Lecture Five

Semantics

I. Introduction

1. Definitions of semantics

Semantics can be simply defined as the study of meaning. (Dai & He, 2002, p. 67)

Term coined by Bréal (1897) for the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the analysis and description of the so-called ‘literal’ meaning of linguistic expressions. (Bussmann, p. 1996, p. 423)

Semantics is the study of linguistic meaning: the meaning of words, phrases, and sentences. (Wen, P. 210)

SEMANTICS is a technical term used to refer to the study of the communication of meaning through language. (Hu, Liu and Li, 1988, p. 139)

2. Definitions of meaning

What a language expresses about the world we live in or any possible or imaginary world. (Richards, Platt and Platt, 1998, p. 278)

Central semantic notion defined and used differently depending on the theoretical approach. (Bussmann, p. 1996, p. 299)

II. Views on meaning

Naming

Proposed by ancient Greek scholar Plato: linguistic symbols are just names of labels for things. Limits: cannot explain things that do not exist and words representing abstract notions.

Conceptualist view Proposed by ancient philosophers and linguists,

illustrated by the semantic triangle suggested by Ogden and Richards.

Thought / Reference

Symbol / Form Referent

Limits: What is the link between the symbol and the concept? What does “thinking of the concept” mean? People do not actually see the image of something in their mind’s eye every time they come across a linguistic symbol.

Conceptualism

Representatively proposed by the British linguist J. R. Firth who had been influenced by the Polish anthropologist Malinowski and the German philosopher Wittgenstein. It holds that meaning should be studied in terms of situation, use, context – elements closely linked with language behavior. … the meaning of a word is its use in the language.

Two kinds of context should be considered: the situational context and the linguistic context. The specific meaning of a word is determined by different factors in the two situations.

Examples: “black air” and “black coffee” (linguistic context)

The seal could not be found. (situational context)

?

Behaviorism

Based on contextualist by Bloomfield who drew on behaviorist psychology in defining “meaning”. It’s illustrated by the following figure.

Jill Jack

S __________ r ……… s __________R

III. Lexical meaning

1. Sense and reference

Sense: Sense is concerned with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form. It is the collection of all the features of the linguistic form; it is abstract and de-contextualized.

Reference: Reference means what a linguistic form refers to in the real, physical world; it deals with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience.

(Note: same sense different references; same reference different sense)

Synonymy: refers to the sameness or close similarity of meaning.

Dialectal synonyms: synonyms used in different regional dialects

Stylistic synonyms: synonyms differing in styleSynonyms that differ in their emotive or

evaluative meaningCollocational synonyms: what words they go

together withSemantically different synonyms: differ from the

words themselves

Polysemy(多义现象 ): While different words may have the same or similar meaning, the same one word may have more than one meaning. e.g. table, crane

Homonymy(同音异义 ): Homonymy refers to the phenomenon that words having different meanings have the same form, i.e., different words are identical in sound or spelling, or in both. Homophones (同音异义 ): rain / reign; night / knight; piece /

peace; leak / leek Homographs (同形异音异义 ): bow v. / bow n.; tear v. / tear

n.; lead v. / lead n. Complete homonyms (同形同形异义 ): : fast adj. fast v.; scal

e n. / scale v.

(Note: difference between polysemy and complete homonymy, 词源与巧合 )

Hyponymy(下义关系 ): Hyponymy refers to the sense relation between a more general, more inclusive word and a more specific word. (superordinate, hyponyms, co-hyponyms)

Antonymy(反义现象 ): The term antonymy is used for oppositeness of meaning; words that are opposite n meaning are antonyms.Gradable antonyms: old and young, hot and coldComplementary antonyms: either one or the oth

er, e.g. alive or dead, male or femaleRelational opposites: husband and wife, father a

nd son, teacher and pupil, doctor and patient

IV. Sense relations between sentences

1. X is synonymous with Y X: He was a bachelor all his life. Y: He never married all his life.2. X is inconsistent with Y X: John is married. Y: John is a bachelor.3. X entails Y. (Y is an entailment of X.) X: John married a blond heiress. Y: John married a blond.

4. X presupposes Y. (Y is a prerequisite of X.)

X: John’s bike needs repairing.

Y: John has a bike.

5. X is a contradiction

(invariably false) e.g. My unmarried sister is married to a bachelor.

6. X is semantically anomalous (异常 )

The table has bad intentions.

V. Analysis of meaning

1. Componential analysis

Componential Analysis (known as CA): meaning is composed of meaning components called semantic features. Plus and minus signs are used to indicate whether a semantic feature is present or absent in the meaning of a word. e.g.

man +HUMAN, +ADULT, +ANIMATE, +MALE

2. Predication analysis

The meaning of a sentence is not to be worked out by adding up al the meanings of its constituent words. “The dog bit the man.” / “The man bit the dog.”

There are two aspects in sentence meaning: Grammaticality and semantic meaning. Sentences can neither be grammatically violated, nor violated in selectional restrictions (words that are supposed to go together). e.g.

He gave the book me. (not grammatically well-formed) Green clouds are sleeping furiously. (violating the selectional restrictions)

Predication analysis: Predication is the abstraction of the meaning of a sentence. A predica

tion consists of argument(s) and predicate. An argument is a logical participant in a predication, and a predicate is something about an argument or the logical relation linking the arguments in a sentence. e.g.

Tom smokes. Tom is smoking. Tom has been smoking. TOM (SMOKE) Tom, smoke! Does Tom smoke? Tom does not smoke. Notice other examples It is hot. (无变元述谓 ) The predicate can be regarded as the main element

References

Bussmann, H. Translated and edited by Trauth, G. P. and Kazzazi, K. (1996). Routledge dictionary of language and linguistics. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press; London: Taylor & Francis Limited.

Dai, W. D & He, Z. X. (2002). A new concise course on linguistics for students of English. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

Richards, J. C., Platt, J. and Platt, H. Translated by Guan, Y. H. (1998). Longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press; Pearson Education Limited.

Task

Discuss the following questions in groups:1. What are the major views concerning the study of

meaning?2. Explain with examples “homonymy”, “polysemy”, and

“hyponymy”.3. How can words opposite in meaning be classified? To

which category does each of the following pairs of antonyms belong?

north / south vacant /occupied Literate / illiterate above / below doctor / patient wide / narrow poor / rich father / daughter

4. Identify the relations between the following pairs of sentences:

Tom’s wife is pregnant. / My sister will soon be divorced. Tom has a wife. / My sister is a married woman. He likes seafood. / They are going to have another baby. He likes crabs. / They have a child.5. What is grammaticality? What might make a

grammatically meaningful sentence semantically meaningless?

6. Try to analyze the following sentences in terms of predication analysis:

The man sells ice cream. Is the baby sleeping? It is snowing. The tree grows well.