Unit 6

1. Unit 6 The meaning of English (I)

2. Review • What are common means of cohesion in English? • What do we mean by conversational repair?

3. Contents 7.1 The notion of semantics 7.2 Semantic properties 7.3 Semantic relations 7.4 Sense and reference

4. 7.1 The notion of semantics Semantics is the study of the meaning of language (and the communication of meaning through language).

5. The meaning of ‘mean’ ASK: What does ‘mean’ mean in each of the following sentences? (1) What does ‘tall’ mean? (2) A nod means agreement. (3) I know the place you mean. (4) Your presence would mean a lot to me. (5) I am sorry. I didn’t mean to be late. (6) The boy wasn’t meant to be there.

6. (1)What does ‘tall’ mean? (signify) (2)A nod means agreement. (indicate) (3)I know the place you mean. (refer to) (4)Your presence would mean a lot to me. (matter) (5)I am sorry. I didn’t mean to be late. (intend) (6)The boy wasn’t meant to be there. (supposed to) More: (7)He was meant to become a journalist rather than a lawyer. (destined) (8)He doesn’t know the meaning of the word ‘fear’. (sense) (9)If that’s the case, his sacrifice no longer hasany meaning. (significance)

7. Approaches to the study of meaning traditional approach structuralist approach functional approach pragmatic approach cognitive approach

8. Traditional approach A. Naming/labeling vs. convention “moon”

9. PP. 111-112 No. 10

10. Presentation Session • The naming of people in English

11. Structuralist approach Treats meaning as semantic structures formed by semantic components/ semantic features -- componential analysis (语义成分分析）.

12. Componential analysis CA is a process that breaks down the meaning of a word into its minimal distinctive features or properties (semantic components /features) using feature symbols (metalanguage 元语言). woman----[+HUMAN] [–MALE] [+ADULT] boy----[+HUMAN] [+MALE] [–ADULT] girl--- [+HUMAN] [- MALE] [-ADULT]

13. Functional approach • Geoffrey Leech (1983), Semantics. • Treats meaning with reference to its function in context, to show how linguistic, situational and social contexts affects the meaning of language.

14. Seven types of meaning -conceptual meaning: logical, cognitive, denotative content -associative meanings: connotative meaning social/stylistic meaning affective meaning reflected meaning collocative meaning -thematic meaning

15. a. Conceptual meaning (概念意义) The conceptual or denotative meaning of a linguistic form is the person, object, abstract notion, event or state which the word or sentence denotes. e.g. school, hospital

16. b. Connotative meaning • Definition: it is the communicative value/subjective interpretation attached to its purely conceptual meaning. e.g.: The man is a fox. statesman, politician

17. Characteristics • Connotations are relatively unstable. They vary considerably according to society, historical period, and the experience of the individual. • The connotative meaning can be the same /different in different languages or cultures. e.g.: fox, machine BUT: dragon, dog, elephant (White Elephant) ASK: What does ‘white elephant’ mean in English?

18. Connotation: • A B C • Positive connotation Neutral Negative connotationstout fat corpulent investigator detective spy decease die pegged out slim thin skinny strong-minded firm pig-headed public servant government employee bureaucrat

19. c. Social/stylistic meaning （社会/文体意义） It refers to what language conveys about the social circumstances of its use. It relates to people’s recognition of different dimensions and levels of style with the same language.

20. steed (poetic) residence (formal) horse (general) abode (poetic) nag (slang) home (general) gee-gee (baby language) domicile (very formal, official) throw (general) tiny (colloquial) chuck (casual, slang) diminutive (very formal) cast (literal,biblical) wee (colloquial,dialectal)

21. d. Affective meaning （情感意义） • It has to do with the personal feelings of the speaker, including his attitude to the listener, or his attitude to something he is talking about. It’s often explicitly conveyed through conceptual or connotative content of the words used.

22. “You’re a vicious tyrant and villain and I hate you!” • I am terribly sorry to interrupt, but I wonder if you would be so kind as to lower your voices a little. • Shut up! • Keep your mouth shut!

23. e. Reflected meaning （反映意义） • Reflected meaning: the meaning which arises in cases of multiple conceptual meaning, when one sense of a word is so strong that it forms part of our response to another sense. • Example: words having a taboo meaning, such as ‘gay’, ‘intercourse’

24. f. Collocative meaning （搭配意义） • It refers to the associations a word acquires on account of its mutual expectancy with some other words which tend to occur in its environment. • Example: pretty and handsome pretty {girl, boy, woman, flower, etc.} handsome {boy, man, car, vessel, etc.} cows may wander, but may not stroll. one trembles with fear, but quiver with excitement.

