Transcript IV. SYNTAX

V. SEMANTICS
1. Semantics—the study of meaning
2. Some views on semantics
2.1 Naming things: Words are names of things, as held by Aristotle.
2.2 Concepts
The semantic triangle of Ogden and Richards
Thought or reference
Symbol
Referent
2.3 Context and behaviorism
Some linguists think that meaning should be studied in terms of
situation, use, and context — elements closely linked with
language behavior.
“Jill is hungry. She sees an apple and gets
Jack to fetch it for her by speaking to him”.
2.4 Mentalism
Mentalists regard the task of semantics mainly as one to explain
those data supplied by direct resort to intuition by constructing
theories and descriptive rules and categories from which they can
be deduced.
3. Lexical meaning
3.1 Sense and reference
Sense refers to the complex system of relationships that hold
between linguistic elements themselves (mostly the words); it
is concerned only with intra-linguistic relations. sense
relations are in fact a part of the semantic structure of a
language.
Reference deals with relationship between the
linguistic elements (words, sentences,
etc ) and the non- linguistic world
of experience
3.2 Synonymy
Synonymy is used to mean ‘sameness of meaning’. English is rich in
synonyms. has two sources: from Anglo-Saxon and from French, Latin
and Greek
Five types of synonyms:
a) dialectal synonyms: lift/elevator; football/soccer.
b) stylistic synonyms: words differing in ‘styles or registers’: gentleman
(formal)/man (general)/chap (colloquial)
c)emotive synonyms: words differing in emotive or evaluative meanings
statesman (respectful)/politician (derogatory); hide (general)/ conceal
(formal, with intention)
d) collocation synonyms: rotten food (eggs, meat, etc); addled
eggs; rancid bacon or butter; sour milk
e) near synonyms: mature/adult / ripe /
perfect/due; direct/control/determine/require
3.3 Polysemy and homonymy
Polysemy refers to the phenomenon that the same word has a set of
different meanings that are related to each other. E.g. bank/bank
Homonymy refers to the case that two or more meanings (which are
unrelated to each other) may be associated with the same linguistic
form.
Homography: spelled in the same way, but pronounced differently. E.g.;
lead (noun)/lead (verb)
Homophony: pronounced in the same way, but spelled differently. E.g.
won/one; right/write
3.4 Hyponymy
Hyponymy refers to paradigmatic relation between a more specific
lexeme, and a more general lexeme.The upper term is the “superordinate’ and the lower term is the ‘hyponym’. All the members
that can be grouped under the same superordinate are called ‘co-hyponyms’. E.g. cat,
animal; dog, hen, bird.
3.5 Antonymy
The word ‘antonymy’ is a standard technical term used for ‘opposite of
meaning between lexemes.
a) gradable opposites (antonyms)
Two words may be seen in terms of degrees of the quality involved. E.g.
wide/narrow, old/young, big/small.
b) complementarity
One member of the set is complementary to the other. E.g. single/married,
alive/dead. opposites of this kind are called opposites.
3.6 Relational opposites
There is a relation indicating a contrast of direction in such a type
of binary opposition. E.g. win/lose, parent/child, in front of/behind.
4. Componential analysis
The total meaning of a word in terms of a number of distinct elements
or components of meaning (semantic features), some
or all of which will be common to several
different lexemes in the vocabulary.
4.1 Components of meaning
One way of describing the components of a word is to use feature symbols.
man: + HUMAN + ADULT + MALE woman: + HUMAN + ADULT – MALE
boy: + HUMAN – ADULT + MALE girl: + HUMAN – ADULT – MALE
5. Sentence meaning
5.1 How to define the meaning of a sentence?
The meaning of a sentence is the product of both lexical meaning and
grammatical meaning. In other words, it is the product of the meaning
of the constituent lexemes and of the grammatical constructions that
relates one lexeme syntagmatically to another.
5.2 Selectional restrictions
There are many constraints on what lexical items can combine with what
others. These constraints are called selectional
constraints because they can govern the selection of
lexical items for insertion into underlying structure.
5.3 Basic statements about meaning
(X and Y may be assumed for the present to stand for arbitrary sentences)
(i) X is synonymous with Y
(I am an orphan VS I am a child and have no father or mother)
(ii) X entails Y
(I am an orphan entails I have no father)
(iii) X is inconsistent with Y (I am an orphan VS I have a father)
(iv) X is a tautology
(This orphan has no father)
(v) X is a contradiction (This orphan has a father)
(vi) X (positively) presupposes Y (Is your father out presupposes
You have a father)
(vii) X negatively presupposes Y
(If he had a father, things would be different negatively
presupposes he has a father)
(viii) X is semantically anomalous
(This orphan’s father drinks heavily)
6. The semantic structure of sentences
6.1 Extended use of componential analysis
Argument and predicate are constituents of the predications expressed
by sentences. Assuming that all predications can be divided up into
arguments and predicates, we can then apply componential analysis
onto these units and eventually obtain a set of semantic features.
Predicates consist of arguments and predicates, which again consist of
features.
6.2 Predication analysis
Predication analysis refers to the analysis which involves breaking
down the predications into their constituents—arguments and
predicates. Predications containing two arguments, one argument,
or no argument are called a two-place predication, one- place
predication, and a no-place predication
respectively.
The predicate can be regarded as the main element of the predication,
for it includes tense, modality, etc. It may also be said to govern the
arguments, for it determines the number and nature of the arguments.
6.3 Advantages of predication analysis
The componential analysis with the addition of predication analysis can serve as
an adequate semantic theory to provide semantic representations for whole
sentences. It can also enable us to make predictions regarding entailment,
inconsistency, contradiction and other semantic relations.
6.4 Books for further reading:
1. Lyons, J linguistic Semantics: An Introduction. Beijing: FLT & P
Press, 2000
2. Saeed. J. I. Semantics. Beijing: FLT & P Press
2000