Lexical Semantics. An Introduction

1. Lexical Semantics. An Introduction Boris Iomdin Russian Language Institute,Russian Academy of Sciences iomdin@ruslang.ru

2. Lecture 4. Plan • Naïve picture of man and the main human systems • Metalanguage • formal metalanguage • natural metalanguage • Natural Semantic Metalanguage (Wierzbicka’s approach) • Moscow Semantic School (Apresjan’s approach) • Properties and functions of lexicographic explications

3. Summary by Ju. Apresjan • Each language reflects a specific way of perceiving and organizing the world about us. The meanings expressed in natural language form a unified system of views. • The way of conceptualizing reality (the world-view) inherent in a given language is partly universal and partly national-specific, such that speakers of different languages may view the world in slightly different ways, through the prism of their languages. • This view is naïve in the sense that it differs in many important particulars from a scientific picture of the world.

4. Naïve picture of the world • The primary task of systematic lexicography is to reflect the naïve world-view which a given language embodies – its naïve geometry, physics, ethics, psychology, etc. • These naïve pictures are not chaotic but form integral systems and should therefore receive a homogeneous description in a dictionary.

5. Naïve picture of humans • In the Russian linguistic picture of the world, man is viewed as a dynamic, active being. He performs three different types of actions: physical actions, intellectual actions, and speech acts. • Man is also characterized by certain states: perception, desires, knowledge, opinions, emotions, etc. • Finally, he reacts to external and internal stimuli. • Each form of activity, each type of state, and each reaction is controlled by its own system and each system has its location in a particular organ.

6. Activating and checking • Desires are the main stimulus for human activity. We implement our desires with the aid of volja ‘will’. • Desires may be either rational and moral or irrational and amoral. The will itself stands outside morality: it may be ‘good’ or ‘ill’. • Hence the operation of the will is counterbalanced by sovest’ ‘conscience’. If desires and the will are initiators of human action, conscience is seen as a moral brake which prevents the implementation of immoral desires.

7. Sovest’ in the Russian NPW • Conscience is a kind of being within us. It is a strict inner judge: one can ‘answer for smth.’ to one’s conscience, ‘be at ease’ with it. It is always oriented towards good, possessing an innate and unerring sense of supreme justice. • Conscience may punish or pardon. If we ‘hear the voice of conscience’, and ‘act according to our conscience’, the reward is ‘clear conscience’. If we do not, it ‘torments us’, ‘gives us no peace’, ‘nags’ or ‘gnaws’ at us. • We can ‘appeal to conscience’ of another person.

8. The main human systems • Physical perception (sight, hearing, sense of smell, taste, touch): ‘to perceive’ • Physiological states (hunger, thirst, …): ‘to sense’ • Physiological reactions (fever, shivering, sweating, …) • Physical actions (to work, go, draw, cut, …): ‘to do’ • Desires (to want, strive, prefer, …): ‘to want’ • Intellectual activity (to imagine, think, remember, …) • Emotions (fear, rejoice, love, hate, hope, …): ‘to feel’ • Speech (to tell, promise, ask, declare, …): ‘to say’

9. Properties of the systems • Each system has a specific inner organization • The systems form a hierarchy • The organs of these systems also form a hierarchy • The systems interact with one another • The systems can be divided into subsystems

10. Perception: Russian and English

11. Description of the human being • On the basis of these ideas, Apresjan proposes a general format for a description of various human states, of the processes which occur in the human soul or mind, and of intellectual or speech acts • The scheme was used in the New Explanatory Dictionary of Russian Synonyms (more details in the next lectures)

12. Metalanguage • A special language for the description of another language (=object language, usually a natural human language). • Formal metalanguages • Natural metalanguages

13. Formal metalanguage • A fully defined vocabulary and syntax • All possible combinations of vocabulary items generated from fully specified syntactic rules • All well formed syntactic structures have a meaning fully specified by semantic rules • Can be based on propositional logic, predicate logic, truth-conditional semantics, possible worlds semantics, intensional logic, etc.

14. An example (Šaumjan et al.)

15. Properties of a formal ML • Defining a formal metalanguage for natural semantics requires that it have the same expressive power as a natural language because: • The metalanguage is a translation of the object language, i.e. of a natural language • In order to be understood and used it must be communicable • The ideal formal semantic metalanguage would have to be at least as comprehensive as a natural language, and to date no formal system achieves this goal. K. Allan, Natural language semantics, 2001

16. Natural metalanguage • As language is a universal sign system, it can also be used to describe itself. • In classical lexicography, natural metalanguages are used. Examples: • happy: enjoying or characterized by well-being and contentment • glad: experiencing pleasure, joy, or delight : made happy • contented:feeling or showing satisfaction with one's possessions, status, or situation • satisfied: made happy (Webster Dictionary)

