Words→Concepts→Things: Ogden & Richards thought/concept/image
symbolizes
refers to
symbol (word)
stands for
referent (object)
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airplane
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5. Sense
‘Meaning’ is not some kind of ‘entity’ separate from language.
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3. The meaning of meaning
C. K. Ogden & I. A. Richards (1923).
The Meaning of Meaning.
John means to write. A green light means to go.
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Health means everything. His look was full of meaning.
Linguistic semantics vs. Logical semantics/philosophical semantics
Pragmatics:
The meaning of utterances
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2. Semantic Meaning
Semantics is the study of meaning in language.
You’re a vicious tyrant and a villainous reprobate, and I hate you for it!
I’m terribly sorry to interrupt, but I wonder if you would be so kind as to lower your voices a little. or
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Involving the ‘real world’ experience one associates with an expression when one uses or hears it.
Unstable: they vary considerably according to culture, historical period, and the experience of the individual.
Time: the language of the 18th c., etc. Province: language of law, of science, of
advertising, etc. Status: polite, colloquial, slang, etc. Modality: language of memoranda, lectures, jokes,
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What is the meaning of life?
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What does ‘capitalist’ mean to you?
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What does ‘cornea’ mean? The transparent, convex, anterior portion of
the outer fibrous coat of the eyeball that covers the iris and the pupil and is continuous with the sclera.
Meaning has been studied for thousands of years by philosophers, logicians and linguists. E.g. Plato & Aristotle.
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Logicians and philosophers have tended to concentrate on a restricted range of sentences (typically, statements, or ‘propositions’) within a single language.
pretty: girl, boy, woman, flower, garden, colour, village, etc.
handsome: boy, man, car, vessel, overcoat, airliner, typewriter, etc.
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(7) Thematic meaning
Arises in cases of multiple conceptual meaning, when one sense of a word forms part of our response to another sense.
When you hear ‘click the mouse twice’, you think of Gerry being hit twice by Tom so you feel excited.
That words ‘have meaning’ means only that they are used in a certain way in a sentence. There is no ‘meaning’ beyond the meaning of individual words and sentences.
Will you belt up.
21Leabharlann ‘Colorful’ meaning
Commendatory tough-minded resolute, firm shrewd childlike wiseman
man of usual talent portly, stout, solid, plum
The linguistic approach is broader in scope, aiming to study the properties of meaning in a systematic and objective way, with reference to as wide a range of utterances and languages as possible.
Smith. They stopped at the end of the corridor. At the end of the corridor, they stopped.
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4. The Theory of Reference
Words → Meaning: Words ‘name’ or ‘refer to’ things -- Platonic
etc. Singularity: the style of Dickens, etc.
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domicile: very formal, official residence: formal abode: poetic home: general
steed: poetic horse: general nag: slang gee-gee: baby language
Many taboo terms are result of this.
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(6) Collocative meaning
The associations a word acquires on account of the meanings of words which tend to occur in its environment.
Any characteristic of the referent, identified subjectively or objectively, may contribute to the connotative meaning of the expression which denotes it.
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Geoffrey Leech (1974, 1981). Semantics: The Study of Meaning. Seven types of meaning:
Conceptual meaning
Connotative meaning
Social meaning Affective meaning Reflected and meaning
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Step mother
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(3) Social meaning
What a piece of language conveys about the social circumstances of its use.
Dialect: the language of a geographical region or of a social class.
A multitude of additional, non-criterial properties, including not only physical characteristics but also psychological and social properties, as well as typical features.
What is communicated by the way in which a speaker or writer organizes the message, in terms of ordering, focus, and emphasis.
Mrs Bessie Smith donated the first prize. The first prize was donated by Mrs Bessie
Concerned with the relationship between a word and the thing it denotes, or refers to.