Meaning. Types of Meaning

MEANING
made and presenred by

Maria Zubanova and Alisa Shevtsova
MEANING. TYPES OF MEANING
Word meaning is made up of various
components, and their combination
and the interrelation determine the
inner facet of the word. These
components represent types of
meaning. The main types of meanings
are grammatical, differential,
distributional, and lexical meanings of
words and word-forms.
GRAMMATICAL
MEANING
Grammatical meaning may be defined as the component of meaning recurrent in
identical sets of individual forms of different words.
for example:
The following words such as radios, babies, mice, and studies have the grammatical
meaning of plurality.
The grammatical meaning of tense may be observed in verbs such as bought, traded,
slept, delivered, and understood.
The words newspaper’s (report), sons’ (letters), country’s (debt), and children’s (toys)

share the grammatical meaning of case (possessive case).
LEXICAL MEANING
Lexical meaning has been defined by scholars in
accordance with the main principles of different
linguistic schools.
Ferdinand de Saussure believes meaning is the relation

between the object, or notion named, and the name
itself. Leonard Bloomfield defines the meaning of a
word as the situation in which the speaker utters it and
the response it calls forth in the hearer (1935, p. 139).
Arnold criticizes Bloomfield’s and Saussure’s
approaches for incompleteness and proposes that
“lexical meaning is the realisation of concept or
emotion by means of a definite language system” (p.
38).
LEXICAL MEANING
This definition is broader because it takes into consideration not

only uttered words but also human consciousness, which
comprises not only mental activity but also emotions, volition, and
pragmatic functions of language: communicative, emotive,
evaluative, and aesthetic.
DENOTATIVE MEANING
The English lexicon is so vast and varied that clear categories of meaning are, at times,
elusive. Words may have denotative and connotative meanings. Denotation is the “objective
(dictionary) relationship between a lexeme and the reality to which it refers to”.
for example:
The denotation of the lexeme spring corresponds to the season between winter and
summer, regardless whether it is sunny, pleasant, or rainy.
The denotation of the word cat corresponds to the set of felines. Further, we need to clarify
the distinction between denotation and reference.
DENOTATIVE MEANING
It is practically impossible to give the examples of
denotation because denotation “holds independently
of particular occasions of utterance”.
If we say book, there is no particular reference to

that book. It is something general. Reference is used to
indicate the actual persons, things, places, properties,
processes, and activities being referred to in a
particular situation. By means of reference, a speaker
or writer indicates which things, phenomena, and
persons are being talked about. Reference depends on
concrete utterances, not on abstract notions. It is a
property only of expressions. It cannot relate single
lexemes (book) to extra-linguistic objects since it is an
utterance-dependent notion.
DENOTATIVE MEANING
Reference is not generally applicable to single word forms, and it is never applicable to single
lexemes. As mentioned earlier, the expressions Mary’s book, great books, and on the book may
be used to establish a relationship of reference with specific items as referents. In these
examples, the reference of these expressions containing book is partly determined by the
denotation of the lexeme book in the overall system of the English language.
So, the difference between denotation and reference is that Reference is “an utterance-bound
relation and does not hold of lexemes as such, but of expressions in the context”.
Denotation, on the other hand, is “a relation that applies in the first instance to lexemes
and holds independently of particular occasions of utterance” .
CONNOTATION
Connotation refers to the personal aspect of lexical meaning, often emotional associations
which a lexeme brings to mind. Connotation creates a set of associations. These associations
create the connotation of the lexeme, but they cannot be its meaning. Sometimes a lexeme is
highly charged with connotations. We call such lexemes loaded, e.g., fascism, dogma, and
others.
The best explanation of the relationship between denotation and connotation is given by
Leech: “The connotations of a language expression are pragmatic effects that arise from
encyclopedic knowledge about its denotation and also from experiences, beliefs, and
prejudices, about the contexts in which the expression is typically used”.
Connotations express points of view and personal attitudes; therefore, they may cause
certain reaction, which will motivate semantic extension and creation of a new vocabulary.
CONNOTATION
As part of the connotative meaning, lexemes may contain an element of emotive
evaluation.
for example:
The words console, condole, solace, comfort, cheer up, and sympathize refer to the
assuaging of unhappiness and grief, but the emotive charge of the words console,
condole, solace are heavier than in comfort, cheer up, and sympathize.
Condole and solace are formal, and condole sounds fusty and pompous,

whereas condole may sound more precious. Console may suggest the attempt to make up
for a loss offering something in its place.
.
DIFFERENTIAL MEANING
When the semantic component serves to distinguish
one word from all others containing identical
morphemes, then that semantic component contains
differential meaning.
Differential meaning can be illustrated in the following

examples: in the compound words barman, boatman,
cabman, and caveman, the components bar, boat,
cab, and cave serve to distinguish these words from
one another; therefore, they have differential
meaning.
DISTRIBUTIONAL MEANING
Distributional meaning is the meaning of the order and arrangement of morphemes composing
the word. Lyons states the idea that the attachments between elements within a word are
firmer than are the attachments between words themselves.
for example:
The order of the morphemes is fixed in the following lexemes: reader, disappointment,
and actually. The order of the morphemes cannot be changed without disturbance of its
meaning. The following formations, er+read, or ment+appoint+dis do not make any sense,
therefore proving the arrangement of morphemes is fixed, and these morphemes cannot be
rearranged arbitrarily.
DISTRIBUTIONAL MEANING
Distributional meaning may be observed not only in lexemes but in collocations as well.
for example:
In collocations kick the bucket, in a stew of something and someone, and get one’s wires
crossed, the arrangement of words is fixed, and any attempt to make changes in the
structure will disturb the meaning.
Summing up, distributional meaning is the meaning of the pattern of the arrangement of
the morphemes composing the word and the arrangement of lexemes creating a
collocation. Distributional meaning is found in all words composed of more than one
morpheme (builder, not erbuild) and in trite metaphors: a flight of fancy, a heart of gold,
and a shadow of a smile.
THANKS FOR YOR ATTENTION

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MEANING

made and presenred by

The words newspaper’s (report), sons’ (letters), country’s (debt), and children’s (toys)

Ferdinand de Saussure believes meaning is the relation

This definition is broader because it takes into consideration not

If we say book, there is no particular reference to

Condole and solace are formal, and condole sounds fusty and pompous,

Differential meaning can be illustrated in the following

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