Cultural Semantics: An Introduction 文化语义学导论

Cultural Semantics: An Introduction文化语义学导论 讲授者：吴建平博士讲授者单位、职称：厦门大学英文系教授、博士生导师电子邮箱：jpwu@xmu.edu.cn ; jpwu56@126.com . 个人网站：http://cflc.xmu.edu.cn/jpwu/

General Requirements 1. Two weeks after this course is over, you are required to submit a course paper by email.Your score will be given on the basis of your course paper, your oral presentation and the frequency of your attendance. 2. Since this course is presented in both English and Chinese, you are required to read reference books published in both English and Chinese. 3. Questions and requests can be presented to me by email or face-to-face.

Contents A General Introduction Chapter 1 What is Meaning? Chapter 2 Lexical Meaning Chapter 3 What is Culture? Chapter 4 The Four Major Schools of Cultural Studies Chapter 5 Word and Phrase Chapter 6 Proposition, Sentence and Utterance Chapter 7 Register and Context Chapter 8 Semantic Features Chapter 9 Text Typology Chapter 10 Twelve Major Methods of Text/ Discourse Analysis Chapter 11 Major Semantic Theories Chapter 12 Some Approaches to Cultural Semantics Chapter 13 Speech Act Theory Chapter 14 Pragmatics Chapter 15 Intercultural Communication Theory Chapter 16 The Ways of Study Bibliography

A General Introduction Between man and the physical world there exists a world of language through which man knows and tries to master the physical world. Language reflects what man knows about the physical world and the world of language is a mirror of the physical world and a storehouse of all the spiritual creations by man. Language is the concentrated reflection of the knowledge of man about the physical world. Meaning is the core of language. What makes

the meaning originate, develop, change or die ? The main factors are the existence of the physical world, changes and human thinking. There must have been a philosophical basis for any one school of linguistics in the course of its development. There are several distinguishable, and more or less well-known philosophical theories of meaning, which seek to provide an answer to the question: What is meaning ? Out of them we prefer to combine some aspects of the following philosophical theories: 1) The referential theory;

2) The meaning-is-use theory; 3) The theory of situation; 4) The theory of intention and 5) The deconstructional theory and adopt the combination as the philosophical basis of his tentative theory of cultural semantics. 1)The referential (or reference, or denotational, or naming) theory : the meaning of an expression is what it refers to or denotes, or stands for ; e.g. ‘ dog’ means either the general class of dogs or the essential property which they all share.

2) The meaning-is-use theory: the meaning of an expression is determined by, if not identical with, its use in the language. 3) The theory of situation: Meaning is the bridge between linguistic forms and situation. 4) The theory of intention: the meaning of an expression is the intention of its speaker. 5) The deconstructional theory: Meaning is not what is fixed forever and is a mark which varies with the development of text language, with old meaning disappearing and new meaning coming out.

The Major Difference between Semantics and Pragmatics Based on the previously-mentioned, we may put forth a tentative definition of traditional semantics with some modification: semantics is the study of meaning in isolation (independent of context), and a tentative definition of pragmatics: the study of meaning in interaction (dependent on context). Now we may see the major difference between semantics and pragmatics: static vs dynamic. The use theory and the functionalist semantics play a key role in turning the traditional semantics from a static study into a dynamic one, i.e. to place the study of meaning in social-communicative context.

Both semantics and pragmatics are concerned with meaning, but difference between them can be traced to two different uses of the verb to mean: (1)What does X mean? (2)What did you mean by X ? Semantics traditionally deals with meaning as a dyadic relation as in (1), while pragmatics deals with meaning as a triadic relation as in (2). Thus meaning in pragmatics is defined relative to a speaker or user of the language whereas meaning in semantics is defined purely as a property of expressions in a given language, in abstraction from particular situations, speakers, or hearers (Leech 1983: 6).In other words,semantics involves the relationship between symbol and referent whereas

pragmatics is concerned with the relationship between symbol and its user. This is a rough-and-ready distinc- tion from the philosophical point of view. From linguistic point of view, semantics is the study of meaning regardless of speech situations or contexts while pragmatics is the study of meaning in relation to speech situations or contexts. Semantics is concerned with sentence meaning and pragmatics with speaker meaning (or utterance meaning). There are some overlapping parts between semantics and pragmatics at the stage of their latest developments and a clear demarcation is not possible at present.

Chapter 1 What is Meaning? Meaning has more than 20 definitions(see Ogden pp186-187; Leech p1; Xu pp3-16; dictionaries).Meaning is a reference or a situation a sign or a form represents. In different systems of reference or situation what the sign or the form represents (the meaning)will not be the same. Generally it can be divided into two major types: Referential Meaning and Cognitive Meaning.

E.g. referential meaning: Who did you mean? John or Mary? When Jane talks about “her best friend”, she means me. If you look out of the window now, you’ll see who I mean. When Helen mentioned “the fruit cake”, she meant that rock-hard object on the table. cognitive meaning: What does the word “software” mean?

Chapter 2 Lexical Meaning Lexical meaning in terms of linguistics instead of lexicologyis almost equal to referential (conceptual) meaning. To be exact, lexical meaning comprises the following (Leech. G. N.): l. Conceptual meaning; 2. Connotative meaning ; 3. Stylistic meaning; 4. Affective meaning ; 5. Reflected (or associated) meaning ; 6. Collocative meaning ; 7. Thematic meaning .

l. Conceptual meaning E .g.woman [human]+[female]+[adult]. Conceptual meaning varies with objective changes. The two key points for analyzing the conceptual meaning of a word: 1) the context in which a word exists; 2) the historical changes with which a word varies. 2. Connotative meaning E.g.woman(frail) (prone to tears) (emotional) (inconstant) (gentle) (compassionate) (hard-working). Tom is a pig. (dirty; eats a lot). He is a tiger. (very cruel). Connotative meaning does not exist alone. It is usually attached to the conceptual meaning and varies with different persons, ages, societies, countries, times, etc.. The connotative meaning of some words could be the same even in different

languages E g 狡猾(foxand 狐狸); 温顺(lamb and 羔羊); 无私的爱(motherand母亲). 3. Stylistic meaning formal/informal/literary/poetic/colloquial/slang. 4. Affective meaning Affectivemeaning does not stand alone. It is realized through conceptual or connotative or stylistic meaning. Sometimes through intonation orexclamation, etc.. E.g. famous--notorious; statesman--politician; resolute--obstinate. 5. Reflected(or associated)meaning Reflected meaning will result in the association of the listener/reader with some idea or thing. E.g. some taboo words related with sex: cock, intercourse, ejaculation, erection, etc.. 6. Collocative meaning Collocative meaning, in fact, mainly refers to the contextual

meaning of a word. E.g. pretty girl----handsome boy; He mounted his steed. (literary) He got onhis gee-gee.(colloquial) 7. Thematic meaning Thematic meaning refers to the meaning embodied by different word orders, sentence structures, stresses and emphases. E.g. Tom owns themosthandsome carinNew York. The most handsome car in New York is ownedbyTom. The most handsome car in New York belongs to Tom. My classification of lexical meaning: 1. Conceptual meaning(the same as Leech’s); 2. *Connotative meaning = stylistic meaning + affective meaning + figurative meaning;

3.Structural meaning= grammatical meaning(=the distributing meaning of a word or phrase in a sentence , which naturally includes what Leech calls “thematic meaning”), the meaning of cohesion and coherence, the meaning of inflexions, the same as Leech’s collocative meaning and any meaning resulted from the change of parts of speech and sentence structures. 4. *Cultural meaning=culture-specific meaning(e.g. jiaozi) +culture-associative meaning (e.g. rose). 5. Pragmatic meaning= the meaning of those words and phrases which display or make the pragmatic senses even when isolated from a specific context. E.g. Behave oneself (used to speak to children only).

