“Communication is not merely words in proper order, properly inflected assertions in proper relation to each

other, or assertions in proper relation to referents… It is all these, together with the reactions of the nervous systems of

the human beings involved in the communication.”

Semantics TheoryBy: Megan Sturycz

Kelsey HoffStephanie Morse

Semantics Theory•The study of language with special concern for the meanings of words and other symbols.

•The philosophical or linguistic study of meanings in language. The semantic aspect of any expression is its meaning as opposed to its form.

Semantics Theory Cont…• In general, the study of the relationship between

words and meanings. The empirical study of word meanings and sentence meanings in existing

languages is a branch of linguistics • Semantics is distinguished from ontology, study of

existence, in being about the use of a word more than the nature of the entity referenced by the word.

This is reflected in the argument, "That's only semantics," when someone tries to draw conclusions about what is true about the world based on what is

true about a word.

History of Semantics• Semantics has its beginnings in France

and Germany in the 1820s when the meanings of words as significant features in the growth of language was recognized.

• In philosophy, semantics has generally followed the lead of symbolic logic, and many philosophers do not make a distinction between logic and semantics. Semantics is concerned with such issues as meaning and truth, meaning and thought, and the relation between signs and what they mean.

Contributing Theorists:• Some of the Ideas and the

contributing Theorists that we researched were:–I.A Richards–Alfred Korzybski–Ferdinand Saussure–Alfred Tarski’s & –Gerhard Gentzen

• I.A Richards was a novice member of the field who found himself at the odds with emphasis on Public Speaking. Richards embraced the goal of improving everyday communication by discovering the ways in which words distort, obscure and complicate understanding people.

I. A Richards

Alfred Korzybski

• Alfred Korzybski - Words are like maps. If a map is not the territory it represents, a word is not the object it represents. Also a map cannot contain all of the territory

it can only hope to represent the structure of the �territory. Two important characteristics of maps should be noticed. A map is not the territory it represents, but, if correct, it has a similar structure to the territory, which accounts for its usefulness.

Ferdinand Saussure

• Ferdinand de Saussure’s contributions to semantic theory include his term and studies on semiology, or semiotics, which comes from the Greek word for sign. He defines it as “science that studies the life of signs within society… [it] would show what constitutes signs, what laws govern them” (1959, 16). Saussure speaks of signs in terms of the concept and the sound-image.

• He also determined that the sign is arbitrary and linear; a concept and sound-image are only related because somebody named it that, and they only make sense when placed in a linear arrangement.

"A sign is the basic unit of language. Every language is a complete system

of signs. Parole is an external manifestation of language."

-Ferdinand Saussure

Alfred Tarski & Gerhard Gentzen

• Many of the formal approaches to semantics applied in linguistics, mathematical logic, and computer science originated in techniques for the semantics of logic, most influentially being Alfred Tarski's ideas in model theory and his semantic theory of truth. Also, inferential role semantics has its roots in the work of Gerhard Gentzen on proof theory and proof-theoretic semantics. One of the most popular alternatives to the standard model theoretic semantics is truth-value semantics.

Definitions• Semantics - denotes a range of ideas and is often used in

ordinary language to denote a problem of understanding that comes down to word selection or connotation.

• Linguistics - it is the study of interpretation of signs or symbols as used by communities within particular circumstances and contexts. Within this view, sounds, facial expressions, body language, proxemics have semantic or meaningful content.

• Pragmatics - The study of the relationships between the symbols of a language, their meaning, and the users of the language

• Sound-image: the natural representation of the word as a fact of potential language, outside any actual use of it in speaking.

Basic Concepts of Semantics

• Three basic concepts in the field of Semantics:– The relations of words to the

objects denoted by them.– The relations of words to the

interpreters of them. – In symbolic logic, the formal

relations of signs to one another

Semantics Triangle

• The "triangle" of Semantics shows the relations between words, thoughts, and things.

