MODULE 2
Meaning and discourse in English
INTRODUCTION AND
OVERVIEW
Lecture 1
www.uniroma2.it/didattica/english1
Cliccate ….
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Elenco corsi
Lingua Inglese 1 LLEM (Bowles)
Deposito file
Lettorato matricole.doc
Lingua Inglese 2
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Modulo 2 A+B (Bowles)
Use of English 2 - lettorato
Writing 2 - Eade
Listening 2 - lettorato
Speaking 2 - lettorato
Modulo 2 A+B
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È necessario superare il modulo 2A+B
per accedere a Lingua Inglese 3
Non è necessario superare le 4 prove di
lingua per accedere a Lingua Inglese 3
Le 4 prove di lingua
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Sono le ultime prove di lingua del
triennio
Sono di livello europeo B2
La preparazione è biennale
Fanno media con il modulo per il voto di
Lingua Inglese 2
“Good morning”
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What does “good
morning” mean?
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Non compresso) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Good + morning?
‘I didn’t mean to hurt you’
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In this usage, meaning is connected to
INTENTION. The speaker uses the
word ‘mean’ to describe what he
intended (or didn’t intend) to do.
‘those black clouds mean rain’
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In this usage, meaning has a signalling
function.
‘dog’ means ‘cane’
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In this usage, meaning refers to the sense
of words or sentences.
LEXICAL SEMANTICS IS CONCERNED
WITH THIS USAGE - THE CONVENTIONAL
MEANING OF WORDS AND SENTENCES
LIZZIE AND MR DARCY
CONVERSATION
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In this case we are concerned with
meaning in use rather than the meaning
of words and sentences in isolation. We
will study this when we do discourse
analysis.
Words are not always single
units of meaning
MANY WORDS = ONE CONCEPT
 to be caught red-handed
ONE WORD = DIFFERENT CONCEPTS
 charge (electrical)
 charge (request for money)
 charge (cavalry)
It is sometimes hard to
separate units of meaning …
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good morning = morning which is good ?
good singer = singer who is good?
heavy smoker = smoker who is heavy ?
criminal lawyer = lawyer who is criminal ?
… because the meanings of
words affect each other collocation (lesson 3)
Transparent v. opaque
OPAQUE
OPAQUE
OPAQUE
TRANSPARENT
cranberry
strawberry
gooseberry
blackberry
bullfinch
chaffinch
greenfinch
Lexemes
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A lexeme is a unit of lexical meaning
which exists regardless of inflection or
number of words
‘love’ is a lexeme; ‘loved’ is a different
lexeme; ‘red-handed’ is a lexeme
In lexical semantics it is better to refer to
lexemes than to words
Lexical semantics
(LESSONS 2+3)
We will be looking at:
 Sense relations
 Collocation