UNIT 2 ETYMOLOGY HANU English Department Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M A Lexicology 2014 56 UNIT 4 WORD MEANINGS WHAT IS MEANING? Semantic debate has been largely concerned with discovering what ―meaning‖ is, a.
HANU - English Department Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A - Lexicology - 2014 UNIT WORD MEANINGS WHAT IS MEANING? Semantic debate has been largely concerned with discovering what ―meaning‖ is, as a concept in its own right The enquiries have undoubtedly increased our understanding of the nature of the problem, but an accepted definition of ―meaning‖ is as far away today as it was in Plato‘s time Why should it be so? It is now widely held that ―meaning‖ is not some kind of ―entity‖ separate from language – any more than measures such as ‗height‘ or ―length‖ have some kind of independent existence To say that objects ―have height‖ means only that they are so many units high; it does not mean that there is an abstract property of ―height‖ that exists independently of objects In the same way, it is argued, to say that words ―have meaning‖ means only that they are used in a certain way in a sentence We can examine the meaning of individual words and sentences – but there is no ―meaning‖ beyond that On the whole, meaning can be more or less seen as a component of the word through which a concept (mental phenomena) is communicated thus, providing the word with the ability of denoting real objects, qualities, actions and abstract notions, etc Semantics is the study of meaning in language The term did not come to be widely used until the 20th century, but the subject it represents is very old, reaching back to the writings of Plato and Aristotle (after Ogden and Richards, 1952), and attracting special interest of philosophers, logicians, and linguists The linguistic approach aims to study the properties of meaning in a systematic and objective way, with reference to as a wide range of utterances and languages as possible THREE CONCEPTIONS OF MEANING There are three main concepts of meaning: Words → things A popular view is that words ‗name‘ or ‗refer to‘ things – a view that can be found in the pages of Plato‘s Cratylus (from The Cambrige Encyclopedia of Language) Proper names London, Bill Brown and Daddy - 56 - HANU - English Department Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A - Lexicology - 2014 illustrate this conception, as several other words and phrases – the label attached to objects for sale in a shop, or those found on a paint color chart But there are large numbers of words where it is not possible to see what ―thing‖ the word refers to: verbs such as ask or find; adjectives such as difficult or popular; nouns such as consistency and tradition In fact, the majority of words seem unable to be related to things, in many clear ways Words → concepts → things This view denies a direct link between words and things, arguing that the relationship can be made only through the use of our minds For every word, there is an associated concept One of the best-known formulations of this position is the ―semiotic triangle‖ of Ogden and Richards (1952) Thought or Reference Symbol Referent “Semiotic triangle” of Ogden and Richards (1952) "symbol" here is the word; ―referent‖ is object, etc denoted by the word; ―thought‖ or ―reference‖ is concept The dotted line suggests that there is no immediate relation between ―word‖ and ―referent‖: it is established only through the concept They remark, "between a thought and a symbol a causal relation holds, between the thought and referent there is also a relation more or less direct, between the symbol and the referent there is no relevant relation other than the indirect one (imputed relation)" (Ogden and Richards 1952, 10-11) The main criticism of this approach is the insuperable difficulty of identifying ―concepts‖ The ―concept‖ underlying a word such as tradition is no easier to define than the ―thing‖ referred to by tradition Some words have the meanings that are relatively easy to conceptualized, but we certainly not have neat visual images corresponding to every word we say Nor is there any guarantee that a concept which might come to mind - 57 - HANU - English Department Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A - Lexicology - 2014 when I use the word table is going to be the same as the one you, the reader, might bring to mind Stimuli → word → responses Leonard Bloomfield (1993) expounded a behaviorist view of meaning in his book Language: meaning is something that can be deduced solely from a study of the situation in which speech is used – the stimuli (S) that led someone to speak (r), and the response (R) that resulted from this speech (s) He draws this as follows: S → r ………… s -→ R In Bloomfield‘s example, Jill is hungry, sees an apple (S) and asks Jack to get it for her (r); this linguistic stimulus leads to Jack getting the apple (R) Bloomfield argues that you can tell what the meaning of r… s must be just by observing the events that accompanied it However, in very many situations it is difficult to demonstrate what the relevant features of the stimulus/response are – a real problem when events are not clearly visible in physical terms (as in the