Semantics 1

Semantics

Class 1

Open Ended

What is language?

​Language

• [uncount.] a system of communication consisting of sounds, words, and grammar

• [uncount.] the way that someone speaks or writes, for example, the kind of words and phrases that they use

• [count.] a system of communication used by people living in a particular country

• [count.] a system of symbols and rules for writing instructions for computers

Open Ended

What is linguistics?

​Linguistics

• the scientific study of the structure and development of language in general or of particular

  languages

• the study of human speech including the units, nature, structure, and modification of language

• the scientific study of language and its structure, including the study of grammar, syntax, and phonetics. Specific branches of linguistics include sociolinguistics, dialectology, psycholinguistics,

  computational linguistics, comparative linguistics, and structural linguistics.

​Semantics

• Semantics focuses on the study of meaning in a language:

  it investigates literal meanings of words, phrases, and sentences; it is concerned with how grammatical processes build complex meanings out of simpler ones.

​Semantics

• Semantics is the study of the „toolkit” for meaning: knowledge encoded in the vocabulary of the language and in its patterns for building more elaborate meanings, up to the level of sentence meanings.

The scope of semantics

(Traditional semantics)

1. Naming

2. Concepts

3. Sense and reference

4. Seven types of meaning

5. The words as a semantic unit

​What is the nature

and relationship of the signifier and the

signified ?

​1. Naming

Naming

​Ferdinand de Saussure

​1. Signifier – a word/sound… (=sign) in the language

2. Signified – an object in the real world that a word/sound… (=sign) „refers to”, „stands for” or „denotes”

​Words are „lables” or „names” for things/objects/entities/phenomena etc.

Draw

What is signified by [red 'æp.əl]?

​Naming

​białe myszki/myszy 'white mice'

​Naming

​Verbs: jog, run, sprint, dart ...

​Adjectives: early, attractive, true, false ...

​Prepositions: up, down, in front of, opposite, next to ...

​Naming: colour terms

​It is possible to label colours, as it is done in colour charts, and thus it may be that the colour terms

(i.e. adjectives) can be regarded as names. (Palmer 1976: 20)

Poll

Choose the name of this colour.

• maroon

• burgundy

• ruby

• scarlet

Poll

Choose the name of this colour.

• maroon

• burgundy

• ruby

• scarlet

Poll

Choose the name of this colour.

• maroon

• burgundy

• ruby

• scarlet

​maroon

​burgundy

​scarlet

​ruby

​'realist' view

​'nominalist' view

​objects/things called by the same name have some common features

​objects/things have no features in common but only the name

​The words of a language often reflect not so much the reality of the world, but the interests of the people who speak it. (Palmer 1976: 22)

​Naming: ordinary vs. scientific language

​Ordinary (non-scientific)	​Scientific
​	​
​	​

Objects/phenomena cannot be labelled in two different ways.

e.g. a lion is a lion, an elephant is an elephant

​Naming: ordinary vs. scientific language

​salt

​Naming: ordinary vs. scientific language

​Naming: ​object and dictionary words

​Object words are learnt ostensibly i.e. by pointing at objects. Object words have OSTENSIVE DEFINITIONS.

​a round, sweet fruit with a thick skin and a centre that is divided into many equal parts

​the smallest unit that an element can be divided into

​Dictionary words are described/defined in terms of object words.

​Concepts

​Words are concepts of the mind.

​Ferdinand de Saussure

​signifier

​signified

​sound/image

concept

a psychological 'associative bond'

​Ogden and Richard’s ‘semiotic triangle’

​猫/kæt/ ね

​“cat” “kot” “gato”

​'ASSOCIATIVE BOND'

​Meaning consists of our ability of associating one thing with the other or remembering that a given object corresponds to a particular concept

​1)The associative bond is a permanent association stored

in the mind or the brain.

2)The associations stored in our minds are mirror

images of the words that they are suppose to explain.

3)Whenever we have a word, there will be a concept.

[the concept = ‚meaning of a given word’]

​​'ASSOCIATIVE BOND'

​Sense and reference

​Sense is concerned with intralinguistic relations; reference deals with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world.

​

Langauge

X(1) X(2)​

​The world

​

Langauge

X

​The world

​Y

​Sense

​Sense relationships in language:

1) ram/ewe, cow/bull, fox/vixen, etc.

2) duck/duckling, pig/piglet, deer/fawn, etc.

3) father/son, uncle/nephew, mother, daughter, etc.

4) narrow/wide, short/tall, small/big, etc.

