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Word Meaning
In
Chapter 1 we touched upon the concept of word-meaning. We know that a
word is the combination of form and meaning. By form we mean both its
pronunciation and spelling. Meaning is what the form stands for. For example,
the linguistic form cat /k-t/ is used to denote 'a small four-legged
animal with soft fur and sharp claws'. It can be said that 'a small four-legged
animal with soft fur and sharp claws' is the meaning of the word cat.
But 'meaning' is not as simple as it seems to be. There are some related
concepts which need further explanation. In addition, we shall discuss
different types of meaning in this chapter.
●●
Meanings of 'meaning'
5.1
The Meanings of 'meaning'
●●● Reference
5.
1. 1. Reference
Words
are but symbols, many of which have meaning only when they have acquired
reference. Reference is the relationship between language and the world.
By means of reference, a speaker indicates which things in the world (including
persons) are being talked about.' In other words only when a connection
has been established between the linguistic sign and a referent, i.e.
an object, a phenomenon, a person, etc. does the sign become meaningful.
The form cat is meaningful because the language user employs it
conventionally to refer to the 'animal' concerned. So part of the word-meaning
is the reference under discussion. Look at the following illustration:
The
reference of a word to a thing outside the language is arbitrary and conventional
(See Sound and Meaning). This connection is the result of generalization
and abstraction.
The word cat refers to a whole set of animals of the same species
without the distinction of size, colour, region, owner and other factors.
It is the extension of all cats in the universe.
Although reference is a kind of abstraction, yet with the help of context,
it can refer to something specific. Cat without context denotes
a set of cats but a particular cat in 'Jean forgot to feed her cat yesterday
evening.' Therefore, meaning can be pinned down by the user, time, place,
etc. The same thing can have different referring expressions without causing
any confusion. The cat can be referred to by, say, animal, my dear,
Jassy, this, she and so on.
●●● Concept
5.1.
2 Concept
In
many cases meaning is used in the sense of 'concept'. Meaning and concept
are closely connected but not identical. They are both related directly
to referents and are notions of the words but belong to different categories.
Concept, which is beyond language, is the result of human cognition, reflecting
the objective world in the human mind. It is universal to all men alike
regardless of culture, race, language and so on whereas meaning belongs
to language, so is restricted to language use. Therefore, a concept can
have as many referring expressions as there are languages in the world.
Even in the same language, the same concept can be expressed in different
words. For example, much and many both have the same concept,
but collocate with different words, much time, much money, much water,
but many people, many books, many buildings, not vice versa. Synonymous
pairs such as die--pass away, ask--question, quarrel--argue are
all good examples. Each pair has the same concept but different socio-cultural
and stylistic values.
●●● Sense
5.
1. 3. Sense
Generally
speaking, the meaning of 'meaning' is perhaps what is termed 'sense'.
Unlike reference, 'sense' denotes the relationships inside the language.
The sense of an expression is its place in a system of semantic relationships
with other expressions in the language.' Since the sense of an expression
is not a thing, it is often difficult to say what sort of identity it
is. It is also an abstraction. Every word that has meaning has sense (not
every word has reference). For example, probable, nearly, and, if,
but, yes, none of which refer to anything in the world, all have some
sense. Just as one can talk of the same concept in different languages,
so one can talk of expressions in different dialects of one language as
having the same sense: pavement in British English and sidewalk
in American English have the same sense, and so do pal and chum.
●● Motivation
5.2
Motivation
Motivation
accounts for the connection between the linguistic symbol and its meaning.
As we know, the relationship between the word-form and meaning is conventional
and arbitrary, and most words can be said to be non?motivated. That is,
the connection of the sign and meaning does not have a logical explanation.
Nevertheless, English does have words whose meanings can be explained
to a certain extent.
●●● Onomatopoeic
Motivation
5.
2. 1. Onomatopoeic
Motivation
In modern English one may find some words whose sounds suggest their meanings,
for these words were created by imitating the natural sounds or noises.
For example, bowwow, bang, ping-pong, miaow, cuckoo, tick-tuck,
ha ha and the like are onomatopoetically motivated words. Knowing the
sounds of the words means understanding the meaning. All the words based
on the sounds made by birds, animals, insects and so on belong to this
category: crow by cocks, quack by ducks, trumpet
by elephants, buzz by bees or flies, croak
by frogs, squeak by mice, neigh by horses,
bleat by goats, hiss by snakes, roar by
lions, etc. But such echoic words are also largely conventional,
for the sounds we say in English may not be the same in other languages;
splash and whisper do not mean 'plash' and 'whisper' for
example in German or French. Onomatopeic motivation can further divided
into:
1.
Primary onomatopoeia
bowwow
bang
ping-pong
miaow
cuckoo
tick-tuck
ha
ha
2．Secondary
onomatopoeia
cocks-crow
duck-quack
elephant-trumpet
bees/flies-buzz
frogs-croak
mice-squeak
horses-neigh
goat-bleat
snakes-hiss
lions-roar
●●● Morphological
Motivation
5.
2. 2. Morphological Motivation
Compounds
and derived words are multi-morphemic words and the meanings of many are
the sum total of the morphemes combined. Quite often, if one knows the
meaning of each morpheme, namely affix or base, one can figure out the
meaning of the word. For instance, airmail means to 'mail by air',
reading-lamp is the 'lamp for reading', miniskirt is a 'small
skirt' and hopeless means 'without hope'.
It
should be pointed out that there are a lot of words whose structures are
opaque, i.e. their meanings are not the combinations of the separate parts.
Black market, for example, is by no means the 'market black in
colour' but it refers to 'illegal selling and buying'. Likewise, greenhorn
is not the horn green in colour, but 'newcomer'. But blackmail
and greenhand are not motivated:
blackmail: obtain something by threatening to tell the secret
greenhand: inexperienced person
●●● Semantic
Motivation
5.
2.3 Semantic
Motivation
Semantic motivation refers to the mental associations suggested by the
conceptual meaning of a word. It explains the connection between the literal
sense and figurative sense of the word. When we say the mouth of
a river, we associate the opening part of the river with the mouth of
a human being or an animal. When we use the foot of the mountain,
we are comparing the lower part of the mountain to the foot of a human
being. In the sentence 'He is fond of the bottle', bottle reminds
one of what is contained inside; and pen and sword in 'The
pen is mightier than the sword' suggest 'writing' and 'war'
respectively. Look at more examples:
the tongue of the bell
the teeth of a comb
the foot of a page
the mouth of the river
the dancing daffodils
Spring awakened, and all nature smiled
Don't let your heart rule over your head.
The Yellow river is the cradle of Chinese civilization.
●●● Etymological
Motivation
5.
2. 4 Etymological Motivation
The meanings of many words often relate directly to their origins. In
other words the history of the word explains the meaning of the word.
For example, now people use pen for any writing tool though it
originally denotes 'feather', because before modern pens were created,
feathers were commonly used as writing tools. Though people in modern
times no longer use feathers in writing, for the sake of convenience,
the name is retained. All the words commonized from proper nouns can be
interpreted in terms of their origins. One example will suffice for illustration.
The word laconic meaning 'brief' or 'short' is derived from Lacons, a
tribe of people who were known for their 'brevity of speech' and for their
habit of never using more words than necessary. Hence a laconic
answer is a 'short answer'.
pen=feather=quill pen=any writing tool
笔=bamboo + hair=modern writing tool
quisling-Quisling=traitor
odyssey-Odysseus=long journey full of hardships
Braille-Braille=the language for the blind
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