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That shows that there are three hundred and sixty-four days when you might get un-birthday presents. Certainly, said Alice. And only one for birthday presents, you know. There's glory for you! I don't know what you mean by 'glory', Alice said. Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. Of course you don't till I tell you. I meant 'there's a knockdown argument for you'.

But 'glory' doesn't mean 'a knockdown argument', Alice objected. When I use a word, Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, it means just what I choose it to mean neither more nor less. The question is, said Alice, whether you can make the words mean so many different things. The question is, said Humpty Dumpty, which is to be master that's all.

EXPRESSION MEANING what a linguistic item means, i.e. signifies SPEAKER MEANING what a speaker means, i.e. intends to convey when he/she uses a piece of language SEMANTICS the meaning of linguistic expressions PRAGMATICS the meaning of linguistic expressions in relation to the speaker/speech situation How clear-cut is the SEMANTICS : PRAGMATICS dichotomy?

Starting point in doing semantics words or sentences? To a non-specialist, the notion of meaning probably has a stronger link with the idea of the word than with any other linguistic units; words are, after all, what are listed in dictionaries, and the main function of a dictionary is to tell us what the listed words mean. For this reason, lexical semantics perhaps provides the easiest access route into the mysteries of semantics in general Cruse (2004: 14)

An adequate semantic theory must provide an account of how the meanings assigned to words are put together in a systematic way by the syntactic constructions of a language to yield interpretations.Cann, Kempson & Gregoromichelaki (2009: 8)

LEXICAL SEMANTICS TRUTH-CONDITIONAL SEMANTICS ( formal logic and philosophy)

Grammaticality : meaningfulness

(Noam Chomsky) Quadruplicity drinks procrastination. (Bertrand Russell) Meaningfulness as factual significance, which can be verified An influential philosophical criterion of meaningfulness truth verifiability - Logical positivism (Vienna Circle; Rudolf Carnap, Hans Reichenbach...)

*Fritz say he speak English. Colourless green ideas sleep furiously.

Word gamesMad Libs a phrasal template word game one player prompts another for a list of words to substitute for blanks in a story (1953, L. Stern and R. Price): E.g. Exclamation, adverb, noun, adjective:

"Ouch! he said stupidly as he jumped into his convertible cat and drove off with his brave wife.

Consequences a traditional parlour game Each person takes a turn choosing a word or phrase for a set of qeustions: Man's name / Woman's name / Place name / He said to her / She said to him / The consequence was... / An outcome E.g. Scary Bob met voluptuous Alice at the zoo. He said "This is delicious.", she said "Hit me baby one more time." He gave her a red rose, she gave him cholera. The consequence was that they eloped to Mexico. The world said "the femme fatale will always win".

Newton explored the meaning of gravity.UTTERANCE produced in an act of linguistic communication, together with its intended meaning (e.g. JFK: The Moon Speech, 1962) SENTENCE abstracted, or generalized, from actual language use (cf. direct quotation)

PROPOSITION further abstraction what is asserted, a description of state of affairs

Can the same proposition be expressed by different sentences? a) Newton explored the meaning of gravity. b) The meaning of gravity was explored by

Newton. c) It was Newton that explored the meaning of gravity. d) What Newton explored was the meaning of gravity.The proposition expressed by (a)-(d): explore (Newton, the meaning of gravity)

Proposition the unit of semantic analysis in truth-conditional semantics PROPOSITIONS: - are either true or false - may be known, believed or doubted - may be asserted, denied or queried - are held constant under translation from one language to another PROPOSITIONAL CONTENT - those aspects of the meaning of a sentence which determine its truth conditions

Descriptions: loud, ungrammatical,

true/false, inaudible, in a foreign accent

Can the same sentence be realized by different utterances? Are all utterances tokens of sentences? Illustrate. Can a proposition be entertained regardless of whether it is true or false? Illustrate. Do interrogative or imperative sentences assert propositions? Do they have propositional content?

Prince William will inherit the throne. The throne will be inherited by Prince William.The manager had typed the letter. The manager had the letter typed. The students have already read this chapter. This chapter the students have already read. John bequeathed his paintings to the museum. Don je svoje slike zavetao muzeju.

LEXICAL MEANING, LEXICAL SEMANTICS WORD, LEXEME, LEXICON LEXICON (wordstock) inventory of stored lexical items meaningful linguistic expressions from which more complex linguistic expressions are built Whose inventory? MENTAL LEXICON SEMANTIC MEMORY Cf. English is a crazy language What kinds of lexical items are stored in the lexicon?

Linguistic forms that are conventionally associated with non-compositional meaning:

Conventionalized compositional expressions:

certain, work un-, -er greenhouse throw up pull someones leg

happiness, freedom cry like a baby this day and age

The (proposed) unit of semantic analysis in lexical semantics SEMEME Sememes the meanings of morphemes and lexemes Cf: SEMEME Leonard Bloomfield (1933) the meaning of a morpheme SEMANTEME Bernard Pottier (1965) the meaning of a lexeme The messy glory of lexical meaning (Lynne Murphy 2010)

water, run, tidythe, in, with, butContent Words and Function WordsLEXICAL SEMANTICS : GRAMMATICAL SEMANTICS

Grammatical structure = a skeletal structure or scaffolding for the conceptual material that is lexically specified (Talmy 2000)

Word knowledge : world knowledge? Geoffrey Leech (1969) Towards a Semantic

Description of English: Small animals need protection. An elephant is an animal. ?Small elephants need protection.

We must regretfully conclude that to save the whole conception of a systemic semantics, the size of elephants has to be considered a matter of factual, not linguistic knowledge. (Leech 1969) John Haiman (1980) Meaning is encyclopedic

Conventional meaning associated with a particular linguistic expression a prompt for the process of meaning construction

bachelor Her husband is actually a bachelor. breakfast 24/7 breakfast safe The child is safe/The beach is safe/The shovel is safeInterpretation of composite forms:

milk man : garbage man alligator shoes : horse shoes old man, old friend, old love

Provide 5 examples to illustrate how lexical meaning is affected by the world knowledge. Provide arguments for or against the inclusion of world knowledge within the scope of lexical semantics.

I am hungry. : I could eat a horse. John is a lion. I see what you mean. This gadget will save you hours. Henry is in love.HW: Provide arguments for or against the necessity of the literal/non-literal meaning dichotomy within the scope of lexical semantics.

Compare the types of meaning discussed in: Lyons (1977) Leech (1981) Cruse (2004) Hlebec (2010)