Kamil Wiśniewski – linguist, translator, and philosopher :)

Contemporary views on meaning

As it was mentioned before, meaning is analyzed by many linguists from various points of view, often representing different branches of linguistics. However, no matter what point of view a given scholar assumes, certain theories are generally agreed on. Among those theories there is the most basic and probably the most important distinction of the meanings of words into their conceptual sense and their associative sense (Finch, 1998:140). The conceptual sense or meaning of a word is what can be found in its description in a dictionary. It is simply what the word designates and it is what most people mean by the meaning of a word. Within the framework of componential analysis the conceptual meaning of a given word is ascertained on the basis of its so called semantic features. There are no limitations to the number of features that are chosen to describe a word, but the most vital ones are always chosen, or ones that can easily distinguish meaning of one word from another one. If, for example, the word man was to be characterized as ‘human, male, adult’ it ought to be enough information to distinguish the meaning of this word from for example woman described as ‘human, adult, female’. An exemplary relationship between words might look as follows (Yule, 2006:101):

For the sake of comparison of certain words, or groups of words, practically any feature may be chosen. Nevertheless, when it comes to providing a definition of a word the most patently obvious, fixed and lasting features are preferred. All the same, in languages such as English one word often has more than one meaning, or conceptual sense. The English word bank might denote a piece of land along the side of a river, or a financial institution; the word bat may be used to refer to a flying creature, or a wooden stick used in baseball. The polysemic nature of most lexical items needs to be taken into consideration when a definition is to be provided, as well as the possible associative meaning variations of words.

Along with the conceptual meaning, many words have what is in linguistics called associative meaning. As the example with Friday the thirteenth showed, there can be no doubt that certain words are used in a way which indicates that there is something more to them than a simple referent. Associative meaning is a complex matter and its several different types can be distinguished, but the most easily recognized one is probably connotation. The connotation of a word is much less determined than its denotation and might vary depending on culture, or in extreme cases on former experiences of a particular language user. For instance, words such as stubborn, pig-headed and strong-willed have basically the same meaning which could be described more or less as ‘determined not to change mind’. Yet each encapsulates a distinct conceptualization with its emergent mental imagery. However, describing someone as strong-willed connotes admiration for the level of intensity of someone’s will, while pig-headed connotes frustration in dealing with someone (Finch, 1998:142).

One more type of associative meaning is collocation, although it might be a bit less obvious. Collocation is the way in which some words are often used together. A good example here is the saying ‘Merry Christmas’. Although the words happy, merry and cheerful mean essentially the same thing, it might sound awkward to wish somebody ‘cheerful Christmas’ and the only explanation here is that it is not the way people speak. Therefore, although a dictionary might provide very similar definitions for the three above mentioned words, it seems that they are not identical, if not in meaning, then in use (Finch, 1998:143). In Langacker’s terms anything that the speaker needs to know about a word in order to use it properly or comprehend it properly is part of the word in question.

Another important thing to remember about words and their associative meaning is stylistic variation. Lexical items often have closely related, almost identical meanings and they differ only in the way they are used, or rather in their formality. Some words quickly become outdated, otherwise their use is confined only to particular contexts such as a colloquial conversation, or in an academic lecture. The differences are oftentimes minute and in such cases only the most skilful language users are aware of them. The following diagram shows how many various words can refer to one concept depending on the situation (Finch, 1998:145):

The diagram above illustrates how certain words are related, in that they have the same, or very close meaning, however their usage differs depending on the situation they are to be used in. But there are also relations among words that are based on the scope of the meaning itself. Thus it can be said that the relationship is hierarchical since the words with the narrowest meanings are often included within the scope of broader terms, which still can be included in others. In such a relation the word at the lowest level, that is the one with the narrowest meaning, is called the ‘subordinate term’ while the one which includes it is called ‘superordinate term’. In the following diagram (Yule, 2006:105) ‘poodle’ is subordinate to ‘dog’ which is its superordinate. At the same time ‘dog’ is subordinate to ‘animal’, its superordinate.

Therefore, the meanings and senses of sometimes very different words have certain relations which influence their usage. While it might seem quite ordinary for individual words, the case is more complex when it comes to more elaborate or novel utterances. The relations between words are vital for understanding what they precisely denote, how this meaning relates to other senses, as well as how it may further develop.

One such development can be noticed in metaphorical expressions, that is phrases which transfer some of the semantic features of one word (concept) onto another. Although, for a long time, it was assumed that metaphors are characteristic only of literature, recent discoveries proved that they are also abundant in the everyday speech. Some metaphorical expressions have been in use for so long that they are already lexicalized and are considered to be ‘dead metaphors’. Phrases such as: foot of the mountain, hand on a clock, or eye of the needle are just a few instances of metaphors which are in common use, yet they illustrate in what way word meanings may change. Although it might not seem so, the processes of such changes of meaning are cognitively complex. Therefore they are accounted for in more detail in the further part of this thesis.