Lecture Five

THE NATURE OF MEANING

 INTRODUCTION
 Wehave observed that semantics is the linguistic study of
meaning.
 Wehave also noted that meaning is central to the process of
communication.
 Meaning is at the centre of the study of semantics.
 However, there are differences in opinion based on
approaches and methods.
 We shall explore meaning from the perspectives of the
different schools of thought.
 SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT IN MEANING
 Both linguists and philosophers agree that meaning is
central to semantics.
 However, there is considerable disparity among different
scholars on the exact conception of meaning.
 There are different schools of thought in relation to
meaning.
 These are the naturalists, the conventionalists and the
contextualists.
 SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT IN MEANING
 The Naturalists:
 The chief proponent of the naturalists is Plato.
 According to them, the meaning of a word is the entity or
thing it represents.
 There is an intrinsic relationship between sound and meaning.
 Themajor criticism of this view is that there exist very many
words in natural languages without physical entities.
 SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT IN MEANING
 The Conventionalists:
 The chief proponent of the conventionalists is Aristotle.
 Tothem, words and their meaning do not necessarily have
any direct link.
 Whatever connection existing between a word and meaning is
through a concept formed in the minds of the users of the
language.
 The Contextualists:
 According to the contextualists, the meaning of a word
derives from its usage.
 TYPES OF MEANING
 There are three basic types of meaning.
 These are thematic, conceptual and associative.
 Associative meanings can further be divided into:
 Connotative,
 Collocative,
 Affective,
 Reflected and
 stylistic.
 THEMATIC MEANING
 Thematic meaning derives from the organisation of the
message presented in a language.
 Itis the arrangement of the components of communication
that determine the point of emphasis.
 This arrangement may take the form of passivization,
topicalization or focus.
 Inthe sentences that follow, different items have been made
more prominent by merely re-ordering them.
 THEMATIC MEANING
1. Jane bought the house – Normal SVO order
2. It was Jane that bought the house – Topicalized
3. The house was bought by Jane – Passivized.
4. The house, Jane painted – Focused
 In sentence (1), the sentence is in the normal subject verb
object order without any special meaning.
 Sentences (2) and (4) tend to lay emphasis on Jane, the
doer of the action being referred to.
 In sentence (3), emphasis is on the house, which was
bought.
 THEMATIC MEANING
 Focused and topicalized elements in a structure are given
prominence within an information structure.
 A component of the bit of information can also be made
more prominent by stressing it.
 Consider the following:
1. She BOUGHT my newspaper (She did not STEAL
it)
2. She bought my NEWSPAPER (not my textbook)
3. SHE bought my newspaper (not any other person)
 CONCEPTUAL MEANING
 Conceptual meaning is synonymous with primary, central,
logical, cognitive or denotative meaning of a word.
 It is the first ordinary meaning listed in dictionaries, which
is not affected by the context, or emotional overtones
associated with the act of communication.
 There is an assumed shared conceptual meaning of every
word of a language.
 There is a universal implication of the conceptual meaning.
 It is possible to express the conceptual meaning of a word
using contrastive semantic features.
 CONCEPTUAL MEANING
 Such features indicate the attributes present and those that
are absent.
 If a feature is present, it is specified as (+);
 If absent, it is (-).
 These contrastive features specifying the attributes of the
words provide the necessary criteria for the correct use of
words.
 CONCEPTUAL MEANING
 The feature specifications for the words man and woman
are as follows:

 The conceptual meaning of a word constitutes a major part

of the shared system of a language for all speakers.
 It is a criteria element of human communication.
 It is a major process in structural semantics.
 ASSOCIATIVE MEANING
 The meaning of a word is affected by the context,
background, time and the cultural realities of the users of
language.
 This type of meaning is not static.
 It is variable and open ended.
 Certain words, structures and styles are usually employed
to arouse some emotional reactions in the hearer.
 These different reactions are derived from the
 Words create associations in the minds of language users.
 ASSOCIATIVE MEANING
 It is not always easy to express that form of meaning in
terms of contrastive semantic features.
 Associative meaning reflects individual differences.
 There are individualized intentions and interpretations.
 There is, therefore, the need for all participants in
communication to share common reference points,
symbols and background for there to be any meaningful
interaction.
 Most of the problems of communication arise when
associative meaning is assumed to be shared by all
concerned.
 ASSOCIATIVE MEANING
 There must be a way of ensuring actual sharing of
background.
 For second language learners, this problem is profound.
 This explains the enormous difficulty second language
learners’ encounter with decoding the meaning of idioms
and figurative expressions.
 They also find it difficult to apply appropriate idioms to
diverse situations.
 ASSOCIATIVE MEANING
 Associative meaning can be any of the following.
 Connotative Meaning
 Collocative Meaning
 Reflected Meaning
 Stylistic or Social Meaning
 ASSOCIATIVE MEANING
 Collocative Meaning:
 Collocation is the natural association and sequence of words
in longer structures.
 Collocative meaning is therefore the meaning of a lexical
item deriving from other lexical items with which it is
associated in a longer structure.
 The collocative meaning of lexical items in a language is
based on related semantic fields.
 For instance, job, employment, engagement, and work are
all related.
 ASSOCIATIVE MEANING
 Collocative Meaning:
 There are also associations that are perceived to be more
natural.
 Consider the following examples:
 August visitor
 Auspicious occasion
 Sympathize with
 Nutritious food
 ASSOCIATIVE MEANING
 Affective Meaning:
 It is related to the feelings and attitudes of the speaker
towards the subject or the audience.
 This meaning is achieved by the choice of words.
 Certain words suggest positive feelings – love, attraction,
happiness, exciting etc.
 Some others stir up negative reactions – disgusting,
nauseating, disappointing, etc.
 Interjections like ah!, oh!, uh!, mmn!, often suggest the
emotional state of the mind.
 Other words like darling, daddy, mummy, and so on, give
an impression of endearment.
 ASSOCIATIVE MEANING
 Reflected Meaning:
 It relates to expressions with multiple meanings.
 Words with several meanings (polysemous words), have
reflected meaning.
 There is, however, a dominant meaning among these several
meanings.
 ASSOCIATIVE MEANING
 Stylistic Meaning:
 When a particular pattern of speech, language variety or
speech form is associated with a specific social context,
stylistic or social meaning is achieved.
 It is common knowledge that a speaker’s choice of words
and structures reveals his or her social, regional,
geographical or even economic background.
 The choices can also reveal the level of familiarity between
the speaker and the hearer.
 Emphasis is usually on the different stylistic variations open
to language users.
 ASSOCIATIVE MEANING
 Stylistic Meaning:
 Based on the level of familiarity, users have the following
possibilities in making requests.
1. I wonder if I could see you later today (indirect
question) used for extreme politeness
2. May I see you later today (very formal)
3. Can I see you later today (causal and less formal)