英语语言学Chapter5semantics.pptVIP

Chapter FiveMeaning DIFFERENCE Semantics Pragmatics Geoffrey Leech (1974, 1981): Conceptual meaning Connotative meaning Social meaning Affective meaning Reflected meaning Collocative meaning Thematic meaning 1.Conceptual Meaning The conceptual meaning is also called the denotative meaning. It is denotative in that it is concerned with the relationship between a word and the thing it denotes, or refers to. (2) Connotative meaning In contrast to denotative meaning, connotative meaning refers to the overtones or associations which a word suggests or implies. Mother (a female parent) is often associated with ‘love’, ‘care’, ‘tenderness’, ‘forgiving’, etc. One difference Conceptual meaning is relatively stable. Connotative meaning is unstable. E.G. 1) cat 2) owl: as wise as an owl (3) Social meaning Language and Society? ? a. regional dialect b. gender c. social class d. ……. The five clocks by Martin Joos Frozen Formal Consultative Casual Intimate Formal Informal steed: poetic horse: general nag: slang gee-gee: baby language Homework Fashionable, modish, stylish accumulate, gather, hoard Accomplice, companion, friend Careful, meticulous, scrupulous Anger, indignation, rage (4) Affective meaning You’re a vicious tyrant and a villainous reprobate, and I hate you for it! I’m terribly sorry to interrupt, but I wonder if you would be so kind as to lower your voices a little. Negative There are 2,000 vagrants in the city. Neutral There are 2,000 people with no fixed addresses in the city. Positive There are 2,000 homeless in the city. All three of these expressions refer to the same people, but they will invoke different emotive associations in the readers’ mind: a ‘vagrant’ is a public nuisance, while a homeless person is a worthy object of pity and charity. Words that have emotive values may fall into two categories: A