Lexis, Morphology & Semantics

for English Language Teaching

The meaning systems of English words 2:

Word & Meaning

 The meaning systems of English words 2

• What is a word?
– phonological, orthographic, lexical, grammatical
– content vs function; open-class vs closed-class
– word “freedom” tests: mobility, interruptibility

• What is in a word?
– word-parts
– meanings / senses

• What is meaning?
– meaning as naming vs sense-making
– meaning as use in contexts
• normality profiles
• types of abnormality
• corrigibility: semantic vs grammatical
 The meaning systems of English words 2

A word as
a unit of meaningful sound
i. a unit of sound
ii. meaningful
iii. with a beginning & an end
Who decides? By what standards?

“phonological word”
 The meaning systems of English words 2

A word as
a unit of meaningful sound
i. a unit of sound
ii. meaningful
iii. with a beginning & an end
descriptiv-ism (vs prescriptiv-ism)

“phonological word”
 The meaning systems of English words 2

A word as
a unit of meaningful sound
Some phonological clues
– main stress on one syllable
e.g. 'garden; en'joy
– phonotactic requirements
e.g. “know” is pronounced “no” with the “k” and the
“w” remaining silent;
no English word beginning with the sound “ng”

The writing system as the source of the “problems”?

 The meaning systems of English words 2

Awordas
ameaningfulstringofletters
i. astringofletters
ii. meaningful
iii. withabeginning&anend
descriptiv-ism (vs prescriptiv-ism)

“orthographicword”
 The meaning systems of English words 2

A word as
a meaningful string of letters
Some orthographic clues
– spacing
– other punctuations
e.g. hyphen: e-mail / email
capitalising: e/English, c/Cantonese
full-stop, comma, etc
 The meaning systems of English words 2

A word as
a minimal free unit of meaning
i. a unit of meaning
ii. a free-standing unit
iii. a minimal unit
e.g. gardens; enjoyed

(in language-use contexts: ) inflected / grammatical forms of a

“lexical word”
 The meaning systems of English words 2

A word as
a minimal free unit of meaning
i. a unit of meaning
ii. a free-standing unit
iii. a minimal unit
e.g. gardener, enjoyment, rose garden, bear market

words derived from

or
formed with

one or more “lexical words”

 The meaning systems of English words 2

rose garden: a garden of roses

(attributive) This is a rose garden.
(predicative) A rose garden is a garden of roses.

rose garden: something ideal / perfect

e.g. build a Rose Garden waste management facility
for Hong Kong
 The meaning systems of English words 2

rose garden: something ideal / perfect

e.g. build a Rose Garden waste management facility
for Hong Kong
(attributive) The Rose Garden facility …
(attributive) The waste management facility …
(attributive) The Hong Kong facility …
(attributive) ?The Rose facility …
(attributive) ?The Garden facility …
 The meaning systems of English words 2

rose garden: something ideal / perfect

e.g. build a Rose Garden waste management facility
for Hong Kong
(attributive) The Rose Garden facility …
(attributive) The waste management facility …
(attributive) The Hong Kong facility …
(attributive) ?The Rose facility …
(attributive) ?The Garden facility …
(predicative) The facility is a facility of Hong Kong.
(predicative) The facility is a facility of waste management.

(predicative) ?The facility is a facility of / for gardens.

(predicative) ?The facility is a facility of / for roses.
 The meaning systems of English words 2

A word as
a minimal free unit of meaning
i. a unit of meaning
ii. a free-standing unit
iii. a minimal unit

rose garden
one “lexical word” (lexeme)
 The meaning systems of English words 2

bear market: a falling stock market

bear market: a market to sell bears

(as in fish market, handicrafts market )

bear market: a market for bears to shop in

(as in ??? )

flea market: ???

