Lecture III Motivation.pptVIP

Motivation refers to the connection between word-symbol and its sense. From the point of view of motivation, the great majority of English words are nonmotivated, since they are conventional, arbitrary symbols. However, there is a small group of words that can be described as motivated, that is, a direct connection between the symbol / sound and its sense can be readily observed. Types of motivation Phonetic motivation Semantic motivation Logical motivation Morphological motivation Loss of motivation Motivation and cultural background Phonetic motivation Words motivated phonetically are called echoic or onomatopoeic words, whose pronunciation suggests the meaning. It has to be pointed out that such words constitute a small part of the vocabulary. Two types as below. Primary onomatopoeia It refers to imitation of sound by sound. Here the sound is truly an “echo to the sense”: the reference itself is an acoustic experience which is more or less closely imitated by the phonetic structure of the word, e.g. crack, growl, hum, roar, squeak, whizz. 2. Secondary onomatopoeia It means that certain sounds and sound sequences are associated with certain senses in an expressive relationship. In this form, the sounds evoked, not an acoustic experience, but a movement, e.g. dither, dodder, or some physical or moral quality, usually unfavorable, e.g. sloppy. According to Bloomfield, in onomatopoeic terms, there is “a system of initial and final root-forming morphemes, of vague signification”, which associate “intense, symbolic connotation”. For example, the sound sequences sn-, -are, -ump in the words below. ◆ sniff, snap, snake ◆ flare, stare ◆ bump, dump Onomatopoeia often work by vowel or initial consonant alternation, e.g. tit for tat, walkie-talkie. BACK Semantic motivation Semantic motivation refers to motivation based on semantic factors. It is a kind of mental association. Consider a stony heart and the leg of a table. Four sources for sema