Meanings of linguistic units

1. Denotative meaning of the word. An act of verbal communication between the speaker and the hearer is made possible primarily due to the fact that units of communica­tion (i. e. words) are referable to extralinguistic situa­tions, things meant. The word denotes a concrete thing as well as a concept of a thing; the word has a denotative meaning. Thus, the word blue denotes an object that is blue (a blue dress) and the respective concept: something blue or blueness. The word table denotes any object that is a table; it is the name of a whole class of objects that are tables.

An isolated word table denotes the concept of the thing that is a table. The word table within a certain context denotes a definite thing; i. e. has a definite meaning (He bought a deal table). The property of the word enabl­ing it to denote a concrete thing as well as a generalized concept of a thing is an objective feature which has been worked out in the course of a people's history. The knowl­edge of the word-denotation is shared by all those who speak in the given language and this is what makes com­munication possible. Denotative meaning is thus the loading task of any notional word.

b) Connotative meaning of the word. The word besides denoting a concrete thing, action, or concept, may also carry a connotation, an overtone. These overtones or con­notations vary in character. They may express the speak­er's attitude to the thing spoken about (emotive component of meaning), or indicate the so­cial sphere in which the discourse takes place (sty­listic reference). Both these components may be part of the word's dictionary meaning, i. e. be present in the word when it is taken in isolation. They may, on the other hand, be part of the word's contextual mean­ing, i. e. emerge in the word as a result of its correlation with other words. Below we first consider connotation as part of the word's dictionary meaning — it being essen­tial for readers to see the inherent properties of words — only to dwell at length later on the connotations words acquire when they occur in texts.

CONNOTATION IN THE WORD'S DICTIONARY MEANING

An emotive component of meaning may have linguistic expression with the help of suffixes; for example, the suffix ie/y in such words as birdie, or Freddy serves to express the diminutive/the hypocoristic. The emotive component of meaning may have no .specific linguistic form but be contained in the concept the given word denotes, as for example, in the words horrid, terrifying, lovely, etc. There are words of purely emotive meaning. These are interjec­tions which differ from words with denotative meanings (i. e. notional words) by their peculiar sound pattern: oh, ouch, alas, hm, etc. They also differ by their syntactic role in an utterance: they are not components but equiv­alents of sentences.

Stylistic reference. Verbal communication takes place in different spheres of human activity, such as everyday life, business, science, etc. Each of these spheres has a peculiar mode of linguistic expression which is gener­ally known as a functional style. Words that are prefer­ably used in one functional style are said to have a stylistic reference conditioned by the respective sphere.

The overtone of stylistic reference is always present in the word alongside its denotative meaning. This can well be illustrated by sets of words with similar denota­tive meanings: get — obtain — procure; dismiss — dis­charge — sack; follow — pursue — go after. Words may be grouped together on the basis of their common stylistic reference. Consider, for example, the following groups of words:

1) inquire 2) ask

obtain get

proceed go

pursue run after

seek look for

Each of these two groups represents a different stylistic layer: the first group contains words of a literary-bookish layer, the second — stylistically neutral words.

While speaking about stylistic reference, the following factor should be emphasized: stylistic reference can be recognized only when there is some common element to refer to. This common element is the similarity of deno­tation, or, in oilier words, synonymy of words. Where there is just one word to denote a certain concept or object of reality there would be no question of stylistic reference. Thus, the major dichotomy is lo be found between sty­listically neutral vs. stylistically marked words.

Subdivisions within (lie class of stylistically marked words are numerous. But (lie main opposition lies between words of literary stylistic layer (words of Standard English) and those of non-literary stylistic layer¹ (words of Sub-Standard Eng­lish).

Words of literary stylistic layer (Standard English). They are in their turn divided into literary-col­loquial and literary-bookish.

Literary-colloquial are words denoting everyday con­cepts, they constitute the core of the wordstock (see, come, home, right).

