Week 19 1. Find the differences between lexical n structural meaning.

English Writing: Lexical vs Structural Meaning Word English writing is an activity of writing something in English structure. This can be a passage, a story, a poem or a personal diary. When we write a sentence in English, as a second language, that will be hard to do. Writing activities needs more energy instead of speaking. In speaking, we just know everything in mind and express it orally which can be listened to someone else or listeners. In writing, we also meet readers and check if we write well or not.

Learning English grammar which is full of rules and formula, sometimes, takes a lot of time to understand because of varieties found in grammar lessons. In Grammar, we will find 16 tenses, verb-patterns, parts of speech, regular or irregular words, figure of speech and many things. This, sometimes, makes us bored and tired.

In this opportunity, I would like to invite you to discuss English Writing in concerning to lexical meaning word and structural meaning word. Actually, this discussion had been done in the previous lessons. But I think it is good to repeat again and to encertain whether we have understood this lesson or not. To understand English writing or written English, we need to know two main things:

1. Lexical meaning word 2. Structural meaning word

Lexical meaning word This word can be a verb, a noun, an adjective, etc. Lexical is derived from lexicon which has the same meaning with dictionary or something related to dictionary (Herman, 2009). On the other hand, lexical meaning word is a word or more which has a clear or certain meaning when we look up or find it in a dictionary.

For example: book, go, write, help, hard, beautiful, change, leave, tell, house, a cat, well, etc.

When we classify, the lexical meaning word will be found in; 1. noun 2. verb 3. adverb 4.adjective 5. pronoun

Besides, Lexical meaning word can stand alone and has its own meaning (lexicon) and clear for everyone.

Structural Meaning Word Structural meaning word is a word or more which does not have a certain meaning in the dictionary. This can be a "be", auxilliary. preposition, conjunction,etc In this following terms are some structural meaning word:

1, Preposition 2. Conjunction 3. Interjection 4. articles (a, an and the)

Those words above can not stand alone. For example:

I cut the paper. I am cut the paper.

The be - /am/ - is the structural meaning word. here, the be /am/ can not stand one without other elements. The two sentences above is different in meaning.

I cut the paper. /I/ is the doer and /paper/ is the object/

2. Define and give example of figurative expression In traditional analysis, words in figurative expressions connote additional layers of meaning, while words in literal expressions denote what they mean according to common or dictionary usage. When the human ear or eye receives the message, the mind must interpret the data to convert it into meaning.

What are Figuratives? On many occassions, the words may not convey the literal meaning of them. They may convey the indirect meanings which may be just the opposite to their literal meanings. Such symbolical and metaphorical meanings are called Figuratives. They contain the figure of speech.

Let us see few hundreds of such Figuratives here.The Figuratives have been arranged in the alphabetical order. Go to the list by clicking that particular page.

Let us see few examples of Figurative Expression to make the point clear.

Example-1:

The Phrase Yellow Press does not give the literal meaning that the press which is in Yellow color.On the contrary, it conveys the meaning of The News Papers which publish sensational and unscrupulous stories about crime, sex etc...

Example-2: The Phrase In the same boat does not convey the literal meaning. It has the figurative meaning that in the same misfortune or circumstances.

Here is the list of Figurative Expressions beginning with D.

Dagger:

To be at daggers drawn to be deadly enemies Damocles:

To have the sword of Damocles hanging over ones head to be in imminent danger of losing ones life; to live in constant fear of some impending danger Dare:

A dare-devil a fearless, reckless man

Day:

He has seen better days He was once prosperous

Evil days a period of misfortune To gain or win the day to be victorious Halcyon days a time when there is peace and happiness in the land

Dead:

Dead beat quite exhausted Dead broke penniless To run dead heat a race in which the contestants came in together A dead letter something which no longer exists To step into dead mens shoes to come into an inheritance, to succeed someone who died?

Devil:

To give the devil his due give a person credit for his good qualities however worthless he may be

Go to the devil Be off Devils playthings playing cards

Devils bones dice To be between the devil and the deep sea to be faced with two dangerous situations, each of which is to be dreaded as much as the other

Dilemma:

To be on the horns of a dilemma to be in such a position that it is difficult to decide what to do Like all languages, English is sometimes factual and easy to understand. However, it can also be used in creative and imaginative ways that are often difficult to translate and understand. Sometimes these creative uses of English (or any language) occur in fixed (unchanging) expressions. One very common fixed figurative expression in English is the "formula" as ___ as a(n) ___ . Variations on this "formula" are often heard in conversation. (They're used only in informal writing.) Here are some examples, comments on their meaning, and examples of how they might be used: as _____ as a(n) _____ (#1) as big as a barn: very big (usually used in a negative way to describe a person who is very fat). X has really gained a lot of weight lately. She's as big as a barn. as cool as a cucumber: very calm--especially in situations in which others would be very nervous . Most people were really nervous when they began their speeches, but Chuck wasn't. He was as cool as a cucumber.

as clumsy as a bull in a china shop: very clumsy; totally without grace; very uncoordinated. (Describes someone who is so clumsy that he or she is likely to break things unintentionally). Don't use your best crystal when Elsie comes for dinner. She's as clumsy as a bull in a china shop and would probably drop something and break it.

as cunning as a fox: "Cunning," here, means clever at deceiving others. Yes, the supervisor is very pleased with the new clerk's performance and says he's a superior worker. Personally, I think the new clerk has fooled the supervisor and isn't as clever as the supervisor thinks. I'd say the new clerk is as cunning as a fox.

as crazy as a loon: crazy; unpredictable; displaying irrational or unbelievable speech or behavior. Don't believe everything that Dr. Phelps tells you. He's brilliant, but he's also as crazy as a loon. Many of his ideas are just fantasies.

as dead as a door nail: completely dead. (Can be used for objects as well as formerlyliving things. There's definitely something wrong with the phone. When I pick up the receiver, I hear nothing. There's no dial tone. It's as dead as a door nail.