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TYPES OF MEANING

Types of Meaning
Regrettably, the multifaceted approach to linguistic meaning baffles the student of semantics. This approach has, however, one advantage: it

leads to a distinction of the types of meaning,


based on the focus of language use

Connotative Meaning
Connotative meaning is the communicative value an expression has by virtue of what it refers to, over and above its purely conceptual content . In other word, connotative meaning is the 'real word' experience one associates with an expression when using or hearing it. It is peripheral, unstable, indeterminate and open-ended.

For example, the connotative meaning of 'woman' could include the following properties, none of which is accepted by most speakers of the same linguistic community.

social ('gregarious', 'subject to maternal instinct') typical but not invariable ('capable of speech', 'experienced in cookery', 'skirt-or-dresswearing') putative, due to the viewpoint adopted by an individual or a group of people or a whole society ('frail', 'prone to tears', 'cowardly', 'emotional', 'irrational', 'inconsistent' [viewpoints of misogynists], 'gentle', 'compassionate', 'sensitive', 'hard-wording [viewpoints of feminists')

Denotative meaning

literature meaning when their definition is as listed in the dictionary. Yet denotative meaning is vice versa of connotative meaning, while literature meaning is vice versa of figurative meaning.

Denotative meaning is the same term for

1. Envelope; a flat, usually square or rectangular, paper container for a letter. Sentence: I have posted my letter to you with blue color envelope. 2. Watch; a small clock which is worn on a strap around the wrist or, sometimes, connected to a piece of clothing by a chain. Sentence: My watch seems to have stopped - it

Examples:

says 10:15 but I'm sure it must be later. He glanced nervously at his watch.

Stylistic Meaning
Stylistic Meaning It is the social circumstances of language use, such as the following situational overtones conveyed by an expression:

Demographic information of a speaker. Education received of a speaker. Social Status of a speaker. The genre of the writing For example, 'domicile', 'residence', 'abode', 'home' all have the same conceptual meaning, but their stylistic meanings are different. They imply 'official', 'formal', 'poetic', 'general', respectively.

Affective Meaning

Affective meaning is the feelings and attitudes of the speaker /writer conveyed by an expression (such as politeness, admiration, hatred, love, annoyance, etc.)Compare:

Shut up! vs. I hate to interrupt, but could you please lower your voices a little bit?
In addition to choosing different words, using different tones of voice can change the affective meaning as well.

Collocative Meaning

Collocative meaning refers to the association with words which tend to collocate (or co-occur) with the expression in question.

Collocative Meaning
girl boy Boy Man

woman
pretty flower garden color village handsome

Car
Vessel Overcoat Airliner Typewriter

Associative meaning
Associative meaning is that part of meaning which has been supplemented to the conceptual meaning. It is the meaning which arises of the associations a word acquires. It is open-ended, unstable and indeterminate, because it varies with culture, time, place, class, individual experiences, etc. Associative meaning includes connotative, stylistic, affective and collocative meanings.

Thematic Meaning
Thematic meaning is what is communicated by the way in which a speaker or writer organizes the message in terms of ordering (linguistics elements of a sentence focus and emphasis (of the information). It is often the case that two sentences have the same conceptual meaning in that acceptance of the truth value of one entails the acceptance of that of the other; however, they are still different from each other in other aspects. For example,

ordering

focus

Mrs. Bessie Smith donated the first prize (answering what did Mrs. Bessie Smith did/donate? Mrs. Bessie Smith is OLD INFORMATION, i.e. we know who she is.) The first prize was donated by Mrs. Bessie Smith (answering who was the first prize donated by? Mrs. Bessie Smith is NEW INFORMATION, i.e. we don't know who she is until we hear this sentence.) I like Danish Cheese best. Danish cheese I like best. It's Danish cheese that I like best.

references
Kempson, R. 1977. Semantic Theory. London: Cambridge University Press. Leech, G.N. 1981. Semantics. Hardsworth: Penguin. Lyons, J. 1981. Language and Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Watts, N. 1989. Language and Communication. Palmerston North.: Dumore P

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