Meaning from the Stylistic Point of View
Words of the language possess lexical and grammatical meanings. Both of these meanings make up the semantic structure of the word. Lexical and grammatical meanings are interdependent; one can’t go without the other.
Even an isolated word is presented in a dictionary with the reference to its grammatical meaning. In the dictionary you may see the part-of-speech reference to its grammatical meaning and some of its paradigms. Grammatical meaning, thus, is a structural meaning. It expresses in speech the relations between words, based on the contrastive features of arrangements in which they occur.
There are no words which are deprived of grammatical meaning. Even units larger than words possess their grammatical meaning. For example, sentences have their structural meaning of affirmation, interrogation and negation.
Lexical meaning, on the contrary, can’t be said to belong to all the word-stock. There are words possessing no lexical meaning of their own. Here we may refer functional words: prepositions (which serve to signify the relations between words), exclamations, interjections. Notional words and phrases made of them possess lexical meaning.
According to I. V. Arnold, lexical meaning is the realization of some concept or emotion by means of a definite language system. This meaning refers our mind to some concrete object, phenomenon or concept (whether real or imaginative). There are words possessing several lexical meanings.
However, in actual speech a word can acquire occasional new meanings. Such meanings are not considered as components of the semantic structure of the word. These occasional meanings appear due to a certain context. That is why they are called contextual meanings.
The grammatical meaning is more abstract than the lexical one. But the lexical meaning depends, to some extent, on the grammatical meaning. For example, lexical meaning may depend on the part-of-speech characteristic or on the syntactic function of a word in the sentence.
Lexical meaning is segmented into connotative and denotative meanings.
The denotative meaning of the word expresses the conceptual content of a word. An act of verbal communication is possible due to the fact that words possess denotative meanings. Due to the denotative meaning we refer words to some concrete objects, concepts or phenomena. Thus, denotative meaning is the notional one.
As for connotative meaning, it turns out optional. This meaning is a pragmatic value of the word, received by virtue of where, when, how, to whom, for what purpose and in what contexts it is used or may be used.
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The connotative meaning has several types:
1. Stylistic reference. Human activity takes place in different spheres. To such spheres we refer everyday life, business, science, education, etc. Each sphere of communication is characterized by certain conditions and aims which determine the choice of lingual means. Such spheres are referred to as functional styles. Each functional style is characterized by certain words which are preferably used in this or that style. Such words are said to have stylistic reference. This stylistic connotation depends on the social circumstances, relations between interlocutors and the purpose of communication. Stylistic connotations may be inherent and adherent. Stylistically neutral words have only adherent stylistic connotations. These connotations are acquired in a certain context.
2. Emotive connotation. This kind of connotation is acquired by a word as a result of its frequent use in contexts concerning emotional situations or because the referent, named in the denotative meaning, is emotionally colored. The emotive connotation may have some specific linguistic form, but be contained in the concept of a given word.
3. Evaluative connotation. It expresses approval or disapproval, conveying the speaker’s attitude to the object of speech. This connotation may be a part of the denotative meaning. It stands out in specific contexts. Words of the same root may or may not possess an evaluative component in their inner form. For example, the verb to sneak means to move secretively with a bad purpose. So, the adjective sneaky has the same (negative) connotation. But if we take the noun sneakers, it has no negative connotation.
4. Expressive (intensifying) connotation. This type of connotation either increases or decreases the expressiveness of the message. For example, some words may be used colloquially for the purpose of exaggeration. The emotive connotation always entails expressiveness, but not vice versa. For example, the word thing in the sentence She was a sweet little thing with an emotive adjective sweet also becomes emotive, but in the sentence She was a small thing with spectacles the word thing is expressive, but not emotive.
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We may come across words which have two, three or even all four types of connotation at once. For example, the word beastly in the phrase beastly weather possesses emotional coloring, stylistic reference to the colloquial sphere, expresses intensity and censure.
There are also words which possess purely emotive meaning. They even don’t have the denotative referent, they just express emotions. For example, the words Oh!, Alas!, Bloody!. There are adjectives whose emotive meaning is so strong that it suppresses the denotative meaning. For example, the word fantastic has a denotative meaning, but is more frequently used in its emotive meaning.
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