1. Semantics Words and Meanings Resource No: 7

2. This resource covers the following topics: Denotation and Connotation (Slides 3-8) Semantic fields (Slides 9-18) Hypernyms and Hyponyms (Slides 189– 21) Synonyms and Antonyms (Slides 22- 25) Figurative Language: Metaphor, Simile, Personification, (Slides 26-35) Collocations (Slides 36- 39) Topic summary (Slides 40-41 N.B. The tasks included in this presentation relate to John Siddique’s poem, The Sea. The poem has been included at various points during the presentation, and can also be downloaded from the main resource bank of Blackpool and The Fylde College’s English Department’s webpage. All copyrights remain the property of the poet.

3. Semantics is quite simply the study of meaning. At the most basic level of meaning, we look at words in terms of denotation and connotation. Meaning

4. Denotation is the most straightforward meaning of a word – the dictionary definition . Money (noun) a medium of exchange that functions as legal tender...

5. Whereas connotations are the associations and emotions that surround a word Capital Cash - acquired through business - readily available Substitute, money’ for any of these words and consider the different connotations Remeber! Connotations can be negative or positive depending on individual or cultural viewpoints Bread - a means of survival

6. Task 1: Connotation This task should help you to recognise how the connotations of words support and contribute to the overall meaning of texts. Examine stanza three of Siddique’s poem The Sea , foundonthe following slide. Here you will notice the inclusion of the proper noun, Sentantii. In relation to the word Sentantii, respond to these three questions: What are the connotations surrounding the word Sentantiii? How did you arrive at these conclusions? Do the connotations of this word contribute to, or support the overall meaning of the poem in any way? Don’t worry if you don’t know what the word means, think more about what it might suggest. Tip! Itmight be useful to consider the influence of the words and phrases immediately surrounding Sentantii.

7. The Sea We have always come here. Always come to where the sky lowers its head and lays its body down. We do the same - come to lay our burdens down, in the air, the sunlight that finds its way each day, the spray and the plume, the hush and the rhythm of the sea. Once this place was only a black pool of water rising through the marshes drunk for its peatiness. Once this place was only known to the Setantii, first of the Sandgrown. Everyone is born somewhere. The black pool in Layton. We come to take the air, become Sandgrown’uns as the town grows. BLACKPOOL - We don not know you we do not see you as we pass through to our pleasures. Anchorsholme, Hoo Hill, Revoe Land of windmills, bread-basket of Northern England. You came in and out with tides - the wakes weeks, become the town, the air, the sand, the pier planks, the promenade, the arteries of roads and pathways, people grown from the sand. No matter who we are, drinker or dancer, candifloss child, pleasure seeker or Sandgrown’un, the sea stops us sometimes. As if our names, the real names we call ourselves are being whispered in the washing back of the waves, in the pull against the beach. Seven small waves then the larger swell, cycling through tide after tide. We each come for our own reasons, it knows who we are. Even here. Amongst the rides and the illuminations, on the estates and in the houses, the pubs and the car parks. We just are who we are. The sea knows how we speak to ourselves. Remember! What are the connotations surrounding the word Sentantii? How did you arrive at these conclusions? Do the connotations of this word support or contribute to the overall meaning of the poem in any way? When you have answered these three questions, compare your findings on the next

8. Task 1 findings: Connotation 1) What are the connotations surrounding the word Sentantii ? Sentantii has historical and exotic connotations. 2) How did you arrive at these conclusions? Sentantii creates mystery by its unusual structure, ending with ‘ii’, suggesting it is not a word of Anglo-Saxon origin, and in turn connotating exoticism. The historical connotations of the word arise mainly from the sentence in which it appears: ‘Once this place was known only/ to the Sentantii, first of the Sandgrown’. The phrase ‘Once this place’ associates the Sentantii with the past, and being the ‘first of the Sandgrown’ suggests an ancient culture. 3) Do the connotations of this word contribute to, or support the overall meaning of the poem in any way? The historical connotations Sentanii holds contributes to the overall tone of the poem, which is a blend nostalgia and contemplation. The sense of ancient history connoted by the word can also be related to the theme of cultural identity. Remember! Given the connotations of words are emotionally or culturally defined, it is likely your answer will vary. If this is the case, make sure you are able to justify your findings by referring closely to the text.

