This paper seeks to describe and analyze typical strategies employed for explaining unknown words. The empirical component is based on a small video-corpus comprising 4x6 interviews with native as well as non-native speakers of English, transcripts are included in the Appendix. The material is analyzed by means of a theoretical apparatus taken from lexical semantics and pragmatics.
Inhaltsverzeichnis (Table of Contents)
- INTRODUCTION
- PRELIMINARIES: THEORY AND TERMINOLOGY
- RETRIEVING DATA FOR A COLLECTION OF STRATEGIES
- ISOLATING STRATEGIES, ESTABLISHING RELATIONS.
- Strategies involving intension
- giving a synonym
- giving a hyperonym
- naming the part of speech
- syntagmatic or grammatical proximity
- Strategies of Reference
- giving an example
- appealing to imagination
- miming
- telling an anecdote
- Strategies involving intension
- CONCLUSION
Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)
This study aims to explore how speakers of different competence levels explain the meaning of words, focusing on the strategies employed in verbal explanations. The objective is to analyze these strategies, categorize them, and develop a comprehensive framework for understanding how word-explanation unfolds in spoken language.
- The nature of lexical meaning and its components, including sense, denotation, and reference.
- The role of intensional and extensional relations between lexical items.
- Strategies for word explanation, including those involving intension and reference.
- The interplay of top-down and bottom-up processes in word comprehension.
- The importance of context and pragmatic factors in interpreting meaning.
Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)
- Introduction: This chapter introduces the study's focus on word-explanation and its theoretical framework, drawing on Aristotle's distinction between spoken and written words, and highlighting the importance of oral communication in understanding the process of meaning construction.
- Preliminaries: Theory and Terminology: This chapter defines key theoretical concepts from linguistic semantics, including lexical meaning, sentence meaning, utterance meaning, sense, denotation, and reference. It also explores the significance of intensional relations between lexical items, such as synonymy, hyponymy, and antonymy, and discusses the relevance of componential analysis in understanding meaning.
- Retrieving Data for a Collection of Strategies: This chapter delves into the methodology employed in the study, focusing on the collection and analysis of data from speakers explaining words. It outlines the approach and its rationale for choosing oral data over written texts, emphasizing the accessibility of the thinking process through spoken language.
- Isolating Strategies, Establishing Relations: This chapter explores the different strategies employed by speakers for explaining the meaning of words. It categorizes these strategies into those involving intension, such as giving a synonym, hyperonym, or part of speech, and those involving reference, such as giving an example, appealing to imagination, or miming.
Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)
The core concepts of this study center on lexical semantics, word-explanation, strategies, intensional relations, extensional relations, reference, componential analysis, and the interplay of top-down and bottom-up processes in meaning construction. The study draws on theoretical frameworks from linguistic semantics, pragmatics, and cognitive linguistics to offer a comprehensive understanding of the intricate process of verbalizing meaning.
- Quote paper
- Andreas Glombitza (Author), 2006, Explaining the Meaning of Words: A Descriptive Study on Strategies, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/73152
