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Exploring Semantics: Meaning in Language

This chapter delves into the study of semantics, which focuses on the meaning of words, phrases, and sentences in linguistics. It discusses different views on meaning, sense relations between sentences, and various analyses of meaning.

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Exploring Semantics: Meaning in Language

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  1. Chapter 5 Semantics

  2. Review Chapter 1 Introduction → Linguistics & Language Chapter 2 Phonetics & Phonology → Sound Chapter 3 Morphology → Structure of Words Chapter 4Syntax → Structure of Sentences

  3. Chapter 5 Semantics

  4. Chapter 5 Semantics 5.1 Introduction: What is semantics? 5.2 Views on meaning 5.3 Lexical meaning 5.4 Sense relations between sentences 5.5 Analysis of meaning ( Componential Analysis & Predication analysis)

  5. 5.1 What is semantics? • Semantics can be simply defined as the study of meaning. • The subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the analysis and description of the so-called ‘literal’ meaning of linguistic expressions. (Bussmann, 1996) • Semantics is the study of linguistic meaning: the meaning of words, phrases, and sentences. (文秋芳, 2001)

  6. 5.2 Views on meaning—— What is meaning？ • The naming theory(命名论） Proposed by ancient Greek scholar Plato: Linguistic symbols (words) are just names of labels for things, e.g. book, table, pen… Limits: It cannot explain things that do not exist and words representing abstract notions.

  7. 5.2 Views on meaning • Conceptualist view（概念论） Proposed by ancient philosophers and linguists, illustrated by the semantic triangle suggested by Ogden and Richards. It relates words and things through the mediation of concepts in mind. It holds that there is no direct link between a linguistic form and what it refers to.

  8. The dog over there looked unfriendly. • semantic triangle Thought / Reference a common animal with four legs, fur, and a tail Symbol / Form Referent “dog”

  9. semantic triangle Thought / Reference Symbol / Form Referent • Limits: What does “thinking of the concept” mean? People do not actually see the image of something in their mind’s every time they come across a linguistic symbol.

  10. Questions • What's the central idea of the naming theory? • What's the limits of the naming theory? • What's the central idea of the conceptualist view? • What's the limits of the conceptualist view?

  11. 5.2 Views on meaning • Contextualism（语境论） • Representatively proposed by the British linguist J. R. Firth. • It holds that meaning should be studied in terms of situation, use, context – elements closely linked with language behavior. • Language should be treated as a mode of action, not an instrument of reflection. • For a large class of cases ... the meaning of a word is its use in the language.One can derive meaning from or reduce meaning to observable contexts.

  12. Two kinds of context should be considered: the situational context and the linguistic context. The specific meaning of a word is determined by different factors in the two situations. Examples: “black hair” and “black coffee” (linguistic context) The seal could not be found. (situational context) ?

  13. 5.2 Views on meaning • Behaviorism（行为主义论） Based on contextualist by Bloomfield, Behaviorists attempted to define the meaning of a language form as the “situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer.” (Bloomfield,1933) Bloomfield argued that meaning consists in the relation between speech indicated by small letters r ……. s and the practical events represented by the capitalized letters S and R that precede and follow them respectively: Jill Jack S __________ r ……… s __________R

  14. 5.3 Lexical meaning 5.3.1 Sense and reference • Sense: 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. • Reference: 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. (Note: same sense different references; same reference different sense)

  15. Synonymy: refers to the sameness or close similarity of meaning. • Dialectal synonyms: synonyms used in different regional dialects • Stylistic synonyms: synonyms differing in style • Synonyms that differ in their emotive or evaluative meaning • Collocational synonyms: what words they go together with • Semantically different synonyms: differ from the words themselves

  16. Polysemy(多义现象): While different words may have the same or similar meaning, the same one word may have more than one meaning. e.g. table, crane • Homonymy(同音异义): Homonymy refers to the phenomenon that words having different meanings have the same form, i.e., different words are identical in sound or spelling, or in both. • Homophones (同音异义): rain / reign; night / knight; piece / peace; leak / leek • Homographs (同形异音异义): bow v. / bow n.; tear v. / tear n.; lead v. / lead n. • Complete homonyms (同音同形异义): : fast adj. fast v.; scale n. / scale v. (Note: difference between polysemy and complete homonymy, 词源与巧合)

  17. Hyponymy(下义关系): Hyponymy refers to the sense relation between a more general, more inclusive word and a more specific word. (superordinate, hyponyms, co-hyponyms) • Antonymy(反义现象): The term antonymy is used for oppositeness of meaning; words that are opposite n meaning are antonyms. • Gradable antonyms: old and young, hot and cold • Complementary antonyms: either one or the other, e.g. alive or dead, male or female • Relational opposites: husband and wife, father and son, teacher and pupil, doctor and patient

  18. 5.4 Sense relations between sentences • X is synonymous with Y X: He was a bachelor all his life. Y: He never married all his life. • X is inconsistent with Y X: John is married. Y: John is a bachelor. • X entails Y. (Y is an entailment of X.) X: John married a blond heiress. Y: John married a blond.

  19. X presupposes Y. (Y is a prerequisite of X.) X: John’s bike needs repairing. Y: John has a bike. • X is a contradiction (invariably false) e.g. My unmarried sister is married to a bachelor. • X is semantically anomalous (异常) e.g.: The table has bad intentions.

  20. 5.5 Analysis of meaning 5.5.1 Componential analysis • Componential Analysis (known as CA): meaning is composed of meaning components called semantic features. Plus and minus signs are used to indicate whether a semantic feature is present or absent in the meaning of a word. The feature symbols should be written in capitalized letters. • woman +HUMAN, +ADULT, +ANIMATE, - MALE • man +HUMAN, +ADULT, +ANIMATE, +MALE • boy +HUMAN, - ADULT, +ANIMATE, +MALE • girl +HUMAN, - ADULT, +ANIMATE, -MALE

  21. 5.5.2 Predication analysis • The meaning of a sentence is not to be worked out by adding up all the meanings of its constituent words. “The dog bit the man.” / “The man bit the dog.” • There are two aspects in sentence meaning: Grammatical meaning and semantic meaning. • Sentences can neither be grammatically violated, nor violated in selectional restrictions (words that are supposed to go together). e.g. He gave the book me. (not grammatically well-formed) Green clouds are sleeping furiously. (violating the selectional restrictions)

  22. Predication analysis: Predication is the abstraction of the meaning of a sentence. A predication consists of argument(s) and predicate. An argument is a logical participant in a predication, and a predicate is something about an argument or the logical relation linking the arguments in a sentence. e.g.

  23. Tom smokes. Tom is smoking. Tom has been smoking. TOM (SMOKE) Tom, smoke! Does Tom smoke? Tom does not smoke. • Kids like apples. KID,APPLE (LIKE) • It is hot. (无变元述谓) (BE HOT) • two-place predication one-place predication no-place predication • The predicate can be regarded as the main element.

  24. 5.6 Task Discuss the following questions in groups: • What are the major views concerning the study of meaning? • Explain with examples “homonymy”, “polysemy”, and “hyponymy”. • 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 外语学院精品课程《英语语言学》

  25. Identify the relations between the following pairs of sentences: • Tom’s wife is pregnant. / My sister will soon be divorced. • Tom has a wife. / My sister is a married woman. • He likes seafood. / They are going to have another baby. • He likes crabs. / They have a child. • What is grammaticality? What might make a grammatically meaningful sentence semantically meaningless? • Try to analyze the following sentences in terms of predication analysis: • The man sells ice cream. • Is the baby sleeping? • It is snowing. • The tree grows well. 外语学院精品课程《英语语言学》

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