1、1Chapter 5 SemanticsSemantics-the study of language meaning.Semantics is defined as the study of meaning. However, it is not the only linguistic discipline that studies meaning.Semantics answers the question “what does this sentence mean”. In other words, it is the analysis of conventional meanings
2、in words and sentences out of context.Meaning is central to the study of communication.Classification of lexical meanings. Here are G. Leechs seven types of meaning. ( British linguist)1. Conceptual meaning (also called denotative or cognitive meaning) is the essential and inextricable part of what
3、language is, and is widely regarded as the central factor in verbal communication. It means that the meaning of words may be discussed in terms of what they denote or refer to. 2. Connotative meaning the communicative value an expression has by virtue of what it refers to, embraces the properties of
4、 the referent, peripheral3. Social meaning (stylistic meaning) what is conveyed about the social circumstances of the use of a linguistic expression4. Affective meaning (affected meaning) what is communicated of the feeling or attitude of the speaker/writer towards what is referred to5. Reflected me
5、aning what is communicated through association with another sense of the same expressionTaboos6. Collocative meaning the associated meaning a word acquires in line with the meaning of words which tend to co-occur with it(2, 3, 4, 5, 6 can be together called associative meaning meaning that hinges on
6、 referential meaning, less stable, more culture-specific )7. Thematic meaningwhat is communicated by the way in which the message is organized in terms of order and emphasis.Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang Joly Hawkes and MinfordGo home On my way back Begin my journeyPass away Be no more Dead Death The
7、breath is just gone out of the bodyDeath Has gone Her spirit has retired Be taken from us Depart this world Depart this life Gone Gone Be no more DeathWhat is meaning?- Scholars under different scientific backgrounds have different understandings of language meaning. Some views concerning the study
8、of meaning Naming theory (Plato) The conceptualist view Contextualism (Bloomfield) Behaviorism Naming theory (Plato): Words are names or labels for things.The linguistic forms or symbols, in other words, the words used in a language are taken to be labels of the objects they stand for; words are jus
9、t names or labels for thingsLimitations: 1) Applicable to nouns only.2) There are nouns which denote things that do not exist in the real world, e.g. ghost, dragon, unicorn, phenix3) There are nouns that do not refer to physical objects but abstract notions, e.g. joy, impulse, hatred2The conceptuali
10、st viewThe conceptualist view holds that there is no direct link between a linguistic form and what it refers 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. Ogden and Richards: semantic triangleTh
11、ought/reference concept or notion, mental imageWords/phrases/sentencesSymbol/Form (words), signifier Referent (signified, real object, reality) 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 r
12、efers to concept.The symbol or a word signifies things by virtue of the concept associated with the form of the word in the minds of the speaker; and the concept looked at from this point of view is the meaning of the word. The contextualism John FirthThe situational context: in a particular spatiot
13、emporal situationLinguistic context (co-text): the probability of a words co-occurrence or collocation with another wordMeaning should be studied in terms of situation, use, contextelements closely linked with language behavior. Two types of contexts are recognized:Situational context: spatiotempora
14、l situationLinguistic 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.Behaviorism Bloomfield based on contextualist viewBehaviorists define mean
15、ing of a language form as the situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearerBehaviorists attempted to define meaning as “the situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer”.The story of Jack and Jill:Jill JackS_r-s_R(the
16、 small letters r, sspeech)(the capitalized letter R, Spractical events)Lexical meaning Sense and reference are both concerned with the study of word meaning. They are two related but different aspects of meaning. Sense- is concerned with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form. It is the collect
17、ion 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 linguistic form refers to in the real, physical world; it deals with the relationship between the 3linguistic element and the non
18、-linguistic world of experience. Linguistic expressions stand in a relation to the world. There are two aspects of meaning.Reference is the relation by which a word picks out or identifies an entity in the world. But the referential theory fails to account for certain kinds of linguistic expression.
19、Some words are meaningful, but they identify no entities in the real world, such as the words dragon, phoenix, unicorn, and mermaid.It is not possible for some words to find referent in the world, such as the words but, and, of, however, the, etc.Speakers of English understand the meaning of a round
20、 triangle although there is no such graph.Sense is the relation by which words stand in human mind. It is mental representation, the association with something in the speakers or hearers mind. The study of meaning from the perspective of sense is called the representational approach.Note:Linguistic
21、forms having the same sense may have different references in different situations; on the other hand, there are 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. Major sen
22、se relations Synonymy, Antonymy, Polysemy, Homonymy, Hyponymy SynonymySynonymy refers to the sameness or close similarity of meaning. Words that are close in meaning are called synonyms. 1) Dialectal synonyms- synonyms used in different regional dialects, e.g. autumn - fall, biscuit - cracker, petro
23、l gasoline， lift/elevator, flat/apartment 2) Stylistic synonyms-synonyms differing in style, e.g. kid, child, offspring; start, begin, commence; gentleman/guy3) Synonyms that differ in their emotive or evaluative meaning, e.g.collaborator- accomplice, attract/seduce4) Collocational synonyms, e.g. ac
24、cuseof, chargewith, rebukefor; 5) Semantically different synonyms, e.g. amaze, astound, Synonyms are frequently used in speaking and writing as a cohesive device. In order to avoid repetition the writer/speaker needs to use a synonym to replace a word in the previous co-text when he/she wants to con
