Ordinary Language and Literary Language

Ordinary language and literary language

Introduction:

Language is a means of communication. It is God’s specific gift to mankind. Without language human civilization would have remained impossibility. Language is unique and also ubiquitous in nature. It is present everywhere in our thoughts and dreams, prayers and meditations, relation and communication and also in our rituals. Language can be divided into two groups- ordinary language and literary language.

Ordinary language is the day to day usage of language by common people. Literary language is the language used by the poets, writers and scholars. A common person can understand the ordinary language very well, but it is quite difficult to convey the proper meaning of the literary language. A person should concentrate on structure as well as on the implied meaning of word and sentence in order to retrieve the proper meaning of the literary language. We can say literary language is a deviant type of language, because a writer uses various devices of diction in order to make the language quite different from the common use of language.

Man’s greatest possession and the fact that differentiate him from all other created being is language. So language plays a vital role in communication. The communication of meaning thus becomes a very important part of a language. We can hardly think of human existence without use of language. Our language is inextricably bound up with our humanity. To be human is to use language, and to talk is to be a person. As biologist and author Lewis Thomas remarks in The Lives of a cell (1974, p.89).

“The gift of language is the single human trait that marks us all genetically, setting us apart from the rest of life. Language is, like nest-building or hive-making, the universal and biologically specific activity of human beings. We engage in it communally, compulsively, and automatically. We cannot be human without it; if we were to be separated from it our minds would die, as surely as bees lost from the hive.” Thus language becomes an inseperapable part of human existence.

Meaning of Language:

The English word ‘language’ seems to have been derived from the Latin word, ‘Lingua’ which implies ‘tongue’. French term, ‘langue’ and ‘parole’ also bear the impression on language. Language is the entire complex of phenomena associated with human vocal and auditory communication of emotions and ideas. It includes the first cries of the baby, the most rudimentary forms of human speech and all connections with physiology, psychology, History etc. It appertains to individual and society.

Definitions of Language:

A language is considered to be a system of communicating with other people using sounds, symbols and words in expressing a meaning, idea or thought. This language can be used in many forms, primarily through oral and written communications as well as using expressions through body language.

Language is defined as means of communication and social control. Some definitions of language are given below.

“A language I a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a social group operates and interacts”.

- Block and Trager.

“Language is a set of human habits, the purpose of which is to give expression to thoughts and feelings”

- I.J. Jesperson

“Language maybe defined, “as an arbitrary system of vocal symbols by means of which human beings, a member of a social group and participants, in culture, interact and communicate”.

- Ecyclopaedia Britannia

There are two types of language that is Ordinary language and literary language. Ordinary language is the uses of language in day to day communication and conversation. Such as in advertisement, instructions etc. Literary language is used in the literature and it has special diction such as poetry, drama, fiction etc.

Differences between Ordinary Language and Literary Language.

Language with its different varieties is the subject matter of socio-linguistics. Language can vary not only individual to individual but also from literariness to ordinariness. The following difference can be listed between the ordinary language and literary language.

1. Obscurity or Vagueness :-

Literary language has the feature of obscurity and vagueness as well as abstract thoughts and expressions are bound in literary language. Such vagueness and abstractions generally not found in ordinary language. Ordinary language bears the feature of clarity and explicitness. Literary language is especially a poetic language. It is very difficult to understand.

e.g. “My vegetable love could grow vaster than empires and slower”

- Andrew Marvell’s Poem. (‘To His Coy Mistress)

“ Lend me your ears”- ‘Julius Caesar’ – By Shakespeare

But ordinary language is plain and clear. The above kinds of speeches are hardly used. Ordinary language is very easy to understand.

2. Terseness and Rhythm :-

Literary language is marked with brevity as it generally uses terse expressions. It means that more information is given in a small context. Sometimes literary language abounds with latent thoughts.

e.g. “Woods are lovely dark and deep

But I have promises to keep

And miles to go before I sleep

And miles to go before I sleep.”

By- Robert Frost.

Another example can be from Shakespeare’s Play ‘ As you like it’. This song is so mellifluous and terse and rhythmic.

“Under the green wood tree”

On the other hand ordinary language doesn’t follow the terseness. In ordinary language precision and brevity is not maintained for all the times. Circumlocutions, twiddling, babblings talks can be found in ordinary language.

3. Ambiguity :-

Ambiguity is the remarkable feature of literary language. Possibility of multiple meanings can be found in literary language. On the other hand, lucidity and directness are the striking feature of ordinary language. In it ideas and thoughts are conveyed in a straightforward way. .The thoughts and ideas are expressed in complicated manner in literary language which is not easily understandable. It always possesses some deeper meaning than what it appears at the surface or at denotative level.

e.g. “The child is the father of man”

-‘The prelude’ - By Wordsworth.

The above line has multiple interpretations such as:-

1) There are many things which can be learned by children.

2) Children are always closer to God than men etc.

Some critics uses the term “multiple meaning” and ‘Plurisignation’. The term ‘freudened’ is the fusion of ‘frightened’ and ‘ Freud’.

Thus the literary language bears the note of ambiguity. On the other hand, generally ordinary language doesn’t bear any note of ambiguous expression.

