Transcript 11. Language Aquisition

Chapter 5
Semantics
Objectives
1. To learn about conceptions of
meaning
2. To learn about Componential Analysis
and Semantic fields
3. To compare and contrast sense and
reference
4. To study the sense relations between
words and sentences
Definition of semantics
It is the branch of linguistics and logic. The two
main areas are lexical semantics, concerned with
the analysis of word meanings and relations
between them, and logical semantics, concerned
with matters such as sense and reference and
presupposition and implication.
Part 1. Views on Meaning
1. Naming theory
2. The conceptualist view
3. Contextualism
4. Behaviorism
1. Naming Theory
Words are names or labels for things.
Cratylus by Plato (427-347 BC)
Limitations:
1) Applicable to nouns only.
2) There are nouns which denote things that
do not exist in the real world,
e.g. ghost, dragon, unicorn, phoenix…
3) There are nouns that do not refer to
physical objects but abstract notions,
e.g. joy, impulse, hatred…
2. The Conceptualist View
There is no direct link between a linguistic
form and what it refers to (i.e. between
language and the real world);
Rather, the two are linked through the
mediation of concepts in the mind.
Semantic Triangle
(thing)
In the Triangle,
Symbol is something painted, written or spoken we
use to represent another thing.
Referent (thing) so represented by the symbol is that
which is being referred to . It may be real or unreal.
The theory states that there is no direct connection of
symbol and referent, but an indirect connection in our
minds. For each word there is a related concept.
Question for discussion
Can concepts exist apart from the word?
Tip:
Have you ever conceived ideas, images, or pictures
that you find no words for? Real-world examples
of concepts which came before the words that
described or named them: hovercraft, Internet or
where the symbols have changed, but not the
concepts they refer to (radio for wireless, Hoover
for vacuum cleaner, 电话-德律风). This suggests
that the concept is independent of particular
language symbols.
3. Contextualism
One can derive meaning from or
reduce meaning to observable contexts.
(J.R. Firth)
Two kinds of context are recognized:
A. Situational context:
e.g. “The seal could not be found.”
?
B. Linguistic context:
e.g. black tea, black coffee, black sheep
According to the contextualist view, isolated
language units (like words, phrases) are not entities
(therefore, meaningless). What constitutes an
entity (meaning) is the value of something，and
value comes from relations, which constitute a
system. Therefore, language units become entities
(are meaningful) only when they interact with one
another in a system.
In the Chinese chess game, any chess piece
can take the place of any other chess piece
under the condition that both players have
agreed to certain terms. This clearly
demonstrates the importance of a system to
meaning.
4. Behaviorism
Meaning is “the situation in which the speaker
utters it and the response it calls forth in the
hearer”.
(L. Bloomfield, 1933)
The contextualist view was further strengthened
by Bloomfield, who drew on behaviorist
psychology when he tried to define the meaning
of linguistic forms. This theory is somewhat close
to contextualism.
When food is presented, the dog will salivate. If every time
Mr. Pavlov is paired with food, Mr. Pavlov will elicit
response of salivation– now called a conditioned Response.
If a=a, no new message is conveyed; but if a=b,
the equation has been imbued with the value of
human knowledge (Gottlob Frege,1848-1925 )
The story of Jack and Jill
Suppose Jack and Jill are walking down the lane.
Jill is hungry. She sees an apple in a tree. She
makes a noise with her larynx, tongue and lips.
Jack vaults the fence, climbs the tree, takes the
apple, brings it to Jill, and places it in her hand.
Jill eats the apple. (Bloomfield, 1933:22)
Jill’s hunger and her sight of an apple (S). Her
request of Jack to bring it her (r) = Jack's hearing
of her (s). His action of bringing her the apple (R).
Jill
Jack
S_________r ……. s _________R
Limitations of Behaviorism
Bloomfield’s behaviorist model leads to
obvious problems:
Jack doesn’t bring Jill the apple because of a
quarrel years before, or he brings several
apples and a glass of beer.
What is meaning?
What is the meaning of “desk”? (denotation)
I didn’t mean to hurt you. (intend)
Life without faith has no meaning. (value)
It was John I mean not Harry (refer to )
Seven different meanings
According to G. Leech (1981), there are at least
7 types of lexical meaning.
