Lexical Semantics II:

Figurative Meaning
Week 4

Dr. William Feng

[email protected]
RECAP (last two weeks)
 Learning Difficulties
• 1. Derivational and Inflectional Suffix
• Derivation( 派生 ) creates new words, e.g.
by changing word class.
• Inflection ( 屈折 ) bends a word into a new
grammatical form, e.g. for tense or
number.
– --ing, can be inflectional: 現在進行時
– or derivational: 動詞轉為名詞 / 形容詞 (sleeping,
interesting)
2. Types of signs
Whether the signifier is based on the signified

Smile/ 微笑

Levels of iconicity,
Modality: how real

Real
Abstract: symbolic icon
 Indexical sign
• Dark clouds in the west are an index of
impending rain
• A smiling face is an index of happiness
• Finger print on ID card is index of you
• A and B are related through causal-continuity
relations
• My boss’ high heel shoes.
• My students’ noise at 9:20
 3. Sense relation
• Antonyms
• Dead-alive, before-after
• Homonymy and polysemy
• Minute and minute
• Sea and see
• According to some estimates, more than 40% of English
words have more than one meaning. The fact that so many
words (or lexemes) are polysemous "shows that semantic
changes often add meanings to the language without
subtracting any" (M. Lynne Murphy, Lexical Meaning,
2010).
 INTRODUCTION
• What is your love like?
• Which one is more “flowery” than others?
 PART 1: CATEGORIZATION OF
MEANING
• Categorization occurs everywhere around us, without
which a lot of information would be in disorder.

The special term for this phenomenon is

called category.
•The process of classification is called
categorization.

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 The classical theory

• Two assumptions:
1)Categories have clear boundaries.
e.g. bird V.S. beast
2) All members of a category have equal status.
e.g. The sparrow is not a better member than the
ostrich in the BIRD category.
 Prototype Theory

• Categories have graded membership:

Some members of a category are reliably
rated as “better” members than others, th
at is, more prototypical.

• For example
• Beijing Chinese, Hong Kong Chinese, ABC, Chi
nese Singaporean
 Rosch’s Examples
• Category: bird
• Prototype members: robins, sparrows
• Non-prototype members: ostriches, chickens

• Category: furniture
• Prototype members: chairs, tables
• Non-prototype members: paintings, radios

Furniture radio Appliances

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New Perspectives on meaning comprehe
nsion
• Language acquisition:
• children learn “good” (or prototypical)
members of categories before that of
“poor” (or non-prototypical) members of
the same category.
• Prototypes are easier to comprehend by
most people.

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 Levels of categorization

• Prototype theory also provides an account of levels

of categorization. Categories occur at different
levels of inclusiveness
e.g.
a. vehicle – car – SUV
• b. fruit – apple – Granny Smith( 綠蘋果 )
• c. animal – dog – spaniel( 西班牙獵犬 )
• d. cutlery – knife – bread knife
• e. item of furniture – table – card table

• basic level, superordinate level and subordinate level.

Hyponymy
 New Perspectives on lexical structure:

• Basic level categorization of lexical meaning:

– Superordinate level: furniture
– Basic level: chairs, tables
– Subordinate level: kitchen chairs, living-room
chairs
Basic levels are easiest to process and
comprehend by most people, and are first
learned by children

25年6月4日
 2. LITERAL AND FIGURATIVE
MEANINGS
• Literal meaning: refers to words
that do not deviate from their
defined (dictionary) meaning.

