Consistency of Semantic Meaning with Structure and Context in English Writing

【Abstract】With the further progress of the social development， a large number of talents who are proficient in English are required to make contribution to our country. As for cultivating English talents， knowing the various semantic meaning with structure and context is the priority. In a real-world setting， passages are not showed in isolation， but rather in a cohesive manner that involves a sequence of related questions to meet users information needs. This article is divided into three parts. The first part is Literature Review. The second part aims to analyze the examples which are related to semantic meaning with structure and context in English writing and find out the existing problems based on them. In the third part， conclusion will be made. By using the knowledge of cognitive linguistic and through analysis and research， this article hopes to provide reference for later research.

【Key words】semantic meaning； context； writing

【作者簡介】李宛芯（1995- ），女，汉族，山东烟台人，鲁东大学，学生，教育硕士，研究方向：学科教学（英语）。

1. Introduction

When a word or a sentence is placed in a specific context， the meaning it expresses can only be one of various semantic meanings with structure and even becomes a temporary meaning which cannot be found in the dictionary. The exact meaning of a word must be limited by its locale. “Try to figure out contextual meaning of words.” And the situation that a word with distinctive semantic meanings is called polysemy.

Polysemy is a pivotal concept within disciplines such as media studies and linguistics. It has applications in pedagogy and machine learning， because they rely on word-sense disambiguation and schemas. The phenomenon of polysemy is extremely common in English. Many studies have been made by experts and scholars， and some achievements have been made.

2. Literature Review

According to Robinson（2008）， Cognitive Linguistics an interdisciplinary branch of linguistics， combining knowledge and research from both psychology and linguistics. It describes how language interacts with cognition， how language forms our thoughts， and the evolution of language parallel with the change in the common mindset across time. Webster（2003） holds that the word “cognitive” is defined as “of， relating to， being， or involving conscious intellectual activity （such as thinking， reasoning， or remembering）”. Merriam-Webster also defines linguistics as “the study of human speech including the units， nature， structure， and modification of language”.

3.Examples

The meaning of a word constitutes a category， the meaning is not between the same characteristics， but somehow linked. Such as “healthy body”， “healthy exercise”， “healthy complexion”， “healthy” have different meanings in different collocations， but there is a connection between the meanings. Another example， the evolution of the meaning of the verb “explode” allows us to see the relationship between its meaning：

（1）The bomb hidden in the train exploded when the train was pulling out of the station.

（2）My father exploded with rage at the news .

（3）After the war， the population in these areas exploded .

（4）His book exploded the myth of playboy actors with sumptuous lifestyles.

In the sentence （1）， “explode” is the typical meaning of the word， in a certain container， the combustion produces a lot of high-pressure gas and released instantly， the gas swells sharply， resulting in a huge noise. In sentence （2）， “explode” is mapped to the target area of “human body” - the container of feelings. In sentence（3）， the meaning of “explosion” extends from space to quantity domain. In the sentence （4）， the “bomb explosion” resulting consequences map to an abstract concept of “breaking， overthrowing”， while the original meaning of “explosion” has been abandoned.

4. Conclusion

The reason why we are trying to study the consistency of semantic meaning with structure and context in English writing is that students will be able to learn English more effectively and accurately. At present， although schools at all levels are beginning to focus on vocabulary memorizing and contextual teaching， students competence to understand specific words or phrases is still inadequate， which makes the semantic meaning with structure and context not consistent. From the above research， we can find that context has an important influence on the semantic meaning with structure， which can not be isolated from the context. We need to take the context as reference in order to derive the proper translation of the semantic meaning with structure.

References：

[1]Robinson.P.2008.Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition.[J]Routledge（2）：3–8.