Q-The levels of meaning.

1- Expression meaning
2- Utterance meaning
3- Communicative meaning

1-Expression meaning is a general term for words, phrases and

sentences. The term expression meaning covers, in particular, word
meaning and sentence meaning. So, the level of expression meaning
constitutes the central subject of linguistic semantics. It also, studies the
material, or equipment, that languages provide for communication. Let
consider the following example.

e.g. I don’t your bicycle.

The subject expression (I) is one of seven personal pronouns in English

(I, you, he, she, it, we and they). The function of the pronoun( I) is
reference to the speaker of the sentence. The form (don’t) is a contraction
of the auxiliary verb do and the negation particle not. The form (don’t)
contributes two things to the meaning of the sentence. First, it negates the
verb need and thereby turns what the verb means into its contrary .
Second, it contributes present tense. Need is a main verb which is used
with a direct object (your bicycle) and roughly means require. ‘your
bicycle’ is an expression composed of the possessive pronoun your and
the noun bicycle. The noun means some sort of vehicle, with two wheels
and without a motor .The two words need and bicycle are the main
carriers of information in the sentence, so-called (content words).
2-Utterance meaning is the meaning of an expression when used in a
given context of utterance; fixed reference and truth value . Let us have a
look at the following example with two scenarios:

Scenario 1:

Mary talked with her neighbour John about the trip and asked him to lend
her his bike for the trip. She had lent her car to her daughter and did not
know if she would get it back in time. Meanwhile her daughter is back
and has returned Mary’s car. Mary is talking with John on her mobile,
telling him : ‘I don’t need your bicycle.

In this scenario,the personal pronoun I refers to Mary, the possessive

pronoun your establishes a relation to her neighbour John and time
reference is fixed. This is clear from the fact that Mary could have said: ‘I
don’t need your bicycle this afternoon’, without changing the meaning of
her utterance. Furthermore, the reference of the grammatical object your
bicycle is fixed: it is the bicycle Mary asked John to lend her, two days
before. However, the utterance meaning involves reference. In addition
to the notion of truth.

Scenario 2

Same time and place. John’s five-year-old daughter Maggie is playing at

home with her five-year-old friend Titus. They are playing with a game
of cards that display all kinds of vehicles. Titus is in the possession of a
card that shows a snowmobile. Maggie is eager to exchange this card for
one of hers and offers Titus a card with a bicycle. Titus rejects the
exchange: ‘I don’t need your bicycle.
In this scenario, the pronouns I, your and the present tense are fixed. The
word bicycle can be naturally interpreted as referring not to a bicycle but
to a card carrying the picture of a bicycle.

3- Communicative meaning is the meaning of an utterance as a

communicative act in a given social setting. Unlike expression meaning
and utterance meaning, communicative meaning lies outside the range of
semantics.

For example, when Titus in scenario 2 says I don’t need your bicycle, he
performs the locutionary act of saying that sentence with the utterance
meaning it has in the given context, including reference to the card with
the picture of a bicycle. On the illocutionary level, he performs a refusal
of Maggie’s offer. The speech act level will be referred to as
"communicative meaning".
Parts of meaning

1-descriptive meaning

2- social meaning

3-expressive meaning

1-Descriptive meaning is the description of referents and

situation. So, the descriptive meaning is the part which bears on
reference and truth. It is called descriptive meaning or
propositional meaning. Let us consider the following example.

e.g There is a letter for you.

Sheila says so to her mother, but that she is not telling the truth: there is
no letter for Mary. There may be a letter, but not for Mary, or no letter at
all. In any event, if the sentence is not true, the NP a letter for you lacks a
referent. Usually, the finite verb of the sentence has a concrete event
referent only if the sentence is true.

