Aspects of Lexical Meaning

ASPECTS OF LEXICAL MEANING
THE DENOTATIONAL ASPECT
THE CONNOTATIONAL ASPECT
THE PRAGMATIC ASPECT
COMPONENTIAL ANALYSIS

1. THE DENOTATIONAL ASPECT
The denotational aspect of lexical meaning is the part of lexical meaning which establishes correlation between the name and the object, phenomenon, process or characteristic feature of concrete reality (or thought), which is denoted by the given word.
e.g. booklet - ‘a small thin book that gives information about something’

Through the denotational aspect of meaning the bulk of information is conveyed in the process of communication.
The denotational aspect of lexical meaning:
expresses the notional content of a word.
is the component of the lexical meaning that makes communication possible.

2. THE CONNOTATIONAL ASPECT
The connotational aspect of lexical meaning is the part of meaning which reflects the attitude of the speaker towards what he speaks about. Connotation conveys additional information in the process of communication.

Connotation includes:
The emotive charge is one of the objective semantic features proper to words as linguistic units and forms part of the connotational component of meaning, e.g. daddy as compared to father.
a hovel – ‘a small house or cottage’ – implies a miserable dwelling place, dirty, in bad repair and in general unpleasant to live in.

synonyms

Evaluation, which may be positive or negative, e.g.
clique (a small group of people who seem unfriendly to other people) as compared to group (a set of people);
celebrated (widely known for special achievement in science, art, sport, etc.) as compared to notorious (widely known for criminal act or bad traits of character).

Imagery:
to wade – to walk with an effort (through mud, water or anything that makes progress difficult). The figurative use of the word gives rise to another meaning, which is based on the same image as the first – to wade through a book ;

intensity/expressiveness, e.g. to adore – to worship – to love – to like;
connotation of cause, duration etc.

Thus, a meaning can have two or more connotational components.
The given examples present only a few: emotive, evaluative connotations, and also connotations of duration and of cause.

3. Examples of different types of Connotation
I. The connotation of degree or intensity
to surprise — to astonish — to amaze — to astound;
to satisfy — to please — to content — to gratify — to delight — to exalt;
to shout — to yell — to bellow — to roar; to like — to admire — to love — to adore — to worship

II. Connotation of duration
to stare — to glare — to gaze — to glance — to peep — to peer;
to flash (brief) — to blaze (lasting);
to shudder (brief) — to shiver (lasting);
to say (brief) — to speak, to talk (lasting).

III. Emotive connotations
to stare — to glare — to gaze;
alone — single — lonely — solitary;
to tremble — to shiver — to shudder — to shake;
to love — to admire — to adore — to worship;
angry — furious — enraged;
fear — terror — horror.

IV. The evaluative connotation
well-known — famous — notorious — celebrated;
to produce — to create — to manufacture — to fabricate;
to sparkle - to glitter;
A. His (her) eyes sparkled with amusement, merriment, good humour, high spirits, happiness, etc. (positive emotions).
B. His (her) eyes glittered with anger, rage, hatred,
malice, etc. (negative emotions).

V. Causative connotation
to sparkle - to glitter;
to shiver - to shudder;
to blush - to redden.

VI. Connotation of Manner
to stroll — to stride — to trot — to pace — to swagger — to stagger — to stumble;
to peep - to peer;
to like — to admire — to love — to adore — to worship.

VII. The connotation of attendant circumstances
One peeps at smb./smth. through a hole, crack or opening, from behind a screen, a half-closed door, a newspaper, a fan, a curtain, etc. It seems as if a whole set of scenery were built within the word's meaning. It is not quite so, because "the set of scenery" is actually built in the context, but, as with all regular contexts, it is intimately reflected in the word's semantic structure.

One peers at smb./smth. in darkness, through the fog, through dimmed glasses or windows, from a great distance; a short-sighted person may also peer at things. So, in the semantic structure of to peer are encoded circumstances preventing one from seeing clearly.

VII. Connotation of attendant features
Pretty – handsome – beautiful;
special types of human beauty:
beautiful is mostly associated with classical features and a perfect figure;
handsome with a tall stature, a certain robustness and fine proportions,
pretty with small delicate features and a fresh complexion.

IX. Stylistic connotations
(Meal). Snack, bite (coll.), snap (dial.), repast, refreshment, feast (formal).
These synonyms, besides stylistic connotations, have connotations of attendant features.
Snack, bite, snap all denote a frugal meal taken in a hurry; refreshment is also a light meal; feast is a rich or abundant meal.
(Girl). Girlie (coll.), lass, lassie (dial.), bird, birdie, jane, fluff, skirt (sl.), maiden (poet.), damsel (arch.).

