Group 4 - KINDS OF MEANING

Ashry Ghina Zhahirah

Mira Kristina

Ester Ngelyaubun
 Kinds of Meaning
Geoffrey Leech in
his ‘Semantic- A
Study of
meaning’ (1974) I II III
breaks down
meaning into
seven types or Conceptual Connotative Social Meaning
ingredients giving Meaning Meaning
primacy to
conceptual
meaning. 
The Seven types IV V VII VII
of meaning
according to Leech
are as follows. Affective Reflected Collocative Thematic
Meaning Meanings Meanings Meanings
 CONCEPTUAL
MEANING

According to Geoffrey
Leech, Conceptual meaning
is the literal meaning of the called logical meaning
word indicating the idea or or cognitive.
concept to refer
 THE EXAMPLE

The word "boy" in the Cambridge dictionary referring to

"human + male-adult"
"woman" is interpreted in the dictionary to refer to
"human+female+adult"

it can be assumed that the example above has a

conceptual or literal meaning that indicates the idea or
concept being referred to and hierarchi structural.
 Connotative Meaning

According to Geoffrey Leech, Connotative Meaning is

the communicative value of an expression over and
above its purely conceptual meaning.
1.  Positive connotation. For example, describing
someone ambitious as a “go-getter” or someone
who is lively and curious as “youthful.” 
2.  Negative connotation. Using the examples above,
the same ambitious person might be described as
an “overachiever,” while the curious person might The Example
be referred to as “childish.” 
3.  Neutral connotation. The statement, “He is
ambitious” suggests a person works hard and
strives to achieve, without judgment on whether the
ambition is a good or a bad thing.
 — SOCIAL MEANING —

According to Geoffrey Leech, Social Meaning is a

meaning conveyed by the piece of language about the
social context of its.
 The Example

Jakarta people VS Java people

Pandu : “budi, lu dimana gua udah sampai nih” Budi : “kamu yg sabar pan, aku masih dijalan
kena macet”
(jakarta people) (java people)
 AFFECTIVEMEANING
AFFECTIVE MEANING

According to Geoffrey Leech, Affective

Meaning is a sort of meaning which an
effect the personal feelings of speaker,
including someone attitude to the listener
or attitude something talking about.
 THE EXAMPLE

A : sayang, lagi sibuk ga?

temenin jalan yuk
B : sibuk ga? temenin jalan yuk
 
Reflective Meaning According to Geoffrey Leech
Involves an interconnection
on the lexical level of language,
it is the meaning which arises
in case of multiple
conceptual meaning,
when one senses of word
forms part of our respons
to another sense.
THE EXAMPLE

the word "cock" is replaced

by the speaker to "rooster"
in order to avoid using
words that have a
taboo meaning.
Collocative Meaning
According to Geoffrey Leech, Is consist of the
associations a word acquires on account of the
meanings of the words, which tends to occur in its
environment or a meaning which acquires in the
company of certain words.
 The Example

For example:

the words "pretty"

and
"handsome" are
indicated in the word
"good looking"
these words
are obtained
because of the
environment.
 Thematic Meaning

According to Geoffrey Leech, Thematic

Meaning is the meaning that is
communicated by the way in which the
speaker or writer organizes the message, in
terms of ordering, focus, emphasis.
 The Example

1) Mrs. Smith donated the first prize

2) The first prize was donated by Mrs. Smith.

In the first sentence “who gave away the prize”

is more important, but in the second sentence
“what did Mrs. Smith gave is important”.
Thus the change of focus change the meaning also.
The first suggests that we already know
Mrs. Smith (perhaps through earlier mention)
its known/given information while it’s new information.
T H A N K

Y O U