大学英语专业词汇学第五章.docx

大学英语专业词汇学第五章.docx

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大学英语专业词汇学第五章

Chapter5WordMeaningandComponentialAnalysis

Havingdiscussedthestructureandformationofwords,wenowmovetothemeaningofwords.InChapter1,wetoucheduponwordmeaninginbrief,inthischapterwewilldiscussitinmoredepthintermsofmeaningsof'meaning',motivationofmeaning,typesofmeaningandthecomponentsofwordmeaning.

5.1WordMeaning

Itisagreedthatawordisthecombinationofword-formanditsmeaning.'Form'referstobothitspronunciationandspelling.'Meaning'iswhattheformstandsfor.Forexample,thelinguisticformcat/kaet/isusedtodenote'asmallfour-leggedanimalwithsoftfurandsharpclaws'.Itcanbesaidthat'asmallfour-leggedanimalwithsoftfurandsharpclaws'isthemeaningofthewordcat.Butthetermisnotassimpleasitseemstobe.Therearesomerelatedconceptswhichneedfurtherclarification.

1.Reference

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

25）Inotherwords,onlywhenaconnectionhasbeenestablishedbetweenthelinguisticsignandareferent,i.e.,anobject,aphenomenon,aperson,etc.doesthesignbecomemeaningful.Theformcatismeaningfulbecausethelanguageuseremploysitconventionallytorefertothe'animal'concerned.Sopartofthewordmeaningisthereferenceunderdiscussion.

Thereferenceofawordtoathingoutsidethelanguageisarbitrary（任意的）andconventional（约定俗成的）（SeeChapter1）.Thisconnectionistheresultofgeneralization（概括）andabstraction（抽象）.Thewordcatreferstoawholesetofanimalsofthesamespecieswithoutthedistinctionofsize,color,region,ownerandotherfactors.Itistheextensionofallcatsintheuniverse.

Althoughreferenceisakindofabstraction,yetwiththehelpofcontext,itcanrefertosomethingdefinite（确定的）.Catwithoutcontextdenotesasetofcats;butitreferstoaparticularcatin'Jeanforgottofeedhercatyesterdayevening'.Therefore,meaningcanbepinneddown（确定；使明确说明）bytheuser,time,place,etc..Thesamethingcanhavedifferentreferringexpressionswithoutcausinganyconfusion.Thecatcanbereferredtoas,say,theanimal,mydear,Jassy,this,sheandsoon.

2.Concept

Inmanycasesmeaningisusedinthesenseofconcept.Meaningandconceptarecloselyconnectedbutnotidentical（完全相同的）.Theyarebothrelateddirectlytoreferents（所指）andarenotionsofthewordsbutbelongtodifferentcategories（范畴）.Concept,whichisbeyondlanguage,istheresultofhumancognition（认知）,reflectingtheobjectiveworldinthehumanmind.Itisuniversaltoallmenalikeregardlessofculture,race,languageandsoonwhereasmeaningbelongstolanguage,soisrestrictedtolanguageuse.Therefore,aconceptcanhaveasmanyreferringexpressionsastherearelanguagesintheworld.Eveninthesamelanguage,thesameconceptcanbeexpressedindifferentwords.Forexample,muchandmanybothhavethesameconcept,butcollocatewithdifferentwords,muchtime,muchmoney,muchwater,butmanypeople,manybooks,manybuildings,notviceversa.Synonymous（同义的）pairssuchasdie—passaway,maiden—-woman,quarrel—argueareallgoodexamples.Eachpairhasthesameconceptbutdifferentsocio-culturalandstylisticvalues（文体色彩）.

3.Sense

Generallyspeaking,themeaningof'meaning'isperhapswhatistermedsense.Unlikereference,sensedenotes（指称）therelationshipsinsidethelanguage.'Thesenseofanexpressionisitsplaceinasystemofsemanticrelationshipswithotherexpressionsinthelanguage'.（ibid）Sincethesenseofanexpressionisnotathing,itisoftendifficulttosaywhatsortofidentityitis.Itisalsoanabstractionthatcanbeentertained（心存，持有（信心、意见）；容纳，接受；（准备）考虑）inthemindofalanguageuser.Everywordthathasmeaninghassensebutnoteverywordhasreference.Forexample,probable,nearly,and,if,but,yes,noneofwhichrefertoanythingintheworld,allhavesomesense.Justasonecantalkofthesameconceptindifferentlanguages,soonecantalkofexpressionsindifferentdialectsofonelanguageaslavingthesamesense:

pavementinBritishEnglishandsidewalkinAmericanEnglishhavethesamesense,sodopal（<口>伙伴，好友）andchum（<口>好友，同房间的人）.

5.2Motivation

Motivation（理据）referstotheconnectionbetweenthelinguisticsymbolanditsmeaning.Asweknow,therelationshipbetweentheword-formandmeaningisconventionalandarbitrary,mostwordscanbesaidtobenon-motivated（没有理据的）.Thatis,theconnectionofthesignandmeaningdoesnotaccountforthemeaning.Nevertheless,Englishdoeshavewordsthemeaningsofwhicharetransparent（透明的，清楚的；意义与形式有联系的）andreasonablyexplicable（可解释的）.

