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1、AnAnalysisofContextualMeaningofEnglishWords1.IntroductionG.Leech,afamouslinguistproposesthreetypesofmeaninginhisSemantics,firstpublishedin1974,asfollowings:lexicalmeaning,grammaticalmeaningandcontextualmeaning.Leechsaysthatlexicalmeaningisthemeaningofanisolatedwor
2、dinadictionary,andthiscomponentofmeaningisidenticalinallformsoftheword.Hereisanexampleforillustration:Thewordformsbegin,begins,began,begun,beginningpossessdifferentgrammaticalmeaningoftenses,personsandsoon.Ineachoftheseformsonefindsthesamelexicalmeaningexpressingt
3、heprocessofmovement.Grammaticalmeaningisthecomponentofmeaningidenticalinindividualformsofdifferentwords.Forinstance,thetensemeaningintheword-formsworked,studied,taught,orthepluralmeaninggirl,girlsorthecasemeaningboy’s,word’sandsoon.Exceptforlexicalmeaningandgramma
4、ticalmeaning,contextualmeaningdependsuponcontext.Differentcontextsgivewordsdifferentmeanings.Therefore,oneshouldpaycloseattentiontothetypesofcontext.Generallyspeaking,therearefourtypesofcontexts:figuresofspeech,culture,technicalareaandhumor.Figureofspeechreferstom
5、etonymy,metaphor,allusionandsoon.Thatistosay,thecontextualmeaning,whichoutof allthepossiblemeaningsthattheoriginalrelatedorsuggested,includingthecharactersoftheoriginalandenlightenmentsfromtheoriginal,istheacceptablemeaningtotheword.TheNewsWorldEncyclopediadefines
6、cultureas“itisthetotalityofthespiritual,intellectual,andartisticattitudessharedbyagroup,includingitstradition,habits,socialcustoms,morals,lawsandsocialrelations.Sociologically,everysociety,oneverylevel,hasitsculture.”(Guo&Li,2003:11)Consequently,Englishwordmeaning
7、,tosomeextentdependsontheEnglishculture.Itisnaturalthatinthecourseofthedevelopmentofsocietyanumberofnewwordsareneededtodescribenewideas.Sotherehasbeenatendencythatmanycommonwordsareusedintechnicalareatoputacrossatechnicalterm.Humorisanartofalllanguage.Manywords,po
8、lysemantsinparticularareusedtogiverisetoamusementandrelaxation,andthemeaningsofthosewordsareoften11relatedtothehumorcontext.InEnglishlanguage,thecontext