Introdungcing English language part 14: 'In this exciting new textbook, Louise Mullany and Peter Stockwell have provided a fresh and imaginative set of alternatives for teaching and learning a huge amount about the English language. The book allows tor creative and lateral approaches to developing an understanding of important linguistic concepts and, together with the thought-provoking activities, and accessible readings, guarantees there is something to stimulate every learner. | 64 DEVELOPMENT ASPECTS OF ENGLISH m voiced bilabial nasal f voiceless labio-dental fricative s voiceless alveolar fricative tj voiceless alveolar affricate n voiced alveolar nasal LEXICAL SEMANTICS A dictionary entry tends to give the meaning of a word as a statement which defines its denotation that is its precise and narrowest direct and primary meaning. A wideranging or detailed dictionary might also give some of the connotations of the word - its additional or secondary meanings. So for example the Oxford English Dictionary defines red firstly as the spectrum colour that the word denotes but it also provides some of the different connotations of redness in fire blood violence or revolution. A word will also of course have very many looser and perhaps more culturally defined associations red and reds associates in different places around the world with several British soccer teams wearing red shirts with communists with US Republican states with roads of a particularly high accident rate with embarrassment with Marlboro strong cigarettes with food labelling of a high fat and sugar content with air squadron identifiers with ginger hair with prostitution with a certain type of civic university with the car maker Ferrari and many others. Some associations might be very personal and idiosyncratic. However all of these senses can be said to be part of the meaning of the word. The study of the meanings of words and their relationships is lexical semantics. Words and their meanings The relationships between the meanings of words can be differentiated and categorised. Synonymy for example refers to the ideal state in which a word means exactly the same as another. This can be said to be idealised because in practice there are probably no true exact synonyms since the connotations and associations of the two words are likely to be slightly different. For example book volume text tome might all be said to be synonymous but it is easy to see that they have specific and .
