Section ’ WORD MEANING ‘WORD MEANING is what a word means, i.c. “what counts as the equivalent in the language concerned,” (Hurford and Heasley, 1984: 3] 2,1 Semantic features 2.1.1 Definition Semantic features* are “the smallest units of meaning in a word.” [Richards et al, 1987: 254] We identify the meaning of a word by its semantic features. For example, father may have the following semantic features: [+human], [+male], [+mature], [+parental] and [paternal]. And hen may be described as a set of the following atures: [+animate], [+bird], [+fowll, [+fully grown} and [+female]. semantic 2.1.2 Characteristics [Link] Some semantic features need not be specifically mentioned. For example, if a word is [+human] it is “automatically” [4animate]. This generalization can be expressed as a redundancy rule: Semantic features are also referred to as semantic components ot semantic Properties 12A word that is [+human] is [+animate] That is why [+animate] need not be specified as a semantic feature of father, girl, professor, ctc. since the semantic feature can be inferred from [+humanl. Some redundancy rules infer negative semantic features. Thus, semantic features are often shown in the form of binary oppositions, which can be stated in terms of pluses and minuses (that is, [+] and [-]): If fatheris |+human|, it is therefore [inhuman]; If father is [+male], it is therefore (-female]; If fatheris [+mature], itis therefore [immature]; If father is [+paternall, it is therefore [maternal] Notice that we identify the meaning of a word according to its primitive semantic features first, c.g. [animate], [+human], [+male], etc.; and then with the assistance of its other semantic features, e.g. [+parental], [+paternal], etc. [Link] Different words may share the same semantic feature. In other words, the same semantic feature can be found in many different words. Exl: Doctor, engineer, teacher, physicist, chemist, tailor, hairdresser, etc. all share the s L+professional]. me semantic feature Ex2: Mother, father, son, daughter, brother, sister, grandparent, aunt, uncle, etc. are all [+kinship]. 13[Link] The same semantic feature can occur in words of different parts of speech. In other words, words of different parts of speech may share the same semantic feature. For example, [+female] is part of the meaning of the noun mother, the verb breast-feed and the adjective pregnant. And [+educational] is a semantic feature found in the nouns school, teacher, textbook, etc. and in the verbs teach, educate, instruct, etc. [Link] Fromkin and Rodman [1993: 148-149] confirm that “the semantic properties of words determine what other words they can be combined with.” These authors give the two following sentences that are grammatically correct and syntactically perfect but semantically anomalous: (1) My brother is an only child. (2) The bachelor is pregnant. (1) is strange, or semantically anomalous, because this sentence represents a contradiction: brother is [+having at least one sibling] while an only child is [+having no other sibling]; (2) is semantically anomalous for a similar reason: bachelor is [+male] whereas pregnant is [+female]. Here, Fromkin and Rodman also cite Noam Chomsky’s famous classic example of semantically anomalous sentences: (3) Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. This sentence seems to obey all the syntactic rules of English: its subject is colorless green ideas and its predicate is sleep furiously, but there is obviously something semantically wrong 14with the sentence. The adjective co/or/ess is {-colour], but it occurs with the adjective green the semantic feature of which [+green in colour]. How can something be [-colour] and [+green in colour] at the same time? In the same way, the noun /deas, which is [abstract], is semantically incompatible with the verb sleep the noun phrase subject of which must be [+concrete] and [+animate]. How can an abstract notion like /deas sleep? Then, the verb s/eep, whose adverbial collocations* are well, badly and soundly, is semantically incompatible with the adverb furiously. How can a living being sleep when he is full of violent anger? In conclusion, knowing all the possible semantic features of a word enables us to combine semantically compatible words together to form larger but meaningful linguistic units such as phrases, clauses and sentences. Fromkin and Rodman [1993:134] also believe that “because we know the semantic properties of words, we know when two words are antonyms, synonyms ox homonyms, or are unrelated in meaning.” Exercise 1: For each group of words given below, state what semantic features are shared by the (a) words and the (b) words, and what semantic features distinguish between the classes of (a) words and (b) words. The first one is done as an example. °Collocations are regular combinations of words, e.g. by accident and strang tea are English collocation. ‘Adverbial collocations refer to the adverbs regularly used together with a certain verb, 1516 1. (a) lobster, shrimp, crab, oyster, mussel (b) trout, sole, herring, salmon, mackerel ‘The (a) and (b) words are [+edible water animal]. The (a) words are [+shellfish]. The (b) words are [+fish]. 