The semantic triangle

The word may be treated as the best illustration of other langugage signs. From this point the structure of words is comparatively complicated. Ferdinand de Saussure was the first to state that the word is two-fold, as it consists of a concept and a sound or letter form. This simple scheme was further accepted and developed by the German scholar Gotlieb Frege.

The semantic triangle consists of: the concept, the sound/letter form and the referent. There are words that don’t have referent (God), there are words without concept (proper names, etc.). The triangle is a simplified form, representing the links between the three triangle apexes, while in reality it is much more complicated.

The triangle is actually not enough. There must be at least 6 coinciding apexes, i.e. triangles in the heads of two interlocutors. Besides, we don’t have sounds and referents in our heads, we have ideas of sounds and ideas of referents, which doubles the number of apexes again.

The problem of the semantic triangle can be considered more or less solved only if we observe the question of motivation of words. The term motivation denotes the relationship, existing between the structural pattern of the word and its meaning. There are three basic types of motivation:

1. phonetic type (e.g. the iconic signs, illustrated by co-words or sound imitating words);

2. morphological motivation (reflected in the morphological structure of words, e.g. film star, driver, to rewrite, an ex-wife, a teenager, etc.);

3. semantic motivation (the case, when the connection between the meaning of the word and its form is purely conventional, such words are called non-motivated, and their number in the language is the greatest).

There is a phenomenon of loss of motivation in such cases there is fortnight, which was derived from the expression fourteen nights, or спичка which is actually derived from спица. In addition to this Charles Spears and Roman Jacobson distinguished word indexes such as this, that, today, tomorrow, you, we, etc. Pure forms of this or that sign patter are rarely found in actual languages. They are always mixed in one and the same word, although one type is always dominating.

Lexical meaning and the semantic structure of English words

There’s a separate branch of linguistics, concerned with the meaning of words and named semasiology from old Greek semasia (‘singnification’) + logos (‘learning’). The main objects of semasiological studies are the semantic development of words, as well as different types of lexical meaning. The relations between the words which bear alike meanings is polysemy. The notion of the meaning as a complex structure, that is the semantic structure of words. The semantic groupings and connections between such groups within the vocabulary system.

It should be born in mind that apart from its lexical meaning, every word has another type of meaning, which is called grammatical. The grammatical meaning of every word exists due to the fact that all words belong to this or that grammatical class or category and possesses a definite grammatical paradigm.

Lexicology treats the problem of the lexical meaning of words and starts with this meaning’s definition. The most common and universally accepted definition sounds as follows: “Lexical meaning is the actualization of a concept or emotion by means of a definite language system.”

The complexity of the word meaning is manyfold. Therefore, the most important types of such semantic complexity may be described as follows:

1. Every word has a simultaneous combination of its lexical and grammatical meanings. E.g. “’father’ is a personal noun” – in this statement the first word “father” can be replaced by many others, thus its lexical meaning is ignored.

2. Many words not only name the given object, but also reflect certain associations, which in their turn express the attitude of the speaker to the named object. These associations, all taken together, make the connotative element or simple connotation of the word meaning. E.g. daddy is a colloqual form, showing endearment.

3. The denotational meaning of the word can be segmented into smaller semantic components, named sems. E.g. “father” is a male parent – the word is opposed to female parent or to child, etc.

4. A word may be and the majority of words are polysemantic. E.g. “father” is a) male parent, b) ancestor, c) founder, d) priest.

It should be pointed out that the grammatical meaning is defined, as an expression or in speech, of those relationships between words, which are based on certain contrastive features of the arrangements in which these words occur. In natural fluent speech it is of course difficult, if at all possible, to separate the lexical and grammatical meanings from each other within the single semantic structure of the word. That is why considered also should be the lexico-grammatical meaning of words, which is an integrative denominator of all possible meanings of the words belonging to one lexico-grammatical class. The lexico-grammatical meaning is a feature, according to which words are most easily and primarily grouped together.

The conceptual content of the word is expressed in its denotational or denotative meaning (i.e. the object named). The information based on complex associations, which originated in habitual contexts, these contexts being either verbal or situatinal and of which both the speaker and the listener are aware, is named connotational meaning.

The interaction between the denotation and connotation elements in the meaning of one word is no less complicated than in case of combination of lexical and grammatical meanings. The connotative component is considered to be optional, and even in those cases when it is present in the semantic structure of the unit, its proportion with respect to denotation may vary greatly.

The expressive function of the language with its orientation towards the speaker’s emotions and the pragmatic function dealing with the predetermined effect of the utterance on the listener are both contained in and rendered through connotations. Scholars point out for principle types of connotations:

1. stylistic connotations

When associations concern the situation in which the word is uttered and percieved, or the social circumstances (which may be either formal or familiar) or the relationship between the interlocutors (which may be poilte or rough, etc.) or the type of purpose of communication (which may be official, poetical, etc.) then the con notation is stylistic.

2. emotional connotations

The emotive connotation, also named effective, is acquired by the word as a result of the word’s frequent use in the contexts, corresponding to different emotional situations.

3. evaluative connotations

The evaluative connotation expresses only two types of evaluation, which are positive and negative, so such a connotation may be regarded as either approval is disapproval of the object of speech.

4. expressive or intensifying connotations

The intensifying connotation may be roughly characterized as general exaggeration of the basic meaning.

Linguists also point out some defninte variations of meaning which may be highlighted in accordance with the style and sphere of usage of words. From this viewpoint we may have:

1. colloquial meaning,

   1. literary colloquial,

   2. familiar colloquial,

   3. slang,

   4. vulgar;

2. bookish meaning,

   1. general bookish,

   2. poetic bookish,

   3. scientific bookish (learnid).

From the point of view of its diachronic or historical perspective, the meaning may be:

1. present-day (current) – is in the use;

2. obsolescent (выходящий из употребления) – being in the process of getting out of use;

3. obsolete – presently out of use.

Speaking about different types of connotation, one should not confuse them with the phenomenon of polysemy, characterizing the majority of words in modern developed languages. The fact that constantly attracts the attention of scholars is that the English word, as compared to the word of other national languages, such as e.g. Russian, has developed and still develops much greater polysemy, which is due to a number of reasons:

1. the long life of modern English,

2. the monosyllabic character of the English word and the language in general and the predominance of root words in this language.

Each word has special structural singnals denoting the differences in the meanings of these lexical units. Alongside with structural there are also contextual signals of this type, although lexical and lexico-grammatical variations of the word, taken together, form the semantic structure, also named the semantic paradigm of this word.

For example, the word youth distinguishes all in all three of its lexico-grammatical variants: 1) an abstract uncountable noun, having no plural form (юность); 2) a countable personal noun, possessing both the singular and the plural forms (молодой человек); 3) a collective noun denoting a group of people and typically devoid of its plural form (молодежь).

There are mainly two types of lexical meaning, distinguished by the majority of scholars: 1) direct, 2) figurative. The direct meaning is usually conveied with the help of a minimum context. It is attached to the word, even when this word is taken in isolation. The figurative meaning is perceived when the object is not only named, but also characterized through its comparison to some other object. The figurative meaning of words is only created by means of context or situation and appears that is manifests itself in the same.

Other oppositions pointed out by linguists in the meaningful structures of words are concrete meaning – abstract, main (primary) – secondary, central – peripheral, narrow – extended, general – special, etc.