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Graduation thesis Vinh university department of foreign language ----------------- Nguyễn Thị Hậu Connotative meaning in samuel taylor coleridge's poem: The Rime Of the Ancient Mariner (Nghĩa biểu cảm trong bài thơ The rime of the ancient mariner của tác giả Samuel Taylor Coleridge) Graduation thesis Field: Literature Vinh, May-2007 Nguyễn Thị Hậu-44B2 1 Graduation thesis Vinh university department of foreign language ----------------- Connotative meaning in samuel taylor coleridge's poem: The Rime Of the Ancient Mariner (Nghĩa biểu cảm trong bài thơ The rime of the ancient mariner của tác giả Samuel Taylor Coleridge) Graduation thesis Field: Literature Student: Nguyễn Thị Hậu Class: 44B2 English Supervisor: Phan Vân Hơng Vinh, May-2007 Nguyễn Thị Hậu-44B2 2 Graduation thesis Acknowledgements First of all, I would like to thank the Directorial Board of the Foreign Language Department that awarded me the opportunity to do this thesis. I would like to express my deep gratitude and faithful thanks to Mrs Phan Vân Hơng-my supervisor who helped me and supported me enthusiastically during my writing. My sincere thanks also go to Mr. Trần Ngọc Tởng, M.A for his comprehensive lessons on English literature and his valuable suggestions concerning my study. I would like to express my indebtedness to all the teachers of Foreign Language Department for giving me useful lessons during the time I study here. I am also very grateful to my family and classmates for their help and encouragement during the process of writing this thesis. Vinh, May-2007 Nguyễn thị hậu Nguyễn Thị Hậu-44B2 3 Graduation thesis Table of contents Page s Acknowledgements Table of contents Part a. introduction 1. Rationale 2. Aims of the study 3. Scope of the study 4. Methods of the study 5. Design of the study Part b. Contents Chapter I. Theoretical Background 1.1. Word and meaning 1.1.1. Definitions of word 1.1.2. Definitions of meaning 1.2. Word meaning 1.2.1. Lexical and grammartical meaning 1.2.2. Denotation and Connotation Chapter II. English Literature in 19th century 2.1. Historical background 2.1.1. The American Revolution 2.1.2. The French Revolution 2.1.3. The "Holy Alliance" 2.1.4. Industrial Revolution 2.2. Features of English literature in 19th century 2.2.1. Meanings of "Romanticism" 2.2.2. Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poetry NguyÔn ThÞ HËu-44B2 4 Graduation thesis Chapter III. Connotative meaning in Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner 3.1. A brief introduction to the poem 3.1.1. Characters 3.1.2. Short summary 3.2. Major themes 3.2.1. The natural world 3.2.2. The religion 3.3. Connotative meaning in the poem 3.3.1. Connotative meaning of natural symbols 3.3.2. Connotative meaning of religious symbols Part C. Conclusion 1. Summary of the study 2. Suggessions for further studies References Appendix NguyÔn ThÞ HËu-44B2 5 Graduation thesis Part a: Introduction 1. Rationale As we know, English is used the most widely over the world. As a result, many students seek more chances to access this international language. For the purpose of communication, the English vocabulary is always one of the main concerns of learners as it is considered the first condition to understand other aspects of English language. The English language has a huge store of words that presents in many forms both in written and also spoken ones, for example: books, newspapers, magazines .or daily conversation. There are many researchers, many linguists studying about English words such as: Arnold, Lyrons, Palmer and some Vietnamese authors as Hoµng TÊt Trêng, NguyÔn Hoµ .They discuss various issues concerning words and word meaning such as definitions, word formation, denotation and connotation. However, English words and their meanings in literature are not easy to analyze and understand at all. Furthermore, as a student of English, I find that students of English mainly focus on the English grammar or the theory related to the English words without paying attention to how words are used and their meanings are conveyed. Therefore, the chance for a profound comprehension of a poem is limited and Vietnamese students encounter many difficulties in fully understanding a literary work. What is more, while studying literature, I was attracted by the poem The rime of the ancient mariner written in the 19th century by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. For all the above-mentioned reasons, we find it useful to apply theoretical issues about the English word to interpret a specific literary work. NguyÔn ThÞ HËu-44B2 1 Graduation thesis Thus, we decide to carry out the study entitled: "Connotative meaning in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner". I hope the study can partly help students of English understand more about the content of the poem, especially the non-literal meanings of words used in the poem. The poem has seven parts but due to the small scale of the study, we only deal with some typical examples of connotative meaning of words emerging in some parts of the poem. 2. Aims of the study The study aims to: - To study the features of English literature in the 19th century. - To give an example of how theoretical knowledge of words can be useful to the study of English. - To show how words are used in The rime of the ancient mariner with their non-literal meanings so as to achieve a better understanding of the poem. - To raise an awareness of the importance of non-literal meaning of words used in communication. 