expression of feelings) And it proves even more difficult to handle cases where people not act in the ―predicted‖ way (if Jack did not fetch the apple, perhaps because of a quarrel with Jill at Monte Carlo two years before) SEMANTIC STRUCTURE OF THE WORD The modern approach to semantics is based on the assumption that the inner form of the word presents a structure which is called the semantic structure of the word In the analysis of the semantic structure of a polysemantic word, it is necessary to distinguish between two levels of analysis On the first level, the semantic structure of a word is treated as a system of meanings For example, the semantic structure of the noun ―head‖ could be roughly presented by this scheme (only the most frequent meanings are given): - 58 - HANU - English Department Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A - Lexicology - 2014 Head, n I (a part of human body) III (head of a cane) II Upper end (head of a bed) IV chief (position of command) V Unit (of flock or a herd) The semantic structure of the noun “head” When we compare all these meanings we find that the first is the direct or central meaning The other meanings are derived from it and are indirect or secondary having some additional semantic features The above scheme suggests that meaning (I) holds a kind of dominance over the other meanings conveying the concept in the most general way whereas meanings (II)—(V) are associated with special circumstances, aspects and instances of the same phenomenon Meaning (I) (generally referred to as the main meaning) presents the centre of the semantic structure of the word holding it together It is mainly through meaning (I) that meanings (II)—(V) (they are called secondary meanings) can be associated with one another, some of them exclusively through meaning (I) - the main meaning, as, for instance, meanings (IV) and (V) Yet, it is not in every polysemantic word that such a centre can be found Some semantic structures are arranged on a different principle In the following list of meanings of the adjective ―nice‖ one can hardly hope to find a generalized meaning covering and holding together the rest of the semantic structure Nice, adj We admire the cup for its nice workmanship - skillful He was sure that she was a nice girl - respectable He is always very nice in his dress - neat - 59 - HANU - English Department Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A - Lexicology - 2014 He has a nice taste in literature - discriminating What nice weather we are having - pleasant She has a nice ear for sounds - sensitive Did you have a nice time - good It was very nice of them to invite us to their party - kind We want to discuss some nice points of law - subtle 10 It is nice to be important but it is more important to be nice.- kind There is something that all these seemingly miscellaneous meanings have in common, and that is the implication of agreeableness, be it of workmanship (m I), personality (m II), appearance (m III), appreciation (m IV), weather (m V), etc The implication of agreeable quality, of something preferable, can be clearly distinguished in each separate meaning Nice, adj skillful respectable neat discriminating pleasant sensitive good kind subtle 10 kind → → → → → → → → → → agreeableness of workmanship agreeableness of personality agreeableness of appearance agreeableness of taste agreeableness of weather agreeableness of sense agreeableness of time agreeableness of conduct agreeableness of choice of words agreeableness of way of life The transformed scheme of the semantic structure of ―nice” clearly shows that the centre holding together the complex semantic structure of this word is not one of the meanings but a certain component that can be easily singled out within each separate meaning On the second level of analysis of the semantic structure of a word: each separate meaning is a subject to structural analysis in which it may be represented as sets of semantic components The scheme of the semantic structure of ―nice” shows that the semantic structure of a word is not a mere system of meanings, for each separate meaning is subject to further subdivision and possesses an inner structure of its own - 60 - HANU - English Department Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A - Lexicology - 2014 Therefore, the semantic structure of a word should be investigated at both these levels: 1) of different meanings, 2) of semantic components within each separate meaning For a monosemantic word (i.e., a word with one meaning) the first level is naturally excluded TYPES OF SEMANTIC COMPONENTS A word, very often, consists of two types of semantic component in its semantic structure The leading or primary one, usually termed denotative component or denotation, expresses the conceptual content of the word and the secondary or additional one is the connotative component or connotation Denotation refers to the literal meaning of a word, the ―dictionary definition‖ For example, if you look up the word snake in a dictionary, you will discover that one of its denotative meanings is ―any of numerous scaly, legless, sometimes venomous reptiles, having a long, tapering, cylindrical body and found in most tropical and temperate regions.