语义与词义的关系

Theme: On relationship between meaning and context

语义和语境的关系

Abstract

Context is a popular research subject in modern linguistics. On the basis of the study of precursors about context, the thesis reviews and discusses a series of questions about the definition, classification, constitution of context and its important function in word meaning.Due to the close relationship between context and language and the great influence of context on word meaning, we should use their close relationship to develop our ability to infer word meaning from context, which would be helpful to vocabulary learning.

【Key words】 Context ；Word Meaning ； Vocabulary Learning ；

摘要 语境是现代语言学中的一个热门的研究课题。论文是在前人对语境问题研究的基础上,对语境的定义、分类、构成要素及语境在词语意义中的作用等一系列问题进行了回顾与探讨,并将语境分为语言语境和非语言语境两大类。笔者认为由于语境对词语意义有着重要的影响和制约作用，建议利用语境推测词义来帮助词汇在语境中理解和学习。

关键词: 语境 词义 词汇学习

Introduce

Word meaning is closely related to context. The relationship between word meaning and context plays an important role in learning vocabulary. In this paper, I will first give a brief introduction to word meaning and context, then explain the type of word meaning and context, next analyse the impact of context on word meaning and finally focus on the application to the language learning.

1.The Definition and Significance of the Context:

Context is of paramount importance for the understanding of word-meaning because the meaning is influenced immediately by the linguistic environment,and in many cases by the whole speech situation as well. Without context,there is no way to determine the meaning that the speaker intends to convey,whereas with context and the context there is generally no danger of misinterpretation,for meaning lives in context and the context throws light on meaning.

2.Types of Word Meaning and Context

2.1 M ain Types of Word Meaning

The main types of word meaning include：Grammatical meaning、Denotative meaning、Connotative meaning、Social or stylistic meaning、Affective meaning and Reflected meaning.Word meaning depends on context. Different contexts give words different meanings. Therefore we shall pay close attention to the specific context.

2.2 Two Types of Context

Generally speaking, there are two types of context: linguistic and non- linguistic (extra- linguistic) context, therefore the meanings of words, especially those of polygamous words may be viewed as determined either by linguistic contexts or non- linguistic contexts.

2. 2.1 L inguistic context

The four types of linguistic context are the phonological, lexical, grammatical, and verbal context in its broad sense.

(1) Phonological context:refers to intonation, stress, pause, transition or rhythm which is used to determine different meanings. For example, a sick nurse, if both“sick”and“nurse”are stressed, it means a nurse who is sick. If only“sick”is stressed, it implies a nurse who looks after the sick.

(2) lexical context: refers to the lexical items combined with a given polysemous word.It is

obvious that the main factor in bringing out this or that inpidual meaning of a certain word is the meaning of the lexical items with which the word is combined.

(3) Grammatical context:refers to the syntactic structure which determ ines various inpidual meanings of a polysemous word. the meaning of a word often has to be determined by the lexical and the grammatical contexts combined.

(4) Verbal context in its broad sense:the verbal context, in its broadest sense, may cover an entirepassage, or even an entire book, and in some case even the entire social or cultural setting.

2. 2.2 Non—linguistic context

The actual speech situation and the entire cultural background in which aword, or an utterance or a speech even occurs also has influence on meaning. Because of cultural differences, the same lexical item may mean different things to people of different countries. Examples of differences of word meaning due to cultural differences are numerous.These differences are important for non- native speakers to know in order to gain a better understanding of the cultural significance of English vocabulary.

From the above, we can see word meaning is closely related to context.

3 The Impact of Context on Word Meaning

3. 1 Identifying referents and the range of the meaning of a word

Context is of great importance in understanding the referents of such words.For example:Peter married a Chinese girl. He met her in Hong Kong. His parents were no pleased. They visited her parents, but not his.Without context,“he”,“her”,“they”and“his”cannot be understood.

Not only can context point out referents, it can also make clear the range of the meaning of a word.for example:The earth rotates around the sun. (earth refers to a planet).He filled the pot with earth and planted a rose in it. (earth means soil in which plants grow. )

3. 2 Eliminating ambiguities

The context often makes the meaning of a polysemousword so certain that we do not think of the fact that it has different senses. Take the word“make”for example:We made (“had”) a good breakfast before going out.I made (“earned”) 385 yuan a month.I made (“arrived at”) the classroom in time to take the examination.

The meaning of “made” in the above sentence is the product of its combination with the other lexical item s in the sentence. Therefore the context generally reveals which meaning out of all its possible meaning is to be attached to the word.

3. 3 Conveying emotional over tones

Context can decide the emotive side of word meaning, with the exception of those words that have affective meaning as part of word meaning. For example, an ordinary noun like“folk”is often used in a neutralway; yet it might acquire emotional over tone, as in the follow ing sentence:How he longed to see his old and young folks at home ! “folk”is defined as people belonging to a particular race or nation, or sharing a particular kind of life in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. Obviously it is a neutral word. But in the above sentence, it connotates the meaning of intimacy, indicating his deep feeling to his family members. This peculiar lexical context accounts for the possibility of emotional over tones which are made obvious by the context.

So far we have discussed the vital role of context in the determination of word meaning. W hen we say that the context determines the meaning we mean not that it imposes a meaning but that it selects one that is already there.

Conclusion

This paper contributes to an understanding of word meaning, context, their close relationship and its application to vocabulary learning. There are six main types of word meaning ( grammatical, denotative, connotative, stylistic, affective and reflected meaning) and two types of

context (linguistic & non—linguistic context). Context has great influence on word meaning. So word meaning and context are closely related. In our reading, we can just memorize the single meaning, we need to notice the context, for it will do us great favor in reading and comprehension. If we know different meanings of a word, we can confirm its meaning from the context, and if we don’t know any meaning of a new word, we also can infer it from context clues. Think about the context is an important strategy for language learners.

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