English Semantic

“Lexical Meaning and Grammatical Meaning”

ARRANGED BY:

Mega Putri Yana (A1M219011)

Class A

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION

HALU OLEO UNIVERSITY

KENDARI

2021
 Lexical Meaning and Grammatical Meaning

A. Lexical Meaning

Lexical meaning refers to the sense (or meaning) of a word (or lexeme) as it
appears in a dictionary. Also known as semantic meaning, denotative meaning, and
central meaning. Contrast with grammatical meaning (or structural meaning). Lexical
semantics is the branch of linguistics which is concerned with the systematic study of
word meanings. Probably the two most fundamental questions addressed by lexical
semanticists are: (a) how to describe the meanings of words, and (b) how to account for
the variability of meaning from context to context. These two are necessarily connected,
since an adequate description of meaning must be able to support our account of variation
and our ability to interpret it. The study of contextual variation leads in two directions: on
the one hand, to the processes of selection from a range of permanently available
possibilities; and on the other hand, to the creation of new meanings from old, by such
means as metaphor and metonymy, in response to contextual pressure. An understanding
of synchronic variation of meaning (variation observable at any one time in a language) is
essential to an understanding of diachronic change (change over time). Another important
area of inquiry is how the vocabularies of languages are structured by means of sense
relations (systematic relations between meanings), such as antonymy (long:short,
fast:slow), hyponymy (animal:dog, fruit:apple), and incompatibility (dog:cat,
apple:banana).

Lexical words, also known as content words, have concrete meaning that goes
beyond their function in a sentence. These words refer to things, people, actions,
descriptions, or other ideas that have more than just a grammatical usage. Their meaning
is easily identified by a clear concept or item. The categories of English words that are
lexical include nouns, adjectives, most verbs, and many adverbs. Nouns, for example,
refer to specified ideas, people, places, or things. The concepts behind words like "dog,"
"love," or "Brazil," for example, are veryclear.
 Adjectives describe nouns in well-defined ways, providing information about
colors, texture, number, size, and so on. Likewise, adverbs can be lexical words if they
specifically describe nouns or verbs. Because they evoke specific ideas, descriptors like
"red," "quickly," "heavy," or "effectively" are considered lexical. Most verbs also fall into
the lexical category because they refer to specific actions. For example, the meanings of
words like "think," "sing," "understand," and "jump" are easy to grasp.

There is no necessary congruity between the structural and lexical meanings of a

word. We can observe a congruity of these meanings, for example, in the word cat, where
both structural and lexical meaning refer to an object. But often the structural and lexical
meanings of a word act in different or even diametrically opposite directions. For example,
the structural meaning of protection refers to an object, while its lexical meaning refers to
a process; and conversely, the structural meaning of (to) cage refers to a process, while its
lexical meaning refers to an object

B. Grammatical Meaning

According to Lyons (1995: 52) a lexeme may have different word-forms and these
word-forms will generally differ in meaning: their grammatical meaning – the meaning in
terms of grammar. For example, the forms of student and students differ in respect of their
grammatical meaning, in that one is the singular form (of a noun of a particular class) and
the other is plural form (of a noun of a particular class); and the difference between
singular forms and plural forms is semantically relevant: it affects sentence-meaning. The
meaning of a sentence is determined partly by the meaning of the words (i.e. lexemes) of
which it consists and partly by its grammatical meaning.

Grammatical meaning is the meaning conveyed in a sentence by word order and other

grammatical signals. Also called structural meaning. Linguists distinguish grammatical
meaning from lexical meaning (or denotation)--that is, the dictionary meaning of an
individual word. Walter Hirtle notes that "a word expressing the same idea can fulfill
different syntactic functions. The grammatical difference between the throw in to throw a
ball and that in a good throw has long been attributed to a difference of meaning not of the
lexical type described in dictionaries, but of the more abstract, formal type described in
grammars" (Making Sense out of Meaning, 2013).

Grammatical words, also known as function words, have little definite meaning on
their own and are ambiguous without context. Some also function to impart the speaker's
attitude or perspective onto other words. These kinds of words define the structure of a
sentence and relate lexical words to each other. Grammatical words include prepositions,
modals and auxiliary verbs, pronouns, articles, conjunctions, and some adverbs.

