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PLANE OF CONTENTS
OF ENGLISH ECONOMICAL PROFESSIONALISMS: DENOTATIVE MEANING & CONNOTATIVE NUANCES
E. I. Glinchevskiy
В данной статье анализируется сущность понятий «значение» и «смысл» как взаимосвязанных категорий современной лингвистики; проводится чёткое разграничение между денотативным, основообразующим значением слова и присущими этому же слову коннотациями. Автором обосновывается возможность наличия ярких и инвариантных субъективных коннотаций в английских лексических единицах, выступающих в роли экономических профессионализмов; подобные коннотации наполняют их семантическую структуру богатым образным смыслом.
Ключевые слова: значение слова, смысл слова, денотативное значение, коннотация, экономический профессионализм.
The goal of this article is to ground that it is possible to attribute con-notative, figurative meaning nuances in English language units, which are used as economical professionalisms. First of all, to provide theoretical grounds for this paper, one should determine what this paper implies when it introduces its two key notions - “meaning” and “sense”. Let us analyze the dictionary definitions of these two notions.
According to extracts from the Philosophical and from the Soviet Encyclopedic Dictionaries, the terms “meaning” and “sense” are correlated categories; yet, they are different categories.
“Meaning is contents related to this or that expression (of a word, of a sentence, of a sign, etc.) of a language” [8. P. 441; 5. P. 200]1.
“Sense is a sensual meaning of a name (of a sign), i.e. the contents of a notion, whose volume is the subject (the denotatum) of that name” [8. P. 632-633]. The same dictionary article provides an example of differences between meaning and sense: the word-combinations “morning star” and “evening star” have one and the same meaning - the planet Venus. However, the sense of these two word-combinations would be somewhat different: one person might perceive Venus as a morning star;
1 Here and below, all the citations are provided in a word-for-word English translation from the Russian originals listed in the References.
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another person would perceive the same celestial body as an evening star; a third person might identify it as a planet of horrible surface pressure and everlasting heat; a fourth person might associate it with the Ancient Greek goddess of beauty, etc. In other words, each person has their own images of the surrounding real world, whereas an image is “a form of reflecting the world in the human conscience” [5. P. 432], i.e. any image is of subjective character. It is a subjective image that forms the sense of a word: since any image is of subjective nature, the sense of a word is also subjective. As for the meaning, it is of definitely objective character; it is less dependent on humans’ subjective perception of the surrounding objective reality; it is of evidently logical, not of figurative or of imaginative nature.
It is the meaning of a word (and not its sense) that is closely related to one of the most fundamental categories of Logics and Philosophy - the notion. “A notion is an idea that reflects the things and the phenomena of the real word in a generic form, as well as essential links between them by means of fixing their general and specific features. Those features are properties of things and of phenomena, as well as relations between them” [5. P. 494]. As one could conclude from this definition, any notion includes those very features of a particular thing or of a phenomenon that provide its distinct and precise, objectively existing difference from all the rest things and phenomena of the objective reality. For instance, the notion “virus” includes only those properties that provide a virus’s distinct differentiation from any other known living organism, including any other morbific organism.
As for the correlation between a notion and the meaning of a word as of a language unit, let us cite A. I. Smirnitskiy: “... meaning, as a definite phenomenon in one’s conscience, is made up as a result of its generalizing some separate particular reflections of objects, phenomena, and relations of the reality, which contain something actually general; at that, this process of generalization lasts due to the leading impact produced by the society; that impact is exerted by means of real sounding that is identified in different cases of its reproducing” [7. P. 25]. Having defined the very essence of the notion “meaning”, A. I. Smirnitskiy introduces one of the most important points of modern Linguistics: the meaning of a word is a product of reflecting the real world by the human conscience, which has obtained an objectively existing material cover. A word is a material sign, which lets humans signify a definite subject (phenomenon) and which has a particular meaning. the internal side of language, which is formed with meanings of its units, coincides with the knowledge of meanings:
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the meaning of a language unit, being its internal side, exists due to the very reason that everybody knows it” [7. P. 31]. In this brief and precise sentence, A. I. Smirnitskiy provides a complete explanation of a word as of a language sign: a particular meaning, which is known by all the people speaking this language, is concealed beneath its external universally recognizable cover (a particular set of sounds or of graphical characters - letter, hieroglyphs, etc.).
Therefore, the meaning of a word is a product of reflecting the objective reality by the human conscience, which has obtained an objectively existing material cover. At that, an enormous role is played not only by the individual, but also by the social, collective human conscience in forming the internal side of a language sign - the overall collective conscience of its speakers. According to O. S. Akhmanova, the society is the legislator of word meanings: “... a linguist, when they explain the meanings of words, does not dwell upon the precise scientific knowledge of the objects or notions signified by this word; they dwell upon the actual application of this or that word in a particular human society” [1. P. 9].
