LEECH'S SEVEN TYPES OF MEANING

This power point to explain the Leech seven types of meaning in semantics

1. August 1969 Computers in Number Theory Conference Oxford, England

2. LEECH'S SEVEN TYPES OF MEANING INTRODUCTION Semantics in the broad sense of the term may be considered to study 'all that is communicated by language, But some scholars would like to restrict semantics to the study of logical or conceptual meaning i.e. only those aspects of meaning which are logically acceptable leaving out deviation and abnormalities. Geoffrey Leech (1981, Ch.2. p.9-23) in his book semantics breaks down 'meaning' in its widest sense into seven different types giving primary importance to logical or conceptual meaning.

3. The seven other types are (1)Logical or Conceptual meaning (2) Connotative meaning, (3) Social meaning, (4) Affective meaning, (5) Reflected meaning (6) Collocative meaning and (7) Thematic meaning (Leech, 1981, p-23). Here Leech discusses meaning as a whole both sentential meaning and word meaning.

4. 1.CONCEPTUAL MEANING What Leech calls as conceptual meaning is the same as what other scholars call 'denotative', or 'designative' or 'cognitive' or 'descriptive' meaning. And this meaning is assumed to be the central factor in linguistic communication . Leech considers conceptual meaning as primary , because it is comparable in organization and structure to the syntactic and phonological levels of language.

5. The two structural principles that seem to be basis of all linguistic patterning namely the principle of contrastiveness and the principle of constituent structure are also the basis of conceptual meaning. Contrastive features underlay classification of sounds in phonology . "For example, in that any label we apply to a sound defines it positively, by what features it possesses and also by implication negatively by what features it does not possess (Leech,1981, p.9,10)".

6. The symbol of the English phoneme /b/ can be explained as consisting of a bundle of contrastive features +bilabial, +voiced, +stop, -nasal these positive combination of features differentiate this phoneme negatively from the phoneme /p/ which has the features + bilabial, -voiced, + stop, -nasal. It is assumed that the distinctive sounds or phonemes of a language are identifiable in terms of binary or largely binary contrastive features. Similarly the conceptual meanings of a language can be studied in terms of contrastive semantic features.

7. For example, the meaning of the English word woman can be specified as consisting of the semantic features + HUMAN, -MALE, +ADULT. This word is differentiated from the word man having the features +HUMAN, +MALE, and +ADULT and the word boy having the features +HUMAN, +MALE, and -ADULT . The contrastive features of conceptual meaning are the same as what Zgusta (1971, p.27 -29) calls as criterial features which constitute the designatum of lexical meaning .

8. The second principle, that of constituent structure, is the principle by which larger linguistic units are built up out of smaller units. In other words it is the principle by which a sentence can be analysed into its constituent parts .

9. words and morphemes and at the level of phonology into constituent phonemes (sound units), similarly semantic structure of sentences can also be explained. The two principles of contrastiveness and constituent structure represent the way language is organized. Contrastiveness is the paradigmatic or selectional or 'choice' aspect of linguistic structure. Constitnent structure is the syntagmatic or combinatory or 'chain' aspect of the linguistic structure.

10. Explaining these two aspects in all the levels of language organization called phonological (sound structure), syntactic (sentence structure) semantic (meaning) is the work of the linguists. This done by establishing, a‘ phonological representation', a‘ syntactic representation' and a 'semantic representation' and the stages by which one level of representation can be derived from another. At the level of semantic representation using abstract symbols and contrastive features . This will help us what we need to know to distinguish a meaning of a particular sentence from all other possible sentence meaning in the language.

11. 2.CONNOTATIVE MEANING Leech calls connotative meaning is the communicative value an expression has by virtue of what it refers to over and above its purely conceptual contents. These are the features of the referent or denotatum or segment of the real world which are not included in the conceptual meaning. Of the different features of the referent few are contrastive or criterial features which provide the basic criterion of the correct use of the word. For example, the conceptual meaning of the English word 'woman' has the three contrastive features (+ Human, - Male , +Adult).

12. From this we infer that the three properties 'human', 'adult', and 'female' must provide the criterion of the correct use of that word. These contrastive features in real world terms become attribute of the referent or denotatum . This means that all persons to whom the word, 'woman ' is used to refer to will have the properties 'human', 'adult', 'female '. But the referent of the word woman will have a large number of additional non- criterial properties, which the users of the word woman expect a referent of woman to possess .

