11 September 2006

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LING 2003 Semantics Lecture 1 INTRODUCTION TO
SEMANTICS

• 11 September 2006
• By Dr. Olga Zayts
• zayts_at_hkucc.hku.hk

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Lecture overview

• Course description assessment.
• Definition of semantics and the scope of
  semantics minimum meaningful units.
• Linguistic and non-linguistic approaches to the
  study of meaning. Origin of semantics.
• Pragmatics distinguished from semantics.
• Introduction of some semantic terminology
  utterances, sentences and propositions literal
  and non-literal meaning.

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Definition of semantics

• Semantics is generally defined as the study of
  meaning (see, for example, Lyons, 1977 1
  Hurford, Heasley, 1983 1)
• Saeed (2003 3) Semantics is the study of the
  meaning of words and sentences.
• Griffith (2006 1) Semantics is the study of
  the toolkit for meaning knowledge encoded in
  the vocabulary of the language and in its
  patterns for building more elaborate meanings, up
  to the level of sentence meaning. (my emphasis)

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Scope of semantics

• Linguistics involves different levels of
  analysis
• phonemes (phonology)
• morphemes (morphology)
• words
• Phrases (syntax)
• Sentences (syntax)

semantics
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Linguistic meaning phonemes and morphemes?

• Traditionally the first two levels of analysis
  are dismissed in semantics as words are
  considered to be the minimal meaningful units.
• Some linguists talk about phonetic meaning (e.g.
  linguists from the St. Petersburg State
  University (Prof. Voronin) are insisting on the
  necessity of separating a linguistic discipline
  phonosemantics).

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Linguistic meaning morphological level

• Onomatopoeia lexical items that imitate the
  sounds they represent. In English they can be
  grouped on the basis of initial consonants,
  vowels or final consonants (CEL, 1997 176)
• Examples
• /sl-/ slime, slither, slug, sloppy
• Words beginning with /sl-/ are said to convey
  unpleasant associations.
• Slime thick, soft, slippery liquid, esp. mud
  (OALD, 1993 1199).
• Slither slide or slip unsteadily (OALD, 1993
  1200).
• Slug small creature like a snail without a
  shell that moves slowly and lives a slimy trail
  (OALD, 1993 1202).
• Sloppy 1) careless and untidy in dress 2) done
  in a careless and untidy way 3) covered with
  spilled water (OALD, 1993 1201).

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Linguistic meaning phonemes and morphemes?

• Some elements of meaning can be also found on the
  morphological level
• Paronyms words, which are derived from the same
  root. These words have associated meanings and
  are very similar in form. (Adj paronymous,
  paronymic).
• A lot of mistakes in speech and writing are due
  to mixing up paronyms. Check dictionaries of
  easily confused words dictionaries of common
  errors, dictionaries of tricky words.
• Examples
• Proscribe/prescribe Latin root scribere,
  scriptus (to write) different prefixes pro-
  pre-.
• Proscribe state officially that something is
  dangerous or forbidden The sale of narcotics is
  proscribed by law (OALD, 1993 1002).
• Prescribe advise or order the use of something
  (especially a medicine, remedy, etc.) The doctor
  prescribed some pills to help me to sleep (OALD,
  1993 979).
• Affect/effect Latin root facere (to make, to
  place) different morphemes af- ef.
• Affect have an influence produce an affect on
  somebody/something The change in climate may
  affect your health (OALD, 1993 19).
• Effect bring something about cause to occur
  effect a cure a change a sale (OALD, 1993 386)

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Minimal meaningful unit

• We can speak about certain meanings on the
  phonological and morphological level
• The minimal meaningful unit is a word. In our
  course we will also consider the syntactic level
  (the meaning of phrases and sentences)

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Non-linguistic approaches to the study of meaning

• The study of meaning is a concern of various
  academic disciplines (Cruse, 2000 10 11)
• Philosophy
• Psychology
• Neurology
• Sociology
• Anthropology, etc.
• There is a certain degree of overlapping in the
  study of meaning by various disciplines, but they
  all have some idiosyncratic (unique) features.

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Origin of semantics

• We attribute the term semantics to philosopher
  Charles Morris
• He was concerned with study of the science of
  signs (semiotic).
• Morris distinguished 3 branches of semiotics
• Syntactics (or syntax), which studies the formal
  relation among different signs
• Semantics, the study of the relation between the
  signs and the objects they denote
• Pragmatics, the study of the relation of signs to
  their interpreters, i.e. people.

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Signs

• Syntactics, semantics, pragmatics are all
  concerned with the study of signs
• Three different types of signs a sign can
  resemble the object (icon), it can point to or be
  attached to the object (index), or it can be only
  arbitrary or conventionally associated with the
  object (symbol).