The society-legislated word meaning is reflected materially in its external cover - in a graphical or in a sound complex. A word is one of the basic units of any language, the latter being “a means of encoding senses with bodies of signs; manipulation with senses is performed by manipulating language units; language is a means of social communication and reflection” [9. P. 26]. In our view, the “manipulation with language units” mentioned by L. N. Venediktova is not only attributing new meanings to a word, but also an attribution of new senses to it; thanks to that, those senses could obtain a new verbal manifestation in a particular language.
Modern Linguistics determines two types of word meanings - the denotative one and the connotative one. The denotative meaning of a word is closely related to the notion that it signifies; it is this type of meaning that makes it possible to define which certain object or phenomenon is signified by that word. As for the connotative meaning, let us remark its key feature: it is polymorphous, since it contains various individual subjective images and associations that are related to that word, as well as a definite evaluation of the object or the phenomenon that it signifies. Let us also remark that the connotative meaning is not only polymorphous and subjective, but also optional: it acts as a supplement of the denotative meaning.
In our view, it would not be right to state that sense includes only connotations, with meaning being attributed only to a denotatum. In our comprehension, sense is a sum of a denotative meaning and of some connotations. However, let us remark the following fact: the denotative meaning
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of a word is the nucleus of its plane of contents; it is thus its foundation. No connotations can exist without a denotatum, without the foundationforming meaning; similarly, no sense can exist without meaning.
All the said in the two above paragraphs could also be confirmed by citing N. D. Arutyunova: “Common nouns. The words referred to this grade possess a full semantic structure, which is composed of some notion (connotation (as per J. Mill), sense (as per G. Frege), signification, denotatum, concept) that is formed with general features of a class of realities, and of a particular, individual contents that is created during their application in speech due to properties of their denotatum, or referent. Common names are applicable to any object, in relation to which their meaning is true. Their meaning is a stable element of their semantic structure, its skeleton; whereas the denotative contents acquired in the speech varies, thus supplementing the notional “skeleton” with individual and individualized images of certain objects” [2. P. 3].
L. Weisgerber’s position coincides with that of N. D. Arutyunova. L. Weisgerber also regards meaning (as a social phenomenon) and sense (as a phenomenon of individual conscience) as different things. According to him, there are two mediators between the objective reality and humans - the so-called “mediating world of thinking” and the proper language, which contains a particular image of world and which develops a particular way of thinking in all its speakers’ conscience. Moreover, language, according to L. Weisgerber, is also a set of tools that enable humans to cognize the world [10. P. 111-112]. Let us add that language is indeed a set of tools to cognize the world; actually, that is a universal set, since it is a universal system of signs. Yu. V. Rozhdestvenskiy [6] identifies a whole number of sign systems, which make it possible to judge both about humans’ vision of world and about their activities - dances, costumes, music, rites, measures, games, etc.; but among them all, it is only language that is a universal system of signs, by means of which one could express practically everything. It is the plane of contents of a language sign, the semantic constituent of semiosis that contains both the denotative universally recognized meaning and a particular sense attributed to that language sign individually.
Thus, this paper regards and comprehends the notion “word meaning” as the “denotative meaning”; whereas the notion “word sense” is comprehended as an aggregate of the denotative meaning of that word and of some amount of additional, connotative nuance meanings of the same word; those nuances being of subjective, figurative, and imaginative nature.
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Now let us shift to the next key issue to be under consideration in this paper: what it implies as “economical professionalisms” and what their semantic structure could include, besides their denotative, foundationforming meaning.
One should remark that this paper comprehends the notion “professionalism” as unequal to the notion “term”. A term is a conventional word or word-combination, which nominates a particular notion precisely and unambiguously, as well as its correlations with other notions. Developing his system of equivalents of meanings in different languages, L. S. Barkhudarov [3] mentions application of terms as one of cases when word meanings in different languages coincide completely; in our view, that is quite natural: owing to its very nature, a term is deprived of any connotations that are due to the national culture or mentality; it contains only the denotative meaning of logical, rational nature. As for the notion “professionalism”, this article comprehends it as a word or expression typical for the oral speech of representatives of this or that profession. Similarly to a term, a professionalism is applied only in a definite field of knowledge or in a definite area of human activities; however, being typical for the oral colloquial speech, it inevitably becomes expressive and emotionally colored, thus acquiring not only the denotative meaning, but also connotative nuance meanings; ipso facto, it acquires not only an objective meaning, but also a more individualized, varied sense.
