Chapter 6 Semantics

1. Chapter 6 Semantics English Linguistics: An Introduction

2. Chapter 6 Semantics 0. Warm-up Questions 1. Definition 2. Meanings of Meaning 3. Types of Meaning 4. Word Meaning 5. Sentence Meaning

3. 0. Warm-up Questions • What is the meaning of meaning? • What is the relationship among meaning, word and the referent? • What are the different relations between words in terms of meaning? • What are the affecting factors of a sentence meaning?

4. 1. Definition • The subject concerning the study of meaning is called semantics. More specifically, semantics is the study of meaning of linguistic units, words and sentences in particular. (p93)

5. 2. Meanings of Meaning 2.1 Nominalism • Words are just names or labels for things. 2.2 Conceptualism • Language and the real world are linked through the mediation of concepts (semantic triangle). 2.3 Contextualism • Meaning can be derived from observable contexts. 2.4 Behaviorism • Meaning consists in the relation between speech and physical entities and events. (S-r-s-R figure)

6. 3 Types of Meaning 3.1 The traditional approach (Fries 1952) • Lexical: “meaningful” parts of speech (n. v. a. adv.) • Structural: other parts of speech, grammatical functions (SVOC), grammatical categories (tense, mood, etc) 3.2 The functional approach (Leech 1981) • Conceptual: logical, cognitive, or denotative content / basic, criterial (The word woman has three criterial semantic features: +human, +adult, -male.) • Connotative: by virtue of what language refers to / referent (additional and non-criterial properties of WOMEN: skirt wearing, sensitive, emotional, etc)

7. 3 Types of Meaning 3.2 The functional approach (Leech 1981) • Social: of the social contexts of language use / stylistic (father, dad, daddy) • Affective: of the feelings and attitudes of the speaker/writer / emotive, evaluative (statesman and politician, collaborator and accomplice) • Reflected: through association with another sense of the same expression / associative (Comforter, Holy Spirit, Rooster/cock)

8. 3 Types of Meaning 3.2 The functional approach (Leech 1981) • Collocative: through association with co-occurrent words / collocational (rotten tomatoes, addled eggs, rancid butter and sour milk) • Thematic: through the message organization in terms of order and emphasis / organizational (This book I have not read. I and you, you and I)

9. 3 Types of Meaning 3.3 The pragmatic approach (Palmer 1976 and Lyons 1977) • Sentence meaning: the conventional content or literal meaning of a sentence • Utterance meaning: the realization of the sentence meaning in a context

10. 4. Word Meaning 4.1 Sense vs. reference (Gottlob Frege 1892) • Sense: the inherent, abstract and decontextualized meaning of words, including all their features. For example, a dog is a domesticated canine mammal, occurring in many breeds that show a great variety in size and form. • Reference: what a linguistic form refers to in the real physical world. The word dog in “The dog is barking” refers to a dog known to both the speaker and the listener.

11. 4. Word Meaning 4.1 Sense vs. Reference (Gottlob Frege 1892) • Relations between the two • Sense means the abstract properties of an entity; Reference means the concrete entities with such properties. • Every word has a sense, but not every word has a reference. (prep, art, etc) • Linguistic forms having the same sense may have different references in different situations. (This book is easier than that book.) • Linguistic forms with the same reference may differ in sense. (Morning star and evening star, 总书记、国家主席和军委主席)

12. 4. Word Meaning 4.2 Sense Relations • Synonymy: sameness or close similarity of meaning • dialectal synonyms: Autumn/fall, lift/elevator, lorry/truck • stylistic synonyms: Daddy/father, start/commence, die/pass away • emotive/evaluative synonyms: Collaborator/accomplice, statesman/politician • collocational synonyms: Rotten tomatoes, addled eggs and rancid butter • semantic synonyms: Amaze/astound/surprise

13. 4. Word Meaning 4.2 Sense Relations • Antonymy: contrast or oppositeness of meaning • gradable/comparative antonyms: Old/young, hot/cold • complementary/absolute antonyms: Alive/dead, male/female • relational/converse antonyms: Husband/wife, teacher/student, buy/sell

14. 4. Word Meaning 4.2 Sense Relations • Hyponymy: meaning inclusion • Hyponymy is a matter of class membership. The upper term, i.e. the class name, is called superordinate, and the lower terms, the members, hyponyms. The members of the same class are co-hyponyms. Both a superordinate and hyponyms may be missing, e.g. beard, moustache and whiskers lack a superordinate, and uncles (伯伯、叔叔、舅舅、姑父、姨父) and rice（稻、谷、米、 饭）.

15. 4. Word Meaning 4.2 Sense Relations • Polysemy: the same one word with more than one meaning • The English language has an interesting history. (Kind) • BASIC is the language most programmers learn first. (Variety) • A dictionary is an invaluable aid in learning a new language. (System)

16. 4. Word Meaning 4.2 Sense Relations • Homonymy: different words identical in sound or spelling, or in both • homophones: night/knight, rain/reign, piece/peace, leak/leek • homographs: bow (v. /n.), tear (v. /n.), lead (v. /n.) • complete homonyms: fast 快速的/禁食, scale 鳞/刻度

17. 5. Sentence Meaning 5.1 Grammaticality and Meaningfulness • Grammaticality: grammatical/structural meaning, governed by grammatical rules • Meaningfulness: semantic meaning, governed by selectional restrictions 5.2 Principle of Compositionality • Meanings of sentence components • Structural meaning (word order, hierarchical structure) • Thematic meaning

18. 5. Sentence Meaning 5.3 Sense Relations • X is synonymous with Y. • X: He was a bachelor all his life. • Y: He never married all his life. • X is inconsistent with Y. • X: John is married. • Y: John is a bachelor. • X entails Y. (Y is an entailment of X) • X: He has been to France. • Y: He has been to Europe.

19. 5. Sentence Meaning 5.3 Sense Relations • X presupposes Y. (Y is a prerequisite of X) • X: John’s bike needs repairing. • Y: John has a bike. • X is a contradiction. • X: My unmarried sister is married. • X is semantically anomalous. • X: The table has bad intentions. • X is a tautology. • X: The orphan has no father.