Chapter Five Semantics
Teaching Focus
?1. What is semantics? ?2. Meanings of “meaning” ?3. Sense and reference ?4. Sense relations
?5. Componential analysis --- a way to analyze lexical meaning ?6. Predication analysis --- a way to analyze sentence meaning 1. What is semantics?
?Semantics is the study of meaning in language.
?Or specifically, it is the study of the meaning of linguistic units, words and sentences in particular.
?Different focus of the study in semantics:
?Logical semantics/philosophical semantics: Logicians and philosophers have tended to concentrate on a restricted range of sentences (typically, statements, or ?propositions?) within a single language.
?Linguistic semantics: The linguistic approach is broader in scope, aiming to study the properties of meaning in a systematic and objective way, with reference to as wide a range of utterances and languages as possible. 2. Meanings of “Meaning”
?The word “meaning” has different meanings.
?It has been studied for thousands of years by philosophers, logicians and linguists. ?The naming theory: Plato & Aristotle ?Words are just names or labels for things. ?Can you show the limitations of this theory?
?The semantic triangle: C. K. Ogden & I. A. Richards (1923) → The Meaning of Meaning.
?There is no direct link between a linguistic form and what it refers to. In the interpretation of meaning they are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind. ? thought/reference (concept)
symbolizes refers to
symbol/form referent (word, phrase) stands for (object)
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?Geoffrey Leech (1974, 1981). Semantics: The Study of Meaning. Seven types of
meaning:
?Conceptual meaning ?Connotative meaning ?Social meaning
?Affective meaning associative meaning ?Reflected and meaning ?Collocative meaning ?Thematic meaning (1) Conceptual meaning
?It makes the central part of meaning.
?Refers to logical, cognitive or denotative content.
?Concerned with the relationship between a word and the thing it denotes, or refers to. (2) Connotative meaning
?The communicative value an expression has by virtue of what it refers to, over and above its purely conceptual content.
?A multitude of additional, non-criterial properties, including not only physical characteristics but also psychological and social properties, as well as typical features. ?Involving the ?real world? experience one associates with an expression when one uses or hears it.
?Unstable: they vary considerably according to culture, historical period, and the experience of the individual.
?Any characteristic of the referent, identified subjectively or objectively, may contribute to the connotative meaning of the expression which denotes it. (3) Social meaning
?What a piece of language conveys about the social circumstances of its use. ?Dialect: the language of a geographical region or of a social class. ?Time: the language of the 18th c., etc.
?Province: language of law, of science, of advertising, etc. ?Status: polite, colloquial, slang, etc.
?Modality: language of memoranda, lectures, jokes, etc. ?Singularity: the style of Dickens, etc.
?domicile: very formal, official steed: poetic ?residence: formal horse: general ?abode: poetic nag: slang
?home: general gee-gee: baby language (4) Affective meaning
?Reflecting the personal feelings of the speaker, including his attitude to the listener, or his attitude to something he is talking about.
?You?re a vicious tyrant and a villainous reprobate, and I hate you for it!
?I?m terribly sorry to interrupt, but I wonder if you would be so kind as to lower your voices a little. or ?Will you belt up.
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(5) Reflected meaning
?Arises in cases of multiple conceptual meaning, when one sense of a word forms part of our response to another sense.
?When you hear ?click the mouse twice?, you think of Gerry being hit twice by Tom so you feel excited.
?Many taboo terms are result of this. (6) Collocative meaning
?The associations a word acquires on account of the meanings of words which tend to occur in its environment.
?pretty: girl, boy, woman, flower, garden, colour, village, etc.
?handsome: boy, man, car, vessel, overcoat, airliner, typewriter, etc. (7) Thematic meaning
?What is communicated by the way in which a speaker or writer organizes the message, in terms of ordering, focus, and emphasis. ?Mrs Bessie Smith donated the first prize.
?The first prize was donated by Mrs Bessie Smith. ?They stopped at the end of the corridor. ?At the end of the corridor, they stopped. 3. Sense and reference
?Sense and reference are two terms often encountered in the study of word meaning. They are two related but different aspects of meaning.
?Sense is concerned with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form. It is the collection of all the features of the linguistic form; it is abstract and de-contextualized. It is the aspect of meaning dictionary compilers are interested in.
?Reference means what a linguistic form refers to in the real, physical world; it deals with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience.
?Every word has a sense, but not every word has a reference.
?Grammatical words like but, if ,and do not refer to anything. And words like God, ghost and dragon refer to imaginary things.