4. Deviant Language :-

Literary language is described as deviant use of language. Because various devices of diction are used by writer in order to make the language different from the ordinary use of language. But the ordinary language has no deviation; it is as the way people use in their normal communication. Because ordinary language is used by the ordinary people. And the use of ordinary language is a spontaneous process and automatic. In literary language deviations are made for two main reason- searches for novelty and to remove the restrictions of normal language. The deviation of literary language can be at different level like phonological, morphological etc. The following is an example of syntactic or linguistic deviation.

e.g. ‘A grief ago’

The above is special and deviant paradigm.

The normal paradigm would be:

A minute or day or year or month ago.

Here is another example of syntactic deviation which also considered as inversion.

e.g. Much have I traveled in the realms of gold.

Aux S MV O

Thus deviations of different kinds make the literary language different from the ordinary language.

5. Creativity and Novelty:-

Literary language has a high degree of creativity and novelty. The term creativity refers to the artistic originality of idea or innovativeness. It is much associated with poetry, literary prose etc. Each literary piece is another’s own creation and it bears extra-ordinary characteristics. But ordinary language is devoid of such creativity and novelty. No deliberate attempt is made to bring the novelty in ordinary language.

E.g. The word ‘Tenderlicious’ was used for the first time in Cadbury chocolate advertisement. This word is the product of creativity as it is the blending of two words ‘tender’ and ‘Delicious’.

Butterlicious = Butter + Delicious (Advertisement of Amul)

The ‘Toddler shop” instead of ‘Baby shop’ or Kid’s shop or children’s shop. The word ‘Toddler’ indicates the verb ‘toddle’ which means the working of baby or newly born child.

Such creativity and novelty is not found in ordinary language.

G.M. Hopkins in his poem he has depicted the ‘Sea’ with three adjectives.

1) Unchilding 2) unflattering 3) Widow-making.

In this way Hopkins has shown the novelty or newness by giving such novel and bizarre attributes to the ‘sea’.

6. Metre and Rhyme:-

In poetic language sometimes we have various types of metre. It means that in poetic language there is deliberate use of metre. But in ordinary language there is no use of metre.

E.g., “Tiger, tiger burning bright”

Here we have Trochee.

In literary language rhymes get much importance. Poetic language is mainly based on rhymes to have the poetic effect.

E.g. “Oh, from this time forth

My thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth”

In ordinary discourse or speech the speaker doesn’t intend for rhymes or rhyme scheme.

7) Indeterminacy:-

Indeterminacy is a special characteristic of literary language, especially of poetic language. Because of indeterminacy language of literature cannot be regarded as erroneous but it is considered as a graceful feature of literary language.

E.g. ‘My vegetable love could grow

Vaster than empires and more slow”

The above lines are from Marvell’s poem. Here Marvell wants to indicate that his love is evergreen and grows as fast as vegetable grows.

The meaning of given literary work depends on the reader because its interpretations changes from reader to reader. Another example is cited as follows

e.g. The Child is the father of man – ‘Prelude’

The principle of defeated expectancy works to a great extent in literature. The writer deliberately deviates the norms and rules and puzzles the readers. Thus sometimes indeterminacy can be a planned activity.

Example. ‘Et tu brute” (Julius Caesar)- By Shakepeare

“Petal on the wet black bough” – Ezra Pound

Here the word ‘Petal’ is used as a verb and not as noun or adjectives and so the meaning changes. The meaning of ‘petal’ here is to be comfortable to relax.

8. Esthetic Function:-

Literary language has esthetic function. It is the heightened form of expression. Ordinary language on the other has informative function. Literary language always appeals to your mind better. It gives us a sense of joy when we understand it.

9.Complexity :-

Literary language is syntactically complex language in order to heighten the

effect of that work of art. But ordinary language is some what free from such

Complexities.

E.g. “Colorless green ideas sheep furiously”- Chomsky.

10. Multiple Interpretations:-

In literary language, multiple interpretations of a sentence are possible. The

Interpretations may vary by different reader. It depends on the angle of the reader, his point of view and understanding. But in ordinary language we can not find such interpretations.

E.g. If the boy can’t drink the milk boil it.

The above sentence may have different meaning and interpretations.

11. New Lexical Items :-

In literary language new lexical items are used. In Milton’s “Paradise Lost”, He uses a new lexical item – ‘Pandemonium’

Where the root was –Demon, but he added

Pan- means – all

ium- means-place

Thus the meaning stands as – the place of all demons. This is completely a new addition and in ordinary language such coinage of words is not done. When we used the word pandemonium it is an unusual use of language.

“Doff thy name” (Do off)

- Romeo and Juliet – by By Shakespeare

Doff means remove; this is another use of new lexical items in literary language.

The lexical deviation is another important feature of literary language. Such new lexical items are not used in ordinary language. And it is also not acceptable in ordinary language.

12. Pattern :-

There can be various patterns in literary language. In every artistic activity objects there are patterns. But ordinary language follows only suitable and prevalent patterns. Patterns can be at phonological level or in sound.

e.g. “Water, water every where and not any drop to drink”.

“The Ancient Mariner” -By S.T. Coleridge

In the above line the words ‘drop and drink’ have ‘d’as initial sound and it is repeated. This is what usually found in poetry. In the poem ‘Essay of Criticism’ By Pope.

‘To err is human

To forgive is divine”.

In these lines the patter of two clauses with same structure is used that is infinitive +V+ Adj. This is called parallelism - means partial repetition of another pattern, it is also an example of free repetition.

