LEXICAL SEMANTICSProf. S.A. Zhabotynska General Linguistics (5th year) Colloquium 3: LEXICAL SEMANTICS
LEXICAL SEMANTICS
· Semantics isthe study of meaning in language. Lexical semantics is the study of word meanings, or lexical meanings. (See 1, p. 79-80)
· ‘Semantic triangle’ is a model of meaning proposed by C.K. Ogden and I.A. Richards in the 1920s. It clams that meaning is essentially a three-fold relation between linguistic forms, concepts and referents. Contemporary interpretations consider meaning as a four-fold relation, with the forth element being the speaker:
REFERENT (object to which the sign refers)
(sound or written form) (word) (concept)
SPEAKER
· Lexical meaning is the concept evoked by a word. This concept is a subjective image of the objective reality, i.e. this image is not an exact replica of the referent, it is the referent as it is perceived or thought of by the speaker. The lexical meaning as a concept is the signified, that which is evoked by the physical form of the sign, or the signifier. (See 1, p. 80-81). · Lexical meaning integrates the signified, referential, connotational, and pragmatic meanings. The signified is an image that is entrenched (deeply rooted) in the mind of the speaker after encountering similar referents over and over again. Thus, the signified is a generalized concept comprising the traits of a number of referents that belong to one and the same class. The signified represents information shared by most speakers of a particular language. E.g. student ‘a person (usually aged 17 – 25) who studies at the university’.
When used in speech, a word may refer to a concrete object that belongs to the class. Each such object is specific; it has the traits of its own which are not shared by the other members of the class. Information about a concrete referent related to the situation of speech is called the referential meaning of a word. This information integrates into the signified. E.g. This student (‘Peter by name, aged 18, majors in English, blond, tall, a basketball player, etc.’) studies at Cherkasy State University.
The speaker in whose mind concepts are stored and retained belongs to a particular historical period, he/she is a member of some social group, and his/her state of mind may be influenced by feelings and emotions triggered by concrete experience. Respectively, these ‘human factors’ may have an impact on the word meaning. The meaning intermediately related to the language user is called connotational. There exist historical connotations which signify the historical period in which the word was used. Among such words, are historical words, archaisms and neologisms. E.g. historical words: four-and-nine penny, n ‘a hat in 1844-1880, ex the price set by a well-known hatter’, five-pounder ‘a cheap excusionist, Jersey, obs. 1933/; archaisms: belike ‘probably, perhaps’, fore-bears ‘ancestors’, hereto ‘ to this matter’; neologisms: rap ‘ a contemporary music style’, NIS ‘New Independent States’, sis-boombah ‘show-like sports and games, particularly football’. Along with historical connotations, there are social connotations that signify the social group to which a language user belongs. These connotations are inherent in jargonisms (slang words) and professional words. E.g. Drugs: get-up ‘an addict’s first dose of the day’, glooch ‘a drug addict whose senses have been degraded by drugs’, muggle ‘marijuana’. Close to social connotations are areal, or geographical, connotations inherent in dialectal words and national variants of one and the same language. E.g. form and grade in BE and AE respectively, canteen ‘cafeteria’ in BE and ‘soldier’s flask’ in AE. Social and areal connotatios can be manifested both by form and meaning of words.
While historical and social connotations signify societal factors, emotional connotations represent psychological phenomena. Such connotations signify human feelings and emotions which can be neutral, positive and negative. Cf. girl, sweetheart, slut; beautiful and ugly, bright and stupid.
Pragmatic meaning of a word includes information about the communicative intention of the speaker and the situation of speech (formal, informal, or neutral styles). E.g. Morning, Hello, Hi (greetings); must and should, mustn’t and shouldn’t (order and advice); gentlemen, guys, folks (in formal and informal contexts); parents and ancestors, attire, dress, and rags, to spoil and to screw (in neutral and informal contexts).
As a result, the word meaning looks like a multi-layered ‘cake’. Its base is the signified (information related to the class of objects), the next layer is the referential meaning (related to the concrete situation of speech), then follows connotational meaning (related to the speaker per se), and the top layer is pragmatic meaning (related to the communicative goals of the speaker and the type of the communicative situation). All these constituents of meaning may be modified in the course of time. Similarly, there are changes in the word sound forms.
