Chapter 2
dimensions of word meaning
1. Denotation and reference
• Cars are not costly now.
Denotation, no referents
• That is my car.
Reference
 denotation: invariant, utterance-independent
 Reference: + variable, utterance-dependent
+ relationship between a word or expression and the object(s) it refers to
* Referent: a particular thing in a particular meant by the speaker, not things in general.
2. Sense and reference
• Sense: relationships inside the language
• Reference: relationships between the language and the world
• One expression can have different senses
- The chicken is ready to eat
- He greeted the girl with a smile
• Many different expressions can refer to one referent
- The Prime Minister of Great Britain in 1982
- The Iron Lady
- Mrs. Thatcher
3. The change and development of meaning
e.g.: She turned a cold face to me
My brother is a pig
 Semantic extensions
 Occurrence of a relationship between the old and new meaning
• Causes of semantic change
- Objects changed, concepts changed: car: four-wheeled wagon – automobile railway
carriage; pearl: a precious thing – the pupil of the eye
- Definite usage to general usage or vice versa: OK (zero killed), jeep (GP)
- Linguistic causes (ellipsis, discrimination or attraction of synonyms): God be with you ->
god b’ya -> good bye; bike (bicycle), catch (understand) -> grasp/get (understand)
(attraction of synomyms)
- Psychological reasons
• Nature of semantic change
- Extended: vaccine: weak form of small pox -> any substance to work against diseases;
case: lawsuit -> any situation; spa: a watering place in Belgium famous for mineral ->
commercial establishment for beauty treatment; tool: a physical device -> abstract device
(software, internet, English)
- Narrowed: meat: food -> a kind of food;
- Degradation: Queen: female sovereign ruler -> king’s wife; peasant: farmer -> rude and
badly behaved person
- Elevation: minister: servant -> head of state department; clown: a country man who is rude
and ignorant -> a talented actor/actress
4. Transference of meaning
He’s the old fox of the town
4.1. Metaphors = implicit comparisons
= meaning extension on the basis of similarity of:
- Shape: teeth of the saw, fork (nga ba duong),
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Position: foot of the mountain, heart of the city, at the root of the matter
Movement: to worm, to rocket, to rock (= shock: the news rocked the world),
to drum (repeat), to duck
Function: finger of instrument, key to mystery, gateway to success
Colour: orange, rose, grass (green)
Size: elephantine, glimmer of hope
Names of animals: fox (cunning), snake (spiteful), bee (hard-working),
crocodile tears, su tu cai, cock (arrogant)
Proper names: Othelo (jealous), Scrooge (stingy), Chi Pheo, Tao Thao
•
Note
She is a lion => metaphor
He is as brave as a lion => comparison/ simile
4.2.Metonymy
- Lend me your ear
- I don’t understand the book at all
- Can you give me a hand
- She is a girl of 20 summers
=> Metonymy: substitution of one word for another with which it is associated
=> Cases of metonymy:
- Name of container: let’s drink a glass, I don’t like this book.
- Name of parts of human body: Give me a hand, have a good eye, kind heart, clever head, a
girl with brain, hold one’s nose
- The concrete instead of abstract: from the cradle to the grave, from all walks of life
- Materials instead of things: glass, canvas, gold, silver, bronze (the honour)
- Name of author: Shakespeare, Nam Cao, Picasso
- Part used for the whole: the Pentagon, live in the same root, running after the skirts, under
the petticoat government
- Others
• More examples: Metaphor or metonymy
- “The fact is I am a verb, instead of a personal pronoun. Clinton is all verb”
- “Please stop. If you give us 8 minutes, we’ll give you 8 years”
- The pen is mightier than the sword
- Please, drop us a line when you have spare time.
- We have strong voice but we need ears.
5. Other types of semantic change
• Hyperbole: exaggeration
- Thanks a million
- It’s a nightmare
• Litotes: Understatement
- Not bad (good)
- No coward (brave)
- Not very well (sick)
• Irony: Rhetoric
- It’s perfectly awful.
- Its clearly very confused.
• Euphemism: Milder expression
- Visually challenged (blind)
- Vertically challenged (short),
Hearing impairment (deaf)
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