Literary-bookish includes:

a) Terms, subdivided into: 1) popular terms of some special spheres of human knowledge known to the public at large (typhoid, pneumonia); 2) terms used ex­clusively within a profession (phoneme, micro-linguistics);

b) Poeticisms, words used exclusively in poetry and the like. Many of these words are archaic or obsolete, such as whilome (sometimes), aught (anything), ne (no, not), haply (may be); for ay (for ever), / ween (I suppose), he kens (he knows); childe (a nobleman's son);

c) Foreign words and barbarisms (bon mot, neglige, au revoir; ad absurdum, Bundeswehr). A dis­tinction is made between the two. Barbarisms are consid­ered to be part of the vocabulary of the given language constituting its peripheral layer. They are usually regis­tered in dictionaries (a propos, vis-a-vis, etc.) while for­eign words are, as a rule, not found in dictionaries. In literature barbarisms are generally used to lend local color: pied-a-terre (a small flat), croissants (breakfast, bread), etc. But it would also be true to say that no straight line of demarcation can be drawn between the two groups.

Words of non-literary stylistic layer (Sub-standard English). This layer also includes several subgroups:

a) Colloquialisms. Words that occupy an intermediate position between literary and non-literary stylistic layers and are used in conversational type of everyday speech, (awfully sorry, a pretty little thing, etc.)

b) Slangisms. Words that have originated in everyday speech and exist on the periphery of the lexical system of the given language: crackers (go mad); garr (god); belt up (keep silence), big head (a boaster);

c) Professionalisms. Words characteristic of the conversational variant of professional speech. Contrary to terms, professionalisms are the result of metonymic or metaphoric transference of some everyday words: bull (one who buys shares at the stock-exchange); bear (one who sells shares); sparks (a radio-operator); tin-hat (helmet), etc.

d) Vulgarisms. Rude words or expressions used mostly in the speech of the uncultured and the uneducat­ed, e. g. missus (wife), son of a bitch (a bad person), etc.

The border-line between colloquialisms, slangisms and vulgarisms is often hard to draw for there are hardly any linguistic criteria of discrimination. This explains why one finds so many discrepancies in how these stylistic sub­groups are labeled in various dictionaries.

Two more subgroups of the non-literary stylistic layer should be mentioned.

e) Jargonisms (cantisms). Words used within certain social and professional groups.

f) Regional dialectisms. Words and ex­pressions used by peasants and others in certain regions of the country: baccy (tobacco), unbeknown (unknown), winder (window), etc.

Stylistic reference and emotive charge are inherent, connotative features of lexical units. They should not be confused with those connotative effects which practically any word may acquire in speech (text). What specific connotative effects words with different stylistic reference and emotive charge may acquire in texts will be shown below.

It should also be mentioned here, that although we have been speaking exclusively about connotations of lexical units, the word "connotation" is applicable not only to words. Elements smaller than words, such as certain speech sound clusters may also be aimers of some implied (indirectly expressed) idea or attitude. This we shall also dwell on below.

Metaphor, a most widely used trope, is also based upon analogy, upon a traceable similarity. But in the meta­phor, contrary to the simile, there is no formal element to indicate comparison. The difference, though, is not merely structural. The absence of a formal indication of comparison in the metaphor makes the analogy it is based on more subtle to perceive. Thus, in the simile "The three with the medals were hunting-hawks." (E. Hemingway) the element "like" lays bare the analogy between "those three with medals" and "hunting-hawks". One, who knows what a hunting-hawk is can easily imagine what those three were: they were people trained to kill; killing was their business. In the metaphor "I was not a hawk" (E. Hemingway) due to the absence of "like" or any other formal ele­ment of comparison the two objects "I" and "hawk" seem to merge, the scope of analogy widens.