· Direct and indirect meanings. A wordis considered to have a direct, or literal, meaning, provided the material form of this a word is not associated with a subsidiary concept. Such words tend to be non-motivated (their “internal word form” is opaque), e.g. Engl. man, dog, tree, table, book, etc. A word is said to have an indirect, or figurative, meaning, if its form encapsulates a subsidiary word-form that has its own meaning, e.g. Engl. dish ‘meal’ (served on a dish), frogman ‘a person who works underwater’ (and thus resembles a frog). The two major cases of indirect meaning are represented by metonymy and metaphor. Metonymy is a semantic link between the initial and derived meanings, which is based on contiguity, or the relation ‘by nature’. The most typical cases of contiguity are: (1) container > content, e.g. Engl. dish ‘plate’ > ‘food’, school ‘building’ > ‘students’; Ukr. чашка ‘посуд’ > ‘чай’, клас ‘приміщення’ > ‘учні’; (2) material > something made from this material, e.g. Engl. copper ‘metal’ > ‘coin’, canvas ‘textile’ > ‘picture’; Ukr. срібло ‘метал’ > ‘посуд’, шовк ‘тканина’ > ‘одяг’; (3) author > author’s work, e.g. Shakespeare ‘writer’ > ‘book’, Turner ‘painter’ > ‘picture’; Ukr. Чайковський ‘композитор’> ‘музика’, Роден ‘скульптор’ > ‘скульптура’; (4) agent + instrument > result, e.g. Engl. the Voice of America ‘voice’ > ‘radio broadcast’; Ukr. пезель Пікассо ‘пензель’> ‘картина’, перо Шевченка ‘перо’ > ‘вірш’; (5) part > whole, e.g. Engl. The Red Hat ‘hat’ > ‘girl’, the mustache ‘mustache’ > ‘man’, wheels ‘wheels’ > ‘car’; Ukr. 100 голів скота ‘голова’ > ‘тварина’, сороконожка ‘сорок ніг’ > ‘комаха’; whole > part, e.g. E.g. Engl. creature ‘any living being’ > ‘a human being’, animal ‘animal’ > ‘cat’; Ukr. армія ‘армія’ > ‘солдат’. The type of metonymy exhibiting part – whole relations is called synecdoche /si ne kd ki/.
Metaphor is a semantic link between the initial and derived meanings, which is based on similarity, or the relation created by human imagination. In metaphor, there is a target concept (that which is named), a source concept (that which is involved in comparison), and the ground (the parameters along which the two entities are compared). The most frequent grounds are: (1) form, e.g. Engl. wing ‘of a bird’ > ‘of a plane’; Ukr. рукав ‘про пальто’ > ‘про ріку’; (2) appearance, e.g. a cat-fish ‘a fish which resembles a cat’; Ukr. заяча губа ‘про зайця’ > ‘про губу людини’; (3) function, e.g. Engl. memory ‘of a man’ > ‘of a computer’; Ukr. ніжка ‘про дитину’ > ‘про стілець’; (4) sound, e.g. Engl. to whistle ‘of a person’ > ‘of a bullet’, Ukr. каркати ‘про ворону’ > ‘про людину’; (5) location, e.g. Engl. frogman ‘of a person who works underwater’; Ukr. серце ‘центральний, найбільш важливий орган тіла’ > ‘центральне важливе місце: Київ – серце України ’; (6) general impression that involves various personal attitudes, e.g. Eng. fox ‘of an animal’ > ‘of a person’, a three-dollar bill ‘a bill that does not exist in American monetary system’ > ‘ a person who pretends to be what he is not; an unusual, strange person; a sexual pervert’, a peacock ‘of a bird’ > ‘of a person who behaves like a peacock’. Ukr. лев ‘про тварину’ > ‘про людину’
Metaphor and metonymy may converge, and we have what is called metonymy-metaphor. E.g. Engl. a bluebell ‘a plant with the flowers resembling bells’, a twenty-eight ‘a parrot whose cry resembles the sound form of this number’.
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Physical form SIGN Meaning
