6.1 Sentential connection
The notion of hypotactic（从属的）and paratactic（并列的）relations can also be applied to the study of syntactic relations between sentences.
Hypotactic (形合连接): There are formal connectives between sentences.
You can phone the doctor if you like. However, I very much doubt whether he is in. We live near the sea. So we enjoy a healthy climate. Paratactic (意合连接): There are no formal connectives between sentences that are linked only in meaning,
In Guangzhou it is hot and humid during the summer. In Beijing it is hot and dry. He dictated the letter. She wrote it. The door was open. He walked in. 6.2. Cohesion
Cohesion is a concept to do with discourse or text rather than with sentences. It refers to relations of meaning that exist within the text and defines it as a text. It is achieved by using such grammatical cohesive devices as reference, ellipsis, substitution, conjunction and such lexical cohesive devices as lexical repetition, synonyms, antonyms, collocation, etc.: He could not open the door. It was locked tight. (reference) Why don?t you use a recorder? I don?t have one. (substitution) Did she get there at 6? No, she got there earlier (than 6). (ellipsis) We live near the sea. So we enjoy a healthy climate. (conjunction) Algy met a bear. The bear was bulgy. (lexical repetition)
He was just wondering which road to take when he was startled by a noise from behind him. It was the noise of trotting horses. … He dismounted and led his horse as quickly as he could along the right-hand road. The sound of the cavalry grew rapidly nearer. …(synonymy) He fell asleep. What woke him was a loud crash. (antonymy)
A little fat man of Bombay was smoking one very hot day. But a bird called Snipe flew away with his pipe, which vexed the fat man of Bombay. (lexical collocation)
Chapter 5 Meaning
1. Meanings of ‘meaning’
One difficulty in the study of meaning is that the word ?meaning? itself has different meanings, e.g. Ogden and Richards presented in 1923 a representative list of the main definitions which reputable students of meaning have favored, amounting to 16 categories. Geoffery Leech, a well-known British linguist, recognizes seven types of meaning as follows:
Conceptual meaning (central): logical, cognitive, denotative content, e.g. woman: a female human being, breakfast: food eaten in the morning. Associative meaning (peripheral):
Connotative meaning: What is communicated by virtue of what language refers to. Cross-individual differences, e.g. woman: long hair wearing, dress and skirt wearing, having maternal instinct, subject to instinct, prone to shed tears, physically weaker, inconstant, sociable and gregarious, emotional, compassionate, sensitive, tender and gentle, capable of speech, experienced in cookery, hard-working. Cross-cultural differences: individualism: (English) a doctrine claiming that the rights of individuals should be put over and above the rights of society, (Chinese) selfishness; book: (English) containing ideas for people to think about, to discuss, to
make comments, (Chinese) containing knowledge for people to learn. There are synonyms differing in connotation: politician and statesman, farmer and peasant
Social meaning (stylistic meaning): What is communicated of the social circumstances of language use, e.g. torch and flash light, department for rent and flat to let; answer and reply, room and chamber; fire, flame and conflagration, weak, feeble and fragile; domicile, residence, abode and home, steed, horse and nag.
Affective meaning: what is communicated of the feelings and attitudes of the speaker / writer, e.g. you?re a liar. I hate you for that.
He had flashes of silence that made his conversation perfectly delightful. For she was beautiful – her beauty made The bright world dim, and everything beside Seemed like the fleeting image of a shade.
“Generally speaking,” said Miss Murdstone, “I don?t like boys. How d?ye do, boy?” under these encouraging circumstances, I replied that I was very well, and wished that she was the same, with such indifferent grace that Miss Murdstone disposed of me in two words, -- “Wants manner！” Reflected meaning: What is communicated through association with another sense of the same expression, e.g. The Comforter and The Holy Ghost, the morning star and the evening star; intercourse, ejaculation, erection and cock.
Collocative meaning: What is communicated through association with words which tend to occur in the environment of another word, e.g. Pretty: girl, woman, flower, garden, colour, village
Handsome: boy, man, car, vessel, overcoat, airliner, typewriter
Thematic meaning: what is communicated by the way in which the message is organized in terms of order and emphasis, e.g.
Mr. Micawber has talent but doesn?t have capital.
Talent Mr. Micawber has, capital Mr. Micawber has not 2. The referential theory
The referential theory is a theory of meaning which relates the meaning of a word to the thing it refers to, or stands for.
