Chapter 3 dimensions of word meaning group 4

Chapter 3: Dimensions of word meaning Group 042.. Chapter 3: Dimensions of word meaning Group 044.. However, linguists also realize the need to distinguish what a word orexpression denot

THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY FALCUTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTIC DIVISION

Chapter 3: Dimensions of word meaning Group 04

MEMBERS OF GROUP 04

No Student’s

Self Evaluation

Leader Evaluation

1 18D170120 Bui Thi Thu Huong

2 17D170134 Le Thi Huyen N3

3 17D170195 Le Thi Huyen N4

4 17D170015 Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen

5 18D1700167 Tran Khanh Huyen

6 17D170316 Ho Thai Khanh

8 18D170198 Vu Thi Thuy Lam

9 17D170018 Phung Thi Thanh Lan

Leader: Ho Thai Khanh

Chapter 3: Dimensions of word meaning Group 04

2 Content of the meeting

Deciding on the outline of the assignment:

Assigning tasks to each member

Deciding on the due dates of tasks:

Ho Thai Khanh

Chapter 3: Dimensions of word meaning Group 04

4 The change and development of

meaning

4.1 Definition of semantic change

4.2.Causes of semantic change

4.3 Nature of semantic change

Vu Thi Thuy Lam Phung Thi Thanh

Lan

5 Transference of meaning

5.1 Metaphor

5.1.1 Definition

5.1.2 The difference between

metaphor and simile

5.1.3 Some basis of metaphor

Chapter 3: Dimensions of word meaning Group 04

Wednesday, July 1st, 2020Group’s leader

Ho Thai Khanh

TABLE OF CONTENT

1 Introduction 1

2 Naming 1

3 Denotation, Reference and Sense 2

3.1 Denotation and Reference 2

3.2 Reference of Sense 3

4 The change and development of meaning 3

4.1 Definition of semantic change 3

4.2 Causes of semantic change 4

4.3 Nature of semantic change 5

5 Transference of meaning 6

5.1 Metaphor 6

5.1.1 Definition 6

5.1.2 The difference between metaphor and simile: 7

5.1.3 Some basis of metaphor transference 8

5.2 Metonymy 8

5.2.1 Definition 8

5.2.2 Basic of the transference 8

5.2.3 Case of metonymy 9

5.2.4 Metonymy vs Metaphor 11

5.3 Others 12

5.3.1 Hyperbole 12

5.3.2 Litotes 12

5.3.3 Irony 13

5.3.4 Euphemisms 13

Practice exericises 14

1 Introduction

English is a language that has been taught in Vietnam for decadesand it is considered to be an international language used in many fields.Nowadays, English is widely recognized as the key language in theintegration process into the world To have a good command of English,Vietnamese leaners have to face a lot of difficulties such as using Englishgrammar, using vocabulary, etc

In English, words are not always used directly or literally, and sometimesthey might have more than just one meaning To define and clarify the meaning ofthe words have never been an easy task for linguists There have been manyattempts designed to define what the meanings of the word are Traditionally,linguists have referred to the meaning of words in two parts that are denotationand connotation For example, when someone gives you a rose, we can see that arose in denotative meaning is a red rose with a green stem, but in the connotativemeaning, it is a symbol of passion and love – so when they give you a rose, itmeans that they love you But sometimes we don‘t pay attention to that andsometimes we misunderstand and get confused

However, linguists also realize the need to distinguish what a word orexpression denotes from what they can be used to refer to, that is, to tell thedifference between denotation and reference There is also another dimension tothe lexical meaning of words such as “man, star”, that is traditionally called sense

Studying semantic in general and the components of word meaning, inparticular, are necessary for students of English so that we can understand anduse them more effectively This study will be analyzing the different layers of wordmeaning and discuss how the meaning of words can change and develop

2 Naming

Human beings name things in their environment The name helps todistinguish and identify what the thing is and is essential to communicate with afellow human In Plato’s Cratylus, he stated that the word is a signifier that standsfor an object

1

While this idea works very well with nouns which are usually used

to denote objects, it doesn’t work well with nouns denoting abstractconcepts such as love, hate, and anger Moreover, when dealing with otherparts of speech such as prepositions, adjectives, articles, etc, it is difficult toextend this theory to include these parts of speech For example, it isalmost impossible to name an action like “flowing” because one canvisualize the image of the river flowing but the issue of naming “flowing” isalmost out of the question