25、tinue to address that idea. The synonyms together function to create cohesion of the text.Antonymy Antonyms are words which are opposite in meaning.Gradable antonyms-there are often intermediate forms between the two members of a pair, e.g. old-young, hot-cold, tall-short, Complementary antonyms-the
26、 denial of one member of the pair implies the assertion of the other, e.g. alive-dead, male-female, Relational/ Reversal opposites-exhibits the reversal of the relationship between the two items, e.g. husband-wife, father-son, doctor-patient, buy-sell, let-rent, employer-employee, give-receive, abov
27、e-below, Gradable antonyms4Gradable antonyms -there are often intermediate forms between the two members of a pair, e.g. old-young, hot-cold, tall-short, Complementary antonymsComplementary antonyms -the denial of one member of the pair implies the assertion of the other, e.g. alive-dead, male-femal
28、e, Antonymy is frequently utilized as a rhetorical resource in language use. Oxymoron and antithesis based on antonymy. Gradable antonyms may give rise to fuzziness.PolysemyPolysemy-the same one word may have more than one meaning, e.g. “table” may mean:A piece of furnitureAll the people seated at a
29、 tableThe food that is put on a tableA thin flat piece of stone, metal wood, etc.Orderly arrangement of facts, figures, etc.HomonymyHomonymy- 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 t
30、wo words are identical in sound, e.g. rain-reign, night/knight, Homogragh - when two words are identical in spelling, e.g. tear(n.)-tear(v.), lead(n.)-lead(v.), Complete/full homonym- when two words are identical in both sound and spelling, e.g. ball, bank, watch, scale, fast, Note: Rhetorically, ho
31、monyms are often used as puns.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. HyponymyHyponymy-the sense relation between a more general, more inclusive word and a mor
32、e specific word.Superordinate: the word which is more general in meaning.Hyponyms: the word which is more specific in meaning.Co-hyponyms: hyponyms of the same superordinate.5HyponymySuperordinate: flowerHyponyms: rose, tulip, lily, chrysanthemum, peony, narcissus, Superordinate: furnitureHyponyms:
33、bed, table, desk, dresser, wardrobe, sofa, This kind of vertical semantic relation links words in a hierarchical work.Sense relations between sentences (1) X is synonymous with Y(2) X is inconsistent with Y(3) X entails Y(4) X presupposes Y(5) X is a contradiction(6) X is semantically anomalousX is
34、synonymous with YX: 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 true; if X is false, Y is false.X is inconsistent with YX: He is single.Y: He has a wife.X: This is my first visit to Beijing.Y: I hav
35、e been to Beijing twice.If X is true, Y is false; if X is false, Y is true.X entails YX: John married a blond heiress.Y: John married a blond.X: Marry 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
36、 true, Y is necessarily true; if X is false, Y may be true or false.X presupposes YX: His bike needs repairing.Y: He has a bike.Paul has given up smoking.Paul once smoked.If X is true, Y must be true; If X is false, Y is still true.X is a contradiction*My unmarried sister is married to a bachelor.6*
37、The orphans parents are pretty well-off.X is semantically anomalous*The man is pregnant.*The table has bad intentions.*Sincerity shakes hands with the black apple.Analysis of meaning :Componential analysis Predication analysis Componential analysisComponential analysis- a way to analyze lexical mean
38、ing. The approach is based on the belief that the meaning of a word can be dissected into meaning components, called semantic features. For example,Man: +HUMAN, +ADULT, +ANIMATE, +MALEBoy: +HUMAN, -ADULT, +ANIMATE, +MALEWoman: +HUMAN, +ADULT, +ANIMATE, -MALEGirl: +HUMAN, -ADULT, +ANIMATE, -MALEFathe
39、r: +HUMAN +MALE +ADULT PARENTDaughter: +HUMAN MALE 0ADULT PARENTPredication analysis1) 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 the man” is semantically different from “The man bites the dog” though their components ar
40、e 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 sentence is semantically meaningful is governed by rules called selectional restrictions. Predicat
41、ion 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 argument is a logical participant in a predication, largely identical with the nominal elements in a sentence.A predicat
42、e is something said about an argument or it states the logical relation linking the arguments in a sentence. According to the number of arguments contained in a predication, we may classify the predications into the following types:One-place predication: smoke, grow, rise, run, Two-place predication
43、: like, love, save, bite, beat, Three-place predication: give, sent, promise, call, No-place predication: It is hot.Predication analysisTom smokes. TOM (SMOKE)The tree grows well. TREE (GROW)The kids like apples. KIDS (LIKE) APPLE I sent him a letter. I (SEND) HIM LETTERSupplementary Exercises to Ch
44、apter 5 Semantics I. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False: 1. Dialectal synonyms can often be found in different regional dialects such as British English and American English but cannot be found within the variety itself, for example, within British English or American E
45、nglish. 2. Sense is concerned with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience, while the reference deals with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form. 73. Linguistic forms having the same sense may have different references in different situations.
46、 4. In semantics, meaning of language is considered as the intrinsic and inherent relation to the physical world of experience. 5. Contextualism is based on the presumption that one can derive meaning from or reduce meaning to observable contexts. 6. Behaviourists attempted to define the meaning of
47、a language form as the situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer. 7. The meaning of a sentence is the sum total of the meanings of all its components. 8. Most languages have sets of lexical items similar in meaning but ranked differently according to thei
48、r degree of formality. 9. “it is hot.” is a no-place predication because it contains no argument. 10. In grammatical analysis, the sentence is taken to be the basic unit, but in semantic analysis of a sentence, the basic unit is predication, which is the abstraction of the meaning of a sentence. II. Fill in each of the following blanks with one word which begins with the letter given: 11. S_ can be defined as the study of meaning. 12. The conceptualist view holds that there is no d_ link between a linguistic form and what it refers to. 13. R_ means what a ling
