List different types of associative meaning and define them.
List different types of associative meaning and define them.
题目解答
答案
There are mainly the following types of associative meaning:
1. Connotative meaning: It refers to the meanings that a word suggests or implies beyond its literal or denotative meaning. For example, the word “home” not only denotes a physical place where one lives but also connotes feelings of warmth, security and belonging. It is the additional associations that people attach to a word based on their personal, cultural or social experiences.
2. Affective meaning: It reflects the speaker's or writer's attitude, emotion or feelings towards the thing or person being referred to. Words like “adorable” convey positive affection, while “odious” expresses strong negative feelings. The choice of words can show whether the speaker likes, dislikes, approves or disapproves of something.
3. Collocative meaning: It is the meaning that a word acquires in connection with the words which tend to occur in its environment. For example, the verb “commit” often collocates with words like “crime”, “suicide”. The collocational pattern gives the word a specific shade of meaning. “Do” can also be used with “crime” in some cases, but “commit a crime” is more common and has a more established and specific connotation in the language.
4. Reflected meaning: When a word has more than one meaning, and one meaning evokes another meaning in the mind of the language user, it is reflected meaning. For example, the word “bank” which can mean both “the side of a river” and “a financial institution”. If someone says “I went to the bank”, in some contexts, the other meaning might be fleetingly reflected in the listener's mind, especially if there are no clear context clues.
5.Social meaning：Social meaning reflects a word's ties to social context like the speaker's status, region, or group. “Utilize” (formal, for official/academic settings) vs “use” shows formality differences. Slang like “lit” (used by youth groups) marks social - group belonging, showing how language signals social identities and contexts.