1.OnomatopoeicMotivation（拟声理据）

InmodernEnglishonemayfindsomewordswhosephoneticformssuggesttheirmeaningsasthewordswerecreatedbyimitating（模拟）thenaturalsoundsornoises.Forexample,bow-wow,bang,ping-pong,miaow,cuckoo,tick-tuck,hahaandthelikeareonomatopoeticallymotivatedwords.Knowingthesoundswhichtheyrepresentmeansunderstandingthemeaning.Allthewordsbasedonthesoundsmadebybirds,animals,insectsandsoonbelongtothiscategory:

crowbycocks,quackbyducks,trumpetbyelephants,buzzbybeesorflies,croakbyfrogs,squeakbymice,neighbyhorses,bleatbygoats,hissbysnakes,roarbylions,etc..Butsuchechoic（拟声的；回声的）wordsareconventionaltoquitealargeextent,forthesoundswesayinEnglishmaynotbethesameinotherlanguages;splashandwhisperdonotmean'splash'and'whisper'forexampleinGermanorFrench（Quirk1978）.

2.MorphologicalMotivation（形态理据）

Compoundsandderivedwordsaremulti-morphemic（多词素的）wordsandthemeaningsofmanyofthemarethesumtotalofthemorphemescombined.Often,whenoneknowsthemeaningsofthemorphemesorbases,onecandeducethemeaningsofthewords.Forinstance,airmailmeans'tomailbyair';reading-lampis'thelampforreading';miniskirtis'asmallskirt';andhopefulmeans'fullofhope'.

Itshouldbepointedoutthattherearealotofwordswhosestructuresareopaque（不透明的，不发亮的；难以理解）,i.e.theirmeaningsarenotthecombinationsoftheconstituentparts.Blackmarket,forexample,isbynomeansthemarketblackincolorbutexpressing'illegalsellingandbuying'.Likewise,eggheadisnottheheadintheshapeofanegg,but'alearnedperson'inthederogatory（毁损的，贬低的）sense.

3.SemanticMotivation

Semanticmotivationisthementalassociationsbasedontheconceptualmeaningofaword.Inotherwords,itisthefigurative（比喻性的）senseoftheword.Whenwesaythemouthofariver,weassociate'theopeningpartoftheriver'with'themouthofahumanbeingorananimal'.Whenweusethefootofthemountain,wearecomparing'thelowerpartofthemountain'to'thefootofahumanbeing'.Bottlein'Heisfondofthebottle'remindsoneofwhatiscontainedinside;andpenandswordin'Thepenismightier（更强大的）thanthesword'issuggestive（示意的；启发的；引起联想的）of'writing'and'war'.

4.EtymologicalMotivation

Theoriginsofwordsmoreoftenthannotthrowlighton（说明，揭示）theirmeanings.Forexample,nowpeopleusepenforanywritingtoolthoughitoriginallyrefersto'aheavyquill（羽毛管；羽根）orfeather',becausebeforemodernpenswerecreated,feathersweretrimmed（整理；修剪）toasplitpoint（有分叉的尖端）,usedaswritingtools.Thoughpeopleinmoderntimesnolongerusefeathersinwriting,forthesakeofconventionality,thenameisretained.Allthewordscommonizedfrompropernamescanbeexplainedintermsoftheirorigins.Oneexamplewillsuffice（足够）forillustration.Thewordlaconicmeaning'brief'or'short'isderivedFromLacons,atribeofpeoplewhowereknownfortheirbrevity（简洁；简练）ofspeechandfortheirhabitofneverusingmorewordsthannecessary.HenceaLaconicansweris'ashortanswer'（SeeCommonizationofProperNamesfordetails）.

5.3TypesofMeaning

Wordmeaningperse（本身）isnotmonogeneous（单一的）butacomposite（复合体）consistingofdifferentcomponents,whichareknowninfamiliartermsasdifferenttypesofmeaning.Thesemeaningsarenotfoundineveryword,andinfactsomewordspossesssomeofthem,devoid（没有的；缺乏的）ofothers.Sometypesofmeaningsmayappearmoreprominentincertainwordsthaninothers.Somemeaningsareconstant,andothersmaybetransient（暂时的）,existingonlyinactualcontexts.Alltheseformpartofthestudyofsemanticsandproveofparamount（最高的，首要的）importanceintheuseofwords.Thissectionwilldiscussinbriefeachtypeofmeaning.

1.GrammaticalMeaningandLexicalMeaning

Asmentionedearlier,grammaticalmeaningreferstothatpartofthemeaningofthewordwhichindicatesgrammaticalconceptorrelationshipssuchaspartofspeechofwords（nouns,verbs,adjectives,adverbs）,singularandpluralmeaningofnouns,tensemeaningofverbsandtheirinflectionalparadigm（范例，样式；【语】（名词、动词等的）词形变化）（forget,forgets,forgot,forgotten,forgetting）.Grammaticalmeaningbecomestransparentonlywhenwordsareusedinconnectedspeech.Forexample,'Thedogischasingaball.'Thewordsdogandballarenounsandbotharesingularusedassubjectandobjectinthesentencerespectively;ischasingisthepredicateverb（谓语动词）,showingpresentcontinuoustense（现在进行时）,andtheandaaredeterminers（限定词，限定成分；决定因素）,specifyingdefinitenessandnumber.Unlikelexicalmeaning,differentlexemes（词素）orlexicalitems（词项）,whichhavedifferentlexicalmeanings,mayhavethesamegrammaticalmeaning,e.g.tables,men,oxen,potatoes（havingthesamepluralmeaning）andtaught,-worked,forgave（havingthesametensemeani