Word meaning and structure. Lexical, grammatical and pragmatic aspects of word meaning

1) The branch of the study of language, concerned with the meaning of words is called

s e m a s i o l o g y. The name comes from the Greek semasia “signification” (from “sema” – sign and “semantikos” – significant). As semaseology deals not with every kind of linguistic meaning but with lexical meaning only, it may be regarded as a branch of lexicology.

The main objects of semasiological study are as follows: semantic development of words, its causes and classification, relevant distinctive features and types of lexical meaning, polysemy and semantic structure of words, semantic grouping and connections in the vocabulary system, i.e. synonyms, antonyms, terminological systems etc. The term was first used by Christian Carl Reissig in 1825 in his Vorlesungen über lateinische Sprachwissenschaft (E. Lectures on Latin Linguistics). The discipline is most commonly understood as a branch of lexicology, the study of words, and as a branch of semantics, and more narrowly ascribed as a subfield of lexical semantics, though sometimes referred as a semantics' synonym. The meaning of the term is somewhat obscure, because according to some authors semasiology merged with semantics in modern times, while at the same time the term is still in use when defining onomasiology.

The difference between two terms “semaseology” and “semantics” is as follows: the first term deals with the lexical meaning of a word only, the second – “semantics” is used to cover several different meanings of words and phrases. It is a part of s e m i o t i c s – the study of signs and languages in general, including all sorts of codes, such as military signals, traffic signals, etc. As far as this term has broader meaning, we will use the term “semaseology”. S e m i o t i c s consists of three parts – semantics – the study about signs, syntactic – the study about organization of the signs in the process of speech and pragmatics – the study about usage of the signs by people. We will talk more about pragmatics and the pragmatical meaning of the word in the final part of this lecture.

2) The definition of a w o r d is one of the most difficult in linguistics because the simplest word has many aspects. It has a sound form because it is a certain arrangement of phonemes; it has its morphological structure, being also a certain arrangement of morphemes; when used in actual speech, it may occur in different word-forms, and signal various meanings. Being the central element of any language system, the word is a sort of focus for the problems of phonology, lexicology, syntax, morphology and also for some other sciences that have to deal with language and speech, such as philosophy and psychology, sociology and pragmalinguistics.

Many scientists tried to give the definition to a word. The great Russian physiologist I.P. Pavlov (1849 – 1936) examined the word in connection with his studies of the second signal system, and defined it as a universal signal that can substitute any other signal from environment in evoking a response in a human organism.

Within the scope of linguistics the word has been defined syntactically, phonologically and by combining various approaches. It has been syntactically defined for instance as “ the minimum sentence” by H. Sweet and later by l. Bloomfield as “a minimum free form”. E. Sapir took into consideration the syntactic and semantic aspects when he called the word “one of the smallest, completely satisfying bits of isolated ‘meaning’, into which the sentence resolves itself”. In our country the word theory was developed by prominent scholars: V.V. Vinogradov, A.I. Smirnitsky, O.S. Ahmanova, M.D. Stepanova. The main points of this theory can be summarized: The word is on of the fundamental units of language. It is a dialectical unity of form and content. Its content or meaning is not identical to notion, but it may reflect human notions, and in its sense may be considered as the form of their existence. Notions fixed in the meanings of words are formed as generalized and approximately correct reflections of reality in their content.

The acoustic aspect of the word serves to name the objects of reality, not to reflect them. In this sense the word may be regarded as a sign. This sign, however, is not arbitrary but motivated by the whole process of its development. That is to say, when a word first comes into existence it is always built out of the elements already existing in the language and according to the existing patterns; otherwise it cannot be understood and will be useless in the process of communication.

3) Word meaning. The definition of lexical meaning was given many times by different linguistic schools. The disciples of F. de Saussure consider meaning to be the relation between the object or notion named, and the name itself. Descriptive linguistics – the followers of Blomfield – defines the meaning as the situation in which the word is uttered. Both ways of approach afford no possibility of a further investigation of semantic problems in strictly linguistic terms, and therefore, if taken as a basis for general linguistic theory, give no insight into the mechanism of meaning. Moreover, they suggested to exclude semasiology from linguistics on the ground that meaning could not be studied objectively, and was not part of language but an aspect of the use to which language is put. The more general opinion was given by R. Jakobson:” Linguistics without meaning is meaningless”.