13. Such properties include: physical characteristics (having two legs, having a womb etc.,) psychological and sociological properties (having motherly instinct, soft nature etc.,). Such properties constitute the connotative meaning. As described above some of these properties are typical of a woman. There are other assumed properties or attributed properties due to the view point adopted by an individual or a group of people or a whole society .

14. For example, woman may be considered to have the properties' weak', 'prone to tears', 'emotional', etc., in addition to the positive qualities like 'gentle', 'compassionate', 'sensitive', etc. The connotative meaning of a word may vary from individual to individual and from age to age (periods). For example, 'not wearing trousers or wearing gown or skirt or saree ( saree in the Indian context) would have been the part of the connotative meaning of woman a hundred years ago, which is not connotative in the modern times.

15. Leech's (1981) connotative meaning is concerned with the real world experience one associates with a linguistic expression one uses or hears. Connotative meaning is peripheral when compared with the conceptual meaning. It is also relatively unstable as it varies according to culture, historical periods and experience of the individual. Connotative meaning is indeterminate and open ended. This is because this depends upon the knowledge and beliefs of the speakers and may belong to any characteristics of the referent, real or imaginary as identified by the speaker. But conceptual meaning consists of a closed set of features which are finite in number .

16. Leech's definition of connotative meaning is quite different from Zgusta's connotation as a component of lexical meaning and John Lyon's use of connotation in contrast to denotation . What Leech calls social and affective meaning are included by Zgusta (1971) under connotation. Lyon's and others call affective or emotive, meaning as connotation .

17. 3.SOCIAL MEANING These two meanings are concerned with two aspects of communication which are derived from the situation or environment in which an utterance or sentence is produced in a language. Of these two, social meaning is that information which a piece of language (i.e. a pronunciation variation, a word, phrase, sentence, etc.,) conveys about the social circumstances of its use.

18. Social meaning is understood through the recognition of different dimensions and levels of style within the same language. Aspects of language variation like social or regional dialect variation, style variation like formal, informal, colloquial, slang etc., discussed as belonging to connotation is treated here as social meaning

19. here Leech includes under social meaning variation in all the aspects of language structure like pronunciation, intonation, sentence structure etc., as revealing social meaning. Not only the difference between English synonyms, died, pass away, decease and kick the bucket and Tamil synonyms caa , iRa , kaalamaaku , vaikuNTapataviaTai,maNTaiyaippooTu all meaning to 'die' which belong to different style but also the difference in the pronunciation of the Tamil verb 'to tell' as in the forms,

20. [ sonn ă :] 'said he' (standard dialect) [ čonn ă :) 'said he' ( Dalit -speech) [ sonn ă :) 'said he' ( Kongunad dialect)   where stress ( Dalit speech) and pitch variation ( Kongunad dialect) mark the dialect identity of the speaker belong to social meaning.  Under social meaning Leech (1981 ,p, 15) also includes" what has been called the illocutionary force of an utterance: for example whether it is to be interpreted as request, an assertion, an apology, a threat etc". In a social situation a functional meaning of a sentence may differ from its conceptual meaning due to its illocutionary force. For example while eating at restaurant, if one says.  (1) I haven't got a knife this sentence which has a form and meaning of an assertion, in social reality it has the force of a request such as 'Please bring me a knife'. In the Tamil social situation while eating at a wedding feast, when someone says.   (2) pakkattu ilaikku paayacam pooTunka 'Please serve sweet liquid pudding to the next leaf (person)’it has the implied social meaning 'Please serve sweet liquid pudding for me also'.

21. 4.Affective meaning Affective meaning is the aspect of meaning which “reflects personal feelings of the speaker, including his attitude to the listener or his attitude to something he is talking about " (Leech, 1981, p.15). As emotive meaning and included as part of connotation as a component of lexical meaning but Leech includes as in the case of social meaning, not only differences in the use of words or lexemes but also factors of intonation and voice-timber referred to as tone of voice. When someone wants to ask a group of people speaking loudly to be quiet, he can say either of the following two sentences. ( 3) I am sorry to interrupt; would you be so kind as to lower you voice a little?

22. 5.REFLECTED MEANING is the meaning which arises in cases when a word has multiple conceptual meaning or polysemous , when one sense of a word forms part of our response ( or reaction) to another sense.

23. Especially in some cases of a word with taboo meaning people find it difficult use them even in the general meaning. The English words cock, contact , and erection which have tabooed senses connected with the physiology of sex are avoided by people even in their general sense. The extreme case of this kind of reflected meaning, is completely replacing the word cock by the word rooster in American English.