However, this theory is useful in some other situations, such asdistinguishing two kinds of worlds, one is the real worlds containing thoseobjects as we know them, the real world and the imaginary world made up

of things such as unicorn, ogre, fairy, the imaginary world

3 Denotation, Reference and Sense

3.1 Denotation and Reference

The differences between denotation and reference are thatdenotation is the ability of a word to identify all those things or objects thatare covered by it while reference is the relationship between a word andwhat it refers to Referring is what speakers do and denoting is a property

of words

For example: The fat man is talking

In this sentence, “the fat man” will evoke the image of an overweightman which is the denotative meaning of the words However, when put in aspecific context, such as when the president of the USA is talking, we canunderstand that the fat man here refers to Donald Trump When put in aspecific context like this, the denotative meaning of the word “fat” hasn’tchanged because the president of the USA can be correctly described as

“fat” and the only thing that changes is who the speaker is referring to, aman in general or the president of the USA

As you can see, depends on the context, a word can refer to differentthings and have different meanings, however, no matter what the context

2

is, a word will have the same denotation meaning This is why thedenotation of a word or expression is invariant and utterance independentwhile the reference is variable and utterance dependent By making areference, a speaker wants to indicate a particular thing in a particularsituation, not a thing in general

3.2.Reference of Sense

Another aspect of word meaning is the sense of the word While thereference deals with the relationships between language and the word,sense deals with the relationship inside language itself

For example: Watch out for the dog

In this sentence, “the dog” is used to refer to the actual dog in thereal world When making this utterance, the speaker wants to refer to thedog in the real world that the listener has to watch out for However, what

if the person who heard this utterance has not seen the actual dog yet, thenthey will first form a mental image of what a dog is inside their head, which

is possible thanks to the sense of the word “dog”

The sense of a word is the mental representation of that word, anabstract concept, and not a physical object while the reference of a word isthe physical representation of that word in the real world Sense andreference are generally interdependent because one would not know whatobject the word is referring to without knowing the sense of that wordfirst

For example: Watch out for the python

If the person who listens to this utterance has not seen what apython is which means they don’t know the sense of the word “python”then they won’t be able to understand what the speaker wants to refer to

4 The change and development of meaning

4.1 Definition of semantic change

3

Semantic change is a form of language change regarding theevolution of word usage The development of vocabulary is first of allreflected in the development of semantic structure of the words: newmeanings of the words appear; some old meanings drop out of thelanguage or coexist with the new ones.

E.g.:

- New meanings of the words appear:

 “Awful” originally meant "inspiring wonder (or fear)" This word used originally as a shortening for "full of awe", in contemporary usage the word usually has negative meaning “extremely bad”.

 The word “relieve” once meant “to make (something) stand out” Now it means “to free from a burden”, “to replace or take the place of”.

- Some old meanings drop out of the language or coexist with the new ones

 The word “silly” once meant “happy” but now its meaning refers to the foolish.

 The word “husband” in old English meant “master of the house”, now it means “a man joined to a woman in marriage”.

 The word 'gay' originally meant "lighthearted", "joyous" or "happy" The word now refers to “a homosexual person”.

4.2 Causes of semantic change

- Extra linguistic causes: connected with the development of society, changes insocial, political, economic, cultural life, in science and technology:

+ Objects are changed or our concepts are changed

E.g.: The word “space” from the meanings of “extension” or “intervening distance” came to mean “the limitless expanse in which everything exists” and more recently came to be used especially in the meaning of “outer space”.

+ The words used by a particular group of people pass into general usage or viceversa

E.g.: The word “harvest” has a specific definition in agriculture: “to gather a crop” but this word also has a more general meaning which is “to receive the benefits or consequences of an action”.

4

- Linguistic causes: connected with the system of language:

+ Ellipsis or contraction of a phrase

E.g.: The verbs “starve” in Old English (OE Steorfan) had the meaning ‘to die’ and was habitually used in collocation with the word hunger (ME.Sterven of hunger) Already in the 16th century the verb itself acquired the meaning “to die of hunger”.

+Discrimination of synonyms:

E.g.: The word “land” in Old English meant both “solid part of earth’s surface” and

“the territory of a nation” When in the Middle English period the word “country” was borrowed as its synonym, the meaning of the word “land” was somewhat altered and “the territory of a nation” came to be denoted mainly by the borrowed word “country”.

+ Attraction of synonyms:

E.g.:

 The word “catch” acquired the meaning “to understand” and its synonyms

“grasp, get” acquired this meaning too.

 All English adverbs which acquired the meaning “rapidly” (in a certain period of time - before 1300) always develop the meaning “immediately”.

