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Types of Lexical Meaning

The content plane of words includes denotative and connotative meanings.

1) Denotative or referential meaning, the basic type of lexical meaning, is the word‘s reference to the object.

This reference may be individual

e.g. The dog is trained

or general

e.g. It‘s not a dog.

That is why denotative meaning is subdivided into demonstrative and significative: the type of denotative meaning varies in different groups of words, the meaning of situational words is relative – it depends on the situation and context,

e.g. here, son, my, this, now

Pronominal words do not name the referent, they only point to it,

e.g. he, she, they

Their meaning in isolation is very general,

e.g. he – any male

But in speech their reference is always individual,

e.g. he – this particular male

The referent of proper names is always an individual object or person. They refer to each member of a particular class,

e.g. London, Paris (cities), John, Bob (men)

Specific and generic terms differ in the size of the referent group,

e.g. rose – flower; flower – plant

General terms have a wider meaning and can substitute for any specific term,

e.g. dog – English bulldog, French poodle, cocker spaniel.

The referent of abstract words can be perceived by the mind and not by the senses: miracle, polite, to manage.

2) Connotative meaning includes various additional meanings: emotional, evaluative, intensifying and expressive, e.g. hillock, to devour. As a rule, connotation co-exists with denotation. Sometimes it comes to the foreground and weakens the word‘s denotative meaning.

Words also may have a certain stylistic value. It means that they refer to this or that situation or functional style: science, everyday life, business: get – obtain –procure; child – kid – infant.


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