Seminar 5 Semasiology

I. 1.Meaning of a word: reference, communication, cognition. Classification of word meaning: grammatical meaning and lexical meaning. Semantic triangle. The lexical meaning versus notion.

2. The denotational and connotational components of the lexical meaning. Functional and non-functional (evaluative, emotive, intensifying, image-bearing/motivation) stylistic meaning.).

II. Exercises to Seminar 5

1. Read the following poem. Then answer the questions.

The Naked and the Nude

by Robert Graves

For me, the naked and the nude (By lexicographers construed As synonyms that should express The same deficiency of dress Or shelter) stand as wide apart As love from lies, or truth from art.	Lovers without reproach will gaze On bodies naked and ablaze; The hippocratic eye will see In nakedness, anatomy; And naked shines the Goddess when She mounts her lion among men.
The nude are bold, the nude are sly To hold each treasonable eye. While draping by a showman's trick Their dishabille in rhetoric, They grin a mock-religious grin Of scorn at those of naked skin.	The naked, therefore, who compete Against the nude may know defeat; Yet when they both together tread The briary pastures of the dead, By Gorgons with long whips pursued, How naked go the sometimes nude!

1. Circle the words: lexicographers, construed, hippocratic, dishabille, Gorgons. What is the effect (connotative) of using this diction [Diction: The purposeful selection of words for their denotative or connotative value]?

2. What kind of language is used in lines 2-5? For example, why is "deficiency" used instead of "lack"?

3. Explain the metaphor in line 15. (rhetoric = clothing) Why the fancy word "dishabille" ? (French = undressed)

4. Explain the effect of Grave's choice of deviant alternatives: brave for bold, clever for sly, clothing for draping, and smile for grin?

5. What is the connotative difference between "naked" and "nude"? What is the effect of the last line?

PURPOSE: Grave's distinction between "naked" and "nude" does not account for other uses of these words. How appropriate, for example, would be Grave's version of nude for the following: a pamphlet written for nudists, an advertisement for a strip show, an article in ART NEWS on painting the human figure? Writer's purpose becomes a strong thesis for a paper, if you validate his purpose with the study of his word choice.

2. Read the following poem. Then answer the questions.

My Papa's Waltz

by Theodore Roethke

The whiskey on your breath/Could make a small boy dizzy;/But I hung on like death/Such waltzing was not easy./We romped until the pans/Slid from the kitchen shelf;/My mother's countenance/Could not unfrown itself./The hand that held my wrist/Was battered on one knuckle;/At every step you missed/My right ear scraped a buckle./You beat time on my head/With a palm caked hard by dirt,/Then waltzed me off to bed/Still clinging to your shirt.

1. What are the "diction" words in the poem?

2. Look up the denotative meanings of the "diction" words in the dictionary.

3. Write the connotative meanings of the "diction" words.

3. Denotation and Connotation in "The Fish" It is easier to see the denotative meaning than the connotative meaning of this poem. A woman catches a fish, holds it up for inspection, admires it, and then throws it back in the water. What exists beneath the surface of the poem largely depends on its tone, its rich description, and the emotional transformation of the speaker. Connotation in “The Fish” is subtle, but it should not be overlooked as a primary contributor to the poem’s overall effect. line 1 - "I caught a tremendous fish" Despite the simplicity of the denotative meaning of “The Fish,” words with multiple connotations lend texture to the poem and contribute to its overall effect. Tremendous can mean “big” or “wonderful,” and the fish does exhibit both of these qualities. Another possible definition of tremendous is the capacity to make one tremble, derived from the Latin tremere, to tremble. This connotation of the word helps to explain the speaker’s ultimate response to the fish. “I caught a big fish” would not have the same effect. - line 23 - "the terrible oxygen" The word terrible, etymologically related to tremendous from the first line, has multiple connotations. This fish breathes oxygen like people, but this particular oxygen circulating in the air is perhaps “terrible” (as in “bad”) because the fish can’t access it with his gills. There is also something terrible about the fish himself—terrible in the sense of terrifying—that is associated with its attempt to breathe the air, and this sense is immediately reinforced through the speaker’s description of its “frightening gills” in the next line (24). The terrible quality of the fish also increases the speaker’s (and our) awe of it.

Questions for response

1). How does this examination of denotation and connotation change your understanding of how the poem works as a whole?

2). Find other examples in the poem in which denotation or connotation is important. What do they contribute to the work?

1. I caught a tremendous fish /2. and held him beside the boat /3. half out of water, with my hook /4. fast in a corner of its mouth. /5. He didn’t fight. /6. He hadn’t fought at all. /7. He hung a grunting weight, /8. battered and venerable /9. and homely. Here and there /10. his brown skin hung in strips /11. like ancient wallpaper, /12. and its pattern of darker brown /13. was like wallpaper: /14. shapes like full-blown roses /15. stained and lost through age. /16. He was speckled with barnacles, /17. fine rosettes of lime, /18. and infested /19. with tiny white sea-lice, /20. and underneath two or three /21. rags of green weed hung down. /22. While his gills were breathing in /23. the terrible oxygen /24. the frightening gills, /25. fresh and crisp with blood, /26. that can cut so badly — /27. I thought of the coarse white flesh /28. packed in like feathers, /29. the big bones and the little bones, /30. the dramatic reds and blacks /31. of his shiny entrails, /32. and the pink swim-bladder /33. like a big peony. /34. I looked into his eyes /35. which were far larger than mine /36. but shallower, and yellowed, /37. the irises backed and packed /38.with tarnished tinfoil /39. seen through the lenses /40. of old scratched isinglass. /41. They shifted a little, but not /42. to return my stare. /43. It was more like the tipping /44. of an object toward the light. /45. I admired his sullen face, /46. the mechanism of his jaw, /47. and then I saw /48. that from his lower lip /49. if you could call it a lip — /50. grim, wet, and weaponlike, /51. hung five old pieces of fish-line, /52. or four and a wire leader /53. with the swivel still attached, /54. wit h all their five big hooks /55. grown firmly in his mouth. /56. A green line, frayed at the end /57. where he broke it, two heavier lines, /58. and a fine black thread /59. still crimped from the strain and snap /60. when it broke and he got away. /61. Like medals with their ribbons /62. frayed and wavering, /63. a five-haired beard of wisdom /64. trailing from his aching jaw. /65. I stared and stared /66. and victory filled up /67. the little rented boat, /68. from the pool of bilge /69. where oil had spread a rainbow /70. around the rusted engine /71. to the bailer rusted orange, /72. the sun-cracked thwarts, /73. the oarlocks on their strings, /74. the gunnels — until everything /75. was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow! /76. And I let the fish go.

Recommended Literature:

I.V. Arnold. The English Word. М., 1986, pp. 37–50.

R.S.Ginzburg. A course in Modern English Lexicology. М., 1979, pp. 18–25.

G.B.Antrushina English lexicology. М., 1999, pp. 129–142.