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Meaning and Structure

Created @September 26, 2023 2:37 PM

Class Language Meaning Power

Type Seminar

Reviewed

Grammar: Morpho-syntax

Prescriptive: about how someone has decided a language should be spoken

Descriptive: how people actually talk and write

Split infinitives: to+adverb+infinitive (example: to quickly arrive, to suddenly move)

a) “we need a butter” butter is non countable

b) some not usually use with negative

c) its scottish english
d) sounds northern (certain accent)
e) Prescriptive (should have a time reference)
f) Prescriptive (split infinitives

Conceptual metaphor: 1) structural metaphor 2) orientational metaphor 3) ontological

metaphor

Week 8

Meaning and Structure 1

 Semantics: The study of meaning (Geoffrey Leech “Semantics: the study of meaning”

The closed-class words often carry GRAMMATICAL MEANING

while open-class words often carry LEXICAL MEANING

Meaning of “LEXICAL”

“Meanings” don’t live in the dictionary; it lies in the minds of (native) speakers of the
language (Saeed, 2016)

Relationship of the series of letter and sound, and the thing in the world that it refers
to

What does words mean?

The FORM of the word (how it sounds, its image, its written form)

The REFERENT(the thing to which the word refers)

The CONCEPT (the mental abstractions in which the word creates)

The SEMIOTIC TRIANGLE

Meaning and Structure 2

 symbol: form

thought: concept
Conclusion meaning is the relations of the symbol and the thing in the world

Meaning and Structure 3

 Structuralist refer to words as signs

Sometimes there is a relationship between form and concept:

Onomatopoeia - mimicry of sound concept by a word

Phonaesthesia - when words expressing similar meanings share some

characteristics of form

eg. glint, glisten, gleam, glitter, glow

Phonological form and Visual form

(because a ‘quack’ doesn't look like a ‘quack’, it sounds like one)

Onomatopeia is a counter example that … arbitrariness

Meaning and Structure 4

 Phonaesthestia: when the words expressing similar concepts shade some formal
characteristics

Gl: glint, glisten, gleam, glitter, glow

directed reflected light

Kl: cling clasp clatch

grasp

-gl: wriggle, waggle, wiggle

moving from side to side

In English, we relate these sounds^ with particular meanings. Which complicates the
arbitrariness of…

Fictional characters: a world we imagined/created linguistically

So references dont always have a physical form

REFERENTS

words can be defined with reference to a concept

(a) describing a set of characteristic (b) pointing to a typical example (ostensive

definition)

Typical examples do not give meaning to a word, but it helps us with the concept.

Reference: words to the world “universe of discourse”

Sense: relationships between words and other words (lexical semantics)

SENSE RELATIONS:

Synonymy

Words with similar meanings (sofa/couch, automobile/cars)

Meaning and Structure 5

 Polysemy

One form with two or more related meanings (mouse and computer mouse,
because comp. mouse got its name from the real mouse)

Homonymy

One form with two or more different, historically related meanings (ear (organ) /
ear (ear of a corn))

Homophones: sounds the same, look different, historically unrelated (hair/hare,

tea/tee)

Homographs: look the same, sound different, historically unrelated

(tear(cry)/tear(damage))

Wordplay is related to homonymys, puns and such

Synonymy: same/similar meaning

Antonymy: opposite meaning

Hyponymy: same category

Ullman (1959) suggests that no two words are ever completely interchangeable. For
example:

couch potato

*sofa potato

*settee potato

HYPNONYMY:

Drill, hammer, screwdriver > HYPONYM of “tool” (the superordinate)

different cultures categorise reality differently !

ANTONYMY:

Meaning and Structure 6

 might be different in every culture!

incompatibility of meaning

Gradable antonyms: mainly adjectives,

Eg. big-small, huge-tiny

Complementarity: two sets of words where one excludes the other

eg. Alive/dead, pass/fail

Converseness: two sets of words where one implies the other

eg. I buy implies you sell

Incompatibility: if something is one then it cant be the other

eg. Red/blue/yellow/green

summer/autumn/winter/spring

Approaches to meaning

Synchronic - language at a particular point in time

Diachronic - historical evolution of language

Historical thesaurus of English (Michael Samuels)

Semantic change

Shirt (OE) / Skirt (ON- old norse) = tunic like garment worn by people regardless of
gender

the meaning has become narrower, more specialised.

