英语词汇学chapter3.ppt

Chapter 3 Motivation
Meaning & concept
Meaning (Concept)
Word
Triangle of significance(词义三角)
Form
Referent
………….
The debate over the connection between sound and meaning
The naturalists maintain there is a natural/intrinsic connection between sound and meaning.
The Conventionalists, on the other hand, hold that the relations between sound and meaning are conventional and arbitrary. The meaning of a word is a kind of linguistic social contract.
Conventionality(约定俗成)
What’s in a name? That we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.
-----Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet
Words have no meaning, people have meaning for them.
------ Eric Partridge
Eg.
树---Chinese
木---Japanese
arbre---French
baun---Germany
Motivation(理据)
Defining motivation
Motivation deals with the connection between name (word-symbol) and its sense (meaning). It is the relationship between the word structure and its meaning
Two rival schools of thought:
The Naturalists: there was an intrinsic connection between sound and sense.
The Conventionalists: the connection between sound and sense was purely a matter of tradition and convention.
Non-motivated and motivated
From the point of view of motivation, the great majority of English words are nonmotivated, since they are conventional, arbitrary symbols.
However, there is a small group of words that can be described as motivated, that is, a direct or somewhat connection between the symbol and its sense can be readily observed.
Examples of motivation
The pigeon coos.
airmail, miniskirt, hopeless
a coat of paint
He has a stony heart.
The question was like the Sphinx’s riddle to them.
Contents in Chapter 3
I. Types of motivation
II. Loss of motivation
III. Motivation and culture
I. Types of motivation
Onomatopoeic motivation
Semantic motivation
Logical motivation
Morphological motivation