STUDY OF LINGUISTIC MEANING

IntroductionTo

Semantics

What is semantics?

Semantics is the study of meaning. It is a wide subject within the general study of language.

(how language users acquire a sense of meaning, as speakers and writers, listeners and readers) and of language change (how meanings alter over time .

Symbol and referent

Conceptions of meaning

Words and lexemes

Denotation, connotation, implication

Pragmatics

Ambiguity

Metaphor, simile and symbol

Semantic fields

Synonym, antonym and hyponym

The study of semantics includes the study of how meaning is constructed, interpreted,

clarified, obscured, illustrated, simplified negotiated, contradicted and paraphrased.

Collocation, fixed expression and idiom

Semantic change and etymology

Polysemy

Homonymy, homophones and homographs

Lexicology and lexicography

Thesauruses, libraries and Web portals

Epistemology

This is usually a single word, but may be a phrase in which the meaning belongs to the whole rather than its parts, as in verb phrases tune in, turn on, drop out or noun phrase (a) cock up.

Referential or denotative meaning

Referential meaning is primary while connotative meaning is secondary.

Theory of meaning, based on the first, is the theory of abstraction or referential theory, also called the theory of signification.

This theory recognises the following three components of meaning:-

(1) the sound form or the linguistic sign,(2) the concept underlying the form, and(3) the actual referent, that part of the extra linguistic world

Connotative meaning is the communicative value which an expression has by virtue of whatit refers to.

EXP:

1. kill, murder, assassinate,

2. eat, partake, peck, wolf, devour,

3. Hindi marnaa, svargavaasii honaa, eN bolnaa,

4. khaanaa, liilnaa, bhakosnaa,

5. Bengali svaamii, bhaataar.

In the above sets of the words, we find that all the words of each set have some common semantic features, which give their basic or denotative meaning.

It is colorless and neutral. kill means simply causing death, whereas in murder there are some additional or supplementary features which determine its meaning.

In the same way partake, peck, wolf, devour have some additional features. These additional features add some extra meaning to the basic denotative meanings.

These features are called connotation and the meanings based on them the connotative meaning or connotation component of meaning.

We are connotations added to words? when a speaker feels that the denotation meaning would not be enough to produce some desired additional effects like irony, joke, humor, euphemism and respect etc. he adds connotations to the words.

The connotation component of meaning related to the emotive or expressive notion of the speaker or to stylistic values.

Introduced into the language by individuals.

Become socialized and become the part of the language.

Originating with figurative extensions they are gradually transferred and are stabilized in the language.

We may take the Oriya word maharii used for female attendants in temples. Originally meaning 'the female member of Mahar Caste' and the 'female servant of the god' the word now means something like a 'keep' .

Stylistic differences also come under connotations.

When we compare the word pitaa 'father' paapaa

we find that the former is stylistically neutral, whereas the latter is colloquial.

A similar distinction can be made between friend and chum. The connotations include the following variations of language

Slangs, professionalisms, jargonisms, vulgarisms, dialectal words, neologisms, formal, peotic, baby language etc.

The connotative meaning is vary significant for a lexicographer.

When he analyses the semantic structure of individual lexical units, especially the polysemous ones, he has to distinguish between the denotative and connotative meanings for fixing the arrangement of meanings.

SENTENCE INTERPRETATION TYPE OF MEANING

John kicked the bucket.

John hit the bucket with his leg.

Compositional Meaning

John died.(idiomaic meaning)

Non-Compositional Meaning

The sentence pabucu dama atıldı includes such an example in Turkish.We know it includes the meaning ‘He has fallen out of favor’ but not the origin of thatmeaning.

SENTENCE INTERPRETATION TYPE OF MEANING

Pabucu dama atıldı.

His shoes were thrown outonto his shop roof.

Compositional Meaning

He is forbidden to work in shoe business.

Original Meaning

He has fallen out of favor.(idiomatic meaning)

Non-Compositional Meaning

Collocational Meaning

You shall know a word by the company it keeps.

Idiomatic meaning for a Turkish idiom

1. Buxom lass attractive woman

2. Blond hair fair (yellow)hair

3. Cascading water wave-like dropping of water

4. Glooomy weather depressing weather

5. Vested interest secure possession

6. Fancy dress unusual costume

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What do all these phrases have in common?

The obvious answer is that they are used in combination or

arrangement pretty frequently.

There is a saying in Turkish:’ Leb demeden, leblebiyi anlamak’. Now ,let us take a test:when

someone begins with the Turkish word zifiri…,can you predict the next word?Yes, it is

karanlık qualifies for a true collocation.

