linguistic context: greenhouse greenhand green tea
situational context: The seal could not be found. She is at the bank. 4. behaviorism (by Bloomfield):
? Meaning of a language form can be defined as ―situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it
calls forth in the hearer.‖ Jill Jack
S________ r……s_______ R (2) sense意义 vs. reference所指:
sense --- the semantic relations between one word and another, it is de-contextualized reference --- the relation between a word and the thing it refers to, it is contextualized e.g. There‘s a dog barking at the door.
(sense): a domesticated canine mammal, occurring in many breeds that show a great variety in size and form (reference): the dog that is barking at the door
? Linguistic form having the same sense may have different references in different situations. e.g. the President of America: Washington Roosevelt Obama
? Linguistic forms with the same reference might differ in sense. e.g. the Prime Minister of Britain the leader of the Conservative Party In 1994, both referred to John Major. (3) sense relations:
1. synonymy: the sameness or close similarity of meaning A. dialectal synonyms: lift --- elevator sweets --- candy B. stylistic synonyms: gratitude --- thanks inquire --- ask
C. synonyms differing in emotive meaning: I‘m thrifty. You are economical. He is stingy. D. collocational synonyms: see a movie, watch a match handsome boy, pretty girl 2. antonymy: the oppositeness of meaning A. gradable antonyms: rich:poor like:dislike
? The denial of one is not necessarily the assertion of the other. ? They can be modified by ?very (much)‘.
? They may have comparative and superlative degree. B. complementary antonyms/ungradable opposites: innocent: guilty odd: even boy: girl hit: miss (a target)
? Not only the assertion of one means the denial of the other, the denial of one also means the assertion of the
other.
? There is no intermediate ground between the two.
? It is a question of two term choice: yes or no; not a multiple choice, a choice between more or less.
? Adjectives in this type cannot be modified by ?very‘. They do not have comparative or superlative degrees. He is more dead than alive. (not a true comparative) *John is more dead than Peter.
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Mary is madder than Alice. C. relational opposites: host: guest above: below before: after parent: child teacher: student give: receive bigger: smaller
? One presupposes the other. ?X is the parent of Y‘ presupposes ?Y is the child of X‘. 3. polysemy: the same word may have more than one meaning ?table‘:
? a piece of furniture (a kitchen table)
? the food that is put on a table (set an abundant table)
? all the people seated at a table (He came in and the table fell suddenly silent.) 4. homonymy: words having different meanings have the same form A. homophones: words that are identical in sounds e.g. sow/sew meat/meet rite/right
B. homographs: words that are identical in spelling e.g. live adj./live v. minute adj./minute n.
C. complete homonyms: words that are identical in both sound and spelling e.g. bear v./bear n. well adv./well n.
5. hyponymy: relationship between a more general word and a more specific word sheep (superordinate, upper term)
ram ewe lamb (hyponyms, lower term) ? co-hyponyms
(4) componential analysis成分分析:
? The meaning of a word / phrase can be dissected into meaning components, called semantic features. father: [+PARENT, +MALE] daughter: [+CHILD, -MALE]
? Words having the same semantic components will be synonymous with each other.
e.g. ?bachelor‘ and ?unmarried man‘.
? Words containing contrasting components are antonyms. e.g. ?man‘ and ?woman‘. (5) sentence meaning: a. The cat chased the dog. b. The dog chased the cat.
? sentence meaning = lexical meaning + grammatical meaning *Green clouds are sleeping furiously.
*Sincerity shook hands with the black apple.
? meaningfulness --- the semantic well – formedness of a sentence (6) predication analysis述谓结构分析:
? A predication is the abstraction of the meaning of a sentence. This applies to all forms of sentence, including
statements, imperative and interrogative forms. Tom smokes. Tom is smoking.
Tom has been smoking. Tom, smoke!
Does Tom smoke?