E.g. “water water everywhere”

From “Ancient Mariner”- By S.T.Coleridge

In free repetition the whole word is repeated like the word ‘water’s is repeated in the above line.

But in ordinary language we cannot find such type of repetition and we cannot find such

patterns.

Some grammatical features or patterns of sentences which have become outdated have also been used in both Ordinary and literary language.

e.g. ‘I know not’, ‘saw you anything’.

Poet enjoys the freedom of arranging syntactic elements in an irregular order which is technically called ‘Hyperbation’. For example ‘ cities fair’ where the adjective ‘fair’ qualifying the noun ‘cities fair’ is repeated after the noun. It is generally placed before the noun so that it becomes ‘fair cities’ in ordinary language. Jumbled clause structures have become so much part and parcel of verse literature that such a construction often goes unnoticed. We hardly find such odd structure in prose or in ordinary language.

e.g. 1) A train – band caption Eke was he.

C V S

2) Though wedded we have been.

C S V

The above lines are from Cowpor’s poem. Here he makes use of deviation of the order SVC. (Subject + verb+ complement). This makes the sentence different. This example of violent disorganization. The poet has experimented with language to achieve special effects. These experiments are certain departures from norms laid down in the grammar of everyday language.

13. Archaism :-

In literary language or in old poems, plays, we have archaic words. But in ordinary languages we don’t usually use archaic words.

E. g. ‘Thou hast thy own music’ - ‘Ode to Autumn’ by Keats

‘I kissed thee ere I killed thee’ - ‘Othello’ by Shakespeare.

There are other archaic words used by different literary writers, they are words like – behold, damsel, festoon, ere, off, hither, art, quoth, yonder, clad etc. But there are a few archaic words which are used both in ordinary and literary language.

e.g. ‘hereinafter’ – Legal English (Lawyers)

‘Thou’ - word in Religious English uses.

14. Figurative Nature:-

The language of literature has its own distinguishing characteristics. The most important feature of literary or poetic language is its use of various types of figures of speech. In ordinary language generally it is not possible to use figures of speech. For example, literary language has the uses of figures of speech like irony and metaphor etc. yet it has its roots in ordinary use of language.

e.g. a) “He saw sea of men” (Metaphor)

b) The bad news was a dagger to his heart (Metaphor)

c) “Drink to me the only thine eyes” – Ben Johnson (Hyperbole)

d) He has many mouths to feed (Synecdoche) etc.

Thus ordinary language and literary language differ in use of figures of speech also.

15. Unique Utterances:-

Unique utterance is a noticeable feature of literary language. The creative writer employs such words or phrases which we hardly come across.

Example:

In Lawrence’s Poem “We Die Together”

“I know the unloving factory-hand

Living dead millions is unliving me

Living dead me”.

In these lines, the utterances like ‘unloving factory hand’, ‘living dead millions’, ‘living dead me’ are really praise worthy because we hardly come across such odd combinations

Therefore there are various characteristics and features that make literary language different from the ordinary language. But all literary language has its roots in ordinary language. It can not completely detach itself from the ordinary language. Ordinary language is the source of the literary language.

Why Does Literary Language differ from Ordinary Language?

The difference between both is more delicate and less easily noticeable. If we look back over the span of English literature since Chaucer, we find that some freedom of language have been traditionally permitted in verse. Customarily poets have freely broken the rules of grammar used for ordering words in sentence. Simply speaking, writer violates the norms of literature which are laid for writing. He goes away from these norms. This is why the language used by writers becomes different from its normal use. All these writers are gifted figures. On the other hand, the norms and rules which are laid for writing are normally followed by the users of ordinary language can be called normal language.

Literary language is a deviant use of language. The deviation is the violation of linguistic norms. The deviation may be found at various linguistic levels like phonology, syntax, semantic, graphology and lexis too.

Some of the instances of how and why writers go away from conventionally laid norms in terms of deviation can be given as follows:

1. Phonological Deviation:-

This is a deviation related to sound patterns. Phonological deviation is achieved through the use of alliteration, rhyme, consonance, assonance and onomatopoeia.

Alliteration:

e.g. a) In Robert Burn’s Poem

“My love is like a red red rose”.

b) In Coleridge’s Poem ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’

“The Furrow followed free”

c) In Shakespeare’s Play ‘Macbeth’

“Such a Foul and fair day I have not seen”

The above examples are the fine uses of “Alliteration”. In the example 1, /l/ and /r/ are repeated in order to heighten the desired effect.

In example 2 & 3, sound /f/ is repeated.

Alliteration gives a special effect to literary language.

Rhyme :-

There are various types of rhyme. For example, Rich Rhyme, Masculine Rhyme, Feminine Rhyme, Triple rhyme, Para rhyme etc.

1. In Milton’s poem, ‘L Allegro’ ( Masculine Rhyme is Present)

“Come, and trip it as you go

On the light fantastic toe”

2. In Dary Hine’s poem ‘A Present’ ( Rich Rhyme)

“Spring is late and I am going blind

In his dark room my neighbour draws the blind”

3. In A.E. House man’s Poem ( Feminine Rhyme)

“With rue my hart laden

For many a rose-lift maiden.”

4. Triple Rhyme :

‘Eluding / Deluding, Revision/ Division’ etc.

This kind of rhyme is used to create comic effect.