2. (a) widow, mother, sister, aunt, seamstress (b) widower, father, brother, uncle, tailor The (a) and (b) words are The (a) words are The (b) words are. 3. (a) bachelor, son, paperboy, pope, chief (b) bull, rooster, drake, ram, stallion The (a) and (b) words are ____ The (a) words are The (b) words are _ 4. (a) table, pencil, cup, house, ship, car (b) milk, tea, wine, beer, water, soft drink The (a) and (b) words are__ The (a) words are The (b) words are 5. (a) book, temple, mountain, road, tractor (b) idea, love, charity, sincerity, bravery, fearThe (a) and (b) words are __ The (a) words are The (b) words are 6.(a) rose, lily, tulip, daisy, sunflower, violet (b) ash, oak, sycamore, willow, beech (©) pine, cedar, jew, spruce, cypress The (a) (b) and (c) words are __ _ — — The (a) words are _ _ —-_ The (b) words are The (c) words are _ _ —-_ 7. (@) book, letter, encyclopaedia, novel, notebook, dictionary (0) typewriter, pencil, ballpoint, crayon, quill, charcoal, chalk The (a) and (b) words are — The (a) words are The (b) words are 8. (a) walk, run, skip, jump, hop, swim () fly, skate, ski, ride, cycle, canoe, hang-glide The (a) and (b) words are ___ The (a) words are The (b) words are 9. (a) ask, fell, say, talk, converse (b) shout, whisper, mutter, drawl, holler 17The (a) and (b) words are — The (a) words are The (b) words are 10. (a) alive, asleep, awake, dead, half-dead, pregnant (b) depressed, bored, excited, upset, amazed, surprised The (a) and (6) words are _ The (a) words are The (b) words are Exercise 2: Identify the semantic features in each of the Following words. Childt___ Aunt: Hen. Oak (- tree): Flower: BYR Palm: — Bachelor: Actress. Plod. 10. Ewe; 1. Fly. _ _ _ —__ 18 6. 1, 8, 9,12. Stallion. ——— 13. Police-officer, 14, Beauty. a 15. Imagine: a 16. Doe: __ — 17. Drive: 18. Home 19. Elm ee 20. Chalk. 21. Rose: 22. Chick a 23, Pop, 24. Tiptoe: _ 25. Pine (- tree): a 26, Owe, 27. Computer: 28. Honesty. 29. Maid $$$ 30. Spinster. _ Exercise 3: How can you distinguish the words given in the following table from one another, considering their semantic features? 19Malay | English | Vietnamese | Chinese anh huynh brother dé sadara em mudi sister chi ¥ 2.2 Componential analysis In Semantics, componential analysis is “an approach to the study of meaning which analyses a word into a set of ‘meaning components or semantic features.” [Richards et al, 1987: 53] For example, the meaning of boy may be shown as [+human], [+male] and [-adult] while that of man may be a combination of [+human], [+male] and [+adult]. Thus, man is different from boy itive semantic feature: [tadult] basically in one pri 20Generally speaking, componential analysis is applied to a group of related words which may differ from one another only by one or two semantic features. 2.3 Semantic fields 2.3.1 Definition A semantic field’ is “the organization of related words and expressions into a system which shows their relationship to one another.” [Richards et al, 1987: 53] A semantic field can also be defined as “a set of words with identifiable semantic affinities.” [Finegan, 1994: 164] Ex. The semantic field of kinship terms: father, mother, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, etc. Ex2. The semantic field of adjectives describing human emotional states: angry, sad, happy, exuberant, depressed, afraid, etc. Ex3, The semantic field of drinking vessels: cup, mug, tumbler, wine glass, beer glass, etc. 2.3.2 Ways of organising semantically similar itemsinto semantic fields There are various ways according to which semantically Similar items are related to one another: (a) Items related by topics +A semantic field is also referred to as a lexical field ora lexical set 2+ Types of fruit: apples, oranges, grapes, bananas, pears, plums, ete. * Pieces of furniture: seats, tables, beds, storage, cc. * Terms of colour: blue, red. yellow, green, black, white, et. (b) Items similar in meaning: * Ways of cooking: stew, boil, fry, steam, roast, grill. smoke, etc. * Ways of looking®: gaze, glance, peer, squint, stare, etc. * Ways in which a liquid escapes from its container®: drip, leak, ooze, run, seep, etc. * Gaze = look long and stealily (at