Chapter 3 What is Culture? The notion of culture was first put forward by the German scholars in the 19th century (Xiu-yi Wu, 1988: 8). So far there have existed in this world over 260 definitions of culture. Listed below are some key definitions of culture: Culture is a complex which includes objects, knowledge, beliefs, arts, ethics, laws, conventions and other acquired social abilities and customs. (Jia-zu Gu et al, 1990: 3) Culture is a behavioural pattern shared and kept by a human community and acquired after birth. (Jia-zu

Gu et al, 1990: 20-1) Culture is the total of all human products, including all the objects and tools invented by human beings and the conventions of the human life which have been passed on from generation to generation. (Jin-fu Guo, 1993:1-2) Culture should be classified into two categories: 1)in a narrow sense it lines with politics, economics, military affairs, etc. and becomes a part of human social activities, i.e. the parts related to the human social life such as literature, arts, science, philosophy, ethics, fashions, etc.; 2)in a broad sense it is equal to civilization, including material and spiritual aspects in the human society, i.e. material civilization and spiritual civilization. (Xiu-yi Wu, 1988: 8-9)

Based on the above-mentioned, my tentative definition is "Culture is anything created by human beings, material or spiritual, that is the result or product of human thought and work, universally accepted by human communities and passed on from generation to generation." This definition can be both applicable to the common culture of human beings in this world and the specific culture of a nation.

Chapter 4 The Four Major Schools of Cultural Studies 1)Peter L. Berger and phenomenology 2) Mary Douglas and cultural anthropology 3)Michel Foucault and structuralism 4) Jurgen Habermas and critical theory

Chapter 5 Word and Phrase Generally, word is considered as the smallest of the linguistic units which can in normal case occur on its own in speech or writing. Traditional semantic theories in most cases take into consideration only the meaning of words. In this dissertation, the meaning of phrases is taken into consideration as well. Phrases here refer to all those linguistic items which are made up of two or more words (including idioms), nominal or adjectival or prepositional or adverbial, and function as well as words. Word Meaning and Phrase Meaning Word meaning (or phrase meaning) refers to what a word (or a phrase) expresses about an entity, real or imaginary.

Since a phrase can function as well as a word, a phrase also has the same types of meaning as a word does. Ogden & Richards’ Meaning Theory In their book entitled “the Meaning of Meaning” , Ogden & Richards designed a diagram known as Ogden & Richards’ Semantic Triangle as follows: Thought or Reference Symbol Referent

A New Semantic Triangle Since a word and a phrase have the same function, Ogden & Richards’ Semantic Triangle can be used to describe the phrase meaning as well as the word meaning. Thought or Reference Description Generalization Word/Phrase Referent

The Five Types of Meaning My five types of meaning are now stated in more details as follows: 1) The conceptual meaning, which is based on the linguistic concept and is something highly abstracted and universal, forms the core part of the overall meaning of a linguistic semiotic sign. In my view, the common culture of all the nations in this world is usually reflected through the conceptual meaning whereas the specific culture of a particular nation decides upon the connotative meaning of the language of the nation. 2) The connotative meaning here comprises 1) affective meaning; 2) figurative meaning; and 3) stylistic meaning. The affective meaning refers to both commendatory and

derogatory aspects of a linguistic semiotic sign; the figurative meaning refers to the euphemistic, hyperbole, ironical, etc. aspects of a linguistic semiotic sign; the stylistic meaning refers to the temporal (e.g. archaic senses or words), regional (e.g. dialectal words), social (e.g. slang, vulgar words or senses), occasional (e.g. colloquial, formal words or senses), professional (e.g. jargon, mathematical, physical, chemical terms or senses) aspects of a linguistic semiotic sign. 3) The cultural meaning refers to the meaning of a particular nation's culture contained or implied in a linguistic semiotic sign. It includes culture-specific meaning and culture-associative meaning. The culture-specific meaning of a word or phrase usually cannot find its equivalent in another language. E.g. the English

words such as salutatorian, punk, hippie, etc. are not able to find their equivalents in Chinese; the Chinese words such as"饺子(jiaozi)"、"馄饨(huntun)"、"景泰蓝(jingtailan)" can not find their counterparts in English. The culture-associated meaning refers to what a native speaker of a particular language usually associates with when using the related word or phrase. For example, the English word "rose" will associate a native speaker of English with love while the Chinese word “满月(manyue)”will associate a native speaker of Chinese with happiness and family reunion. Besides, colour words in both Chinese and English will also associate the native speakers of both languages with different images and feelings. 4) The structural meaning includes grammatical meaning(=the distributing meaning of a word or phrase

