lexical meaning and grammatical meaning make up the word meaning. It is known that grammatical meaning surface only in use. But lexical meaning is constant in all the content words within or without context as it is related to the noting that the word conveys.

The sun rises in the cast. 5.3.2 conceptual Meaning and Associative Meaning. Conceptual meaning is the meaning given in the dictionary and forms the core of word-meaning. It forms the basis for communication as the same word has the same conceptual meaning to all the speakers of the same language. The sun rises in the cast. ‘heavenly body which gives off light, heat, and energy.’

Associative meaning is the secondary meaning supplemented to the conceptual meaning. In differs from the conceptual meaning in that it is open-ended and indeterminate. It is liable to the influence of such factors as culture, experience, religion, geographical region, class background, education. Associative meaning comprises four types : connotative, stylistic, affective and collocative.

1. Connotative meaning. (암시적 의미) Connotative meaning refers to the overtones or associations suggested by the conceptual meaning, traditionally known as connotations. It is not an essential part of the word-meaning, but associations that might occur in the mind of a particular user of the language. ‘mother’ denoting a ‘female parent’ is often associated with ‘love’, ‘care’, ‘tenderness’, ‘forgiving.’ These connotations are not given in the dictionary, but associated with the word in actual context to particular readers or speakers. Connotative meaning is unstable, varying considerably according to culture, historical period , and experience of the individual.

pregnant, expecting, knocking up, in the club 2. Stylistic meaning. Many words have stylistic features, which make them appropriate for different contexts. These distinctive features form the stylistic meanings of words. In some dictionaries, these stylistic features are clearly marked as ‘formal’, ‘informal’, ‘literary’, ‘archaic’ ‘slang’ pregnant, expecting, knocking up, in the club All can have the same conceptual meaning, but differ in their stylistic values.

This stylistic difference is especially true of synonyms This stylistic difference is especially true of synonyms. It is observed that there are few words which have both the same conceptual meaning and the stylistic meaning. They chucked a stone at the cops, and then did a bunk with the loot. After casting a stone at the police, they absconded with the money.

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 simply by the choice of the right words as many have emotive content in themselves, love, hate, anger, grief, pleasure. Interjections are affective words as they are expressions of emotions such as oh, dear me, alas, hurrah. Words that have emotive values may fall into two categories: appreciative or pejorative. Words of positive overtones are used to show appreciation or the attitude of approval such as famous, determined, slim. Affective meaning varies from individual to individual, from culture to culture, from generation to generation, from society to society. Revolution, freedom, democracy, imperialism may have quite different meanings in different societies and sometimes these ‘emotive’ overstones are more important in the words.

Another example is the word dog which may have quite different affective meanings in different societies. In western countries, dog is associated with ‘loyalty’ , ‘faithfulness’, ‘a close companion’. And all positive qualities, whereas to Chinese, dog at its best is a useful animal. In many cases, the appreciative or pejorative meanings of the words are brought out in context.

4.Collocative meaning. This meaning consists of the associations a word acquires in its collocation. It is that part of the word-meaning suggested by the words before or after the word in discussion. Pretty - girl handsome - boy boy man woman car flower overcoat garden airline color typewriter These two words share the conceptual meaning of good-looking, but are distinguished by range of nouns they collocate with.

It is again noticeable that collocative meaning overlaps with stylistic and affective meanings because in a sense both stylistic and affective meanings are revealed by means of collocations. Word in particular contexts is likely to acquire associative meanings reflecting such usage. Green is kind of color but its meaning is obviously affected when it occurs in such phrases As green on the job, green fruit, green with envy, green-eyed monster.

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