As for particular examples of professionalisms, let us provide a number of lexical units applied in the English economical professional environment (all the English lexical units mentioned hereunder being borrowed from the source [4]). Let us also remark that it is usually words of the universal vocabulary stock that act as professionalisms; they are figuratively shifted onto the terminological notions due to similarities of objects and phenomena that are nominated both by a term and by a corresponding professionalism.
For instance, the English literary language interprets the word “zombie” quite unequivocally: in the voodoo cult, which exists in Haiti and in some African countries, zombies are dead people revitalized by sorcerers to serve them as slaves; a zombie is a creature void of memory and of self-consciousness. According to the dictionary by V. P. Bulycheva [4], the professionalism “zombie” denotes a company that keeps on operating even being actually bankrupt; at that, a metaphoric similarity between a human zombie and a company zombie is quite obvious: they both are dead, but they both continue to act as something living. Thus, the word “zombie”, becoming an economical professionalism, acquires vivid connotative contents.
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Another example of a similarity between a religious notion and an economical professionalism is the word “angel”. From the view-point of three Abrahamic religions, an angel is a supernatural being, whom God granted particular power over the spiritual and the material world; as for the English oral Economy-related speech, the same word signifies highly profitable bonds that guarantee considerable material benefits to anyone who possesses them. If such bonds become low-profitable, they are named “fallen angels”, similarly to the fallen angels subverted from heaven, as narrated in Christian, Hebrew, and Moslem Holy Writs.
Besides religion, economical professionalisms may closely be related to mythology as well. For instance, the mythical bird Phoenix, as it is well-known, burns in its nest regularly to resurrect later. As for the professionalism “Phoenix syndrome”, it signifies a dishonest technique of evading from debts and taxes, when a company declares itself going bankrupt shortly to be opened soon, bearing already another name.
The well-known professionalisms - “bull market” and “bear market”: the bull market reckoning upon an increase in values of capital issues and the bear market reckoning upon a decrease in their values are undoubtedly good examples of a similarity between the well-known representatives of Earth’s fauna and the particular participants of economical activities. The word-combination “killer bees” also seems to be of special interest: this professionalism implies specialists intentionally hired by a company to avoid its mergence by another company, which is larger and more aggressive. The word “sheep” denotes an inexperienced stock market player, who plays blindly, without a professional stockbroker’s assistance - similarly to an animal sheep strolling in an unknown direction without its shepherd.
Similarly to a number of cases when one speaks about the figurative component of the semantics of language units, there is a figurative application of colors, e.g. the gradation “white - grey - black”, which implies “legal - half-legal - illegal” correspondingly, especially when such attributes are applied with the noun “market”. The gradation “white knight - grey knight - black knight” is also of special interest: these professionalisms correspondingly name a friendly company that purchases another company, a not very friendly merging company and a definitely hostile company aiming to take over a victim company at all costs.
Names of other colors can also become an integral part of the semantics of an economical professionalism, e.g. green. The word-combination “greenfield investment” and “greenfield site” refer to something undeveloped, to something initiated from the very beginning, be it a new invest-
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ment or a new unprecedented project. Evidently, there is a parallel with one of the dictionary meanings of the word “green” - too young, not ripe enough.
Names of nutrition products can also be applied to create an economical professionalism, e.g. the word “lemon”. English-speaking participants of economic activities use this word to name low-quality goods or inefficient investments, which have a bitter taste as one is aware of wasting money, similarly to the taste of lemon. Unlike the word “lemon”, the noun “melon” signifies quite a substantial income or dividend, which is as large in size as a melon.
Geographical names and symbols of various countries may also be used to denote economical realities, which are in a direct correlation with those countries. For instance, the noun “Paris” denotes French francs; whereas the word-combination “maple leaf” denotes both the well-known symbol of Canada and coins of precious metals that are minted by Canada’s government. “Matador market” is used to signify Spain’s foreign market; whereas the professionalism “kangaroos”, in its turn, refers to Australian capital issues.
Rates of human health might also be transferred metaphorically onto an economical professionalism. For instance, the word-combination “bleeding company” and its synonym “hemorrhaging company” are in the most direct relation to any company whose life cycle is about to complete, owing to a too considerable excess of its expenditures over its profits and to an inevitable procedure of bankruptcy.
Therefore, economical professionalisms are a special stratum of the figurative vocabulary stock; the lexical units that this stratum includes possess not only a denotative meaning of objective nature, but also rich subjectively-attributed connotative contents; that is their difference from professional economical terms, thanks to which the plane of their contents acquires a vivid, varied figurative sense.
References
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2. Arutyunova, N. D. Yazyk i mir cheloveka (Language & Human World) [Текст] / N. D. Arutyu-
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