Types of Meaning free essay sample

Leech gives primacy to conceptual meaning because it has sophisticated organization based on the principle of contrastiveness and hierarchical structure. E. g. /P/  can be described as-  voiceless + bilabial + plosive. Similarly Boy = + human + male-adult. 2/Associative meaning The associative meaning of an expression  has to do with individual mentalunderstandings of the speaker. They, in turn, can be broken up into six sub-types:connotative, collocative, social, affective, reflected and thematic Collocative meaning is the meaning which a word acquires in the company of certain words. Words collocate or co-occur with certain words only e. g. Big business not large or great. Collocative meaning refers to associations of a word because of its usual or habitual co-occurrence with certain types of words. ‘Pretty’  and  Ã¢â‚¬Ëœhandsome’indicate  Ã¢â‚¬Ëœgood looking’. However, they slightly differ from each other because of collocation or co-occurrence. The word  Ã¢â‚¬Ëœpretty’  collocates with –  girls, woman, village, gardens, flowers, etc. On the other hand, the word  Ã¢â‚¬Ëœhandsome’  collocates with –  Ã¢â‚¬Ëœboys’ men, etc. so  Ã¢â‚¬Ëœpretty woman’ and ‘handsome man’. 7) Thematic Meaning: It refers to what is communicated by the way in which a speaker or a writer organizes the message in terms of ordering focus and emphasis . Thus active is different from passive though its conceptual meaning is the same. Various parts of the sentence also can be used as subject, object or complement to show prominence. It is done through focus, theme (topic) or emotive emphasis. Thematic meaning helps us to understand the message and its implications properly. For example, the following statements in active and passive voice have same conceptual meaning but different communicative values. e. g. 1)  Mrs. Smith donated the first prize )  The first prize was donated by Mrs. Smith. In the first sentence  Ã¢â‚¬Å"who gave away the prize  Ã¢â‚¬Å"is more important, but in the second sentence  Ã¢â‚¬Å"what did Mrs. Smith gave is important†. Thus the change of focus change the meaning also. Sense relations,,,, Sense relations are paradigmatic relations between words or predicate s of the same syntactic categories, which can replace one another without violating the grammatical rules; or in other words, those relations reveal the semantic choices available at a particular structure point in a sentence. Two major types of sense relations can be distinguished: * Sense relations of inclusion, esp. yponymy  and  synonymy * Sense relations of exclusion, esp. complementarity  and  antonymy Synonymy is the relationship between two words that have the same sense. This is a strict definition of synonymy – the identity of sense. Some linguists, however, consider synonymy a similarity of meaning Hyponymy is a sense relation between lexemes such that the meaning of one lexeme is included in the meaning of the other. Antonymy is a sense relation in which oppositeness of meaning is observed. There are many pairs or groups of words, which, though different in meaning, are pronounced alike or spelled alike, or both. Such words are called homonyms. Polysemy refers to the phenomenon in which one and the same word has more than one meaning. Semantic field Semantic field is a term to refer to the phenomenon that vocabulary is an integrated system interrelated in sense and can be divided into semantically related sets or fields. Words in each semantic field defines one another, Sense and reference†¦. Frege is said to be the first person to set out the difference between sense and reference in a systematic form, and it is from his writing that the terms first arise. Reference Reference is a part of meaning. Assume that there are three trees in a field. Each tree has a unique reference. Each branch on each tree has a unique reference. And each leaf and the field have a unique reference. There are two ways we can look at reference. The first is physical in that each atom and electron has reference whether it can be seen or not. The second is perceptual: this means how we see objectsdo we see them as an object or not? We will take the latter approach. Reference also includes imaginary objects: unicorns, leprechauns, Santa Claus, Hades, elves, eternal bliss, and so forth. This would also include objects which currently do not exist but could exist: a King of France, dinosaurs, a five-cent ice-cream cone, and so forth. Sense Sense is the more interesting part meaning. Sense refers to how we see an object or the amount of information given about an object. The classic example cited showing the distinction is the planet Venus. As a planet it has reference arbitrarily given the name Venus. It is often called the morning star when seen in the morning, and the everning star when seen in the evening. Thus, it has two senses, depending on the time of day the object is seen. The planet itself is the referent, the morning star is one sense, the evening star the other sense. It