The Analysis of Meaning Lecture 9 Semantics The Analysis of Meaning

Semantics There is more to language than just form. In order for language to fulfil its communicative function, utterances must convey a message. We can call this message (or content) the utterance’s meaning. The study of meaning in human language is Semantics.

The Nature of Meaning What is the nature of meaning? This question has always been considered central to philosophy. More recently, it has come to be important to psychology as well. Contributions to semantics have come form a diverse group of scholars and disciplines. What has this research revealed about meaning? Answering this question requires considering some of the basic analytic notions used in evaluating meaning of words and sentences.

Semantic Relations Words By virtue of their meaning, words and phrases are able to enter into a variety of semantic relations with other words and phrases in the language. These relationships help identify those aspects of meaning relevant to linguistic analysis.

Synonymy Synonyms are words or expressions that have the same meaning in some (or all) contexts: begin start remember recall purchase buy vacation holidays big large These are synonyms, but there are contexts where their meanings may diverge: Bank holidays are not necessarily part of one’s vacation. Many linguists believe that it would be inefficient for a language to have two words whose meanings are absolutely identical in all contexts. Therefore, complete (total) synonyms are rare or non-existent.

Context and Synonymy Linguistic studies of synonymy have always emphasized the importance of context in deciding whether or not a set of lexical items is synonymous: The items range, selection, choice, … are synonyms in a context like: What a nice --- of flowers, but they are not in a context like: His --- of knowledge is enormous. Only range can be used along with a different set of synonyms like breadth, for example.

Antonymy Antonyms are words or phrases that are opposites with respect to some component of their meaning: dark light boy girl hot cold up down come go They contrast with respect to at least one component of their meaning: The meanings of boy and girl are opposites with respect to gender, but they are alike with respect to species (both are human).

Polysemy Polysemy occurs when a word has two or more related meanings: bright  shining or intelligent deposit  money or minerals The ease with which words acquire additional related meanings allows language to accommodate the new concepts and perspectives that accompany technological and cultural changes: Surfers are not only found on the ocean wave but also on the Web.

Homonymy Homonymy exists when a single form has two or more entirely distinct meanings: bank financial institution or edge of a river pen writing instrument or small cage It is assumed that there are two or more separate words with the same pronunciation rather than a single word with different meanings.

Polysemy or Homonymy A theoretical problem for the linguist is how to distinguish Polysemy from Homonymy, (one form, several meanings) or (two items, the same phonological form). One suggested criterion is the closeness of the relationship between the meanings: plain  clear, unadorned, plane  carpenter’s tool, aeroplane

Semantic Relations Sentences Like words, sentences have meanings that can be analyzed in terms of their relation to other meanings. We will consider three such relations: Paraphrase Entailment Contradiction

Paraphrase Two (or more) sentences that have the same meaning are said to be paraphrases of each other: The dog is eating the bone. The bone is being eaten by the dog. It is the dog that is eating the bone. Sentences whose meanings are close to each other are said to have the same truth conditions.

Emphasis Is this enough to justify saying that the two sentences have the same meanings? There are subtle differences in emphasis: The dog is eating the bone. a statement about what the dog is doing The bone is being eaten by the dog. a statement about what is happening to the bone Languages do not permit two or more structures to have absolutely identical meanings. Therefore, paraphrases are never perfect.

Entailment It is a relation in which the truth of one sentence necessarily implies the truth of another. In a paraphrase, the entailment relation between the pair of sentences is mutual (the truth of either guarantees the truth of the other). In some cases, entailment is said to be asymmetrical: I can see a horse. I can see an animal. The first sentence entails the second one because seeing a horse means seeing an animal. However, the reverse does not follow as seeing an animal may mean seeing a horse, a dog, a cat, an elephant, …

Contradiction It is a semantic relation between sentences which display a type of oppositeness in meaning: Charles is a bachelor. Charles is married. When two sentences cannot both be true, we say that there is a contradiction.

What is Meaning? It is relatively easy to determine whether two words or sentences have identical or different meanings. However, it is much more difficult to determine precisely what meaning is. What do we know about the nature of meaning? How is that represented in the human mind?

