WhatisSemantics..doc

What is Semantics? Semantics is the study of the meaning of words, phrases and sentences. Geoffrey Leech (1974, 1981). Semantics: The Study of Meaning. Seven types of meaning: Conceptual meaning Connotative meaning Social meaning Affective meaning Reflected meaning Collocative meaning Thematic meaning 1.Meanings of meaning? 1.1 Conceptual vs. associative meaning 1.2 Connotation and denotation home Conceptual meaning (概念意义) is also called “denotative” （外延义）and it is concerned with the relationship between a word and the thing it refers to. Associative meaning (联想意义) is the total of all the meanings a person thinks of when they hear the word. Conceptual meaning is meaning given in the dictionary. Associative meaning is the meaning which a word suggests or implies. Connotative meaning (内涵意义) is that what is communicated by virtue of what language refers to. They may vary according to culture, historical period and the experience of the individual, and thus are indeterminate and open-ended. Social meaning (社会意义) is sometimes defined stylistic meaning, “…is that which a piece of language conveys about the social circumstances of its use.” Dialect: the language of a geographical region or of a social class. Time: the language of the 18th c., etc. Province: language of law, of science, of advertising, etc. Status: polite, colloquial, slang, etc. Modality: language of memoranda, lectures, jokes, etc. Singularity: the style of Dickens, etc. Affective meaning (感情意义) is concerned with the expression of feelings and attitudes of speakers or writers. Affective meaning cannot stand on its own. It depends on conceptual meaning, stylistics meaning, etc. Reflected meaning (反射意义) means that arises in cases of multiple conceptual meaning, when one sense of a word forms part of our response to another sense. Collocative meaning (搭配意义) means that associations a word acquires on account of the meanings or words which tend to occur in its environment.” Some, m