Chapter Five.docx

Chapter Five.docx

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ChapterFive

ChapterFive

Meaning

本章重点要求掌握以下几方面的内容

5.1语义学的定义及哲学、心理学和语言学在研究语义学时的侧重点

5.2“意义”的意义

5.3意义的七种类型

5.4意义关系

5.5语义分析

5.1WhatisSemantics

ThesubjectconcerningthestudyofmeaningiscalledSemantics.Morespecifically,Semanticsisthestudyofthemeaningoflinguisticunits,wordsandsentencesinparticular.

Philosophy,Psychologyandlinguisticsallclaimadeepinterestinsemantics.ThePhilosophersareinterestedinunderstandingtherelationsbetweenlinguisticexpressionandthephenomenaintheworldtowhichtheyreferandevaluatingtheconditionoftruthandfalsehoodofsuchexpressions.Thepsychologistsclaimadeepinterestinunderstandingthehumanmindthroughlanguage.InwhatfellowswewilldiscussSemanticfromthelinguisticperpective.That’slinguistsareconcernedwiththeanalysisanddescriptionofthemeaning（literal）oflinguisticexpression.

5.2Meaningsof“meaning”

Itisnotaneasyjobtodefinewhatmeaningis.Heresomeinterpretations.

5.2.1Referentialtheory（指称论）orNamingtheory（命名论）

Thisisaverypopulartheory.Accordingtothistheory,thereisadirectrelationbetweenlanguageandreality/alinguisticformandthethingitrefersto.Inthecaseofpropernounanddefinitenounphrases,thisisespeciallytrue.Whenwesay“ThemostinfluentiallinguistNoamChomskyteachesatMIT,wedouse“themostinfluentiallinguist”and“NoamChomsky”tomeanaparticularperson,and“MTT”aparticularinstitutionofhigherlearning.

5.2.2Therealism（唯实主义论）VSthenominalism（唯名主义论）

Therealistsholdthatallthingscalledbythesamenamehavesomecommonproperty,thatis,thereissomekindofrealityorsetofempiricalfeaturesthatestablisheswhetheragiventhingwillbecalledariverorachair.Contrarytothis,thenominalistsarguethatriversorchairsintherealworldhavenothingincommonotherthanthenamethatbyconventionwehavelearnedtoapplytothem.

5.2.3Conceptualism（概念论）ormentalism

FollowingFDeSaussure’s“sign”theory,thelinguisticsignissaidtoconsistofasignifierandsignified,i.easoundimageandaconcept,linkedbyapsychological“associative”bond.

Inspiredbythemedievalgrammarian,DgdenandRichardspresenttheclassic“Semantictriangle”,asmanifestedbythefollowingdiagram,inwhich,theSymbolorformreferstothelinguisticelements（word,sentence,etc）,thereferent（所指事物，参考对象）referstotheobjectintheworldofexperience,andthoughtorreference（所指，参照）referstotheconcept.Thus,thesymbolofawordsignified“things”byvirtueofthe“concept”associatedtheformofthewordinthemindsofthespeakerofthelanguage,andtheconceptlookedatfromthispointofviewisthemeaningoftheword.

1词是表示概念的

2概念是反映客观事物的

3词是代表所指物

5.2.4Contextualism

Contextualismisbasedonthepresumptionthatonecanderivemeaningfromorreduceittoobservablecontext.Twokindsofcontextarerecognizedthesituationalcontextandlinguisticcontext.

Everyutteranceoccursinaparticularspatiotemporalsituation,sothefollowingfactorsarerelatedtothesituationalcontext:

Thespeakerandthehearer

Theactionstheyareperformingatthetime

Variousexternalobjectsandevents

Deicticfeatures

Now,take“Itisadifficultoperation”asaninstance.Theword“operation”hereispolysemicword;itsexactmeaningdependsonthesituationinwhichitisused,itmaymean1surgicaloperationperformedonahumanbeingoranimal;2afinancialtransaction;3thewayamachineworks4astrategicmovementthattropsorships（军事行动或作战）.

Thelinguisticcontextisanotheraspectofcontextualism,Itisconcernedonlywiththeprobabilityofoneword’sco---occurrenceorcollocationwithanother,whichformspartofthe“meaning”,andanimportantfactorincommunication.Forexample,inthefollowingsentences,themeaningoftheword“get”depends,onthemeaningofthewordwithwhichitgoestogetherinanutterance:

1Igotaletterfrommysister

2Don’tanswerthetelephone,I’llgetit

3Idon’tgetyourpoint

4Hegotanewskirtforhisdaughterwhenhewentshoppingyesterday.

5.2.5Behaviorism

Behaviouristsattempttointerpretthemeaningoflinguisticformas“thesituationinwhichthespeakersuttersitandtheresponseitcallsforthinthehearer”.Thistheoryissomewhatclosetocontextualismbutlinkedwiththepsychologicalinterest.ItisbetterillustratedbyBloomfield’sstimulus—reactionmodelasfollows

S---------r…s---------R

WhenJillseesanappleandifshewantstohaveit,shehasfirstreceivedastimulus（S）andproducedaverbalreaction（r）toJack.Thesoundwavesresultingfromhespeechcreateaverbalstimulus（s）forJack,whichresultsinnon---verbalreaction（R）forgettingtheapple.

5.3Seventypesofmeaning

Followingafunctionalapproach,Leechcategorizesmeaningintoseventypes,namely,conceptual/denotative;connotative;social/stylistic;affective;reflective;collocative;thematicmeanings.

