Types of meaning;

Expressive Means and

Stylistic Devices
What is
meaning?
 Generally speaking, meaning
can be more or less described as
a component of the word
through which a concept is
communicated
in this way endowing the word
the ability of denoting real
objects, qualities, actions and
abstract notions.
According to
R.Ginsburg:“The two main
types of word meaning are
–
the grammatical
the lexical
meanings
Lexical meaning is viewed as possessing
denotational and connotational
components
The denotational component is
actually what makes communication
possible.
The connotational component
comprises the stylistic reference and
the emotive charge proper to the
word as a linguistic unit in the given
language system
 D. Crystal classifies the types of
meanings:
Terms such as
referential, descriptive,
denotative, extensional, factual
and objective meaning
are used when the emphasis is on
the relationship of language to
extra linguistic entities, events, or
states of affairs.
“Attitudinal, affective,
connotative, emotive and
expressive meaning

are the chief terms used when the

emphasis is on the relationship between
language and the personal, emotional
state of a speaker;
a cognitive and ideational meaning
focus on a person’s intellectual state.
Contextual, functional, interpersonal,
social and situational meanings
express the way understanding and
the interpretation of language.
 Contextual and textual
meanings refer to those factors
which affect the interpretation of a
sense, deriving from the rest of the
discourse in which the sentence
occurs.
According to A. Akmajian, R. Demers, A.
Farmer and R. Harnish there are two types of
meaning:
linguistic meaning and speaker meaning.

”The door is right behind you“.

You would assume, quite rightly in this
context that the speaker, in uttering this
sentence, means that you are to leave –
although the speaker’s actual words
indicate nothing more than the location of
the door.
G. Yule in his “The study of language” states that
words have two types of meaning:
Conceptual and associative or stylistic.

Conceptual meaning covers

those basic, essential
components of meaning
which are conveyed by the
literal use of a word.
Some of the basic components of a word
like “needle” in English might include
thin,
1. sharp, steel, instrument”.
These components would be part of the
conceptual meaning of “needle”.

2.“associations” attached to a word like

“needle” which lead one to think of
“painful” whenever one encounter the
word.
Prof. Galperin’s classification
of the semantic structure of a
word comprises:
1.Logical;
2. Nominal;
3. Emotive meanings.
Logical (Direct or
Referential) meaning is the
precise naming of a feature,
idea, phenomenon or object,
the name by which we
recognize the whole of the
concept.
It may change or develop a
derivative meaning.
E.g board –denotational and
connotational meanings
 a piece of wood;
 a table;
the food served at the
table;
 a group of officials.
Sometimes a word may have this
or that meaning only in the given
context and it disappears if the
context is altered. This is called
contextual meaning.
In other words, contextual
meaning is accidental and it is
imposed by and depends on the
context:
-Awake ye sons of Spain,
awake, arise! (Byron) –
(arise - revolt).

-When the evening is spread

out against the sky Like a
patient etherized upon a table.
(G.Eliot)
The nominal meaning
nominates an object. It is referred
to proper nouns: Mr.Black, Mr.
Hope.
It serves the purpose of singling out
one definite and singular object out of
a whole class of similar objects: e.g.
Browning, Taylor, Scotland,
Black, Chandler, and
Emotive meaning also materializes a concept
in the word, but, unlike logical meaning, it has
reference not directly to things or phenomena
of objective reality, but to the feelings and
emotions of the speaker towards these thighs
or to his emotions as such. Emotive meaning
(coloring) can be usual or occasional.
A girl (tart, broad, bird)
are referred to one person to portray
the character’s respect or disrespet
Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices
In linguistics there are different terms to
denote those particular means by which
a writer obtains his effect:
 stylistic means,
stylistic devices, figures of
speech,
expressive means and others.
All stylistic means of a
language can be divided
into
expressive means (EM),
which are used in some
specific way and
special devices called
stylistic devices (SD).