3. Scope of the study It is impossible to study connotative meaning of all the words used in the poem. Within the scope of a graduation paper, we focus only on connotative meaning of words denoting certain natural and religious symbols emerging in the poem. 4. Methods of the study - Consulting my supervisor and teachers for instructions and advices. - Searching and studying reference documents related to the graduation thesis to set up a theoretical backgound for the study. NguyÔn ThÞ HËu-44B2 2 Graduation thesis - Studying historical background of the poem and discussing effects of major historical events on the poem. - Studying the poem to identify symbols and images to be analysed in the study. - Consulting and choose good ideas that are useful for the study. - Using analytic method to describe and explain the use of symbols and images in the poem. - Qualitative method is employed to analyze connotative meaning of words denoting certain symbols and images emerging in the poem. 5. Design of the study Part A: Introduction 1. Rationale 2. Aims of the study 3. Scope of the study 4. Methods of the study 5. Design of the study Part B: Contents Chapter I: Theoretical Background Chapter II: English literature in the 19th century Chapter III: Connotative meaning in Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Part C: Conclusion 1. Summary of the study 2. Suggessions for further studies References Appendix NguyÔn ThÞ HËu-44B2 3 Graduation thesis Part b: contents Chapter I: Theoretical background 1.1 Word and Meaning 1.1.1 Definitions of word Word is a familiar term in linguistics. However, it is not easy at all to define exactly what a word is. There are many different definitions of word proposed by famous linguists. The word is one of the basic units of language consisting of both form and content. According to Arnold (1986: 28), the word is considered to be "composed of one or more morphemes, each consisting of one or more spoken sounds or their written representations". He gives further explanation that morphemes are meaningful units combining within words. Different from words that can be used as a complete utterance, these parts of words can not be used independently. Following the definition, a new word is formed when an affix is added. For example, play and player are two different words. The element "-er" is a meaningful unit but can not be used in isolation whereas the word player can be. As Bloomfield (1933: 178, quoted in Jackson and Amveia), a word is a "minimal free form". The word has meaning and can occur in isolation. However, the word is not divided into smaller elements which can occur alone and also have meaning. According to Bloomfield, there are two forms of words: free and bound forms. For example, the words table and people stay alone so they are free whereas the words teacher and running are bound form. In the grammatical approach, the word is defined in terms of two criteria "positional mobility" and "uninterruptability" (Arnold, 1986: 29). NguyÔn ThÞ HËu-44B2 4 Graduation thesis By "positional mobility" is meant that the order of words in the sentence may be changed. For example, in the following sentence: She said every thing naturally There are several ways of reordering the words without removing or disrupting any morphemes: Naturally she said every thing Or: She said naturally every thing The criterion "uninterruptability" refers to the stability of the component morphemes within words. It is explained that the order of the smaller elements remains consistent and no element can be added. For example, the word impossibility has three morphemes "im-; possible; -ity" with a rigid combination. Thus, these elements can not be reordered into "possibilityim" or "imbilytypossible". Lyons (1969: 203, quoted in Arnold, 1986: 29) summarizes that "one of the characteristics of the word is that it tends to be internally stable (in terms of the order of the component morphemes) but possitionally mobile (permutable with other words in the same sentence)" In the semantic point of view, Stephen Ullmann (1957: 30) states that words "will fall into a certain number of meaningful segments which are ultimately composed of meaningful units". (quoted in Arnold, 1986: 29) Words are also considered in terms of orthography. As Palmer (cited in Hoµng TÊt Trêng, 1993:11), 'a word is marked if not by "spaces" or "pauses", at least by some features of the sound system of the language'. According to the definition, a word is, in writing, often regarded as an item bounded by spaces. However, the definition is not easy enough to realize what the word is. For example, in some cases, especially rapidly spoken English, we often meet difficulties in realizing word because we sometimes can hardly find stress and juncture. Hoµng TÊt Trêng (1993, p.11) gives an example: We might say "watcha gone do" for what in writing would appear NguyÔn ThÞ HËu-44B2 5