语言学教程.Meaning.pptVIP

Chapter FiveMeaning 1. The meaning of meaning C. K. Ogden I. A. Richards (1923). The Meaning of Meaning. John means to write. A green light means to go. The Naming Theory Plato: Meaning is what a linguistic sign refer to. The earliest rational thinking about meaning. A plain understanding and conforms to the intuition of ordinary people. It is too simple to regard meaning as a direct connect between a linguistic sign and an object in the outer world. The Semantic Triangle Ogden Richards: Words → Concepts → Things: thought/concept/image symbolizes refers to symbol referent (word) stands for (object) airplane Contextualism Ludwig Wittgenstein: ‘The meaning of a word is its use in the language’. Recognizes the significance of Context and hence gives birth to a new branch of linguistics — pragmatics. The total denial of meaning out of context would agnosticism. Behaviorism Jill Jack S _____________ r…..s ____________ R The Truth-condition Theory Cognitivism Geoffrey Leech (1974, 1981). Semantics: The Study of Meaning. Seven types of meaning: Conceptual meaning Connotative meaning Social meaning Affective meaning Reflected and meaning Collocative meaning Thematic meaning (1) Conceptual meaning Also called ‘denotative’ or ‘cognitive’ meaning. Refers to logical, cognitive or denotative content. Concerned with the relationship between a word and the thing it denotes, or refers to. (2) Connotative meaning The communicative value an expression has by virtue of what it refers to, over and above its purely conceptual content. A multitude of additional, non-criterial properties, including not only physical characteristics but also psychological and social properties, as well as typical features. Involving the ‘real world’ experience one associates with an expression when one uses or h