Chapter Six Semantics胡壮麟语言学讲义第六章(复习)

Chapter 6 MeaningTeaching aims: enable the students to have a better understanding of semantics and wording meaning.Focal points: Leech’s seven classifications of meaning, semantic triangle, sense relations between words and sentencesTeaching difficulties: sense relations between sentences, different types of antonymyTeaching procedure：The outline of the chapter:1 Semantics2 Meanings of “meaning”2.1 meaning by Ogdan and Richards2. 2 meaning by G. Leech3 Theories3.1 The referential theoryP953.1.1 concept3.1.2 arguments3.1.3 problems3.2 Semantic triangle3.2.1 concept3.2.2 arguments3.3 Conceptual meaning3.3.1 concept3.3.2 arguments p963.3.3 problems4 Major Sense relations4.1 Sense relations between words4.1.1 Sense relations4.1.2 word meaningP974.1.3 componential analysis: word meaning analysis 4.2 Sense relations between sentences4.2.1 Sense relations4.2.2 Sentence meaning4.2.3 integrated theory (Sentence meaning analysis)1 SemanticsThe subject concerning the study of meaning is called semantics. In linguistics, semantics is thestudy of the meaning of linguistic units, words and sentences in particular. Its goal is to reveal how language is matched with their proper meanings by the speakers of that language. Semantics is an old and young branch. Dating from Plato, the study of meaning has a long history.So you may find several books bearing the title “semantics” buttalking about different things. Here we just focus on linguistic semantics.In linguistics, compared with other branches we have discussed, semantics is very young and new. The term semantics is a recent addition to the English language.It has only a history of over 100 years.1893 French linguist Breal coined “semantique”1897 Breal first use it as the science of meaning.1900 its English version came out1980s semantics began to be introduced into China “Cinderella of linguistics” (Kempson)One of the most famous books on semantics is The Meaning of Meaning published in 1923.2 Meanings of “meaning”2.1 meaning (by Ogdan and Richards)1) their book about meaning2)arguments: 16 major categoryWhat is the meaning of “desk”?√I didn't mean to hurt you. (intend)Life without faith has no meaning. (value)It was John I mean not Harry (refer to ) √2.2 meaning (by G. Leech)1)his book about meaning2)arguments: 7 major categoryDenotation: the core sense of a word or a phrase that relates it to phenomena in the real world.Connotation: some additional, esp. emotive meaning.3 Theories3.1 The referential theory3.1.1 conceptThe referential theory Relates the meaning of a word to the thing it refers to, or stand for.3.1.2 arguments3.1.3 problems3.2 the semantic triangle3.2.1 concept3.2.2 argumentsProposed by Ogden & Richards in their “The Meaning of Meaning”. They saw the relationship between the word and the thing it refers to is not direct. It’s mediated by concept.thought or referencesymbol referentIn this diagram, the symbol o r form refers to linguistic elements (words, phrases), the referent refers to the things in the real world, and t hought or reference refers to “concept”.e.g. The dog over there looks unfriendly.The word “dog” is directly associated with a certain concept in our mind, i.e. what a “dog” is like, but it is not directly linked to the referent (the particular dog) in this particular case. Thus, the symbol of a word signifies thing by virtue of the concept associated with the form of the word in the mind of the speaker of a language, and the concept looked at from this point of view is the meaning of the word.3.3 Conceptual meaningSense and reference are the two terms often encountered in the study of word meaning. They are two related but different aspects of meaning3.3.1 concept.1)Sense-----the inherent meaning of the linguistic form. It is the collection of all the features of the linguistic form; It’s abstract and de-contextualized. It’s t he aspect of meaning dictionary compilers are interested in. It is concerned with the intra-linguistic relations.2) Reference-----What a linguistic form refers to in the real, physical world; It deals with the relationship between the linguistic elements and the non-linguistic world of experience. For example, the word “dog” is given the definition “a common domestic animal kept by human beings for work, hunting etc or as a pet”. This doesn’t refer to any particular dog that exists in the real world, but applies to any animal that meets the features described in the definition, so this is the sense of the word “dog”. But if we say “The dog is barking”, we must be talking about a certain dog existent in the situation, the word “dog” refers to a dog known to both the speaker and the hearer. This is the reference of the word “dog” in this particular situation.3.3.2 arguments3.3.3 problemsTo some extent, we can say every word has a sense, i.e. some conceptual content. But not every word has a reference e.g.grammatical words like but if etc, don’t refer to anything. Linguistic forms having the same sense may have different references in different situations.e.g. I was bitten by a dog.Mind you. There is a dog over there.Here the two “dog” bear the sam e sense, but have two different references in the two utterances. Sometimes linguistic forms with the same reference might differ in sensee.g. “morning star” and “ evening star” can refer to the same star “Venus”4 Major Sense relations4.1 Sense relations between wordsWords are in different sense relations with each other. There are generally 3 kinds of sense relations: sameness relation, oppositeness relation and inclusiveness relation.4.1.1 Sense relations1) synonymySameness or close similarity of meaning.Words that are close in meaning are called synonyms.2) AntonymyOppositeness of meaningWords that are opposite in meaning are antonyms.Oppositeness can be found on different dimensions.①Gradable antonymy (mainly adj.)good/ bad, long /short, narrow/ wideThey are gradable. That is, the members of a pair differ in terms of degree. The denial of one is not necessarily the assertion of the other. There are often intermediate forms between them.