胡壮麟《语言学教程》第五章Meaning.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 Pragmatics: The meaning of utterances 2. Semantic Meaning Semantics is the study of meaning in language. Meaning has been studied for thousands of years by philosophers, logicians and linguists. E.g. Plato Aristotle. 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. 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’ mean? The transparent, convex, anterior portion of the outer fibrous coat of the eyeball that covers the iris and the pupil and is continuous with the sclera. 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. Involvin