WL词汇学cha5.ppt

Chapter 5 Word Meaning and Componential Analysis 5.1 Word Meaning(词义) Word meaning is what the word form (both its pronunciation and spelling) stands for. e.g. desk means something you sit on Three aspects to understand the meaning of ‘word meaning’ Reference 所指意义 Concept 概念意义 Sense 语义 5.1 The Meanings of ‘Meaning’ 1. Reference ----The relationship between language and the world; ----The referent (所指) a language sign refers to can be an object, a phenomenon, a person, etc. ----Reference (所指关系) is arbitrary and conventional, yet with the help of context(语境), it can refers to something definite. e.g. Cat can be a companion to many old peoples. Janet forgot to feed her cat. ----Not every word has reference e.g. probable, nearly, and, if, none of them refer to anything in the world. 2. Concept ----closely connected to meaning, but not identical ----the result of human cognition, reflecting the objective world in the human mind ----universal to all men alike regardless of culture, race, language ----has many referring expressions as there are languages in the world ----The same concept can be expressed in different words e.g. much time---- many books; die----pass away 3. Sense ----denoting the relationship inside the language ----“The sense of an expression is its place in a system of semantic relationship with other expressions in the language”. ----Every word that has meaning has sense. 5.2 Motivation(理据) It refers to the connection between the linguistic symbol and its meaning. Four types of Motivation 5.2.1 Onomatopoeic Motivation 5.2.2 Morphological Motivation 5.2.3 Semantic Motivation 5.2.4 Etymological Motivation 5.2.1 Onomatopoeic Motivation(拟声理据) Phonetic forms suggest their meanings as the words were created by imitating the natural sounds or noises. Knowing the sounds which they represent means understanding the meaning. For examples: