Chapter 5: The Meaning of Language

(aka semantics)

Semantics (Fromkin 180)

Study of the meaning of morphemes, words, phrases, and sentences, Lexical- meaning of words Phrasal/sentential- meaning of

sentences Pragmatics-study of how context

affects meaning

Tautologies v. Contradictions A sentence that is

always true, regardless of the circumstances: Circles are round. A person who is

single is not married.

A sentence that is always false, regardless of circumstances: Circles are square. A bachelor is

married.

Which are tautologies, contradictions, and regular sentences?

____ Puppies are human. ____ Colorless ideas are green. ____ My bachelor friends are lonely. ____ Aunts are female. ____ My aunt is a woman. ____ Adults are babies.

Entailment (Fromkin 181) Two sentences that are related by truth; If one sentence is true, the next is also

true; The sentence:

“The sun melted the ice.”entails

“The ice melted.”because if the sun melted the ice, then, the ice melted.

Ambiguity (Fromkin 182-183)

Ambiguity occurs when a word or sentence has more than one meaning.

Lexical or structural.

Structural (Syntactic) Ambiguity

When the phrase structure of a sentence causes ambiguity:

The boy saw the man with a telescope. (1) PP modifies VP (telescope used for

seeing) (2) PP modifies NP (man has

telescope)

Lexical Ambiguity:

When a word/phrase has more than one meaning: This will make you smart. smart= “clever” or “hurt”

Anomaly (Fromkin 187)

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. Colorless = without color So, how can they be green? The presence of this subject is

anomalous. The predicate “sleep furiously” is also

anomalous, unless the sleeping individual suffers from night terrors.

Uninterpretable (Fromkin 187) “Sentences” that make not sense

because they include “words” that have no meaning are uninterpretable.

These sentences can only be interpreted if the reader makes up meanings for the “words.”

Uninterpretable sentences follow phrase structure rules, but utilize “words” without meaning.

“Jaberwocky” (Fromkin 188)

Without knowing what vorpal means, we

know that: He took his vorpal sword in hand

Means the same thing as: He took his sword, which was vorpal,

in hand. It was in his hand that he took his

vorpal sword.

“Jaberwocky” After reading “Jaberwocky,” Alice

comments about the poem’s uninterruptable nature: “Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas—only I don’t exactly know what they are! However, somebody killed something, that’s clear…”

Because of he obeyed PS rules, Carroll created nonsense sentences that could be imbued with meaning.

Metaphor (Fromkin 189)

“When what appears to be an anomaly is nevertheless understood in terms of a meaningful concept, the expression becomes a metaphor” (Fromkin 189).

What do these metaphors mean? “Walls have ears.” de Cervantes, Don

Quixote Time is money.

Idioms

Idioms are metaphors that have “caught on” and become fixtures in a language (Fromkin 191).

What idiom is the subject of the Hagar the Horrible comic (Fromkin 190)?

Meaning Dictionaries have meanings in them, but

they really paraphrase meanings;

“The meanings associated with words in or mental lexicon are probably not like what we find in the OED or Webster’s, although it is admittedly very difficult to specify precisely how word meanings are represented in the mind” (Fromkin 193).

Meaning is conventional

Speakers agree on the meaning of words;

Children acquiring language need to learn those meanings (which is why they ask “why?”).

Meaning is a reference

Reference = meaning of a word; association between the word and the object the word refers to (referent)

TABLE

Referent = object to which the word refers

Meaning is a reference

The problem with the idea of meaning beings a reference is that we could only think of things that exist already;

Invention wouldn’t be possible; And Harry Potter, hobbits, and

unicorns would cease to be

Meaning is a mental image The meaning of a word is the mental

image it conjures in the mind of speakers; Harry Potter and unicorns are back; we

can imagine them, so they can exist; But, “mental image” theory doesn’t

account for words/ideas like very, if, every; Also, dog won’t always conjure the same

image for everyone. We will likely see our own dogs, or a dog we like/know.

Synonyms (196)

Words orexpressions

thathave the samemeaning insome or allcontexts.

Antonyms (197)

Words that are opposite in meaning;

There are several kinds of antonymy: Complementary pairs; Gradable pairs; Relational opposites

Complementary Pairs

alive/dead present/absentawake/asleep

Complementary because: alive = not dead dead = not alive

Gradable pairs

big/small hot/coldfast/slow happy/sad

marked & unmarked ASK: How high is the mountain? vs How low

is the mountain? ANSWER: Ten thousand feet high (not low). HIGH—unmarked LOW—marked

meaning related to object they modify small elephant > large mouse

Relational opposites (197)

give/receive buy/sellteacher/pupil

If X is Y’s teacher, then Y is X’s pupil.

Forming antonyms add prefix in-

tolerant/intolerant; discreet/indiscreet; decent/indecent

add prefix non- entity/nonentity;

conformist/nonconformist add prefix un-

likely/unlikely; able/unable; fortunate/unfortunate

Homonyms (198) homonyms/homophones: words with different

meanings that are pronounced the same bear/bare

heteronyms: spelled the same but pronounced differently

pussy=kitten pussy=infected

homographs: spelled & pronounced the same but with different meanings

Bear (animal) and bear (carry) skip (to jump) and skip (to miss out) train (a loco and trucks) and train (to teach)

Semantic features of nouns (201)

formal or notational device for expressing the presence or absence of semantic properties by using pluses and minuses

woman father girl mare+female +male +female +female+human +human +human --human--young +parent +young --young

+ equine

Count v Mass Nouns [+/- count] The determiners that a noun may occur

with are controlled by whether it is a count or mass noun:

COUNT MASSI have two dogs. *I have two rice(s).I have a dog. *I have a rice.*I have dog. I have rice.He has many dogs. *He has many rice(s).*He has much dogs. He has much rice.

Count nouns

I have two dogs. (can be pluralized)

I have a dog. (indefinite determiner)

*I have dog.He has many dogs. (preceded by

“many”)

*He has much dogs.

Mass nouns

*I have two rices. (can’t be pluralized)

*I have a rice. (can’t be preceded by a)

I have rice. (can occur w/o DET)*He has many rice(s). (can’t be preceded by

many)

He has much rice. (can occur with quantifier “much”)

[+/- count]

dog potato rice water+count +count -count -count

Check out the Garfield comic. What are the semantic properties of morsel and glob?

Check out the Rhymes with Orange comic (Fromkin 200). How do count/mass nouns and ambiguity create the foundation for the humor in this comic strip?

Thematic Roles (204-6)

What are the thematic roles in the sentences below?

The boy rolled a red ball.

The boy threw the red ball to the girl.

Professor Snape awakened Harry Potter with his wand.

John sold the book to Mary.

Mary bought the book from John.

Implicatures An implicature is what a statement really

means.

What is the implicature (or implied meaning) between the lines of these statements: You make a better door than a window.

(someone is blocking your view) It’s getting late. (at a party at 4am) Bob Evans is open until midnight. (you’re

hungry at 10pm)

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