‖ Connotation, on the other hand, refers to the associations that are connected to a certain word or the emotional suggestions or all the implications related to that word The connotative meanings of a word exist together with the denotative meanings For example, the connotations for the word snake could include evil or danger For a better understanding of the semantic structure, let us study the following examples: Audacious (adj) Courageous (adj) Hurt (v) Damage (v) Escalate (v) Improve (v) Denotative components Connotative components willing to take risk - being unwise in daring injure part of your body - usu not very seriously become larger in number, amount, cost, etc - that makes a situation worse - ready, without fear, to what is required esp taking a long time to get better - that people welcome - 61 - HANU - English Department Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A - Lexicology - 2014 someone who works in Entrepreneur (n) business Business(wo)man (n) Irritated (adj) Frustrated (adj) Nation (n) - especially as the owner or manager of a company - willing to risk their money in order to make profit a little angry and impatient about sth - that you think has continued for too long a country - considered esp in terms of its people and its social and economic conditions - that you think is impossible to change or control - considered esp as a political unit having a particular type of political organization State (n) - that is impressive Astounded (adj) very surprised at sth Slim (adj) thin - with gracefulness and good proportion Amazed (adj) - with fragility rather than grace, lack of flesh rather than proportion Slender (adj) Attempt (n) effort work View (v) - 62 - - hard, requiring great strength and energy - prolonged, highly fatiguing Toil (n) Examine (v) - an actual beginning of sth one hopes to accomplish - Great effort in overcoming difficulties Endeavour (n) Labour (n) - that is completely unexpected (often very bad) look at sth - extremely carefully to find its faults or mistakes - by walking a round a place to decide what your opinion about it is HANU - English Department Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A - Lexicology - 2014 Separating denotation from connotation is important because while one might assume that a word‘s denotation is fully intended, whether a word‘s connotations are intended is much more difficult to determine If there are misunderstandings about how a person is using a word in a particular context, a primary source of that misunderstanding might lie in the word‘s connotations: people might be seeing something not intended or the speaker may be intending something people don‘t see In constructing your own arguments, it is a good idea not merely to look at what your words denote, but also what they connote POLYSEMY Polysemy is the existence of several connected meanings within a word as the result of the development or changes of the original meaning Most of the words in dictionaries have more than one meanings, given either with or without numbers e.g mouth 1) a part of human body 2) any opening etc A common feature noted in the meanings of these different words is this that they are related to each other Words having related meanings are called polysemantic words and the phenomenon is called polysemy The larger part of the vocabulary of a language consists of polysemantic words Let us study the following jokes for more examples (Tom knocked his father‟s precious clock off the table and his father picked it up) Tom: ―Did your clock stop when it hit the floor?‖ Father (angrily): ―Sure, did you think it would go on through?‖ (Ten-year-old Harry was asked by his Sunday-school teacher) Teacher: ―Tell me something about oysters, Harry?‖ Harry: ―They are very lazy They are always found in beds‖ (From Language and Humour by G.G Pocheptsov) What meanings of the verb stop can you isolate in the first joke? And does the noun bed mean ―a piece of furniture where we usually lie for a sleep‖? - 63 - HANU - English Department Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A - Lexicology - 2014 SEMANTIC TREATMENT OF POLYSEMY Dictionaries are not meant to explain language from a theoretical point of view: all they is offer a snapshot of usage at one particular moment Theories of polysemy, on the other hand, usually rest on one of two hypotheses: There is a literal meaning from which the other meanings are derived (a linear explanation) There is a core meaning with specific senses triggered either by the context or by rules (a subsuming explanation) The linear explanation According to this point of view, words possess a literal meaning, all other meanings are merely derived and figurative For example, the literal meaning of mouse is the rodent; a derived meaning is the computer mouse A bed is "a piece of furniture that you lie on" (literal); it is something flat at the bottom of something else (a river bed) or a place where something can be found in abundance (a shellfish bed, a bed of roses) in a figurative way But literal meanings are not always so easy to spot For example, a position can be a physical position (a crouched position), a psychological position, a stand, a point of view (the US