in a sentence), the meaning of cohesion and coherence, the meaning of inflexions, the meaning of parts of speech, etc., and the collocative meaning of words or phrases of a language. E.g. white coffee, black coffee, white Christmas, insist on, persist in, drop a hint, fond of, keen on, etc.. 5) The pragmatic meaning refers to the meaning of those words and phrases which display or make the pragmatic senses even when isolated from a specific context. E.g. Behave oneself (used to speak to children only). Obviously, out of the 5 types of meaning above, connotative meaning (including affective meaning, figurative meaning and stylistic meaning), cultural meaning (including culture-specific meaning and culture-associative meaning), and pragmatic meaning should be our focus of attention for cultural semantic study.

There are, in my personal view, five common patterns of equating interlinguistic symbols: (1)S=T (“S”stands for the source linguistic semiotic symbol with a mono-sense or one of the senses of a source linguistic semiotic symbol:“=”means “is equal to”:“T” stands for the target linguistic semiotic symbol: the same hereinafter). This equation means that a source linguistic semiotic symbol or one of the senses of a source linguistic semiotic symbol has a complete equivalent in the target language. This case can only be found in some single-sense technical terms, proper nouns, linguistic semiotic symbols transliterated from source linguistic semiotic symbol, etc. For example, electronics = 电子学(dianzixue); Washington = 华盛顿(huashengdun); hysteria = 歇斯底里(xiesidili); logic = 逻辑(luoji); jeep = 吉普车(jipuche); AIDS = 艾滋病(aizibing); 荔枝(lizhi) = lychee; 磕头(ketou) = kowtow; 武术(wushu) = wushu; 饺子

(jiaozi) = jiaozi; 风水(fengshui) = feng shui; 太极拳(taijiquan) = tai chi. (2)S=T1+T2+...+Tn (“n”stands for the number of target linguistic semiotic symbols: “+”means “plus”: the same hereinafter). This equation means that a source linguistic semiotic symbol or one of its senses is equal to all the information of two or more target linguistic semiotic symbols added up together. For example, 沙发(shafa) = sofa + easy chair; 胡子(huzi)＝moustache+ beard +whiskers. (3)S≈(t)T(t) [“(t)”stands for the bracketed restricted explanation(s); the same hereinafter]. This equation means that one of the senses of a source linguistic semiotic symbol is approximately equal to a target linguistic semiotic symbol with the bracketed restricted explanation(s). For example, rose玫瑰(meigui) (used as a token of love); 龙(long) Chinese dragon (symbolizing nobleness and dignity);

凤凰(fenghuang)≈Chinese phoenix (symbolizing nobleness and good luck); 阴阳(yinyang) yin and yang (in Chinese philosophy and medicine, two opposing elements in nature, the former feminine and negative, the latter masculine and positive). (4)S≈[t]T (“[t]”stands for a label; the same hereinafter). This equation means that one of the senses of a source linguistic semiotic symbol is approximately equal to a target linguistic semiotic symbol with a label. For example, decease [律]死亡(shiwang); 虹膜(hongmo) [生理] iris. (5) S≈E/(e)A(e)/(e)C(e) [“E” stands for the explanation in the target language:“/”means “or”;“(e)”stands for the bracketed encyclopaedic explanation in the target language; “A” stands for the transliterated target linguistic semiotic symbol;“C”stands for the newly coined target linguistic semiotic symbol].

This equation means that a source linguistic semiotic symbol has no equivalent in the target language, but is approximately equal to an explanation in the target language, a transliterated target linguistic semiotic symbol with the bracketed explanation in the target language or a newly coined target linguistic semiotic symbol with the bracketed explanation in the target language. For example, benedict曾长期独身的新婚男子(A newly married man who was previously considered a confirmed bachelor); blind date由第三方安排的男女双方的初次会面(a date arranged by a third party in which the couple meet for the first time); and drugstore 兼售软饮料、化装品、杂志等杂货的药店(a pharmacy where you can also buy drinks, cosmetics, and magazines amongst other things). Out of the five patterns above, patterns 2), 3), 4) and 5) are also our focus of attention for cultural semantic study.

Chapter 6 Proposition, Sentence and Utterance To see the major differences between proposition, sentence and utterance, let’s first look at the following example: John gets up late. Does John get up late? John does not get up late. The above three sentences, though different in forms (one is a statement, one an interrogation, and one a negation) , have the same proposition: “John gets up late.” A proposition is non-materialistic and an abstract entity which does not belong to any particular language. Therefore, it has nothing to do with linguistic elements and factors such as intonation, vocal quality, vocal volume, context, etc..

A sentence is a string of words organized by grammatical rules to represent an intact meaning. (Hartmann, 1972) Several sentences can mean the one and the same proposition. E.g. John gets up late. Does John get up late? John does not get up late. All these three sentences above mean the same proposition: “John gets up late.” though they are in different syntactical forms. An utterance is a sequence of speech between two (possible) pauses and is delivered by a speaker in a given context. Utterances are real pieces of speech. A proposition, non-materialistic and an abstract entity which does not belong to any particular language, is a description of

state of affairs, can be seen as a basic element of sentence meaning and can be represented by several sentences. To sum up: Utterances are real pieces of speech. By filtering out certain types of (especially phonetic) information we can get to abstract grammatical elements, sentences. By going on to filter out certain types grammatical information, we can get to propositions, which are descriptions of states of affairs and which some writers see as a basic element of sentence meaning. So the relationship between utterance, sentence and proposition can be illustrated as utterance > sentence > proposition . Sentence Meaning here refers to abstract sentence meaning which is the proposition of a sentence, similar to the conceptual meaning of a lexical item. A New Semantic Triangle My tentative adjustment of C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards’

Semantic Triangle to describe the meaning of sentences can be shown as below: proposition description/view generalization/representation sentence event/fact From the figure above the following can be drawn: A sentence is a statement of a proposition and a representation of event through the proposition whereas a proposition is what a sentence (statement) describes and a view of event. Therefore, we have a sequence as follows: event  generalization  proposition  description  sentence.

The Five Types of Sentence Meaning This writer has generalized his five types of sentence meaning as follows: 1) proposition meaning; 2)connotative meaning; 3) cultural meaning; 4) structural meaning (including grammatical meaning and collocative meaning); 5)pragmatic meaning.Obviously, 2), 3) 5) are the focus of our attention in our cultural semantic study. 1) proposition meaning: e.g. John gets up late. Does John get up late? John does not get up late. The above three sentences, though different in forms (one is a statement, one an interrogation, and one a negation) , have the same proposition: “John gets up late.”

2)connotative meaning which includes affective meaning, stylistic meaning and figurative meaning. E.g. The violator of the regulations was ordered to do a 10-day community service.这些退休老人都十分热心社区服务。The English sentence above has a connotation of derogatory sense while the Chinese one has a connotation of commendatory sense. 3) cultural meaning which includes culture-specific meaning and culture-associative meaning. E.g. Trespassers will be prosecuted. 私闯者将被起诉。/ Speak of the devil and he is sure to appear. “说曹操，曹操到。”/ “跳进黄河也洗不清。” It would never wash yourself clean even if you jumped into the Yellow River. (Nothing can prove your innocence) / “她心里就像15只水桶，七上八下。”Her heart is like a well with 15 buckets of which 7 come up and 8 go down.(She felt extremely uneasy and restless.)

4) structural meaning which includes grammatical meaning and textual meaning. 5)pragmatic meaning which relates the overall situation with the speaker and the hearer. E.g. Behave yourself. (Parents speaking to their children or the older people speaking to the younger ones.Here, the social status and the age status are taken into consideration.) A New Semantic Triangle My tentative adjustment of C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards’ Semantic Triangle to describe the meaning of utterances can be shown as below:

topic description generalization utterance event

Chapter 7 Register and Context Register( or Diatypic Variety ) here refers to social context which includes (1)field of discourse(what is happening and what is being talked about, etc.) (2) tenor of discourse(the status of the participants of the talk and the relationship between the participants of the talk, etc.) (3) mode of discourse(with what role, by what style and in what way a speech in a specific context functions). Cf. M. A. K. Halliday.

Register may also refer to (l)the different styles of an individual’s speech which vary with situations, listeners or readers, regions and subject matters; (2)one particular community’s language variants. E.g. the same profession: medical workers, lawyers, etc.; the same interests: stamp collectors, etc.. Context includes linguistic context, context of situation and context of culture. Context in most cases decides upon the meaning of a word/phrase/sentence /utterance/text/discourse in the context. Therefore, context is the focus of our study in the course of cultural semantics.

Chapter 8 Semantic Features Semantic features(also called sense components /semantic components /semantic markers/sememe/ higher predicates) refer to the smallest units of meaning whose combination can be used to describe the meaning of a word. Semantic featurescan be classified into five types: A) Grammatical features which refer to clear grammatical markers of words and include the following 10 features: 1)person; 2)number; 3)gender; 4)tense; 5)voice; 6)reference; 7)negation and affirmation; 8)size; 9)location; 10)time;

B) Inherent features which reflect the essential features of objects and things but depend mostly on the approaches and the angles of analysis; C) Predicate features which include the following features: l)cause; 2)instigator; 3)performer; 4)intent; 5)effect; 6)source; 7)goal; 8)active; 9)control; 10)affected; 11)inchoative; etc. all of which have something to do with a certain action; D) Adverbial features which include the following features: l)time; 2)place; 3)manner; 4)extent; 5)reason; E) Pear option features refer to those subjective, individual and connotative features. (C.f. Nilsen, Don L.F. & Nilsen, Alleen Pace: Semantic Theory: A Linguistic Perspective, pp. 55-89).

Chapter 9 Text Typology Text typology has become one of the focuses of linguistic studies. It has turned out to be a difficult task to classify texts because of the complexity of text, lack of a unified criterion and various approaches. The writer of this dissertation tries, from the communicative approach, to classify texts into the following seven major types:

1)expressive text (e.g. diary, biography, autobiography, lyric poems, etc.); 2)contacting text (e.g. a text of congratulations, a text of condolences, etc.); 3)informative text (e.g. news, weather forecast, scientific and technical texts, etc.) ; 4)persuasive text (e.g. ads, instructions, news commentary, applications, editorials, etc.); 5)standardizing text (e.g. laws, certificates, diplomas, credentials, contracts, etc.); 6)literary text (e.g. poems, essays, novels, plays, etc.); 7) marginal text (in which two or more functions are in co-existence. E.g. a news commentary with both persuasive and informative functions).

The Five Types of Text Meaning Based on what has been talked about before in the previous parts, this writer has ventured to classify text meaning into the following five types: 1)ideational meaning(construing the logic through which we represent the world we live in); 2)interpersonal meaning(allowing us to enact our social exchanges with others); 3) cultural meaning(relating language to its user and speech community); 4)textual meaning(relating language to its ever changing context); 5) pragmatic meaning (relating the overall situation with the speaker and the hearer).

According to Halliday（1973，1994）, language is used to express three major functions (meanings), i.e. ideational function, interpersonal function, textual function. These three functions have something to do with context and lexico-grammar. The relationship between the three major functions (meanings) ( i.e. ideational function, interpersonal function and textual function) and the three variables of register (or context) (i.e. field of discourse, tenor of discourse and mode of discourse) can be stated as: field of discourse is expressed through the experiential meaning of ideational function; tenor of discourse is expressed through interpersonal function; mode of discourse is expressed through textual function. But I think that cultural meaning and pragmatic meaning should be taken into consideration as well as the above-mentioned ideational meaning, interpersonal meaning and textual meaning.

A New Semantic Triangle I generally agree with Ogden and Richards’ Semantic Triangle which is not perfect though and I attempt to transplant the Semantic Triangle to the text analysis and explanation. topic description generalization text event

Chapter 10 Twelve Major Methods of Text/ Discourse Analysis Since discourse analysis came into being, there have occurred various methods of text/discourse analysis. In this dissertation, 12 major methods of text/discourse analysis are presented as follows for the purpose of surveying and choice: 1 Content Analysis 2 Grounded Theory 3 Ethnographic Text Analysis, and Ethnography of Speaking 4 Ethnomethodological MCD Analysis

Cultural Semantics: An Introduction 文化语义学导论