9. Semantic Fields This is because we view words with related meanings or uses as being in the same ‘field’ We also look at words in terms of their semantic field- sometimes referred to as lexical field Notice these are not words that can necessarily be substituted for one another – the field contains a vocabulary of words with associations to one another wealth poverty shares money deficit bank transaction loan shark

10. mass destruction surgical strike cowardice bravery defend attack war hero war criminal WAR honour weapons victory arms atrocity invade defeat stabilise the area collateral damage civilian deaths Look at this semantic field for ‘war’ – notice how words and phrases can be grouped together by either negative or positive connotations, or depending on cultural view-point

11. Task 2: Semantic Fields This task should help you to recognise words and phrases in texts that share the same semantic field. Look at Siddique’s poem on the next slide, given the title, there is quite obviously a semantic field relating to the sea. You will probably also notice the inclusion of words such as promenade, which can be related to the broader semantic field of the seaside. With this in mind, pick out as many words as possible relating to the seaside. Tip! It may be useful to think of the emotional and cultural associations words have, such as candyfloss, as well as a words physical associations, such as tide.

12. The Sea We have always come here. Always come to where the sky lowers its head and lays its body down. We do the same - come to lay our burdens down, in the air, the sunlight that finds its way each day, the spray and the plume, the hush and the rhythm of the sea. Once this place was only a black pool of water rising through the marshes drunk for its peatiness. Once this place was only known to the Setantii, first of the Sandgrown. Everyone is born somewhere. The black pool in Layton. We come to take the air, become Sandgrown’uns as the town grows. BLACKPOOL - We don not know you we do not see you as we pass through to our pleasures. Anchorsholme, Hoo Hill, Revoe Land of windmills, bread-basket of Northern England. You came in and out with tides - the wakes weeks, become the town, the air, the sand, the pier planks, the promenade, the arteries of roads and pathways, people grown from the sand. No matter who we are, drinker or dancer, candifloss child, pleasure seeker or Sandgrown’un, the sea stops us sometimes. As if our names, the real names we call ourselves are being whispered in the washing back of the waves, in the pull against the beach. Seven small waves then the larger swell, cycling through tide after tide. We each come for our own reasons, it knows who we are. Even here. Amongst the rides and the illuminations, on the estates and in the houses, the pubs and the car parks. We just are who we are. The sea knows how we speak to ourselves. Compare your findings on the next slide

13. pleasure seeker tide candyfloss plume waves pier promenade swell wakes weeks sand Sandgrown spray sea pool Seaside Back

14. Task 2 findings: Semantic Fields Notice how words such as swell, wavesand plumeare physical attributes associated with the seashore, whereas, phrases such as Wakes Weeks and pleasure seeker are culturally defined associations. The semantic field of seaside contributes to the cohesiveness of the poem’s overall structure, although in terms of stylistic analysis, this isn’t particularly illuminating – it only really confirms what we already know from the title. This poem is about ‘The Sea’. Therefore, it is useful to bear in mind a text can contain several different semantic fields, all contributing to meaning in different ways.

15. Task 3: Identifying semantic fields to analyse meaning. This task should help you to understand how words sharing the same semantic field, contribute to the overall meaning of a text. Look again at The Sea on the next slide and have a go at identifying any other patterns of words that may be related in meaning. Tip! Think about the context, audience and purpose of the poem, and any major themes.

16. The Sea We have always come here. Always come to where the sky lowers its head and lays its body down. We do the same - come to lay our burdens down, in the air, the sunlight that finds its way each day, the spray and the plume, the hush and the rhythm of the sea. Once this place was only a black pool of water rising through the marshes drunk for its peatiness. Once this place was only known to the Setantii, first of the Sandgrown. Everyone is born somewhere. The black pool in Layton. We come to take the air, become Sandgrown’uns as the town grows. BLACKPOOL - We don not know you we do not see you as we pass through to our pleasures. Anchorsholme, Hoo Hill, Revoe Land of windmills, bread-basket of Northern England. You came in and out with tides - the wakes weeks, become the town, the air, the sand, the pier planks, the promenade, the arteries of roads and pathways, people grown from the sand. No matter who we are, drinker or dancer, candifloss child, pleasure seeker or Sandgrown’un, the sea stops us sometimes. As if our names, the real names we call ourselves are being whispered in the washing back of the waves, in the pull against the beach. Seven small waves then the larger swell, cycling through tide after tide. We each come for our own reasons, it knows who we are. Even here. Amongst the rides and the illuminations, on the estates and in the houses, the pubs and the car parks. We just are who we are. The sea knows how we speak to ourselves. Compare your findings on the next two slides.