17. Properties of a natural ML • Each word has to have a single meaning • Each elementary meaning has to be expressed in a single way • These requirements are not fulfilled in classical dictionaries. Many synonyms in the explications: • arising in – originating in – proceeding from – produced by • arousing – causing – conductive to – eliciting – exciting – inducing etc. (Webster)

18. Natural semantic metalanguage • NSM approach claims to be the most well-developed, comprehensive and practical approach to cross-cultural semantics • The approach is based on evidence that there is a small core of basic, universal meanings, known as semantic primitives, which can be found as words or other linguistic expressions in all languages. • This common core of meaning can be used as a tool for linguistic and cultural analysis.

19. (1) • (a) X felt something because X thought something • (b) sometimes a person thinks: • (c) "I know now: something very good will happen • (d) I want it to happen • (e) I can't think about other things now" • (f) when this person thinks this this person feels something good • (g) X felt something like this • (h) because X thought something like this EXCITED

20. (2) • (a) X felt something (because X thought something) • (b) sometimes a person thinks: • (c) "some very good things happened to me • (d) I wanted things like this to happen • (e) I can't want anything else" • (f) when this person thinks this this person feels something very good • (g) X felt something like this (because X thought something like this) HAPPY

21. (3) • (a) X felt something because X thought something • sometimes a person thinks: • (b) "I thought that something bad would happen • (c) I felt something bad because of this • (d) I know now: this bad thing will not happen" • (e) when this person thinks this this person feels something good • (g) X felt something like this • (h) because X thought something like this RELIEVED

22. (4) • (a) X felt something because X thought something • (b) sometimes a person thinks: • (c) "I know now: someone did something bad • (d) I didn't think someone could do something like this • (e) I don't want things like this to happen • (f) I want to say what I think about this" • (g) when this person thinks this, this person feels something bad • (h) X felt something like this • (i) because X thought something like this INDIGNANT

23. (5) • (a) X felt something because X thought something • (b) sometimes a person thinks: • (c) "something very bad happened to someone • (d) I didn't think that something like this could happen • (e) I have to think now: very bad things happen to people" • (f) when this person thinks this this person feels something bad • (g) X felt something like this • (h) because X thought something like this APPALLED

24. (6) • (a) X felt something because X thought something • (b) sometimes a person thinks: • (c) "something very good is happening • (d) I want this to be happening" • (e) when this person thinks this this person feels something very good • (f) X felt something like this • (g) because X thought something like this JOY

25. (7) • (a) X felt something because X thought something • (b) sometimes a person thinks for some time about smb: • (c) "something bad can happen to this person • (d) I don't want this to happen • (e) I want good things to happen to this person • (f) because of this I want to do something if I can" • (g) when this person thinks this this person feels smth • (h) X felt something like this • (i) because X thought something like this CONCERNED

26. (8) • (a) X felt something • (b) sometimes a person thinks: • (c) "I know: something bad happened • (d) I don't want things like this to happen • (e) I can't think: I will do something because of it now • (f) I know I can't do anything" • (g) when this person thinks this this person feels something bad • (h) X felt something like this SAD

27. (9) • (a) X felt something because X thought something • (b) sometimes a person thinks: • (c) "some good things happened to me before now • (d) I feel something good because of this now • (e) I don't want other things now" • (f) when this person thinks this this person feels something good • (g) X felt something like this • (h) because X thought something like this CONTENTED

28. (10) • (a) X felt something because X thought something • (b) sometimes a person thinks: • (c) "people can know something bad about me • (d) I don't want people to know this • (e) if people know this they can't not think smt bad about me • (f) when I think about it, I can't not think the same" • (g) when this person thinks this this person feels smth bad • (h) X felt something like this • (i) because X thought something like this ASHAMED

29. (11) • <…>(c) "something very bad is happening to me • (d) I don't want it to be happening • (e) I want to do something because of this • (f) I can't do anything • (g) I can't think: some good things will happen to me • (h) I don't know how I can live now" • (i) when this person thinks this this person feels something very bad <…> DESPAIR

30. (12) • (a) X felt something because X thought something • (b) sometimes a person thinks: • (c) "something has happened now • (d) I know now: something very bad happened • (e) I didn't think that smth like this could happen • (f) I can't think now" • (g) when this person thinks this this person feels smth bad • (h) X felt something like this • (i) because X thought something like this SHOCKED

31. (13) • (a) X felt something because X thought something • (b) sometimes a person thinks: • (c) "I thought that something good would happen • (d) I felt something good because of this • (e) I know now: this good thing will not happen" • (f) when this person thinks this this person feels something bad • (g) X felt something like this • (h) because X thought something like this DISAPPOINTED