In our country definitions given by the majority of authors, however different in detail, agree in one basic principle: they all point out that lexical meaning is the realization of the notion by means of a definite language system. It has also been repeatedly stated that the plan of content in speech reflects the whole of human consciousness, which comprises not only mental activity but emotions as well.

Lexical meaning includes denotative and connotative meaning.

The notional content of a word is expressed by the d e n o t a t i v e m e a n i n g. To d e n o t e, then, is to serve as linguistic expression for a notion or as a name for an actually existing object referred to by a word. The term d e n o t a t u m or r e f e r e n t means either a notion or an actually existing individual thing to which reference is made. The e m o t i o n a l content of the word is its capacity to evoke or directly express emotion. It is rendered by the emotional or expressive counterpart of meaning, also called emotive charge, intentional or affective c o n n o t a t i o n s of words (see also Chapter 7, textbook by Antrushina and other)

Denotative meaning may have two aspects: s i g n i f i c a t i v e – i.e. the one, expressing a general idea. In order to understand it we have to use aphorisms and proverbs with a didactic character: Learning is light, illiteracy is darkness (general notions);d e m o n s t r a t i v e – i.e. identifying, when a word serves to name an individual element of reality: She liked simple flowers: pretty white daisies with sweet smell, yellow daffodils growing just behind the wicket-gate … (kinds of flowers)

Connotative meaning – in many words the meaning is a subject to complex associations originating in the habitual contexts, verbal or situational, of which the speaker and the listener are aware. These associations form the connotative component of meaning. We can distinguish here the connotations like: a) emotion: sweetie is compared with my beloved one; b) evaluation: pretty – beautiful; c) intensity: comfort – luxury; d) stylistic colouring: woman –lady (more about that see in Antrushina and other, Chapter 7).

As we could see, the complexity of the word meaning is manifold. Apart from the lexical meaning including denotative and connotative meaning it is always combined with the g r a m m a t i c a l m e a n i n g. Grammatical meaning – this is an expression in speech of relationship between words based on contrastive features of arrangements in which they occur. We will find out later in the topic devoted to word building, that even every part of word (prefix, suffix, root and stem) have their grammatical and morphological meaning. But now we will consider these issues later.

Now we will sum up the main idea of this lecture: meaning of the word is a complex phenomenon and all the lexical and lexico-grammatical variants of a word form its semantic structure: youth has three lexico-grammatical variants: 1) abstract uncountable noun; 2) a countable personal noun “a young man” 3) collective noun “young men and women”.

Pragmatic meaning – the way of better choice of words which help people influence each other by means of speech (here we have to mention the theory of speech acts and distinguish locution, illocution and perlocution). The basis of Speech Act Theory was comprised by the ideas of J. Austin, J. Searl and others.

Speech act as a scientific concept lays on the basis of the ideas born in 30-s and later narrated by the English logic Dj. Austin in his lectures (William James Lectures), read in 1955 Harvard University (USA) and published in 1962 г. under the title How To Do Things With Words [Austin 1962: Остин 1986]. Later on these ideas were developed in the works of American logic J.Searl Speech Acts [Searle 1969]

Main idea of the Speech Acts is in the following: by pronouncing a sentence in the situation of communication we make some action, or, more exactly, several actions: we move our articulation apparatus,we mention people, places, objects, thus informing our counterpart, we amuse or irritate him or her его/ее, we ask, promise, order, apologize, and all these actions are provided by the intention of the speaker.

There are three parts in a structure of speech act: locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary act. Locutionary act is pronouncing a phrase or a sound (saying that p) or (utterance act) и «пропозициональный акт» (propositional act).

(illocutionary act) is the central notion of the theory o speech acts. It corresponds to the communicative intention of the speaker, combining the aim of process of saying and proposition of the saying. It includes a number of components: illocutionary aim, way of reaching this aim, intensity of illocutionary power, preliminary conditions, conditions of effectiveness, determined by the rules of social behavior, norms of entering the process of communication and leaving it, conditions of sincere attitude of a speaker and a listener.

(perlocutionary act) expresses the result of a speech influence, which is reached by the speaker intentionally by means of the locutionary and illocutionary acts.

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