Abstract Symbols

Words, the means of verbal communication, are arbitrary, abstract symbols; most of them do not

look or sound like the things they represent

Ambiguous Symbols

1. For example, for most people, the above sign means: "Here's a baby changing table."

2. But when I look at it with an ambiguous attitude, I think: Let's Go Bowling! If you look carefully, you can see the bowler has taken the bowling ball out of the bag, and it's resting in the ball return area. And he's got his hand over the air blower to remove moisture so the ball doesn't slip out of his fingers.

Applied to Daily Life & Language

Applied to daily life and language: • A word is not what it represents. • A word does not represent all of

the facts, etc. • Language is self-reflexive in the

sense that in language we can speak about language.

Communications BehaviorRelated to Semantics Theory

Example 1: Symbols are

Arbitrary Example 2: Illusory Object

Communications BehaviorRelated to Semantics Theory

What I consider a

Cat and what you

consider a Cat can be

two completely

different things

Symbols are Arbitrary?

Symbols are Arbitrary?• Symbols are different from signals. Symbols

such as words, art, and music have no direct or natural relationship to what they represent. – Example: Cat is an arbitrary symbol that we

use to refer to a particular species of animal. Like the word cat, all symbols are conventions that members of cultures use to represent other things. They are arbitrary ways of representing reality, not necessary or natural ones.

Levels of ArbitraryYou can also abstract by moving up

levels. For example, I could say:

1) I saw a red child's balloon floating in the air in the park last summer

2) I saw a balloon. 3) I saw something. 4) I had a sensory experience

Level of Abstraction (Arbitrary) Statement

Communications BehaviorRelated to Semantics Theory

Example 2: Illusory Object

What do you see?

A Beautiful Young Woman with a feather on her head

Or

A an old woman with a wart on her

nose

Explanation of Illusory Object• In this case an illusory object because different

people viewing it will see different pictures. Some see a pretty young woman, others an old woman. When I look at the picture, the images

flip, so when I look at the young beauty for a while she transforms into the old woman, and

vice versa! Some people can see other things in the picture. The point is that the picture is the same, it does not change, but our brains will

take so much information from the picture to make a picture of our own.

Theory

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABaWlQgzh90

Sesame Street: Plain White T’s SongThis video is a song focusing on the letter T and the sound it makes. The song shows lots of things that begin with T and

makes the sound of T several times.

Application

Testing Semantic Theory

• Scope• Testability• Utility• Parsimony• Heurism

Semantics Can Be Funny!

References:• Allen. G and Unwin: (1922). The Foundations of Aesthetics Co-

authored with C. K. Ogden and James Wood. 2nd. Lear Publishers: New York

• Basescu, Bernard. (1979) "On the Use of General Semantics Formulations in the Practice of Gestalt Therapy." General Semantics Bulletin, No. 46, Institute of General Semantics, Lakeville, CT, pp. 57-66

• Doris, G. (1983) General Semantics Bulletin Number 50. Vol. XI, No. 3, 1983, pp. 159-166.

• European Journal of Humanistic Psychology.

• Gladstone. K (2002) “Words, Words, Words: Robert Heinlein and General Semantics”. Heinlein Journal Issue No.11. Institute of General Semantics.

• Harry L. Weinberg (1973) “Levels of Knowing and Existence” Studies in General Semantic. Institute of General Semantics.

• Johnson, Nicholas. (2009) What Do You Mean and How Do You Know? 1st Edition. Lulu.com.

References Continued…• Korzybski, Alfred. (1958) Science and Sanity: An Introduction to

Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics, 4th Edition, International Non-Aristotelian Library Publishing Co. Lakeville, CT

• Šaumjan, S.K. (1971). Principles of Structural Linguistics. The Hague, The Netherlands.

• Mouton.

• Rapoport, Anatol, "What is Semantics?" in the Autumn 1952 issue of ETC: A Review of General Semantics. — Ed.

• Saussure, F. (1959). Course in General Linguistics. New York: Philosophical Library.

• Whorf, B.L.(1971) Language, Thought and Reality. Edited by John E. Carroll, M.I.T. Press

• Wood. J (2004). Communication Theories in Action 3rd Edition. Boston, MA: Wadsworth

• (1981). For semantics in linguistics, see S. Ullman, Semantics (1962) and The Principles of Semantics (1957, repr. 1967)