Anecdote
J a n e: Would you be insulted if that good-looking stranger offered you some champagne?
J o a n: Yes, but I'd probably swallow the insult.

3. THE PRAGMATIC ASPECT
The pragmatic aspect is the part of lexical meaning that conveys information on the situation of communication. Like the connotational aspect, the pragmatic aspect falls into four closely linked together subsections.

1. Information on the ‘time and space’ relationship of the participants
Some information which specifies different parameters of communication may be conveyed not only with the help of grammatical means (tense forms, personal pronouns, etc), but through the meaning of the word.
E.g. come and go can indicate the location of the speaker who is usually taken as the zero point in the description of the situation of communication

The time element is fixed indirectly. Indirect reference to time implies that the frequency of occurrence of words may change with time and in extreme cases words may be out of use or become obsolete.
E.g.the word behold – ‘take notice, see (smth unusual)’ as well as the noun beholder – ‘spectator’ are out of use now but were widely used in the 17th century.

2. Information on the participants and the given language community;
The language used may be indicative of the social status of a person, his education, profession, etc.
The pragmatic aspect of the word may convey information about the social system of the given language community, its ideology, religion, system of norms and customs.
a) They chucked a stone at the cops, and then did a bunk with the loot.
b) After casting a stone at the police, they absconded with the money.

3. Information on the tenor of discourse
The tenors of discourse reflect how the addresser (the speaker or the writer) interacts with the addressee (the listener or reader).
Tenors are based on social or family roles of the participants of communication.
1. Don’t interrupt when your mother is speaking (family roles).
2. There is an awful man in the front row, who butts in whenever you pause (social roles).

4. Information on the register of communication
The conditions of communication form another important group of factors. The register defines the general type of the situation of communication grading the situations in formality. Three main types of the situations of communication: formal, neutral and informal.
I’m sorry if upset you, dear. I certainly didn’t mean to (informal).
There are certain qualities in his works that I greatly admire (formal).
Who is the girl I saw you with yesterday? (neutral).

LEXICAL MEANING
Denotational Connotational Pragmatic aspect aspect aspect
Emotive charge
Evaluation
Imagery
Intensity
Connotation
Information on the
‘time and space’
Information on the participants and the givenlanguage community
Information on the tenor of discourse
Information on the register of communication

IV. Componential analysis = semantic decomposition
rests upon the thesis that the sense of every lexeme can be analyzed in terms of a set of more general sense components or semantic features, some or all of which will be common to several different lexemes in the vocabulary.

Componential analysis
attempts to treat components according to ‘binary’ opposition:
male/ female,
animate/ inanimate,
adult/ non-adult,
human/ non-human.
The sense of man might be held to combine the concepts (male, adult, human).
The sense of woman might be held to differ from man in that it combines (female (not male), adult, human).

Componential analysis allows us to group entities into natural classes.
man and boy (human, male),
man and woman (human, adult).
There are certain verbs, such as marry, argue, that are found with subjects that are [+human]. Moreover, within the English pronoun system, he is used to refer to [human] entities that are [+male] while she is used for [human] entities that are [not male].

Componential analysis of the word ‘bachelor’
According to the dictionary it has 4 meanings:
a man who has never married (холостяк);
a young knight (рыцарь);
someone with a first degree (бакалавр);
a young male unmated fur seal (морской котик) during the mating season.

Bachelor
Noun
(Human) (Animal)
(Male) [who has the first of (Male)
lowest academic degree]
[who has [young knight serving [young fur seal when
never married] under the standard of without a mate during
another knight] the breeding time]
[who has never [young knight serving [young fur seal when
married] under the standard of without a mate during
another knight] the breeding time]

The old bachelor finally died.
‘Bachelor’ is not the fur seal (they are young).
(young) => is a marker not the distinguisher.
Theoretically there is no limit to the number of markers.
Markers refer to the features which the lexeme has in common with other lexical items,
a distinguisher differentiates it from all other items.
Distinguishers can be regarded as providing a denotational distinction, while semantic markers represent conceptual components of the meaning of lexical items.

Componential analysis
gives its most important results in the study of verb meaning, it is an attractive way of handling semantic relations. It is currently combined with other linguistic procedures used for the investigation of meaning.