could have other senses. Theories of meaning,,,, Different theories of meaning can be distinguished, according to how they deal with the relation between words, concepts and things in the world, and the conventions that are constitutive of this relation. Referential theories are concerned with the relation between expressions and the external world. The referential theory is used to explain our knowledge of linguistic meaning, but makes no claim about how we actually know how linguistic expressions acquire meaning. In other words, it makes no psychological claims. A referential theory of semantics assumes that MEANING IS REFERENCE TO FACTS OR OBJECTS IN THE WORLD The Ideational Theory of Meaning This theory was developed by the British empiricist philosopher, John Locke. The theory explains that the meaning attached to words can be separated from the word themselves. This means that meaning originates in the mind in the form of ideas. Words are just sensible signs for the convenience of communication. Language is therefore, a mechanism for expressing thoughts and thought is viewed as a succession of conscious ideas. The ideational theory is mentalistic. Thus the meaning of a word is the mental image or idea of the word or the expression generated in the mind of the speaker or hearer. The ideational theory is perceived to be abstract or imprecise because of dependence on mental images for decoding the meaning of words. Ideas may be too vague to comprehend. There are also many words (especially the abstract ones) that do not have specific physical realities, let alone mental manifestations. It is unthinkable that the mind can create an image of what the senses cannot perceive. The theory may not be able to account for synonymous expressions. It may also be difficult to use the theory to explain the mental image conjured by sentences. Indeed, sentences derive their meaning more from the word order. The prototype theory was proposed by Eleanor Rosch. She suggested that when people categorize items they match them against the prototype, or ideal exemplar, which contains the most representative features inside the category. Objects that do not share all the characteristics of the prototype are still members of the category but not prototypical ones. She argued that prototypes represent a basic level of categorization, e. g. chair, as opposed to a superordinate, e. g. furniture and a subordinate level, e. g. kitchen chair. The prototype theory has been particularly fruitful in providing several researchers with a convenient explanation of some phenomena in studies of vocabulary acquisition and teaching, mental lexicon, as well as in studies of cognitive linguistics and linguistic data. It has also been suggested that categorization based on prototypes is the basis for human development, and that this learning relies on learning about the world via embodiment. Componential analysis, also called feature analysis or contrast analysis, refers to the description of the meaning of words through structured sets of semantic features, which are given as â€Å"present†, â€Å"absent† or â€Å"indifferent with reference to feature†. The method thus departs from the principle of compositionality. Componential analysis is a method typical of structural semantics which analyzes the structure of a words meaning. Thus, it reveals the culturally important features by which speakers of the language distinguish different words in the domain (Ottenheimer, 2006, p. 20). This is a highly valuable approach to learning another language and understanding a specific semantic domain of an Ethnography. Denotation and connotation,,,, Denotation refers to the literal meaning of a word, the dictionary definition. ? For example, if you look up the word snake in a dictionary, you will discover that one of its denotative meanings is any of numerous scaly, legless, sometimes venomous reptiles? Khaving a long, tapering, cylindrical body and found in most tropical and temperate regions. Connotation, on the other hand, refers to the associations that are connected to a certain word or the emotional suggestions related to that word. The connotative meanings of a word exist together with the denotative meanings. The connotations for the word snake could include evil or danger. Denotation is an act of denoting or indicating something. denotation means the literal definition of a wordfrom the notation. connotation means the associations of a wordwith the definition. Connotation means implication, intention or imagination with a specific thing or person. Collocation†¦ A collocation is a combination of words that are commonly used together; the simplest way of describing collocations is to say that they ‘just sound right’ to native English speakers. Other combinations that may mean the same thing would seem ‘unnatural’. Collocations include noun phr ases like ‘stiff wind’ and ‘weapons of mass destruction’, phrasal verbs such as ‘to get together’ and other stock phrases such as ‘the rich and famous’