This difference between simile and metaphor leads some scholars to the belief that metaphor is more emotional and consequently more expressive, that it is restricted to more literary style.¹ The simile is believed to be heavier and more logical and therefore better fitted to lend preci­sion to the expressed thought due to which it can be used in any type of style even in the most prosaic.² This asser­tion cannot be readily accepted because both poetical similes and poetical metaphors are individual creations, and their greater or lesser expressiveness depends entirely upon the freshness and novelty of the discovered association. Thus, with G. Greene, for instance, it is often a simile and not a metaphor that is based on a more sudden analogy and is, consequently, more expressive:

1) "Darkness when once it fell, fell like a stone. Then my head came over the earth floor and nobody shot at me and fear seeped away."

2) "She frightened him like an unlucky number. He wasn't safe in the night nursery: their passions had flooded it."

3) "Like a small blunt icicle in her white mackintosh she stood in the doorway. There she was, sniffing round the area."

In purely linguistic terms the metaphor may be defined as a deviation from conventional collocation. E.g. "The last colors of sunset ... were dripping over the edge of the flat world." (G.-Greene) The verb "drip" usually roi-s with such nouns as "water", "lard", "fat", in fact, will) any name of liquid. All such nouns represent one lexico-semantic class. The noun "sun" does not belong to this class; its collo­cation with the verb "drip" is thus a deviation from the con­ventional. Consider other examples: "I saw him coming out of the anesthetic of her charm." (J. Thurber) "Gusts of wind whispering here and there." (J. Keats) "Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain." (J. Keats) "His two million dollars were a little nest egg for him." (Don Mar­quis) "Her eyes were two profound and menacing gun-barrels." (A. Huxley)

A distinction is usually made between poetic metaphors and lexical (dead, trite) metaphors. Poeticmetaphoris based upon a discovery of some new, fresh and striking analogy between two things. This is a discovery made by an individual, that is to say, a poetic metaphor is always an individual creation. (See the above-given examples.)

Lexical metaphor, on the contrary, is a com­monly reproduced lexical unit. It is called dead or trite because it does not call forth any vivid associations; its function is rather that of an intensifier. E. g. Time flies. (Time passes very quickly.) He was flooded with happi­ness. (He was very happy.) As a rule, such a metaphor is an integral part of the word's semantic structure, con­stituting one of its figurative meanings. E. g. a puppy—a young dog (literal meaning); a vain, ill-bred young man (figurative meaning).

A distinction is also made between a s i m p 1 e or elementary metaphor and an extended or pro­longed (sustained) metaphor. The metaphor is simple when it consists of just one word, or a word-group. A simple metaphor may be expressed by a noun or a noun-phrase: "anesthetic of her charm"; by a verb: time flies; an adjective or adverb, in the latter case it is called a metaphoric epithet. (See below.) The metaphor is prolonged or extended when one word used in a trans­ferred sense calls forth a transference of meaning in the whole sequence of words related to it. E. g. "...and I was not a hawk, although I might seem a hawk to those who had never hunted...". (E. Hemingway)

Personification, a kind of metaphor, is a device which endows a thing or a phenomenon with features peculiar of a human being: "At that time my vir­tue slumbered." (R. Stevenson) "Vice triumphant holds her sov'reign sway." (G. Byron) "My impatience has shown its heels to my politeness." (R. Stevenson)

Personification may take the form of a digressive ad­dress: "Thou, nature, art my goddess." (W. Shakespeare) "Oh Night, and Storm, and Darkness, ye art wondrous strong." (G. Hyron) Digressive address is called apos­trophe no mailer whether it refers to a thing or to a person: "Awake, ye Sons of Spain! awake! advance." (G. Byron)

Units of poetic speech called metonymy (with synecdoche and metonymic antonomasia as its variants) are also based upon analogy. But in them, contrary to the simile and the metaphor, there is an objectively existing relationship between the object named and the object implied.