• Figurative meaning: Non-literal

or figurative language refers to
words that exaggerate or alter the
usual meanings of the component
words.
Figurative Meanings (Figures of Speech)

• Figure of speech is a basic way of creating

meaning.
• It is not only used in literature, but prevalent
in everyday language.
• There are over a hundred “figures of
speech”
• http://changingminds.org/techniques/
language/figures_speech/
figures_speech_alpha.htm
 1. Simile
• A simile is a figure of speech that directly
compares two different things by
employing words such as "like", "as",
“compare to”.
O my Luve's like a red, red

He was as brave as a lion in the rose,

That's newly sprung in
fight.
June:
She swims like a dolphin.
O my Luve's like the
He drinks like a fish. melodie,
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
That's sweetly play'd in
 2. Metaphor
• Metaphor: a figure of speech containing an
implied comparison
• A is B Dreams
Hold fast to dreams
• A happy family is an earlier For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
heaven. That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
• There is no difference For when dreams go
between a forced bachelor Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
and an involuntarily ---Langston Hughes
herbivorous lion.
Lexicalized metaphor

Bookworm Mouse? web?

?
Why is the computer device called mouse?
 3. Personification
• When non-human (animals, objects or
ideas) are described as if they were
human.
• Personification is a subtype of metaphor.
My car was happy to be washed.

The camera loves me.

Her jewelry clearly spoke about her wealth.

Fear knocked on the door. Faith answered. There was no one there.
Extended metaphor/personification
When an author exploits a single metaphor or
several related metaphors across sentences.

• Some books are to be tasted, others to be

swallowed, and some few to be chewed and
digested; that is, some books are to be read
only in parts; others to be read, but not
curiously; and some few to be read wholly,
and with diligence and attention. (Francis
Bacon, “Of Studies”)
Our house is an old friend of ours. Although he
creeks and groans with every gust of wind, he
never fails to protect us from the elements. He
wraps his arms of bricks and mortar around us and
keeps us safe. He’s always been a good friend to
us and we would never leave him.
 4. Metonymy ( 轉喻 )
A figure of speech that consists in using the name
of one thing for that of something else with which
it is related/associated.

Producer-for-product (“He bought a Ford.”)

Part-for-whole (“I liked the laser….”)
Place-for-institution (“The White House said….”)
Container-for-contents (“The kettle is boiling”)
Artist-for-artworks (“I like Shakespeare.”)
Buyer-for-bought (The ham sandwich is waiting for his check).
 Visual metonymy?

• 1. partiality
• In static images
• In moving images
• 2. abstract attributes
• The visual representation of inner attributes is
necessarily metonymic, or indexical.
a b
TVC Visual image Image description Sound transcription
analysis
Reporter speaking with We are back to sports centre.

1 smiling face. Everyone here uses Colgate

toothpaste.

The doctor is re-checking Last time you had three

2a a patient who has being buccal problems. Let’s see
using Colgate. how it looks now.

The doctor smiles, with Great! It is been significantly

2b the screen displaying the improved.
problems Colgate solves.

The patient smiling, No utterance

2c displaying white, beautiful
teeth.

Colgate stomatologist Clinic experiments proved

3 speaking. that Colgate can improve
dental health.
 5. Synecdoche ( 提喻 )
• Synecdoche is when a part of something is used to refer to the
whole thing, or when the whole is used to refer to the part.
• (1) Part for Whole
• A foot in the company.
• We need more hands.
• Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears.
• It is sure hard to earn a dollar these days.
• He is the Bread-winner of the family.

• (2) whole for part

• China won a gold medal in Olympics
• Australia beat Canada at cricket
The difference between synecdoche and
metonymy is that in metonymy the word you
employ is linked to the concept you are
really talking about, but doesn’t have to be a
part/whole of it.

A B B
A

metonymy synecdoche
 Vehicle( 喻體 ) and Tenor ( 本體 )
In simile, metaphor and metonymy, one thing “A”
is compared to another thing “B”.
Love is like red rose. Rose-- ---------love
Dogs are our friends Friend-- -------dog
The kettle is boiling. Kettle-- --------water
Vehicle-- --------Tenor
Source-- --------Target

Etymology of Tenor: "general meaning, purpose, drift," from

Old French tenour "substance, sense" (13c.), from Latin
tenorem (nominative tenor) "contents, course," originally "a
holding on," from tenere "to hold" (see tenet).
 What is the difference between
metaphor and metonymy?

