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1. Word Meaning as the Subject of Semasiology

Meaning: a component of a word through which a concept is communicated, in this way endowing the word
with the ability to denote objects, qualities, abstract notions.
Semasiology (or semantics) is the branch of linguistics concerned with the meaning of words and word
equivalents.
The name comes from the Greek semasia signification (from sema sign, semantikos significant and
logos learning).
Semasiology is an independent branch of lexicology alongside :
-word-formation,
-etymology,
-phraseology
-lexicography.
-and the central branch of lexicology.
The importance OF semasiology may be accounted for by three main considerations:
Language is the basic human communication system aimed to exchange information between the
communicants
By definition lexicology deals with words, morphemes and word-groups.
All these linguistic units have both form and meaning.

Semasiology underlines all other branches of lexicology. Meaning is the object of semasiological study.

The meaning can be described as a component of the word through which a concept is communicated, in this
way endowing the word with the ability of denoting real objects, qualities, actions and abstract notions.
The complex relationships between referent (object, etc. denoted by the word), concept and word are
traditionally represented by a triangle :


They are connected directly that means that if we hear a sound-form a certain idea arises in our mind and the
idea brings out a certain referent that exists in the reality.
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The dotted line suggests that there is no immediate relation between word and referent: it is established
only through the concept.

The modern approach to semantics is based on the assumption that the inner form of the word (i.e. its meaning)
presents a structure which is called the semantic structure of the word. Modern approaches to this problem
are characterised by two different levels of study:
syntagmatic
paradigmatic.

On the syntagmatic level, the semantic structure of the word is analysed in its linear relationships with
neighbouring words in connected speech.
In other words, the semantic characteristics of the word are observed, described and studied on the basis of its
typical contexts.

On the paradigmatic level, a word may be studied in comparison with other words of similar meaning (work,
n. labour, n.; to refuse, v. to reject v. to decline, v.), of opposite meaning (busy, adj. idle, adj.; to
accept, v, to reject, v.), of different stylistic characteristics (man, n. chap, n. bloke, n. guy, n.). The
main problems of paradigmatic studies are synonymy, antonymy, functional styles.

2 .Types of Meaning

















The word-meaning is not homogenous but is made up of various components.
Word meaning - the accepted meaning of a word; the way in which a word or expression or situation can be
interpreted;




types of
meaning

grammatical
meaning

lexico-grammatical
meaning
lexical meaning
denotational connotational
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These components are usually described as type of meaning. The two main types of meaning that are readily
observed are:
the grammatical meanings
the lexical meanings

Grammatical Meaning
The grammatical meaning may be defined as the component of meaning recurrent in identical sets of individual
forms of different words, as for example, the tense meaning in the word-forms of verbs (worked, bought,
spoke, etc.) or the case meaning in the word-forms of various nouns (sisters, students, worlds, ).

The word-forms reads, speaks, writes have one and the same grammatical meaning as they can all be found in
identical distribution, e.g. only after the pronouns he, she, it
a certain component of the meaning of a word is described when you identify it as a part of speech, since
different parts of speech are distributionally different (my work and I work).

Unlike the grammatical meaning there is another component identical in all the forms of the word. The word-
forms go, goes, went, going, gone possess different grammatical meanings of tense and person but in each of
these forms we find one and the same semantic component denoting the process of movement. This is the
lexical meaning of the word.

The difference between grammatical and lexical components of meaning is in the way the words are conveyed.
The concept of plurality, may be expressed by the lexical meaning of the word plurality; it may also be
expressed in the forms of various words irrespective of the lexical meaning, e.g. parents, countries, books, etc

By the lexical meaning we designate the meaning proper to the given linguistic unit in all its forms and
distributions, while by grammatical meaning we designate the meaning proper to sets of word-forms common to
all words of a certain class.
Both the lexical and the grammatical meaning make up the word-meaning, as neither can exist without the
other.
Lexical Meaning: component of meaning proper to a word as a linguistic unit met in all word-forms
e.g. go-goes-went
lexical meaning process of movement
grammatical meaning tense and person

Lexico-grammatical meaning - denominator of all the meanings of words belonging to a lexico-grammatical
classe.g. action generic term for verbs
-words of one lexico-grammatical class have the same paradigm
Part-of-Speech Meaning
It is usual to classify lexical items into :
major word-classes (nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs)
minor word-classes (articles, prepositions, conjunctions, etc.).
All members of a major word-class share a distinguishing semantic component of a part-of-speech meaning.
For example, the meaning of substantiality may be found in all the nouns, e.g. books, boy, sugar, though they
possess different grammatical meanings of number, case, etc.
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If we describe the word as a noun we mean to say that it is bound to possess a set of forms expressing the
grammatical meaning of number (book - books), case (boy - boys)
A verb is understood to possess sets of forms expressing, tense meaning (worked - works), mood-meaning
(work! - I work)

The part-of-speech meaning of the words that possess only one form, prepositions, some adverbs, is observed
only in their distribution (to come in / here / there and in / on / under the table).

