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Understanding the Sense of Expressions in Language

Explore the sense of expressions in language, including meaning, reference, and the circular nature of definitions. Discover how sense can be the same across different languages and dialects.

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Understanding the Sense of Expressions in Language

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  1. Semantic Unit 3 Part 2 – Practice: 5-12 And 13-15

  2. Sense • The sense of an expression is its place in the system of semantic relationships with other expressions in the language. • Words, Phrases, and Sentences have sense Sameness of Meaning: I almost / nearly fell over. S/D It is likely / probable that Raymond will be here tomorrow. S/D Your gatepost doesn’t seem to be quite vertical / upright. S/D He painted the fireplace aquamarine / vermillion. S/D I’ll see you on Wednesday / Thursday. S/D

  3. Sense of Phrases and Sentences Intuitively, do the following pairs mean the same thing? (1) Rupert took off his jacket Rupert took his jacket off (2) Harriet wrote the answer down Harriet wrote down the answer (3) Bachelors prefer redheads Girls with red hair are preferred by unmarried men In some cases, the same word can have more than one sense! Does the word bank have the same meaning in the following sentence pairs? (1) 1 have an account at the Bank of Scotland We steered the raft to the other bank of the river Yes/No (2) The DC-10 banked sharply to avoid a crash I banked the furnace up with coke last night Yes/No

  4. Sentences can have more than one Sense (1) Write down two sentences bringing out clearly the two different meanings of The chicken is ready to eat. (2) Write down two sentences 'bringing out clearly the two different senses of He greeted the girl with a smile. (3) Do likewise for He turned over the field. On the relationship between sense and reference: Referent of an expression is often a thing or a person in the world; Sense of an expression is not a thing at all. In fact, it is difficult to say what sort of entity the sense of an expression is. It is much easier to say whether or not two expressions have the same sense.

  5. . When a person understands fully what is said to him, it is reasonable to say that he grasps the sense of the expressions he hears Every expression that has meaning has sense, but not every expression has reference. Do these words refer to things in the world? 1. Almost 2. Probable 3. And 4.If 1. When you look up the meaning of a word in the dictionary, what do you find there, it’s referent, or an expression with the same sense? (2) Is a dictionary full of words or full of things, like a box or a sack?

  6. Sense - continued (3) Could a foreigner learn the meanings of his very first words of English by having their typical referents pointed out to him? Yes / No (4) Could a foreigner learn the meanings of his very first words of English by looking them up in an English dictionary? Yes /No Comment:  There is something essentially circular about the set of definitions in a dictionary. Similarly, defining the senses of words and other expressions often has something of this circular nature. This is not necessarily a bad thing, and in any case it is often unavoidable, since in " many cases (e.g. cases of expressions that have no referents: and, etc.) there is no way of indicating the meaning of an expression except with other words.

  7. Circular Nature of Definitions

  8. Propositions are Complete Independent Thoughts Are the senses of the following expressions propositions? (1) Johnny has got a new master Yes / No (2) A new master (not understood as an elliptical sentence- fragment) Yes / No (3) Johnny (not understood as an elliptical sentence- fragment) Yes / No (4) This is the house that Jack built Yes /No To the extent that perfect translation between languages is possible (and this is a very debatable point), the same sense can be said to belong to expressions in different languages.

  9. (I) Do AI. Berger s 'estrasecemarinand AI. Berger shaved himself this morning express the same proposition? Yes/No (2) Do the two sentences in (I) have the same sense? Yes/No (3) Do the expressions cemarinand this morning have the Yes/No same sense? (4) Do the expressions s 'estraseand shaved himselfhavethe same sense? Yes/No (5) Does einunverheirateter Mann have the same sense as an unmarried man? Yes / No Comment  Just as one can talk of the same sense in different Languages, so one can talk of expressions in different dialects of one language as having the same sense.

  10. Different Dialects, Same Sense (l) Do pavement in British English and sidewalk in American English have the same sense? Yes/No (2) Do pal and chum have the same sense? Yes/No (3) Can expressions with entirely different social conno- tations have the same sense? For example, can the following have the same sense? People walking in close spatio-temporal proximity People walking near each other Yes/No

  11. Both referring and uttering are acts performed, by par- ticular speakers on particular occasions. Imagine that a friend of yours says to you, "John is putting on weight these days", and imagine that a friend of ours (Le, the authors of this book) happens to utter the same sentence to us one day. (1) Would this be a case of one utterance or two? ----------------------------------- (2) Would the John refereed to be the same John or two different Johns? ' ----------------------------------- In the two separate utterances above, there are two separate acts of referring. In fact, most utterances contain, or are accompanied by, one or more acts of referring. An act of referring is the picking out of a . particular referent by a speaker in the course of a particular utterance.

  12. Reference VS Sense What is intended by the word mean, meaning, etc. in the following examples, reference (R) or sense (S)? . (I) When' Helen mentioned "the fruit cake", she meant that rock-hard object in the middle of the table. R/S (2) When Albert talks about "his former friend" he means me. R/S (3) Daddy, what does unique mean? R/S (4) Purchase has the same meaning as buy. R/S (5) Look up the meaning of apoplexy in your dictionary. R/S (6) If you look out of the window now, you'll see who I mean. R/S

  13. Sense Reference Idealization of our understanding of meaning We must act more certain than we are about expressions and if they have the same sense More elusive than reference More abstract More concrete Easier to be certain of Can grasp the concept more readily

  14. Assignment for Next Class Unit 4 – Referring Expressions Practice: 1-6 Mid. 1 Wednesday, Oct. 17 In Class

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