Pragma-semantics

1. TYPES OF
MEANING

2. Leech’s
Types of
Meaning

3. Introduction
• Semantics studies all that is
communicated through language
• Breaks down “meaning” into
seven different types
Geoffrey Neil Leech
FBA was a specialist
in English language
and linguistics
(1936-2014)

4. Conceptual/
Denotative
Meaning
• Logical, cognitive, or denotative
content.
• Based on two structural principles,
which are contractiveness and
constituent structures.

5. Contrastiveness is based on the
classification of sounds in phonology,
namely the binary opposition of
characteristics of sounds – positive
(present) and negative (absent) features.

6. In addition to this, Leech expresses that, to
comprehend or generate a linguistic
utterance, at least three levels of language
need to be present.
These are:
A) the level of phonology (a phonological
representation),
B) the level of syntax (a syntactic
presentation) and
C) the level of semantics. In what order
these three levels are going to be used
depends on

7. Connotative
Meaning
• The communicative value an
expression has by virtue of what it
refers to, over and above its purely
conceptual content.”
• It expands to include surrounding
context
Known
as associated
meaning, implied
meaning, or
secondary
meaning

8. EXAMPLE

9. Social
Meaning
• Identifies the constellation of traits
that linguistic forms convey about
the social identity of their users.
• Refers to the cultural and social
factors that influence the
interpretation of language beyond
its literal or dictionary meaning.

10. Thursday, 31st August 2023
• Blue (poetic)
• Sad (general)
• Unhappy (formal)
• Poignant (very formal)
Social meaning can
also include what is
called the
illocutionary force of
an utterance, which
can then be interpreted
as a request, an
apology, a threat, etc.,
as stated by Leech

11. Affective
Meaning
• Deals with the way a language can
reflect personal feelings of the speaker
that may include attitude to a listener
or something he is talking about
• Can be expressed directly and
indirectly, once again depending on
the context

12. EXAMPLE…
Meaning is different for homeless, soldier, and sailor

13. Reflective
Meaning
• Can be explained as the one appearing in
situations of multiple conceptual meanings,
when one sense of a word influences our
response to another sense.
• Arises when a word has more than one
conceptual meaning or multiple conceptual
meaning

14. EXAMPLE…

15. Collocative
Meaning
• The meaning which a word acquires in the
company of certain words
• Refers to associations of a word because
of its usual or habitual co-occurrence with
certain types of words

16. Example…

17. • refers to what is communicated by the
way in which a speaker or a writer
organizes the message in terms of
ordering focus and emphasis

18. Thank You