Level of meaning (3):

Meaning of words
Meaning of phrases
Meaning of sentences
Types of meaning (2):

CHAPTER 1: BASIC IDEAS IN SEMANTICS

- Sentence can mean more than 1 (ambiguous)
eg: She drove past the bank

a. Def of semantics:
- Study of MEANING - defined as a part of Linguistics that deal with meaning:
 Word meaning
 Phrase meaning
 Sentence meaning
- Semantics - deal with changes in meaning
 Geography
 History…
- Semantics - deal with the principles that govern the relationship btw sentences or
words/meanings.
eg: John murdered the president - focus on the side of the murderer
The president is dead - focus on the side of the president.
- Semantics is the study of the relationship btw signs and symbols and what they represent.
- Some important areas of semantics theory or related subjects:
Symbol and referent
Conception of meaning

b. Meanings in Semantics (7):

Conceptual/Denotative
Connotative meaning
Social
Affective/Emotive
Reflected
Collocative
Thematic
c. Conceptual/Denotative (nghĩa đen):
- Logical or cognitive meaning
- Essential or core meaning
Eg: Boy = +human +male -adult.
- Meaning of the word indicates the ideas/concept
Purpose: provide an appropriate semantics representation to a sentence or statement.
d. Connotative Meaning (nghĩa bóng)
- The communicative value of an expression over and above its purely conceptual content.
e. Social Meaning
Eg: “I ain’t done nothing”
- School aspect: the speaker made grammatical mistake in the sentence
- American aspect: The speaker is a Black American - underprivileged - uneducated
“Come on yaar, be a sport. Don’t be Lallu”
f. Affective/Emotive Meaning
- Refer to emotive association or effects of words evoked on the reader, listener.
- Convey personal feelings/attitude towards the listener.
Eg: “home” for a sailor/soldier/expatriate
“mother” for a motherless child
Affective meaning - often convey through conceptual, connotative content of the words.
g. Reflected Meaning:
- Reflected Meaning arises when a word has more than 1 conceptual meaning or multiple
conceptual meaning.
h. Collocative Meaning
- Meaning which a word acquires in the company of certain words
i. Thematic Meaning
- Refer to what is communicated by the way in which a speaker/writer organizes the
message in terms of ordering focus and emphasis.
- The way we order our message also convey what is important and what not.
Eg: He likes Indian goods most. - focus the hobby (what he likes)
Indian goods he likes most. - focus the Indian goods
It is the Indian goods he likes most. - focus