 The meaning systems of English words 2

A word as
a minimal free unit of meaning
i. a unit of ?meaning? (?function?)
ii. a ?free-standing? unit (?not-so-free?)
iii. a minimal unit

e.g. the; of; for; but

“grammatical word”
 The meaning systems of English words 2

What is a word?
Common senses of the word “word”
• phonological word
• orthographic word

Specialist senses of the word “word”

• lexical word “content word”
– derivations & other new words
– (grammatical) word-forms

• grammatical word “function word”

 The meaning systems of English words 2

What is “in” a word?

• word-part(s):
– a root with / without one or more affixes
(a free morpheme with / without
one or more bound morphemes)
– free morphemes (e.g. in compound words)

• meaning(s) / sense(s):
– lexical meaning(s) / sense(s)
– grammatical (morphosyntactic)
meaning(s) / function(s)
 The meaning systems of English words 2

Lexicology
(the mental lexicon)

lexical
morphology
semantics

word word
structure meaning lexicography etymology

dictionary
compilation

(vocabulary)
 The meaning systems of English words 2

morphology  semantics  etymology

responsible
responsi-ble
response-able respons-ive-able

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=responsible
1599, "answerable (to another, for something)," from Fr. responsible, from
L. responsus, pp. of respondere "to respond" (see respond). Meaning
"morally accountable for one's actions" is attested from 1836. Retains the
sense of "obligation" in the Latin root word. Responsibility is from 1787.
 The meaning systems of English words 2

How free is this word?

• The mobility test
e.g. The cat sat on the mat.
Sat on the mat the cat.
The mat the cat sat on.
On the mat the cat sat.

• The interruptibility test

e.g. The cat sat on the mat
The big cat sat happily on the small mat
The big cat happily sat on the small mat
 The meaning systems of English words 2

Multi-word lexeme:
raining cats & dogs
It is raining cats & dogs.
Raining cats & dogs it is.

?It is raining dogs & cats.

?Cats & dogs, it is raining.
?It is raining many cats & few dogs.
 The meaning systems of English words 2

Multi-word lexeme:
chasing the dragon

Chasing the dragon is unhealthy.

Unhealthy chasing the dragon is.

? The dragon is unhealthy chasing.

? Chasing closely the flying dragon is
unhealthy.
 The meaning systems of English words 2

Multi-word lexeme:
kick the bucket

Wong Chim kicked the bucket yesterday.

? He kicked the plastic bucket last week.

? The cockroach kicked the bucket.
? The couple had a car accident yesterday,
and kicked two buckets.
 The meaning systems of English words 2

Multi-word lexeme:
kick the bucket
Wong Chim kicked the bucket yesterday.

? He kicked the plastic bucket last week.

? The cockroach kicked the bucket.
? The couple had a car accident yesterday,
and kicked two buckets.

lai chai (“pull firewood”)

? lai 2 chai
 The meaning systems of English words 2

Eat, drink & be merry!

The “default” idiomatic meaning:
[ jin zhao you jiao jin tian zui
today there-is wine today get-drunk ]
e.g. He has an “eat, drink & be merry” attitude to life.

?Drink & be merry, eat!

?Be merry, drink & eat!

?Eat a turkey, drink two bottles of champagne, &

be merry for three hours.
?She ate like a pig, drank like a fish, & was as
merry as a cricket.
?He is an eater, drinker & merry-maker.
 The meaning systems of English words 2

(The “multi-word” lexeme)

“Eat, drink & be merry!” (Tomorrow you may die!)
- (arguably) used as an interjection
other examples: Oh! Wow!

- as an interjection: • a part of speech

• not inflectional
• tense-less

Non-idiomatic use & meaning:

Eat, drink & be merry. Tomorrow you may diet.
 The meaning systems of English words 2

What is meaning?
• the word “mean-ing” as a noun derived from
the verb “mean”
e.g. I mean well, I mean no harm.
(intention)
The alarm means danger.
(conventional sign)

Smoke means fire.

(natural sign)
 The meaning systems of English words 2

What is meaning?

• meaning as referential
– meaning as the thing referred to
– meaning as the concept expressed
“money” word concept
expression expressed

thing referred to
(referent)
 The meaning systems of English words 2

What is meaning?

