Mila university Center
Linguistics third year
Teacher: Dr. BENNACER Fouzia
Lecture Eight: Types of Meaning
Unlike structuralists, Functionalists argue for the existence of different types of meaning:
1. The Conceptual Meaning. It is known also as ‘denotative’ or ‘cognitive’ meaning , it is
neutral and objective and organized largely in terms of contrastive features, for example
the meaning of the word woman could be specified as (+human, - male, + adult) and boy
as (+human, +male, -adult).
2. The Connotative Meaning. It is the communicative value that an expression has beyond
its conceptual meaning. For example, the word ‘woman’ may refer to not only physical
characteristics, but extends to features of womanhood (capable of speech, experienced in
cookery) due to the viewpoint adopted by an individual, or a group of people, or a whole
society. Thus, connotations change from society to another, and from one individual to
the other.
3. Stylistic Meaning. It is that meaning which reflects the social circumstances of language
use. In other words, some words and pronunciations can give information about the
geographical or social origins of the speaker (dialect), other features give hints about the
speaker-hearer relationship (degree of formality).
e.g.1. They chunked a stone at the cops, and then did a bunk with the loot.
2. After casting a stone at the police, they absconded with the money.
The first sentence could be said by two criminals, talking casually about the crime
afterwards, while the second sentence might be said by the chief inspector making his
official report.
Therefore, it is rarely possible to find two words with the same conceptual meaning and
stylistic meaning which led people to declare that true synonyms do not exist.
Mila university Center
Linguistics third year
Teacher: Dr. BENNACER Fouzia
e.g. home (general)
Residence (formal)
domicile (very formal)
Abode (Poetic).
4. The Affective Meaning. this kind of meaning is used to convey the speaker’s emotions,
however, it is often conveyed through other categories of meaning (the conceptual, the
connotative or stylistic meaning).
[Link] get people be quiet, we might say either:
- I’m terribly sorry to interrupt, but I wonder if you would be so kind as to lower your
voice a little.
- will you belt up.
Besides, there are elements of language (chiefly interjection like aha!, yippee) used to
express emotions, feelings and attitudes without relying on any other kind of meaning.
5. Reflected and Collocative Meaning. Reflected meaning is the meaning which arises is
cases of multiple conceptual meanings, when one sense of a word forms part of our
response to another.
Collocative meaning consists of the associations a word acquires on account of the
meanings of words which tend to occur in its environment, in other words, the words
with which they are likely to co-occur or collocate e.g.
Girl boy
Boy man
Woman car
Pretty slower handsome vessel
Mila university Center
Linguistics third year
Teacher: Dr. BENNACER Fouzia
Garden overcoat
Colour airliner
Village, etc. typewriter, etc.
6. The Associative Meaning. The connotative meaning, the stylistic meaning, the affective
meaning, the reflected and the collocative meaning can all be brought together under the
heading of ‘the associative meaning’. All are contrasted with the ‘conceptual meaning’.
The associative meaning is part of the ‘common system’ of language shared by members
of a speech community, it is less stable and varies with individual’s experience.
7. The Thematic Meaning. It is what has been communicated by the way in which the
speaker/ writer organizes the message in terms of ordering, focus and emphasis. For
example: 1- Mrs. Smith donated the first prize
2- the first prize was donated to Mrs. Smith
Although the conceptual meaning is the same, the active sentence (1) has a different
meaning from the passive sentence (2), focus in the first is on Mrs. Smith while in the
second emphasis is on the first prize (Leech, 1985).
