Almen sproglig viden og metode

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Almen sproglig viden og metode

• CLM, engelsk
• Semantics
• Introductory Lecture 2
• tt

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A Model of the Language Faculty
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Delimiting Semantics
Semantics is the study of the meaning of Natural
Language
Problems
Locating meanings Where are they?
Explaining meaning What does it do?
Representing meaning How can we talk about it?
Defining meaning What is it? (continuing
from last week)
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Locating NL meanings The Semiotic Triangle
Where would you look for NL meaning here?
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Locating NL meaning (1)The biplane sign
Expression
The sign sleep
Meaning
- so, meanings are in words (signs)!
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Splitting up Meaning

• Sense (also sometimes intension)
• Reference
• Denotation (also sometimes extension)

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Sense and reference
Basis for the distinction (Frege)
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sense and reference
Referring and attributive use of phrases
(Donellan)
Speaker uses the phrase Smiths murderer to refer
to Clark Kent and says of him that he is insane
Speaker assumes that Smith has been murdered and
uses the phrase Smiths murderer attributively
if there is an x such that x has murdered Smith
then x is insane
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The notion of truth
If those boys are in the set of things
figthing now, the utterance of the the sentence
Those boys are fightning now is true, otherwise
false.
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Locating NL meaning (2)Reference and denotation
Reference is a relation between phrases and
individuals
- it is a term belonging to pragmatics
- it is a term for a particular use of phrases (a
speech act)
Denotation is a relation between lexical items
and classes or sets
- it is a term belonging to semantics
- it is a term for the categorization of things
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reference and denotation
- may be used to refer to a particular set of
things as individuals, provided each satisfies
two conditions
The children next door are always noisy
Children next door are always noisy

• cannot be used to refer to a particular set of
  things, but specifies what the conditions are if
  x is a child and if x lives next door (no matter
  where), then x is noisy

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Locating NL Meaning (3)Mental representation
Transparent and opaque contexts
No contradiction
Contradiction
The girl with green eyes has brown eyes
has modelled for
The real life model for the girl in the picture
has brown eyes
Girl with green eyes (in the picture)
John believes that, John thinks that, I dreamed
that.
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Words and Concepts
I saw a blue car - OK
The mouse saw a blue car - OK
I saw that the car was blue - OK
The mouse saw that the car was blue - Not OK
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- so, what is NL (word) meaning?
Relational The meaning of a word is the set of
relations which that word contracts with other
words
Conditional The meaning of a word is the set of
conditions that something must satisfy to be
properly denoted by that word
Instructional The meaning of a word is the
information that word carries for the
construction of mental representations
Problem is we dont talk in words we talk in
sentences!
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Words Sentences
The Principle of Compositionality
The meaning of a sentence is computed from the
meaning of its words, plus the meaning of the
structural rules by which the sentence is formed
If this were not the case, then we would not be
able to understand sentences that we havent
heard before
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Semantic intuitions
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SynonymySentences and propositions
Kirsten found the Golden Horns in that field
It was Kirsten who found the Golden Horns in that
field
It was in that field that Kirsten found the
Golden Horns
What Kirsten found in that field was the Golden
Horns
The Golden Horns were found by Kirsten in that
field
That field was where Kirsten found the Golden
Horns
Different sentences same proposition
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The representation of propositions
What do the sentences about the Golden Horns have
in common?
The same lexical verb, but in different forms
FIND
The same referring expressions Kirsten and the
Golden Horns
The same association of thematic roles with the
referring expressions Kirsten Agent the
Golden Horns Patient
The same indication of location (in) that field
The rest is just grammatical words and the
wordorder is governed by syntactic rules
Arguments
Predicate
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The Predicate Calculus a type of logical
notation
Wordclasses
Correspond to
Notation
This would be the representation (or translation)
of the propositional content of the sentence in
predicate calculus form
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What does meaning do?
bee
dagger
remark
?quasp
attitude
I was stung by his
Meaning guides interpretation!
This is the instructional view of meaning
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How can we talk about meaning?- The problem of
meaning representation
Decomposition of lexical meaning
This is the relational view of meaning
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Sufficient and Necessary Conditions
This is the conditional view of meaning
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Prototypes