②Complementary antonymyalive/ dead, male/ female, present/ absent, pass/ fail , boy/ girlIt is characterized by the feature that the denial of one member ofthe pair implies the assertion of the other and the assertion of one means the denialof the other.In other words, it is not a matter of degree between two extremes, but a matter of either one or the other.③Converse antonymy (relational opposites)buy/ sell, lend/ borrow, before /after, teacher/ student, above /belowThe members of a pair do not constitute a positive-negative opposition. They show the reversal of a relationship between two entities.3) Hyponymy ( a matter of class membership)the sense relation between a more general,more inclusive word and a more specific words .cow/ animal, rose/ flower, honesty/ virtueThe word which is more general in meaning is called the superordinate, and the more specific word are called its hyponyms. Hyponyms of the same super-ordinate are co-hyponyms to each other.4.1.2 word meaningP974.1.3 componential analysis:word meaning analysisComponential analysis refers to an approach adopted by structural semanticists in describing the meaning of words or phrases. This approach is based on the belief that the total meaning of a word can be analyzed in terms of a number of distinct elements or meaning components (called semantic features)The study of meaning in any language shows that lexical items overlap in meaning and share common properties e.g. Lions and tigers both contain an element of “wild animal ness”. Calf puppy and baby can be considered as all sharing an element of non adultness, while cow, woman and tigress all containing an element of “femaleness, But because of other properties each word contains, none of them will be said as being synonymous to any one of the others.One attempt to account for this phenomenon is to assume that lexical items, like phonemes are made up out of a number of component parts. Componential analysis is often seen as a processaiming at breaking down the meaning of a word into its minimal distinctive features or properties, which are also called components by some linguists. One way of describing the components of a word is to use feature symbols, which are usually written in capitalized letters, with “+” “-“ before them, plus sign indicates the presence of a certain property, and minus sign indicates the absence of it. e.g.man : + HUMAN+ ADULT+ MALEwoman: + HUMAN+ ADULT- MALEboy: + HUMAN- ADULT+ MALEgirl: + HUMAN- ADULT- MALEwords like father, mother, daughter and son, which involves a relation between two entities, may be shown as follows:father = PARENT (X,Y) & MALE (X)mother = PARENT (X,Y) & MALE (X)verbs can also be analyzed in this way, for exampletake = CAUSE (X, (HAVE (X,Y))give= CAUSE (X, (HAVE (X,Y)))•Advantages: by specifying the semantic features of certain words, we may better account for sense relations,Synonymy ---- having the same semantic components Antonymy ----- having a contrasting componentHyponymy-----having all semantic components of another.•Disadvantages: It would be senseless to analyze the meaning of everyword by breaking it into its meaning components.4.2 Sense relations between sentencesSense relationships also exist between sentences4.2.1 Sense relations1) A entails B ( A is an entailment of B )A: He has been to France.B: He has been to Europe.A: John picked a tulip.B: John picked a flower.Entailment is a relation of inclusion if x entails y, the meaning of x is included in y.In term of truth value: If x is true, y is necessarily true; If x is false, y may be true or false; If y is true, x may be true or false, If Y is false, x is false.In formula: A→B-B→-A2) Presupposition (A presupposes B)A: The queen of England is old.B: England has a queen.A: Is your father at home?B: You have a father.It refers to the kind of meaning which the speaker doesn’t assert but assumes the hearer can identify form the sentence.In term of truth value: If A is true, B must be true. If A is false, B is still true; If B is true, A is either true or false. If B is false, no truth value can be said about A.In formula: A→B-A→B3) A is inconsistent with BA: John is marriedB: John is a bachelorIn term of truth value: If A is true, B is false and if A is false, B is true.4 ) A is synonymous with BA: The boy killed the dog.B: The dog was killed by the boy.5) A is a contradictionMy unmarried sister is married to a bachelor.6 ) A is semantically anomalousThe table has bad intentions.4.2.2 Sentence meaningThe defining of sentence meaning has turned out to be a more complicated issue than the defining of the meanings of individual lexical items. The meaning of a sentence is not simply the sum total of the meanings of all its components. The meaning of a sentence is a product of both lexical and grammatical meaning. There are two aspects to sentence meaning: grammatical meaning and semantic meaning.4.2.3 integrated thoery1) the theory2) main argument3) semantic analysis4) problemsHomework:1 Explain the internal structures of the following wordsSimplify dis-tempered sunflower desk2 what are differences between inflectional morphemes and derivational morphemes?3 Analyze the sentence with the structural approach : The girl hit the colorful ball.4 Give the name of the word-formation process for each of the following word and give the word(s) from which they are derived.Workmate windmill Coke transistor boatel bus(verb) flu fan bike plane WTO NATO Radar tea laser enthusiasm.5 What is positional relation? Explain the sentence:Boy the ball kicked the.6 make 3 sentences in terms of relation of substitutability based on thefollowing sentence: The boy smiles.7 Analyze the construction of the following sentences:1)The boy like English. (from the traditional approach)2)Mary passed the entrance exam. (from the structural approach)8 Explain your understanding of the three theories we have learned by using the following words as proper examples: Mary chair table ghost God success9 Does animal language have duality, why?10 Explain the meaning of the following sentences by using the integrated theory. The man hit the colorful ball.11 Explain the meaning of the following two sentences:1)The man chased the dog.2)The dog chased the man.12 What are the differences between semantics and pragmatics?。