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WORDS AND THINGS (unit 3)
Aims of this unit
Analysis of text often starts at the level of the word. What is a word? Is it a simple definition such as ‘ the smallest meaning unit of language’? Is there a direct one-to-one relationship between words and meanings?
What is a word?
Any user of language knows what a word is and how to use one. But the question can become a more complex one than it first appears.
What are words made of?
The question, " what is a word ?" might be answered by looking at ways in which words in the English language are structured. The study of the structure of words is called morphology. Most users of English would assume that words are the smallest units of language to carry meaning.
Activity
Look at the following sentences:
1. Dog how was children closed
2. The plog s glorp ed blip ly
Commentary
In sentence 1, each word has a clear meaning and can be defined. We know that each word but if we put them together, they don’t make sense and the sentence remains meaningless. In sentence 2, the words (apart from the first one “the”) appear meaningless. They are units of text that haven’t meaning attached to them, unlike units such as ‘ dog’ , ‘ how ' or ' children '.
In the sentence 2, there was more than one plog , because this word carries the plural marker ' s '. “ Glorped ” is marked as a verb by the use of the past tense marker - ed , so the reader knows what the plogs were doing, and the fact that they were doing it in the past. Finally, the reader can tell how or in what manner the plogs were glorping - bliply - because the word carries the adverb marker “ ly ”.
In this case, we have understood that smaller units than words can carry meaning. These units are called morphemes. Words may be made up of one or more morphemes. One morpheme: “ dog ”. Two morphemes: “ dog s ”. Three morphemes: “ un like ly ”.
In theory, there isn’t a limit to the number of morphemes in a word but the maximum limit tends to be six. There are exception in higher specialised areas of language.
• Independent or free : these morphemes can stand on their own.
• Dependent or bound : these morphemes must be attached to another
morpheme.
• Grammatical : these give grammatical information and mark the role of the
word in the sentence.
• Creative or derivational : these form new words.
Many morphemes can constitute words by themselves: “ pig ”, “ bark ”, “ salt ”.
They are known as free morphemes. Others are only used as parts of words: “ ly ”, “ ed ”, ' hood ”. These are called bound morphemes.
It is easy to confuse some bound morphemes with free morphemes that have an identical sound and structure. For example, English has free morpheme ' hood ' ( a head covering ) and it a has also the bound morpheme ' -hood ', that is used to form nouns: ' childhood ' means the state of being a child, not the head covering that a child might wear.
It is also easy to confuse part of a word that is a single morpheme, like “ hammer ” with a bound morpheme. In this case “- er ” is part of the word but in general it is used to create nouns of agency (as in 'play player’) or adjectives of comparison (‘tall taller”).
Bound morphemes have two functions:
1. One is to act as a grammatical marker , giving information about number,
verb tense, aspect and other grammatical functions. These are inflectional
morphemes. Examples are: ' -s ', ‘- ed ', '- er ’ (comparative).
2. The second is to form new words. These are called derivational
morphemes , Examples are: ‘ -un ’, ‘ -ly' , ' -hood'.
When is a word not a word?
Some phrases in English are used like single words. For example " double yellow lines ”.
Activity
A. My big brother is coming!
Are you watching Big Brother tonight?
B. How do you do that?
How do you do?
In each case, the second sentence of the pair presents a problem.
" Big Brother ” is a phrase that signify a state that has become too controlling. It is now also the name of a popular reality TV show. Neither word can be altered or omitted without changing the meaning. It functions like a single word.
How do you do is a phatic phrase that works as a single unit.
Words are made of units of language called morphemes. Morphemes carry meaning and are smaller than the word. Users of English frequently use the term 'word' when they are referring to morphemes. Phrases can also function in the way that single words function. For this reason many linguists prefer the term ‘ lexeme ' to the term ' word '. Lexeme refers to a unit of meaning that may be smaller or larger than the traditional term ‘word' implies.
Words and meanings
This section looks at the relationship between word and meaning.
Water is a mass noun , so, in this case, “ pouring ” defines terms of volume. With this metaphor, people arriving in this country lose their individuality and are defined purely in terms of danger and destruction. Countries, on the other hand, are given the status of individuals who need to be defended and who are threatened by other dangerous individual.
The rape of Beirut. Countries and places are treated as people who have emotion and moral intent. They suffer as people. (lo stupro di Beirut)
Commentary
Semantic field is a group of words associated to particular concepts, topics, trades, or area of meaning.
Writers can also draw on semantic fields to create metaphorical effects and associations that can improve the meaning of the text.
Metaphor is a part of the day-to-day language, so much that its presence isn’t often noticed by users of language. Metaphor has the capacity to be a very powerful tool of language.
