Types of Word Meaning

Abstract nouns denotes to the action, phenomena, features, properties and qualities that mostly we can’t observe, control, rule, see and make. That is a peculiar and the most important feature of abstract nouns.

Let’s observe grammatical meaning of abstract nouns. Day – has implicit grammatical meaning  with dependent grammatical categories: the category of contableness, the category of a nominative case, the category of inanimativeness and absence of grammatical category of gender (as we know, there are no any grammatical category of gender in English, but are going to emphasize the presence and the absence of grammatical category of gender with the help of lexical indicators during our analysis). Date - has implicit grammatical meaning  with dependent grammatical categories: the category of contableness, the category of a nominative case (in English there are no grammatical category of case as we have in Russian, but for our full analysis of grammatical meaning of a word we will use this category, as we have lexical indicator of Possessive case – for example – Tracy’s), the category of animativeness and inanimativeness at the same time and absence of grammatical category of gender (but a boyfriend and a girlfriend at the same time – are lexical indicators of a gender of a word). Reasons - has explicit grammatical meaning – plural – (a morphological indicator – reasons) with dependent grammatical categories: the category of contableness, the category of a nominative case, the category of animativeness and inanimativeness at the same time and absence of grammatical category of gender. Events – has explicit grammatical meaning too – also plural with morphological indicator  –s  – with dependent grammatical categories: the category of contableness, the category of a nominative case, the category of animativeness and inanimativeness at the same time and absence of grammatical category of gender. Consequence – has implicit grammatical meaning with dependent grammatical categories: the category of contableness, the category of a nominative case, the category of inanimativeness at the same time and absence of grammatical category of gender. Mortality – has implicit grammatical meaning with dependent grammatical categories: the category of uncountableness, the category of a nominative case, the category of inanimativeness and absence of grammatical category of gender.

Given abstract nouns weren’t so polysemantic as concrete nouns were (except day, date and reason). But it is enough to consider that the ranks of nouns also can be resonating in the case of abstract nouns. Especially, when the conversion of parts of speech takes place according to the plurality of lexical meaning (for example – reason – to reason). According to these criteria, the main and general grammatical characteristic of abstract nouns is a grammatical category of uncounttableness.

In a given sentence we also have an unitial noun. It is a chapter. The noun denotes the part of a whole number (as beads in the necklace, pages in the book and drops in water). As a page, a chapter is also a part of a book – as a part of a whole.

Let’s observe the lexical meaning of the word chapter.  Chapter – is one of the part into which a book is divided. [14, 100]

The grammatical meaning of a word chapter –  it has implicit grammatical meaning  with dependent grammatical categories: the category of contableness, the category of a nominative case, the category of inanimativeness and absence of grammatical category of gender.

For our further analysis we will take sentences from the work of Sidney Sheldon If Tomorrow Comes:

She undressed slowly, dreamily, and when she was naked, she selected a bright red negligee to wear so that the blood would not show. [16, 3]

In a given sentence we have a substantial noun – blood. Substantial nouns are the nouns which denote a substance; they are not divided into parts. Such nouns have one form in a single and in a plural.

Let’s observe the lexical meaning of a word blood. Blood – is a red liquid that flows through the body. [14, 62] [8, 128] A liquid as water, oil and wine is a substance. It is always represented as a whole part of itself.

Let’s look at the grammatical meaning of a word blood. It has implicit grammatical meaning with dependent grammatical categories: the category of uncountableness, the category of a nominative case, the category of inanimativeness and absence of grammatical category of gender.

The main characteristic of substantial nouns –  is the grammatical category of uncountableness.

Most abstract nouns and all substantial nouns are uncountable. They are not divided into parts and have one form of a single and of a plural.

We will take the next sentence:

Since Tracy’s father had died five years earlier, Doris Whitney had not even considered going out with another man, despite Tracy’s encouragement. [16, 4].

Let’s take animate nouns – father and man – and look at its lexical meaning. Father – 1 a person’s male parent; 2 a man who starts something important –Shakespeare – is a father of English drama; 3 the title of certain priests: Father O’Reilly; 4 the treatment in the pray to the God – Our Father who are in the Heaven, and we see that the ranks of a noun are again resonating - a word father can be represented as: an animate noun (meaning 1 and 2), non – anthroponomy (meaning 3) and as an abstract noun (meaning 4 – as Отче наш). It happens this way again due to the plurality of lexical meaning and also due to the connotative combinations. [14,231] [7, 248]

Let’s take a grammatical meaning of a word father: the word has implicit grammatical meaning  with dependent grammatical categories: the category of contableness (due to the lexical meanings 1,2,3) and uncountableness (meaning 4), the category of a nominative case, the category of animativeness and inanimativeness at the same time (if it is an abstract noun – meaning 4) and grammatical category of gender (the grammatical category of gender is present in the meanings 1,2,3, because it is a male representative of human being, and absent according to the meaning 4). It is represented this way again due to the plurality of lexical meaning, due to the resonating of ranks of the noun (also with presence of connotative combination Our Father).

