Different Approaches to Meaning

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Different Approaches to Meaning
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• A Phonetic Approach
• Prosodic features and meanings
• the meaning of stress
• the meaning intonation

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2. A Structural Approach 2.1 componential
analysis 2.2 sense relations synoymy,
antonymy, hyponymy, homonymy, polysemy
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3. A Logical Approach Inference and logical
analysis of sentence meanings 3.1Inference 3.2Sent
ences and true 3.3Sentences and propositions
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• 4. A Philosophical Approach
• How is meaning possible?
• 2) What kinds of meaning are possilbe?
• 3) Reference and descriptions
• Names and demonstratives

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5. A pragmatic Approach 1) Meaning as use
2) speech act theory 3) conversational
implicature 4) pragmatic presupposition
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6. A Cognitive Approach It is the study of
meaning with reference to schema, which is the
internalized structures of the physical world in
our mind.
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7. A Functional Approach What do we use
language for?
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Halliday believes that a language usually
fullfils the following functions
1.Instrumental I want satisfying the
material needs.
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2.Regulatory Do as I tell you
controlling othersbehaviour.
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3.Interactional me and you
getting along with other people.
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4.Personal Here I come identifying or
expressing the self. 5.Heuristic Tell me why
exploring the world around or inside one.
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6.Imaginative Lets pretend creating a world
of ones own 7.Informative I have got
something to tell you communicating new
information.
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The functionalists think the present state and
the development of language is to be determined
by the social functions that languages must
fulfil. Therefore, the description and
explanation of linguistic structures should be
linked with the functions of languages. The
functional school of thought also paved the way
for the emerging of pragmatics.
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8. A Stylistic Approach 8.1 Stylistic of
meaning 8.2 Styles as information
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9. A Social Approach A approach to meaning by
taking social factors into consideration.
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10. An Anthropological Approach 10.1
Kinship analysis 10.2 colour term analysis
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11. A Behaviouristic Approach Meaning is
the situation in which the speakers utter
something and the response that it calls forth in
the hearer.
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12. A Historical Approach 12.1 Lexical and
semantic change
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