Meaning of Words and Textual Properties
The Meaning of Words
Denotation and Connotation
Denotation is the objective meaning of a word, common to all speakers and registered in dictionaries. For example, the denotative meaning of “rowing” is fetching water in a boat.
Connotation encompasses the subjective meanings added to the denotation, which are not found in dictionaries. A word’s connotations relate to the linguistic or communicative situation: culture, ideology, intent, venue of communication, style, and records.
Lexical Semantic Relations
Monosemy: A word is monosemic when its meaning corresponds to a single definition.
Polysemy: A word is polysemous when it has two or more related meanings. The meaning of a polysemous word depends on its linguistic context.
Homonymy: Homonymy occurs when two or more words with originally different meanings and signifiers evolve to have different meanings but the same spelling or similar form and identical pronunciation. Homonyms are divided into:
- Homophones: Words pronounced the same but spelled differently. Example: sabia (wise) / savia (sap)
- Homographs: Words spelled and pronounced the same. Example: río (verb – to row) / río (noun – river)
Synonymy: Two or more words are synonymous when they have different signifiers but the same or similar meaning. Sometimes, total synonymy exists, where synonyms are completely interchangeable: donkey = ass. However, partial synonymy is more common. Even with the same general meaning, synonymous words have different nuances: singular, peculiar, particular, rare…
Antonymy: Antonyms are words with opposite meanings. There are three types of antonyms:
- Complementary: Asserting one excludes the other. Example: even/odd.
- Reciprocal: One implies the other. Example: give/receive.
- Gradable: A gradation can be established. Example: cold, warm, hot.
Hyperonymy and Hyponymy: Hypernyms are words whose meaning includes others, called hyponyms, with a narrower meaning. For example, “flower” is a hypernym that includes hyponyms like “rose” and “carnation.”
Semantic Associations: The Semantic Field: A semantic field is a set of words in the same grammatical category that share meaning features but also have distinct features. Each common or distinctive feature is called a sema.
Semantic Changes: Word meanings change over time. These changes can involve broadening (from specific to general), narrowing (specialization), or shifts due to evolving or disappearing realities. Three causes are:
- Linguistic Causes: When two words frequently appear together, one may adopt the meaning of the omitted word.
- Historical Causes: Objects change use or form, but their names remain.
- Social and Psychological Causes: Words from restricted domains enter general vocabulary (or vice-versa).
Speakers avoid taboo words with negative connotations, replacing them with euphemisms. Metaphor involves resemblance between objects, while metonymy involves a close relationship.
The Text and Its Properties
Textual study focuses on two aspects: the text as a communication unit and the pragmatic level (extralinguistic situation: sender-receiver, channel, space, time, social and cultural context). Grammatically, analysis focuses on morphosyntactic, phonological, and semantic levels. Semantically, it focuses on meaning in the communicative act; pragmatically, on the extralinguistic situation.
The Text
A text is a complete communication unit (oral or written) issued by a sender in specific circumstances. It can be a single sentence or several, with key features:
- Complete communication unit with a communicative intention.
- An act where the sender expresses an intention (report, order, display, persuade, promise…).
- Occurs in a specific extralinguistic situation (time, space, sender-receiver relationship) and loses meaning outside of it.
- Has a structure (internal organization and rules) that connects elements, providing coherence and unity.
Textual properties are requirements for a text: relevance to the communicative situation (dependent on registers), coherence (global meaning), and cohesion (connection between linguistic elements).
Relevance
Relevance involves selecting the most appropriate linguistic choices for the communication situation. A text is suitable if it achieves the sender’s communicative purpose.
Coherence
Coherence allows a text to be interpreted as a unified whole, where all elements interrelate to create a global meaning.
Information Selection
When communicating, we select information from our available knowledge. Key factors for textual meaning include linguistic context, the communication situation (relationship between individuals, time, and space), shared language proficiency, and general cultural knowledge.
Theme and Structure
A coherent text has a theme (overall idea) developed throughout. This theme can be explicit in titles or implicit in the organization of information. The overall structure (introduction, development, conclusion) is how information is organized to express the theme.
The Lexicon and Dictionary
Lexicography is the science of dictionary development, and a lexicographer creates dictionaries. General dictionaries collect and explain words, arranged alphabetically, with an internal order for descriptions.