?Therefore it is suggested that we should study meaning in terms of sense rather than reference.
4. Sense relations ?Synonymy
gradable
?Antonymy complementary converse ?Hyponymy ?Polysemy 4.1 Synonymy
?Synonymy refers to the sameness or close similarity of meaning. Words that are close in meaning are called synonyms.
?Complete synonyms are rare. According to the way they differ, synonyms can be divided into the following groups:
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?i. Dialectal synonyms --- used in different regional dialects
? British English American English ? autumn fall ? lift elevator ? flat apartment ? tube underground
?ii. Stylistic synonyms --- differing in style
?kid, child, offspring
?kick the bucket, pop off, die, pass away, decease ?collaborator, accomplice ?accuse, charge
?iii. Synonyms that differ in their emotive or evaluative meaning ?iv. Collocational synonyms ?v. Semantically different synonyms
?surprise, amaze, astound
4.2 Antonymy
?The term antonymy is used for oppositeness of meaning. Words that are opposite in meaning are antonyms.
?There are three types of antonyms.
?i. Gradable: Can be modified by adverbs of degree like very; Can have comparative forms; Can be asked with how. ?good, bad ?young, old ?hot, cold
?ii. Complementary: the denial of one member of the pair implies the assertion of the other.
?alive, dead ?male, female ?present, absent
?iii. Converse or relational: exhibit the reversal of a relationship between the pair; one presupposes the other. ?husband, wife ?buy, sell ?before, after 4.3 Hyponymy
?Hyponymy refers to the sense relation between a more general word and a more specific word. It is a kind of inclusiveness. ?Superordinate: the more general word ?Hyponyms: the more specific words
?Co-hyponyms: hyponyms of the same superordinate ?flower, rose, lily ?animal, cat, dog ?furniture, bed, desk 4.4 Polysemy
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?Polysemy refers to the sense relation that the same one word has more than one
meaning. Such a word is called a polysemic word.
?table: a piece of furniture; orderly arrangement of facts, figures 5. Componential analysis---a way to analyze lexical meaning
?Componential analysis is a way proposed by the structural semanticists to analyze word meaning.
?The approach is based upon the belief that the meaning of a word can be dissected into meaning components, called semantic features. ?HUMAN
?man (ADULT, MALE)
?woman (ADULT, FEMALE) ?boy (NON-ADULT, MALE) ?girl (NON-ADULT, FEMALE) ?father: PARENT (x, y) & MALE (x) ?x is a parent of y, and x is male. ?take: CAUSE (x, (HAVE (x, y))) ?x causes x to have y.
?give: CAUSE (x, (~HAVE (x, y))) ?x causes x not to have y.
?Componential analysis provides an insight into the meaning of words and a way to study the relationships between words that are related in meaning. 6. Predication analysis --- a way to analyze sentence meaning
?The meaning of a sentence is obviously related to the meanings of the words used in it, but it is also obvious that sentence meaning is not simply the sum total of the words. ?Predication analysis: proposed by the British linguist G. Leech
?The basic unit in this method is called prediction. It is the abstraction of the meaning of a sentence.
?A predication consists of argument(s) and predicate.
?An argument is logical participant in a predication, largely identical with the nominal element(s) in a sentence.
?A predicate is something said about an argument or it states the logical relation linking the arguments in a sentence. ?Tom smokes.
?Tom is smoking.
?Tom has been smoking. TOM (SMOKE)
?Does Tom smoking?
?Tom does not smoke. argument predicate
?Kids like apples. → KID, APPLE (LIKE)
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?It is hot. → (BE HOT)
Assignments
?How can words opposite in meaning be classified? To which category does each of the following pairs of antonyms belong?
?north/south vacant/occupied ?literate/illiterate above/below ?doctor/patient wide/narrow
?poor/rich father/daughter ?honest/dishonest normal/abnormal Exercises
?I. Multiple choice.
?1. The naming theory seems applicable to ___ only. ?A. verbs B. adjectives C. adverbs D. nouns
?2. Hyponyms of the superordinate “flower” do not include “___”. ?A. wardrobe B. tulip C. lily D. rose
?3. Predication analysis is a way to analyze ___ meaning. ?A. phoneme B. word C. phrase D. sentence ?II. Make judgments (true or false)
?1. In the diagram of the classic semantic triangle, the word “symbol” refers to the object in the world of experience.
?2. When the same one word has more than one meaning we call it a polysemic word. ?3. Complete synonyms, i.e. synonyms that are mutually substitutable under all circumstances, are rare in English.
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