词汇学5文档格式.docx

词汇学5文档格式.docx

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Weknowthatawordisthecombinationofformandmeaning.Byformwemeanbothitspronunciationandspelling.Meaningiswhattheformstandsfor.Forexample,thelinguisticformcat/kæ

t/isusedtodenote‘asmallfour-leggedanimalwithsoftfurandsharpclaws’.Itcanbesaidthat‘asmallfour-leggedanimalwithsoftfurandsharpclaws’isthemeaningofthewordcat.But‘meaning’isnotassimpleasitseemstobe.Therearesomerelatedconceptswhichneedfurtherexplanation.Inaddition,weshalldiscussdifferenttypesofmeaninginthischapter.

5.1TheMeaningsof‘Meaning

5.1.1Reference

Wordsarebutsymbols,manyofwhichhavemeaningonlywhentheyhaveacquiredreference.Referenceistherelationshipbetweenlanguageandtheworld.‘Bymeansofreference,aspeakerindicateswhichthingsintheworld（includingpersons）arebeingtalkedabout.’（HurfordandHeasley1983:

25）Inotherwordsonlywhenaconnectionhasbeenestablishedbetweenthelinguisticsignandareferent,i.e.anobject,aphenomenon,aperson,etc.doesthesignbecomemeaningful.Theformcatismeaningfulbecausethelanguageuseremploysitconventionallytorefertothe‘animal’concerned.Sopartoftheword-meaningisthereferenceunderdiscussion.Thereferenceofawordtoathingoutsidethelanguageisarbitraryandconventional（SeeChapter1）.Thisconnectionistheresultofgeneralizationandabstraction.Thewordcatreferstoawholesetofanimalsofthesamespecieswithoutthedistinctionofsize,colour,region,ownerandotherfactors.Itistheextensionofallcatsintheuniverse.

Althoughreferenceisakindofabstraction,yetwiththehelpofcontext,itcanrefertosomethingspecific.Catwithoutcontextdenotesasetofcatsbutaparticularcatin‘Jeanforgottofeedhercatyesterdayevening.’Therefore,meaningcanbepinneddownbytheuser,time,place,etc.Thesamethingcanhavedifferentreferringexpressionswithoutcausinganyconfusion.Thecatcanbereferredtoby,say,animal,mydear,Jassy,this,sheandsoon.

5.1.2Concept

Inmanycasesmeaningisusedinthesenseof‘concept’.Meaningandconceptarecloselyconnectedbutnotidentical.Theyarebothrelateddirectlytoreferentsandarenotionsofthewordsbutbelongtodifferentcategories.Concept,whichisbeyondlanguage,istheresultofhumancognition,reflectingtheobjectiveworldinthehumanmind.Itisuniversaltoallmenalikeregardlessofculture,race,languageandsoonwhereasmeaningbelongstolanguage,soisrestrictedtolanguageuse.Therefore,aconceptcanhaveasmanyreferringexpressionsastherearelanguagesintheworld.Eveninthesamelanguage,thesameconceptcanbeexpressedindifferentwords.Forexample,muchandmanybothhavethesameconcept,butcollocatewithdifferentwords,muchtime,muchmoney,muchwater,butmanypeople,manybooks,manybuildings,notviceversa.Synonymouspairssuchasdie—passaway~ask—question,quarrel—argueareallgoodexamples.Eachpairhasthesameconceptbutdifferentsocio-culturalandstylisticvalues.

客观事物（人脑以外的所有事物）反映在人脑中，产生感觉（sensation）,知觉（perception），表象（representation）；

人脑把它们加以概括和抽象，形成概念（concept）。

人们用语言把概念固定下来，成为人们交流思想的符号（sign），这就是有一定意义的词。

每个词都有一定的形式和意义，缺一不可。

词义三角M，R，F，形式和所指没有必然联系；

词义与所指对象连接在一起，但不是每个词都有referent。

词义和形式是约定俗成的，但不绝对。

5.1.3Sense

Generallyspeaking,themeaningof"

meaning"

isperhapswhatistermedsense.Unlikereference,‘sense’denotestherelationshipsinsidethelanguage.‘Thesenseofanexpressionisitsplaceinasystemofsemanticrelationshipswithotherexpressionsinthelanguage.（ibid）Sincethesenseofanexpressionisnotathing,itisoftendifficulttosaywhatsortofidentityitis.Itisalsoanabstraction.Everywordthathasmeaninghassense（noteverywordhasreference）.Forexample,probable,nearly,and,if,but,yes,noneofwhichrefertoanythingintheworld,allhavesomesense.Justasonecantalkofthesameconceptindifferentlanguages,soonecantalkofexpressionsindifferentdialectsofonelanguageashavingthesamesense:

pavementinBritishEnglishandsidewalkinAmericanEnglishhavethesamesense,andsodopalandchum.

5.2Motivation

Motivationaccountsfortheconnectionbetweenthelinguisticsymbolanditsmeaning.Asweknow,therelationshipbetweentheword-formandmeaningisconventionalandarbitrary,andmostwordscanbesaidtobenon-motivated.Thatis,theconnectionofthesignandmeaningdoesnothavealogicalexplanation.Nevertheless,Englishdoeshavewordswhosemeaningscanbeexplainedtoacertainextent.