17. In this poem, you may have noticed there is a semantic field relating to ‘identity’ The Sea We have always come here. Always come to where the sky lowers its head and lays its body down. We do the same - come to lay our burdens down, in the air, the sunlight that finds its way each day, the spray and the plume, the hush and the rhythm of the sea. Once this place was only a black pool of water rising through the marshes drunk for its peatiness. Once this place was only known to the Setantii, first of the Sandgrown. Everyoneis born somewhere. The black pool in Layton. We come to take the air, become Sandgrown’uns as the town grows. BLACKPOOL - We don not know you we do not see you as we pass through to our pleasures. Anchorsholme, Hoo Hill, Revoe Land of windmills, bread-basket of Northern England. You came in and out with tides - the wakes weeks, become the town, the air, the sand, the pier planks, the promenade, the arteries of roads and pathways, peoplegrown from the sand. No matter who we are, drinker or dancer, candifloss child, pleasure seeker or Sandgrown’un, the sea stops us sometimes. As if our names, the real names we call ourselves are being whispered in the washing back of the waves, in the pull against the beach. Seven small waves then the larger swell, cycling through tide after tide. We each come for our own reasons, it knows who we are. Even here. Amongst the rides and the illuminations, on the estates and in the houses, the pubs and the car parks. We just are who we are. The sea knows how we speak to ourselves. This is apparent because their are lots of personal pronouns and labels for different people, as well as references to ‘name’ and ‘who we are’ All of these words and phrases relate to a major theme of identity You may have also noticed, even the sky and the sea have been given a human identity.

18. The Sea We have always come here. Always come to where the sky lowers its head and lays its body down. We do the same - come to lay our burdens down, in the air, the sunlight that finds its way each day, the spray and the plume, the hush and the rhythm of the sea. Once this place was only a black pool of water rising through the marshes drunk for its peatiness. Once this place was only known to the Setantii, first of the Sandgrown. Everyone is born somewhere. The black pool in Layton. We come to take the air, become Sandgrown’uns as the town grows. BLACKPOOL - We don not know you we do not see you as we pass through to our pleasures. Anchorsholme, Hoo Hill, Revoe Perhaps you also noticed a semantic field of ‘place’ – lot’s of names of places and references to places people live. Land of windmills, bread-basket of Northern England. You came in and out with tides - the wakes weeks, become the town, the air, the sand, the pier planks, the promenade, the arteries of roads and pathways, people grown from the sand. No matter who we are, drinker or dancer, candifloss child, pleasure seeker or Sandgrown’un, the sea stops us sometimes. As if our names, the real names we call ourselves are being whispered in the washing back of the waves, in the pull against the beach. Seven small waves then the larger swell, cycling through tide after tide. We each come for our own reasons, it knows who we are. Even here. Amongst the rides and the illuminations, on the estates and in the houses, the pubs and the car parks. We just are who we are. The sea knows how we speak to ourselves. This relates to the context, audience and purpose of the poem by resonating by people who are familiar with the ‘place’ the poem is about

19. So, semantic fields are a way of grouping words together in terms of a shared vocabulary, but we are able to group words together in terms of meaning in other ways. Now for the nyms! A hypernym, also known as a superordinate is a word that represents lots of other words, such as ‘flower’: Flower Sunflower Rose Bluebell Daffodil Daisy All the words that come under the word flower: rose, daffodil, bluebell...etc. are known as hyponyms

20. NB: The suffix - onym means name or word The prefix hyper- means above, over The prefix hypo- means below So, As you can see with ‘spider’ in the above example, a word can be a hypernym in one context, and a hyponym in another. But how do writers use hypernyms and hyponyms to their advantage?

21. Well, writers use hyponyms as a way of rephrasing things to avoid repetition, elaborate, build tension or form links between sentences. For example, Siddique has used the hypernym townin The Sea as well as the hyponym Blackpool. Ready for more nyms?

22. More nyms! Synonyms are words that are similar in meaning – ‘cash’, ‘bread’ and ‘capital’ are all synonyms for ‘money’. These are words that can be substituted for one another, and the words we would look up in a thesaurus. CEASE! HALT! Stop Antonyms are words whose meanings are opposite Start

23. Task 4: Synonyms This task should help you to recognise how synonyms are used to contribute to the meaning of texts Look again to Siddique’s poem on the next slide. Apartfrom the word town, can you find any words or phrases in The Sea, which have been used as synonyms for Blackpool? Seek to find out how Siddique’s choices of synonyms for Blackpool can be related to the overall meaning of the text.