Metonymic relations are varied in character. The name of an instrument may stand for the name of the action this instrument produces or is associated with, e. g. "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears." (W. Shakespeare) or the name of a symbol used instead of that which this symbol denotes, as in: "(England)... sucked the blood of other countries, destroyed the brains and hearts of Irishmen, Hindus, Egyptians, Boers and Burmese." (J. Galsworthy), where the words "blood", "brains", "heart" stand for the economic, intellectual and spiritual life of the people referred to. That what the man possesses may be used for the man himself, e. g. "Director Rippleton had also married money." (S. Lewis), just as a quality of a thing may stand for the thing itself, e. g. "Then she turned round and took a long mournful look at grandma's blackness and at Fenella's black coat." (K. Mansfield)

Synecdoche is based on a specific kind of metonymic relationship, which may be considered as quantitative. This is when a part stands for the whole or when the whole stands for a part, an individual for a whole class, or a whole class for an individual, etc. E. g. "The Goth, the Christian-Time-War-Flood and fire, have dealt upon the seven-hilled City's pride." (G. Byron)

What are our woes and sufferance? Come and see

The cypress — hear the owl — and plod your way

O'er steps of broken thrones and temples — Ye! (G. Byron)

Antonomasia is the use of a proper name for a common one. Antonomasia may be metaphoric, i. e. based upon a similarity between two things: "The Giaconda smile". (A. Huxley) It is metonymic when the name of a person stands, for instance, for the thing he has created, as in: "Where one man would treasure a single Degas, Renoir, Cezanne, Mr. Ferraro bought wholesale." (G. Greene)

The appeal to imagination in a metonymy (synecdoche and metonymic antonomasia) is believed to be much weaker than that contained in a metaphor or a simile. Nevertheless, the former, too, is a powerful means of poetic expression. Its force lies in the intense conciseness with which it can pick out one particular aspect of a complex thing (or idea) making the thing itself easier to com­prehend. E. g. He has married money. He is the Napoleon of crime, etc.

Epithet is an attributive characterization of a person, thing or phenomenon. It is, as a rule, simple in form. In the majority of cases it consists of one word: adjective or adverb, modifying respectively nouns or verbs, e. g. "The glow of an angry sunset." (Ch. Dickens) "Carrying himself straight and soldierly." (E. Heming­way) Sometimes epithets may be expressed by nouns, mostly in of-phrases: "They had the spirit of modesty." (J. Steinbeck) or compounds — equivalents of whole phrases: "Brian feeling a quiet I-told-you-so satisfaction at the unalterable laws." (A. Sillitoe)

There is one other type of epithet, as in: "Denis raised the enormous bulwark of the Times against the possible assault of Mr. Scogan." (A. Huxley) or in: "This Burns of a city." (Th. Dreiser) In such phrases the relation between the modifier and the modified is of a peculiar nature. What in essence is the modified stands in the position of the modifier: "of the Times", "of a city". The change in the position gives the modified noun high emotional colour­ing. Such epithets are, in a way, compressed similes (the bulwark of the Times — the Times was like a bulwark; the Burns of a city — the city was like Burns).

Most manuals on style warn their readers to distinguish between a poetic epithet and a simple adjective. The former is said to create an image, while the latter indicates one of the inherent properties of the thing spoken about. But, writes R. Jacobson, when in 1919 the Moscow Lin­guistic Circle discussed how to define and delimit the range of epitheta ornantia, V. Mayakovski rebuked them by saying that for him any adjective while in poetry was thereby a poetic epithet.¹ Indeed, a dividing line between the two is often hard to draw. Thus, for instance, in the word-group "young Tom" — "young" may merely define the age of one who is called Tom. In such a case it is a simple adjective. Hut the attribute "young" may also express the author's emotional attitude to Tom in which case "young" is an epithet.

Authors whose writing is not obvious, who refrain from direct expression of their emotional attitude often resort to marginal cases. In the title of G. Greene's story "Special Duties" the word "special" might be considered to define the duties performed, in which case it is a pure adjective, a sort of term, devoid of any connotation, cf. the Russian особые поручения». But on reading the story one comes to realize that what seemed at first sight to be a mere term is, in fact, brimful of a subtle implica­tion. It conveys the author's ironic attitude to the duties Miss Saunders, the secretary, was employed to perform.

