Lexis, Morphology & Semantics for English Language Teaching

1. Lexis, Morphology & Semantics for English Language Teaching Exploration of semantic operations 5: Denotation & Connotation Collocation & Concordances

2. Exploration of semantic operations 5 Denotation vs Connotation • Denotation • as reference (or not) • utterance-independent (vs utterance-dependent) • potential (vs actual) • as derived from sense • conceptual (vs expressive) • as (objective) “truth” • Connotation • as conventional / cultural • as (subjective) “distortion” Collocation • word association / idiom-aticity • collocational operations • below the word level • “at” the word level • “above” the word level Concordance (KWIC)

3. Exploration of semantic operations 5 Denotation as reference? (the word) “dog” DENOTES all dogs (in the world)

4. Exploration of semantic operations 5 Denotation as reference? (the word) “dog” DENOTES all dogs (in the world) word SENSE word form RELATIONS meaning/sense

5. Exploration of semantic operations 5 Denotation as utterance-independent (the word) “dog” DENOTES all potential dogs (in all “possible worlds”) word SENSE word form RELATIONS meaningS/senseS

6. Exploration of semantic operations 5 Denotation as utterance-independent (the word) “dog” DENOTES [ m e a n s ] ( the c o n c e p tS of ) all potential dogs (in all “possible worlds”) word SENSE word form RELATIONS meaningS/senseS

7. Exploration of semantic operations 5 Denotation as utterance-independent (the word) “dragon” DENOTES [ m e a n s ] (the c o n c e p tS of) all potential dragons (in all “possible worlds”) word SENSE word form RELATIONS meaningS/senseS

8. Exploration of semantic operations 5 Denotation as utterance-independent (the word) “freedom” DENOTES all potential freedoms (in all “possible worlds”) word SENSE word form RELATIONS meaningS/senseS

9. Exploration of semantic operations 5 Denotation as utterance-independent (the word) “freedom” DENOTES (the c o n c e p tS of) all potential freedoms (in all “possible worlds”) word SENSE word form RELATIONS meaningS/senseS

10. Exploration of semantic operations 5 Denotation as utterance-independent (the word) “freedom” DENOTES [ m e a n s ] (the c o n c e p tS of) all potential freedoms (in all “possible worlds”) word SENSE word form RELATIONS meaningS/senseS

11. Exploration of semantic operations 5 Denotation as utterance-dependent reference (the word) “freedom” CONNOTES [ m e a n s ] ?conventional / cultural? references (perhaps referents too) word SENSE word form RELATIONS meaningS/senseS/ referenceS

12. Exploration of semantic operations 5 S Y N T A G M S … foreign moons are rounder … overseas suns longer alien stars shorter local planets bigger native winds smaller indigenous storms dearer western typhoons cheaper eastern hurricanes stronger northern cyclones weaker southern snow lighter African sleet heavier American thunder Chinese lightning P A R A D I G M (S)

13. Exploration of semantic operations 5 S Y N T A G M S … foreign moons are rounder … … foreign moons … … moons are … … are rounder … … foreign moons are … … moons are rounder … … foreign moons are rounder …

14. Exploration of semantic operations 5 Denotation vs Connotation (J. S. Mill) proper names = denotative; no meaning / no information “…whenever the names given to objects convey any information … whenever they have … any meaning, the meaning resides not in what they denote, but in what they connote. The only names of objects which connote nothing are proper names …”

15. Exploration of semantic operations 5 Denotation vs Connotation (J. S. Mill) proper names = denotative; no meaning / no information “…whenever the names given to objects convey any information … whenever they have … any meaning, the meaning resides not in what they denote, but in what they connote. The only names of objects which connote nothing are proper names …” Do these proper names, in Hong Kong, denote OR connote: “Donald”, “C.H.”, “C.Y”, “Kelly”, “Yumiko”, “Angelababy”

16. Exploration of semantic operations 5 Denotation vs Connotation Do these names, to you, denote OR connote: Land of the Morning Calm Land of the Rising Sun the Roof of the World Land of Smiles the Aloha State the Lion City the Treasure Island the Rainbow Nation Pearl of the Orient

17. Exploration of semantic operations 5 Denotation vs Connotation Kreidler, C.W. (1998) Introducing English Semantics. London: Routledge. p.45: A denotation identifies the central aspect of word meaning, which everybody generally agrees about … ... Connotation refers to the personal aspect of meaning, the emotional associations that the word arouses. Connotations vary according to the experience of individuals but, because people do have common experiences, some words have shared connotations.

