SEVEN TYPES OF MEANING

BY :

I Gede Juliarthana (1541121032)

Ni Made Nita Pramita D. (1541121040)

Ni Made Eta Renita (1541121045)

Ni Made Krishna Dewi (1541121099)

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF LETTERS

WARMADEWA UNIVERSITY

DENPASAR

2018
 ABSTRACT
Language was considered as the most important and well known tool for communication.
Linguistics plays a vital role for the development of a language. Linguistics was defined as
scientific study of language which consists of four branches one among that was Semantics.
Semantics was defined as study of meaning and communication. This articles mainly dealing
with the Leech’s seven types of meaning.

Geoffrey Leech (1981) studied the meaning in a very broad way and breaks it down into
seven types [1] conceptual meaning, [2] connotative meaning, [3] stylistic meaning, [4] affective
meaning, [5] reflected meaning, [6] collective meaning and [7] thematic meaning. Of these
logical or conceptual meaning was the same as designative meaning. Leech’s connotative
meaning was different from connotation. Except conceptual meaning and thematic meaning the
other five are called associative meaning.
I. BACKGROUND

Some people would like semantics to pursue study of meaning in a wider sense of ‘all
that is communicated by language’; others (among them most modern writers within the
framework of general linguistics) limit it in practice to the study of logical or conceptual
meaning. It needs no great insight to see that semantics in the former, wider sense can lead us
once again into the void from which Bloomfield retreated with understandable misgivings- the
description of all that may be the object of human knowledge or belief. On the other hand, we
can, by carefully distinguishing types of meaning, show how they all fit into the total composite
effect of a linguistic communication, and show how method of study appropriate to one type may
not be appropriate to another.
A piece of language conveys its dictionary meaning, connotations beyond the dictionary
meaning, information about the social context of language use, speaker’s feelings and attitudes
rubbing off of one meaning on the another meaning of the same word when it has two meanings
and meaning because of habit occurrence.
Broadly speaking, ‘meaning’ means the sum total of communicated through language.
Words, Phrases and sentences have meanings which are studies in semantics.
Geoffrey Leech in his ‘Semantic- A Study of meaning’ breaks down meaning into
seven types or ingredients giving primacy to conceptual meaning. The seven other types are
Conceptual (Denotative) Meaning, Connotative Meaning, Stylistic Meaning, Affective Meaning,
Reflected Meaning, Collocative Meaning and Thematic Meaning.

II. SCOPE OF DISCUSSION

When we talk about meaning, it is important to be realized that meaning has many types.
The discussion in this study mainly very limited and related to the problems proposed below, this
discussion was focused mainly on the seven types of meaning. The analysis is focused on one
problem. It is:

1. What are the seven types of meaning?

III. DISCUSSION

There are seven types of meaning. They are :

1. Conceptual Meaning

Conceptual meaning is sometime called denotative meaning or cognitive meaning.

Larson noted denotative meaning is also called primary meaning. Meaning suggested by the
word when it used alone. The meaning learned early in life and likely to have reference to a
physical situation ( Larson. 1984: 100). Example: “Cat”

 Mammal
 Has whiskers
 Sleek and fast
 Have a great flexibility
 Meows
 Is unfriendly/ friendly
 Scratches/ has claws

2. Connotative Meaning
As we experience, word are human situations, they not only take on certain
denotation, but also often acquire individual flavor. For example let use examine the
word" brink". this denote on " edge" however in the phrase " The brink of the cliff" or the
brink of disaster, this word suggest danger and its emotive tone is that of fear.
According to leech ( 1974: 40-41) connotative meaning is the communicative
value an expression has by virtue of what it refers to, over and above its purely
conceptual content. Example : “You’re such a sweet person”

3. Stylistic Meaning

Stylistic meaning is that which a piece of language conveys about the circumstances of it
use. For example

 They chucked a stone at the cops, and then did a bunk with the loot.
  After casting a stone at the police, they absconded with the money.