5. In Wilfred Owens’s Poem, ‘ Strange Meeting’ ( Para Rhyme)

Add by his smile, I knew that sullen hall

By his dead smile, I knew that we stood in hell.

6. Eye Rhyme :–

These are words which look as though they should rhyme from their spelling but are actually pronounced differently like ‘love’ / ‘move’, ‘though’ / ‘bough’.

Patterns of Sound.

Related to rhyme are other elements of repetition of similar or related sounds. These are consonance, assonance and onomatoepia.

Consonance :

Here linked word have their final consonantal sounds in common in ‘put- bet’, ‘will- hall’ etc.

Assonance :

This is the repetition of vowel sounds. It is also called interior rhyme. Here again only the sound is considered, not the spelling. E.g. In Keats’s poem ‘On a Grecian Urn’

“Thou will unravished Bride of quietness

Thou foster child of silence and slow time’’

Onomatopoeia:

The word name-making. This is the capability of sounds to echo through the sense of a word as in ‘swish’ or ‘plop’. In Eliot’s “The Waste Land’ has an example of this kind-

“Only a cock stood in the rooftree

Co Co roco co co rico” ( Onomatopoeia)

2. Syntactic Deviation:-

Syntactic deviation can be achieved by violating the grammatical rules. i.e. Word order. Following are the examples of syntactic deviation.

E.g. in Wordsworth’s Poem ‘Daffodils’

‘Ten thousand saw I at a glance’’

Normally in English language we have the sentence pattern as SVO ( Sub + Verb+Obj). But here Wordswoth deliberately violates the norms and uses the pattern as O (ten thousand, V (saw), S (I) to achieve expected effects. The above sentence also has thematic fronting of the words “Ten Thousand”.

3. Semantic Deviation :-

Literature, especially poetry has an unusual way of expressing things.

We get pleasure from the poems through defeated expectancy. When various poetic devices are used at that time semantic deviation occurs.

E.g. In Wordsworth’s poem ‘Prelude’.

‘The child is the father of man’.

This line seems to be semantically anomalous. But to put the words in this order, Wordsworth has some intention in his mind. To explain, we can say that man as compared to child has lost all the values of society. But a child seems to be more innocent than a man. It means that a child is closer to God. Hence man should follow the way child follows.

4. Lexical or Morphological Deviation:-

Lexical deviation is found when the writer changes the order of the words or selection of words or invents new words.

E.g. In Shakespeare’s play ‘Romeo and Juliet’

‘Doff thy name’

Here the word ‘Doff’ was coined by Shakespeare. It is the combination of ‘Do + off’ means to “throw away”, “cut off” or “remove”.

G.M Hopkins uses three adjectives to describe in one of his poems such as ‘Unfathering’, ‘Unchilding’, ‘Widowmaking’. These words have no place in a dictionary. These adjectives show the destructive power of an ocean. All these words are lexical or morphological deviations because we cannot add prefix ‘un’ and suffix ‘ing’ to a noun.

5. Graphological Deviation :-

Graphology deals with the system of writing. i.e., how the text is

Written. Usually in poetry lines are of same length but in prose lines are of different length. But it has been observed that all the poems don’t follow this rule. Thus there is a graphological deviation also. The shape of the poem and length of lines sometime adds to the meaning of the poem also thus it is important. Graphological deviation also refers to deviation of spellings, punctuation, spacing, the use of dashes, line arrangements and non-use of capitals. They contribute to the visual effect of the poem.

For Example: In the novel Tristam Shandy, to represent ‘Death’ – there is a black page.

In. D.H. Lawrence’s poem “Snake”, the lineation perhaps represents the twisting, wriggling movement of a snake.

Then in .E.E. Cummings No.3 of 73 Poems is an example of graphological deviation.

e.g. Seeker of truth

follow no path

all paths lead where

truth is

here.

In this poem we have phonological base of rhyme. According to lineation the poem ends with the statement “truth is” belongs to the previous clause and the poem has an exclamatory conclusion in the isolated word “here”.

6. Repetition :-

Repetitions means repetition of linguistic units such as words, phrases, lines, sentences etc. Refrain is an example of repetition. By repeating the same pattern, foregrounding is achieved.

There are two types of repetition.

1) Free Repetition :- In this device certain units of language are repeated,

e.g. In Coleridge’s Poem, “The Rime of Ancient Mariner”.

“Water water everywhere

And not a drop to drink”

Here the unit like words (water) has been repeated in order to achieve the desired effect.

2) Partial Repetition: In this device, a certain part of the unit is repeated.

e.g. In William Blake’s Poem-

“Tiger, tiger, burning bright.”

In this line, the phoneme /b/ is repeated.

E.g. in Coleridge’s Poem “The Ancient Mariner”.

“And not a drop to drink”

In this line the phoneme /d/ is repeated.

.

Thus there are various deviation which allows the literary language to be unique and different from the normal or ordinary language.

Conclusion:-

A scheme of language is never complete and static, because language is always being put to new uses. Some times it is resharpened, particularly for occasion where like to be emphatic. Literature, being an art establishes a relationship with the scheme of language, by using linguistic elements to build new schemes of its own, adding new rules of meter, line length, word order, choice of vocabulary to the existing rules of ordinary language. So literary language can be different and yet not different from ordinary or no-literary language.