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Signs
Written language ? ? ? ? F J U
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Signs

• Words are examples of verbal symbols.
• Language represents mans most sophisticated use
  of signs (Saeed, 2003 5).

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Linguistic interpretation of meaning

• From the linguistic viewpoint there are three
  major interpretations of meaning (Lepschy, 1970
  38 39)
• Language is seen as a two-plane system consisting
  of the relationship between form and meaning
  (expression and content). According to this view
  meaning can be described either independently or
  in necessary connection with the expression, but
  in any case as an autonomous entity. This is the
  most traditional view of the language, and the
  linguists that we can name here are Ferdinand de
  Saussure and Hjelmslev.

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SIGN TREE
Signification ? relationships inside the
language Reference ? relationships between
language the world
treeness Mental Image Sense
Signified
Reference
Signification
Physical object
Referent
/tri/ Sound Image Physical form
Signifier
(Finch, 1998, p. 139)
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Linguistic interpretation of meaning

• Saussures idea that words in a language are
  referentially linked to other words in a language
  (Saeed, 2003 12). The meaning of the word is
  defined by what it can be used to refer to and
  from its relationship to other words.
• Example Eng. sheep mutton Fr. mouton

signified
signified
signified
signifier
signifier
signifier
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Linguistic interpretation of meaning

• This interpretation of meaning includes
  componential analysis of meaning, i.e. when
  researchers identify an inventory of semantic
  features, which serve as components of an
  unlimited number of meanings

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Linguistic interpretation of meaning

• Examples
• My friend studies linguistics at HKU.
• My cat studies linguistics at HKU.

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Linguistic interpretation of meaning

• Meaning is seen as the relationship
  (correspondence or lack of correspondence)
  between language and reality, between the
  utterance and the state of affairs it refers to.
  This viewpoint has been mainly adopted in the
  formal (logical) semantics.

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Linguistic interpretation of meaning

• Example
• The house is on fire.
• The fire brigade are on the way.
• The house is on fire and the fire brigade are on
  the way.
• If both sentences a and b are true, then the
  compound c is also true. This relationship can be
  represented in logical semantic in the following
  way
• p q pq
• T T T
• T F F
• F T F
• F F F
• (pq means p and q)

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Linguistic interpretation of meaning

• Meaning is the way signs are used. This
  understanding of meaning is connected with the
  previous one, as it sees meaning as the relation
  between signs and reality both linguistically
  (linguistic context) and non-linguistically (the
  context of situation).
• This view has been widely supported. But it
  contains some challenges
• Example
• Chinese teacher loves her job very much.

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Linguistic interpretation of meaning

• Dealing with challenges distinguish between
  word/sentence meaning and speakers meaning. This
  approach suggests that words/sentences have a
  certain meaning independent of their usage.
• The first type of meaning is the domain of
  semantics and second type of meaning is the
  domain of pragmatics. It is sometimes very
  difficult to draw a line between the semantic and
  pragmatic meanings.
• The complementary relation between the two was
  very well illustrated by Geoffrey Leech

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Linguistic interpretation of meaning

• The complementary relation between pragmatics and
  semantics was very well illustrated by Geoffrey
  Leech

Semantics
Pragmatics
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Pragmatics distinguished form semantics

• (Idea from Griffith, 2006 3)

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Utterances, sentences, propositions

• Excellent!
• Delicious!
• Your food is delicious! Sentence an abstract
  linguistic object on which an utterance is based.

Utterances raw data of linguistics (Griffith,
2006)
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Utterances, sentences, propositions

• Propositions core sentence meaning, the
  abstract idea that remains the same in cases such
  as
• Examples
• Sharks hunt seals.
• Seals are hunted by sharks.
• Seals are preys to sharks.

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Utterances, sentences, propositions

• What is studied by pragmatics, semantics?
• utterances
• sentences
• propositions

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Literal and non-literal meaning

• Literal neutral, factual way of talking (Saeed,
  2003 15)
• Non-literal (figurative) metaphor, irony,
  hyperbole, etc.

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References

• Cruse, D. A. (2000). Meaning in language. New
  York Oxford University Press. (pp. 1 16).
• Finch, G. (1998). How to study linguistics.
  London Macmillan.
• Griffith, P. (2006), An introduction to English
  semantics and pragmatics. Edinburgh Edinburgh
  University Press.
• Leech, G. (1983). Principles of pragmatics.
  London, N. Y. Longman. (p. 1 45).
• Lepschy, G. C. (1970). A survey of structural
  linguistics. London Faber and Faber. (pp. 38
  39).
• Lyons, J. (1977). Semantics. (Vol. 1). Cambridge
  Cambridge University Press. (pp. 1 5).
• your textbook Saeed, part I, ch. 1.

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Thank you!