LEXICAL MEANING
It is difficult to define what a 'word' is.
orthographic word = sequence of letters bounded by space or punctuation mark
but postbox, post-box, post box; will not, won't
alsoare bring and brings different words?
But what is a spoken word?
'word' hard to define in terms of meaning (examples postbox etc. clearly single units of meaning)
LEXEME = a basic contrasting unit of vocabulary
single wordsbank, beautiful
parts of wordsanti-, -ology
groups of wordsred tape, red herring, kick the bucket
inflections treated as variants of same lexememan, men, man's, men's
derivatives are different lexemesmanly, manhood, mankind, man-made
MEANING RELATIONS
The open-choice principle: text the result of large number of complex choices, only restraint grammaticality.
Syntagmatic relations and paradigmatic relations (de Saussure)
syntagmatic (horizontal, co-occurrence)
The cat sat on the mat.
paradigmatic His dog slept under the table.
(vertical, substitution)
Every item in language has a paradigmatic relationship with every other item that can be substituted for it (eg cat with dog – N with N) and a syntagmatic relationship with items that occur in the same construction (eg cat with sat – N with V etc.)
The idiom principle
When we speak/write we don't really select one word at a time but choose semi-preconstructed phrases that constitute single choices.
Corpus evidence show that language is strongly patterned with words occurring repeatedly in lexico-grammatical patterns: i.e., we speak in patterns or routines, not words.
Even if we choose a single word, it carries with it collocational and syntactic constraints – the selection of co-text is not free. There are preferred ways of saying things
e.g. bits and
e.g. this and
e.g. Ladies and
e.g. With very best
LEXICAL MEANING
What do we mean by 'mean'?
What does it mean to 'know what a word means'?
Meaning is complex and multi-layered.
Some words have many meanings, some are highly restricted.
Meaning is not fixed, it changes over time. Old words fade away, meanings shift, new words appear.
Examples: staycation, like, selfie, fake news
Word of the year, 2017 youthquake (Oxford Dictionaries)
e.g. 'Youthquake' behind Labour election surge divides generations
shortlisted:
antifa(a political protest movement comprising autonomous groups affiliated by their militant opposition to fascism and other forms of extreme right-wing ideology)
newsjacking (in marketing: the practice of taking advantage of current events or news stories in such a way as to promote or advertise one's product or brand)
milkshake duck (a person or thing that initially inspires delight on social media but is soon revealed to have a distasteful or repugnant past)
Dictionary vs. corpora
Some dictionaries (such as SSKJ) present a ‘froze’ picture, others are updated every year. In the past they were based on intuition, these days increasingly corpus base (actual use).
Difference between prescriptive and descriptive approach.
DENOTATIVE (referential, conceptual, cognitive)
What a word 'refers' to (an object, entity or state). The ‘dictionary’ definition.
cat1 A cat is a small furry animal with a tail, whiskers and sharp claws. Cats are often kept as pets.
2. Cats are lions, tigers and other wild animals in the same family (Cobuild)
cat1. a small domesticated carnivore, Felis domestica or F. catus, bred in a number of varieties
2. any of several carnivores of the family Felidae, as the lion, tiger, leopard or jaguar, etc. (Webster’s)
CONNOTATIVE (associative)
The associations, possibly positive or negative, by which the basic meaning is enriched.
Often comprises socio-cultural (i.e. all members of a society or social group) and/or personal associations. May be positive or negative.
These often change over time – meaning is not stable, static
e.g. in the past cats connected with the devil, evil, witchcraft
in different cultures: good/bad luck (black cat, black and white cat), nine lives
also: clean / fleas, independent, meow, yowl/yeowl
tom, queen, tabby, stray, feral, moggy, puss/pussy
cat and dog, cat and mouse
vs. doglead a cat and dog life/existence
vs. mousea game of cat and mouse, when the cat’s away…
RELATIONAL
Words do not exist in isolation; meanings are defined in terms of sense relations with other words. (How do we know what 'dark' means if don't also know 'light', or 'poor/rich'?)
Relations of different types
SYNONYMY
same denotative meaning
e.g. motherly – maternal, freedom – liberty, search – seek
ANTONYMY
converseness / incompatibility (one excludes the other – not 'opposites')
e.g. mother – father, dead – alive, hot – cold, buy – sell
HYPONYMY
hypernym (superordinate) – hyponym(one includes the other)
e.g. parent – mother, father
e.g. relations – mother, father, sister, brother, grandmother, cousin
MERONYMY
whole – part
e.g. family – mother, father, daughter
REPRESENTATIONAL
Addition to the denotative meaning of a further meaning; often a metaphorical extension.
e.g. cat fight, she’s such a cat, catwalk, catmint/catnip, catnap, catflap, copycat
e.g. mother ship, mother tongue, motherland, mother board
DLimon: Idiomatics handout 11