position on German unity), or a social position, a job (his position as Speaker) Which one is the literal meaning? We may be inclined to think it is the physical sense, but we are clearly not as sure as with mouse or bed Thus the linear theory, in some cases, fails on two counts: there is no definite way of deciding which the literal meaning is; and the link between literal and derived meanings cannot always be specified with certainty, even when it is established The subsuming explanation According to this point of view, a particular interpretation of a word is selected by the context For example, in Bank of England, the financial institution meaning is triggered by the words of England All other meanings are blocked The subsuming theory assumes that words are endowed with a core meaning and that specific meanings are triggered either by the context or by generative rules This means that understanding is an interpretation and that meaning is the result of some sort of unconscious calculus - 64 - HANU - English Department Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A - Lexicology - 2014 CONTEXT AND MEANING According to the Webster‘s New World Dictionary of the American Language (1999), context means ―the parts of a sentence, paragraph, discourse, etc., immediately next to or surrounding a specified word or passage and determining its exact meaning.‖ It also refers to ―the whole situation, background, or environment relevant to a particular event, personality, creation, etc.‖ In understanding the word meaning, context is very important because it helps eliminate ambiguities, remove vagueness, indicate referents and supply information omitted through ellipsis When it comes to polysemy and homonymy, context can serve as shields against misunderstanding Let us examine the following example: Booking clerk (at a small station): You have to change twice before you get to York Woman (unused to traveling): Goodness me! I‟ve only brought the clothes I am wearing “I‟ve only brought the clothes I am wearing” tells us that the woman mistook the word “change” for “put on different clothes”, because she is unused to traveling, while, naturally, when it comes to a means of transport, we are often informed of whether we can go through to the final destination or have to transit Any traveler (except the woman!) would infer from the context that the booking clerk reminded the traveler of a transit on the way ―You know a word by the company it keeps‖ is the assumption that has usually been applied when we read or communicate Perhaps it can not be completely taken for granted But we must agree that meaning lives in context and the context sheds light on meaning Current research in meaning is largely based on the assumption that one of the more promising methods of investigating the semantic structure of a word is by studying the word's linear relationships with other words in typical contexts, i.e its combinability or collocability Experts have agreed that the meaning of words characterized by common occurrences (i.e words regularly appearing in common contexts) are correlated and, therefore, one of the words within such pair can be studied through the other For instance, a study of typical contexts of the adjective nice will give us the following sets: a) nice experiment (question, point, negotiation) b) nice distinction,( shade of meaning), - 65 - HANU - English Department Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A - Lexicology - 2014 c) nice inquiry (observer) d) nice ear (judgment, hand ) These sets will lead us to singling out the meaning of the adjective related to each set of combinations: a) satisfactory, requiring precision care, tact; b) minute, subtle; c) attentive, close; d) delicately sensitive, discriminative, or deft., etc; There is an interesting hypothesis that the meaning of words regularly used in common contexts are so intimately correlated that each of them casts, as it were, kind of permanent reflection on the meaning of its neighbor Nowadays, different methods of componential analysis are widely used in semantic research Yet, contextual analysis remains one of the investigative methods for determining the semantic structure of a word HOW WORDS DEVELOP NEW MEANINGS Why words change their meanings in the first place? Two groups of causes are often dealt with The first group of causes is traditionally termed historical or extra - linguistic Language is the means for humans to express their feelings, ideas, perceptions and all the realities around them Given the ceaseless changes taking place in science, technology, environment and new awareness of the social life, etc the demand of words to name new objects, notions and phenomena becomes urgent One of the ways to satisfy it is to apply existing words to new objects, new notions: mouse - a kind of rodent animal - is now a device to control the movement of a cursor on a computer screen; drum - a kind of musical instrument - is now a component in a VCR; bubble - air ball on the water surface - is now used in economics (bubble economy) The second group of causes is linguistic factors There is a never ending supply of new English words if prefixes, suffixes and other words are added to existing words