Transcript Semantics Theory

“Communication is not merely words in proper order,
properly inflected assertions in proper relation to each
other, or assertions in proper relation to referents… It is all
these, together with the reactions of the nervous systems of
the human beings involved in the communication.”
Semantics
Theory
By: Megan Sturycz
Kelsey Hoff
Stephanie Morse
Semantics Theory
•The study of language with special
concern for the meanings of words
and other symbols.
•The philosophical or linguistic
study of meanings in language. The
semantic aspect of any expression is
its meaning as opposed to its form.
Semantics Theory Cont…
• In general, the study of the relationship between
words and meanings. The empirical study of word
meanings and sentence meanings in existing
languages is a branch of linguistics
• Semantics is distinguished from ontology, study of
existence, in being about the use of a word more
than the nature of the entity referenced by the word.
This is reflected in the argument, "That's only
semantics," when someone tries to draw conclusions
about what is true about the world based on what is
true about a word.
History of Semantics
• Semantics has its beginnings in France
and Germany in the 1820s when the
meanings of words as significant features
in the growth of language was recognized.
• In philosophy, semantics has generally
followed the lead of symbolic logic, and
many philosophers do not make a
distinction between logic and semantics.
Semantics is concerned with such issues
as meaning and truth, meaning and
thought, and the relation between signs
and what they mean.
Contributing Theorists:
• Some of the Ideas and the
contributing Theorists that we
researched were:
–I.A Richards
–Alfred Korzybski
–Ferdinand Saussure
–Alfred Tarski’s &
–Gerhard Gentzen
I. A Richards
• I.A Richards was a novice member of the field who
found himself at the odds with emphasis on Public
Speaking. Richards embraced the goal of
improving everyday communication by
discovering the ways in which words distort,
obscure and complicate understanding people.
Alfred Korzybski
• Alfred Korzybski - Words are like maps. If a map is not
the territory it represents, a word is not the object it
represents. Also a map cannot contain all of the territory
� it can only hope to represent the structure of the
territory. Two important characteristics of maps should
be noticed. A map is not the territory it represents, but, if
correct, it has a similar structure to the territory, which
accounts for its usefulness.
Ferdinand Saussure
"A sign is the basic unit of language.
Every language is a complete system
of signs. Parole is an external
manifestation of language."
-Ferdinand Saussure
• Ferdinand de Saussure’s contributions to semantic theory include his
term and studies on semiology, or semiotics, which comes from the
Greek word for sign. He defines it as “science that studies the life of
signs within society… [it] would show what constitutes signs, what laws
govern them” (1959, 16). Saussure speaks of signs in terms of the
concept and the sound-image.
• He also determined that the sign is arbitrary and linear; a concept and
sound-image are only related because somebody named it that, and
they only make sense when placed in a linear arrangement.
Alfred Tarski & Gerhard Gentzen
• Many of the formal approaches to semantics applied in
linguistics, mathematical logic, and computer science
originated in techniques for the semantics of logic, most
influentially being Alfred Tarski's ideas in model theory and
his semantic theory of truth. Also, inferential role semantics
has its roots in the work of Gerhard Gentzen on proof theory
and proof-theoretic semantics. One of the most popular
alternatives to the standard model theoretic semantics is
truth-value semantics.
Definitions
• Semantics - denotes a range of ideas and is often used in
ordinary language to denote a problem of understanding
that comes down to word selection or connotation.
• Linguistics - it is the study of interpretation of signs or
symbols as used by communities within particular
circumstances and contexts. Within this view, sounds,
facial expressions, body language, proxemics have
semantic or meaningful content.
• Pragmatics - The study of the relationships between the
symbols of a language, their meaning, and the users of
the language
• Sound-image: the natural representation of the word as
a fact of potential language, outside any actual use of it
in speaking.
Basic Concepts of Semantics
• Three basic concepts in the field of
Semantics:
– The relations of words to the
objects denoted by them.
– The relations of words to the
interpreters of them.
– In symbolic logic, the formal
relations of signs to one another
Semantics Triangle
• The "triangle" of Semantics shows the relations
between words, thoughts, and things.
Abstract Symbols
Words, the means of verbal communication, are
arbitrary, abstract symbols; most of them do not
look or sound like the things they represent
Ambiguous Symbols
1. For example, for most people, the above sign means: "Here's a
baby changing table."
