Language and Culture,“Careful with fire,” is good advice, we know; “Careful with words,” is ten times doubly so. Will Carleton, The First Settlers Story,Warm UP,In a physics class Professor: What is matter? Student: Never mind. Professor: Then what is mind? Student: It doesnt matter.,什么是物质？ 不关心。 什么是心智？ 不重要,Case 1 Shoes for Street Walking,It is said that in Rome, in front of a shoe store, there was such a sign to attract English-speaking customers: Shoes for street walking. Come in and have a fit. The sign caught the attention of many English-speaking tourists, but not to look at the shoes displayed in the windows, but to read the sign and then break out into laughter.,Case 2 Look Out!,A foreign student in the U.S. was sitting by a window reading a book. She heard someone yelling “Look out!”, so she stuck her head out of the window. Just then a board hurtled down from above, narrowly missing her. She looked up, half in anger and half in fright. There was a man on the roof doing repairs. “Didnt you hear me call Look out?” he demanded. “Yes, and thats what I did,” she replied.,Case 3 A Misunderstanding Caused by a Joke,Roger was the Personnel Executive of a large American multinational firm. In 1996, Roger was working in Brazil to help promote their business. One evening, there was a party, attended by both his employees from the United States and many Brazilian business people. At the party, Roger bumped into Rosalita, a Brazilian woman he had known for some time. Roger generally had a very good impression of Rosalita and always felt at ease with her, so that he felt free to tell jokes and share personal thoughts, and talk about Brazil and Brazilian life without having the jitters of offending Rosalita.,During the party, Rosalita said to Roger, “Id like to introduce you to one of my good friends. She is a very capable woman and is presently thinking of working in a joint venture so she can provide a better living for her large family. She is very much interested in your company.” Hearing that, Roger smiled and replied, “OK, but I just hope I dont get hustled.” unfortunately, Rogers reply made Rosalita quite upset. Very soon she excused herself as politely as she could, and did not speak with Roger for the rest of the evening.,Commercial signs,Is forbidden to steal hotel towels please. If you are not a person to do such a thing is please not to read notice. (from a Tokyo hotel) The lift is being fixed for the next day. During that time we regret that you will be unbearable. (in a Bucharest hotel lobby),The flattening of underwear with pleasure is the job of the chambermaid. (in a Yugoslavian hotel) Our wines leave you nothing to hope for. (on the menu of a Swiss restaurant) Order your summer suit. Because is big rush we will execute customers in strict rotation. (in a Rhodes tailor shop) It is forbidden to enter a woman even a foreigner if dressed as a man. (in a Bangkok temple),Ladies are requested not to have children at the bar. (in a Norwegian cocktail lounge) We take your bags and send them in all directions. (in a Copenhagen airline office) It is strictly forbidden on our black forest camping site that people of different sex, for instance, men and women, live together in one tent unless they are married with each other for that purpose. (a sign posted in a German park) Specialist in Women and Other Diseases. (a sign outside a doctors office in Rome),Grammatical meaning 语法意义,Types of Meanings of a Word,Types of meaning,Lexical meaning 词汇意义,Conceptual meaning 概念意义,Associative meaning 联想意义,Connotative meaning 内涵意义,Stylistic meaning 文体意义,Affective meaning 感情意义,Collocative meaning 搭配意义,The dog is chasing a ball.,Grammatical meaning (word-class词类 & inflectional paradigm词形变化表),dog, ball nouns, subject and object singular is chasing predicative verb present continuous tense the, a determiners singular,Conceptual meaning,Conceptual meaning is also called denotative meaning外延意义, referential meaning所指意义，or cognitive meaning认识意义. It is meaning given in the dictionary and forms the core of word-meaning. It is constant and relatively stable.,Associative meaning,Secondary meaning supplemented to the conceptual meaning. open-ended and indeterminate. Influenced by such factors: culture, experience, religion, geography, class background, education. e.g. reflection in ad.,Connotative meaning,Overtones or associations suggested by the conceptual meaning Unstable, varying according to culture, historical period, and the experience of the individual e.g. “mother”: love, care, tenderness, forgiving “home”: there is no place like home. “Frailty, thy name is woman.” Shakespeare,Stylistic meaning,Refers to that part of word meaning conveyed in different social circumstances of its use. Words in this respect can be divided into: frozen刻板体 formal正式体 consultative询议体 casual随便体 intimate亲密体 e.g. ask/question/interrogate,Frozen: Visitors are supposed to make their way at once to the upper floor by w