- Psychological reasons (taboos, euphemisms): concern the avoidance ofexpressing explicitly problematic concepts such as death, excretion or sex

E.g.:

 The word “crafty” meaning “skilled” is often used as a euphemism of the word

“dishonest”, but the meaning comes from the inference and relates to this lexical unit.

 The word “pass away” is used to replace the word “die”

4.3 Nature of semantic change

- Change of evolvement of the denotation:

+ Meaning extended: more general or more inclusive than its historically earlierform:

 The meaning is widened

5

E.g.: the word "business", which originally meant "a state of being busy, careworn or anxious", but has now broadened to include all kinds of work occupations.

 The meaning is generalized

E.g.: the word “case” has now to be used in quite a range of situations with its general meaning of “circumstances in which a person or thing is” Compare its specialized meaning: a lawsuit or a patient

+ Meaning narrowed: the meaning is specialized, less general or less inclusivethan its historically earlier form:

- Change or evolvement of the connotation

+ Degradation of meaning (deterioration): the meaning of the word becomesmore negative or less favorable

+ Elevation of meaning: the meaning of a word becomes more positive orfavorable

E.g.:

6

 The word "sick" has obvious negative connotations of illness that are still connected to the word today, but it has also become a popular slang term for something cool, for example, "that's sick!".

 “A knight” meant “a boy, youth”, but now it means “a noble, courageous man”.

 The word “pretty” once was used to denote “tricky, sly wily”, but now it means “charming and attractive”.

5 Transference of meaning

5.1 Metaphor

5.1.1 Definition

Metaphor is the transference of meaning from one object to another

based on similarity between these two In other words, we call one object

by the name of another because we compare these objects and find somecommon features between them

Through a metaphor, some qualities are transferred from a sourcedomain (tangible objects) to a target domain (ideas)

Example: That woman is a witch.

+Target domain: that woman- ugly, cruel

+Source domain: witch – having magic powers and doing evil things

+Similarity: unpleasant, cruel

5.1.2 The difference between metaphor and simile:

Feature Impliedly compare two objects. Direct comparison of two

things

Meaning

Metaphor describes someone orsomething by referring tosomeone or something elsewhich is same in a specific way

An expression that helps tocompare two varied things,having elements ofcomparison (“ as” and “like”)

Form - It does not use connectives as

it indicates that the subject is

- We make use of connectivessuch as ‘like’ and ‘as’ to

7

something In other words, ithas no elements of comparison

-A form of figurative language

indicate that the subject issimilar to something In otherwords, it has elements ofcomparison

-My brother is doraemon.

-Amir is a live encyclopedia.

-She was the heroine of the movie

-Peter is as tall as a giraffe -The man laughs like a donkey.

-He argues like a lawyer.

5.1.3 Some basis of metaphor transference

- Shape:

E.g: Because the nose is a sharpened body part, it is possible to call the pointed

parts of things that are the nose: the bow of a boat, the tip of a knife, the needle of a needle, etc.

- Position: especially widely used are the metaphoric meaning of word denotingparts of human body: the manner of the parts of human body are transferred toother objects

E.g: the nose of a plane, the head of the school, the leg of the table…

- Movement:

E.g: She wormed her way through the crowd.

- Function: finger of instrument, the key to the mystery…

- Color: orange, rose, pink, green…

- Size: midget, elephantine…

5.2 Metonymy

5.2.1 Definition

8

Metonymy is the substitution of one word for another with which it isassociated In other word, instead of the name of one object or notion we usethe name of another because these objects are associates and closely related.

5.2.2 Basic of the transference

According to standard traditional, Metonymy is defined as a “figure inwhich one word is substituted for another on the basic of some material, causal

or conceptual relation Some substitutions include: place-for-institution, for-perception, object-for-possessor, part-for-whole, and place-for-event Hereare exemplified below:

thing- After the protests, maybe Washington will listen to the voters:

Washington( place) refers to the US government ( institution) -> institution

Place-for- My brother was just released from the big house: The big house - to refer to

prison, this is American slang and also American perception -> perception

thing-for- Look lively, the top brass are coming for an audit today: Brass - used in place

of high-ranking officials -> object-for-possessor

 Can you give me a hand carrying this box up the stairs? : Hand- for help, the

hand here refers to the person who wants to help -> part-for-whole

 Dien Bien Phu marked the defeat of the French army Dien Bien Phu is a place

where the fierce battle between the Vietnamese army and the French army

occurred and we won forced the French army to surrender -> place-for-event.

5.2.3 Case of metonymy

- Name of parts of human body as symbol

9