词汇学5.docx
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词汇学5.docx
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词汇学5
Chapter5
WordMeaning
Weknowthatawordisthecombinationofformandmeaning.Byformwemeanbothitspronunciationandspelling.Meaningiswhattheformstandsfor.Forexample,thelinguisticformcat/kæt/isusedtodenote‘asmallfour-leggedanimalwithsoftfurandsharpclaws’.Itcanbesaidthat‘asmallfour-leggedanimalwithsoftfurandsharpclaws’isthemeaningofthewordcat.But‘meaning’isnotassimpleasitseemstobe.Therearesomerelatedconceptswhichneedfurtherexplanation.Inaddition,weshalldiscussdifferenttypesofmeaninginthischapter.
5.1TheMeaningsof‘Meaning
5.1.1Reference
Wordsarebutsymbols,manyofwhichhavemeaningonlywhentheyhaveacquiredreference.Referenceistherelationshipbetweenlanguageandtheworld.‘Bymeansofreference,aspeakerindicateswhichthingsintheworld(includingpersons)arebeingtalkedabout.’(HurfordandHeasley1983:
25)Inotherwordsonlywhenaconnectionhasbeenestablishedbetweenthelinguisticsignandareferent,i.e.anobject,aphenomenon,aperson,etc.doesthesignbecomemeaningful.Theformcatismeaningfulbecausethelanguageuseremploysitconventionallytorefertothe‘animal’concerned.Sopartoftheword-meaningisthereferenceunderdiscussion.Thereferenceofawordtoathingoutsidethelanguageisarbitraryandconventional(SeeChapter1).Thisconnectionistheresultofgeneralizationandabstraction.Thewordcatreferstoawholesetofanimalsofthesamespecieswithoutthedistinctionofsize,colour,region,ownerandotherfactors.Itistheextensionofallcatsintheuniverse.
Althoughreferenceisakindofabstraction,yetwiththehelpofcontext,itcanrefertosomethingspecific.Catwithoutcontextdenotesasetofcatsbutaparticularcatin‘Jeanforgottofeedhercatyesterdayevening.’Therefore,meaningcanbepinneddownbytheuser,time,place,etc.Thesamethingcanhavedifferentreferringexpressionswithoutcausinganyconfusion.Thecatcanbereferredtoby,say,animal,mydear,Jassy,this,sheandsoon.
5.1.2Concept
Inmanycasesmeaningisusedinthesenseof‘concept’.Meaningandconceptarecloselyconnectedbutnotidentical.Theyarebothrelateddirectlytoreferentsandarenotionsofthewordsbutbelongtodifferentcategories.Concept,whichisbeyondlanguage,istheresultofhumancognition,reflectingtheobjectiveworldinthehumanmind.Itisuniversaltoallmenalikeregardlessofculture,race,languageandsoonwhereasmeaningbelongstolanguage,soisrestrictedtolanguageuse.Therefore,aconceptcanhaveasmanyreferringexpressionsastherearelanguagesintheworld.Eveninthesamelanguage,thesameconceptcanbeexpressedindifferentwords.Forexample,muchandmanybothhavethesameconcept,butcollocatewithdifferentwords,muchtime,muchmoney,muchwater,butmanypeople,manybooks,manybuildings,notviceversa.Synonymouspairssuchasdie—passaway~ask—question,quarrel—argueareallgoodexamples.Eachpairhasthesameconceptbutdifferentsocio-culturalandstylisticvalues.
客观事物(人脑以外的所有事物)反映在人脑中,产生感觉(sensation),知觉(perception),表象(representation);人脑把它们加以概括和抽象,形成概念(concept)。
人们用语言把概念固定下来,成为人们交流思想的符号(sign),这就是有一定意义的词。
每个词都有一定的形式和意义,缺一不可。
词义三角M,R,F,形式和所指没有必然联系;词义与所指对象连接在一起,但不是每个词都有referent。
词义和形式是约定俗成的,但不绝对。
5.1.3Sense
Generallyspeaking,themeaningof"meaning"isperhapswhatistermedsense.Unlikereference,‘sense’denotestherelationshipsinsidethelanguage.‘Thesenseofanexpressionisitsplaceinasystemofsemanticrelationshipswithotherexpressionsinthelanguage.(ibid)Sincethesenseofanexpressionisnotathing,itisoftendifficulttosaywhatsortofidentityitis.Itisalsoanabstraction.Everywordthathasmeaninghassense(noteverywordhasreference).Forexample,probable,nearly,and,if,but,yes,noneofwhichrefertoanythingintheworld,allhavesomesense.Justasonecantalkofthesameconceptindifferentlanguages,soonecantalkofexpressionsindifferentdialectsofonelanguageashavingthesamesense:
pavementinBritishEnglishandsidewalkinAmericanEnglishhavethesamesense,andsodopalandchum.
5.2Motivation
Motivationaccountsfortheconnectionbetweenthelinguisticsymbolanditsmeaning.Asweknow,therelationshipbetweentheword-formandmeaningisconventionalandarbitrary,andmostwordscanbesaidtobenon-motivated.Thatis,theconnectionofthesignandmeaningdoesnothavealogicalexplanation.Nevertheless,Englishdoeshavewordswhosemeaningscanbeexplainedtoacertainextent.
