Ojv2 lesson 3 2018

Introduction to Text Analysis: Introduction to Stylistics Lesson 3 Friday, March 16, 2018

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Meaning from a Stylistic Point of View ď‚— Stylistics is a domain where meaning assumes

essential importance. ď‚— The term meaning is applied not only to words, word-combinations and sentences but also to the manner of expression into which the matter is cast.

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Contextual meaning...  In stylistics meaning is viewed as a category which

is able to acquire meanings imposed on the words by the context.  That is why such meanings are called contextual meanings.  This category also takes under observation meanings which have fallen out of use and are therefore outdated and obsolete.

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ď‚— In stylistics it is important to discriminate shades

or nuances of meaning, to atomize the meaning, the component parts of which are now called the semes. ď‚— Seme is the smallest units of meaning contained in a word.

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ď‚— Lexical meaning refers to some concrete

concept, phenomenon, or thing of objective reality, whether real or imaginary. ď‚— Lexical meaning is thus a means by which a single word-form is made to express a definite concept.

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ď‚— Grammatical meaning refers the mind to

relations between words, or to some forms of words or constructions bearing upon their structural functions in language-asa-system. ď‚— Grammatical meaning can thus be adequately also be called structural meaning.

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ď‚— There are no words which are deprived of

grammatical meaning inasmuch as all words belong to the language system and consequently have their place in it, and also inasmuch as they always function in speech displaying their functional properties.

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ď‚— The variability of meanings caused by many

different practical application of the basic (fundamental) meaning when used in speech has led to the developement of a notion known as polysemanticism.

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 On the one hand, we perceive meaning as a

representation of a definite concept by means of a word.  On the other hand, we state that the same concept may be expressed by different meanings all belonging to the same word.  There is also the well-recognized fact that different concepts may be expressed by one and the same word.

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 The ability of a word to be polysemantic, i.e. to

comprise several lexical meanings, becomes a crucial issue for stylistic studies.  It must be clearly understood that the multitude of meanings that a word may have is not limited by dictionaries where this multitude has already been recognized and “fixed”.

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ď‚— Some meanings, which for the time being have not as

yet been recognized as legitimate members of the semantic structure of the given word, may, in the course of time, through frequent use become such and subsequently become fixed in dictionaries. ď‚— Convincing proof of this are the so-called addenda to new editions of dictionaries where new meanings are presented as already recognized facts of language.

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 Lexical meaning is a conventional category.  Very frequently it does not reflect the properties

of the thing or the phenomenon it refers to.  However, it is also possible for some meanings to be motivated, i.e. they point to some quality or feature of the object.

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 The conventional character of meaning can be illustrated

by the following example:  In English the concept denoted by the word “linen” is the name of the material (Latin līnum – flax) from which it is made.  In German the same concept is die Wäsche, i.e. something that can be washed, a process, not the material, not the colour.

The concept from which all meanings branch off is known as the inner form of the word.

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Semiotics  Here we approach the theory of signs, which is

important in understanding the relative character of language units and their functioning.  The science that deals with the general theory of signs is called semiotics.  Semiotics embraces different systems of signs, – traffic signs, communication between different species of living beings, etc.

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Sign ď‚— A sign is a material, sensuously perceived

object (phenomenon, action) appearing in the process of cognition and communication in the capacity of a representative (substitute) of another object (or objects) and used for receiving, storing, recasting and transforming information about this object.

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Code  Signs are generally used in a definite system showing the

interrelations and interdependence of the components of the system.  This system is called a code.  Thus we speak of a language code which consists of different signs – lexical, phonetic, morphological, syntactical and stylistic.

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ď‚— Every code is easily recognized by its users, they

understand the nature, meaning, significance and interrelation of the signs comprising the given code. ď‚— Moreover, the user of the code must be well aware of

possible obstacles in deciphering the meaning of different signs.

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ď‚— This presupposes a preliminary knowledge not only of

the basic meanings of the signs in question but also the derivative meanings and the minimum of semes of each meaning. ď‚— The study of how words gradually develop, change and

lose their meaning and acquire new ones is the subject of lexicology and lexicography.

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Word ď‚— A word can be defined as a unit of

language functioning within the sentence or within a part of it which by its sound or graphical form expresses a concrete or abstract notion or a grammatical notion through one of its meanings and which is capable of enriching its semantic structure by acquiring new meanings and losing old ones .[Galperin 1977, 62].

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 A word, as is known, generalizes.  Concept is a logical category, while its linguistic

counterpart is meaning.  “Meaning”, as the outstanding scholar Lev Vygotsky put it, “is the unity of generalization, communication and thinking.” [Vygotsky 1996, Thought and Word].

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 Stylistics deals not only with the aesthetic and emotional

impact of the language.  It also studies the means of producing impressions in our mind.  Impression is the first and rudimentary stage of concept.

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Imagery  Impressions that are secondary to concepts, in

other words, which have been “born” by concepts, are called imagery.  Imagery is mainly produced by the interplay of different meanings. Concrete objects are easily perceived by the senses. Abstract notions are perceived by the mind.  When an abstract notion is by the force of the mind represented through a concrete object, an image is the result.

