The Structure of Word-meaning

Word-meaning is made up of various components described as meaning types. There are several types of meaning.

Lexical meaning is the meaning proper to the given linguistic unit in all its forms and distributions. The most significant features of the lexical meaning of the word are: the word’s interrelationship with the denoted objects and phenomena of the world; the word’s interrelationship with the conceptual matter that appears in people’s mind on perceiving a language unit; the word’s interrelationship with the other words in a context so lexical meaning possesses several aspects.

According to D. Crystal, lexical items are viewed upon as signs within the sign system of the language vocabularyso signification is that aspect of the word’s meaning which stresses the sign function of the word, in other words, it is the relation between sign and thing or sign and concept.

Denotation involves the relationship between a linguistic unit (a lexical item) and the non-linguistic entities to which it refers. Denotational meaning is the part of lexical meaning that makes communication possible. Denotational meaning conceptualises and classifies our experience and names objects so that our knowledge of reality is embodied in words having essentially the same meaning for all speakers of the language. Denotational meaning can be segmented into semes (seme is a minimal unit of the matter). This procedure is known as componential analysis which seeks to set up minimal semantic oppositions in order to arrive at meaning differentiating features.

When words are used in their factual direct meanings denotation and signification coincide

Connotational meaning comprises the emotive charge and the stylistic value of the word that are closely connected and even interdependent. In other words, connotation is supplementary emotive, evaluative, expressive and stylistic shade which is added to the word’s denotational meaning and which serves to express the emotional content of the word - that is its capacity to evoke or directly express emotion.

The list and specification of connotational meanings varies with different linguistic schools and individual scholars and includes such entries as pragmatic (directed at the perlocutionary effect of utterance), associative (connected, through individual psychological or linguistic associations, with related and non-related notions), ideological, or conceptual (revealing political, social, ideological preferences of the user), evaluative (stating the value of the indicated notion), emotive (revealing the emotional layer of cognition and perception), expressive (aiming at creating the image of the object in question), stylistic (indicating "the register", or the situation of the communication).

Let’s illustrate four main components of connotational meaning: emotive, evaluative, expressive (intensifying), stylistic.

Emotive meaning or charge is associated with emotions. In the following sets of words with the same denotational meaning to like, to love, to worship; big, large, tremendous; girl, girlie; dear, dearie - to worship, tremendous, girlie, dearie have heavier emotive charge than others members of sets. We shouldn’t confuse the emotive charge with emotive implications: what is thought and felt when the word hospital is used by an architect who built it, a doctor or a nurse working there, the invalid staying there after an operation.

Evaluative meaning expresses approval or disapproval, e.g., magic has attractive connotation while its synonym witchcraft has sinister accentuation.

Expressive component serves to emphasise the subjective attitude to the content of the utterance or the person addressed, e.g., magnificent, splendid, superb may be viewed as exaggerations.

Stylistically words can be subdivided into literary (bookish), neutral and colloquial layers (parent - father - dad).

Literary words can be subdivided into general literary words (harmony, calamity); scientific terms; poetic words and archaisms (albeit - although); barbarisms and foreign words (bon mot - a clever or witty saying, bouquet). The colloquial words may be subdivided into common colloquial (dad); slang (gag for a joke); professionalisms (lab); jargonisms (a sucker - a person who is easily deceived); vulgarisms (shut up); dialectical words (lass); colloquial coinages (allrightnik).

The above-mentioned meanings are classified as connotational not only because they supply additional (and not the logical / de­notational) information, but also because, for the most part, they are observed not all at once and not in all words either. Some of them are more important for the act of communication than the others. Very often they overlap (частично совпадают). So, all words possessing an emotive meaning are also evaluative (rascal, ducky), though this rule is not reversed, as we can find non-emotive, intellectual evaluation (good, bad). Also, almost all emotive words are also expressive, while there are hundreds of expressive words which cannot be treated as emotive (take, for example the so-called expressive verbs, which not only denote some action or process but also create their image, as in to gulp - to swallow in big lumps, in a hurry; to sprint - to run fast).

The number, importance and the overlapping character of connotational meanings incorporated into the semantic structure of a word, are brought forth by the context, i. e. a concrete speech act that identifies and actualizes each one. More than that: each context does not only specify the existing semantic (both denotational and connotational) possibilities of a word, but also is capable of adding new ones, or deviating rather considerably from what is registered in the dictionary. Because of that all contextual meanings of a word can never be exhausted or comprehensively enumerated.

Grammatical meaning is the component of meaning recurrent in identical forms of individual forms of different words. On the one hand, grammatical meaning unites words in such large groups as parts of speech, e.g., the grammatical meaning of substuntivity for nouns, the grammatical meaning of process for verbs, and so on. On the other hand, it is the property of identical sets of word-forms. It may be defined as the indication in certain grammatical categories, e.g., such word-forms as tables, books manifest the grammatical meaning of plurality. Grammatical meaning may also de defined as the realization of a concept or a notion by means of a definite language system, e.g., the word forms go, goes, went, gone, going express one and the same concept, that of the process of movement, which is restricted in their lexical meaning. It follows that by lexical meaning we understand the meaning proper to the linguistic unit in all its forms, by grammatical meaning we understand the meaning proper to the sets of word-forms common to all words of a certain class, e.g., the word takes has the same lexical meaning as took, taken, but its grammatical meaning is that which is shared by works, stands; the same is true about grammatical meaning of the following examples: boys, girls; boy’s, girl’s; helped, met; better, smaller.

Questions and Tasks:

Prepare a report on the theoretical views of the scientists and linguistic schools mentioned in the lesson

Make an abstract of the Chapter 4.3 Meaning in the Functional Frame-of-Reference of t he Modern English Lexicology. Vocabulary in Use (Н.Б. Гвишиани. Современный английский язык: Лексикология. – М.: Изд-во МГУ, 2000. – 221 с.). Be ready to discuss the choice of words according to the language functions.

Identify the denotative and connotative elements of the meanings in the following sets of words:

reflect (on, upon), meditate (on, upon), ponder (over, on), muse (on, upon);

describe, depict, portray, kodak, inventory, list, distrain upon, circumscribe;

love, like, be fond of, thrive in, adore, worship;

wonderful, marvellous, miraculous, lovely, beautiful.

Consider the connotations of the colours red, black, brown, blue, white, yellow and their Russian counterparts.

Read the contextualized examples and find out the scale of formality for a set of six words all meaning, roughly, «to complain»

She came whining to me this afternoon that no-one sympathised with her and she felt she did not fit in with the rest of the group. Don’t bellyache to me because there’s no food left - you are an hour late. She is always bellyaching about the house being untidy but she never does anything about it. Everyone is always moaning about the rising cost of living. You are strict with children, then they come moaning to me about it. Don’t grumble to me about the people next door - go and complain to them. He is always grousing to everyone about how he is overworked and underpaid. I complained to the airline about the loss of my luggage but they couldn’t help.

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