somebodyAsomething) usually in surprise or admiration: She gazed al me in disbeliet when I fold her the news. Glance = ake a quick look at: She glanced shyly im and then lowered her eyes. Peer (at, through, up, etc.) = look closely and carefully, especially as if unable to see well: peer af somehods, peer out of the window, peer over the wall, per dhrough the gap, peer over one’s spectacles, ete. Squint at, through, up, et.) = look (at somebody/something) with eyes half shut or ‘tum sideways, or through narrow opening: squint in the light of sunshine, squint through the iets box, ‘Stare = look (at somebodysomething) with the eyes wide open in a fixed gaze (in astonishment, wonder, fear, et): They allstared infvih amazement. TY rude fostare. © Drip (atow liquid to) fal in drops: Rain was dripp ing down from the wees. Is that roof still dripping! Leak (allow liquid or air to) get im or gut wrongly: The boat leaks like a sieve, Air leaked out of the balioon, (Qoze (fromlout of something; owaway) = (allow a thick liquid to) come or low out slowly: Black oil was oozing out of te engine, All the toothpaste has oozed out Run = (allow a liquid ©) flow: The River Rhine runs into the North Sea. Water was runningall over te bathroom floor. The bathroom floor was running with water ‘Seep throughlintofout of something; through/out) = of liquid) flow slowly and uanttes hough a substance: Waterseepedihrough the roof of the tunnel 22(© Terms describing people whose weight is below normal’ thin, bony, skinny, scrawny, underweight, emaciated, slender, slim, etc. (a) Items which form pairs of antonyms: /ong/short, light/heavy, alive/dead, love/hate, approve/disapprove, approve/disapprove, begin/end, inside/outside, upstairs/downstairs, etc. i is seeping through a rack in the tank. “Drip, leak, ooze, run, seep indicate the way in which a liquid escape from a container or tap. Most (not seep) also indicate the way in which a container or tap allows a liguid to escape. 1 Drip = (allow sth to) fall in regular drops: Water is ripping from the pipe. The pipe is dripping (water). 2 Leck = (allow sth to) get fut through « hole in sth): Wine is leaking from the barrel. The barre! is leaking (wine). & Ooze = (allow sth t0) move slowly (out of sth) because thick: Blood i ‘2ozing from the wound. The wound is oozing (blood. 4 Ru continuously (irom sth): Water is running from the tap. The tap is running. 5 {allow sth to) flow ‘Seep = move slowly (through a small opening in sth) because thick: Oi is seeping from the engine.” |Crowther (ed), 1992: 272] 7 «when describing people whose weight is below normal, thin isthe most general word, 1 may be negative, suggesting weakness or lack of health: She's gone terribly thin ‘since operation. Bony is olten applied to parts of the body such as hands or face skinny and scrawny are negative and can suggest lack of strength: He leaks much 00 skinnyherawny fo be a weight-liffer. Underweight is the most neural: The doctor says Tm underweight. Emaciated indicates & starvation. It is often thought desirable to be slim or slender, slim being used erious condition resulting from, especially of those who have reduced their weight by diet or exercise: I wish I was assim as you. You have a beautifully sender Figure.” {Crowther (ed), 1992: 947] 23(©) Ttems which form pairs or trios of synonyms: smart/bright/inteligent, conserve/preserve/safeguard, fix/repair/mend, kind/sort/type/variety, happy/glad. tc. (f) Ttems grouped as an activity or a process: * Do the housework: clean the rooms, do the washing, iron the clothes, get the food, prepare a meal, wash up, etc: * Do research: make hypotheses, collect data, analyze data, get results and come to conclusions. (g) Items classified according to: Male: waiter, tiger, actor, host, landlord, sir, etc. * Sex aremale waitress, tigress, actress, hostess, landlady, madam, etc. * Age: grown-ups, adults, elderly people, middle-aged people, teenagers, children, infants, babies, etc. * Age and sex: horse stalliont+mate\{+tuly grown) dog=> dog: {+matel {fully grown] ‘mare sfemale| {fly grown] itch female} fly grown] Foal: (tmate), {fully grown} ‘PUPPY. (dmale, [fully grown] Exercise 4: Organise the given words (and probably those of your own) into three semantic fields: shirts, end, forward(s), new, hats, lend, coats, shorts, beginning, trousers, amble, out, 24limp, tiptoe, plod, socks, trudge, borrow, stomp, in, stump, old, backward(s) and tramp. 