1. Denotative meaning
2. Connotative meaning
3. social meaning
4. affective meaning
5. reflected meaning
6.collocative meaning
7. thematic meaning
1. Denotative meaning
is the dictionary meaning, the most direct or
specific meaning, the meaning that is given
explicitly rather than by suggestion of a
word or expression.
2. Connotative meaning
is “the communicative value an expression has by
virtue of what it refers to” (Leech 1981: 12).
It embraces the properties of the referent and is,
therefore, peripheral.
e.g. dog = loyalty
Connotative meaning is subject to culture and
experience.
Social meaning
(sometimes termed stylistic meaning) is what is
conveyed about the social circumstances of the use
of a linguistic expression, including regional or/and
social overtones and formality.
e.g. 计程车（Taiwan）
令郎婚否？(letter writing)
Affective meaning
is what is communicated of the feeling or attitude
of the speaker/writer toward what is referred to.
Statesman is commending in sense while politician
is derogatory.
Reflected meaning
is what is communicated through association
with another sense of the same expression. In
order to avoid reflected meaning some
expressions are deliberately replaced by others.
e.g.
Chicken thighs are labeled as drumsticks in
Western supermarkets, and chicken breast is
called white meat. Words that have a taboo
meaning tend to be replaced. Cock is now
substituted by rooster.
Collocative meaning
is the associated meaning a word acquires in line
with the meaning of words which tend to co-occur
with it. Both pretty and handsome mean goodlooking but they differ in collocative meaning.
Pretty co-occurs with someone or something
feminine: girl, woman, flower, skirt, etc. Handsome
often collocates with someone or something
masculine：boy, man, car, overcoat.
Other examples: rancid bacon/butter; rotten egg;
sour milk.
Thematic meaning
is conveyed by different ways of organizing the
information (order, means of emphasis, the
position of focus).
e.g.
(1a) They stopped at the end of the road.
(1b) At the end of the road, they stopped.
(2a) My brother owns the largest book-shop in
London.
(2b) The largest book-shop in London belongs to
my brother.
Important Message
Awareness of the existence of these types of
associative meaning is important in the correct use
of words.
In writing and translation, knowledge of social
meaning directly affects communication. Whether
the writer/speaker means to be polite or rude,
formal or informal, directly determines the choice
of words. And the appropriate use of a word is
based on the mastery of all types of meaning.
What is theme and
what is rheme?
Halliday defines “theme” as the element which
serves as the point of departure of the message, and
“rheme” as the remainder of the message, i.e., what
the speaker states about.
Compare the two sentences below:
1. John
sat
Subject
Predicate
Theme
Rheme
2. In the front seat
in the front seat.
Adverbial
sat
Adverbial
Predicate
Theme
Rheme
John.
Subject
John is the grammatical subject in both sentences,
but theme in 1 and part of rheme in 2.
Part 2. Componential Analysis
--is a way to analyze lexical meaning. The
approach is based on the belief that the
meaning of a word can be dissected into
meaning components, called semantic
features.
Representations of semantic components
Geoffrey Leech
Binary taxonomy
+LIVE = alive，-LIVE = dead
Multiple taxonomy
*METAL = gold，#METAL = silver
@METAL = copper
Polarity
^SIZE = large，vSIZE = small
Relation
>PARENT = is the parent of
<PARENT = is the child of
Hierarchy
1LENGTH = inch, 2LENGTH = foot
3LENGTH = yard
Inverse opposition
{POSSIBLE = possible
}POSSIBLE = necessary
father =[+MALE >PARENT]
daughter = [-MALE <PARENT]
grandfather =[+MALE >PARENT>PARENT]
Man: [+HUMAN+ADULT+ANIMATE +MALE]
Boy: [+HUMAN -ADULT +ANIMATE +MALE]
Woman: [+HUMAN +ADULT +ANIMATE MALE]
Girl: [+HUMAN -ADULT +ANIMATE -MALE]
father = PARENT (x, y) & MALE (x)
mother = PARENT (x, y) & ̶ MALE (x)
take = CAUSE (x , (HAVE (x, y )))
give = CAUSE (x , (― HAVE (x, y )))
NB: x is a parent of y, and x is male.
x causes x to have y.
Part 3. Semantic field
The semantic field of a word is the set of
sememes (distinct meanings) expressed
by the word. It is a term to refer to the
phenomenon that vocabulary is an
integrated system interrelated in sense
and can be divided into semantically
related sets or fields.
