Introduction to Linguistics Lecture 4: The different language units within the structure of language: focus on SEMANTICS and PRAGMATICS

Schedule today Brief recap: Lectures 2 and 3 The structure of human language - LANGUAGE UNITS: special focus on SEMANTICS (this week) and PRAGMATICS (next week)

Don’t forget: WEEK 6 Next week: week 5 and we will have a recap week of all the material Midterm counts for 40% of the total score Afterwards: we continue with Language and Communication MIDTERM TEST

Recap two weeks ago: Noam Chomsky Three models are central to the understanding of human language, and language needs therefore to be studied with these three components in mind (2) Performance (1) Competence (3) Language Acquisition

Recap last week: How is language realized in the brain? 3 questions: Are speech and language localized in the brain and if so, where? (well, YES, it is localized in the brain , so you already know the answer to the first question, but where?) How does the brain encode (competence & acquisition) and decode (performance) speech and language? Are the units of language structure – phonology, syntax, morphology, semantics separate components in the brain, and therefore vulnerable to separate impairments?

Recap last week: How is language realized in the brain? Findings of last week: Yes: left hemisphere, (parietal lobe), broca and wernicke area – but: also right hemisphere (A.) Broca and (B.) Wernicke: (A.) decode and (B.) encode Yes: there are different speech aphasias, which tell us that the components are stored in separate parts - broca aphasia, wernicke aphasia, conduction aphasia and anomic aphasia (to name a few)

This week… …we pull ourselves out of the general theory of human language and dig a bit deeper into the concepts of the units themselves Focus: semantics and pragmatics If you want to check out the book (but you don’t have to): Chapters 6 and 9

Question: which ones do you already know?

You’ve had had classes last semester on… Phonetics and Phonology: the study of sound to create meaning (phonology)- the study of sounds to produce speech (phonetics) Morphology: the study of word formation Syntax: the study of sentence formation in a language (intra-linguistic phenomenon, which can be analyzed cross-linguistically)

But, what about… SEMANTICS? “The branch of linguistics that deals with LOGIC and MEANING in language.”

SEMANTICS

Meaning in semantics: two types A. Linguistic meaning B. Speaker meaning “The door is right behind you!”

“The door is right behind you!” Linguistic meaning: the location of the door Speaker meaning: she wants you to leave! “The door is right behind you!”

Linguistic meaning vs. speaker’s meaning Differs on whether or not the speaker is being: Literal Non-literal ?

Linguistic meaning vs. speaker meaning 3 nonliteral uses of language (conveys speaker’s meaning): Sarcasm Irony Metaphor

Question: the difference between irony and sarcasm ?

Irony vs. Sarcasm Irony: stating the exact opposite of what you mean for humorous effect without the intention of being hurtful. Example: “That movie was a real winner!” Linguistic meaning vs. speaker’s meaning?

Irony vs. Sarcasm Sarcasm is the use of irony, which is deliberately hurtful, and always directed towards mockery and resentment/contempt Now, since most of you have Instagram/Facebook, you probably already know a few Here are some you may have come across…

Irony vs. Sarcasm

Irony vs. Sarcasm

Irony vs. Sarcasm

C. Metaphorical use of language “She has raven hair, ruby lips, emerald eyes and teeth of pearl” = metaphor… …For a very beautiful woman (and an idea of perfection)

Linguistic vs. speaker meaning The linguistic meaning looks at the use of language conveyed through the words on paper. Example: “The door is right behind you!” = the location of the door

Linguistic vs. speaker meaning Other examples of linguistic meaning vs. speaker meaning: “procrastinate” means “to put off doing something” (linguistic meaning) “In saying ‘It’s getting late’ she meant that we should leave” (speaker meaning)

Semantic meaning? meaning Linguistic meaning = language meaning = literal and nonliteral uses of language = different meaning depending on the individual, regional and social variation (dialects and sociolects) Speaker meaning

Semantic Theory DESCRIPTIVE OR PRESCRIPTIVE?

Semantic theory Always descriptive: the spoken language forms a central source of data for semantic theory – linguists are concerned with discovering meaning properties and relations in forms of spoken language actually used by speakers. So, we’re not looking at the dictionary, but at actual varieties spoken by people = SPEAKER MEANING and LINGUISTIC MEANING

Goal of semantic analysis To look for logic and meaning in language

The scope of semantic theory It analyzes words and phrases: are they meaningful or meaningless? Are they lexically ambiguous or not? example: “She couldn’t bear children”

The scope of semantic theory Words and phrases (ctd.): - polysemy (previous example) - anomaly: when the meaning of the individual words are incompatible together “colorless green idea” “dream diagonally” It analyzes meaning relations: synonymy, homonymy, antonymy and meaning inclusion

Meaning inclusion – semantic fields The meaning of sister includes the meaning of female The meaning of kill includes the meaning of dead When we put words together that are related, we can sometimes drop words that are redundant She killed him dead

The scope of semantic theory Truth properties: An utterance can be: linguistically true or linguistically false (analytically true or contradictory) – when you can purely rely on language meaning and the semantics of language itself without looking at the nonlinguistic world An utterance can be: empirically true or empirically false – it is necessary to check the nonlinguistic world to verify or falsify the statement

Examples: linguistically true or false? Either it is raining here or it is not raining here. If John is sick and Mary is sick, then John is sick. It is raining here and it is not raining here. If John is sick and Mary is sick, then John is not sick. John killed the bear and it’s still alive. The car is red, but it has no color. If John is a bachelor, then John is unmarried. = What you have to ask yourself is: Do they make logical sense within semantics? = it is possible to say that it’s true or not true by only looking at the sentence.

The scope of semantic theory Truth properties depend on Truth relations within linguistic meaning = entailment = The truth of the first sentence guarantees the truth of the second sentence Examples: The car is red entails that the car has color // The needle is too short entails that the needle is not long enough

The END