Dictionary entries offer:
- Entry: The word being defined (in bold).
- IPA: Phonetic transcription.
- Etymology: Word origin.
- Part of Speech: (e.g., adj., adv.).
- Definition: Can be denotative (using synonyms, antonyms) or logical (describing the reality represented by the word).
- Meanings: Different meanings of a word, including social use (figurative, colloquial, archaic).
- Examples.
Types of Dictionaries
- Normative: Words must meet specific requirements for acceptance (e.g., RAE).
- Descriptive: Words are included based on usage, reflecting current language.
- Ideological: Words are ordered by meaning relations, often with an alphabetical index.
The Diacritical Accent
Monosyllables typically don’t have accents. However, diacritical accents distinguish words with identical forms but different grammatical categories.
Without Diacritical Accent
el, tu, mi, te, mas, si, de, se, o, que, cual, quien
With Diacritical Accent
él, tú, mí, té, más, sí, dé, sé, ó, qué, cuál, quién
The Text and Properties (2)
Cohesion
Cohesion connects textual units. Relationships exist between sentences, sentences and the extralinguistic situation, paragraphs, and larger units. Two types of relationships are reference (deixis, anaphora, cataphora, ellipsis, lexical replacement) and connection (using discourse markers).
Referential Relations
Grammatical Processes
- Deixis: Refers to extralinguistic elements, often using pronouns or adverbs to place the discussion in time and space.
- Anaphora: An element (antecedent) is replaced by a subsequent element (pronoun, determiner, adverb).
- Cataphora: An element refers to a later element.
- Ellipsis: Omission of a known element easily retrievable from context (sentential, nominal, verbal).
Lexical-Semantic Procedures
Lexical replacement substitutes a word with a synonym, hypernym, hyponym, or antonym. Replacement can also occur between a name and a common noun, or between a word and a periphrasis, metaphor, or metonymy.
Connection
Discourse markers connect and guide speech fragments, acting as signals that link textual units. They can be conjunctions, adverbs, phrases, or even sentences.
Types of Discourse Markers
- Organization and Structuring: Indicate text organization (e.g., firstly, secondly, finally).
- Logical Relationship: Express logical-semantic relations (e.g., addition, contrast, exemplification, cause, consequence, condition, purpose).
- Conversational Markers: Used in conversation to indicate certainty, speaker attitudes, etc.
Textual Topology
Text types follow pre-organized schemes (narration, description, exposition…) encompassing various textual genres (letter, novel, blog, lecture, review…).
Types of Texts by Communicative Intention
Informative, interrogative, promising, thanking, contacting, descriptive, narrative, expository, argumentative, instructive, predictive, rhetorical.
The Grammatical Sentence
The Statement
The smallest unit of communication with complete meaning, independent due to pauses and intonation. A message can have multiple statements, connected by sense or theme. Statements can be sentential (with a verb phrase) or non-sentential.
The Sentence
A linguistic unit communicating a complete message with an intention (assertion, denial, question, desire…). It’s independent, has intonation, and is bounded by pauses (punctuation in writing).
Sentence Structure
Sentences typically have a noun phrase (subject) and a verb phrase (predicate). The subject is what is being talked about, and the predicate is what is said about the subject. Ellipsis occurs when elements are omitted because they are understood from context.
Agreement between NP and VP
The subject and verb agree in person and number, with some exceptions (collective nouns, multiple subjects).
Impersonal Sentences
Sentences without a subject. Types include:
- Possible Impersonal: Verbs in third person plural with an unnamed subject.
- Unipersonal: Refer to natural phenomena.
- Grammaticalized: Use verbs like “be,” “do,” and “have” in the third person singular.
- Reflexive: Use a reflexive verb in the third person singular.
Sentence Types by Mode
- Declarative: Report a fact objectively.
- Interrogative: Ask a question (direct or indirect, total or partial).
- Exclamatory: Express emotions.
- Imperative: Express a request, command, or prohibition.
- Optative: Express a wish.
- Dubitative: Express doubt or possibility.
Diacritical Accent (2)
Without Diacritical Accent
donde, adonde, como, cuanto, cuando, aun, este, esta, solo, porque, por que
With Diacritical Accent
dónde, adónde, cómo, cuándo, aún, éste, ésta, éste, ésta, sólo, porqué, por qué