Chapter 6 Meaning
Teaching aims: enable the students to have a better understanding of semantics and wording meaning.
Focal points: Leech’s seven classifications of meaning, semantic triangle, sense relations between words and sentences
Teaching difficulties: sense relations between sentences, different types of antonymy
Teaching procedure：
The outline of the chapter:
1 Semantics
2 Meanings of “meaning”
2.1 meaning by Ogdan and Richards
2. 2 meaning by G. Leech
3 Theories
3.1 The referential theoryP95
3.1.1 concept
3.1.2 arguments
3.1.3 problems
3.2 Semantic triangle
3.2.1 concept
3.2.2 arguments
3.3 Conceptual meaning
3.3.1 concept
3.3.2 arguments p96
3.3.3 problems
4 Major Sense relations
4.1 Sense relations between words
4.1.1 Sense relations
4.1.2 word meaningP97
4.1.3 componential analysis: word meaning analysis 4.2 Sense relations between sentences
4.2.1 Sense relations
4.2.2 Sentence meaning
4.2.3 integrated theory (Sentence meaning analysis)
1 Semantics
The subject concerning the study of meaning is called semantics. In linguistics, semantics is thestudy of the meaning of linguistic units, words and sentences in particular. Its goal is to reveal how language is matched with their proper meanings by the speakers of that language. Semantics is an old and young branch. Dating from Plato, the study of meaning has a long history.
So you may find several books bearing the title “semantics” but
talking about different things. Here we just focus on linguistic semantics.
In linguistics, compared with other branches we have discussed, semantics is very young and new. The term semantics is a recent addition to the English language.
It has only a history of over 100 years.
1893 French linguist Breal coined “semantique”
1897 Breal first use it as the science of meaning.
1900 its English version came out
1980s semantics began to be introduced into China “Cinderella of linguistics” (Kempson)
One of the most famous books on semantics is The Meaning of Meaning published in 1923.
2 Meanings of “meaning”
2.1 meaning (by Ogdan and Richards)
1) their book about meaning
2)arguments: 16 major category
What is the meaning of “desk”?√
I didn't mean to hurt you. (intend)
Life without faith has no meaning. (value)
It was John I mean not Harry (refer to ) √
2.2 meaning (by G. Leech)
1)his book about meaning
2)arguments: 7 major category
Denotation: the core sense of a word or a phrase that relates it to phenomena in the real world.
Connotation: some additional, esp. emotive meaning.
3 Theories
3.1 The referential theory
3.1.1 concept
The referential theory Relates the meaning of a word to the thing it refers to, or stand for.
3.1.2 arguments
3.1.3 problems