24. The Sea We have always come here. Always come to where the sky lowers its head and lays its body down. We do the same - come to lay our burdens down, in the air, the sunlight that finds its way each day, the spray and the plume, the hush and the rhythm of the sea. Once this place was only a black pool of water rising through the marshes drunk for its peatiness. Once this place was only known to the Setantii, first of the Sandgrown. Everyone is born somewhere. The black pool in Layton. We come to take the air, become Sandgrown’uns as the town grows. BLACKPOOL - We don not know you we do not see you as we pass through to our pleasures. Anchorsholme, Hoo Hill, Revoe Land of windmills, bread-basket of Northern England. You came in and out with tides - the wakes weeks, become the town, the air, the sand, the pier planks, the promenade, the arteries of roads and pathways, people grown from the sand. No matter who we are, drinker or dancer, candifloss child, pleasure seeker or Sandgrown’un, the sea stops us sometimes. As if our names, the real names we call ourselves are being whispered in the washing back of the waves, in the pull against the beach. Seven small waves then the larger swell, cycling through tide after tide. We each come for our own reasons, it knows who we are. Even here. Amongst the rides and the illuminations, on the estates and in the houses, the pubs and the car parks. We just are who we are. The sea knows how we speak to ourselves. How can the poet’s choice of synonyms for Blackpool, be related to the overall meaning of the text? Compare findings on the next slide

25. Task 4 findings: Synonyms In stanza two we finds a synonym for Blackpool, ‘Once this place was only a black pool’, this foregrounds the historical and cultural background of the town, as do two other synonymous phrases found in stanza six, ‘Land of windmills, bread-basket of Northern England’. In turn these phrases support the tone of nostalgia. Agree? If your findings differ, can you back them up by making close references to the text?

26. So, now lets look a little further into how meaning is made by looking at figurative language. Literal language is word for word – ‘You are making rapid progress’ Figurative language involves ‘figures of speech’- ‘You are coming on leaps and bounds’

27. Figurative language is the blanket term used to encompass terms and concepts related to comparative language. At its most basic level, when we use figurative language we describe something in terms of something else – we make a comparison. Consider the following: ‘She is as fierce as a shark in business’ ‘She is like a shark in business’ Here, we have direct comparison between something, ‘she’ and something else, ‘shark’. When t a direct comparison, is made between things, usually by including the words, ‘like’ or ‘as’, we call this a simile

28. When we take that comparison one step further to say somethingis something else, we call this a metaphor. ‘She is a business shark’ The metaphor tells us that in her business practice, the subject ‘she’, shares the same qualities as a shark : predatory, fierce, ruthless. Metaphors can be harder to detect than similes as they do not always use the word ‘is’: ‘I jumped into a pool of sharks at that meeting’

29. Another reason metaphors can be difficult to detect is because they are so ingrained in our everyday language. Consider the following statement: ‘I was at a cross-roads in my life, so I decided to take the plunge and pursue a new career, even though I knew financially I would be skating on thin ice for a while ’. All the phrases highlighted in red are metaphors, but they are so familiar to us, we hardly realise we are using them – we no longer have to search for meaning. As such, the above examples are what we term dead metaphors (or you might hear them referred to as clichés). R.I.P METAPHOR

30. Writers try to avoid dead metaphors but instead endeavour to use metaphor to convey meaning in new imaginative ways.

31. Also under the blanket term of figurative language we have idiom. Idioms started out as metaphors, then became dead metaphors or clichés through overuse and eventually became idioms. This is when the original metaphor has gone beyond our realm of experience but has become so embedded in our language, speakers of the same speech community have no problem interpreting meaning: ‘It’s raining cats and dogs’ ‘We had a field day at the clothes sale’ ‘He lost face during the argument’ Can you imagine what a nightmare getting to grips (another one) with idiom learners of English as a second language must have!

32. So, how can our knowledge of figurative language help with our analysis? Earlier on in the topic we looked at the semantic field of identity in The Sea where we discovered the two entities. ‘the sky’ and ‘the sea’ and been personified. This technique is a special kind of metaphor where non-human things are given human attributes. Stanza 1 Stanza 9 We have always come here. Always come to where the sky lowers its head and lays its body down. We do the same... ...The sea knows how we speak to ourselves. This kind of metaphor is known as a personification.

33. Task 5: Personification This task should help you to recognise how figurative language can be used to contribute to the meaning of texts. Refer to Siddique’s poem on the next slide. How has personification of the sea and the sky been used add to the overall meaning?