Language plays an important role in the life of human being to communicate with other human being. Ordinary language is known as general language which is easy to understand and communicate, but literary language is somewhat difficult. Reader has to be conscious about getting the meaning of literary language because literary language has a quality of creativity and novelty. Multiple interpretations can be gained by literary language. In short reader has to get more efforts to understand literary language, where he or she doesn’t have to be more conscious is while using ordinary language.

PAPER- VII LINGUISTICS AND STYLISTICS

A

TERM PAPER ON

“ORDINARY LANGUAGE AND LITERARY LANGAUGE”

Certificate

This is to certify that Mr. Litton Prosad Mowalie has worked on the topic “ Ordinary Language and Literary Language’’ A term paper on Linguistics and Stylistics, Paper–VII in partial fulfillment of her master in English in Institute of Advanced Studies in English. The sources she cited in this work duly acknowledged in the Bibliography.

Acknowledgements

I take this priviledge to acknowledge and to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Sridhar Gokhale who inspired and provided ample materials in the class for the better understanding of the subject. It is because of his marvelous teaching, I was able to comprehend the topic and write a term paper. I would also like to express my gratitude to my classmates who have supported me with notes and books. I am indebted to Dr. Ashok Thorat for the opportunity of studying in his institute and to the librarian for the good support with books. Finally to God be the glory and honour because He has given me the courage to work hard.

Abstract

Language can vary not only from individual to individual but also from literariness to ordinariness. Figures of speech, archaism, inversions, various types of deviations, hyperbations, creativity, innovation, neologism, metre, rhyme, obscurity, implicitness, ambiguity and complexities etc. are features or factors responsible for the difference between ordinary and literary language. Because of the use of these features literary language remains more memorable and original than the ordinary language.

The main focuses on this paper are on the Ordinary Language and Literary Language. This paper is presented with an intention to focus on the differences between the ordinary language and literary language and why literary language is different from ordinary language. The paper provides ample examples of how creative writer’s use of language is different and artistic than the ordinary use of language. The whole intention of the paper is to understand the topic at a deeper level and to come out with a valid conclusion of the importance of both ordinary and literary language in linguistic and stylistic studies. I am sure anyone reads this paper will be benefited.

Bibliography

1. Linguistics –‘An Introduction to Language and Communication’

By- Adrian Akmajian, Richard A, Demers,

Ann K. FarmerRobert M. Harnish

( Fourth Edition)

2. Linguistics – by Donna Jo Napoli

3. ‘The Origin and Development of the English Language’

By Thomas Pyles and John Algeo (Third Edition)

4. Leech G. (1969) ‘ A Linguistic Guide to English Poetry’- Longman

5. M.H. Abrams (2003) – ‘A Glossary and Literary Terms’.

Toman Asian Pvt. Ltd.

6. Freeman D.C. (1970) – ‘Linguistic and Literary Styles’

7. Sharma R.S. (2001) -‘ Applied Linguistics’

8. Google Search Engine.

Seven Types of Meaning in Semantics

Seven Types of Meaning in Semantics

A M.A Project By Litton Prosad

Introduction:

The word semantic (from French sémantique) was invented by Michel Bréal during the 19th century.

Some people would like semantics to pursue study of meaning in a wider sense of ‘all that is communicated by language’; others (among them most modern writers within the framework of general linguistics) limit it in practice to the study of logical or conceptual meaning. It needs no great insight to see that semantics in the former, wider sense can lead us once again into the void from which Bloomfield retreated with understandable misgivings- the description of all that may be the object of human knowledge or belief. On the other hand, we can, by carefully distinguishing types of meaning, show how they all fit into the total composite effect of a linguistic communication, and show how method of study appropriate to one type may not be appropriate to another.

It has been observed that there is tremendous renewal of interest in semantic theory among linguists in the last few years. The main reason is the development of generative grammar with its emphasis on the distinction between ‘deep structure’ and ‘surface structure’. On the one hand semantics deals with the way words are and sentences are related to objects and processes in the world. On the other hand, it deals with the way in which they are related to one another in terms of such notions as ‘synonymy’, entailment’, and ‘contradiction’. According to John I Saeed, Semantics is the study of meaning communicated through language. He further says that a speaker’s semantic knowledge is an exciting and challenging task.

The semantic analysis, generally, must explain how the sentences of a particular language are understood, interpreted, and related to states, processes and objects in the world.

Seven Types of Meaning

A piece of language conveys its dictionary meaning, connotations beyond the dictionary meaning, information about the social context of language use, speaker’s feelings and attitudes rubbing off of one meaning on the another meaning of the same word when it has two meanings and meaning because of habit occurrence.

Broadly speaking, ‘meaning’ means the sum total of communicated through language. Words, Phrases and sentences have meanings which are studies in semantics.

Geoffrey Leech in his ‘Semantic- A Study of meaning’ (1974) breaks down meaning into seven types or ingredients giving primacy to conceptual meaning.

The Seven types of meaning according to Leech are as follows.

1) Conceptual or Denotative Meaning:

Conceptual meaning is also called logical or cognitive meaning. It is the basic propositional meaning which corresponds to the primary dictionary definition. Such a meaning is stylistically neutral and objective as opposed to other kinds of associative meanings. Conceptual

Meanings are the essential or core meaning while other six types are the peripheral. It is peripheral in as sense that it is non-essential. They are stylistically marked and subjective kind of meanings. Leech gives primacy to conceptual meaning because it has sophisticated organization based on the principle of contrastiveness and hierarchical structure.

