詞句意義的延伸變化不受指稱的限制，超越了其指稱場界。我們來考察兩個句子：

(1) 她這一變心，弄得家不像個家了。

(2) A thief is a thief.

第（1）句中的第二個“家”的涵義已經(jīng)不同于第一個“家”字，第二個“家”具有溫暖、和睦等等感情意義，而第一個家僅指家庭這個有名無實的實體，也就是它的概念意義。同樣第（2）句中的第二個thief的含義已經(jīng)不同于第一個thief。第二個thief 具有偷竊成性，難以從良的涵義。這類主要由言者表示態(tài)度、觀感或價值觀(attitudes,feelings or values)，從而使概念意義得以充實、延伸、附加或特殊著色的意義，語義學上稱為內(nèi)涵意義或含蓄意義(connotative meaning)，與所指意義或外延意義(denotative meaning)對應。內(nèi)涵意義其所以比指稱寬泛，是因為在語言交流中這個詞義增加了“交流價值”(communicative value)，增加了為其指稱所不能涵蓋的“推斷性質(zhì)”(putative properties)?！叭玺~得水”中的“水”具正面價值，而“血濃于水”中

的“水”則具負面價值。里奇（G. Leech）在說明這一點時寫道：

More of what is distinctive about conceptual meaning will appear when we contrast it with connotative meaning. Connotative meaning is the communicative value, an expression has by virtue of what it refers to, over and above its purely conceptual meaning. Still further, connotative meaning can embrace the“putative properties”of the referent, due to the viewpoint adopted by an individual, or a group of people or a

whole society.

內(nèi)涵意義主要發(fā)揮人際言語交流中的感應、感召作用：

Connotative meaning reflect the valuing process of interpretation. As people respond to and talk about things, they evaluate, People like things or don't like them, think something is good or not. These feeling (valuing) responses provide the connotative meanings. Indeed, this valuing process may provide the most important meanings we attach to words, and we have negative or positive reactions to most words. Very often children acquire these connotative meanings before they develop denotative meanings for the same words. Connotative meanings are thus more basic, more deeply rooted, and more likely than denotations to determine how we respond to words.

可見，內(nèi)涵意義充分說明了意義的人文性，意義的此岸性，因為它總是與我們正在談論的“真實世界”(real world)相連，而又“若即若離”。任何人都無法窮盡某一個詞的全部內(nèi)涵意義，它的隨機性和開放性使這個詞的所指意義千變?nèi)f化。歌德有句名言，“理論是灰黯的，生命之樹則是碧綠的”，句中兩個色彩詞都飽含內(nèi)涵意義，究竟蘊含什么意義那就見仁見智了。“一樹黃梅個個青”一句中含有一個悖理：“黃梅”怎么會“青”呢？答案就在connotation 里了！

超指稱的意義系統(tǒng)中還有多種意義是我們必須把握的。

責任編輯：admin