5.3.1Conceptualordenotativemeaning

Conceptualordenotativemeaningisthebasicmeaningincommunication.Itisthesametodifferentpersons.Itinvolvestherelationshipbetweenalinguisticunit（especiallyalexicalitem）andthenon---linguisticentitiestowhichitrefers.Forinstance,ifwetalkabouta“chair”andthereisnoactualchairaroundustosee,wecangivethedenotativedefinition:

“Itisapieceoffurnitureforonepersontositon.”Havingabackand,usuallyfourlegs.Thisdenotativemeaningoftheword“chair”canbeunderstoodbutallEnglish---Speakingpeople.Thedenotativemeaningofawordisitsdefinitiongiveninadictionary.Itisthataspectoflexicalmeaningwhichmakescommunicationpossible.

5.3.2Connotativemeaning

Connotativemeaningreferstotheemotionalassociationwhichawordoraphrasesuggestsinone’smind.Itisthesupplementaryvaluewhichisaddedtothepurelydenotativemeaningofaword,Forinstance,thedenotativemeaningoftheword“mother”is“femaleparent”butitgenerallyconnoteslove,careandtenderness.Theword“woman”denotes“frail”,“pronetotears”（爱哭）,“emotional”,“gentle”“compassionate”“hard---working”otherexamples.（易动感情的）

January（thefirstmonthoftheyear）:

coldweather,centralheating;theNewYear

Christmas

Theconnotativemeaningisdifferenttodifferentpeopleintermsofage,timeandcountrypigheaded.

5.3.3Social/stylisticmeaning

Socialmeaningconveysthesocialcircumstancesoflanguageuse.

MartinJoosprovidedoneofthemostcommonclasscationpfspeechstylesusingthecriterionofformalityandherecognizedfivedifferentlevelsofformality,eachimplyingdifferentformsofspeechtofitseparatefunctions.

1Oratoricalorfrozen;

2Deliberateorformal;

3Consultative

4Casual

5Intimate.

Thelinguisticforms,whichexpressthesaneidea,maybeusedindifferentstyles.Forexample

1Visitorsshouldmaketheirwayatoncetotheupperfloorbywayofthestaircase

2Visitorsshouldgoupthestairsatonce.

3Wouldyoumindgongupstairsrightaway.

4Timeyouallwentupstairsnow.

5Upyougo,chaps.

5.3.4Affectivemeaning

Affectivemeaningisconcernedwiththeexpressionoffeelingsandattitudesofthespeakerorwriter.Affectivemeaningisusuallye

Expressed.

1throughconceptualmeaninge.g

YouareavicioustyrantandIhateyouforit.

2throughconnocativemeaninge.g

Thatfellowisanass.

3throughtones.E.g

I’mterriblysorrytointerrupt;butIwonderifyouwouldbesokindastoloweryourvoicealittle.

Thepurposeistoasksbtospeakinalowvoice.Ifitissaidinanordinarytone,itsoundsthatthespeakerispolite;Ifitissaidinanironicway,itshowsthatthespeakerisunhappy.

4throughinterjection

Aha!

哎嘿（喜悦、惊鄂、轻蔑）

Alas!

哎呀（悲痛、遗憾）

Hurrah!

欢呼

5throughsyntacticstructures

Willyoubeltup?

Beltup=stoptalking

5.3.5Reflectivemeaning（联想意义）

1taboowordsSexcockintercourse

excretionurinate---gotothetoilet

bathroom

restroom

2Euphemismtolie=todistortthefact

grave=restingplace

die---passaway---breatheone’slast---gowest

ceasetothing---decrease

5.3.6Collocativemeaning

AccordingtoLeech,themeaningwhichisappropriateincertaincontextisreferredtoascollcativemeaning.Somewords（mainlysomesynonyms）aredifferentintheircollocationhencedifferentintheirmeaningalthoughtheyhavethesamebasicmeaning.

Pretty:

girlboywomanflowergardencolourvillage

Handsome:

boymancarvesselovercoatairlinertypewriter

Prettyandhandsomearesynonymousbuttheydifferintheircollocation.

5.3.7Thematicmeaning（主题意义）

Whatiscommunicatedbythewayinwhichthemessageisorganizedintermsoforderandemphsis.（指说话者的安排来传递的一种意义，由于句子的“新意义”主要由句末表达，所以先说什么，后说什么是有讲究的）

IwenttotheGreatwalllastyear（when）

LastyearIwenttotheGreatwall（where）

5.4Senserelations

5.4.1Senserelationsbetweenwords

Synonymy

 Synonymyreferstotherelationshipofsimilarityorsamenessinmeaning.Synonymsarethewordswhichhavethesameorverynearlythesameessential/conceptualmeaning.

Synonymscanbeclassifiedintotwotypes:

complete/total/absoluteandrelativesynonyms.

Complete/total/absolutesynonyms,i.e.synonymsthataremutuallysubstitutableinallcircumstances,areveryrare.

Mostsynonymsareofrelativeones,andtheydifferinonewayoranother.Accordingtothewaytheydiffer,relativesynonymscanbedividedintothefollowinggroups:

ⅰ.Dialectalsynonyms------synonymsusedindifferentregionaldialects

Thesearewordswithmoreorlessthesamemeaningusedindifferentregionaldialects.BritishandAmericanEnglisharetwomajorregionalvarietiesofEnglishlanguage.Itisnotdifficulttofindexamplesofsayingthesamethin