Epithets on the whole show purely individual emotional attitude of the speaker towards the object spoken of. It does not define a property of the object spoken of; it de­scribes the object as it appears to the speaker. -

An epithet may be based on an analogy when certain properties of one class of things are reflected upon a thing of another class. This is a metaphoric epithet, e. g. "The submarine laughter was swelling, rising, ready to break the surface of silence." (A. Huxley), or: "The dawn with silver-sandalled feet crept like a frightened girl." (O. Wilde)

But in most cases epithets are not based on analogy — they just merely denote the speaker's attitude to what is being spoken about: "To fulfil this condition was hope­lessly out of my power." (B. Shaw) "The new and very serious and Hyper-educated generation." (J. Joice)

There are also the so-called conventional (standing) epithets, a sort of literary cliché. They mostly occur in folklore or in the works of individual writers based on or imitating folklore: my true love, merry old linuhimi, merry month of May, wide world, etc.

Allusion is a reference to specific places, persons, " literary characters or historical events that, by some association, have come to stand for a certain thing or an idea: The frequently resorted to sources are mythology and the Bible, e. g. "We are met here as the guests of — what shall I call them? — the Three Graces of the Dublin musical world. The table burst into applause and laughter at this allusion." (J. Joyce) The full impact of an allu­sion, the perception of the idea it is employed to suggest comes to that reader who is aware of the origin, i. e. the original sense of the word, phrase, place or character allud­ed to. Thus, for instance, in I he quoted example the cause of applause and laughter at the .speaker's allusion to "the Three Graces of the Dublin musical world" who , in this case are three elderly spinsters is perceived by him who knows Hint the three Graces in Roman mythol­ogy were goddesses nl beauty, joy and female charm. Allusions may function within the literary text as meta­phoric epithets, metaphors proper, similes, periphrases. Quotations embedded in the text are. a type of allusion.

Zeugma is a figure of speech which consists of one main element and a number of adjuncts. The adjuncts represent semantically different word-classes thus differ­ing in the type and degree of cohesion with the main ele­ment. E. g. "He had a good taste for wine and whiskey and an emergency bell in his bedroom." (G. Greene), where the verb "had" simultaneously governs such two unrelated sequences as "a good taste for", and "an emergency bell". The contrast between the syntactic identity of adjuncts and their semantic incompatibility is a means of creating dif­ferent commutative effects (humorous, ironic, etc.)

E.g. "Either you or your head must be off." (L. Carroll) "Juan was a bachelor of arts, and parts, and hearts." (G. Byron)

Oxymoron is a kind of antithesis in that is also based upon a contrast between two words. But contrary to the antithesis where contrastive words are contraposed (in parallel constructions), in the oxymoron contrastive. Words may be juxtaposed as modifier and modified, r. g. "The enchanting tale, the tale of pleasing woe." (J. Keats) "Oh, the sweetness of the pain." (J. Keats) "The glories of their particular France so nicely rotting." (S. Lewis) "Part­ing is such sweet sorrow." (W. Shakespeare) "She was filled with a glad terror." (A. Myrer) "The unreached Para­dise of our despair." (G. Byron) "The wordy silence tumbled her." (O. Wilde)

Also as a verb + a noun governed by the verb, r, g. "He had lived a very long time with death and was a little detached." (E. Hemingway); or: "Doomed lo liberty." (O. .Henry)

The juxtaposition of two contrastive words is not in essence illogical for with the help of it the speaker empha­sizes the complex nature of the thing spoken about; both elements of the pair bring out some feature or quality of the thing or phenomenon spoken about. E.g. "'Fortunately,' he said 'we can share our pleasures. We are not always condemned to be happy alone.'" (A. Huxley) In the majority of cases the modifier conveys the author's or the character's personal attitude towards what is modified, e. g. sweet sorrow; glad terror; nicely rolling.

