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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 people
many books
Many
much time
much money
Much
Synonymous pairs.
die- pass away, ask-question, quarrel-argue
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 nonmotivated.
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
 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.
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.
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. It is observed that
there are few words which have both the same conceptual meaning
and the stylistic meaning.
① They chucked a stone at the cops, and then did a bunk with the loot.
② 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
boy
woman
flower
garden
color
handsome -
boy
man
car
overcoat
airline
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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