Exploratory task 2.6

Brainstorm the concept of “nationalism” and produce a mind-map. After brainstorming, check the meaning of this concept in home and foreign dictionaries

Nationalism

The study of lexical meaning is the domain of semantics. The notion of meaning is bound to the notion of semantic categories. All words have an underlying category at the superordinate level e.g. a “dog” is an “animal”, an “animate thing”, an “object”. Semantics is the interface between the language and cognition. Word’s denotation is its essential meaning. Word’s connotation is its implications and individual associations. The meaning of a word is embedded within a network of other meanings. The meaning of “cow” might involve associations such as “horns”, “milk”, “grass” etc. Lexical meaning can be decomposed into smaller “semantic primitives” e.g. “mother “ is “female”, “married”, “gave birth”, “has children” etc. Most typical semantic cases are called prototypes, e.g. a “robin” is a bird because of all its “semantic primitives” (can fly, has a beak, lays eggs etc). A “penguin” is a bird but it can’t fly and is farther away from the prototype of “birds” (Harley, T. 1997. The Psychology of Language. Psychology Press. P. 175-205)