2.4 Lexical gaps “The absence of a word in a particular place in a /exica/ field of a language” is called a lexical gap. [Richards et al, 1987: 164] For example, in English there is no singular noun that covers bull, cow and calf either as horse covers stallion, mare and foal or as goat covers billy-goat, nanny-goat and kid. horse goat ? tot stallion mare foal billy-goat nanny-goat kid bull cow calf Exercise 5: Try to fill in each of the two blanks with an appropriate word to prove that there is no lexical gap in the given semantic fields. 25sheep giraffe rath at male girbffe bab) giraffe 2.5 Referent, reference and sense 2.5.1 Distinction between referent, reference and sense In Semantics, a distinction is often made between referent, reference and sense: [Link] A referent is an object or an entity in the real world or in the world of your imagination, e.g. your school, your classmates, your teacher, any thing you can see in the classroom right now, the idealistic working conditions you have ever dreamed of, etc. that is talked about. Several words, especially the so-called function words’, have no obvious referents: the, could, in, since, and, etc. [Link] The reference of a word? or a linguistic expression is the relationship between that word or expression and the thing (book), the action (read), the event (graduate from university), the quality (sincerity), etc. it refers to. * 1s commonly believed that funetion words like prepositions (of, in, ete), definite and indefinite articles (the, a/an), conjunctions (/f, however, or, et.) and euiliaries (may, should, wil, etc:) only “signal grammatical relations.” (Finegan, 1994: 175] Or, to be more precise, alexa item 26For example, the reference of Peter's house is the relationship between this English noun phrase and the house that belongs to Peter. Peter's house the house that belongs to Peter (in the Eng. language) REFERENCE (in the real world) [Link] The sense" of a word or a linguistic expression’ shows the internal relationship between that word or expression and others in the vocabulary of a language. Exl. Teacher and studenthave the sense relationship of the former is the one who gives a lesson and the latter is the one who has the lesson given by the former. Ex2. A dog is chasing a cat has some sense. However, @ dog is ‘human has no sense. Ex3. The King of Vietnam is bald has some sense: its constructed by its individual lexical components and its ense is syntactic structure. However, this sentence has no reference: it does not refer to any real person because the King of Vietnam does not exist nowadays. Consider the following table and identify referent, reference and sense via their main features. * This necessary to notice that the two linguistic terms sense and meaning will be used interchangeably from now on in this text. 4 «The SENSE of an expression is its indispensable hard core of meaning.” [Hurford and Heasley, 1984: 91] 27REFERENT REFERENCE SENSE inthe external | Detweena leruoge ha lnguege ‘crt and the externa inguag either real abstract abstract imaginary the relationship pachetor | 2™anwho has not | between the word unmarried acteler | ever been married | bachelor and a certain man unmarried man he lve tthe relationship ‘the lovely prince: Bach t me I on between tt Trdng” Test Y cn | the name Bach Tuyet | “TW Trane’ Thave already read and the very princess 2.5.2 Distinction between variable reference, constant reference and co-reference [Link] When the same lingt referents, it has variable reference. ic expression refers to different Ex1. There are as many potential referents for the phrase your’ Jeft ear as there are people with a left ear in the world. Ex2, The referent of the phrase the present prime minister used in Britain in 1944 is Mr, Churchill and in 1982 is Mrs, Thatcher, 28[Link] When one linguistic expression refers to one and the same referent, it has constant reference: the sun, the moon, Halley's comet”, the People's Republic of China, Angola, the United Nations, FIFA, UNESCO, etc. [Link] When two or more linguistic expressions share the same referent, they have co-reference. Exl. The morning star and the evening star both refer to the planet called Venus. Ex2. In a conversation about Britain in 1982, the Prime Minister and the leader of the Conservative Party share the same referent: Mrs Thatcher, Ex3. If we are talking about a situation in which John is standing alone in the corner, John and the person in the corner share the same referent. Exercise 6: What is identified by the word mean or meaning in the following examples, i.e. reference or sense? Write R for reference and S for sense. 1, When Albert talks about “his former friend”, he means me. _2. Daddy, what does /ogic mean? _3. Purchase has the same meaning as buy. * Halley's comet isthe bright comet which reappears about every 76 Yeats. It was frst recorded in 240 BC, and the fact of ils regular return was established by Edmond Halley. Is next reappearance is due in 2061 29_4. Look up the meaning of democracy in your dictionary. 