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Image ď‚— Image is a certain picture of the objective

world, a verbal subjective description of a person, event, occurrence or sight made by the speaker with the help of the whole set of expressive means and stylistic devices. ď‚— Images are created to produce an immediate impression to human sight, hearing, sense of touch or taste.

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Types of Meaning: Logical  I.R. Galperin distinguished three types of meaning,

namely: logical, emotive and nominal.  Logical meaning is the precise naming of a feature of the idea, phenomenon or object, the name by which we recognize the whole of the concept.  This meaning is also synonymously called referential meaning or direct meaning.

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ď‚— Referential meanings are liable to change. ď‚— As a result the referential meanings of one word may

denote different concepts. ď‚— It is therefore necessary to distinguish between primary and secondary referential, or logical meaning.

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 Thus, the adverb inwardly has the primary logical meaning of

“internally”, or “within”. Its secondary logical meanings are: “towards the centre”, “mentally”, “secretly”, which are to some extent derived from the primary meaning.  Such meanings are therefore also called derivative meanings.

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ď‚— Some dictionaries give a very extended list of primary

and secondary logical meanings, and it is essential for stylistic purposes to distinguish them, as some stylistic devices are built on the interplay of primary and secondary logical meanings.

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 All the meanings fixed by dictionaries comprise what is

called the semantic structure of the word.  The meanings that are to be found in speech or writing and which are accidental should not be regarded as components of the semantic structure of the word as far as they depend on the context.  They are contextual meanings.

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Types of Meaning: Emotive ď‚— Emotive meaning materializes a concept in the

word, but unlike logical meaning, emotive meaning has reference not directly to things or phenomena of objective reality, but to the feelings and emotions of the speaker towards these things or to his emotions as such.

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ď‚— Therefore the emotive meaning bears reference

to things, phenomena or ideas through a kind of evaluation of them. E.g.: ď‚— I feel so darned lonely. ď‚— He classified him as a man of monstrous selfishness; he did not want to see that knife descend, but he felt it for one great fleeting instant.

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ď‚— Many words acquire an emotive meaning only in a

definite context. ď‚— In that case we say that the word has

a contextual emotive meaning.

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Types of Meaning: Nominal  Finally we come to nominal meaning.  There are words which, while expressing concepts, indicate a

particular object out of a class.  In other words, these units of the language serve the purpose of singling out one definite and singular object out of a whole class of similar objects. These words are classified in grammars as proper nouns. E.g.: Black, Smith, Longfellow, Black Sea, Taylor, etc. Compare these proper nouns with the corresponding common nouns (not capitalized), from which they originated.

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ď‚— According to the well-known investigations in the field

of linguistics the semantic structure of the word constitutes various types of lexical meanings, the major one being denotational, which informs of the subject of communication; and also including connotational, which informs about the participants and conditions of communication.

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The list and specifications of connotational meanings vary with different linguistic schools and individual scholars and include such  pragmatic entries as (directed at the perlocutionary effect of

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 

 

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the utterance), associative (connected, through individual psychological or linguistic associations, with related and nonrelated notions), ideological or conceptual (revealing political, social, ideological preferences of the user), evaluative (stating the value of the indicated notion), emotive (revealing the emotional layer of cognition and perception), expressive (aiming at creating the image of the object in question), stylistic (indicating the “register”, or the situation of the communication).

ď‚— Apart from that, as was already mentioned above, the

stylistic connotation of a word may be just a sign of a certain functional style to which the word belongs, without carrying any emotional or evaluative element. ď‚— Thus, sentences like She is cute (= pretty), It is cute (= very good), contain not only a high positive evaluation (in the same way as the stylistically neutral variants She is pretty / goodlooking or It is very good), but also a stylistic connotation which shows that they belong to the familiar-colloquial style), or even to slang.

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 Colloquial connotations are also present in the phrases to fix a

watch (neutral – to repair a watch), to fix an appointment for seven o'clock (= to arrange), to fix breakfast (American – to cook breakfast).

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ď‚— On the other hand, a bookish connotation, or colouring (as a feature

of official or scientific style of speech) is present in expressions like to cause / to inflict bodily injuries (neutral – to hit / to beat / to hurt), to cause / to inflict damage (neutral to harm / to do harm), to impose a tax / a fine (neutral to tax / to fine), an impoverished person (neutral a poor person), highly improbable (neutral very unlikely), etc.

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 A rude (vulgar) connotation is present in vulgarisms, or

taboo words, which are often replaced by euphemisms– the more 'gentle' names of the object.  Thus, the word 'devil' is, for many people, unacceptable in speech and may be replaced by phrases like 'the evil one', 'the fallen angel', 'the Prince of darkness', 'Lucifer', 'Mephistopheles'.  The same concerns expletives (curse-words): damn, damned are often replaced by the euphemistic darn, darned, dashed; bloody is sometimes replaced by blooming, blasted, blessed, etc.

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