5.2.1OnomatopoeicMotivation

InmodernEnglishonemayfindsomewordswhosesoundssuggesttheirmeanings,forthesewordswerecreatedbyimitatingthenaturalsoundsornoises.Forexample,bow-wow,bang,pingpong,miaow,cuckoo,tick-tuck,hahaandthelikeareonomatopoeticallymotivatedwords.Knowingthesoundsofthewordsmeansunderstandingthemeaning.Allthewordsbasedonthesoundsmadebybirds,animals,insectsandsoonbelongtothiscategory:

crowbycocks,quackbyducks,trumpetbyelephants,buzzbybeesorflies,croakbyfrogs,squeakbymice,neighbyhorses,bleatbygoats,hissbysnakes,roarbylions,etc.Butsuchechoicwordsarealsolargelyconventional,forthesoundswesayinEnglishmaynotbethesameinotherlanguages;

splashandwhisperdonotmean‘splash’and‘whisper’forexampleinGermanorFrench（Quirk1978）.

5.2.2MorphologicalMotivation

Compoundsandderivedwordsaremulti-morphemicwordsandthemeaningsofmanyarethesumtotalofthemorphemescombined.Quiteoften,ifoneknowsthemeaningofeachmorpheme,namelyaffixorstem,onecanfigureoutthemeaningoftheword.Forinstance,airmailmeansto‘mailbyair’,reading-lampisthe‘lampforreading’,miniskirtisa‘smallskirt’andhopelessmeans‘withouthope’.

Itshouldbepointedoutthattherearealotofwordswhosestructuresareopaque,i.e.theirmeaningsarenotthecombinationsoftheseparateparts.Blackmarket,forexample,isbynomeansthe‘marketblackincolour’,butitrefersto‘illegalsellingandbuying’.Likewise,greenhornisnot‘thehorngreenincolour,butanewcomer

5.2.3SemanticMotivation

Semanticmotivationreferstothementalassociationssuggestedbytheconceptualmeaningofaword.Itexplainstheconnectionbetweentheliteralsenseandfigurativesenseoftheword.Whenwesaythemouthofariver,weassociatetheopeningpartoftheriverwiththemouthofahumanbeingorananimal.Whenweusethefootofthemountain,wearecomparingthelowerpartofthemountaintothefootofahumanbeing.Inthesentence‘Heisfondofthebottle’,bottleremindsoneofwhatiscontainedinside;

andpenandswordin‘Thepenismightierthanthesword’suggest‘writing’and‘war’respectively.

5.2.4EtymologicalMotivation

Themeaningsofmanywordsoftenrelatedirectlytotheirorigins.Inotherwordsthehistoryofthewordexplainsthemeaningoftheword.Forexample,nowpeopleusepenforanywritingtoolthoughitoriginallydenotes‘feather’,becausebeforemodernpenswerecreated,featherswerecommonlyusedaswritingtools.Thoughpeopleinmoderntimesnolongerusefeathersinwriting,forthesakeofconvenience,thenameisretained.Allthewordscommonizedfrompropernounscanbeinterpretedintermsoftheirorigins.Oneexamplewillsufficeforillustration.Thewordlaconicmeaning‘brief’or‘shortisderivedfromLacons,atribeofpeoplewhowereknownfortheir‘brevityofspeech’andfortheirhabitofneverusingmorewordsthannecessary.Hencealaconicanswerisa‘shortanswer

5.3TypesofMeaning

Word-meaningisnotmonogeneousbutacompositeconsistingofdifferentparts.Theseareknowninfamiliartermsasdifferenttypesofmeaning.Thesemeaningsarenotallfoundineveryword.Awordmayhaveonetypeofmeaningoracombinationoftypes.Sometypesofmeaningsmayappearmoreprominentincertainwordsthaninothers.Somemeaningsareconstant,andothersmaybetransient,existingonlyinactualcontexts.Alltheseformpartofthestudyofsemanticsandprovetobeveryimportantintheuseofwords.Thissectionwilldiscussinbriefeachtypeofmeaning.

5.3.1GrammaticalMeaningandLexicalMeaning

Asmentionedearlier,grammaticalmeaningsreferstothatpartofthemeaningofthewordwhichindicatesgrammaticalconceptorrelationshipssuchaspartofspeechofwords（nouns,verbs,adjectives,adverbs）,singularandpluralmeaningofnouns,tensemeaningofverbsandtheirinflectionalforms（forget,forgets,forgot,forgotten,forgetting）.Grammaticalmeaningofawordbecomesimportantonlywhenitisusedinactualcontext.Forexample,‘Thedogischasingacat.’Thewordsdogand.catarenounsandbotharesingularusedassubjectandobjectinthesentencerespectively;

ischasingisthepredicateverbinpresentcontinuoustense,andtheandaaredeterminers,restrictingthereferentandindicatingnumber.Unlikelexicalmeaning,differentlexicalitems,whichhavedifferentlexicalmeanings,mayhavethesamegrammaticalmeaning,e.g.tables,men,oxen,potatoes（havingthesamepluralmeaning）andtaught,worked,forgave（havingthesametensemeaning）.Ontheotherhand,thesamewordmayhavedifferentgrammaticalmeaningsasshowninforget,forgets,forgot,forgotten,forgetting.Functionalwords,thoughhavinglittlelexicalmeaning,possessstronggrammaticalmeaningwhereascontentwordshavebothmeanings,andlexicalmeaninginparticular.

Lexicalmeaningandgrammaticalmeaningmakeuptheword-meaning.Itisknownthatgrammaticalmeaningsurfacesonlyinuse.Butlexicalmeaningisconstantinallthecontentwordswithinorwithoutco