The Nature of Linguistic Meaning and Its Structure: A Study in the Traditional and Cognitive

Abstract

This study delves into the nature of linguistic meaning and its structure within both traditional literal semantics and modern cognitive semantics, examining several related concepts. The complexity of the topic necessitated an introduction, a preface, and three main sections. The first section addresses the nature of linguistic meaning from both perspectives. The second section discusses the hypothesis of multiple meanings. The third section explores the structure of linguistic meaning in the two perspectives. The study concludes with a summary of the key findings, followed by a list of references. To achieve its objectives, the study employs a cognitive approach, which extends beyond mere language analysis to examine the relationship between language and the mind. The findings suggest that meaning is not merely pre-existing stored knowledge encoded in language; rather, it is conceptual in nature. Its legitimacy is assessed through encyclopedic knowledge and perceptual experiences, making it individual and psychological, shaped by context and language. Consequently, there is no clear distinction between a primary, essential meaning and a secondary, non-essential meaning of a word. The study also reveals that intrinsic meaning contrasts with external world references, and that lexical units and grammatical structures, from a cognitive perspective, promote the formation of rich meanings. All grammatical structures inherently carry meaning, irrespective of the content they convey. Lastly, the study demonstrates that constructing the meaning of a sentence is not simply an aggregation of its parts' meanings. Instead, it is a continuous and complex mental construction process occurring at the conceptual level and formed during communication.