Unit3CultureandWordMeanings讲义.ppt

Lecture 3 　　　 　　Culture and word meanings Words As a key component of language, words have self-evident importance and indispensability. To language learners, having a good command of words is one of the preconditions to master a language. Does the meaning of a word in one language remain the same when the word is translated into another language? In this lecture you are to know 1.Relationship between culture and word meanings 2.Denotation and Connotation 3.Six categories of word meanings Learning Objectives 3.1.Relationship between culture and word meanings Culture affects language at various levels, (at phonemic, lexical, syntactical, and discourse levels) “Words do not have meanings; people have meanings for words.” , many words are culturally loaded. Since lexicology is most closely related to culture and thus affected most deeply by it. We will examine word meanings from the aspect of denotation and connotation both in Chinese and in English Denotation（指示意义）: conceptual, explicit or surface meaning of a word / term Connotation（联想意义）: the socio-cultural or the implicit meaning of a word / term In cross-cultural communication we should not only pay attention to denotation of words but also pay attention to connotation of words. 3.2 Denotation and Connotation 3.3 Six categories of words In order to see the differences of words in distinct languages, researchers identify categories of words based on the degree of equivalence. This study will help us to improve our linguistic competence and cultural competence as well. The major semantic meanings between English and Chinese words/terms can be grouped into the following four categories: back 3.3.1.Terms with the same or similar denotations and connotations in both languages（指示意义与联想意义基本相同） Take fox as an example, in both languages, its denotation is an animal, and its connotation is cunning. another example : Pig: its denotation is a domestic animal, and its connotation is dirt