E.g.

/P/ can be described as- voiceless + bilabial + plosive.

Similarly

Boy = + human + male-adult.

The hierarchical structure of ‘Boy’ = + Human + Male-Adult

Or “Boy” =Human – Male/Female-adult in a rough way.

Conceptual meaning is the literal meaning of the word indicating the idea or concept to which it refers. The concept is minimal unit of meaning which could be called ‘sememe’. As we define phoneme on the basis of binary contrast, similarly we can define sememe ‘Woman’ as = + human + female + adult. If any of these attribute changes the concept cease to be the same.

Conceptual meaning deals with the core meaning of expression. It is the denotative or literal meaning. It is essential for the functioning of language. For example, a part of the conceptual meaning of ‘Needle” may be “thin”, “sharp” or “instrument”.

The organization of conceptual meaning is based on two structural principles- Contrastiveness and the principle of structure. The conceptual meanings can be studied typically in terms of contrastive features.

For example the word “woman” can be shown as:

“Woman = + Human, -Male, + Adult”.

On the contrary, word

“Boy” can be realized as:-

“Boy = “+ human, + male, - Adult”.

By the principle of structure, larger units of language are built up out smaller units or smaller units or smaller units are built out larger ones.

The aim of conceptual meaning is to provide an appropriate semantic representation to a sentence or statement. A sentence is made of abstract symbols. Conceptual meaning helps us to distinguish one meaning from the meaning of other sentences. Thus, conceptual meaning is an essential part of language. A language essentially depends on conceptual meaning for communication. The conceptual meaning is the base for all the other types of meaning.

2) Connotative Meaning:

Connotative meaning is the communicative value of an expression over and above its purely conceptual content. It is something that goes beyond mere referent of a word and hints at its attributes in the real world. It is something more than the dictionary meaning. Thus purely conceptual content of ‘woman’ is +human + female+ adult but the psychosocial connotations could be ‘gregarious’, ‘having maternal instinct’ or typical (rather than invariable) attributes of womanhood such as ‘babbling’,’ experienced in cookery’, ‘skirt or dress wearing ‘etc. Still further connotative meaning can embrace putative properties of a referent due to viewpoint adopted by individual, group, and society as a whole. So in the past woman was supposed to have attributes like frail, prone to tears, emotional, irrigational, inconstant , cowardly etc. as well as more positive qualities such gentle, sensitive, compassionate, hardworking etc. Connotations vary age to age and society to society.

E.g. Old age ‘Woman’ - ‘Non-trouser wearing or sari wearing’ in Indian context must have seemed definite connotation in the past.

Present ‘Woman’---- Salwar/T-shirt/Jeans wearing.

Some times connotation varies from person to person also

. E.g. connotations of the word ‘woman’ for misogynist and a person of feminist vary.

The boundary between conceptual and connotative seems to be analogous. Connotative meaning is regarded as incidental, comparatively unstable, in determinant, open ended, variable according to age, culture and individual, whereas conceptual meaning is not like that . It can be codified in terms of limited symbols.

3) Social Meaning:

The meaning conveyed by the piece of language about the social context of its use is called the social meaning. The decoding of a text is dependent on our knowledge of stylistics and other variations of language. We recognize some words or pronunciation as being dialectical i.e. as telling us something about the regional or social origin of the speaker. Social meaning is related to the situation in which an utterance is used.

It is concerned with the social circumstances of the use of a linguistic expression. For example, some dialectic words inform us about the regional and social background of the speaker. In the same way, some stylistic usages let us know something of the social relationship between the speaker and the hearer

E.g. “I ain’t done nothing”

The line tells us about the speaker and that is the speaker is probably a black American, underprivileged and uneducated. Another example can be

“Come on yaar, be a sport. Don’t be Lallu”

The social meaning can be that of Indian young close friends.

Stylistic variation represents the social variation. This is because styles show the geographical region social class of the speaker. Style helps us to know about the period, field and status of the discourse. Some words are similar to others as far as their conceptual meaning is concerned. But they have different stylistic meaning. For example, ‘steed ’, ‘horse and ‘nag’ are synonymous. They all mean a kind of animal i.e. Horse. But they differ in style and so have various social meaning. ‘Steed’ is used in poetry; ‘horse’ is used in general, while ‘nag’ is slang. The word ‘Home’ can have many use also like domicile ( official), residence (formal) abode (poetic) , home (ordinary use).

Stylistic variation is also found in sentence. For example, two criminals will express the following sentence

“They chucked the stones at the cops and then did a bunk with the look”

(Criminals after the event)

But the same ideas will be revealed by the chief inspector to his officials by the following sentence.

“After casting the stones at the police, they abandoned with money.”

(Chief Inspector in an official report)

Thus through utterances we come to know about the social facts, social situation, class, region, and speaker-listener relations by its style and dialect used in sentences.

The illocutionary force of an utterance also can have social meaning. According to the social situation, a sentence may be uttered as request, an apology, a warning or a threat, for example, the sentence,

“I haven’t got a knife” has the common meaning in isolation. But the sentence uttered to waiter mean a request for a knife’

Thus we can understand that the connotative meaning plays a very vital role in the field of semantics and in understanding the utterances and sentences in different context.

4) Affective or Emotive Meaning:

For some linguists it refers to emotive association or effects of words evoked in the reader, listener. It is what is conveyed about the personal feelings or attitude towards the listener.

