Semantics REFERENCE SENSE Meaning One concern of Semantics

Semantics REFERENCE & SENSE

Meaning One concern of Semantics is the analysis of meaning l

Meaning: G. Leech l British linguist G. Leech classified meaning into: l CONCEPTUAL MEANING l ASSOCIATIVE MEANING.

Meaning: G. Leech l CONCEPTUAL/DENOTATIVE MEANING refers to literal use of the word results different basic experience of the external world

Meaning: G. Leech l ASSOCIATIVE MEANING /CONNOTATIVE MEANING results different associations with the conceptual meaning

Reference and Sense l The SENSE of an expression is its indispensable hard core of meaning.

SENSE is prototypical l The SENSE of a is prototypical SENSE The QUEEN has fallen off the TABLE.

Connotation l Sense, reference and denotation are three aspects of what is commonly conveyed by the loose term ‘meaning’.

Connotation l CONNOTATION names those aspects of meaning which CONNOTATION do not affect a word’s sense, reference or denotation, but which have to do with secondary factors such as its emotional force, its level of formality, its character as a euphemism, etc. ‘Police officer’ and ‘cop’, for example, have very different connotations, but similar denotations

Connotation l Connotative meaning is the communicative value that an expression has by virtue of what it refers to, over and above its purely conceptual content.

Connotation l Positive and Negative Connotations l Words may have positive or negative connotations that depend upon the social, cultural, and personal experiences of individuals.

Connotation l words childish, childlike and youthful have the same denotative, but different connotative, meanings. childish and childlike have a negative connotation, as they refer to immature behavior of a person. Whereas, youthful implies that a person is lively and energetic.

Connotation l Connotative meaning of an expression can vary from age to age, from society to society, and from individual to individual. l ,

Meaning: G. Leech l Associative meaning into: CONNOTATIVE SOCIAL l , AFFECTIVE THEMATIC REFLECTIVE COLLOCATIVE

Meaning: G. Leech l SOCIAL MEANING is the meaning which an MEANING expression conveys about the contexts or social circumstances of its use.

Meaning: G. Leech l SOCIAL MEANING chiefly includes stylistic MEANING meaning of an utterance. It is the formality of the expression. l -mother (formal), mom (colloquial), mama (child’s language) l -dollar (neutral) buck (slang)

Meaning: G. Leech l Affective Meaning: The level of meaning that conveys the language user’s feelings, including his attitude or evaluation in shaping his use of language is called affective meaning or emotive meaning. l Ex. Politician---statesman

Meaning: G. Leech l Reflective Meaning: is the meaning which arises in cases of multiple conceptual meanings, when one sense of a word forms part of our response to another sense. It is the product of people’s recognition and imagination. l She has a shiner.

Meaning: G. Leech l Reflective Meaning: is the product of people’s recognition and imagination. l He took the drugs. l Enjoy yourself.

Meaning: G. Leech l Collocative Meaning: is the associations a word gets because of the meanings of words which tend to occur in its linguistic context. l fast reading/friendship/colour/road/car l have a fast; a period of fasting

Meaning: G. Leech l Collocative Meaning: l Fast has such collocative meanings as quick moving, capable of high speed, firmly fixed, or abstaining from food for a time

Meaning: G. Leech l Thematic Meaning: is the meaning arising out of the way in which the writer or speaker organizes his message is called thematic meaning. Tomorrow I plan to have an outing.

Reference and Sense l The notions of sense and reference are central to the study of meaning.

Reference and Sense l The idea of reference is relatively solid and easy to understand.

Reference and Sense. . The sense of an expression can be thought of as the sum of its sense properties and sense relations with other expressions.

Connotation Examples l brat and child l toilet and rest room l country town and regional centre l underprivileged area and slum l mutt and dog l doctor and quack l incident and accident

Literal vs Non-literal l All human languages have the property of productivity. This is simply the fact that the vocabulary of any given language can be used to construct a theoretically infinite number of meanings, by varying the ways in which the words are combined.

Literal vs Non-literal l Examples l The novelist has seen the turkey. l A novelist has eaten the turkey. l A contemporary novelist has seen a turkey. l The novelist has seen a passing turkey. l *A turkey has eaten a passing contemporary novelist

Literal vs Non-literal l Meanings in those examples are COMPOSITIONAL. This COMPOSITIONAL is to say that the meanings of sentences are made up, or composed, of the meanings of their constituent lexemes. We understand novel sentences because we understand the meanings of the words out of which they are constructed. l THE MEANING IS LITERAL

Literal vs Non-literal l Non-compositional (non-literal) meaning on the other hand does not emerge from the meaning of the constituent lexemes. – Kicked the bucket – thrown in the towel l The phrase Kicked the bucket, then, is not compositional, Kicked the bucket since its overall meaning, ‘to die’, does not derive from the meanings of its lexemes, “kicked” and “bucket” kicked

QUESTION In the following sentences, which of the highlighted expressions can be considered compositional, and which are idioms? Do any belong to some third category? l l l l l Stop dragging the chain: we’ll never get there. We’ve run out of time, so we’ll have to wrap things up. If you keep on making that noise I’ll go through the roof. After the delay the plane took off as normal. I’ll take twenty per cent off the price. This is a nice and hot cup of tea. My hands are lovely and warm. Try and get a better deal next time. Hello down there!

Collocation l You shall know a word by the company it keeps. l l l Buxom lass (attractive woman) Blond hair (fair (yellow)hair) Glooomy weather (depressing weather) Fancy dress (unusual costume) What do all these phrases have in common? The obvious answer is that they are used in combination or arrangement pretty frequently.