34. The Sea We have always come here. Always come to where the sky lowers its head and lays its body down. We do the same - come to lay our burdens down, in the air, the sunlight that finds its way each day, the spray and the plume, the hush and the rhythm of the sea. Once this place was only a black pool of water rising through the marshes drunk for its peatiness. Once this place was only known to the Setantii, first of the sandgrown. Everyone is born somewhere. The black pool in Layton. We come to take the air, become Sandgrown’uns as the town grows. BLACKPOOL - We don not know you we do not see you as we pass through to our pleasures. Anchorsholme, Hoo Hill, Revoe Land of windmills, bread-basket of Northern England. You came in and out with tides - the wakes weeks, become the town, the air, the sand, the pier planks, the promenade, the arteries of roads and pathways, people grown from the sand. No matter who we are, drinker or dancer, candifloss child, pleasure seeker or Sandgrown’un, the sea stops us sometimes. As if our names, the real names we call ourselves are being whispered in the washing back of the waves, in the pull against the beach. Seven small waves then the larger swell, cycling through tide after tide. We each come for our own reasons, it knows who we are. Even here. Amongst the rides and the illuminations, on the estates and in the houses, the pubs and the car parks. We just are who we are. The sea knows how we speak to ourselves. How is personification used to add to the overall meaning of the text? Compare your findings on the next slide

35. Task 5 findings: Personification In this case we could say the use of personification in The Sea supports the emerging theme of identity by giving two non-human entities, human attributes. It brings the poem to a close and addresses the identity theme by suggesting that, ‘No matter who we are...The Sea knows how we speak to ourselves’. This in turn adds to the mysteriousness of the sea, and enhances the contemplative tone of the text. Agree? If your findings differ, are you able to back them up by making close references to the text?

36. In addition to figurative language, when we look at the meanings of words we also consider their collocations. Collocations are pairs, or groups of words that we associate together: chips! Fish and... We call these kind of word associations common collocations, although it worth remembering some words have more than one common collocation Left and... right wrong Right and...

37. Task 6: Collocations This task should help you to identify how collocations can be used to add to the meaning of texts. As we discovered earlier, in stanza six of The Sea, one of the synonyms for Blackpool is the phrase, ‘Land of windmills’. Is there anything interesting we could say about this in terms of common collocations? Refer to Siddique’s poem in the following slide.

38. Is there anything interesting we could say about the phrase ‘Land of windmills’ in terms of common collocations? The Sea We have always come here. Always come to where the sky lowers its head and lays its body down. We do the same - come to lay our burdens down, in the air, the sunlight that finds its way each day, the spray and the plume, the hush and the rhythm of the sea. Once this place was only a black pool of water rising through the marshes drunk for its peatiness. Once this place was only known to the Setantii, first of the sandgrown. Everyone is born somewhere. The black pool in Layton. We come to take the air, become Sandgrown’uns as the town grows. BLACKPOOL - We don not know you we do not see you as we pass through to our pleasures. Anchorsholme, Hoo Hill, Revoe Land of windmills, bread-basket of Northern England. You came in and out with tides - the wakes weeks, become the town, the air, the sand, the pier planks, the promenade, the arteries of roads and pathways, people grown from the sand. No matter who we are, drinker or dancer, candifloss child, pleasure seeker or Sandgrown’un, the sea stops us sometimes. As if our names, the real names we call ourselves are being whispered in the washing back of the waves, in the pull against the beach. Seven small waves then the larger swell, cycling through tide after tide. We each come for our own reasons, it knows who we are. Even here. Amongst the rides and the illuminations, on the estates and in the houses, the pubs and the car parks. We just are who we are. The sea knows how we speak to ourselves. Compare your findings on the next slide

39. Task 6 findings: Collocations Although there are lots of common collocations for the first part of the phrase, ‘Land of...’, such as ‘land of nod’, or ‘land of the lost’, this phrase echoes the collocation ‘Land of Hope and Glory’, which is of course a song associated with British patriotism. This is the case because in the next line we find, ‘bread basket/of Northern England’, which conceptually links ‘Land of...’ and ‘England’. In turn this adds to the theme of identity – in this case cultural identity and contributes to the theme of nostalgia. Agree? If your findings differ, can you back them up by making close references to the text?

40. Topic summary So, in this topic we have looked at how meaning is made by exploring the dictionary meaning of words – denotation, and the emotional or cultural associations words carry through connotation. We have looked at semantic fields and how words can be grouped together through a shared vocabulary. We have also looked at how words can be categorised as hypernyms which are words that can stand for lots of other words, such as ‘flower’, or words that come under these words known as hyponyms, such as ‘daffodil’. We then went on to examine synonyms which are words that can be substituted for one another – the words we might find in a thesaurus. We now know that antonyms are words that mean the opposite of each other.

41. Topic summary continued... Finally in this topic we have looked at meaning through figurative language, such as, simile, metaphor and personification, where we describe one thing in terms of another, and discussed dead metaphors which eventually become idioms. Our last consideration was collocation, another form of word association. Now you are ready to look at the next resource in the series: