Page 403 - DENG504_LINGUISTICS

Unit 31: Semantic: Meaning Types: Lexical, Contextual and Others Semantics Practice

Since some words may overlap with others in their possible contexts, as does house with hut, Notes
home, etc. It is better to deal with sets of words, rather than with individual word alone. In such
study, the words, which fall into a context or set of contexts, are referred to as an “associative
field”. This point has been illustrated by Winfred P. Lehmann (Historical Linguistics, 1966 : 198) in
the diagram given on the followig page :

AUDIENCE
HUT

HOUSE HOME
SENATE

DORMI- COTTAGE
TORY

The right section of the circle represent the meaning of house as ‘habitation’; sections on the left
represent its meaning as ‘a building belonging to a university,’ ‘a governing body,’ and ‘a group
of onlookers,’ leaving space for still other meanings. Similar sets of circles could be produced to
represent the meanings of various words and fields throughout the languages.
This approach requires a live and first-hand ‘field’ knowledge of languages as they are actually
used; but to date it has produced little to rival the various analytical approaches.
Field Theory of Meaning
Saussure demonstrated that each word in a language is surrounded by a network of associations
which connect with still other terms. Some of these connections arise between the five senses
(synaesthetic); others between the form or shape of words; while others involve formal and semantic
connections. ‘A given term is like the centre of a constellation, the point where other coordinated
terms converge, and their sum is indefinite.’ To illustrate this, one can draw up the following
diagram :

TEACHING

UNTEACH
PEDAGOGY TEACHER
TO TEACH LEARN
EDUCATION EDUCATING TAOGHT
WE TEACH TUTELAGE

ETC INSTRUCTION INSTRUCTING TEACHABILITY
GUIDANCE TRAINING
DIRECTION PREACHING
TUITION
In the first ‘leg’ of this scheme are the terms to teach’, ‘we teach’, linked by the similarity of
grammatical form. Those of the second ‘leg’ (pedagogy, tutelage, education, direction, guidance,

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