语言学教程之句法.ppt

Chapter FiveMeaning 1. The Study of Meaning Semantics: The meaning of words: Lexical semantics The meaning of sentences: Propositional meaning, compositional meaning Linguistic semantics vs. Logical semantics/philosophical semantics 2. Semantic Meaning Semantics is the study of meaning in language. Meaning has been studied for thousands of years by philosophers, logicians and then linguists. E.g. Laozi (China) Plato Aristotle(Greek) OgdenRichards Leech Logicians and philosophers have tended to concentrate on a restricted range of sentences (typically, statements, or ‘propositions’) within a single language. The linguistic approach is broader in scope, aiming to study the properties of meaning in a systematic and objective way, with reference to as wide a range of utterances and languages as possible. 3. The meaning of meaning C. K. Ogden I. A. Richards (1923). The Meaning of Meaning. 16 major categories, 6 sub-categories John means to write. A green light means to go. Health means everything. His look was full of meaning. What is the meaning of life? What does ‘capitalist’ mean to you? What does ‘cornea’眼角膜 mean? The transparent, convex凸面的, anterior portion of the outer fibrous纤维的 coat of the eyeball that covers the iris虹膜 and the pupil and is continuous with the sclera巩膜. Geoffrey Leech (1974, 1981). Semantics: The Study of Meaning. Seven types of meaning: Conceptual meaning: logical, cognitive, denotative content Connotative meaning: What language refers to Social meaning: social circumstances of language use Affective meaning: the feelings and attitudes of the speaker/writer Reflected meaning: association with another sense of the same expression Collocative meaning: Association with words which tend to occur in the environment of another word Thematic meaning: Which the message is organized in terms of order and emphasis (1) Conceptual meaning: the central part Also called ‘denotative’ or ‘cognitive’ meaning. Refers to logical, cognitive or denot