Lecture 2.1 Types of Meaning in an Utterance. Devices Based on the Interaction of Logical and Contextual Meanings

The word is a language unit that expresses a concept by its form and meaning. The grammatical form of the word shows its relations to the other words in the sentence. A concept is an abstract or in other words generalised idea of a phenomenon. The meaning is the means by which the concept becomes materialised. In the degree of abstractiveness all concepts differ from each other. The right, objective or adequate concept of the word can be created and produced by the interaction of different meanings in this word. The three main meanings in the word semantic structure are:

o logical

o emotive

o nominal.

The logical meaning, sometimes named referential, or direct, or dictionary meaning, is the naming of the whole of the concept, that is the naming of the given phenomenon through one of its qualities. It is a historical category which constantly changes in the course of time. As a result of this process one word may denote more than one concept thus acquiring primary and secondary meanings. Secondary meanings are also called derivative meanings, but in a definite context words may acquire additional meanings stipulated by this context and named contextual. The dictionary meaning is materialised in the context. The contextual meaning is born in the context.

Emotive meaning expresses feelings and emotions called forth by the phenomenon denoted. It shows the subjective attitude of the speaker, his or her evaluation of the phenomenon. In many words both logical and emotive meanings co-exist: sonny (kingship + emotional attitude), sweet (direct + figurative meanings), smart, etc. However there are words which bear only strong emotive meaning. These are interjections, exclamatory words, oaths and many other intensifiers. For example, awful, terribly, nice, ouch, etc. In a definite context they may completely lose their logical meaning. “What a bloody thing!” – nothing connected with the blood in fact. Another example is Jesus! translated as Вот черт! – a word can completely lose its logical meaning, the emotive one remaining.

Nominal meaning characterises beings or things. Most proper names with their nominal meanings have developed from the common names with their logical meaning: Smith, Hope, Tailor, etc. Sometimes a reverse process may be observed where a nominal meaning may assume a logical one. For example, boycott was formed after C.C. Boycott, a British army officer who fell the first victim of this action; sandwich – the first earl of Sandwich.

All the meanings of the word reflected by a dictionary form the word’s semantic structure. Still when the word finds itself in the context it may acquire a new contextual logical or contextual emotive or contextual nominal meaning. Any contextual meaning of the word is closely connected with such a notion as the shift of meaning. The shift of meaning is stipulated by the interrelation between the dictionary and contextual meanings. If such interrelation causes an alteration of the recognised logical meaning, then we have a stylistic device. The majority of stylistic devices are based on the interaction of different lexical meanings of the given word.

Не знайшли потрібну інформацію? Скористайтесь пошуком google:

Генерація сторінки за: 0.005 сек.