The semantic field of a given word shifts
over time — For example, the English
word “man” used to mean “human being”
exclusively, while today it predominantly
means “adult male”, but its semantic field
still extends in some uses to the generic
“human”.
Overlapping semantic fields are problematic,
especially in translation. Polysemous words are
often untranslatable, especially with all their
connotations. Such words are frequently loaned
instead of translated.
---Examples include “chivalry” (literally
“horsemanship” but knightly virtues, honor and
courtly love ), Bla-ma (ocean monk - the living
incarnation of the bodhisattva of compassion-至
高无上者或至尊导师 ).
Part 4. Sense and Reference
The reference of a word is the thing it refers to.
e.g.
“Give the guy sitting next to you a turn.” the
guy refers to a specific person, i.e. the male
one sitting next to you. This person is the
phrase’s reference.
Cf. J.S. Mill: denotation
The sense is that part of the expression that helps
us to determine the thing it refers to. In the
example above, the sense is every piece of
information that helps to determine that the
expression is referring to the male human sitting
next to you and not any other object. This
includes any linguistic information as well as
situational context, environmental details, and so
on.
Cf. J.S. Mill: connotation
Two aspects of meaning:
Reference is the relation by which a word picks
out or identifies an entity in the world. Some
words are meaningful, but they identify no
entities in the real world,
e.g. dragon, phoenix, unicorn, mermaid, but,
and, of, however, the, etc.
Cf. nonsense
Sense is the relation by which words stand in the
human mind. It is a mental representation, the
association with something in the speaker’s or
hearer’s mind.
Linguistic forms having the same reference may differ in
sense.
e.g.
1. Phosphorus is a body illuminated by the sun.
2. Hesperus is a body illuminated by the sun.
The morning star = The evening star?
Ignorant people would attach a truth value to each of the
terms. i.e. Only one sentence is true and the other must be
false. Therefore，the sense of the sentence cannot be the
reference of the same sentence.
A: Somebody came across this word in a
book and told Bertie about it, and Bertie
told me about it.
B: Who is Bertie?
A: Russell.
Bertie
S = Closeness
R=
Russell s = ordinariness
Linguistic forms having the same sense may have
different references in different situations.
e.g.
1. I was once bitten by a dog.
2. Mind you.
3. There is a dog over there.
dog
?
4.1 Sense Relations between Words
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Synonymy
Antonymy
Polysemy
Homonymy
Hyponymy
1. Synonymy
--- refers to the sameness or close similarity of
meaning. Words that are close in meaning are
called synonyms, categorized as:
taxi—cab
dialectal synonyms
petrol—gas
kid—child—offspring
start—begin—commence
rotten—rancid—sour
stylistic synonyms
collocational synonyms
2. Antonymy
--- refers to the relationship between a word
having a meaning opposite to that of another
word. Antonyms are divided into 3 categories:
a. Gradable
b. Complementary
c. Relational
a. Gradable antonyms
---are those that have intermediate forms at
the two ends of the spectrum.
b. Complementary antonyms
---are pairs of words that express absolute
opposites. In this pair, the denial of one
member implies the assertion of the other.
c. Relational antonyms
--- pairs of words that exhibit the reversal of the
relationship between two items.
Work in pairs and give 4 examples of each type.
3. Polysemy
---the case that the same one word may have more
than one meaning.
e.g. “table” may mean:
1) a piece of furniture
2) all the people seated at such furniture
3) the food that is put on such furniture
4) orderly arrangement of facts, figures, etc.
4. Homonymy
--- the phenomenon that words having
different meanings have the same sound or
spelling, in both.
1) Homophone
When two words are identical in sound, they are
homophones. e.g. rain-reign, night/knight, …
2) Homograph
When two words are identical in spelling, they
are homographs. e.g. tear(n.)-tear(v.), lead(n.)lead(v.), …
3) Complete homonym
When two words are identical in both sound and
spelling, they are complete homonyms. e.g.
ball, bank, watch, scale, fast, …
NB:
A polysemous word is the result of the
evolution of the primary meaning of the
word (the etymology of the word); while
complete homonyms are often brought into
being by coincidence.
e.g.
Fun → elbow end of the humerus → practical
joke → trick → cheat → counterfeit
5. Hyponymy
--- the sense relation between a more general, more
inclusive word (superordinate) and a more
specific word (hyponym).
