LING 304SEMANTICS

YANBU UNIVERSITY COLLEGEAPPLIED LINGUISTICS DEPARTMENT

FIRST SEMESTER-131Prepared by : Ms. Sahar Deknash

Linguistics and Semantics

Semantics is defined as one branch of theoretical linguistics ( pure

linguistics) that studies the linguistic meaning ( lexical meaning) of

words, phrases and sentences. When we study the meaning of words,

we usually concentrate on the denotative ( literal ) meaning more than

the connotative meaning. Lexical Semantics is concerned with the

meaning of morphemes and words; Compositional Semantics is

concerned with the meaning of phrases and sentences.

Semantics deals usually with the philosophical, psychological, linguistics and social aspects of the words, phrase and sentences. It studies the relationship between the form and the meaning.

Varieties of Meaning

So far, meaning is a very complicated matter and there is no exact theory about how languages determine meaning.

1. Denotative ( referential, literal, conceptual, linguistic) meaning:

It refers to the basic meaning of a word that can be obtained from the dictionary that is common to all native speakers of a language. It is actually what the word refers to or signifies.

The word needle is defined as a sharp, thin metal tool.

Connotative ( figurative, expressive, associative, social) meaning:

It refers to the figurative use of the meaning of a word that can be

common between people or specific to an individual according to his

personal experience with the assigned word. Some words have

positive or negative connotation. It refers to the personal and

psychological attachment of the person toward that word.

The word needle is associated with meanings like: blood, pain, drug and hard to find.

The associative meaning of an expression has to do with individual mental understandings of the speaker.

Relative Meaning (subjective)- It is a group of words found in most languages which are relative in meaning.- The denotative meaning of each word differs from one person to

another. They usually refer to [ distance/weight/size/number]- They can be adjectives: tall/short

easy/difficult

light/heavy small/large Nouns: shortness/length Adverbs: slowly/quickly Verbs: shorten/ lengthen

Collocative meaning:It describes words regularly appear together in common use with certain contexts.

Thematic meaning:It concerns itself with how the order of words spoken affect the meaning that is entailed.

Speaker meaning and sentence ( word) meaning:It is possible for a speaker to convey a quite intelligible intention by

using a sentence whose literal meaning is contradictory or nonsensical.

To account for this, it is necessary to analyze it at two levels:

• To show what is wrong with such sentences.

• Why it can’t be literally true.

THANK YOU

PREPARE UNIT TWO

SENTENCES, UTTERANCES AND PROPOSITIONS