2. But when I look at it with an ambiguous attitude, I think: Let's
Go Bowling! If you look carefully, you can see the bowler has
taken the bowling ball out of the bag, and it's resting in the ball
return area. And he's got his hand over the air blower to
remove moisture so the ball doesn't slip out of his fingers.
Applied to Daily Life
& Language
Applied to daily life and language:
• A word is not what it represents.
• A word does not represent all of
the facts, etc.
• Language is self-reflexive in the
sense that in language we can
speak about language.
Communications Behavior
Related to Semantics Theory
Example 1:
Symbols are
Arbitrary
Example 2:
Illusory
Object
Communications Behavior
Related to Semantics Theory
What I
consider a
Cat and
what you
consider a
Cat can be
two
completely
different
things
Symbols are Arbitrary?
Symbols are Arbitrary?
• Symbols are different from signals. Symbols
such as words, art, and music have no direct
or natural relationship to what they
represent.
– Example: Cat is an arbitrary symbol that we
use to refer to a particular species of
animal. Like the word cat, all symbols are
conventions that members of cultures use
to represent other things. They are
arbitrary ways of representing reality, not
necessary or natural ones.
Levels of Arbitrary
You can also abstract by moving up
levels. For example, I could say:
1) I saw a red child's balloon floating in
the air in the park last summer
2) I saw a balloon.
3) I saw something.
4) I had a sensory experience
Level of Abstraction (Arbitrary) Statement
Communications Behavior
Related to Semantics Theory
What do you
see?
A Beautiful
Young Woman
with a feather
on her head
Or
A an old
woman with a
wart on her
nose
Example 2: Illusory Object
Explanation of Illusory Object
• In this case an illusory object because different
people viewing it will see different pictures.
Some see a pretty young woman, others an old
woman. When I look at the picture, the images
flip, so when I look at the young beauty for a
while she transforms into the old woman, and
vice versa! Some people can see other things in
the picture. The point is that the picture is the
same, it does not change, but our brains will
take so much information from the picture to
make a picture of our own.
Theory
Application
Sesame Street: Plain White T’s Song
This video is a song focusing on the letter T and the sound it
makes. The song shows lots of things that begin with T and
makes the sound of T several times.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABaWlQgzh90
Testing Semantic Theory
• Scope
• Testability
• Utility
• Parsimony
• Heurism
Semantics Can Be Funny!
References:
• Allen. G and Unwin: (1922). The Foundations of Aesthetics Coauthored with C. K. Ogden and James Wood. 2nd. Lear Publishers:
New York
• Basescu, Bernard. (1979) "On the Use of General Semantics
Formulations in the Practice of Gestalt Therapy." General Semantics
Bulletin, No. 46, Institute of General Semantics, Lakeville, CT, pp.
57-66
• Doris, G. (1983) General Semantics Bulletin Number 50. Vol. XI, No.
3, 1983, pp. 159-166.
• European Journal of Humanistic Psychology.
• Gladstone. K (2002) “Words, Words, Words: Robert Heinlein and
General Semantics”. Heinlein Journal Issue No.11. Institute of
General Semantics.
• Harry L. Weinberg (1973) “Levels of Knowing and Existence”
Studies in General Semantic. Institute of General Semantics.
• Johnson, Nicholas. (2009) What Do You Mean and How Do You
Know? 1st Edition. Lulu.com.
References Continued…
• Korzybski, Alfred. (1958) Science and Sanity: An Introduction to
Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics, 4th Edition,
International Non-Aristotelian Library Publishing Co. Lakeville, CT
• Šaumjan, S.K. (1971). Principles of Structural Linguistics. The
Hague, The Netherlands.
• Mouton.
• Rapoport, Anatol, "What is Semantics?" in the Autumn 1952 issue of
ETC: A Review of General Semantics. — Ed.
• Saussure, F. (1959). Course in General Linguistics. New York:
Philosophical Library.
• Whorf, B.L.(1971) Language, Thought and Reality. Edited by John
E. Carroll, M.I.T. Press
• Wood. J (2004). Communication Theories in Action 3rd Edition.
Boston, MA: Wadsworth
• (1981). For semantics in linguistics, see S. Ullman, Semantics
(1962) and The Principles of Semantics (1957, repr. 1967)