E.g. ‘home’ for a sailor/soldier or expatriate

and ‘mother’ for a motherless child, a married woman (esp. in Indian context) will have special effective, emotive quality.

In affective meaning, language is used to express personal feelings or attitude to the listener or to the subject matter of his discourse.

For Leech affective meaning refers to what is convey about the feeling and attitude of the speak through use of language (attitude to listener as well as attitude to what he is saying). Affective meaning is often conveyed through conceptual, connotative content of the words used

E.g. “you are a vicious tyrant and a villainous reprobation and I hate you”

Or “I hate you, you idiot”.

We are left with a little doubt about the speaker’s feelings towards the listener. Here speaker seems to have a very negative attitude towards his listener. This is called affective meaning.

But very often we are more discreet (cautious) and convey our attitude indirectly.

E.g. “I am terribly sorry but if you would be so kind as to lower your voice a

little”

. Conveys our irritation in a scaled down manner for the sake of politeness. Intonation and voice quality are also important here. Thus the sentence above can be uttered in biting sarcasm and the impression of politeness maybe reversed while –

e.g.

“Will you belt up?”- can be turned into a playful remark between intimates if said with the intonation of a request.

Words like darling, sweetheart or hooligan, vandal have inherent emotive quality and they can be used neutrally.

I.A. Richards argued that emotive meaning distinguishes literature or poetic language from factual meaning of science. Finally it must be noted that affective meaning is largely a parasitic category. It overlaps heavily with style, connotation and conceptual content.

5) Reflected Meaning:

Reflected meaning and collocative meaning involve interconnection

At the lexical level of language, Reflected meaning arises when a word has more than one conceptual meaning or multiple conceptual meaning. In such cases while responding to one sense of the word we partly respond to another sense of the word too. Leech says that in church service ‘the comforter and the Holy Ghost ’refer to the third in Trinity. They are religious words. But unconsciously there is a response to their non-religious meanings too. Thus the ‘comforter’ sounds warm and comforting while the ‘Ghost’ sounds ‘awesome’ or even ‘dreadful’. One sense of the word seems to rub off on another especially through relative frequency and familiarity (e.g. a ghost is more frequent and familiar in no religious sense.).

In poetry too we have reflected meaning as in the following lines from ‘Futility’

‘Are limbs so dear achieved, are sides,

Full nerved still warm-too hard to stir’

Owen here uses ‘dear’ in the sense of expensiveness. - But the sense of beloved is also eluded.

E.g. Daffodils

“The could not but be gay

In such jocund company”

The word ‘gay’ was frequently used in the time of William Wordsworth but the word now is used for ‘homosexuality’.

In such type cases of multiple meaning, one meaning of the word pushes the other meaning to the background. Then the dominant suggestive power of that word prevails. This may happen because of the relative frequency or familiarity of the dominant meaning. This dominant meaning which pushes the other meaning at the background is called the reflected meaning.

Reflected meaning is also found in taboo words. For examples are terms like erection, intercourse, ejaculation. The word ‘intercourse’ immediately reminds us of its association with sex (sexual intercourse). The sexual association of the word drives away its innocent sense, i.e. ‘communication’. The taboo sense of the word is so dominant that its non-taboo sense almost dies out. In some cases, the speaker avoids the taboo words and uses their alternative word in order to avoid the unwanted reflected meaning. For example, as Bloomfield has pointed out, the word ‘Cock’ is replaced by speakers, they use the word ‘rooster’ to indicate the general meaning of the word and avoid its taboo sense. These words have non-sexual meanings too. (E.g. erection of a building, ejaculate-throw out somebody) but because of their frequency in the lit of the physiology of sex it is becoming difficult to use them in their innocent/nonsexual sense.

Thus we can see that reflected meaning has great importance in the study of semantics.

6) Collocative Meaning:

Collocative meaning is the meaning which a word acquires in the company of certain words. Words collocate or co-occur with certain words only e.g. Big business not large or great.Collocative meaning refers to associations of a word because of its usual or habitual co-occurrence with certain types of words. ‘Pretty’ and ‘handsome’ indicate ‘good looking’.

However, they slightly differ from each other because of collocation or co-occurrence. The word ‘pretty’ collocates with – girls, woman, village, gardens, flowers, etc.

On the other hand, the word ‘handsome’ collocates with – ‘boys’ men, etc. so ‘pretty woman’ and ‘handsome man’. While different kinds of attractiveness, hence ‘handsome woman’ may mean attractive but in a mannish way. The verbs ‘wander’ and ‘stroll’ are quasi-synonymous- they may have almost the same meaning but while ‘cows may wonder into another farm’, they don’t stroll into that farm because ‘stroll’ collocates with human subject only. Similarly one ‘trembles with fear’ but ‘quivers with excitement’. Collocative meanings need to be invoked only when other categories of meaning don’t apply. Generalizations can be made in case of other meanings while collocative meaning is simply on idiosyncratic property of individual words. Collocative meaning has its importance and it is a marginal kind of category.

7) Thematic Meaning:

It refers to what is communicated by the way in which a speaker or a writer organizes the message in terms of ordering focus and emphasis .Thus active is different from passive though its conceptual meaning is the same. Various parts of the sentence also can be used as subject, object or complement to show prominence. It is done through focus, theme (topic) or emotive emphasis. Thematic meaning helps us to understand the message and its implications properly. For example, the following statements in active and passive voice have same conceptual meaning but different communicative values.

e.g.