18. Exploration of semantic operations 5 Denotation vs Connotation Kreidler, C.W. (1998) Introducing English Semantics. London: Routledge. p.45: A denotation identifies the central aspect of word meaning, which everybody generally agrees about … ... Connotation refers to the personal aspect of meaning, the emotional associations that the word arouses. Connotations vary according to the experience of individuals but, because people do have common experiences, some words have shared connotations.

19. Exploration of semantic operations 5 Denotation vs Connotation Kreidler, C.W. (1998) Introducing English Semantics. London: Routledge. p.45: A denotation identifies the central aspect of word meaning, which everybody generally agrees about … denotation OR connotation cow : beef = ngou-yuk (cow meat) dog : X = gou-yuk (dog meat) (French) mouton : mouton (English) sheep: mutton ... Connotation refers to the personal aspect of meaning, the emotional associations that the word arouses. Connotations vary according to the experience of individuals but, because people do have common experiences, some words have shared connotations.

20. Exploration of semantic operations 5 Denotation vs Connotation Carter, R. (1998) Applied Linguistic Perspectives. 2nd edn. London: Routledge.p.264: denotation (“objective”) conceptual meaning “truth” vs connotation expressive meaning stylistic meaning associative meaning (“subjective”) “distortion”

21. Exploration of semantic operations 5 Denotation vs Connotation open university oriental http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/law-bans-use-of-oriental-in-state-documents/ (Accessed 08 June 2012) September 9, 2009, 5:35 pm Law Bans Use of ‘Oriental’ in State Documents girl / lady / woman http://www.headbloom.com/index.php/resources/post/girl_lady_or_woman_a_question_of_language_and_gender/ (Accessed 08 June 2012) native / indigenous / aboriginal natives / aborigines / first people / first nation

22. Exploration of semantic operations 5 Denotation vs Connotation Leech, G. (1974) Semantics. Middlesex: Penguin.p.26:

23. Exploration of semantic operations 5 Collocation … the company that words keep … … idiosyncratic combinability of lexical items … … syntagmatic aspects of the relations between words … (  paradigmatic aspects of words in a semantic/ lexical field ) free combinations fixed of words idiom-aticity expressions

24. Exploration of semantic operations 5 Collocation “below” the word level The less productive (morphs of) morphemes, i.e. those word-parts with restricted distribution: e.g. the plural morpheme realised as the morphs -ren children (child) -en oxen (ox) -ae formulae (formula) -ora corpora (corpus), genera (genus) -a curricula (curriculum) -i syllabi (syllabus) the reflective morpheme for pronouns realised as the morph -self herself, himself, ( ?hisself ) -selves themselves, ourselves ( ?usselves ) Compound words: bookworm ( ?bookinsect )

25. Exploration of semantic operations 5 Collocation “at” the word level strawberry and cream ( ?cream and strawberry ) ladies and gentlemen ( ?gentlemen and ladies ) salt and pepper ( ?pepper and salt ) fish and chips ( ?chips and fish ) forgive and forget ( ?forget and forgive) your money or your life ( ?your life or your money) to fall in love ( ?to soar in love ) to take a walk ( ?to give a walk ) to walk the dog ( ?to walk with the dog ) to start a fire ( ?to finish a fire )

26. Exploration of semantic operations 5 Collocation “at” the word level … can be contacted on telephone number 911 … can be contacted at telephone number 911 … travel on foot or by car / bike / boat / plane … travel by foot / car / bike / boat / plane … travel on a bike … travel on / in a car … travel on / in a boat … fly on / in a plane … fly in a hot-air balloon

27. Exploration of semantic operations 5 Collocation “above” the word level Idioms / proverbs an apple a day chase the dragon chasing rainbows eat, drink and be merry kicked the bucket out of the blue pull one’s leg raining cats and dogs http://oels.byu.edu/student/idioms/idiomsmain.html

28. Exploration of semantic operations 5 Concordance (KWIC) • word frequency list e.g. http://ucrel.lancs.ac.uk/bncfreq/ http://www.edict.biz/textanalyser/wordlists.htm • lexical density: word type & word token e.g. http://textalyser.net/ • a list of key words in context (KWIC) e.g. http://www.chs.nihon-u.ac.jp/eng_dpt/tukamoto/kwic_e.html http://webascorpus.org/ • seeing collocation as statistical / probabilistic (language as use in everyday life) • corpus / corpora e.g. http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/index.xml • teaching ideas e.g. http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/articles/concordancers-elt

29. Exploration of semantic operations 5 Denotation vs Connotation Denotation as reference (or not) utterance-independent (vs utterance-dependent) potential (vs actual) as derived from sense conceptual (vs expressive) as (objective) “truth” Connotation as conventional / cultural as (subjective) “distortion” Collocation word association / idiom-aticity collocational operations below the word level “at” the word level “above” the word level Concordance (KWIC)