Transcript Episode 6

Pre-questions:
* What does motivation mean?
* What are opaque and transparent words?
* How to understand phonetic motivation?
* How is semantic motivation best
illustrated?
* What are culturally-loaded words?
Episode 6
Motivation
Ⅰ. Definition
Ⅱ. Opaque and Transparent Words
Ⅲ. Types of Motivation
Ⅳ. Loss of Motivation/Non-motivation
Ⅰ. Definition
Motivation deals with the relation between
name/word-symbol and its sense.
The great majority of English words are
non-motivated
since
they
are
conventional and arbitrary symbols
according to Saussure. However, there is
a small group of words that can be
known as motivated.
Ⅱ. Opaque and Transparent Words
Opaque words show no relation between
their word forms and their senses.
Semi-transparent words display little
relation between their word forms and
their senses.
Transparent words are motivated words in
terms
of
phonetic,
morphological,
semantic, and etymological aspects. They
have a natural relation to their meaning:
splash is motivated by sound; worker is
motivated by morphology (work + er); the
Ⅲ. Types of Motivation
Motivation can arise in six major
ways:
1. Onomatopoeic/Echoic
Motivation;
2. Morphological Motivation;
3. Semantic Motivation;
4. Etymological Motivation;
5. Logic Motivation;
6. Socio-cultural Motivation.
1. Onomatopoeic Motivation
Onomatopoeic
motivation
means defining the principle of
motivation by sounds, which
seem to be closely related to
their senses.
 Jesperson
called
onomatopoeic
words echoisms, for they are formed
by imitating the natural sounds
associated with the object or action
involved.
 Firth
regarded
them
as
phonaesthetic function words.
 According to Stephen Ullmann
(Semantics, 1962), onomatopoeic
formation can be subdivided into
primary and secondary
onomatopoeia.
A. Primary Onomatopoeia
It means the imitation of sound
by sound, of natural sound by
human speech sound, which is
truly an “echo to the sense”: the
reference itself is an acoustic
experience which is more or less
closely imitated by the phonetic
structure of the word.
See to the following examples:










Birds sing/twitter.
Cocks crow.
Cranes whoop.
Nightingales jug.
Hounds bay/woof-woof.
Tigers growl.
Foxes bark/yelp.
Elephants trumpet.
Crickets chirp.
Swans cry.
 The cannon booms.
 The pistol shot cracks.
 The bell rings/clangs.
 The weapon clashes.
 The door bangs.
 The thunder rumbles.
B. Secondary Onomatopoeia
It means that certain sounds and soundsequences are associated with certain senses
in an expressive relationship. In this form,
the sounds evoke, not only an acoustic
experience, but also a movement, or some
physical or moral quality. It usually provides
a sound symbolic schema, which is the
generalizing of individual phonologicalsemantic correlations. Pay attention to the
following phonaesthemes( 联 觉 音 组
by
J.R.Firth):
 sn- associates
(a) breath-noise: snot, sneeze, snort, snore,
sniff, sniffle, snuff, snuffle, snout;
(b) quick separation or movement: snip,
snap, snatch, snippers;
(c) creeping: snake, snail, sneak;
(d) pejorative sense: snarl, snivel, sneer,
snicker, snide, snob, snitch, snit, snub,
snafu, snipe.
sl- associates
(a) slippery: sled, sleek, sledge,
slick, slide, sleigh, slime, slip,
slither, slobber, slope, slosh,
sludge, slur, slush, sluice, etc.
(b) pejorative sense: slattern, slut,
slang, sly, sloppy, slovenly, slant,
slander, sluggish, sluggard,
sloth, etc.
-ump suggests
 (a) protuberance as in plump,
rump, chump, dump, hump,
mump(s);
 (b) heavy fall or strike as in
bump, clump, dump, crump,
flump, plump, slump, thump,
lump.
 sk- associates light
movement over a surface:
skate, ski, skid, skim, skin,
skip, etc.
 gl- associates light or
lightening: gleam, glare,
glaze, glim, glint, glisten,
glory, glow, etc.
 fl- relates to
(a) light transmission through the
air: flare, flame, flash, flicker, etc.
(b)quick movement: flee, fleet,
float, flounce, flow, fluctuate,
flutter, fluent, fluid, flurry, flux, fly,
fling, flip, flirt, flop, flit, flap,
flaunt, flick, etc.
 gr- associates dullness, unpleasantness:
groan, grouse, grudge, growl, grumble, grunt,
etc.
 -ush relates to
(1) water: flush, gush, lush, mush, slush, etc.
(2) quick movement: rush, brush, crush, hush,
etc.
 -unk associates unpleasantness: clunk, junk,
punk, drunk, dunk, skunk, stunk, flunk, bunk,
funk, gunk, etc.
2. Morphological Motivation
If a word is morphologically
motivated, a direct connection can
be
observed
between
the
morphological structure of the
word and its meaning, e.g. driver,
worker, readable, computerize,
anti-war, deform, etc.
 Some
compounds
are
morphologically
motivated,
which are endocentric, e.g.
headache, sunrise, daydream,
etc.
 However, not all compounds
are morphologically motivated,
dry goods, dog ear, sweet water,
Indian
summer,
eggplant,
pineapple, etc. are exocentric.
3. Semantic Motivation
Semantic Motivation means that
motivation is based on semantic
factors.