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.

Alternative grammatical construction also gives thematic meaning. For example,

1) He likes Indian good most.

2) Indian goods he likes most

3) It is the Indian goods he likes most.

Like the grammatical structures, stress and intonation also make the message prominent. For example, the contrastive stress on the word ‘cotton’ in the following sentence give prominence to the information

1. John wears a cotton shirt
2. The kind of shirt that john wears is cotton one.

Thus sentences or pairs of sentences with similar conceptual meaning differ their communicative value. This is due to different grammatical constructions or lexical items or stress and intonations. Therefore they are used in different contents.

“Ten thousand saw I at a glance”

Wordsworth here inverts the structure to focus on ‘ten thousand”

.

Sometimes thematic contrast i.e. contrasts between given and new information can be conveyed by lexical means.

e.g.

1) John owns the biggest shop in London

2) The biggest shop in London belongs to John.

The ways we order our message also convey what is important and what not. This is basically thematic meaning.

Associative Meaning:

Leech uses this as an umbrella term for the remaining 5 types of meanings( connotative, social, affective, reflective and collocative).All these have more in common with connotative than conceptual meaning. They all have the same open ended, variable character and can be analyzed in terms of scales or ranges ( more/less) than in either or contrastive terms. These meanings contain many imponderable factors. But conceptual meaning is stable

Summary of Seven Types of Meaning.

1. Conceptual Meaning = Logical, cognitive or connotative content.

2. Connotative Meaning = What is communicated by virtue of what language

refers

3. Social Meaning = What is communicated of the social circumstances of

Language

4. Affective Meaning = What is communicated of the feelings and attitudes of

the Speaker through language.

5. Reflected Meaning = What is communicated through associations with

another Sense of the same world.

6. Collocative Meaning = What is communicated through associations with

words which co-occur with another word.

7. Thematic Meaning = What is communicated by the way in which the

message is organized in terms of order and emphasis.

Conclusion:

Study of meaning, one of the major areas of linguistic study. Linguists have approached it in a variety of ways. Members of the school of interpretive semantics study the structures of language independent of their conditions of use. In contrast, the advocates of generative semantics insist that the meaning of sentences is a function of their use. Still another group maintains that semantics will not advance until theorists take into account the psychological questions of how people form concepts and how these relate to word meanings.

In linguistics, semantics is the subfield that is devoted to the study of meaning, as borne on the syntactic levels of words, phrases, sentences, and even larger units of discourse (referred to as texts). As with any empirical science, semantics involves the interplay of concrete data with theoretical concepts. Traditionally, semantics has included the study of connotative sense and denotative reference, truth conditions, argument structure, thematic roles, discourse analysis, and the linkage of all of these to syntax.

According to Leech there are only seven types of meaning. Meaning plays a vital role in understanding what is communicated. Thus, there are seven types of meaning and they contributed much to the field of semantics. The study of meaning is a new field of this century, in days to come; this field of study will progress and will have much value in analysis of meaning in field of linguistics.

Certificate

This is to certify that Mr. Litton Prosad Mowalie has worked on the topic “Seven Types of Meaning” A term paper on “SEMANTICS AND PRAGMATICS”, Paper - VIII in partial fulfillment of M.A. in English in Institute of Advanced Studies in English. The sources she cited in this work duly acknowledged in the Bibliography.

Acknowledgements

I take this priviledge to acknowledge and to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Sridhar Gokhale and Miss Madhuri Gokhale who inspired and provided ample materials in the class for the better understanding of the subject. It is because of their marvelous teaching, I am able to comprehend the topic and write a term paper. I would also like to express my gratitude to my classmates who have supported me with notes and books. I am indebted to Dr. Ashok Thorat for the opportunity of studying in his institute and to the librarian for the good support with books.

Abstract

The place of English language in the cultural and educational life of India is now a well-explored field. But language itself stubbornly resists all attempts to pin down into categories and pigeon holes. The matrixes and certainties of one generation give way inevitably to the perplexities of the next. Whatever were the original reasons for the promotion of English language. It has its own value all over the world. To understand what is communicated through language, the meaning is the most vital part without which no communication can be called a communication. So study of meanings becomes a very important aspect of linguistics and semantics.

This term paper is titled as “Seven types of Meanings’ as a part of curriculum in Institute of Advanced studies in English, Pune. The paper deals with various types of meaning. Since meaning is important, it becomes inevitable to study about it deeply. This term paper has been prepared with a great deal of effort to bring out the different types of meaning available in the study of semantics specially the seven types of meaning proposed by Geoffrey Leech.. The paper gives a comprehensive presentation on seven types of meaning with many examples and explanation. I am sure this paper will be beneficial for anyone who reads with enthusiasm of learning. The term paper concludes in the last part of it with the ‘associative meaning’ which is not an eight type of meaning but it includes five from the seven types of meaning.

Bibliography

1. Napoli, 1994, Linguistics

- Oxford University Press

2. Paul Cobley, 1993, The Cambridge Companion to Semiotics and Linguistics.

Routledge

3. Chapel F. Hockett, 1986, Mordern Linguistics

-Oxford and IBH.

4. Kaplan, 1983, The Oxford Handbook of Applied

Linguistics

- Oxford University Press.