Example of Hyponymy
flower (superordinate)
rose
tulip chrysanthemum lily
(co-hyponyms)
6. Meronymy
Meronymy is a term used to describe a partwhole relationship between lexical items. We
can identify this relationship by using sentence
frames like “X is part of Y”, or “Y has X” , as
in “a page is part of a book”, or “A book has
pages”.
How does meronymy differ from
hyponymy?


Hyponymy has to do with inclusiveness. For example, bird
is the superordinate to crow, hawk, duck, and we cannot say
“A bird has crows, or hawks”, and so on.
Metonymy differs from hyponymy in transitivity.
Hyponymy is always transitive, for example bird is the
superordinate to hawk, hawk is the superordinate to
sparrowhawk, and thus bird is the superordinate to
sparrowhawk. But metonymy may or may not be so. A
transitive example is: nail is a metonym of finger, and
finger of hand. We can see that nail is a metonym of hand.
A non-transitive example is : pane is a metonym of window,
and window of room; but pane is not a metonym of room.
7. Metonymy
-- a figure of speech in which one word or
phrase is substituted for another with
which it is closely associated.
e.g.
Washington = United States government
carrot and stick =a policy of offering a
combination of rewards and punishment
to induce behavior
4.2 Sense relations between
sentences
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
X is synonymous with Y
X is inconsistent with Y
X entails Y
X presupposes Y
X is a contradiction
X is semantically anomalous
1) Synonymy
If X is true, Y is true;
If X is false, Y is false.
e.g.
X: He was a bachelor all his life.
Y: He never got married.
X: The gardener killed the plant.
Y: The plant was killed by the gardener.
2) Inconsistency
If X is true, Y is false;
If X is false, Y is true.
e.g.
X: He is single.
Y: He has a wife.
X: This is my first visit to Beijing.
Y: I have been to Beijing twice.
3) Entailment
If X is true, Y is necessarily true;
If X is false , Y may be true or false.
Entailment is a relation of inclusion. If X entails Y,
then the meaning of X is included in Y, e.g.
X. The gardener killed the plant.
Y. The plant is dead.
X: Mary has been to France.
Y: Mary has been to Europe.
Lexical Entailment
Syntactic Entailment
Modification, complementation
X. He walked to school slowly.
Y. He walked to school.
Z. He walk.
X entails Y and Z; Y entails Z, but not vice versa.
Mutual Entailment
John is a bachelor.
John is unmarried.
4) Presupposition
If X is true, Y must be true;
If X is false, Y is still true.
X: Let’s call it a day.
Y: We have been doing something.
X: Paul has given up smoking.
Y: Paul once smoked.
Cf.
The present King of France is bald.
6) Anomaly
The argument and the predicate are self-contradictory
or incompatible.
e.g.
*The man is pregnant.
*The table has bad intentions.
*Sincerity shakes hands with the black apple.
*My unmarried sister is married to a bachelor.
*The orphan’s parents are pretty well-off.
Part 5 Predication analysis
-- a way to analyze sentence meaning
NB:
Unlike word meaning, sentence meaning
is not the sum of the individual words. Rather,
sentence meaning is two-fold: grammaticality and
selectional restrictions.
*Dog have chasing those cat.
*The he me gave book.
*He will gone Beijing yesterday.
*Colorless ideas sleep curiously.
*Sincerity shook hands with black
apples.
Key concepts in the analysis
Predication
---the abstraction of the meaning of a sentence,
consisting of argument (s) and predicate.
Argument
--- a logical participant in a predication, largely
identical with the nominal elements in a sentence.
Predicate
--- something said about an argument or it states the
logical relation linking the arguments in a sentence.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
All the following are said to have the same
predication TOM(SMOKE):
Tom smokes.
Tom is smoking.
Tom has been smoking.
Tom used to smoke.
Tom, smoke!
Does Tom smoke?
Predications are classified according to the
number of nominal elements contained in a
predication, e.g.
No-place predication : It is raining.
One-place predication: Tom smokes.
Two-place predication: Kids like apples.
Three-place predication: The student has returned
the book to the library.
Question for discussion
Look at the following sentence:
Dogs bark.
Does the fact that there is more than one dog
make ‘bark’ the correct choice? Or does the
fact that some animals ‘bark’ make ‘dogs’ the
right choice?