语言学导论第五章

semantics语义学 --- the study of meaning in language (1) What is meaning? 1. naming theory (by Plato): Words are just names or labels for things e.g. desk --- a piece of furniture with a flat top and four legs, at which one reads and writes Some words are definitely not labels of objects. e.g. jump, quickly, pretty, and, in, hatred Some words denote things that do not exist in the real world. e.g. ghost, unicorn, dragon, Santa Claus
(5) sentence meaning: a. The cat chased the dog. b. The dog chased the cat. sentence meaning=lexical meaning +grammatical meaning *Green clouds are sleeping furiously. *Sincerity shook hands with the black apple. meaningfulness --- the semantic well – formedness of a sentence
Chapter 5 Sema. What’s wrong with the sentence “this rectangle is three meters long, five meters wide”? 2. Explain the sentence “colorless green ideas sleep furiously”.
4. homonymy: words having different meanings have the same form A. homophones: words that are identical in sounds e.g. sow/sew meat/meet rite/right B. homographs: words that are identical in spelling e.g. live adj./live v. minute adj./minute n. C. complete homonyms: words that are identical in both sound and spelling e.g. bear v./bear n. well adv./well n.
exception:How true is the story? (true:false)
C. relational opposites: host:guest above:below parent:child teacher:student bigger:smaller
before:after give:receive
B. complementary antonyms/ungradable opposites: innocent:guilty odd:even boy:girl hit:miss (a target) Not only the assertion of one means the denial of the other, the denial of one also means the assertion of the other. There is no intermediate ground between the two. It is a question of two term choice: yes or no; not a multiple choice, a choice between more or less.
symbol/form
referent
3. contextualism (by Firth): Meaning should be decided in terms of situation, use and context. linguistic context: greenhouse greenhand green tea situational context: The seal could not be found. She is at the bank.
Linguistic form having the same sense may have different references in different situations. e.g.the President of America: Washington Roosevelt Obama Linguistic forms with the same reference might differ in sense. e.g. the Prime Minister of Britain the leader of the Conservative Party In 1994, both referred to John Major.
2. the conceptualist view (by Ogden and Richards): There is no direct link between a linguistic form and what it refers to; rather, in the interpretation of meaning they are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind. thought/reference
One presupposes the other. ‘X is the parent of Y’ presupposes ‘Y is the child of X’.
3. polysemy: the same word my have more than one meaning ‘table’: a piece of furniture (a kitchen table) the food that is put on a table (set an abundant table) all the people seated at a table (He came in and the table fell suddenly silent.)
Adjectives in this type cannot be modified by ‘very’. They do not have comparative or superlative degrees. He is more dead than alive. (not a true comparative) *John is more dead than Peter. John is more mad than stupid. Mary is madder than Alice.
(3) sense relations: 1.synonymy: the sameness or close similarity of meaning A. dialectal synonyms: lift --- elevator sweets --- candy B. stylistic synonyms: gratitude --- thanks inquire --- ask C. synonyms differing in emotive meaning: I’m thrifty. You are economical. He is stingy. D. collocational synonyms: see a movie, watch a match handsome boy, pretty girl
4. behaviorism (by Bloomfield): Meaning of a language form can be defined as “situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer.” Jill S r……s Jack R
(4) componential analysis成分分析: The meaning of a word / phrase can be dissected into meaning components, called semantic features. father: [+PARENT, +MALE] daughter: [+CHILD, -MALE] Words having the same semantic components will be synonymous with each other. e.g.‘bachelor’ and ‘unmarried man’. Words containing contrasting components are antonyms.e.g. ‘man’ and ‘woman’.
3. Which of the following sentences sounds odd? Why? a. My cousin is a male nurse. b. My cousin is a female nurse. c. He arrived late and missed the train. d. He missed the train and arrived late. e. If snow is white, grass is green. f. If snow is black, grass is green. g. If snow were black, grass would be red.
5. hyponymy: relationship between a more general word and a more specific word sheep ram ewe lamb (superordinate, upper term) (hyponyms, lower term)
co-hyponyms
2. antonymy: the oppositeness of meaning A. gradable antonyms: rich:poor like:dislike

The denial of one is not necessarily the assertion of the other. They can be modified by ‘very (much)’. They may have comparative and superlative degree.
(2) sense vs. reference: sense意义 --- the semantic relations between one word and another, it is de-contextualized reference所指 --- the relation between a word and the thing it refers to, it is contextualized e.g. There’s a dog barking at the door. (sense): a domesticated canine mammal, occurring in many breeds that show a great variety in size and form (reference): the dog that is barking at the door