The lexical meaning of a word man: man – 1 an adult male person; 2 a person of either sex, male or female; 3 the human race, human beings; 4 a husband, boyfriend or male lover; 5 usually a man of low rank in the army, etc who takes orders from an officer; officers and men; 6 used, when you are talking to somebody – Hey, man, can you lend me a pound? As we see the plurality of lexical meaning of the word man fully identifies the rank of a word as an animate noun, but the meanings are disposed from identifying one person to the adult male person to the man of low rank in the army – it is a part of hierarchic structure of the army – and can be considered as an unitial noun (because it is also a part of a whole). Also the word man reflects the explanation for human beings – all male and female representatives of human beings. [14, 383] [7, 354]

Let’s take the grammatical meaning of the word man - the word has implicit grammatical meaning  with dependent grammatical categories: the category of contableness, the category of a nominative case, the category of animativeness  and grammatical category of gender (the grammatical category of gender is present,  because it is a male and a female representatives of human being – it is masculine and feminine at the same time, but the major lexical indicator shows, that it is actually a male representative of a human being mostly) .

We have the examples of anthroponomy in our given sentence - Tracy’s and Doris Whitney – Tracy’s has the grammatical category of Possessive case, the word has an explicit grammatical meaning with dependent grammatical categories: the grammatical category of contableness, the grammatical category of animativeness and gender  with its lexical indicator.

Doris Whitney – has implicit grammatical meaning  with dependent grammatical categories: the category of contableness, the category of a nominative case, the category of animativeness  and grammatical category of gender (the grammatical category of gender is present,  because it is a female name).

In  our analysis we proved, that a value of lexical meaning really influences on the other types of word meaning due to its descriptive and non – descriptive character peculiarities, which allow to identify a tight connection between tyres of word meaning. The polysemantic words can be fully identified and researched according to the ranks of noun and its dependence on lexical meaning.

 

 

 

 

Conclusion

 

We have made our investigation of types of word meaning and of word meaning itself. We gave the definition of word meaning, because it was important for us to put o firm foundation of our theme investigation, as it was a start point of our way to identify the role of types of word meaning not only in the sphere of lexicology, but in Linguistics also. We led our way through referential and functional approaches to make clear the notions of word and it’s meaning.

We have researched the word meaning and the classification of word meaning in the work of Charles Dickens «Oliver Twist or The Parish Boy’s Progress» and in the work of Sidney Sheldon «If Tomorrow Comes».

We researched the word meaning and its classification (types of word meanings) in the sphere of lexicology and linguistics. We gave logical explanation of things and phenomena in the given examples from our chosen literature. The task of our course paper was achieved.

We emphasized the real things and grounded a name, we revealed what a distinctive sign is reflected in the name  and found out that a reason of the name forms the semantic inner side of lexical unit. We devoted our work tothe word and it’s meaning and also to each type of word meaning and concluded, that in the connection of types of word meaning lexical meaning is a basic component– is conceptual and cognitive meaning of a word , it may influence on grammatical meaning, on denotative meaning and on connotational meaning. The aims of our course paper were achieved.

And we used the new approach of our investigation – we found out the condition of usage of types of meaning in emphasizing the links between the connotative (denotative), lexical, grammatical meaning and its connection.

 

Reference

 

The Scientific Literature in Russian.

 

1. Аникеенко И.Г., Бойцан Л.Ф., Ганецка Л.В. Практикум по курсу лексикологии для студентов третьего курса. – К., КДЛУ, 1999. – 78 с.
2. Антрушина Г.Б., Афанасьева О.В., Морозова Н.Н. Лексикология английского языка: Учебное пособие для студентов. – М: Дрофа, 1999. – 288 с.
3. Большой энциклопедический словарь. Языкознание. – М.: Большая Российская Энциклопедия, 1998. – 687 с.
4. Дубинец Э. М., Курс лекций и планы семинарских занятий. – М.: Дрофа, 1997. – 457 с.
5. Елисеева В.В. Лексикология английского языка: Учебное пособие. – СПб: СПбГУ, 2003. – 44 с.
6. Кунин А.В. Англо-русский фразеологический словарь. – М., 1984

 – 380 с.

7. Лингвистический энциклопедический словарь под ред. Ярцевой В. Н. – М.: Большая Российская Энциклопедия, 2002 – 709 с.
8. Розенталь. Д. Э., Теленкова М. А. Словарь лингвистических терминов. – М.: Просвещение, 1976. – 543 с.

 

The Scientific Literature in English.

 

9. Arnold I.  Modern English Lexicology, Moscow, 1986 – 347 p.
10. Concise Webster's Online Dictionary
11. Ginzburg R.S., Khidekel S.S., Knyazeva G.Y., Sankin A.A. A course in modern English lexicology, second edition, 1979 – 269 p.

 

12. Gould, S.J. The Mismeasure of Man, W.W. Norton & Co, New York, 1996 – 200 p.
13. Holder R.W. Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 2003 – 501 p.
14. Wehmeier S. A. Oxford Wordpower Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 1994 – 748p.

 

Fiction:

 

 

15. Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist or The Parish Boy’s Progress, electronic version, 2007 – 526 p.
16. Sidney Sheldon. If Tomorrow Comes, New York, 2000 – 493p.

 

Internet sources.

 

17.  http://American Heritage Dictionary answers.com; [10.10.10. 13:00]
18. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/meaning; [07.10.10. 17:00]
19. http://grammar.about.com/od/e/g/meaningterm.htm; [26.09.10. 12:27]
20. http://www.google/lexicology/m/r/theory.html;  [05.10.10. 18:00]
21. http://www.krugosvet.ru/; [12.09.10. 15:11]
22. http://www.phrases.org/meaningterm.htm; [07.09.10]