Unit 4 word meaning.pptVIP

Unit 4 Word Meaning I. Word Meaning II. Motivation III. Componential Analysis and Semantic Field IV. Types of Meaning I. Word Meaning Questions for discussion: What are your understanding about the terms of “word meaning”, “concept” and “referent”? What are the relationship between them? Triangle of significance（词义三角） Meaning (Concept) Word Form Referent …………. What is word meaning? What is reference? What is concept? What is sense? I. Word Meaning 1. What is ‘word meaning’? Word meaning can be defined as a reciprocal relation between name and meaning. 意义是名称与意思的联系。 ‘Meaning’ is what the form stands for. Eg: desk: something you sit at and you do your work 2. What is reference ? 所指关系 It is the relationship between language and the world. 所指是语言与客观外界之间的相互关系。 By means of reference, a speaker indicates which things in the world (including persons) are being talked about. 通过这种相互关系，说话人指称外界的事物或人。 It is the relationship between words and the things, actions, events, and qualities they stand for. For example, the word ‘tree’ refers to the object ‘tree’. In other words, only when a connection has been established between the linguistic sign and a referent, i.e., an object, a phenomenon, a person, etc. does the sign become meaningful. 换言之，只有当语言符号与所指物---物体、现象、人等之间建立某种联系，这个符号才获得意义。 The reference of a word to a thing outside the language is arbitrary and conventional. This connection is the result of generalization and abstraction. 词与外界事物的这种指称关系是任意的，又是约定俗成的。是高度概括的，是从同类事物中抽象出来的。 3. What is concept? It is the general idea or meaning which is associated with a word or symbol in a person’s mind. 指词或符号在人脑中的大致印象或意义。 What ‘s the relationship between meaning and concept? They are closely connected but not identical. They are both related directly to referents and are notions of the words but belong to different categories. Concept, which is beyond language, is the result of human cognition, reflecting the objective world in the human mind. Concept