MEANING AND DEFINITION

• Class : 5B

• Ayi Yulianty 112122058• Alifya Nurul Fauziah 112122076• Rizki Aryanti 112122079

The concept of the word’s meaning is closely linked to the concept of definition. Definitions has been particularly important for conceptual theories of meaning.

Meaning and the dictionary

Semantics and Lexiography

• Dictionary-writing or lexiography a craft, a way of doing something useful. it is the way to increase the sum of human knowledge by a practical work to put together a book that people can understand.

• Linguistics semantics is the sort of theoritical exercise to increase the sum of human knowledge.

• writer/speaker ---->accessing the words ( mapping into the store meaning representation in the mental lexicon) ---> word's formed---> output ( written/spoken)

• reader/listener---> mapping the input (linguistic signals) into the store neurosensory trace in the mental lexicon---> input ( meaning representation.

The History of Dictionary

Dictionaries are extremely popular tool.This has not always been the case, however: monolingual dictionaries did not exist in the West until about the sixteenth century (Matore 1968)

Word-based and meaning-based approaches to definition

• The defintions found in the dictionary are the result of a word-based or semasiological approach to meaning. This approach starts with a language’s individua lexemes and tries to specify the meaning of each one. E.g : listing the verb from : scare, frighten, terrify, startle, spook, and panic.

• In contrast, meaning-based or onomasiological approach starts with particular meaning annd lists the various forms available in the language for its expression. This approach will list from the word “frighten” after it, it lists all the verbs as its possible realization.

The Units Of Meaning

Words and Morphemes.

Word (lexeme) is the clearest type of meaning-bearing unit .Morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning.

But, the problem here is ...“how can we determine what counts as a word in a language ?”

For European languages with well-established tradition of literacy, they thought that the words as the units surrounded by space in standard otography.

There are two reasons :1. Languages that have been written down often have a very fluid practice of word-division, e.g : a. re tlo e bua ka thipa ya gagwe 1PLS FUT 3SGO skin INST knife 9 his

b. Retloebua kathipa yagagwe. we shall skin it with his knife.

2. ortography practice itself is not even stable within longstanding tradition of literacy, e.g : eislaufen eis laufen ‘skate’

Another assumption about the word is the term “potential pause” which considered that the words are the units before and/or after which pauses can be found in spoken language. It For the example :Abso-bloody-lutely

The other assumption about the word is Bloomfield’s famous definiton of “word” as “a minimum free form” . It is the minimal unit that may appear on its own without any grammatical element.

Phonological level ( full word)The division between words are determined

according to the domain application of phonological rules and process. It focuses on the stress and the accent. E.g:the boy wants to help the old woman.

Grammatical level (form word)it is called grammatical word that is a word

expressing a grammatical or structural relationship with other words in a sentence. E.g :trying is the first step towards failure. Those three criteria for recognition grammatical words are :

Cohesiveness (kepaduan) Fixed order ( order yang tetap) Conventionalized coherence and meaning

( hubungan dan arti)

Below the words such as morphemes.Morphemes have the meanings although

some of morphemes ( bound morphemes) are less easy to describe.

Above the words such as phrasal verbs and compounds.

Both of phrasal verbs and compounds are two clear cases in which a single meaning is associated with a combination of lexemes. E.G :Phrasal verb : dispose of, touch down, call off, etc.Noun compounds : tree house, tennis match, instruction book, etc.

Meaning below the morpheme : sound symbolism

Sound symbolism (ideophony or onomatopoeia) is the existence of semi-systematic correspondences between certain sounds and certain meanings. For the examples : in English such as : meow, click, thwack, etc. In Ilocano ( Cordilleran, Philippines)

high front vowel : e.g : singgit : high pitched voice

Alveolar fricativeskarasakas : rustling sound of leaves

Kp in Emei that indicates “smallness”

kpuku ‘pointed/protruding’ : small, compact and round, short.

Meaning above the word level : Idioms

Idioms are the sequence of the words whose meaning cannot be predicted from the meanings of the words themeselves.

E.g : scoop the pool, throw the towel, kick the bucket.

Idiom is a non-compositional combination of the words .

Contextual Modulation of Meaning

The meaning of the words will vary according to their collocation or the immediate linguistic context in which they occur.

I cut the cake She cuts someone’s hair They cut the wood the staranger cut his foot yesterday.

There are two possibilies about the meaning of the word “cut”

1. First possibility : compositionalityThat the meanings of “cut” in every sentence result compositionally from the meaning of the verb cut and the meaning of its noun object. The general meaning hypothesis The multiple meaning hypothesis

2. The second possibility : non-compositionality The meaning of collocation is not constructed compositionally.

DIFFERENT WAYS OF DEFINING MEANINGS

• Real And Nominal Definition• Definition By Ostension• Definition By Synonymy• Definition By Context Or Typical Exemplar• Definition By Genus And Differentia

Real And Nominal Definition

• Real definition : as a short of summation of the essence or inherent nature of a thing.

e.g : thunder. the noise of fire being extinguished in

the sky. • Nominal definition : as a description of the

meaning of the word which denotes this thing.slight of light.

• Bloomfiled (1933:139)We can define the meaning of a speech-

from accurately when this meaning has to do with some matter of which we possess scientific knowledge.

e.g : salt – sodium chloride (NaCl)But : love, hate

DEFINITION

Real Nominal

Cognitive Extensional

Definition By Ostension

• We can defining something by pointing out the object which they denote.

e.x : pen

But : adjective, verb

Definition By Synonymy

• Synonymy : is the same words that have meaning.

e.g. : angry1. Definiens, metalanguage word proposed as

the definition.2. Definiendum, the object language word for

which a definition.

Definition By Context Or Typical Exemplar

• Another way to define a word is to situate it in a system of wider relations through which the specificity of the definiendum can be seen.

Definition By Genus And Differentia

• The two preceding types of definition are essentially relational, defining a word’s meaning through its connections with other words.According to Aristotle :

• (genus)definition involves specifying the broader class to which the definiendum belongs.

• (differentia) showing the distinguishing feature of the definiendum (the differentia) which distinguishes from the other members of this broader class.

• Man rational animal

differentian genus