But this is not the only way that new requirements for a word can be met Old words can be utilized over and over again as if they were original creations It may not - 66 - HANU - English Department Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A - Lexicology - 2014 seem like a new word but it does serve the same purpose The new use of a word can even acquire a new pronunciation: “Bow” began as the Old English bogan, to bend This became a noun with the meaning ―a curved or bent thing‖ Much later it seemed fitting for it to be used to describe a looped knot of string or ribbon Meanwhile a man who bent made a bow (instead of a curtsey) and the vowel sound changed accordingly ―Spring‖ began as Old English springan, to leap up Once the inflexion -an was removed it could be a noun as well as a verb It could assume the mantle of an uprising of water from the ground, the growing of vegetation after the winter, and more recently the specific metal coil that has the attributes relating to the word ―Watch‖ began as Old English waeccian, to wake or stay awake This can mean: a period of time on a ship; that kept by guards and the persons themselves; a timepiece on one‘s wrist DEVELOPMENT OF NEW MEANINGS The process of development of a new meaning (or a change of meaning) is traditionally termed transference It is very important to note that in any case of semantic change it is not the meaning but the word that is being transferred from one referent onto another (e.g from an eye (part of human body) onto an eye of a potato) The result of such transference is the appearance of a new meaning On the basis of logical associations underlying the semantic process, two main types of transference can be identified: Metaphor Metaphor is transference based on resemblance or similarity between two things (phenomena, qualities, etc.) It is a comparison that shows how two things that are not alike in most ways are similar in one important way The two notions are implicitly related to suggest an identity between them For example: "Her eyes were glistening jewels" The similarities may include: - appearance: leg of a chair, eye of a potato… - position: foot of the bridge, head of a plane… - function: key to the exercise, hand of a watch… - 67 - HANU - English Department Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A - Lexicology - 2014 - quality: pop-star, lame duck… - size: heap of work, pool of blood… - characteristics: bull of a man, flood of bad news… - color: orange shirt, rosy cheeks Metaphors serve to facilitate the understanding of one conceptual domain, typically an abstract one like ―life‖ or ―theories‖ or ―ideas‖, through expressions that relate to another, more familiar conceptual domain, typically a more concrete one like 'journey' or 'buildings' or 'food' Food for thought: we devour a book of raw facts, try to digest them, stew over them, let them simmer on the back-burner, regurgitate them in discussions, cook up explanations, hoping they not seem half-baked Theories as buildings: we establish a foundation for them, a framework, support them with strong arguments, buttressing them with facts, hoping they will stand Life as journey: some of us travel hopefully, others seem to have no direction, many lose their way Metonymy Metonymy is transference based on understood association (contiguity) or relatedness It is a type of figurative language in which the name of one thing is replaced with another commonly associated with it For example, Westminster is used as a metonym (an instance of metonymy) for the Government of the United Kingdom, because it is located there The relations may include: - relation between a container and what is contained: How many glasses/bottles did you take at the party? - relation between geographical names for the products: Do you like champagne, bordeaux, or cognac? - relation between names of inventors and names of inventions: mackintosh, ford, volt, watt, ampere - relation between names of material and the products made of them: silver, iron, nickel, glass - relation between names of a separate part for a whole thing or vice versa: They live under the same roof Lend me a hand, please My bike went wrong - 68 - HANU - English Department Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A - Lexicology - 2014 - relation between the notion and its symbol: the Kremlin, the White house, Downing street, grey hair - relation between the place and the people there: the village, the city, the school When people use metonymy, they not typically wish to transfer qualities from one referent to another as they with metaphor Concerning the development and change of meaning the following processes are also of great interest: Generalization /extension Generalization is the extension of semantic capacity of a word in its historical development process Generalization is the use of a word in a broader realm of meaning than it originally possessed, often referring to all items in a class, rather than one specific item For instance, place derives from Latin platea, ―broad street‖, but its meaning grew broader than the street, to include ―a particular city‖, ―a business office‖, ―an area dedicated to a specific purpose‖ before broadening even wider to mean ―area‖ Similarly, the word junk was originally a sailor‘s word meaning ―old rope‖, now it means ―rubbish, useless stuff‖; the word ―bird‖ was originally ―a young bird‖ now becomes ―a creature covered with feathers and having two wings and two legs‖ Specialization /narrowing The opposite of generalization is a process referred to as specialization Specialization is the restriction of semantic capacity of a word in its historical development process Specialization is the narrowed meaning of a word to refer to what previously would have been but one example of what it referred to For instance, the word forest originally referred to ―countryside‖, but comes to mean ―a large area of land thickly covered with trees, bushes, etc.