Unit 2

2.2 Key concepts

What kinds of meaning can words have?

We often speak of the meaning of words. In fact words have different kinds of meaning.
Firstly, there is the meaning that describes the thing or idea behind the vocabulary item,
e.g. a tree is a large plant with a wooden trunk, branches and leaves. This meaning is
called denotation, and we speak of denotative meaning. Then there is figurative
meaning. We speak, for example, of the tree of life or a family tree. This imaginative
meaning comes from, but is different from, a words denotative meaning. There is also
the meaning that a vocabulary item has in the context (situation) in which it is used,
e.g. in the sentence We couldnt see the house because of the tall trees in front of it we
understand how tall the trees are partly from knowing the meaning of tall and partly from
knowing how tall a house is, so the meaning of tall in this sentence is partly defined by
the context.

The meaning of some vocabulary items can also come from their form, e.g. from
prefixes, suffixes or compounds (nouns made from two or more separate words).
Adding prefixes or suffixes to base words (the basic words or parts of a word from
which other words can be made) can, for example, give them an opposite meaning (e.g.
unsafe, illegal) or a comparative (e.g. easyeasier), or superlative meaning (e.g. new
newest). It may also change their part of speech (e.g. instructinstruction, quick
quickly). The process of adding affixes is called affixation. Compound nouns get their
meaning from being together (e.g. telephone number, bookshop). They have a different
meaning from the individual words they are made up of.

There are also words that regularly occur together, such as collocations, fixed
expressions and idioms. Collocations are words that often occur together (e.g. to take
a holiday, heavy rain, arrive at, depend on). There are many words which collocate in a
language, and the degree of collocation can vary. For example, watch out is a very
strong collocation as these words very often occur together, whereas watch a video is

from The TKT Course Modules 1, 2 and 3 Online by Mary Spratt, Alan Pulverness and Melanie Williams
Cambridge University Press 2011
less strong and watch the postmen is not a collocation. The words in watch the postmen
can occur together but dont do so often enough to make them a collocation.

Fixed expressions are expressions which cant be changed (e.g. to tell you the truth,
new born, its up to you). Idioms are a kind of fixed expression as they cant be
changed, but their meaning is usually different from the combination of the meaning of
the individual words they contain (e.g. to be under the weather, to have green fingers,
once in a blue moon). Collocations, fixed expressions and idioms are all different kinds
of chunks. Chunks refers to language that occurs in (semi-)fixed units and that we
usually learn as one piece. Have a good trip, Id like to ..., how about ..., my names ...
are further examples of chunks.

Words also have different relationships with one another. They may, for example, be
synonyms (words with the same or similar meanings) or antonyms (words with
opposite meanings). They may be part of the same lexical set (groups of words that
belong to the same topic area, e.g. family, furniture, food). They may also belong to the
same word family (words that come through affixation from the same base word, e.g.
real, really, realistic, unreal).

False friends, homophones, homonyms and varieties of English are other ways in
which words can relate to one another. False friends are very important in language
teaching and learning. They are words which have the same or a similar form in two
languages but a different meaning. Embarazado, for example, means pregnant in
Spanish. It does not mean embarrassed, though it looks as if it does to an English
speaker! Homophones and homonyms are important, too, in language learning.
Homophones are words with the same pronunciation but a different meaning or
spelling (e.g. knowno; whetherweather; theretheir). Homonyms are words with the
same spelling and pronunciation as another word, but a different meaning, e.g. they sat
on the river bank, he put all his savings into the bank. Words can also relate to one
another through being examples of different varieties of English, i.e. different kinds of
English spoken around the world, e.g. Indian, Australian, US, South African, British.
These varieties sometimes affect lexis as the same things can be called by different
names in different varieties, e.g. flat (British English), apartment (US English), unit
(Australian English), or cookie (US English) and biscuit (British English).

from The TKT Course Modules 1, 2 and 3 Online by Mary Spratt, Alan Pulverness and Melanie Williams
Cambridge University Press 2011
The table below shows examples of some of the form and meaning relationships of two
words.

Lexical features clear (adjective) paper (noun)

Denotations 1 easy to understand 1 material used to write on or

2 not covered or blocked wrap things in

3 having no doubt 2 a newspaper

3 a document containing
information

Synonyms simple (of denotation 1) (none)

certain (of denotation 3)

Antonyms/Opposites confusing (of denotation 1) (none)

untidy, covered (of
denotation 2)
unsure (of denotation 3)

Lexical sets well-written (of denotation stone, plastic, cloth, etc.

1)

Word families clearly, unclear, clarity (none)

Homophones (none) (none)

Homonyms (none) (none)

False friends French clair, i.e. light in possibly in some languages

colour

Prefixes + base unclear (none)

word

Base word + suffixes clearly, a clearing paperless

Compounds clear-headed paper knife, paper shop, paperback

from The TKT Course Modules 1, 2 and 3 Online by Mary Spratt, Alan Pulverness and Melanie Williams
Cambridge University Press 2011
Collocations clear skin, a clear day lined paper, white paper

Figurative meanings a clear head on paper (e.g. It seemed a good

idea on paper)

Idioms to clear the decks (to start to put pen to paper

afresh)

We can see from this table that words sometimes have several denotations. The context
in which we are writing or speaking makes it clear which meaning we are using. Words
can also change their denotations according to what part of speech they are, e.g. the
adjective clear and the verb to clear. We can also see from the table that not all words
have all the kinds of form or meaning relationships.

from The TKT Course Modules 1, 2 and 3 Online by Mary Spratt, Alan Pulverness and Melanie Williams
Cambridge University Press 2011