25. g. Thematic Meaning （主位意义） • It refers towhat is communicated by the way in which a speaker or writer organizes the message, in terms of ordering, focus, and emphasis. • e.g.: (1) He is familiar to me. (2) I’m familiar with him.

26. a. A man is waiting in the hall. b. There’s a man waiting in the hall. • a. My brother owns the largest betting-shop in London. b. The largest betting-shop in London belongs to my brother. • a. What I need is a ticket. b. A ticket is what I need.

27. Pragmatic approach • Treat meaning as what is communicated through language, taking into account the context, language user, communicative conventions and principles, etc.

28. Son: The phone is ringing Dad, the phone is ringing! I’m in a bath. ASK: What does the father mean?

29. Cognitive approach • Meaning extensions of words seen as metaphorical or metonymic processes. [To be detailed in next lecture]

30. 7.2 Semantic properties Words are seen as composed of universal semantic properties or features. P. 105 Discuss PP. 107-108 No. 2

31. 7.3 Semantic relations A. Synonymy B. Antonymy C. Hyponymy （上下义关系） D. Meronymy (部分-整体关系）

32. Synonymy Absolute synonymy: same in meaning; grammatically/stylistically/ contextually substitutable Synonymy in a loose sense: buy-purchase fall-autumn wide-broad handsome-pretty reach-arrive at/in mature-ripe influence-effect /affect

33. Antonymy a. gradable opposites b. complementary opposites c. relational opposites

34. a. Gradable opposites tall-short long-short old-young --allow of intermediate states --take -er/-est --one in unmarked use How tall/old is he? He’s three months old. -relative/fuzzy a big mouse, a small elephant a big pearl/ball/house/mountain/country

35. Discuss • PP. 109-110 No. 5

36. b. Complementary opposites alive-dead male-female boy-girl present-absent true-false hit-miss

37. c. Relational/converse opposites buy-sell lend-borrow parent-child teacher-student above-below before-after

38. Hyponymy （上下义关系） • Hyponymy is a relation of inclusion. A hyponym or a specific word includes the meaning of a moregeneral word • e.g. dog and cat are hyponyms of animal

39. Superordinates, hyponyms, co-hyponyms （下义词） （上义词） （同属下义词） Living Things Creature Plant Animal Insect Vegetable Flower Tree Horse Dog Snake

40. Meronymy （部分-整体关系） Meronymy is part-whole relationship between lexical items. e.g. a "finger" is a part of a "hand", a "hand" is a part of an "arm", an "arm" is a part of a "body". Linguistics call the part-whole relation meronymy, from "meros" (part) + "nym" (name). Therefore, "finger" is a meronym of "hand", "hand" is a meronym of "arm", "arm" is a meronym of "body".

41. Discuss PP. 108-109 No. 3

42. Homonymy, homophony, homography and polysemy homonymy （同形同音异义）: I drove to the bank this morning. homophony（同音异义）: flour-flower sweet-suite waist-waste meet-meat Homography（同形异音异义）: lead(铅）lead（引导）wind （风）wind (蜿蜒） Polysemy （多义性）: operation“（外科）手术”、“（机器） 操作”、“（商）经营”、“（复）军事演习、作战”、“（数）运算” • ‘打’ 电话/饭/字/人/火/听/灯/水/草/盹/颤, etc.

43. Practice What is the semantic relation between the following pairs of words? (a) shallow/ deep (b) mature/ ripe (c) table/furniture (d) single/married (e) move/run (f) parent/child (g) school-college (h) body-belly

44. 7.4 Sense and reference Semiotic triangle (Ogden and Richards 1923) Reference/Thought/Concept Refer to Symbolize Stand for Symbol/Word Referent/Object/Thing

45. Sense [意义]: abstract conceptual property/content • Reference [所指]: concrete entity • A word may have sense but no reference, like ‘but’, ‘to’. • ASK: Do we have other words that have sense but not reference?

46. the man who married my sister • the man who is my brother-in-law • The Morning Star is the Evening Star • The Morning Star is the Morning Star. What’s the difference?

47. Assignments • P. 107 No. 1 P. 113 No. 1 • P. 115 No. 8, 9