• Metaphor is based on the similarity

between A and B Iconic symbol

• Metonymy is based on continuity/part-

whole relations. Indexical symbol

Iconic symbol Indexical symbol

 6. Hyperbole ( 誇張 )
A figure of speech in which exaggeration is
used for emphasis or effect.

• I had a ton of homework.

• I’ve told you a million times
• It was so cold, I saw polar bears wearing jackets.
• He is as skinny as a toothpick.
• Her brain is the size of a pea.
• 力拔山兮氣蓋世
Visual hyperbole in ads (ENGL353)
 7. Oxymoron ( 矛盾修辭 )
• An expression in which two incongruous or
seemingly contradictory words appear side
by side.
A yawn may be defined as a silent yell."
• Lexical oxymoron (G.K. Chesterton, George Bernard Shaw,
1909)
miserable abundance,
beggarly riches! "O brawling love! O loving hate! . . .
—John Donne O heavy lightness! serious vanity!
Bitter sweet—Thomas Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
Hardy Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire,
sick health!
Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!
This love feel I, that feel no love in this."
(William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet)
Grammatical oxymoron

• We sleep in separate rooms, we have dinner apart,

we take separate vacations. We're doing everything
we can to keep our marriage together.
• It happens to be true that health food makes me
sick.
• We have to believe in free will. We have no choice."
 8. Pun ( 雙關 )
• A pun is an expression intended for a humorous
or rhetorical effect by exploiting different
meanings of words.
• Homonymic pun ( 意義雙關 )
Let’s talk about rights and lefts. You’re right, so I left.
A boiled egg every morning is hard to beat
Being struck by lightning is a shocking
experience!
Two antennas ( 天線 ) met on a roof, fell in love and got
married. The ceremony wasn‘t much, but the reception
was brilliant!
人類沒有聯想，世界將會怎樣 (Lenovo)
• Homophonic Pun( 諧音雙關 ):
• "Why is it so wet in England? Because many
kings and queens have reigned there.“
• Diet slogan: Are you going the wrong weigh?
• At a pizza shop: 7 days without pizza makes
one weak.
• 聰明的媽媽會用鋅 ( 心 ) 。
• 別吻我，我怕修（羞）。
Visual-verbal pun
 9. Idiom
• An expression that has a conventionalized
meaning to a particular region or language.
• Its meaning is not the literal meaning of the
words.
• When pigs fly – about something that will
never happen
• Everybody has at least one
skeleton in their closet

To pull one’s leg: Joking with someone

 10. Alliteration( 押頭韻 )
• Words with the same first sound.
• Alice’s aunt ate apples around August.
• Busy as a bee
• Good as gold
• Laugh out loud
• Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled
peppers.
 11. Rhyme( 押韻）
• Rhyme is defined as words or phrases
with the same ending sound
• Internal rhyme:
– I went to town to buy a gown.
– He looked cool but felt the fool.
– I lost my dog in the midst of fog.
– A bare is sitting on a chair, eating a pear and
combing her hair.
• End rhyme ( 尾韻 )

– His look is wild.

His name is Fred.
His hair completely hides his head.

– I hope that you are feeling better

now that you are full of sweater.
But, frankly, don't you think it's rude
to use my clothes as common food?

– 春眠不覺曉
– 處處聞啼鳥
– 夜來風雨聲
– 花落知多少
 12. Assonance ( 元音韻 )
• Assonance is the repetition of vowel
sounds
• I lie down by the side of my bride
• Every time I write a rhyme, these people
think it's a crime.
• It beats . . . as it sweeps . . . as it cleans!
• Try to light the fire.
 Summary

Simile
Metaphor
Literal Metonymy
Lexical figure Hyperbole
Meaning Pun
Idiom
Figurative Oxymoron

Alliteration
Phonological figure Rhyme
Assonance