Idiomatic language : " Flogging dead crocodiles '
A lot of these structures have a fixed and expected form. Some are so fixed that it is not possible to change a word or the structure without losing, or changing the meaning. Such structures are called idioms. Lexical idioms are units of language with a fixed grammatical content. Their meaning cannot be worked out from a study of the individual words contained in the idiom and they often operate on a metaphorical level. Idioms therefore function more like individual phrases or sentences , and can be considered as lexemes.
Idioms present problems for non-native speakers:
- Barking up the wrong tree 1 (prendere fischi per fiaschi)
- To be the apple of someone’s eye 2 (essere il cocco di qualcuno)
- When the wheels come down 3 (quando il viaggio è finito)
- Let the cat out of the bag 4 (spifferare un segreto)
These examples demonstrate that idioms are not susceptible to simple translation and their meaning must be learned by native speakers and by second language learners as a unit. Idioms are useful devices. They are made-phrases that communicate a clear meaning. They add colour and variety to the language.
Because of the fixed structure of most idioms, they function more like words than phrases, and in any discussion or analysis of words and meanings, it is useful to treat idioms as words.
1 ABBAIARE CONTRO L’ALBERO SBAGLIATO
2 ESSERE LA MELA DELL’OCCHIO DI QUALCUNO
3 QUANDO LE RUOTE SI ABBASSANO
4 LASCIA IL GATTO FUORI DALLA BORSA
Corpora
A corpus (plural corpora ) is a collection of texts from various sources.
Denotation and connotation: what are words worth?
Each word will have its direct dictionary definition, but a large number of words will also carry extra associations, often personal or emotional. The dictionary definition of a word is its denotation : the denotation of the word “ dog ” (noun) is ‘ carnivorous quadruped of the genus Canis ’. The personal or emotional meaning that a word may carry is its connotation (connotation is also the subjective evaluation of a situation). The connotation of the word “ dog ” will vary from individual to individual and context to context. To one person, “ dog ” may connote loyalty , bravery and love ; to another person, it may connote noise and danger. The community of speakers often shares these connotations. Some words carry strong connotations, these ones are often described as ‘ loaded '. Loaded words have strong negative or positive connotations, and can have a powerful emotional impact.
Examples:
- Vehicle (it has no connotation);
- Fascism (it has a negative connotation);
- Democracy (it has a positive connotation).
Commentary
Grammatical words such as articles and auxiliary verbs are less likely to carry connotations, as their meaning is grammatical rather than lexical. Therefore 'was', 'a', 'the' don’t carry connotations. General words, specialised words and ones that are restricted to a particular area of meaning are less likely to be loaded.
“ Vehicle ” is a general term that contain “ car, bus, van, bicycle and so on”. Words that have this classification function are called hypernyms.
Examples of hypernyms (or “ superordinate ”) are: fruit, animal, bird, flower.
The words with a more specific meaning that can be classified by the hypernyms are called hyponyms. Examples of hyponyms are:
- apple, orange, banana (for fruit );
- dog, cat, buffalo (for animal ).
A hyponym can carry a stronger connotation than hypernym , but this is not an invariable rule. The word ' animal ' can carry negative connotations in metaphors such as " he behaved like an animal ”.
English language has a range of words that give us the chance to express an opinion by choosing a synonym that is loaded in a negative or positive way in order to fit in the context.
BORROWING
English has a very rich and extensive word stock. For political and historical reasons, English language has always borrowed from other languages all over the world. The earliest borrowed words, or loan words , are from Latin , while a very small number from the original Celtic languages of Britain.
Examples:
1. casual/slang: pee, shit, piss ;
2. technical/medical: urine, defecate;
3. formal/polite: WC, bathroom;
A quick analysis of this word list suggests that excretion is a social minefield in the English-speaking world.
1. ' Shit ' has not changed its meaning over time, but is described in the OED as
" not in decent use '.
' Piss ' is also an old form that has become mildly taboo.
Therefore, one word associated with a socially difficult concept began as a euphemism and has become taboo, while words that carry the original meaning have been considered taboo for some time.
Presumably, some euphemisms could be also become taboo in turn.
‘Piss' seems to be acquiring new, non-taboo meanings. For example, ' pissed ' is a well-known English slang term for drunkenness.
2) Technical and medical terms , “ urinate and defecate ”, would appear to be clear and direct in meaning. Urinate has just the meaning to pass urine, but defecate has the original meaning of to purify.
3) The formal terms are all euphemistic. There isn’t polite way to say what you are going to do. In this context, the use of a technical term will not help. "I am going to urinate' would not be seen as socially acceptable. There are only polite ways of saying where you are going or asking directions.
Even the most apparently direct words for the place are euphemisms (like WC , bathroom and so on).
