Conceptions of Language and Grammarsomeone to leave; I love you. Honest, I really do! is an attempt to get
someone to believe that “I” loves them.
• Social (phatic, interpersonal) meaning, as in expressions such as
Hi! and How are you?, establishes and maintains social contact be-
tween communicators.
• Textual meaning is communicated by utterances that constitute
(part of) a text, e.g., The dogs were very noisy. The German shep-
herds were the worst. Without very noisy in the first of these two
sentences, it would be impossible to interpret the worst as noisiest.
This meaning derives from the assumption that the two sentences
are to be interpreted as a text, that is, one or more sentences or
utterances intended to be taken as a coherent whole. Some expres-
sions have only textual meanings. For example, in some of its uses
so indicates that the expression it introduces is to be interpreted as
a conclusion drawn from a prior expression or from the context.
The retort So what? is a demand to know what conclusion to draw
from what a speaker has just said.
• Metalinguistic meaning addresses matters concerning the lan-
guage itself. Definitions and word puzzles are metalinguistic, e.g.,
What I meant to say was.. ., or What English word has three double
letters in a row? (See the end of this chapter for an answer.)
• Poetic meaning reflects nuances of interpretation created by the
manner in which information is expressed. It is the aesthetic dimen-
sion of language and language use. Advertisers make good use of
language’s poetic possibilities. They use puns as well as rhythm and
rhyme: Wendy’s restaurants advertised their extended business hours
with the pun, See ya later!; a Cheyenne, WY store advertised tires
with the rhyme, Great deals / On tires and wheels; local authorities
attempt to draw drivers’ attention to road work with the pun Give^
’em a brake! and the rhyme Cone Zone.
Exercise
- Explain how each expression below illustrates one (or more) of the
meaning types just discussed:
a. Don’t touch me!
b. There is a bull in that field.
c. Hello. Are you there? (phone conversation)
d. No pun intended.
e. Jeanne is wearing jeans.