• meaning as referential
– meaning as referent (the thing)

– meaning as reference (the concept)

symbol reference

(imputed)

referent
 The meaning systems of English words 2

What is meaning?

• meaning as referential
– meaning as naming (a thing in real life)
– meaning as sensing (a thing in “real” life)
word sense
(dragon) (idea of dragon)

(imputed)
thing in real life
(?dragon in real life?)
 The meaning systems of English words 2

What is meaning?

• meaning as referential
– meaning as naming (a thing in real life)
– meaning as sensing (a thing in “real” life)
word sense
(dragon) (idea of dragon)
SENSE
RELATIONS
(non-referential)
(imputed)

thing in real life

(?dragon in real life?)
 The meaning systems of English words 2

What is meaning?

• meaning as referential
– meaning as naming (a thing in real life)
– meaning as sensing (a thing in real life)
word sense
(dragon) (idea of dragon)

cognitive construal
(imputed) (semi-referential)
thing in real life
(?dragon in real life?)
 The meaning systems of English words 2

What is meaning?

• meaning as
– language use in context
– contextual relations / normality profiles

e.g. A dog barks / bites

A cat mews / bites
? A dog sings
? A cat smiles
 The meaning systems of English words 2

Some dimensions of meaning

Quality
This is a rather light package. It’s not heavy at all
? This package weighs considerably. It’s not
heavy at all.

This is an MA course. And it’s for primary school

teachers.
? This is an MA course. But it is for primary school
teachers.
 The meaning systems of English words 2

Some dimensions of meaning

Quality
This is a rather light package. It’s not heavy
at all.
?? This package weighs considerably. It’s not
heavy at all.
This is an MA programme. And it’s for
primary school teachers.
?? This is an MA programme. But it is for
primary school teachers.
? This is a programme for primary school
teachers. But it is an MA programme.
 The meaning systems of English words 2

Some dimensions of meaning

Intensity
It isn’t just raining. It is pouring.
? It isn’t just pouring. It is raining.
She didn’t just hurt him. She destroyed him.
? She didn’t just destroy him. She hurt him.

The lecture is too fast. It’s hard to understand.

? The lecture is too fast. It’s easy to understand.

The lecture is too slow. It’s hard to understand.

? The lecture is too slow. It’s easy to understand.
 The meaning systems of English words 2

Meaning as (ab-)normality profiles

?This is a turtle, but it can swim.
?This is a turtle, but it has a shell.

?This is a mouse, and it eats elephants.

?This is a mouse, but it has a long tail.

?This is a cat, but it meows.

?This is a cat, but it sleeps.
 The meaning systems of English words 2

Some types of abnormality

in contexts of use

A sense of redunancy:
?My dad is a man.
?She’s her students’ teacher.
?He fell down the stairs accidentally.
?The mother breast-fed her baby with milk.
?He drove the car to make it move.
?Draw pictures only.
 The meaning systems of English words 2

Some types of abnormality

in contexts of use
A sense of semantic clash:
?She’s a single wife.
?He’s a married bachelor.
?They are childless parents.
?She works busily in her leisure time.
?This water is boiling cold.
?These difficult concepts are easy to understand.
 The meaning systems of English words 2

Corrigibility: semantic vs grammatical

?The colourless green idea is sleeping furiously.
The beautiful green turtle is sleeping peacefully.
The colourless gas is turning green alarmingly.
?She goes back to her office every morning at 9 am.
She goes back home every evening at 7 pm.
She goes in her office every morning at 9 am.
?She played him happily.
She played with him happily.
?Two more minutes, and he will complete.
Two more minutes, and he will complete it.
Two more minutes, and he will finish.
Two more minutes, and he’s done.
 The meaning systems of English words 2

• What is a word?
– phonological, orthographic, lexical, grammatical
– content vs function; open-class vs closed-class
– word “freedom” tests: mobility, interruptibility

• What is in a word?
– word-parts
– meanings / senses

• What is meaning?
– meaning as naming vs sense-making
– meaning as use in contexts
• normality profiles
• types of abnormality
• corrigibility: semantic vs grammatical