Unit FiveUnit Five Semantics, Study of MeaningSemantics, Study of Meaning

5.1. What is semantics?

5.2. Some views concerning the study of meaning

5.3. Lexical meaning

5.4. Sense relations between sentences

5.5. Analysis of meaning

5.1. What is semantics5.1. What is semantics

Semantics is the study of meaning. Meaning is central to the study of communication Linguistic-philosophy, the study of relations

between linguistic expressions and what they refer to in the real world and the truth value of linguistic expressions.

Linguistic-psychology, the study of the workings of the mind through language.

Semantics, the study of meaning from linguistic point of view.

5.2. Some Views Concerning t5.2. Some Views Concerning the Study of Meaning he Study of Meaning (1)(1)

5.2.1. The naming theory, proposed by Plato --- ancient Greek scholar.

a) The linguistic forms / symbols or the words used in a language are simply labels of the objects they stand for.therefore, words are just names or labels for things.

b) This theory is imperfect, obviously. It is only applicable to physical objects, but not to abstract notions such as dragon, think, hard, joy and slowly.

5.2. Some Views Concerning t5.2. Some Views Concerning the Study of Meaning he Study of Meaning (2)(2)

5.2.2. The conceptualist view, held by some ancient philosophers and linguists with Ogden and Richards as its representatives.

a) Words are referent to things through mediation of concepts of the mind. That is, there is no direct link between a linguistic form and what is refers to; rather, in the interpretation of meaning they linked through the mediation of the concepts in the mind.

b) The semantic triangle / triangle of significance. b. c) This theory avoids many of the problems the naming theo

ry has encountered, but it also raises a completely new problem of its own. What is precisely the link between the symbol and the concept remains un-clarified. People do not actually try to see the image of something in their mind’s eye every time they come across a linguistic symbol.

5.2.2. b) 5.2.2. b) The semantic triangle The semantic triangle or triangle of significance.or triangle of significance.

Thought/Reference

Symbol/Form Referent

The dog over there looks unfriendly.The symbol: the dogThe concept: what a dog is likeThe referent: the dog over there

5.2. Some Views Concerning t5.2. Some Views Concerning the Study of Meaning he Study of Meaning (3)(3)

5.2.3. Contextualism, popular roughly from 1930 to 1960, with British leading linguist of that period J. R. Firth as its representative.

a) Meaning should be studies in terms of situation, use, context --- elements closely linked with language behavior.

b) The presumption of contextualism is that one can derive meaning from or reduce meaning to observable contexts (situational contexts and linguistic contexts).

e.g. The seal could not be found.

5.2. Some Views Concerning t5.2. Some Views Concerning the Study of Meaning he Study of Meaning (4)(4)

5.2.4. Behaviorism, further strengthened on contextualism by Bloomfield.

a) The meaning of a language form is the situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer. (Bloomfield, 1933)

b) The model of behaviorism: Jill Jack

S r ……. s R

‘S’: the speaker’s physical stimulus ‘r’:the speaker’s verbal response ‘s’:verbal stimulus to the hearer

‘R’: non-verbal response from the hearer

5.3. Lexical meaning 5.3. Lexical meaning (1)(1)

5.3.1. Sense and reference a) sense: the inherent meaning of the linguistic form. It is the collectio

n of all the features of the linguistic form, abstract and decontextualized.

b) reference: what a linguistic form refers to in the real world. It deals with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience.

5.3.2. Major sense relations a) synonymy, the sameness or close similarity of meaning.

Synonyms are words close in meaning. i> dialectal synonyms ii> stylistic synonyms iii> emotive and evaluative synonyms iv> collocational synonyms v> semantically different synonyms

5.3. Lexical meaning 5.3. Lexical meaning (2)(2)

5.3.2. Major sense relations (2)

b) polysemy, the same one word may have more than one meaning. Such is called polysemic word.

c) homonymy, the phenomenon that words having different meanings have the same form, or else different words are identical in sound or spelling or in both.

i> homophones: words are identical in sound ii> homographs: words are identical in spelling iii> complete homonyms: words are identical in both sound and spelli

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5.3. Lexical meaning 5.3. Lexical meaning (3)(3)

5.3.2. Major sense relations (3)

d) hyponymy, the sense relation between a more general, more inclusive word and a specific word.

i> superordinate, the word more general in meaning ii> hyponyms, the words more specific iii> co-hyponyms, hyponyms of the same superordinate

e) antonymy, oppositeness of meaning i> gradable antonyms, often with intermediate forms between the two

of a pair, standing for two extremes. ii> complementary antonyms, characterized by that the denial of one i

mplies the assertion of the other. They are two extremes without intermediate degree. It is a matter of either one or the other.

iii> relational opposites, exhibiting the reversal of a relationship between the pair.

5.4. Sense relations between 5.4. Sense relations between sentencessentences

i> X is synonymous with Y. X: He was a bachelor all his life. Y: He never married all his life. If X is true, Y is true, and if X is false, Y is false.

ii> X is inconsistent with Y. X: John is married. Y: John is a bachelor. If X is true, Y is false, and if X is false, Y is true. iii> X entails Y. (Y is an entailment of X.) X: He has been to France. Y: He has been to Europe. If X entails Y, then the meaning of X is included in Y.

iv> X presupposes Y. (Y is a prerequisite of X.) X: The Queen of England is old. Y: England has a Queen. If X is true, Y must be true, and if X is false, Y is still true.

v> X is a contradiction. My unmarried sister is married to a bachelor.

vi> X is semantically anomalous. The table has bad intentions.

5.5. Analysis of meaning5.5. Analysis of meaning(1)(1)

5.5.1. Componential analysis, a way to analyze lexical meaning

The meaning of a word can be disserted into meaning components, called semantic features.

Plus and minus signs are used to indicate whether a certain semantic feature is present or absent.

human adult animate male man + + + + woman + + + -

5.5. Analysis of meaning5.5. Analysis of meaning(2)(2)

5.5.2. Predication analysis, a way to analyze sentence meaning.

a) The meaning of a sentence is not the sum total of the meanings of all its components.

b) Sentence meaning has two aspects, grammatical meaning and semantic meaning

c) predication analysis proposed by G. Leech i> predication: the abstraction of the meaning of a sentence. ii> argument(s): a logical participant in a predication, largely identical

with the nominal element(s). iii> predicate: something said about an argument or stating the logical

relation linking the arguments in a sentence.

5.5. Analysis of meaning5.5. Analysis of meaning(2)(2)

5.5.2. Predication analysis, a way to analyze sentence meaning.

d) case of predication: Tom smokes. Tom is smoking.

Tom has been smoking. Tom, smoke. Does Tom smoke? Tom does not smoke.

The argument: Tom; The predicate: smoke; The predication: Tom(smoke).

All the sentences in the case are regarded as the various grammatical realizations of the same semantic predication of Tom(smoke).

Two-place predication: student, book (read) One-place predication: boy (be naughty) No-place predication: (be hot)

5.6. Assignments 5.6. Assignments

All the items in the revision exercises on page 82~83 of the course book should be done independently and will be checked in the classroom before the next lecture. Your performance will be evaluated.

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