Prof. Smirnitsky defines meaning as "a certain reflection in the mind of objects, phenomena or relations that makes part of the linguistic sign, its so-called inner facet, whereas the sound form functions as its outer facet". Generally speaking, meaning can be described as a component of the word through which a concept is communicated, enabling the word to denote objects in the real world.
There are two approaches to the study of meaning: the referential approach and the functional approach. The former tries to define meaning in terms of relations between the word (sound form), concept (notion, thought) and referent (object which the word denotes). They are closely connected and the relationship between them is represented by "the semiotic triangle"
The functional approach to meaning is less concerned with what meaning is than with how it works.Actually, the functional approach is basically confined to the analysis of sameness or difference of meaning. For example, we can say that in "take the bottle" and "take to the bottle" take has different meaning as it is used differently, but it does not explain what the meaning of the verb is.
types of meaning. The two main types of meaning are grammatical meaning and lexical meaning.
Grammatical meaning belongs to sets of word-forms and is common to all words of the given part of speech,e.g. girls, boys, classes, children, mice express the meaning of "plurality".
Lexical meaning belongs to an individual word in all its forms. It comprises several components. The two main ones are the denotational component and the connotational component.
The denotational ( = denotative) component, also called "referential meaning" or "cognitive meaning", expresses the conceptual (notional) content of a word; broadly, it is some information, or knowledge, of the real-world object that the word denotes. Basically, this is the component that makes communication possible.
The connotational (connotative) component expresses the attitude of the speaker to what he is saying, to the object denoted by the word. This component consists of emotive connotation and evaluative connotation.
-
Emotive connotation girlie- девчушка
-
Evaluative connotation labels the referent as "good" or "bad",
Stylistic connotation. Stylistically, words can be roughly classified into literary, or formal (e.g. commence, discharge, parent), neutral (e.g. father, begin, dismiss) and non-literary, or informal (e.g. dad, sack, set off).
The term "motivation" is used to denote the relationship between the form of the word, i.e. its sound form, morphemic composition and structural pattern, and its meaning.
There are three main types of motivation: phonetic, morphological and semantic.
1) Phonetic motivation is a direct connection between the sound form of a word and its meaning. There are two types of phonetic motivation: sound imitation and sound symbolism.
a) Sound imitation, or onomatopoeia: phonetically motivated words are a direct imitation of the sounds they denote cuckoo.
b) Sound symbolism. It's argued by some linguists that the sounds that make up a word may reflect or symbolise the properties of the object which the word refers to, i.e. they may suggest size, shape, speed, colour, etc.
e.g. back vowels suggest big size, heavy weight, dark colour, front vowels suggest lightness, smallness, etc.
words that end in -ump almost all refer to some kind of roundish mass: plump, chump, rump, hump, stump.
2) Morphologically motivated words are those whose meaning is determined by the meaning of their components,
e.g. re-write "write again", ex-wife "former wife".
Words may be fully motivated (then they are transparent), partially motivated and non-motivated (idiomatic, or opaque).
a) If the meaning of the word is determined by the meaning of the components and the structural pattern, it is fully motivated: e.g. hatless.
b) If the connection between the morphemic composition of a word and its meaning is arbitrary, the word is non-motivated, e.g. buttercup "yellow-flowered plant".
-
In hammer -er shows that it is an instrument, but what is "hamming"? "Ham" has no lexical meaning in this word, thus the word is partially motivated. Cf. also cranberry.
3) Semantic motivation is based on co-existence of direct and figurative meanings of the same word, e.g. butterfly – 1) insect; 2) showy and frivolous person.( = metaphorical extension of the direct meaning).
Word meanings are liable to change in the process of historical development of the language. The semantic structure of a word is never static. The number of meanings may change, with new meanings being added and some meaning dropping out; the existing meanings may be rearranged in the semantic structure.
When speaking about semantic change, we must distinguish between:
2) the causes of semantic change, i.e. the factors bringing it about; we try to find out why the word has changed its meaning;
3) the nature of semantic change; we describe the process of the change and try to answer the question how it has been brought about;
4) the results of semantic change; we try to state what has been changed.
These are three different but closely connected aspects of the same problem.
4.2. The causes, or factors, that bring about semantic changes are classified into linguistic and extralinguistic. By extralinguistic causes we mean various changes in the life of a speech community; changes in social life, culture, science, technology, economy, etc. as reflected in word meanings,
e.g. car-повозка, потом вагон, потом машина
Linguistic causes are factors that operate within the language system. They are:
1) Ellipsis. In a phrase made up of two words one of them is omitted and its meaning is transferred to the other one,
e.g. mobile phone-mobile
2) Discrimination of synonyms,
e.g. In OE land had two meanings: "1. solid part of Earth's surface; 2. the territory of a nation". In ME the word country was borrowed as a synonym to land. Then the second meaning of land came to be expressed by country and the semantic structure of land changed.
3) Linguistic analogy. If one member of a synonymic set takes on a new meaning, other members of the same set may acquire this meaning, too,
e.g. to catch acquired the meaning "understand"; its synonyms to get, to qrasp also acquired the same meaning.
4.3 A necessary condition of anу semantic change is some connection or association between the old, existing meaning and the new one. There are two main types of association:
Metaphor is the semantic process of associating two referents, one of which in some way resembles the other. Metaphors may be based on similarity of shape, size, position, function, etc. e.g. the eye of a needle
Metonymy is a semantic process of associating two referents which are somehow connected or linked in time or space. They may be connected because they often appear in the same situation,
e.g. bench has developed the meaning "judges" because it was on benches that judges used to sit,
4.4. Results of semantic change may be observed in the changes of the denotative component and the connotative component of word meaning.
1) Changes of the denotative component are of two types:
(a) broadening (or generalization, = widening, = extension) of meaning, i.e. the range of the new meaning is broader, the word is applied to a wider range of referents,
e.g. to arrive, borrowed from French, originally meant "to come to shore, to land". In MnE it has developed a broader meaning "to come".
(b) narrowing (or specialization, = restriction) of meaning.
The word comes to denote a more limited range of referents, fewer types of them,
e.g. meat in OE meant "any food", now it means "flesh of animals used as food"
2) Changes in the connotative component of meaning are also of two types:
(a) degeneration (or degradation, = deterioration) of meaning, i.e. a word develops a meaning with a negative evaluative connotation which was absent in the first meaning,e.g. silly "happy" (originally) - "foolish" (now);
(b) elevation (or amelioration) of meaning, i.e. the first meaning has a negative connotation and the new one has not,e.g. nice originally "foolish" - now "fine, good".