32. (14) • <…> • (c) "something very bad is happening • (d) something very bad can happen to me now because of this • (e) I don't want this to happen • (f) I want to do something because of this if I can • (g) I can't do anything now" • (h) when this person thinks this this person feels something very bad <…> TERRIFIED

33. (15) • <…> • (c) "something is happening to me now not because I want it • (d) someone knows about it • (e) this person is thinking about me • (f) I don't want people to think about me like this" • (g) when this person thinks this, this person feels something bad <…> EMBARASSED

34. (16) • (a) X felt something because X thought something • (b) sometimes a person thinks about someone else: • (c) "this person can do some very good things • (d) not many other people are like this • (e) I would want to be like this if I could" • (f) when this person thinks this this person feels something good • (g) X felt something like this • (h) because X thought something like this ADMIRATION

35. (17) • (a) X felt something because X thought something • (b) sometimes a person thinks about someone else: • (c) "something bad happened to this other person • (d) this is bad • (e) something like this is not happening to me" • (f) when this person thinks this this person feels something • (g) X felt something like this • (h) because X thought something like this PITY

36. (18) • <…> • (c) "I know that some time ago I did something bad • (d) I knew it when I was doing it • (e) I didn't want to think about it then • (f) I can't not think about it now" • (g) when this person thinks this this person feels something bad • (h) X felt something like this • (i) because X thought something like this REMORSE

37. Elementary meanings • Semantic metalanguages have to contain a small (for economy reasons), but sufficient (for completeness) number of elementary meanings • But explications using only elementary meanings may be too difficult to understand and use in dictionaries • Apresjan suggests a trade-off: a metalanguage which includes not only semantic primitives, but also semantically more complex words (intermediate concepts), whose meanings may combine several semantic primitives. • But here, too, no synonymy or homonymy is allowed.

38. Lexicographic explications • The lexeme (a given meaning of a word) has to be explained using words with simpler meanings, which can be easily reduced to elementary (indefinable) meanings (no vicious circles) • All meaning components should be included into the explication (completeness) • No other information can be included into the explication (precision)

39. Vicious circle • Sepulka, pl. sepulki, an important element of the civilization of Ardrites (see) from Enteropia planet (see).See sepulkaria. • Sepulkaria, sg. sepulkarium, an object for sepulation (see). • Sepulation,an occupation of Ardrites (see) from Enteropia planet (see).See sepulka. (Stanisław Lem, Dzienniki gwiazdowe)

40. Advantages of the technique • If the explications in the dictionary are constructed stepwise, all links of the given meaning and the connected meanings are explicitly shown, so that the hierarchical organization of the lexical system of the language is consecutively demonstrated • This allows for various semantic groupings of words and for formulating rules of various synonymic transformations

41. Functions of the explication • Explain the meaning of a given linguistic unit • Serve as the basis in establishing its place in the semantic system • Be used as a semantic rule which may be applied in the transition from a syntactic representation of an utterance to a semantic representation, and vice versa • Serve as the basis for the rules of semantic interaction between the given unit and other units within the utterance

42. Requirements for explications • They must be non-circular • They must be necessary and sufficient • They must be hierarchically structured • They must be explicit

43. Constructing explications • Analysis of the situation • Analysis of a paradigmatically related group of words (synonyms, analogues, antonyms, derivational paradigms, thematically related words) • Analysis of a syntagmatically related group of words (collocations) • Analysis of the “negative linguistic material” (ungrammatical utterances of various kinds)

44. NSM and MSS: differences • In the Moscow Semantic School, explications are constructed hierarchically, in order to demonstrate a system in the organization of the lexicon. • In MSS, explications are the object of semantic rules by which the meaning of whole utterances is built from the meanings of the individual grammatical and lexical units. • In MSS, not only semantic primitives, but also words with more complex meanings are used for the explications.

45. Examples of MSS explications • Radovat’sja ‘rejoice’ ‘to experience a pleasant feeling which may come when something that the subject considers or feels good for himself is happening’ • Smushchat’sja‘be embarassed’ ‘to experience a feeling which may come when the subject believes that he is related to something bad or abnormal, because of which other people will think worse about him’ • Voskhishchat’sja‘admire’ ‘to experience or to express verbally a strong feeling which may come when a person perceives something extremely good, far exceeding the standard level or the capabilities of this person’ (by Ju. Apresjan)

46. Examples of MSS explications • Zhalost’‘pity’ ‘the feeling of a person A1 towards a person A2, similar to pain, caused by the fact that A1 believes that A2 is in a bad situation, and accompanied by the wish to relieve the situation of A2’ (by I. Levontina)

47. Next lecture • Structure of meaning and its representation