​Reference

​RICK

​MORTY

Language dictates the semantic relations

​1. not all languages make the same distinctions

2. the categorization of the real word is not certain, some things easily fall into natural classes, other do not. It is because we fail to: a) distinguish between sence and reference b) there is not „line” between what is in the world and what is in language

Deictics [=indexal expressions]

Open Ended

Indicate the indexal expression in the sentence "John stole my bike. It was my favourite."

Open Ended

Indicate the indexal expression in the sentence "I saw Suzan yesterday. I have not seen her for ages."

​Deictics [=indexal expressions]

Words or phrases which refer and substitute the names of people/objects or phenomena as well as the phrases referring to time or place.

• pronouns (I, he, she...)

• demonstratives (here, this, those...)

• time markers (the day after tomorrow, yesterday...)

​Types of meaning

​Given its essential role of language communication and intersection with several language-oriented disciplines of study, there is a great need to understand and appreciate the nature of linguistic meaning (Mwikaki 2004).

​Grammatical and Lexical meaning

​1. Grammatical meaning includes the meaning of (1) affixes or function words, (2) grammatical functions, such as subject, object, etc. and (3) different sentence types, such as negations or interrogatives.

2. Lexical meaning reflects the meaning of lexemes that belong to one of the four word classes (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs). It is the aspect of meaning ususally given in dictionaries.

​Seven types of meaning by Geoffrey Leech

1. Conceptual meaning

2. Connotative meaning

3. Social meaning

4. Affective meaning

5. Reflected meaning

6. Collocative meaning

7. Thematic meaning

​Conceptual meaning [=cognitive/denotative/descriptive meaning]

​Kiswahili	​English	​Features
​mtu	​person	​[+human], [∓adult], [∓male]
​mtoto	child​	​[+human], [-adult], [∓male]
​mzee	​elderly person	​[+human], [+adult], [∓male]
​kijana	​youth	​[+human], [-adult], [∓male]

​RICK

​• At the lexical [=word/lexeme] level, conceptual meaning is a set of characteristic features.

• Logical, cognitive or denotative content.

​Connotative meaning

​RICK

​RICK

​LAMB = innocence

​RICK

​NIGHT = evil

​RICK

​What is communicated by virtue of what language refers to. [=secondary meanings of expressions]

​Social/stylistic meaning

​RICK

​RICK

​KICK THE BUCKET

​RICK

​DIE

​RICK

​PASS AWAY

​RICK

​LEAVE AND GO INTO THE SPIRIT WORLD

​RICK

​What is communicated of the social circumstances of language use. [expression conveys some information about social characteristics]

​Affective meaning

​RICK

​What is communicated of the feelings and attitudes of the speaker/writer.

​RICK

​Affective meaning is more directly a reflection of the speaker’s personal attitude or feelings towards the listener or the target of the utterance. Such feelings or attitudes are usually negative or insincere in nature. They are normally expressed through such forms of language use as insults, flattery, hyperbole or sarcasm.

​RICK

​e.g., I’m terribly sorry to interupt, but I wonder if you would be so kind as to lower your voice. vs. Will you just shut up?!

​Reflected meaning

​RICK

​The Comforter

​RICK

​RICK

​RICK

​RICK

​The Holy Ghost

ghost

comfort

​What is communicated via association with another sense of the same expression. [=one word is correlated with different senses]

​Collocative meaning

​pretty (girl, woman, boy, flower, village ...)

​handsome (boy, man, car, vessel, airliner ...)

​What is communicated via association with words which tend to occur in the environment of another word. [=familiar groupings of words that go together and covey meaning by association]

​Thematic meaning

​What is communicated by the way in which a meesage is structured. [=it is a preference between various grammar structures; the same truth conditions but different focus]

1. She has never read this book.

2. This book has never been read by her.

3. It is the book she has never read.

4. Never has she read this book.

​The word as a semantic unit

Words, in some sense, are one of the basic units of semantics.

​'Full' words	​'Form' words
​Tree	​It
Dog​	An​
Cat​	The​
Blue​	And​
Gently​	Or​

​Minimum free form

​Morpheme - the smallest unit of meaning

Open Ended

What are the morphemes in the word "disbelief"?

​disbelief

​dis-

​belief

​'not or the opposite of'

​'something that one thinks is true/real'

​Transparent vs. opaque words

​Transparent	​Opaque
​ear, nose and throat doctor	​otolaryngologist
​Swedish: tannlege 'tooth doctor'	​dentist
​German: Sprachwissenschaften 'language doctor'	​linguistics
​doorman	​porter

​Semantic meaning vs. actual meaning

Open Ended

How can you understand the phrase "heavy smoker"?