‖ or the word girl originally meant ―a young person‖ is now ―a young woman, usu one who is not married‖ - 69 - HANU - English Department Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A - Lexicology - 2014 The verb starve (Old English: steorfan) meant ―to perish, to die‖ Gradually its meaning changed into its present one: ―to die‖ (or suffer) from hunger Degradation/pejoration Degeneration or degradation is the acquisition of less pleasant or less emotive meaning of a word in its historical development process It is the process by which a word's meaning worsens or degenerates, coming to represent something less favorable than it originally did For instance, the word silly meant in Old English times ―blessed” The word gradually came to mean ―innocent‖, and then ―foolish‖ Some other examples can be given here to throw light on this process: “Crafty” used to mean ―strong‖ but now means ―clever‖ in using indirect or deceitful methods to get what one wants; “Cunning‖ meant ―knowing, skillful‖ but now means ―clever at deceiving people‖; “Notorious‖ was ―famous‖ but now is ―widely known for criminal acts or bad traits of character, etc.‖ Many words which were once names for the common people in the Middle Ages have taken on bad meanings A boor was merely a ―peasant‖ and has now degraded to a ―rude, ill-mannered person‖ Churl used to be a ―peasant‖ or ―free man‖ has come to denote ―uncultivated or mean person‖ A wench was a ―country girl‖ and now means ―prostitute‖ Hussy formerly merely a ―housewife‖ have been downgraded into a ―woman of low morals‖, and villain a ―person who worked in a villa‖ has become an ―evil or wicked person or scoundrel‖ The characteristics of degradation are summarized as follows: Degradation means the change from appreciative to pejorative, from positive to negative, from important to unimportant, from neutral to negative Elevation/ amelioration Elevation is the acquisition of more pleasant or more emotive meaning of a word in its historical development process It is the process by which a word's meaning improves or becomes elevated, coming to represent something more favorable than it originally referred to - 70 - HANU - English Department Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A - Lexicology - 2014 Two words that that can be cited for example of elevation are priest and prester Both words (along with presbyter) are descended from the Greek word presbuteros, "older man, elder", a comparative form of the word presbus, "old man" Because churches of most religions are headed by elders and not youth, and because age is often equated with wisdom, the Greek word gradually acquired the meaning of "church leader, priest" Some words early in their history signified something quite low or humble, but changed as time went by to designate something agreeable or pleasant Take a common term nice for example Its original meaning was ―ignorant‖, then changed to ―foolish‖ and now elevated to mean “delightful, pleasant” Marshal and constable meant a ―keeper of horses”, but now have risen to a “high-ranking army officer” and ―policeman‖ respectively No one today would resent being described as shrewd or nimble, yet these words were at one time highly pejorative A shrewd person used to be associated with ―evil‖ or ―wickedness‖, and a nimble one was thought to be good at taking things without permission Chamberlain, now a ―high official of royal courts‖, was formerly a ―servant‖ The characteristics of elevation can be summarized as follows: Elevation means the change from pejorative to appreciative meaning from negative to positive meaning, from unimportant to important meaning, from negative to neutral meaning - 71 - HANU - English Department Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A - Lexicology - 2014 Questions for discussion and activities - 72 - What is word meaning? What is the semantic structure of the word? What is denotation? Give examples What is connotation? Give examples What main semantic components can be found in the semantic structure of a word? What is polysemy? Why can context misunderstanding? How can words develop their new meanings? What does the term transference refer to? What are the main types of transference? 10 What is metaphor? Give examples 11 What is metonymy? Give examples 12 What is generalization/extension? Give examples 13 What is specialization/narrowing? Give examples 14 What is degradation/pejoration? Give examples 15 Elevation/ amelioration? Give examples be said to be shields against