14. Meaning. Different approaches to the problem of meaning.

All linguistic units except phonemes have meaning of a certain kind.The problem of meaning is on of the most important problem in lexicology.

The branch of lexicology that is devoted to the study of meanings is called semasiology.Semasiology deals with the following main problems. Semantic development of words,its cases and classification,types of meaning,polysemy and semantic structure of words,semantic groupings and connections in the vocabulary system(synonyms,antonyms).Meanig is one of the most controversial problems in the theory og language.There is no universially excepted definition of the term meaning. Some scholars pr. Arnold for one defines it as follows.meaning is the realization of the notion by means of a definite language system.There are 2 main points of view on the problem,2 approaches for the problem of meaning:1)referential,2)befunctional.The referential approaches is characterized by the thought that the essence of meaning lies in the interdependence between such components as sound form, thing(referent) and concept.They ry to distinguish between 3 components closely connected with meaning sound form of a linguistic sign,the concept underlying this sound form and actual referent(thing). They try to find  in what relations these components stand.This idea is expressed in the referential modal of meaning.Sound form of a linguistic sign is connected with our concept of a thing which it denotes and through it with the referent the real thing.The characteristic feature of any referential approach is the idea that mea meaning in some form or other connected with the referent and theay try to find where the place of meanings in this modal.It's clear that sound form is nit identical with its meaning, the connection between sound form and the meaning is conventional(условный).This can be proved by comparing sound forms of different  languages,conveying one and the same meaning.On the other hand words that sound the same in different languages have different meanings(cot-маленькая передвижная десткая кроватка,кот-кот).The meaning of a word is not identical with the concept either.Concept is a category of logic. Concept is the tought of the object that singles out is a is a essential features. So,concept denotes the reflexion in the mind of real objects and phenomena in theit essential features and relations.Concepts are always emotionally neutral.There are 2 types of concepts:real and unreal.Real concepts reflect reality correctly:man,sky,table.Unreal concepts denote things which do not exist in reality(nermayed-русалка,wich,devil).The concept exist only because it's expressed by the word,but the word and the concept are not equal.The concept generalizes the signs of a thing. The word names the given thing. One and the same word may express a general concept or a concrete concept, when we say the telephone is a useful invention we generalize about all telephones,but when we say the telephone is out of order we mean one concrete telephone.The thing(referent) can't be identified with meaning either. The thing exist in reality and belongs to the category of reality which is beyond the scope of language.Meaning is a category of  language and language expresses all possible aspects of human consciousness.Therefore the meaning of many words not only conveys some reflexion of objective reality but also the speaker's attitude and state of his mind to what he is speaking about.The meanings of words are different in different languages.Words expressinfgidentical concepts may have different semantic structures in different languages.Let's take the concept дом in Russian(здание,семья,очаг).In English house-здание,home-семья,очаг,дом.We can easily see the difference between meaning and concept if we compare synonyms and phrases(to die0to pass away,to kick the bucket).Thus we see the all these components sound form, concept,thing(referent) meaning are related but exist in different spheares and are different categories.The things belongs to reality,the concept to the category of thinking and meaning exists in the word and belongs to the category of language.2)Functional approach.It presupposes that the meaning of a linguistic unit may be studied only through its relation to the other linguistic units not through its relation to either concept or referent.Meaning is understood as the function of the use of linguistic signs in contexts. Meaning of the functional approach is regarded as the function of distribution. Distribution is the position of a linguistic sign in relation to the other linguistis signs.They draw a long net. They net a frogman.