Lexical meaning.
Lexical meaning are studied by semantics (semasiology).
In English “semantics”meant a science for predicting the future ( the weather)
Modern use: a science relating to lexical meaning.
Meaning is very ambiguous, contradiction.
Ogden and Richards : ”Meaning of meaning” gave 16 definitions of “meaning”
Вигденштейн: the meaning of the word is it’s use in the language.
Ельмслив was sure that in absolute isolation no sign has any meaning. Language can’t be described as a pure system of signs. It’s only with the communicative function of any language we called it external function that sign system begin to operate.
Блумфилд: meaning of the utterance is the situation in which the speaker utters it and the response which it calls forth in the hearer. Human utterances supposed to be connected with certain situations and accompanied by certain responses.
Harris: the meaning of an element in each linguistic environment is the difference between the meaning of it linguistic environment and the whole utterance.
The meaning of “blue” in “blueberry” is the meaning of “blue” minors berry. “Blue” is not simply a color, but the difference from other berries.
Sapire and Vygotsky they spoke about the link between speaking and thinking and gave the following definition: the meaning of a word presents such a close amalgam of thought and language that it’s hard to tell whether it’s a phenomenon of speech or thought. Thought is not just expressed in words, it comes into existence through them, so the relation of thought to word is not a thing, but a process.
Linguistic approaches to “meaning”
Sassurre wanted semantics to keep within linguistic boundaries only. His theory of meaning uses the analogy of a sheet of paper whose 2 sides are parts of a whole.
In language one can neither divide sound from thought nor thought from sound.
Linguistic operate in the border land where the elements of sound and thought combine.
The formal relationship between them is achieved in the sign. We can’t do anything to one sign of the side (signifier) without affecting the other. If a change occurs in signifier in signification.
It was translated by Ulman.
name- signifier
sense- signification
This diagram doesn’t restrict the sense- name connection to one-to-one relationship (однозначное соответствие) 1 имя-1 значение
On the contrary, several senses can be attached to a single name
“head” -of a person
-of a company
-of a cabbage
And vice versa,
car mean four- wheeled vehicle (the same)
automobile
motorcar
1.
Name
sense n (head)
sense1 sense 2
2. Name 1 Name2 Name n
(car)
sense
“light” The following relationship can be observed:
Homonymic relationship
Adj. Light (bright) is a homonym of light (not heavy)
2. Sense association.
The noun “light” is associated with sunlight, brightness, etc.
3. Formal and semantic relationship.
The noun ”light” has a direct formal and semantic relationship with – the adj. “light”
-the verb “light”
and -the verb “lighten”
-the noun “lightning”
(formal and semantic) (homonymic)
3
.
Name n Name 1 Name 2
Name 3 Name 4 (light)
Sense n Sense 1 Sense 2 Sense 3 Sense 4
(sense link)
The description doesn’t take into account the variety of context.