19 Types of meaning.Semantic structure of a word.
The branch of Lexicology, which is devoted to the study of meaning, is called Semantics. All the linguists usually describe 2 types of meaning. The gram. meaning is clearly seen in identical sets of individual forms pf different words: girls, tables, lakes, plates – the gram. meaning is plurality. Worked, played, finished– the gram. meaning of past tense. In the processes of communication in a sentence a word has several gram. meanings (the girls dresses are beautiful).. Lex. meaning is not connected with changes of gram. forms of one & the same word. It remains stable & unchanged in a sentence a word is used in one of its lex. meanings. So, lex. Meaning is proper to a word as a lang-e unit in all its forms & distributions (go-went-gone).
The words ‘go’, ‘goes’, ‘went’, ‘going’, ‘gone’ have different gram. meaning but one & the same semantic component denoting the process of moving.
lex. meaning has a rather complicated structure & consists of several components. Most of the linguists distinguish between 3 main components of lex. meaning. They are:
the denotative component as the segment of the extra-linguistic world expressed in a word; the significative component as a typical notion or concept, a complex of features, characteristic of an object; (denotate); the relations of these 3 components (denotate, significate & a word) can be roughly illustrated by the famous semantic triangle of Ogden & Richards.
Significate (=notion)
Word denotate (=object)
There is a direct relation between a word & a significate on the one side & a significate & a denotate on the other side. But there is no immediate relation between a word & a denotate. It is established only through the significate.
connotative component or connotation: connotation is defined as an additional information to a word. Depicting an attitude of a person to an object.
emotional coloring: well-known (стил. нейтрально), famous (использ. в хорошем смысле), notorious (в плохом смысле).
Stylistic reference: stylistically words can be divided into: Literary (‘bookish’): general & special (terms (are associated with a definite branch of science: influenza) & archaisms);Neutral (can be employed in all styles of the lang-e & in all … of human activity);Colloquial: general & special. Special –> archaisms: nay=no, warrior=soldier, welkin=sky.
Special: Slang (a sleeper–курс лекций, dirt=money);Jargonizes: heavy cream=толстушка, acid=drugs, cold turkey=голая правда; Vulgarisms: damn, hell, son of bitch.
the semantic structure of a word: Most of words convey several notions & thus have several meanings. They are called polysemantic words. Monosemantic words, i.e. words having only one meaning are comparatively few in number. They are mainly scientific terms & alike.
Smirnitsky was the first who defined a unit of a word that possesses its own sound form & a lex. meaning. & which was called a lex. semantic variant (LSV).
Vinogradov was the first to speak about the semantic structure of a word as an interrelated & interdependent unity of LSV
Different LSV may be clealy seen in a context: in different collocations (combinations): to stand –> straight, heat;
in different syntactical positions: to stand for (символ-ть), to stand out (выдел-ся);
in their phras. peculiarities: to stand on end = стоять дыбом.
The meanings in a semantic structure of a word are not equal in their importance. Traditionally the basic meaning & the miner meanings are distinguished.
Basic meaning is kind of a center of a word round which all other miner meanings are organized.
Курелович, Шмелев & others defined basic meaning as one that is never depends on the context. They say, that is basic meaning that first occurs in our heads with the first mentioning of the word. (hard-has 12-st meaning, but the main is твердый, жесткий; table – has 15 meanings, blind – 8 meanings).
Minor meaning strongly depend on the context they are sintagmatically depended. & this context or correlations don’t make it possible to interpret this or that as a basic one (hard work).