Sentence (1) could be said by the two criminals, talking casually about the crime afterwards;
sentence (2) might be said by the chief of the police in making the official report; both could
describe the same happening (Leech, 1974: 15)

4. Affective Meaning.

Affective meaning is a sort of meaning which an effect the personal feeling of speakers,
including his/her attitude to the listener, or his/her attitude to something he/she talking
about.(1)”I’m terribly sorry to interrupt, but I wonder if you would be so kind as to lower your
voice as a little” or (2) “Will you belt up”. Factors such as intonation and voice timbre are also
important here. The impression of politeness in the sentence (1) can be reserved by tone of biting
sarcasm; sentence (2) can be turn into a playful remark between intimates if delivered with the
intonation of a mild request. Example:

“You are a vicious tyrant and a villainous reprobation and I hate you” or “I hate you
idiot”
Here speaker seem to have a very negative attitude towards his listener. This is called
affective meaning

5. Reflected Meaning.

Reflected meaning involves an interconnection on the lexical level of language, it is the

meaning, which arises in case of multiple conceptual meaning, when one senses of word forms
part of our response to another sense. Example:

 In poetry too we have reflected meaning as in the following line from ‘ Futility’

‘Are limbs so dear achieved, are sides, Full never still wam-too hard to stir’

 Owen here use ‘dear’ in the sense of expensiveness. – But the sense of beloved is
also eluded.

“The could not but be gay in such jocund company”

  The word “gay” was frequently used in the time of William Wordsworth but the
word now is used for “Homosexuality”.

6. Collocative Meaning.

Collocative meaning consists of the associations a word acquire s on account of the meanings
of the words, which tends to occur in its environment. Example : “Pretty” and “Handsome”.

- Pretty and handsome share common ground in the meanings ‘good-looking’, but may be
distinguished by the range of nouns which they are likely to co-occur. However, they are slightly
different from each other because of collocation or co-occurrence. The word ‘pretty’ collocates
with girls, woman, village, gardens, and flowers. On the other hand, the word ‘handsome’
collocates with boys and men.

7. Thematic Meaning.

Thematic meaning is the meaning that is communicated by the way in which the speaker or
writer organizes the message, in terms of ordering, focus, and emphasis.It is often felt an active
sentence such as (1) below has a different meaning from its passive equivalent (2) although in
conceptual content they seem to be the same (Leech. 1974: 19)

1. Mrs. Smith donated the first prize.

2. The first prize was donated by Mrs. Smith

1. Mr. President gives the bicycles to elementary school students

2. the bicycles to elementary school was given by Mr. president

We can assume that the active sentence answers an implicit question while the passive sentence
answers the implicit question. That in other words (1) in contrast to see (2) suggest that we know
who is Mrs. Smith and who is Mr. President.

IV. CONCLUSION

Geoffrey Leech (1981) studied the meaning in a very broad way and breaks it down into
seven types [1] conceptual meaning, [2] connotative meaning, [3] stylistic meaning, [4] affective
meaning, [5] reflected meaning, [6] collective meaning and [7] thematic meaning. Of these
logical or conceptual meaning was the same as designative meaning. Leech’s connotative
meaning was different from connotation. Except conceptual meaning and thematic meaning the
other five are called associative meaning.

V. REFERENCE

1. Kasni, Ni Wayan. 2017. Discourse and Advertising. Warmadewa University Press.

2. http://repository.usu.ac.id/bitstream/123456789/46186/4/Chapter II.pdf

3. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.460.2585&rep=rep1&type=pdf

4.https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Peter_Pagin/publication/267371740_Pure_Quotation_Co
mpositionality_and_the_Semantics_of_Linguistic_Context/links/546a325c0cf20dedafd383df.pdf

5. https://maxilk.wordpress.com/category/linguistics/

6. http://docs.exdat.com/docs/index-158696.html

7. http://www.slideserve.com/vidor/types-of-meaning