In an original oxymoron, as could be seen in Ihe above given examples, the denotative meaning correlates with the connotative meaning and the latter does not contradict but in fact helps lo grasp the denotation more readily. Frequently repealed oxymorons become trite and lexicalized. Some of them are nothing other than intensifiers: awfully nice, mighty small, frightfully happy. Original oxymorons do not often occur- in texts but their scarcity does not speak of their inexpressiveness. In fact, as already stated, they help to reveal the inner contradictions that underlie objective phenomena; they are considered to be a special form of paradox.

Paradox is also based on contrast, being a statement contradictory to what is accepted as a self-evident or proverbial truth. E. g. "I think that life is far too impor­tant a thing ever to talk seriously about it." (0. Wilde) "My experience is that as soon as people are old enough to know better, they don't know anything at all." (O. Wilde) "A smock so artistic and modern and novel that it might have been worn by her grandmother," (S. Lewis) "I never like giving information to the police. It saves them trouble." (G. Greene). "Wine costs money, blood costs nothing." (B. Shaw)

The appeal of a paradox lies in the fact that, however contradictory it may seem to be to the accepted maxim, it contains, nevertheless, a certain grain of truth, which makes it an excellent vehicle of satire. Indeed, it is a device much favoured by many English and American satirists.

Paradox can be considered a figure of speech with cer­tain reservations, since the aesthetic principle that under­lies it; i. e. contrast has divers linguistic manifestations.

Pun (paronomasia, a play on words) is a figure of speech emerging as an effect created by words similar or identical⁴ in their sound form and contrastive or incompat­ible in meaning.

The sound form played upon may be either a polyse­mantic word, as in: "Her nose was sharp, but not so sharp as her voice or, the suspiciousness with which she faced Martin." (S. Lewis) "... Were it not here apparent that thou art heir apparent." (W. Shakespeare); or complete/ partial homonyms, as in: "So sound as things that are hol­low." (W. Shakespeare); or: "The Importance of Being Ear­nest" (O. Wilde); or: "But what trade ail thou? Answer me directly. A trade, sir, that I hope, I may use with a safe conscience which is Indeed, sir, a mender of bad soles." (W. Shakespeare). The meanings inherent in the sound com­plex may be either .simultaneously realized (see the exam­ple with the words sound, earnest, sole) or kept distinct interwoven with one another in a decorative fashion, ns in: "Hath Romeo slain himself? Say thou but 'aye' and that bare vowel T shall poison more than the death-darting eye of cockatrice." (W. Shakespeare)

However playful is the effect of pun,, however intricate and sudden is the merging of senses in one sound complex, in a truly talented work this unit of poetic speech shares equally with others in the expression of the author's mes­sage; it is a vehicle of the author's thought and not a mere decoration. Consider, for instance, the following: "Oh, nowadays we are all of us so hard up that the only pleasant things to pay are compliments. They are the only things we can pay." (O. Wilde)

Let me be cruel, not unnatural:

I will speak daggers to her, but use none;

My tongue .and soul in this be hypocrites. (W. Shakespeare)

The figures of speech called understatement, litotes, and overstatement are also based on contrast: the contrast is between the real and the expressed values of the object.

Understatement is an expression of an idea in an excessively restrained language, <>. g. "He knows a thing or two"; "Mr. Ferraro thought at first that it was the warmth of the day that had caused her to be so inefficiently clothed ..." (G. Greene)

Overstatement (hyperbole) as the word itself suggests is an expression of an idea in an exceedingly exag­gerate language, e. g. "That was fiercely annoying." (A. Cop-pard) "Their flat was a fourth floor one and there was — O, fifteen thousand stairs!" (A. Coppard) "I'd cross the world to find you a pin." (A. Coppard)

Whereas various forms of litotes and understatement are an expression of a restrained, non-committal or subtly ironic tone of writing, supra-average cases of overstatement, on the contrary, are characteristic of an obviously emotion­al, if not altogether impassioned, manner of representation.