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Tom does not smoke. predication analysis:
? the analysis of dividing a predication into its constituents --- arguments and predicate
? argument变元 --- a term which refers to some entity about which a statement is being made
? predicate谓词 --- a term which ascribes some property, or relation, to the entity (entities) referred to predicate (argument*) Alice is happy. Be happy (Alice) one-place predication Jack runs quickly. Run quickly (Jack) one-place predication John loves Mary. Love (John, Mary) two-place predication John gave Mary a book. Give (John, Mary, book) three-place predication It is sunny. no-place predication It is 9 o‘clock. no-place predication (7) sense relations between sentences: 1. entailment:
a. She saw a girl [+CHILD, +FEMALE]. b. She saw a child. 2. inconsistency: a. Mary is alive. b. Mary is dead. 3. contradiction:
a. *That man is female. b. *My wife is unmarried. c. *This animal is a vegetable. 4. presupposition:
a. It is significant that John came early. b. John came early. 5. tautology:
a. This man is male. 6. semantic anomaly:
a. *Cathy is killing phonemes. b. *Jill‘s courage chewed the bone. c. *Jack sliced the idea.
Chapter 6 Pragmatics
pragmatics语用学 --- the study of how speakers of a language use sentences to effect successful communication (1) sentence meaning vs. utterance meaning ? Sentence meaning is context-independent. ? Utterance meaning is context-dependent.
? utterance meaning = sentence meaning + context (2) speech act theory (by John Austin)
? While we are speaking, we are performing some acts at the same time. 1. constatives vs. performatives
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? Constatives叙事句 are statements that either state or describe, and are thus verifiable.
? Performatives施为句 are sentences that are not used to state or describe, but used by the speaker to do
things. They are not verifiable. Constatives:
1. Our classroom is 20 meters wide, 30 meters long. 2. Cathy is 21 years old. 3. The earth is round.
4. Edinburgh is in Scotland.
5. George Bernard Shaw was a playwright.
6. Every morning I have a cup of milk and some bread for breakfast. Performatives:
1. I name this ship Queen Elizabeth. 2. I bequeath my watch to my brother.
3. I bet you six pence it will rain tomorrow. 4. I promise to finish it in time. 5. I apologize.
6. I declare the meeting open. 7. I do.
2. new models of speech act theory: A speaker might be performing three acts simultaneously when speaking: ? locutionary act言内行为 (the act of conveying literal meaning) ? illocutionary act言外行为 (the act of expressing the speaker‘s intention) ? perlocutionary act言后行为 (the act performed by saying something, the consequence of, or the change brought about by the utterance) 3. Searle‘s classification of illocutionary acts: ? representatives阐述类: (I swear) I have never done it. (I state) The earth is globe. ? directives指令类:
You‘d better change your idea. Would you like a cup of tea?
Why don‘t you ask for your parent‘s opinions? Your money or your life! Silence, please.
? commissives承诺类:
I will return the book to you next week without fail. I will never do it again. ? expressives表达类: I‘m sorry to hear that. Thank you very much! Happy birthday!
I‘m glad to see you again. ? declarations宣告类:
I now declare the ceremony close.
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You are fired.
(3) The Cooperative Principle (by Paul Grice): In making conversation, the participants must be willing to cooperate and observe the Cooperative Principle. ? four maxims under this principle: The maxim of quantity The maxim of quality The maxim of relation The maxim of manner (4) pragmatic failure:
? pragma-linguistic failure ? socio-pragmatic failures
1. A: So you didn‘t mean to hurt her, did you? B: Yes. (是的, 我并不想伤害她)
2. A: Would you please serve the chicken undressed? B: No, I can‘t. A: Why not? B: You‘re in China, sir.
3. A Chinese visiting group arrived in Perth, the capital of West Australia at 7:30 pm. The tourists didn‘t have dinner yet and felt puzzled after they had been informed of the arrangement for the night by the guide, which reads:
―We will have tea at about 8:00 right after we arrive at the hotel. During the tea time I‘ll have you registered and have your rooms ready so that you may have a rest right after.‖
Chapter 7 Language Change
English has so far a history of over 1,500 years. Old English (450-1100) Middle English (1100-1500) Modern English (1500-present)
(1) phonological change: Middle E. Modern E. /mi:s/ /mais/mice /mu:s/ /maus/mouse /geis/ /gi:s/geese /go:s/ /gu:s/goose
? The sound/x/ disappeared during the period between Chaucer (1340?-1400) and Shakespeare (1564-1616). /nixt/night /saux/saw /druxt/drought (2) morphological change Middle E. Modern E. didst did hath has canst can seedes seeds speakest speaks
? Shall I compare thee to a summer day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate.(Shakespeare) (3) syntactic change
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