6.2 Main Types of Word Meaning,6.2.1 Grammatical meaning Grammatical meaning consists of word-class and inflectional paradigm (词形变化). 1. Word-class: Word-class is traditionally known as the part of speech of the word. e.g. modern : adj., modernize: v, modernization: n 2.Lexical meaning is dominant in content words, whereas grammatical meaning is dominant in function words, but in neither case is grammatical meaning absent.,The two kinds of meaning can be demonstrated by nonsense verse:,Lewis Carrolls Jabberwocky, in Through the Looking Glass”, 1871 .(first stanza) Twas brillig,and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome rath outgrabe.”,.,Nonsense sentences or verses are not strings of random words put together. The words are combined according to regular rules of syntax with grammatical signals, i.e. function words, except that the content words are arbitrarily invented without lexical meaning and what is left is only grammatical meaning,2. Inflectional paradigm词形变化,e.g. cat-cats, mouse-mice; great- greater to walk-walked, to writewrites, wrote, written The set of grammatical forms of a word are called its paradigm. Nouns are declined, verbs are conjugated (动词)变化, and gradable可分级的 adjectives have degrees of comparison. The lexical meaning of a word is the same throughout the paradigm; that is, all the word-forms of one and the same word have the same lexical meaning, yet the grammatical meaning varies from one word-form to another;,On the other hand the grammatical meaning is the same in identical set of individual forms of different words, e.g. played, sang, worked, etc. desks, data, boxes, etc.,6.2.2 Lexical meaning,Another component of word meaning is lexical meaning, which is different from grammatical meaning in two respects: a. Lexical meaning of a word is the same in all the forms of one and the same word while the grammatical meaning varies from one word-form to another; b. Every word has a different lexical meaning, whereas the grammatical meaning is the same in identical sets of individual forms of different words.,1. Denotative meaning,Denotative meaning / conceptual meaning. It is the central factor in linguistic communication. One of the functions of words is to designate or describe something, such as an object, a property, a process or a state of affairs. .Denotative meaning involves the relationship between a linguistic unit (esp. a lexical item) and the non-linguistic entities to which it refers. (Crystal 1980) e.g. chair: a piece of furniture for one person to sit on, having a back and, usually, four legs.,The denotative meaning is used when the emphasis is on the relationship between language, on the one hand, and the things, events, or processes, which are external to the speaker and his language, on the other. The denotative meaning of a word is its definition given in a dictionary. e.g. water (a chemist), edema ( a physician),Characters of denotative meaning/cognitive meaning,a. Such a meaning is the basic meaning expressed in communication. It has been written in the dictionary. It has not any direct connection with the natural objects and phenomena. It never varies according to different people. e.g. woman pig tiger b. Denotative meaning is the reflection and summary of the natural things. e.g.manuscript- manu (hand) + script (write)-something written by hand barn- the place for storing wheat; now the place to keep and kind of cereal or to keep cattle. wife- woman, now refers to woman who has got married. The original meaning still exist in words like housewife, midwife.,c. Some polysemic words can have different meanings in different denotative meanings. e.g. operation - 外科手术，机器操作，经营，军事演习，运算,2. Connotative meaning,Connotative meaning refer to the emotional association which a word or a phrase suggested in ones mind; it is the supplementary value which is added to the purely denotative meaning of a word. e.g. mother-female parent; love, care, tenderness January- the first month of the year; cold weather, holiday rose- a garden flower which has a lot of petals and a pleasant smell. love,Characteristics of Connotative meaning:,a. Connotative meaning does not exist alone. It is something that lives together with the denotative meaning. It can be different among different people of different age, country, community and time. e.g. home Christmas Road,b. The connotative meaning is not limited to one speech community or one language. e.g. white- to most Chinese and westerners, certain similar favorable connotations: morally or spiritually pure; spotless, innocent.清白无暇，结白。 fox- cunning lamb- docile, gentle and obedient,c. Because connotation may vary among different people or people of different age groups, the connotation of words can increase gradually. But connotations are relatively unstable, as compared with denotation, which changes too, but not so quickly. female- denotation: woman, gir