DIFFERENCES IN COLLOCATIONS

ENGLISH TURKISH

DRINK

water water

soup soup

x cigarette

x oath

DREAM

İnterpret(a dream)

İnterpret(a dream)

I had a dream aboutyou.

I saw you in mydream.

As the study of meaning of the linguistics expressions,semantics is conveniently divided into two:

Sentential Semantics

Lexical Semantics

SEMANTICS

SENTENTIAL SEMANTICSMeaning Inclusion Entailment

Meaning Equation Ambiguity

paraphrase

Inconsistency Contradiction

Meaning Inclusion Hyphonymy

LEXICALSEMANTICS

MeaningRelations

polysemy

Meaning Extension Metonymy

Metaphor

Meaning Equation Synonymy

Ambiguity

Lexical Relations Inconsistency Antonymy

Anomaly

Paraphrasing

Entailment

Ambiguity and

contradiction

Paraphrasing at the sentence level is much more complicated.Thecommonest ones in structural change include:

Active-passive transformation

Inversion

It-clefts

Wh-clefts

Non-referential’there’

Fronting

Paraphrased

Paraphrase

Entailed

Utterance

Paraphrase and entailment

Entyailment refers to the recognition of the shared,presupposed knowledge.AllUtterances are based on certain entailments.

ACTUAL UTTERANCE ENTAILED KNOWLEDGE

How’s school going? I know you study at a school.

Did you quit smoking? I know you were smoking

I’m not going to speak of mypolitical opponent’s blunders.

My political opponent has blunders.

Existence of ‘ambiguity’ in natural languages.

They hated the shooting of thehunters.

‘They hated the hunters who didthe shooting’

‘They hated the fact that thehunters were shot.’

Lexical semantics

Studies meaning of words

Divided into two:Meaning Relations and Lexical Relations

Meaning Relations is about the interaction of meanings within and across lexical itemsin the vocab.

Meaning Inclusion

Meaning Extension

Meaning Equation

Meaning Inclusion:Polysemy,Entailment and Hyphonmy.

Polysemy and Homonymy

1. Directly related with metaphor

2. Common in languages

3. Multiple related meanings on the basis of analogy,similarity

Polysemy

Head (n) a)’Part of human body’b)’President of an institution’c)’Go’(v) where are you heading?

It involves two or more lexical items

Having same shape either in the form of pronunciation or spelling

Club(n) a)Society of persons

b)Heavy stick,baton

c)A kind of playing card

A:Do you believe in clubs for young people?

B:Only when kindness fails,my friend!

Have the same pronunciation but different spelling.

Threw/through /θru:/

I/eye /aı/

Homographs

Have the same spelling but different pronunciation.Compare:

Wind in the sense of blowing./wınd/

Wind in the sense of bendind./waınd/

The meaning of one includes the meaning of the other word.

The word that includes is called a ‘superordinate’ while the one that is included in themeaning of the superordinate is called a ‘hyponym’.

SUPERORDINATE SPEAK

Hyponyms Shout,tell,say,utter,pronounce,murmur,mutter,whisper,grumple,mumble

SUPERORDINATE WRITE

Hyponyms Inscribe,red,pink,orange,green,yellow,blue,purple,white.

SUPERORDINATE COLOR

Hyponyms Black,red,pink,orange,yellow,blue,purple,white.

Metaphor

It ıncludes two major subsections:metaphor and metonymy.

The sole purpose of linguistic communaication (metaphor)

Express the word in a creative way that based on perceptual,functional or physicalresemblances.

It is a semantic relationship that holds between two words in terms of partwhole,content-container,symbol-represented.connections.

Can you light up the stove?

What is to be lit is not the stove,but the contents of the stove.

Meaning Equation

Synonymy

Extremely useful tool for people not to sound too repetitive as well as to be understoodwhen the listener is not familiar with the word.

To consist of

To comprise

To be composed of

FREEDOM LIBERTY STATUS

Freedom of speech Liberty of speech Synonymous

*Civil freedoms Civil liberties Not synonymous

*At freedom At liberty Not synonymous

CAR AUTOMOBILE STATUS

Car mechanic *Automobile mechanic Not synonymous

Car wash *Automobile wash Not synonymous

Car show Automobile show Synonymous

Synonymy through collocations ‘Car’

A word,phrase or sentence that has more than one meaning is said to be ‘ambiguous’.

Where are the glasses? (‘seeing glasses’ vs. window glasses’)

Inconsistency

Antonymy

A relationship of oppositeness

Richxpoor

What’s odd in the following?

My cat wishes to study linguistics for a change.

COMPONENTIAL ANALYSIS

EXAMPLES HUMAN ADULT

Study (+) (+)

Cat (-) (+)

BURCU KESİKOĞLU100908016

SİNAN DERİNOĞLU 100908033