lexicology / 10-11

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Each synonym has different connotative meaning. In the United Slates, the word dame refers to a woman, but it is the word that indicates little respect. In Great Britain, on the other hand, dame can also be the title given to a woman to recognize her achievement. Compare the use of dame in these two sentences:

1. Dame Joan Sutherland is one of the most respected and admired opera singers in the world.

2. When my friend spotted a pretty dame walking in the street he called to her, 'Hey, baby, why don't you come over here and give mc a kiss?'

The words stout, fat and plump share the same denotative meaning, but they are not always interchangeable. They have different connotation: different emotional weight, different associations with the pleasant or the unpleasant; they express different degrees of positive and negative attitude or appeal. A stout man is a fat man who gives an impression of solidity, strenghth, health and vigour; stout thus has a positive connotation. A plump man is fat. but in a sense of the riduculous. Plump applied to a woman, on the other hand, is usually a term of approval, implying that the excess of flesh is proportionally distributed

Connotation is the pragmatic communicative value of the word depending on where, how, by whom, for what purpose and in what situation it is or may be used.

The connotation is stylistic when associations concern the situation in which the word is uttered. It may depend on social circumstances (formal, familiar), on social relationship of the participants of communication (polite, rude), on the type and purpose of communication (learned, poetic, official).

For example, in the synonymic group horse - steed - nag - gee-gee, horse is stylistically neutral, steed is poetical, nag has an additional derogatory meaning (old horse in poor condition), gee-gee is used in the speech of babies.

An emotive or affective connotation is present when the denotative meaning is associated with emotion. We find this meaning in most words the meanings of which has an evaluative character.

e.g. prodigiously talented man

Sometimes an emotive and stylistic connotation is united in one word. This emotive charge may be present in words which are formed with the help of the diminutive suffixes.

e.g. laddie, girlie, daddy, mommy, cuiie. toughie

Interjections express only emotions.

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e.g. Ah! - is used to express delight, relief, regret or contempt

Eh! - is used to ask for confirmation or repetition or to express

inquiry

Ouch! - is used to express sudden pain

Uh-uh! - is used to express negation

2.3. Meaning and Notion

Meaning and notion are connected but not identical. The term notion (concept) was introduced into linguistics from logic and psychology. It denotes the reflection in the human mind of the real objects and phenomena in their essential features and relations.

The word as a linguistic sign fixes the notion formed of things of reality (referents) in its meaning.

1. The first essential point of difference is that notions arc units of thought and meanings are units of language. A word expresses the notion but is determined by the peculiarities of the lexical and grammatical systems of each particular language.

2. Notions are emotionally neutral. The meanings of many words may convey not only the reflection of objective reality but show the attitude of the speaker to what he is speaking about.

3. Notions are international, especially for nations with the same level of cultural development, whereas meanings may be nationally determined and limited.

There arc many Arabic words for horse and camel, describing the size, the breed, the function and the condition of the animal.

On the other hand, several languages have no words to match the many English words for the different types of vehicles - car, lorry, bus, taxi, tractor, truck. They might have one word for it.

It takes 14 English words to distinguish various meanings of hole in the Australian aboriginal language. They have a different word for a hole in the ground, a small hole in the ground, etc.

In the Eskimo language there arc different words for snow which is falling, is lying on the ground, is melting, is packed hard, slushy snow, etc. In Aztec, a single word (with different endings) covers the notion of snow, cold and ice.

The discrepancies are even more marked in the names of colours in different languages. There is no single word for grey in Lithuanian; different words arc used to denote the grey colour of wool, of horses, of cows or human hair. In Japanese one word is used for green, blue and dark.

Summing it up, we may say that the lexical meaning of the word may