1、5.1 Definition of Semantics 5.2 Approaches to Meaning 5.3 Word Meaning 5.4 Sentence Meaning,Chapter 5 Semantics,Leech, G. 1983. Semantics. Harmondsworth: Penguin Ogden, C.K & Richards, I.A. 1923. The Meaning of Meaning. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul,Reference books,语义学,Semantics-the study of langua
2、ge meaning. p338 Meaning is central to the study of communication.What is meaning?- Scholars under different scientific backgrounds have different understandings of language meaning. Philosophersinvestigated the relation between linguistic expressions.Linguistsinvestigated the way in which meaning i
3、n a language is structured and have distinguished between different types of meaning.,5.1 Definition of Semantics,5.2.1 Meaning as naming (Plato) 5.2.2 Meaning as concept 5.2.3 Meaning as behavior 5.2.4 Meaning as context(Bloomfield) 5.2.5 Meaning as truth conditionsCan you tell how many meanings do
4、es mean have? P104- 105,5.2 Approaches to Meaning,The meaning of an expression is what it refers to, or names, is often called referential theory(指称理论) or naming theory(命名理论). Words are names or labels for things. Limitations: 1) Applicable to nouns only.2) There are nouns which denote things that d
5、o not exist in the real world, e.g. ghost, dragon, unicorn, 3) There are nouns that do not refer to physical objects but abstract notions, e.g. joy, impulse, hatred,5.2.1 Meaning as naming (Plato),The conceptualist view holds that there is no direct link between a linguistic form and what it refers
6、to (i.e. between language and the real world); rather, in the interpretation of meaning they are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind.,5.2.2 Meaning as concept,Ogden and Richards: semantic triangle,Symbol/form word/phrase/sentence 词,Referent/object in the world of experience 事物,Thoug
7、ht/reference/concept 概念,The symbol or form refers to the linguistic elements (words and phrases); The referent refers to the object in the world of experience; Thought or reference refers to concept. The symbol or a word signifies things by virtue of the concept associated with the form of the word
8、in the minds of the speaker; and the concept looked at from this point of view is the meaning of the word. “语义三角”说，词和所指事物之间没有直接联系，而是以概念作为中介。（胡，2002:127）,Ogden and Richards: semantic triangle,L. Bloomfield Behaviorists attempted to define meaning as “the situation in which the speaker utters it and t
9、he response it calls forth in the hearer”.the story of Jack and JillJill JackS_r-s_R,5.2.3 Meaning as behavior,Meaning should be studied in terms of situation, use, contextelements closely linked with language behavior. Two types of contexts are recognized: Situational context: spatio-temporal situa
10、tion Linguistic context: the probability of a words co-occurrence or collocation. For example, “black” in black hair “The president of the United States” can mean either the president or presidency in different situation.,5.2.4 Meaning as context The contextualism,The circumstances under which the s
11、ense of a declarative sentence is true are named truth conditions(真值条件). S is true if and only if P.sentence the set of conditions,5.2.5 Meaning as truth conditions,5.3.1 Sense and reference,5.3 Word Meaning,Sense and reference are both concerned with the study of word meaning. They are two related
12、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-what a linguist
13、ic form refers to in the real, physical world; it deals with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience.,5.3.1 Sense and reference,Linguistic forms having the same sense may have different references in different situations; on the other hand, there ar
14、e also occasions, when linguistic forms with the same reference might differ in sense, e.g. the morning star and the evening star, rising sun in the morning and the sunset at dusk.,Note:,G. Leech,5.3.2 Seven types of meaning,概念意义：构成了意义的中心部分。 E: Please show the words in binary features. bull, cow, ca
15、lf bull=+BOVINE+MALE+ADULT cow=+BOVINE+FEMALE+ADULT calf=+BOVINE-ADULT,5.3.2.1 conceptual meaning,Social meaning is the meaning which an expression conveys about the contexts or social circumstances of its use. p114 larceny and theft steed, horse, nag and gee-gee Stylistic meaning 文体意义 Absolute syno
16、nyms do not exist.,5.3.2.3 Social Meaning,The level of meaning that conveys the language users feelings, include his attitude or evaluation in shaping his use of language is called affective meaning or emotive meaning.,5.3.2.4 Affective meaning,It is the meaning which arises in cases of multiple con
17、ceptual meanings, when one sense of a word forms part of our response to another sense. It is the product of peoples recognition and imagination. p115,5.3.2.5 Reflective meaning,The associations a word gets because of the meaning s of words which tend to occur in its linguistic context are called co
18、llocative meaning.,5.3.2.6 Collocative meaning,It refers to meanings arise out of the way in which the writer or speaker organizes his message.,5.3.2.7 Thematic meanings,a set of words with an identifiable semantic connection-lexical field Lexical gap 词汇空缺：The absence of a word in a particular place
19、 in a semantic field of a language.,5.3.3 Semantic fields 语义场,5.3.5.1 Homonymy 同音异义 5.3.5.2 Polysemy 多义性,5.3.5 Semantic relationships between words,Homonyms: Words of the same linguistic form but different meanings Homonymy: relationships of two or more meanings sharing the same linguistic form E.g.
