Problems with Pinning Down
Word Meaning
Presented to
Sir Islam Pasha
Presentation Participants
Mumtaz Ahmad
Madeeha Sarwar
Problems with Pinning Down Word
Meaning
• Word meaning is slippery
• Native speakers might think, they know the
meaning of a word but they might have
vaguest feel and have to use dictionary to
check meaning.
Influence of Context on Word Meaning
• Some of the difficulties arise from the
influence of the context on the word, as
discussed by Firth (1957), Haliday (1966) and
Lyons (1963).
• It is easier to define a word if it is given in the
phrase or word.
Influence of Context on Word Meaning
• The contextual effects seem to pull word meaning
in two opposite directions.
1. Collocation
(the tendency of word to occur repeatedly
together)
2. Idioms
(a group of words in a fixed order that have a
particular meaning that is different from the
meanings of each word understood on its own)
Collocation and Word Meaning
• Haliday (1966), compares the collocation
pattern of two adjectives:
– Strong
– Powerful
They seem to have similar meaning.
• We can use both of them as
– Strong arguments
– Powerful arguments
Collocation and Word Meaning
• But observe this pattern
– Strong tea
– Powerful tea
• But observe this pattern
– Powerful car
– Strong car
Collocation and Word Meaning
• As Gruber (1965) notes
– Herd of cattle
– A pack of dogs
Collocation and Word Meaning
• The collocations can go a fossilization process
until they become fixed expressions.
We say
We don’t say
Hot and cold running water.
Cold and hot running water.
They’re husband and wife.
They’re wife and husband .
Salt and vinegar
Fish and chips
Curry and rice
Bangers and mash
Franks and beans
Idioms and Word Meaning
Idioms
(a group of words in a fixed order that have a
particular meaning that is different from the
meanings of each word understood on its
own)
• Fossilization also occurs in in the creation of
idioms, expressions where individual words
have ceased to have independent meaning.
Idioms and Word Meaning
In the expressions like
– Kith and kin
– Spick and span
• Not many English speakers would be able to
assign a meaning here to kith or span
Contextual Effects and Word Meaning
• Contextual effects can also pull word
meanings in different direction, towards
creativity and semantic shift.
• In different contexts the word ‘run’ can have
somewhat different meanings.
Contextual Effects and Word Meaning
• Different contexts of the word ‘run’ and observe
different meanings.
a) I go for a run every morning.
b) The tail-end batsmen added a single run before
lunch.
c) The ball-player hit a home run.
d) We took the new car for a run.
e) He built a new run for his chickens.
f) There has been a run on the dollar.
g) The bears are here for the salmon run.
Contextual Effects and Word Meaning
• The problem is how to view the relationship
between these instances of run above. Are these
different senses of the word run?
• Or are they examples of the same sense
influenced by different contexts?
• That is, is there some sketchy common meaning
that is plastic enough to be made to fit the
different context provoked by other words like
batsman, chickens and the dollar?
• The answer might not be simple: some instances
seem more closely related than others.
DISTINCTION
• Some scholars have described this distinction
in terms of AMBIGUITY and VAGUENESS.
• 1 Ambiguity: if each of the meanings of ‘run’
has a different sense, then run is seven ways
ambiguous.
• 2Vagueness: On the ether hand, if ‘run’ shares
the same sense then ‘run’ is seven ways
ambiguous.
An important point to be noted here is that is
that in examples of vagueness context can add
meanings that is not specified in the sense.
Whereas , in examples of ambiguity, the context
will explain only one of the senses selected
and not the rest.
MEANING vs CONTEXT
• While decoding information, real problem arises to
judge whether one is dealing with ambiguity or
vagueness. Scholars have proposed different tests but
they are difficult to apply. The main reason is the
context.
• Ambiguity has more potential than real since in any
given situation one of the context is likely to fit in the
context and automatically selected by the participants.
They may not be aware of readings that they would
naturally prefer in other contexts where both readings
could be available.
• Let’s have a few examples.
• Zwicky and Sadock (1975) and Kempson(1977)
• Suggest the use of abbreviatory forms like do,
so, also too,& so do.
• These short forms are used to avoid repitition
of verbs.
• For example, 1. Ali hates butter and so does
Aliya.
• 2. Abdullah took a sandwicw and Mahnoor
did too.
• Such expressions are understandable because
there is a convention of identity between
them and the preceding verb phrase ; thus we
know that in the previous example Ali hates
butter and Mahnoor took butter. The test
relies on this identity.
LEXICAL AMBIGUITY
• If the preceding verb phrase has more than
one sense, then whichever sense is selected in
this first full verb phrase must be kept in the
same in the following do so clause; for
example,(1) has two interpretations.
• (1) Khan discovered a mole.
• (a) Khan discovered a small burrowing
mammal.
• (b)Khan discovered a long dormant spy.
• This depends on two different meanings of mole, and is
therefore a an example of lexical ambiguity. If we add a
do so clause as in example (2).
• Khan discovered a mole and so did Dilawar.
• Whichever sense is selected in the first clause has to be
repeated in the second, i.e. it is not possible for the
first clause to have the mammal interpretation and the
second the spy interpretation, or vice versa. By
contrast where a word is vague, the unspecified aspect
of meaning are invisible to this do so identity. Basically
they are not part of meaning and therefore are not
available for identity check.
CONCLUSION
• Today, we have discussed the problems
involved in divorcing word meanings from
contextual effects and we discussed lexical
ambiguity and vagueness.