• 31/Word meaning. Referential and functional approaches to meaning.

• 32/Connotative and denotative meaning. Types of connotative meaning.

Connotative meaning: The implicit overtones that a linguistic expression carries over and above its denotative meaning. 1- Attitudinal meaning: The connotative meaning of a linguistic expression which takes the form of implicitly conveying a commonly held attitude or value. Instance: ‘The police’, ‘the filth’, and ‘the boy in blue’ are synonymous in terms of denotative content, but they have different overall meaning. ‘The police’ is a neutral expression, but ‘the filth’ has pejorative (disapproving) overtone and ‘the boy in blue’ affectionate ones.

2- Associative meaning: The connotative meaning of a linguistic expression which takes the form of attributing to the referent certain stereotypically expected properties culturally associated with that referent. Instance: The word ‘nurse’ is a good example. Most people automatically associate nurse with the idea of female gender, as if ‘nurse’ were synonymous with ‘female who looks after sick’.

3- Affective meaning: A type of connotative meaning, affective meaning is the emotive effect worked on the addressee by using one particular linguistic expression rather than others that might have been used to express the same literal meaning. Instance: ‘silence, please’ and ‘shut up’ share the same core denotative meaning of ‘be quiet’, but the speaker’s implied attitude to the listener produce a different affective impact in each case: polite in the first, rude in the second.

4- Allusive meaning: A type of connotative meaning consists of invoking the meaning of an entire saying or quotation in which that expression figures. Instance: In the novel of ‘The City of Oppression’ by a Palestinian novelist. The city in question is clearly Jerusalem. The term ‘city of oppression’, which is used as a name of the city, alludes to the fact that Jerusalem is sometimes referred to as ‘city of peace’.

5- Collocative meaning: The connotative meaning lent to a linguistic expression by the meaning of some other expression with which it frequently collocates. Instance: ‘pretty’, ‘handsome’, have a shared a sense of ‘good looking’. However, ‘pretty’ collocates readily with ‘girl’, ‘boy’, ‘woman’, ‘flower’, ‘garden’, while ‘handsome’ collocates with ’boy’, ‘man’, ‘car, ‘vessel’.

6- Reflected meaning: connotative meaning given to a linguistic expression by the fact either that the form used calls to mind another denotative meaning of the same word or phrase, or that the form used to call to mind another denotative meaning of another word or phrase which is the same or similar in form. Instance: If someone says, ‘ Richard Nixon was a rat’, using ‘rat’ in the sense of a person who deserted his friends or associates, the word ‘rat’ not only carries the particular denotative meaning, but also invokes/evokes the more basic denotative meaning of the animal ’rat’.

• 33/Semantic structure of a word. Polysemy.

A word having several meanings is called polysemantic. The ability of words to have more than one meaning is polysemy. Most English words are polysemantic.

The wealth of expressive resources of a language largely depends on the degree to which polysemy has developed in the language. The process of enriching the vocabulary does not consist merely in adding new words to it, but, also, in the constant development of polysemy.

The system of meanings of any polysemantic word develops gradually, mostly over the centuries, as more and more new meanings are either added to old ones, or oust some of them. So the complicated processes of polysemy development involve both the appearance of new meanings and the loss of old ones.

When analyzing the semantic structure of a polysemantic word, it is necessary to distinguish between two levels of analysis. On the first level, the semantic structure of a word is treated as a system of meanings.

E. g. In the system of meanings of the adjective dull it is hard to find a generalized meaning covering and holding together the rest of the semantic structure.

• Dull, adj.

• 1. Uninteresting, monotonous, boring; e. g. a dull book, a dull film.

• 2. Slow in understanding, stupid; e. g. a dull pupil

• 3. Not clear or bright; e. g. dull weather, a dull day,a dull colour.

• 4. Not loud or distinct; e. g. a dull sound.

• 5. Not sharp, e. g. a dull knife.

• 6. Not active, e. g. Trade is dull.

• 7. Seeing badly, e. g. dull eyes (arch.).

• 8. Hearing badly, e. g. dull ears (arch.).

These seemingly miscellaneous meanings have something in common. It is the implication of deficiency, be it of colour (meaning 3), wits (meaning 2), interest (meaning 1), sharpness (meaning 5), etc. The implication of insufficient quality, of something lacking, can be clearly distinguished in each separate meaning. The centre holding together the complex semantic structure of this word is not one of the meanings but a certain component that can be easily singled out within each separate meaning. Each separate meaning is subject to structural analysis in which it may be represented as sets of semantic components.

The meaning of a word is defined as a set of elements of meaning which are not part of the vocabulary of the language itself, but rather theoretical elements, used to describe the semantic relations between the lexical elements of a given language.

The scheme of the semantic structure of the adjective dull shows that the semantic structure of a word is not a mere system of meanings, but each separate meaning is subject to further subdivision and possesses an inner structure of its own. Therefore, the semantic structure of a word should be investigated at both levels:

• a) of different meanings,

• b) of semantic components within each separate meaning.

The leading semantic component in the semantic structure of a word is called denotative component / referential component. The denotative component expresses the conceptual content of a word.

One of the most important "drawbacks" of polysemantic words is that there is sometimes a chance of misunderstanding when a word is used in a certain meaning but accepted by a listener or reader in another.

• E.g. C u s t o m e r . I would like a book, please.

• B o o k s e l l e r . Something light?

• C u s t o m e r . That doesn't matter. I have my car with me.

Context is a powerful preventative against any misunderstanding of meanings. For instance, the adjective dull, if used out of context, would mean different things to different people or nothing at all. It is only in combination with other words that it reveals its actual meaning:

• e.g. a dull pupil, a dull play, a dull razor-blade, dull weather, etc.

• One of the methods of studying the semantic structure of a word is by examining the word's linear relationships with other words in typical contexts, i.e. its combinability.