N ationalism
The study of lexical meaning is the domain of semantics. The notion of meaning is bound to the notion of semantic categories. All words have an underlying category at the superordinate level e.g. a “dog” is an “animal”, an “animate thing”, an “object”. Semantics is the interface between the language and cognition. Word’s denotation is its essential meaning. Word’s connotation is its implications and individual associations. The meaning of a word is embedded within a network of other meanings. The meaning of “cow” might involve associations such as “horns”, “milk”, “grass” etc. Lexical meaning can be decomposed into smaller “semantic primitives” e.g. “mother “ is “female”, “married”, “gave birth”, “has children” etc. Most typical semantic cases are called prototypes, e.g. a “robin” is a bird because of all its “semantic primitives” (can fly, has a beak, lays eggs etc). A “penguin” is a bird but it can’t fly and is farther away from the prototype of “birds” (Harley, T. 1997. The Psychology of Language. Psychology Press. P. 175-205)
Exploratory task 2.7
Tick off the features that are typical of your own frame of Christmas holiday. More than one feature can be ticked off. Share your results with the peers.
Christmas holiday |
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(Adapted from BBC World Service Internet Page, Talking Point and showing mostly the associations of the people from the U.K. and the USA)
An interesting issue is the idiomatic language. The basis for the research were the data that human mind normally takes the language beyond the reality. It is a feature of the human mind and shows itself in the language metaphors and idioms. The reason for metaphorical language is that people do not simply denote the reality with the help of language signs but also seek elaborate ways to express their attitudes, beliefs and opinions, which takes the language beyond the immediate denotation of reality. Language users add their imagery, which makes the message richer and more expressive. The process of turning the plain language into metaphors starts at the early age metaphors . This phenomenon in children is called “over-extension”, which means spreading the use of one word to naming other living beings, objects and processes. “Moon” can be used to denote “cakes”, letter “O”, “round postcards”. “Ball” can mean “apples”, “grapes”, “eggs”, “anything round”. “Horse” can be used to refer to “cow”, “pig”, “all four-legged animals”. “Sound of train” can apply to a “steaming coffee pot” and “anything that makes noise” (Clark, H., and Clark, E. 1977. Psychology and language: An Introduction to Psycholinguistics. N.Y.). Adults create metaphorical language in the similar way. E.g. “time” is inseparable from the concept of “money”. Hence, the metaphor “to waste time”. One’s “mind” is perceived as a “machine”. The metaphor is “my wheels are working OK.” A “girl” is associated with a “flower” and the metaphor nicknames her “late bloomer”. Human characters can be associated with a geometric shape in the metaphor “a round peg in a square hole”. This process further leads to the production of idioms that are hard to translate without knowing the meaning, such as “for the birds” (uninteresting and meaningless), “fishy” (strange and suspicious), “straight from the horses mouth” (from a reliable source), “tongue-in-cheek” (not serious), “snow job” (insincere talk), “cough up” (give unwillingly), “dressed to kill” (wearing one’s finest clothes) etc (Collis, H. 1997. 101 American English Idioms. Passport Books). Another area of idiomatic language is the use of phrasal verbs. E.g. “duck down” (bend down quickly), “duck into” (hide quickly in a place), “duck out” (escape one’s responsibility) etc (Longman Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs. 1986. Special Edition. Moscow).
Exploratory task 2.8
Give the interpretations of the following idioms featuring a “national reference” and comment on the associations that a “national reference” has in English
English idioms |
Interpretations |
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(Most examples are taken from Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture. Longman. 1998)
Language models of the world differ from language to language. A commonly quoted fact is that al languages will have terms for denoting colours but the inventory of the colour terminology is different in many known languages. Italian has over 500 names for different types of macaroni, e.g. “vermicelly” (little worms), “spaghetti” (little strings). They have become part of English vocabulary. Some words are distinctly English and do not have direct equivalents in Russian, e.g. “meal”, “efficiency”, “gentleman” etc. There are taboo areas in languages. The use of “chicken breast” caused social anxiety in the 19th century and was substituted by a euphemism “white meat”. In all languages there is a category of Grammar Tense, which denotes reference of speaker to time. Yet, the languages differ in modelling the Time. In Hindu the system of Tenses denotes the “Now”, “24 hours from now”, “a month from now” and “three months from now” both looking into the Future and glancing back to the Past. Japanese has no future tense and it is to be comprehended from context (Bryson, B. 1990. Mother Tongue. N.Y: Avon Books). Russian language expresses one’s individual “existence” as relevant to “Past”, “Present” and Future”. In the English language the “tenses” are relevant not only to one’s’ existence in the Past, Present and Future, but also to the “moment of speech”. E.g. “Present Progressive” is the action that is taking place at the moment of speech” etc. The system of Russian and English Grammar Tenses is shown on the graph: