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Chapter 1: Basic Ideas
Semantics
The meaning of ‘meaning’
What is semantics?
The study of meaning in language
Good morning!
What do you mean?
Do you wish me a
good morning, or
mean that it is a
good morning
whether we want it
or not, or
that YOU feel me
good this morning,
or
that is a morning
to be good on?
Bilbo greeted Gandalf by
saying ‘good morning’ outside
his house.
Alice in Wonderland
“And only one birthday
presents, you know. There is
glory for you!”
“I don’t know what you mean
by ‘glory,’” Alice said.
“Of course you don’t-till I tell
you. I meant ‘there’s nice
knockdown argument for you.’”
“But ‘glory’ doesn’t mean ‘a
nice knockdown argument,”
Alice objected.
‘Mean’ meaning…
Sentence meaning
Literal meaning of the sentence
Speaker meaning
The speaker’s intention
Language: the loaded weapon
My shoes are killing me!
人言可畏
We should gather together for a
drink some time.
Will you make the phone call?
Sentences, utterances, and
propositions
utterances
Partial or complete set of words,
phrases, or sentences.
Coffee, please.
A cup of coffee, please.
I’d like a cup of coffee, please.
Sentences
A grammatical string of words
*Coffee, please.
*A cup of coffee, please.
I’d like a cup of coffee, please.
Propositions
A central semantic concept
The truth value of a declarative
sentence
True or false
Example:
John gave Mary the flowers.
Mary was given the flowers by John.
utterances
sentences
proposition
Can be loud or
quiet
+
-
-
Can be
grammatical or not
+
+
-
Can be true or
false
+
+
+
In a particular
regional accent
+
-
-
In a particular
language
+
+
-
Reference & Sense
Reference
The thing/person in the world being
talked about
referent
An expression with
different references
The President declared war on Iraq
in the White House today.
in 1990
in 2003
An expression with
constant reference
The moon, the sun.
Your boyfriend?
Different expressions with
the same reference
Smiley sat quietly in the car. He
watched Karla walking across the
dark street. The chief of Soviet
Intelligence is up to something,
thought Smiley.
Voldmore is an evil character in
Harry Potter. He-who-must-not-benamed is determined to kill Harry
Potter in every episode.
An expression with no (physical)
reference
Function words
and, if, the
Myth creatures
Unicorn, phoenix
sense
The sense of an expression is its
place in a system of semantic
relationships with other expressions
in the language
Sense in words and sentences
Sense in words
Sameness: synonyms
Contrast: antonyms
A word with multiple senses
Polysemy
Sense in phrases and sentences
You write down the answer./You write
the answer down.
Tom is a bachelor./Tom is single and
unmarried.
A sentence with multiple senses.
The chicken is ready to eat.
Reference vs. sense
Reference
A thing/person in the world
Sense
Abstraction
Assignment 1
Find the following types of reference in
news articles and explain why they fit into
the type of reference.
An expression with different references
An expression with constant reference
Different expressions with the same reference
An expression with no (physical) reference
How to turn in the assignment:
Email to: [email protected]
Filename/email subject
Semantics_01_ID
Due:10/14