Final in semantics 204 group Students name: Vokhidova Kizlarkhon

FINAL in SEMANTICS
204 group


Students name: Vokhidova Kizlarkhon


Do not copy the theory from the lectures and from the internet. Plagiarism will cause the loss of the points. Examples should not be copied from the lectures.


PS.: The points will be given for the answer to each question. Do not beat around the bush. Answer only to these questions and to the point.

You have to answer the following questions:

1. What are the differences and the similarities between the referential and the functional approaches to meaning investigation? Explain and illustrate with examples (not from the lecture).
2. What are the differences between lexical and grammatical meanings? What is their interconnection? Explain and illustrate with examples (not from the lecture).
3. What might be the causes of the specialization and the restriction of meanings? List (1, 2, 3…), explain and illustrate with examples (not from the lecture).
Answers

1. 
   Before stating similar and different peculiarities between the referential and the functional approaches to meaning investigation, it would be more reasonable to define what they are. Referential approach towards meaning is analyzing the interrelationship among sound-form, concept or referent. To illustrate this, take the word “book” as an example, book is a sound form that is to say spelling of a word both in written or spoken speech, concept is what we imagine or realize in our minds from a sound form of a word, and referent is a set of words that we can use to denote the same object (in our example book), such as thing, it, object, paper, work, literature. As for functional approach, it studies the meaning of a word accentuating its relation with other linguistic units, not focusing its relation with the concept or other possible referents.
   

Differences between referential and functional approaches:
*referential approach analyses the meaning of a word, focusing interrelationship with a sound form, concept and other referent units while the interrelationship between a being analyzed word and other linguistic units that may come in association with this word is important when using functional approach.
*whereas the sound-form out of three points of referential approach is purely linguistics, the other two ones, concept and referent are non-linguistic, functional approach analyses the meaning relying on solely linguistic categories.
*it is claimed that analyzing the meaning in terms of referential approach, as it is based on rather subjective processes, that is to say, a listener should experience the same procedures to be able to understand the referents used in the context. However, using functional approach is less demanding, since it learns the meaning of each word in relation with other units and distinguishes word meanings by just focusing that they function in the linguistic structure differently. Even though the words study and student have identical roots, their meanings are different because they come with different functions in a sentence:
a/ Kathy studies at university (as a verb after the subject and before modifier).
b/ Kathy is a student. (noun predicate formed with to be)

2. 
   A word as a linguistic unit possesses both lexical and grammatical meaning. Lexical meaning is the concept, substance or phenomenon that a word stands for. For instance, a book, its lexical meaning is an object which is usually made of paper and used to read. As for grammatical meaning of a word, it is the word’s grammatical, that is to say, linguistic features that this word possesses. For example, the grammatical meaning of the word book is that it is a noun, a singular noun, can function as a subject or object in a sentence, and in a nominative case. While words: played, sang, slept, watched- can be classified to have the same grammatical meaning as all of them are in the past form, they have different lexical meaning, since they express unrelated concepts. But the words cap, hat, shawl may be considered to have similar lexical meanings as they stand for a head wear made of material. Another difference is that a word sometimes keeps its lexical meaning regardless changes in its form, for example, flower and flower; or write-writes-wrote-written, all forms express the same notion while their grammatical meaning has changed from singular to plural, or from past to present.
   

3. 
   It is said that Restriction of the meaning is the process of modification of meaning when a word which was used wider meaning, but now it is used to represent narrowed meaning: For example, the word Wife in OLD English could be used to refer to any woman but now it is mostly used to represent narrowed meaning which means Only married women. Specialization of meaning is the process of change of meaning when the word with new meaning comes to be used in the specialized vocabulary of some limited group.