2-Social meaning is the indication of social relations and performance of

social acts. social meaning is on a part with descriptive meaning: it is part
of the lexical meaning of certain words, phrases or grammatical forms.
Like descriptive meaning, social meaning is an invariable part of the
expression meaning. Let us consider the following example. Sheila is on
the train in Germany and is addressed by the ticket inspector:

4)a). Ihre Fahrkarte, bitte! – Danke. (German(

4)b). Deine Fahrkarte, bitte! – Danke. (German(

4(c). ‘Your ticket, please! – Thank you

4(a) would be appropriate if Sheila is an adult and no acquaintance of the

inspector. The third person plural form of the possessive pronoun, Ihre,
literally ‘Their’ is required for the formal, or ‘polite’, style of speech used
for addressing adults.

4(b) contains the simple second person singular possessive pronoun dein
and would be the proper, informal, form of address if Sheila were a child,
a relative, or a close acquaintance of the ticket inspector.

If the inspector addressed Sheila in English, (4c) would be adequate in all

cases. But when speaking German, the inspector is forced to choose
between the formal and the informal way of address (or to avoid the use
of pronouns altogether). By the choice of the pronoun the speaker
indicates his social relationship to the addressee(s).

3-Expressive meaning is the immediate expression of personal

sensations, feelings, attitudes or evaluations. There are two kinds of
expressive, those with exclusively expressive meaning and others with
both descriptive and expressive meaning. The exclusively expressive
meaning are words and phrases used for directly expressing an emotion,
feeling or sensation, such as ouch, wow, oh. And, in an expressive
meaning may have different meanings in different languages . Here are
some interjections from Hungarian: fuj (disgust), au (sudden pain), jaj
(sudden pain or fright), jajaj (sadness or concern), hüha (admiration,
warning, fright), hú (admiration), ejha (astonishment). Other examples of
expressives are exclamations of various sorts, such as English Gosh!,
Goddammit!, Jesus!, Oh my goodness!, and so on.
Types of opposition

1-Antonyms

2-directional opposites

3-complementaries

4- heteronyms

5-converses

1-Antonyms .

Two expressions are called antonyms if they denote two opposite

extremes out of a range of possibilities. such as in pairs of adjectives :
old/young, old/new, big/small, thick/thin, good/bad. Their meanings can
be illustrated by means of a scale of age, size, diameter, quality,
brightness, difficulty, etc. which is open on both sides.
Antonyms are logical contraries but not contradictories, the negation of
one term is not equivalent to the opposite term. For example, not big does
not mean the same as small, something may be ‘not big and not small’.
Antonymy is not restricted to adjectives. There are antonymous pairs of
nouns such as war/peace, love/hate and some antonymous pairs of verbs:
love/hate, or encourage/discourage.

2-directional opposites

The type of opposition represented by in front of/behind is called

directional opposition. Directional opposites are related to opposite
directions on a common axis such as in the following examples
top/bottom, high/low, up/down, upstairs/downstairs, uphill/downhill,
rise/fall, ascend/descend.

3-complementaries

The type of opposition represented by aunt/uncle, buy/rent or buy/steal is

known as complementary opposition. Complementary opposites are
logically complementary. The negation of one term is equivalent to the
other term, e.g. not even (of numbers) means the same as odd. Each
expression denotes one out of the only two possibilities in some domain
of cases. Complementarity more typically occurs with nouns, e.g. pairs of
terms for persons of opposite sex, or pairs such as member/non-member,
official/nonofficial.

4- heteronym

The term heteronym involves more than two expressions. A typical

example is the set of terms for the days of the week, the set of basic
colour terms or terms for kinds of animals, plants, vehicles, etc.
Heteronymy is not related to scales; heteronyms are not opposite
extremes, but just members of a set of different expressions which often
have a common hyperonym, such as the different verbs of motion (walk,
run, fly, swim), and verbs denoting human activities such as eat, work,
sleep, dance, et.

5- Converses

Converses are defined as two expressions are converses of each other if

and only if they express the same relation with reversed roles. Such as in
the following examples: above/below, before/after, borrow/lend, wife/
husband.