5. If you look out of the window now, you'll see who I mean. 2.6 Denotation’® and connotation’ 2.6.1 Definition The denotation of a word is the core, central or referential meaning of the word found in a dictionary. In English, a content word’ may have its denotation described in terms of a set of semantic features that serve to identify the particular concept associated with the word. The connotation of a word the additional meaning that the word has beyond its denotative meaning. It shows people's emotions and/or attitudes'® towards what the word refers to. ® penotation is also referred to as denotative meaning, connotation is also referred to as connotative meaning "Content words — principally nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs like democracy, mother, stir-fry, hoppy, and totally — “have meaning in that they refer to objects, events, and abstract concepts” (Finegan, 1994; 161] while function words specifically articles, prepositions, conjunctions and auxiliaries like a/an, including, nevertheless, but, should, e\c. also carty meaning, though in a different way from content words: “to signal grammatical relations.” [Finegan, 1994: 175] “The referential meaning of a word or sentence is frequently called its denotation, in contrast to the connotation, which includes both its social and affective meaning.” [Finegan, 1994: 161] 30Ex1, Child is denotatively described as [+human], and [+male] I-mature] Under a certain circumstance, child may positively be connoted as [+affectionate] or [+innocent]. Under another circumstance, chi/dmay negatively be connoted as [+noisy] or [+irritating] Ex2. Woman is denotatively described as [+human], [+mature] and [+female] Under a certain circumstance, woman may positively be connoted as [+devoted] or [+patient] Under another circumstance, woman may negatively be connoted as [+wicked] or [+talkative]. The denotation of a word can easily be found in a dictionary while its connotation(s) may probably depend on such factors as (1) the culture in which the word is used; (2) the language user's family and/or educational background; (3) the language user's social and/or political class; (4) the language user's speech community and/or ethnic group; etc. In brief, these factors are by virtue of personal and cultural associations. 2.6.2 Distinction between denotation and connotation Consider the following table and identify denotation and connotation via their main features.DENOTATION CONNOTATION what a lexical item means what a lexical item refers to core, central referential social, affective ‘emotions and/or attitudes towards peripheral bachelor unmarried man - sil single ater the usual age for maying - decided by himself to stay single ~ enjoying freedom, triendship, life, etc. + ready for his impending marriage spinster unmarried woman - sl single after the usual age for manying = not decided by herself to stay single - left in an unfavourable state +a symbol for some failure in life December the twelfth month of the year, next after November bad weather (usually rainy or snowy), dark evening, grey sky, slippery streets, holiday season, Christmas, winter break, loneliness, separation from the beloved Exl. The word fox almost always has a negative connotation in English when it is associated with any person who is cunning or deceitful.Ex2. Some English words usually have positive connotations (+); others usually have neutral connotations (); still others usually have negative connotations (-) - mother/mom (+). woman (2), witch (-); - father/dad (+), man (2), the old man (-); - slender (+), thin (2), skinny (-); - plump (+), overweight (2), fat -). Ex3. Synonyms, words that have the same basic meaning, do not always haye the same emotional meaning. For example, the words stingy and frugal both mean ‘careful with money.” However, to call a person stingy is an insult, while the word fruga/has a much more positive connotation. Similarly, a person wants to be s/ender but not skinny, and aggressive” but not pushy. Therefore, you should be careful in choosing words because many so-called Synonyms are not really synonyms at all Exercise 7: Identify all the possible connotations associated with the word Christmas. Aggressive (often approves) = forceful = (self assertive = showing strong and confident personality; expressing one’s views; demands; etc. confidently ‘A good salesman must be aggressive fhe wants to he succeeded. Pushy also pushing. informally derogative) = trying constantly to draw attention to oneself and gain an advantage: He made himself unpopular by being so pushy. 33