24. In Tamil onRukuppoo 'urinate', reNTukkupoo pass motion are originally euphemisms for the corresponding tabooed synonyms. Now these words themselves are used for joking when they are used in the general sense like onRukku 'for one thing' and reNTuKKu 'for two things' connecting them to their euphemistic ( word or phrase substituted for one considered offensive ) meaning .  

25. 6.Collocative meaning - consists of the associations a word acquires on account of the meanings of words which tend to occur in its environments (Leech, 1981,p.17). The English words pretty and hand some having the common meaning ' good-looking ' differ by the range of nouns with which they co-occur or collocate though in some cases they overlap.

26. girl Handsome boy boy man woman car flower vessel garden overcoat colour airline village typewriter etc., etc., Pretty

27. What Leech calls collocative meaning is the component range of application . The Tamil words paati and arai meaning 'half of something’ for collocative meaning. The collocative meaning is an idiosyncratic property of individual words.

28. ASSOCIATIVE MEANING Of the six types of meaning - except the conceptual meaning the other five i.e. connotative meaning, social meaning, affective meaning, reflected meaning and collocative meaning have something in common. These meanings have open ended and variable character. They can be analyzed in terms of varying scales or range. They cannot be analyzed in clear-cut either-this -or-that terms . Therefore , Leech groups all these under the heading of associative meaning (Leech,1981, p.18). While conceptual meaning is part of the 'common system' of language shared by members of the speech community, associative meaning is less stable and varies with the individual's experience.

29. 7.THEMATIC MEANING Thematic meaning is that "what is communicated by the way in which a speaker or writer organizes the message, in terms of ordering, focus, and emphasis" (Leech, 1981,p.19). For example, in English a sentence in the active voice differs from its passive voice equivalent in thematic meaning though both the sentences have same conceptual meaning, eg .   ( 5) Mr. Smith donated the first prize ( 6) The first prize was donated by Mr. Smith   Of these two sentences, (5) the active sentence seems to be the answer for the implicit question "What did Mr. Smith donate", while the passive sentence (6) seem" to answer the implicit question "who donated the first prize". (5) in contrast to (6) suggests that we know Mr. Smith while (6) implies we do not know Mr. Smith but only that someone donated the first prize.

30. Thematic meaning is mainly a matter of choice grammatical constructions. Eg .   English: (7) A man is waiting in the hall (8) There is a man waiting in the hall  Tamil:  (9) naan neRRu kantanaip paartteen 'I saw Kandan yesterday' (10) ' naan neRRu paarttatu kantanai ' 'whom I saw yesterday is Kandan '  Sometimes, difference in thematic meaning brought about by ordering and emphasis can also be the result of substitution of words or lexemes. For examples, this happens when English belongs to substituted by owns. Eg .

31. ( 11) My brother owns the largest hotel in the town (12) The largest hotel in town belongs to my brother (13) raakul naanku uNavu viTuti naTattukiRaar ' Raghul runs four restaurants'. (14) raakulukku naanku uNavu viTutikaL iRukkinRana ' Raghul has four restaurants'   The thematic meaning can also be expressed by means of stress and intonation to highlight information in one part of a sentence.

32. DEMARCATION PROBLEM Leech who has classified meanings into seven types which are discussed above, points out that sometimes there are problems in 'demarcating' or separating one type of meaning from the others. An examination of the following sentences will make this clear. English: (17) He stuck the key in his pocket (18) He put the key in his pocket Tamil : (19) avan caTTaip paiyil paNattai tiNittukkooNTaan 'He stuffed the money in the shirt pocket' (20) avan tannuTaiya caTTai -p- paiyil paNattai vaittukkoNTaan 'He kept the money in his shirt pocket'  

33. 1 . CONCEPTUAL MEANING Logical, cognitive or denotative I content 2.CONNOTATIVE MEANING what is communicated by virtue of what language refers to . 3. SOCIAL MEANING what is communicated of the social circumstances of language use. 4. AFFECTIVE MEANING What is communicated of the feelings and attitudes of the speaker / writer 5. REFLECTED MEANING What is communicated through association with another sense of the same expression. 6. COLLOCATIVE MEANING What is communicated through association with words, which tend to occur in the environment of another word. THEMATIC MEANING What is communicated by the way in which the message is organized in terms of order and emphasis. ASSOCIATIVE MEANING

34. Dr.Sundarabalu Bharathiar University Tamilnadu - India Thanks Prf.Kbalasubramanian Annamalai Nagar