 Prepositions are used in a variety of ways, and often have ambiguous

meanings dependent on the context.
 Auxiliary verbs like "be" and "have" are used to shift a verb's time, while
modals like "should" or "will" also impact the sense of verb in various ways
related to time or attitude.
 Pronouns have little meaning except as placeholders for general nouns.
 Articles also simply qualify nouns.
 Question words, like "why," alter the function of a sentence or replace a
noun. Other adverbs can shift the time or other senses of the lexical words
they are connected to.
 Conjunctions link parts of a sentence together by establishing logical
relationships between lexical words

Grammatical Meaning and Structure

Words grouped together randomly have little meaning on their own, unless it occurs
accidentally. For example, each of the following words has lexical meaning at the word
level, as is shown in a dictionary, but they convey no grammatical meaning as a group:

a. [without grammatical meaning]

Lights the leap him before the down hill purple.
 However when a special order is given to these words, grammatical meaning is
created because of the relationships they have to one another.
b. [with grammatical meaning]
"The purple lights leap down the hill before him." (Bernard O'Dwyer, Modern English
Structures: Form, Function and Position. Broadview Press, 2006)

Word Class and Grammatical Meaning

Note how word classes can make a difference in meaning. Consider the following:

He brushed off his muddy shoes. [verb]

He gave his muddy shoes a brush. [noun]

Changing from a construction with a verb to one with a noun involves more
than just changing the word class in this sentence. There is also a modification of
meaning. The verb emphasizes activity and there is a greater implication that the shoe
will end up clean, but the noun indicates that the activity is much shorter, more
cursory and done with less interest, so the shoe is not cleaned properly.

Now compare the following:

Next summer I will go to Spain for my vacation. [adverb]

Next summer is going to be awesome. [noun]

According to traditional grammar, next summer in the first sentence is an

adverbial phrase, while in the second it is a noun phrase. Again, changes in
grammatical categories also bring changes in meaning. An adverbial phrase is an
addition, a component that is tied to the whole sentence, and provides only the
temporal context for the whole utterance. On the other hand, the use of the phrase as a
noun in the subject position makes it less profound and less abstract; it is now the
theme of speech and the time period is more sharply delimited." (Brian Mott,
Introductory Semantics and Pragmatics for Spanish Learners of English. Edicions
Universitat Barcelona, 2009).
C. The Difference Between Lexical Words and Grammatical Words

Lexical meaning is dominant in content words, whereas grammatical meaning

is dominant in function words, but in neither is grammatical meaning absent.
Grammatical words include prepositions, modals and auxiliary verbs, pronouns,
articles, conjunctions, and some adverbs.

Lexical words supply meaning to a sentence, whereas grammatical words

relate the lexical words to one another. Look at the following sentence that only
shows the lexical words: " ___ cat jumped ___ ___ tree ___ ___ dog ran ___." This
looks like nonsense. All you know is that it is about jumping cats, running dogs, and
trees. It may be possible to guess the complete meaning of the sentence, but you can't
know for certain because cats, dogs, and trees can be related in different ways. Now
look at the sentence with the grammatical words re-inserted: "The cat jumped into the
tree as the dog ran forward." The sentence makes sense. Notice, however, that if you
put a different set of grammatical words in, you get a completely different meaning:
"The cat jumped from the tree after the dog ran away." You can see that the
grammatical words clarify the logical relations between the lexical words and define
their function in the sentence.

Although it's technical, the difference between lexical words and grammatical
words is straightforward. It is an important concept for linguists because the
distinction seems to exist in all languages, not just English. Understanding these
differences helps scholars figure out the relationship between the different languages,
as well as the history of the English language. It may even give some insight into how
human minds work. Understanding these types of words will help increase your
comprehension of English.
 CONCLUSION

Lexical words, also known as content words, have concrete meaning that goes
beyond their function in a sentence. These words refer to things, people, actions,
descriptions, or other ideas that have more than just a grammatical usage. The
categories of English words that are lexical include nouns, adjectives, most verbs, and
many adverbs.

Grammatical meaning is the meaning conveyed in a sentence by word order

and other grammatical signals. Also called structural meaning. Grammatical words,
also known as function words, have little definite meaning on their own and are
ambiguous without context. Grammatical words include prepositions, modals and
auxiliary verbs, pronouns, articles, conjunctions, and some adverbs.

The difference between lexical words and grammatical words is exical

meaning is dominant in content words, whereas grammatical meaning is dominant in
function words, but in neither is grammatical meaning absent. Grammatical words
include prepositions, modals and auxiliary verbs, pronouns, articles, conjunctions, and
some adverbs.
 REFERENCE

Andrews, Avery D. "Grammatical’vs.‘lexical’meaning constructors for glue

semantics." Selected Papers from the 2009 Conference of the Australian Linguistic
Society, The Australian Linguistic Society, URL. 2010.

Croft, William. "Lexical and grammatical meaning." Morphologie. De Gruyter Mouton,

2008. 257-263.

http://deddisetiawan1.blogspot.com/2014/11/lexical-meaning-versus-gramatical.html?m=1

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/lexical-semantics

https://www.thoughtco.com/lexical-meaning-words-1691048