Regulation of the vocabulary system regulating itself (systemic regulation) triggered this
change

Meaning and Structure 7

 Skirt: > “skirt of a coat/bell/beehive”
meaning: lower/extreme parts of something (bottom)

Skirts of a city/army/forest/etc. (extreme parts of quite different thing)

The meaning of skirt radiates to other phenomena… the word becomes polysemous

Words can become dialectal > only to a part/region/or even social class

a part of english— but not standard english

In the case of skirt, it’s still a part of standard English, but the meaning has become
more specific.

DENOTATION AND CONNOTATION

Denotation: the core or dictionary meaning of a word
Connotation: the additional associations a word acquires

Connotation can be unstable and idiosyncratic (only applies to a small group of

people)

eg. “Silly”

Originaly meant ‘happy’

during OE, the denotation became ‘holy’, ‘blessed’, ‘meek’

The connotations were ‘innocent’, ‘unworldly’, ‘defenseless’, ‘feebleness’

‘and stranglie luvit of the silly Dido‘ (1513)

‘a small sillie bird’ (1567)

‘his silly kingdome’ (1587)

Meaning and Structure 8

 “defenceless, feeble, sick” (19th century)

“your health seems but silly” (walter scott)

“socrates… found philosophy in silly Tradesmen” (1632)

(of the sheperds attending christ’s birth)

‘Perhaps their love or els their sheep was all that did their silly…’

“unsophisticated, stupid”

“he did not recover the exercise of his reason fully… silly next to an idiot”

silly > happy >pious > defenceless > rustic > sick > feeble(minded) > daft

Narrowing > skirt, deor (deer), red(red/pink/orange)> red (narrow)

Widening > byrd (young bird) > bird (of all ages

Mechanisms of meaning change

Polysemy, radiation

Skirt (garment)

skirt (of bell, of army)

when it radiates, it transfers to different members of class (that is similar)

Pejoration, deterioration

silly

stenc (‘smell’) > stench

Amelioration, elevation

dogged (like a dog, emphasising the negative characteristics of dogs)

Now it means preserverence (more positive, elevated)

Meaning and Structure 9

 Reasons for meaning change

Systemic regulation

skirt/shirt

Homonymic clash

ear/neer (kidney)

Standard English North-East dialects and Scots

ear lug

kidney neer (cf. German die Niere)

an ear infection or a neer infection?

Similarity of form

Disinterested (=unbiased) / Uninterested (=bored)

Disinterested (OED)

without interest or concern

not influenced by interest; impartial, unbiased

Uninteresed (OED)

Unbiased, impartial. Obsolete

Free from motives or personal interest

Euphemisms

Cultural affiliation

Slang: wicked!

Tubular (in surfing slang in California)

Meaning and Structure 10

 oed.com > uofg subscription
historical thesaus

Week 9
Metaphors

Metaphors in Literature

Shakespeare as you like it (all the world’s a stage), Romeo and Juliet (Juliet is the
sun)

Dante’s divine comedy > life as a journey

Marvell, To his coy mistress > Time’s a winged chariot

Target Domain Source Domain

Life/The world ← Dramatic performance

Beauty ← Light/sunlight
The passage of time ← A vehicle in motion
Life ← Journey

TARGET is the one being described by the source domain (one thing relates to
another thing in the world

A duck out of water

‘to be in an uncomfortable situation’

→ represented visually in a literal sense, playing on the polysemy of ‘out of’

Bouncing ideas off each other

ideas are abstract, but talked about as if its something concrete/tangible

Meaning and Structure 11

 ‘Metaphors We Live By‘
George Lakoff & Mark Johnson (1980)

‘Metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action’

‘Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is
fundamentally metaphorical’
Conceptual metaphors:

Argument is war

Notice the difficulty of talking about an argument without using some sort of
metaphor

Abstract metaphors understood thru concrete ideas

Life is a journey

eg. Dante “In the middle of the life’s road, I found myself in a dark wood”

Love is a journey

Concrete and abstract?

Long standing assumption that metaphor makes abstract ideas more

understandable by relating them to (more) concrete things

E.g. Internet > web (spider)

Scientific ideas >eg. DNA is ‘the book of life, the ‘fabric’ of the universe is made
of ‘strings’, a planet has a gravity ‘well’ you need to climb out of

When conceptual domain is understood in terms of another

conceptual domain, we have a conceptual metaphor. This
understanding is achieved by seeing a set of systemic
correspondences, mappings, between two domains

Metaphors of emotions
eg.

Meaning and Structure 12

 Homer moved the lobster

vs

The lobster moved Homer

Positive is UP, Negative is DOWN

eg. Over the moon, she’s on a high, in seventh heaven

eg. Depressed, down in the dumps, feeling down/low, on a downer

> Historical thesaururs!

https://mappingmetaphor.arts.gla.ac.uk

Intelligibility is LIGHT

enlighten, clear, omnilucent, lucidness, elucidate

eg. She shed some light on the matter, that was a very illuminating talk,
lightbulb moment

Transferred from the domain of light to the domain of intelligibility

Conclusion

Metaphor is used to describe one thing as if it were another

Metaphor is omnipresent in our language use; we use it as a way to understand

new ideas

Conceptual metaphor involves more than a single word or phrase but involves a
source domain mapped onto a target domain

Meaning across culture

Forms vary cross languages

Hedgehog (English) / Erizo (Spanish)

Meaning and Structure 13

 The referents are the same, though

What about the concept?

Is it possible to have a concept without corresponding forms?

Are we conceptual prisoners?

Does language structure our thoughts? (linguistic determinism)

Does the organisation of our language influence the way we perceive referents in
our world?

Sapir Whorf Analysis

Linguistic relativity - structure of the language affects how we think and see the wd

Language determinism - language determines the way we think (determinism -

strong ver)

Language influences our perception of the world (weak ver)

Arguments for Sapir-Whorf:

People who live in places with not a lot of snow would have one word for falling
snow

For the Inuit (‘eskimo’) people, they have more fine grained vocabs for it

→ look at historical thesaurus!

Vocabs related to familial relationships

In one language, the word ‘cousin’ can refer to many things (not classified like
english)

In English, there are longer description

Latin, less distinction but there are still more than the one above ^

Meaning and Structure 14

 We cut nature up, organize it into concept, and ascribe
significances as we do, largely because we are parties to an
agreement as we do to organise it this way.. → codified our
patterns of language

Does time vary across language?

Hopi Verbs

Wari: he is running or he ran

Regardless of english tense, speaker and hearer are witnesses

Era wari: he ran

But only I witnessed it

“source: trust me bro”

^ i think i heard abt this before….

Verbs forms - To be
English Spanish

She is quiet. Es callada

(It is in her nature to be a quiet person)

She is quiet. Esta callada

(She is currently not speaking/making a noise)

conclusion: so in english, its a bit more ambiguous

Different cultures, different colours?

Standard English. Literary Welsh

Meaning and Structure 15

 Green Grwydd (one part of green)
Blue. Glas (part of blue, a bit of grey, usually plants)
Grey. Llywdd

Brown

Orwell’s Newspeak

Controlled language with limited vocabulary, a limit thought in a totalitarian state

Ministry of Peace - war

Ministry of Plenty - economic hardship

Ministry of truth - Propaganda

basically if theres no word for it, then it doesnt exist !

Advertisement:

In Fiji, theres no word for pollutants (!)

Different terms, different cultures?

(Pullum, ‘the Great Eskimo* vocabulary Hoax’)

Shape and colour

Navajo uses veb stems which indicate shape. Does it follow that Navajo speakers
are more likely to use shape as a basis of classifications than speakers of language
that do not?

Tested on three groups

Navajoo children with dominant lang Navajo - Shape

Navajo children with dominant lang English - Colour

Monolingual English speaking children - Shape

Navajo speaking children tend to see shapes more than colour.

Meaning and Structure 16

 Basic colour terms
White-Black < Red < Green-Yellow < Blue < Brown < Purple-Pink-Orange-Grey

Most basic colours. least basic colours

^Berlin and Kay

testing Sapir-Whorf
Levinson 2003, p.25: Quote is very scathing, Sapir-Whorf is an ‘ideological nonsense’
based on famous scholars

Arguments against Sapir-Whorf

Relative frame of reference:

Left Right Behind, In front

Absolute frame of reference (eg. language tzeltal (aboriginal australian language,

arrernte):

North South, East West

(Levinson)
(Speakers of absolute frame of reference is better and more accurate at direction….. as
expected)

Gender systems in languages - Boroditsky

Eg. “Key”

German (Masculine - der Schlussel)

Hard, heavy, jagged, metal, serrated, useful

Spanish (Feminine - La LLave)

Golden intricate, litle, lovely, shiny, tiny

Meaning and Structure 17

 Eg. Bridge

German

Beautiful, elegant, fragile, peaceful, pretty, slender

Spanish

Big, dangerous, long, strong, sturdy, towering

Conclusion: where a language has a grammatical gender system, this influences how
speakers of that language think about/conceptualise objects denoted by nouns of that
gender

This may suport ^ the weak interpretation of Sapir Whorf

Meaning and Structure 18