Connotation Connotation is the set of associations that a word’s use can evoke (bring to mind): For Canadians, the word winter evokes thoughts of: snow, bitter cold, long nights, and the like. These associations make up the word’s connotation, but they cannot be its (entire) meaning: The word winter is used for the season (December to March) even if none of the above is experienced. Therefore, we must look beyond connotation for our understanding of what meaning is.

Denotation Denotation (referents) is the set of entities to which a linguistic unit (a word) refers. The denotation of the word summer corresponds to the season between spring and autumn (regardless of whether or not it is hot and unpleasant). One approach to semantics attempts to equate meaning with denotation.

But A word’s denotation is not always one and the same thing: A word like unicorn and a phrase like the present king of France have no referents in the real world, but they cannot be classified as meaningless. Two distinct expressions can have the same referent: The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair the leader of the Labour Party Tony Blair Although they have the same referent, it is wrong to say they mean the same thing.

Extension and Intension The impossibility of equating an element’s meaning with its referents has led to a distinction between extension and intension. An expression’s extension is a set of entities it picks out in the world. An expression’s intension is its inherent sense, the concepts it evokes. Prime Minister of the UK Extension individual (Tony Blair) Intension concept (leader of the governing party)

Extension and Intension The distinction between intension and extension does not resolve the question of what meaning is. It permits posing it in a new way: Intensions correspond to mental images. As an improvement over the referential theory, it is now possible to have a mental image of a unicorn although there is no such entity in the real world. However, if the meaning corresponds to a mental image, an image of the word dog would have to be general enough to include the different sizes, shapes, and colours, yet still exclude foxes and wolves.

Componential Analysis Componential analysis, another approach to meaning, represents a word’s intension by braking it down into smaller semantic components (features): man boy woman girl +human +human +human +human +male +male -male -male +adult -adult +adult -adult

Componential Analysis However, there are limits on the insights into word meaning offered by componential analysis: -Do we say that the meaning of blue consists of the feature [+colour] and something else? -If so, what is that other thing? -Is it blueness? -If so, then we still have not broken the meaning of blue into smaller components.

Meaning and Concepts Now, what can we say about meaning? Meaning must be something that exists in the mind rather than the world. It must be more abstract than pictures. There is more to it than just features. Therefore, other approaches to semantics try to relate meaning to mental concepts. Concepts do not have to correspond to objects, images, or sets of features. However, equating meaning of linguistic forms with concepts in the mind requires determining what a concept is.

The Conceptual System Underlying the use of words and sentences to express meaning in human language is a conceptual system. This conceptual system is capable of organizing and classifying all aspects of our life: inner feelings and perceptions, cultural and social phenomena, the physical world that surrounds us, …

Fuzzy Concepts Do concepts, expressed by words and phrases of our language, have precise definitions, clear-cut boundaries? Consider the concept associated with the word rich ! How much does one have to own to be called rich ? This is a fuzzy concept. Many linguists believe that this type of fuzziness pervades the human conceptual system: tall, old, clever, strong, fast, clean, genius, …

Graded Membership Concept members can be graded in terms of their typicality : The concept ‘bird’ Prototypical >> … >> Least typical Sparrows >> Pigeons >> Penguins Fuzzy concepts and graded membership provide important insights into the nature of the human conceptual system. There are no clear-cut boundaries, or all-or-nothing notions. Concepts recognize degrees of typicality and fuzzy boundaries that make categorization uncertain in some cases.

Lexicalization There is no reason to believe that human beings, in different linguistic communities have different conceptual systems. But, do all languages express concepts in the same way? No, they don’t: English Spanish rolled entró … rodando motion & manner ‘entered rolling’ moved-down bajó motion & path ‘…’

Grammaticalization Some concepts are expressed by affixes and non-lexical (functional) categories. These are said to have been grammaticalized: Concept Affix, Non-lexical category Past -ed More than one -s Again re- Negation in-, un- Obligation must Definite, specific the Conjunction and

Summing up The study of meaning in human language is Semantics. Answering the question of what meaning is requires considering some of the basic analytic notions used in evaluating meaning of words and sentences. By virtue of their meaning, words and sentences are able to enter into a variety of semantic relations with other words and sentences in the language. These relationships help identify those aspects of meaning relevant to linguistic analysis. It is difficult to determine precisely what meaning is. How is it represented in the human mind? Underlying the use of words and sentences to express meaning in human language is a conceptual system. This conceptual system is capable of organizing and classifying all aspects of our life.