Problems: 1) not every word has a reference, e.g. but, on, the. 2) a word is not related to a particular object in the world, e.g. book does not refer to a particular book. Its name, author, publisher, color, thickness and price do not matter when the word is used. The word refers to something abstract in language users? mind, which is usually known as concept. The semantic triangle (associated with Ogden and Richards): Concept
word ------------------ thing
3. Sense relations
Sense refers to the abstract properties of an entity, while reference refers to concrete entities having these properties. In other words, Leech?s conceptual meaning has two sides: sense and reference. Every word has a sense, but not every word has a reference. Sense relations
Synonymy: sameness relation. But total synonymy is rare. Synonyms may differ in style (Little
Tom (bought, purchased) a toy bear.) and in connotation (At first I was poor, then I became needy, later I was underprivileged. Now I?m disadvantaged. I still don?t have a cent to my name, but I sure have a great vocabulary). There are dialectal differences as well, e.g. biscuit（英：饼干，美：软饼）, corn（英：谷物，美：玉米）, jumper（英：毛衣，美：套衫）, truck（英：铁路平板车，美：卡车）, store（英：货栈，美：商店）。 Antonymy: oppositeness relation.
Gradable antonymy: e.g. big - small, old - young, cold - hot, etc. these antonyms have three features: 1) they are gradable: they differ in terms of degree and can be modified by very and used in comparative and superlative degrees, 2) they are graded against different norms: a very small elephant is much bigger than a very big mouse, 3) usually the term for the higher degree serves as the core term (or unmarked term), long vs short.
Complementary antonymy: alive - dead, male - female, present - absent, odd - even. The assertion of one means the denial of the other and the denial of one means the assertion of the other. Complementary antonyms have three features, 1) they are similar to contradictory propositions （矛盾命题）in logic: they cannot be both true or false, e.g. This is a male cat. This is a female cat. In contrast, a pair of gradable antonyms can be compared to contrary propositions （反对命题）in logic: they cannot be both true, even though they can be both false, e.g. The coffee is hot. The coffee is cold. 2) the norm of this type is absolute, e.g. a male creature cannot be male in some situations while a female in other situations. 3) there is no cover term ( the unmarked term) for the two members of a pair.
Converse antonymy (relational opposites): the reversal of a relationship between two entities, e.g. buy – sell, lend – borrow, parent – child, host – guest, before – after. John borrowed something from Jane means the same as Jane lent something to John.
Hyponymy: meaning inclusiveness, e.g. furniture (superordinate) – desk, sofa, bed, chair, cupboard, etc. (hyponyms or co-hyponyms) color
green yellow red
scarlet crimson vermilion living
plant animal
bird fish insect animal
human animal
tiger wolf elephant monkey 4. Componential analysis
The meaning of a word is seen as a complex of semantic features or components, e.g.
boy: HUMAN, YOUNG, MALE; girl: HUMAN, YOUNG, FEMALE; man: HUMAN, ADULT, MALE;
woman: HUMAN, ADULT, FEMALE; dog: CANINE, ADULT, MALE bitch: CANINE, ADULT, FEMALE puppy: CANINE, YOUNG
bull：BOVINE, ADULT, MALE cow: BOVINE, ADULT, FEMALE calf: BOVINE, YOUNG
If combined into binary features, then: boy: HUMAN, -ADULT, MALE; girl: HUMAN, -ADULT, -MALE; man: HUMAN, ADULT, MALE; woman: HUMAN, ADULT, -MALE.
Words that involve a relation between two entities can be shown:
Father: PARENT (x, y) & MALE (x) = x is the parent of y and x is male. Mother: PARENT (x, y) & -MALE (x) = x is the parent of y and x is female. Son: CHILD (x, y) & MALE (x) = x is the child of y and x is male.
Daughter: CHILD (x, y) & -MALE (x) =x is the child of y and x is female. Verbs can also be analyzed in this way, e.g.
Take: CAUSE (x, (HAVE (x, y))) = x causes x to have y. Give: CAUSE (x, (-HAVE (x, y))) = x causes x not to have y. Die: BECOME (x, (-ALIVE (x))) = x becomes dead.
Kill: CAUSE (x, (BECOME (y, (-ALIVE (y)))) = x causes y to become dead
Sense relations may be better explained in terms of semantic components. Two words or expressions having the same semantic components will be synonyms, e.g. bachelor and unmarried man: HUMAN, ADULT, MALE, UNMARRIED. Two words having contrasting semantic components will be antonyms, e.g. man and woman, take and give, etc. Hyponyms have all the semantic components of their superordinates, e.g. boy and girl: HUMAN，-ADULT and child: HUMAN，-ADULT.
Problems with semantic componential analysis:
1) Many words are polysemous. Consequently they have different sets of semantic components,
e.g. man usually has the semantic component MALE, but it may also apply to both sexes, e.g. Man is mortal.
2) Some semantic components are binary, e.g. MALE and FEMALE, ADULT and YOUNG.
There is a clear-cut division line between MALE and FEMALE. But there is not such a clear-cut division line between ADULT and YOUNG. The division line between boy and man is fuzzy and that between girl and woman is even fuzzier.
3) There may be words whose semantic features are difficult to ascertain. So whether it is
possible to analyze all the lexical items in this way remains a question difficult to answer. 5. Semantic field theory
A summary of the referential theory, sense relations and componential analysis. How are the words in a language organized according to the meaning expressed?
相关推荐：
loading