Emblems and Artefacts Communicate Specific Meaning

These are gestures that have specific agreed-on meaning. These differ from the signs language employed by those with hearing difficulties. Examples include a raised thumb, the ‘OK’ sign with thumb and index finger joined together to form a circle (Mavridis, 2015).

These are objects and images used to communicate specific information. For example, an avatar can be used on social media to represent an identity. Uniforms are also provided more details about one’s identity.

The space distance between individuals and objects can show whether the association is formal or social or their social rank. For example, the best corner office or desk is left for the executive.

Symbols such as gold, jewellery, cars, clothing and other valuables are used to communicate the social status, financial strength,  influence and religion in the society.

This is communication through touch. Depending on the sex and position of the touch, one can communicate affection, familiarity, sympathy among others. Women tend to use touch to communicate care and concern whereas men mostly use it to convey control.

Handicapped /crippled

Attractive/ pretty

House/ Residence

Childlike/childish

Skinny/slender

Compositional phrases

Blackboard

Stomach pain

Bread flour

Rabbit foot

Lake fish

 Non – compositional phrases

Real estate

Face value

Shooting pain

Greenhouse

Bluebird

(Hashimoto & Tsuruoka, 2016).

Goodbye

Yes,

This word Describes a situation of departing or separation. It can be an emotional separation or joyous one. For instance, travelling far away and leaving the loved ones or a lady is getting married and bidding the parents. 

Yes. This is food made from unleavened dough of durum mixed with what floor or eggs then cooked by boiling or baking. The food is high in carbohydrate and thus is taken any time except during evening. So the meaning of the meal describes daytime when it should be taken. 

The word ‘that’ can be used to describe a situation or object that is not near or a situation that is past. It can also be used to describe singular or plural. 

The word ‘us’ denotes plurality and can imply a situation where there is unity or agreement among people upon a certain point. 

The word can be used to describe the existence of a pathway with or without a door at the entrance or just a door itself. Alternatively, It can be used to describe an opening or freeway.

1. Effective for illiterate people. The pictures in the dictionary can convey meaning even to the ignorant
2. Easy explanation. Pictorial representation makes interpretations and meanings easier
3. Saves time. Written and oral communication takes a lot of time to exchange information as opposed to pictures that can contain compressed information
4. Pictures stick to the memory so is the information that comes with it.

1. Complex presentation. Sometimes the use of pictures to present information becomes complex, and the receivers may not comprehend the meaning portrayed by the pictures.
2. Time wastage. Sometimes the use of pictures to portray given ideas can take a lot of time compared to oral communication where it can just be spoken at once.

Birch – can be portrayed pictorially by using a person being caned with a bundle of twigs.

To stab – use of a picture of a person thrusting a knife into someone’s body and presence of blood.

Pink – little girls can be used to portray the romantic and cute scenario that the colour represents

Sad- an individual with his/her head bent to curled knees and with a background that is dull

River- use of a picture with a river flowing with rugged banks and a sky that is either blue or dark – use of a picture with black colour and some little light from the moon in the sky

Semantic Relationships of Words with Different Connotations

Above- use of a flying eagle and blue sky or a kite

Meadow – use of picture with grassland or with some blossomed flowers and the sun rising at the horizon.

Cell phone- use of a picture of a phone or an individual on-call using the cellphone

Cautious- use of a triangularly shaped picture with an exclamation mark at the centre

Awful – use of a picture with an unordinary event or action

Intonation

Can be used to express feelings and emphasise and whether the sentence has come to an end.

High or low speech volume can be used to express excitement, emotional involvement or to create interest. A raised speech volume can be used to add emphasis.

Speaking rate can be high, medium or low and all can be used to portray meaning. A high rate of speech speed may give the listener an impression of limited time or quick thinking; average rate may imply the listener is expected to understand and follow after, whereas slow speaking may mean the listener is slow of thought, incompetent or uneducated.

Sentence length can be long or short to portray a detailed explanation for purposes of comprehension whereas a short phrase may imply simplicity of idea being communicated.

The choice of language can convey a different meaning. An appropriate language brings out the meaning of words. The choice of language can also portray the type of audience and the situation as well.

The choice of the font has to mean. For instance, in a formal setting, times new roman is usually used whereas in a casual environment other fonts which appear casual are used. The expected audience and way of delivery can also determine the choice of font. For instance, clear fonts are supposed to be used for PowerPoint presentations as opposed to those used in documents.

Toothpaste – is made up of two nouns tooth and paste but when joined they form a word which means it is a paste for the teeth.

Bedroom – is made up of two nouns which have right meanings separately but when combined they form one word which means it’s a room where the bed is located

Swimming pool- is made up of a verb and a noun. The verb tells more of the noun. For instance, it shows that it is a pool meant for swimming and nothing else

Driving licence – is made up of a verb and a noun where the verb provides more information to the noun. That is, it tells that the type of license is a driving one.

Greenhouse – is made up of an adjective and a noun where the adjective provides additional information to the noun. For example, green tells us more about the type of the house that it is for agricultural purposes.

Limitations

The GD definition produces a multiplicity of meaning from a single word.

Example: a square can be taken to mean a rectangle or a rhombus

Under the GD definition, two different objects or nouns can have the same meaning which can be misleading.

For example, a triangle is defined as a plane figure comprising of 3 straight sides that are connected, whereas a quadrilateral is equally a plane figure with four straight sides that are connected.

Some definitions can be expressed as a single genus and two differentiae.

For example, both the triangle and a quadrilateral have a single genus called a plane figure.

Both the triangle and quadrilateral have two differentiae of three and four straight connected sides respectively.

1. a) Person deixis

I am going to the market to get some fresh vegetable for dinner.

You should be dressing up for the concert before it starts to rain.

1. b) Temporal deixis

It is so unfortunate that I have stayed with your novel for so long, but be sure to get it before the end of next week.

They arrived here for the checkup very late; they have to book for another appoint tomorrow

1. c) Discourse deixis

That was a challenging examination.

This is a hardworking student.

“Watch out Dwaine! You are driving off the road.” – Implies that if Dwaine is not careful, he is getting out of the road.

“Marie, you got that right? Don’t leave the house until I am back.” – meaning that Marie should remain in the house until her sister is back.

“Have a seat and let us have lunch, shall we?” – He is already welcomed to join in having lunch together

“Don’t worry, you will make there, you only need to put in a little more effort” – encouraging that all is possible at the end.

“You are not bringing those dirty tins to the house, are you?”- The dirty tins are not permitted in the house

References

Hashimoto, K., & Tsuruoka, Y. (2016). Adaptive joint learning of compositional and non- compositional phrase embeddings. arXiv preprint arXiv:1603.06067.

Mavridis, N. (2015). A review of verbal and non-verbal human–robot interactive communication. Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 63, 22-35.