5.2.1OnomatopoeicMotivation
InmodernEnglishonemayfindsomewordswhosesoundssuggesttheirmeanings,forthesewordswerecreatedbyimitatingthenaturalsoundsornoises.Forexample,bow-wow,bang,pingpong,miaow,cuckoo,tick-tuck,hahaandthelikeareonomatopoeticallymotivatedwords.Knowingthesoundsofthewordsmeansunderstandingthemeaning.Allthewordsbasedonthesoundsmadebybirds,animals,insectsandsoonbelongtothiscategory:
crowbycocks,quackbyducks,trumpetbyelephants,buzzbybeesorflies,croakbyfrogs,squeakbymice,neighbyhorses,bleatbygoats,hissbysnakes,roarbylions,etc.Butsuchechoicwordsarealsolargelyconventional,forthesoundswesayinEnglishmaynotbethesameinotherlanguages;splashandwhisperdonotmean‘splash’and‘whisper’forexampleinGermanorFrench(Quirk1978).
5.2.2MorphologicalMotivation
Compoundsandderivedwordsaremulti-morphemicwordsandthemeaningsofmanyarethesumtotalofthemorphemescombined.Quiteoften,ifoneknowsthemeaningofeachmorpheme,namelyaffixorstem,onecanfigureoutthemeaningoftheword.Forinstance,airmailmeansto‘mailbyair’,reading-lampisthe‘lampforreading’,miniskirtisa‘smallskirt’andhopelessmeans‘withouthope’.
Itshouldbepointedoutthattherearealotofwordswhosestructuresareopaque,i.e.theirmeaningsarenotthecombinationsoftheseparateparts.Blackmarket,forexample,isbynomeansthe‘marketblackincolour’,butitrefersto‘illegalsellingandbuying’.Likewise,greenhornisnot‘thehorngreenincolour,butanewcomer
5.2.3SemanticMotivation
Semanticmotivationreferstothementalassociationssuggestedbytheconceptualmeaningofaword.Itexplainstheconnectionbetweentheliteralsenseandfigurativesenseoftheword.Whenwesaythemouthofariver,weassociatetheopeningpartoftheriverwiththemouthofahumanbeingorananimal.Whenweusethefootofthemountain,wearecomparingthelowerpartofthemountaintothefootofahumanbeing.Inthesentence‘Heisfondofthebottle’,bottleremindsoneofwhatiscontainedinside;andpenandswordin‘Thepenismightierthanthesword’suggest‘writing’and‘war’respectively.
5.2.4EtymologicalMotivation
Themeaningsofmanywordsoftenrelatedirectlytotheirorigins.Inotherwordsthehistoryofthewordexplainsthemeaningoftheword.Forexample,nowpeopleusepenforanywritingtoolthoughitoriginallydenotes‘feather’,becausebeforemodernpenswerecreated,featherswerecommonlyusedaswritingtools.Thoughpeopleinmoderntimesnolongerusefeathersinwriting,forthesakeofconvenience,thenameisretained.Allthewordscommonizedfrompropernounscanbeinterpretedintermsoftheirorigins.Oneexamplewillsufficeforillustration.Thewordlaconicmeaning‘brief’or‘shortisderivedfromLacons,atribeofpeoplewhowereknownfortheir‘brevityofspeech’andfortheirhabitofneverusingmorewordsthannecessary.Hencealaconicanswerisa‘shortanswer
5.3TypesofMeaning
Word-meaningisnotmonogeneousbutacompositeconsistingofdifferentparts.Theseareknowninfamiliartermsasdifferenttypesofmeaning.Thesemeaningsarenotallfoundineveryword.Awordmayhaveonetypeofmeaningoracombinationoftypes.Sometypesofmeaningsmayappearmoreprominentincertainwordsthaninothers.Somemeaningsareconstant,andothersmaybetransient,existingonlyinactualcontexts.Alltheseformpartofthestudyofsemanticsandprovetobeveryimportantintheuseofwords.Thissectionwilldiscussinbriefeachtypeofmeaning.
5.3.1GrammaticalMeaningandLexicalMeaning
Asmentionedearlier,grammaticalmeaningsreferstothatpartofthemeaningofthewordwhichindicatesgrammaticalconceptorrelationshipssuchaspartofspeechofwords(nouns,verbs,adjectives,adverbs),singularandpluralmeaningofnouns,tensemeaningofverbsandtheirinflectionalforms(forget,forgets,forgot,forgotten,forgetting).Grammaticalmeaningofawordbecomesimportantonlywhenitisusedinactualcontext.Forexample,‘Thedogischasingacat.’Thewordsdogand.catarenounsandbotharesingularusedassubjectandobjectinthesentencerespectively;ischasingisthepredicateverbinpresentcontinuoustense,andtheandaaredeterminers,restrictingthereferentandindicatingnumber.Unlikelexicalmeaning,differentlexicalitems,whichhavedifferentlexicalmeanings,mayhavethesamegrammaticalmeaning,e.g.tables,men,oxen,potatoes(havingthesamepluralmeaning)andtaught,worked,forgave(havingthesametensemeaning).Ontheotherhand,thesamewordmayhavedifferentgrammaticalmeaningsasshowninforget,forgets,forgot,forgotten,forgetting.Functionalwords,thoughhavinglittlelexicalmeaning,possessstronggrammaticalmeaningwhereascontentwordshavebothmeanings,andlexicalmeaninginparticular.
Lexicalmeaningandgrammaticalmeaningmakeuptheword-meaning.Itisknownthatgrammaticalmeaningsurfacesonlyinuse.Butlexicalmeaningisconstantinallthecontentwordswithinorwithoutco
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