It is a kind of mental
association; the conceptual sense
readily leads to its metaphorical
sense since it is the figurative use
that
provides
the
semantic
motivation.
Revelations of Semantic
Motivation
 A. Metaphor
 B. Metonymy
 C. Synecdoche
 D. Analogy
A. Metaphor is a figure of speech
containing an implied comparison, in
which a word or phrase ordinarily and
primarily used of one thing is applies
to another, e.g.
 A good writer is a mirror of his times.
 He has a heart of stone.
 I give him an inch and he’ll take an ell.
B. Metonymy is the device in which we
name something by one of its attributes,
e.g.
 The pen is mightier than the sword.
 Have you read Lu Xun?
 During World War Ⅱ, Hilter attempted to
carry fire and sword into every part of
the world.
 Only the knife can save him.
C. Synecdoche means using a part
for a whole, an individual for a
class, a material for a thing or
the reverse of any of these, e.g.
 I do not ride a wheel, but I am a
good oar.
 The army raised a cheer.
D. Analogy is a process whereby
words are created in imitation of
other words, e.g.
on the basis of hippie (嬉皮士，a
person
of
unconventional
appearance and
values) and
yuppie (雅皮士a well-paid young
middle-class
urban
professionals) in the 1960s-70s,
new words are created in the
1980s-90s such as
 yappie ( 耶 皮 士 young affluent
professionals)
 yuffie (雅废士young urban failures)
 buppie (黑人雅皮士black upwardly mobile
professionals)
 muppie (玛皮士middle-aged urban
professionals)
 pippie (庇皮士person inheriting parents’
property)
 sippie (夕皮士senior independent
professionals)
 woopie (富皮士well-off older person)
 guppie(同性恋雅皮士gay urban professional)
4. Etymological Motivation
It deals with the source of the
word name and its sense, e.g.
braille(盲文) is derived from the
inventor of braille, Louis Braille;
walkman(随身听) comes from the
brand Walkman.
5. Logical Motivation
It deals with the problem of defining
a concept/forming of a word by
means of logic.
New compounds are studied in
terms of genus and species, e.g.
in identity crisis, the word “crisis”
is a genus, which consists of
more species among which
“identity”
is
one
species
juxtaposing
spiritual crisis,
economic crisis, marriage crisis,
political crisis, etc.
See to the diagram:
clipping
compounds
species
species
+ genus
genus
clipped compounds
Clipped compounds (O.Jespersen)
are words in which genus is clipped,
and only species is remained for the
whole, or vice versa, e.g. return
(species) for return ticket, the Wall
(genus)for the Berlin Wall, daily for
daily paper, the Hill for Capitol Hill,
the Cape for the Good Cape, the City
for London City, etc.
6. Socio-cultural Motivation
Socio-cultural motivation indicates
the relation between the word sense
the socio-cultural background from
which
the
word
is
derived.
Culturally-loaded
words(including
lexical gaps and loan words) are
clearly socio-culturally motivated.
Culturally-Bound(loaded)/Allusive
Words: Words that epitomize
cultural history are culturally-bound
words which condense a fund of
meanings widely accepted into a
short term (Lu Guoqiang, 2001: 317).
Words formed by commonization of
proper names from literature
especially belong to this kind, e.g.
 Quixotic derived from Don Quixotic,
the hero of satirical romance, has
come to denote “extravagantly
chivalrous or romantically idealistic;
visionary;
impractical
or
impracticable; generous, unselfish”.
 Gatsby from The Great Gatsby by F.
Scott Fitzgerald means “a rags-toriches upstart”.
 Odyssey, an epic of Homer, has come to mean “a
lingering and strenuous journey or series of
adventures”.
 Philippic, the name given to Demosthenes’ speeches
in ancient Greek against Philip Ⅱof Macedon has
turned to mean “a bitter attack or denunciation,
especially a verbal one”.
 Narcissism derived from Narcissus, a beautiful
youth in Greek Mythology, who rejected the nymph
Echo and fell in love with his own reflection in a
pool and pined away, being changed into the flower
that bears his name, conveys meaning of “excessive
or erotic interest in oneself and one’s physical
appearance”.
Ⅳ. Loss of Motivation
With the changes in language,
some words have lost their
motivation, and become difficult
to recognize where they came
from and how they are formed.
There may be two factors leading to loss of
motivation:
1) One is a change in the morphological
structure of a word, the elements of a
compound are bound together to a
degree that they become an opaque and
unanalysable unit.
 Take the word “lord” for example,
hlaf(loaf) +weard(ward) →hlaford →loafkeeper;
 Lord, a native word, going back to an ancient
compound hlaf weard, literally 'loaf ward'--the
guardian of the stock of bread in a
household/loaf-keeper. Since this was usually
the master of the household, the word came
to mean specifically that in Anglo-Saxon (in
the somewhat reduced form hlaford). Hlaford
was used by Christian missionaries to
translate the Latin word for 'master‘. Lord in
its ordinary social sense became a respectful
term of address for a householder of means,
then a title for a major landowner, and finally
a hereditary title independent of land
ownership.
2) The other factor is change of meaning.
When the gap between original and the
transferred meaning becomes too wide,
motivation is lost and the two senses
will be felt to belong to two separate
words, e.g. pupil originally having the
sense of “ward”, split into homonyms
a) pupil: elementary school student
b) pupil: apple of the eye.