THE SCOPE OF SEMANTICS

(1)

In the coming chapters

We need to consider various aspects of

semantics.To do this, the way has to

be cleared by

(1) Discussing (and dismissing) two

unsatisfactory views of semantics.

WHY

They provide no solution to semantic

problems.

Note: These two views may

seem at first plausible, but they

are really not.

(2) Attempting to set out some of the more

important distinctions that have to be made.

Naming Language is a communication

system.The concept of the signifier and the

signified is central to that system.

BUTThere is a basic problem here

An ancient view comes from Plato

1. The signifier is a word in the language.2. The signified is an object in the world.3. The signifier:

stands forrefers todenotes

the signified.(Words are names or lables for things)

Taken at face value:No doubt this is true. Children learn any of their

words by naming things.

BUT

There are problems:

What part of speech is this view more likely

to apply to?

NOUNS

How do grammarians define nouns?

Word that names

•A Person

An Idea

A Thing

A Place

Names of things, people, places

and concepts

What about other parts of speech?

Adjectives: Take colours as an example:

Colours are names.

Colours can be adjectives.

What is your favourite colour?Do you dram in colour?green bananas

With reference to the relationship between “the

signifier” and “the signified ”

What about other adjectives?

Can they be used as a label to identify

something that they denote?

Take the examples of: fearful,

interesting, clever

(in a clever idea)

What about verbs?Is it possible to identify what is

'named' by a verb?

With nouns we can often draw a picture of the object that is denoted.

A boy

BUT What about a verb like ‘run’?

We can attempt to illustrate what it

denotes with a picture of a boy running

There are two difficulties that arise:

1. We are not presented separately with a boy and with 'running'.

We need a fairly sophisticated method of separating the two.

2. We can distinguish the boy and 'what he is doing‘.

The boy

What he is doing

But it is far more difficult to identify precisely what are the essential characteristics of what is denoted by the verb than what is denoted by the noun.

Does running involve only the movement of the feet or are the arms involved too?

Does it necessarily involve a change of position?

Is the speed relevant?

Clearly there is not something that can easily be recognised and identified as 'running'

This is ‘run’. What about:

remember like see

What about the other “parts of

speech”

prepositions

conjunctions

pronounsEtc.

What about nouns such as:

If we hold the theory of ‘naming’ true, can it be applied only to

nouns?

unicorn

ghost

fairy

gremlin

Do they denote objects in the world?

Can we distinguish two kinds of world:

the ‘real world’ and the ‘other world’?

What will happen if we do?

We must admit that words are not just names of things, and it must involve some fairly sophisticated explanation of the way in which we can move from giving names to objects in the world to giving

names to objects that do not exist

What about

•The digital world?

What about

Virtual reality?

What about

Cyberspace?

Forget about the ‘other world’.

Aren’t there nouns that do not refer to

imaginary things but do not refer to physical

objects at all?

Can we identify the object to be named by:

lovehateinspiration

•What do grammarians call such words?• “abstract things’’•Why do they call them

things?•Because they have nouns

corresponding to them.

We fall in a trap of a circular definition:

Nouns refer to things.

Things are named by nouns.

Another problem:• Even with some

identifiable physical objects, the meaning is not

the same with its denotation:

Morning starEvening star

Another difficulty: Visible objects in the world around us often

seem to denote a whole set of rather different

objects.