The lexical meaning of words is not homogenous and may be analyzed as including denotativeand connotative
components.
The denotative meaning of a word is its literal meaning the definition most likely to appear in a dictionary.
For example, the denotation of the word cat is a small animal with soft fur that people often keep as a pet.
When you talk about a cat, most people will understand what you are referring to.
Connotative Meaning
Connotation is the range of associations that a word or phrase suggests. A word's connotations can usually
be formulated as a series of qualities, contexts, and emotional responses.
Which of these will be activated by the word will depend on the context in which it is used, and to some degree
on the reader or hearer.
Lets take the example of the word cat. Two people may understand what the word cat denotes. However, one
person may have grown up around cats and learned to enjoy their company.
The other, was attacked by a cat when he was young, and he associates the word cat with unpleasant emotions
and judgments. So, the meaning of the word cat is different for each of those people. The emotions and feelings
that a word creates are called its connotative meaning.

There are two different kinds of connotation - personal connotation and general connotation. Personal
connotation is the emotions or feelings a word creates in you or in any one individual.
General connotation is different its what a word means to a large group of people; a mind picture that is
shared.
for example a mans beard. In Victorian times, the image of a bearded man was that of a proper older
gentleman a grandfather, perhaps.
But in the1960s, a bearded man came to mean unshaven hippie
General connotation doesnt mean that everybody in the world thinks the same way about something, just that
large groups of people do.
3. Word Meaning and Motivation
The term motivation is used to denote the relationship existing between the phonemic or morphemic
composition, structural pattern of the word and its meaning. There are three main types of motivation:
phonetic motivation,
morphological motivation,
semantic motivation.

When there is a direct connection between the phonetic structure of the word and its meaning, the motivation is
phonetic. Examples are: bang, boom, splash, swish, whistle
These words may be defined as phonetically motivated because the sound-clusters [b, bu:m, spl, swi,
wisl] are a direct imitation of the sounds these words denote.
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Phonetically motivated are words denoting noises produced by birds and animals as most of them are sound
imitative: cuckoo, quack, buzz, meow, moo.
The sound-cluster [i] is imitative of sound or swift movement, as can be seen in words ring, sing, swing, fling.
The initial [gl] is associated with light and fire: glare, glitter, glow, glimmer. Thus, phonetically such words
may be considered motivated.

There are cases when we can observe a direct connection between the structural pattern of the word and its
meaning.
This relationship between morphemic structure and meaning is called morphological motivation.
When there is a direct connection between the structure of a word and its meaning
e.g. finger-ring ring-finger,
lead- + -er=leader
one-morpheme words are morphologically non-motivated
e.g. dog, girl
Thus, the prefix ex- means former when added to human nouns: ex-wife, ex-president
Alongside with these cases there is a more general use of ex-: in borrowed words it is unstressed and
motivation is faded: expect, export

Re- is one of the most common prefixes of the English language, it means again and back and is added to
verbal stems as in rebuild, resell, resettlement
Here again these newer formations should be compared with older borrowings from Latin and French where re-
is unstressed, and the motivation is faded: repeat, realize

The 3
rd
type of motivation is called semantic motivation. It is based on the co-existence of direct and
figurative meanings of the same word within the same synchronous system.
Mouth continues to denote a part of the human face, and at the same time it can metaphorically apply to any
opening or outlet: the mouth of a river, of a cave.
Jacket is a short coat and also a protective cover for a book. In their direct meaning neither mouth nor jacket is
motivated.
When the connection between the meaning of the word and its form is conventional that is there is no
perceptible reason for the word having this particular phonemic and morphemic composition, the word is said to
be non-motivated.
Sometimes in an attempt to find motivation for a borrowed word the speakers change its form so as to give it a
connection with some well-known word.
These cases of mistaken motivation received the name of folk etymology. The phenomenon is not very
frequent.
Two examples will be enough: a nightmare is not a she-horse that appears at night but a terrifying dream
personified in folklore as a female monster.
The international radio-telephone signal may-day corresponding to the telegraphic SOS used by airplanes and
ships in distress has nothing to do with the First of May but is a phonetic rendering of French maidez help
me.


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Repport
of English Lexicology




Theme: Word Meaning and Motivation





Realized:Suman Natalia
gr.222 EL



Chiinu 2014
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Introduction
Word Meaning as the Subject of Semasiology.1
Types of Meaning2
Word Meaning and Motivation.3