20、 lie, bat, race, pupil,5.3.5.1 Homonymy 同音异义,Homonymy- the phenomenon that words having different meanings have the same form, e.g. different words are identical in sound or spelling, or in both. Homophone - when two words are identical in sound, e.g. rain-reign, night/knight, Homogragh - when two w
21、ords are identical in spelling, e.g. tear(n.)-tear(v.), lead(n.)-lead(v.), Complete homonym- when two words are identical in both sound and spelling, e.g. ball, bank, watch, scale, fast, ,Homonymy,Polysemous/polysemic: a word has two or more meanings that are related conceptually or historically. Fo
22、r example： foot，head,5.3.5.2 Polysemy 多义性,Polysemy-the same one word may have more than one meaning, e.g. “table” may mean: A piece of furniture All the people seated at a table The food that is put on a table A thin flat piece of stone, metal wood, etc. Orderly arrangement of facts, figures, etc.,P
23、olysemy,A polysemic word is the result of the evolution of the primary meaning of the word (the etymology of the word); while complete homonyms are often brought into being by coincidence.,Note:,Homophone: words which sound alike but are written differently and often have different meanings.Homograp
24、hy 同形 Homograph: words have the same spelling but differ in pronunciation and meaning.,5.3.5.3 Homophony 同音,Synonymy refers to the sameness or close similarity of meaning. Words that are close in meaning are called synonyms. There are no absolute synonyms, they are near synonyms.,5.3.5.4 Synonymy 同义
25、关系,1) Dialectal synonyms- synonyms used in different regional dialects, e.g. autumn - fall, biscuit - cracker, petrol gasoline 2) Stylistic synonyms-synonyms differing in style, e.g. kid, child, offspring; start, begin, commence; 3) Synonyms that differ in their emotive or evaluative meaning, e.g.co
26、llaborator- accomplice, 4) Collocational synonyms, e.g. accuseof, chargewith, rebukefor; 5) Semantically different synonyms, e.g. amaze, astound,Synonymy,Antonyms: words that are opposite in meaning The oppositeness of meaning is called antonymy.,5.3.5.5 Antonymy 反义关系,Gradable antonyms等级反义词-there ar
27、e often intermediate forms between the two members of a pair, e.g. old-young, hot-cold, tall-short, Complementary antonyms互补反义词-the denial of one member of the pair implies the assertion of the other, e.g. alive-dead, male-female, Relational opposites反向反义词-exhibits the reversal of the relationship b
28、etween the two items, e.g. husband-wife, father-son, doctor-patient, buy-sell, let-rent, employer-employee, give-receive, above-below, ,Antonymy,Gradable antonyms,Gradable antonyms -there are often intermediate forms between the two members of a pair, e.g. old-young, hot-cold, tall-short, ,Complemen
29、tary antonyms,Complementary antonyms -the denial of one member of the pair implies the assertion of the other, e.g. alive-dead, male-female, ,Hyperonymy 上义关系 Hyponymy 下义关系,5.3.5.6 Hyponymy 下义关系,You need to know What is meronymy? How to distinguish hyponymy and meronymy?,5.3.5.7 Meronymy 整体部分关系,(1) X
30、 is synonymous with Y (2) X is inconsistent with Y (3) X entails Y (4) X presupposes Y (5) X is a contradiction,5.4.3 Sense relations between sentences,X: He was a bachelor all his life.Y: He never got married all his life.X: The boy killed the cat.Y: The cat was killed by the boy.If X is true, Y is
31、 true; if X is false, Y is false.,X is synonymous with Y,X: He is single. Y: He has a wife.X: This is my first visit to Beijing. Y: I have been to Beijing twice.If X is true, Y is false; if X is false, Y is true.,X is inconsistent with Y,X: John married a blond heiress. Y: John married a blond.X: Ma
32、rry has been to Beijing. Y: Marry has been to China.Entailment is a relation of inclusion. If X entails Y, then the meaning of X is included in Y. If X is true, Y is necessarily true; if X is false, Y may be true or false.,X entails Y,X: His bike needs repairing. Y: He has a bike.Paul has given up s
33、moking. Paul once smoked.If X is true, Y must be true; If X is false, Y is still true.,X presupposes Y,*My unmarried sister is married to a bachelor.*The orphans parents are pretty well-off.,X is a contradiction,*The man is pregnant.*The table has bad intentions.*Sincerity shakes hands with the blac
34、k apple.,X is semantically anomalous,Componential analysis Predication analysis,Analysis of meaning,Componential analysis- a way to analyze lexical meaning. The approach is based on the belief that the meaning of a word can be dissected into meaning components, called semantic features. For example,
35、 Man: +HUMAN, +ADULT, +ANIMATE, +MALE Boy: +HUMAN, -ADULT, +ANIMATE, +MALE Woman: +HUMAN, +ADULT, +ANIMATE, -MALE Girl: +HUMAN, -ADULT, +ANIMATE, -MALE,Componential analysis,1) The meaning of a sentence is not to be worked out by adding up all the meanings of its component words, e.g “The dog bites
36、the man” is semantically different from “The man bites the dog” though their components are exactly the same. 2) There are two aspects to sentence meaning: grammatical meaning and semantic meaning, e.g. *Green clouds are sleeping furiously. *Sincerity shook hands with the black apple. Whether a sent
37、ence is semantically meaningful is governed by rules called selectional restrictions.,Predication analysis,Predication analysis- a way to analyze sentence meaning (British G. Leech). Predication-the abstraction of the meaning of a sentence. A predication consists of argument(s) and predicate. An arg
38、ument is a logical participant in a predication, largely identical with the nominal elements in a sentence. A predicate is something said about an argument or it states the logical relation linking the arguments in a sentence.,Predication analysis,According to the number of arguments contained in a
39、predication, we may classify the predications into the following types: One-place predication: smoke, grow, rise, run, Two-place predication: like, love, save, bite, beat, Three-place predication: give, sent, promise, call, No-place predication: It is hot.,Predication analysis,Tom smokes. TOM (SMOKE) The tree grows well. TREE (GROW) The kids like apples. KIDS (LIKE) APPLE I sent him a letter. I (SEND) HIM LETTER,Predication analysis,
