Psychology of Language--Baldwin

Ellis Ch. 4: Meaning  “Meaning” as a reference both to:  Specific objects: my computer  Categories, abstract qualities: /computer/  Problems with “meaning”  Words are associated  Words are ambiguous  Words are redundant  Words are poetic, metaphoric, contradictory, anomalous

Structural Semantics  Object language—the meaning of “a complex expression of objects” (Ellis, 1999, p. 57).  Assumes meaning already assigned to words through social construction  Not concerned with actual meanings or “providing clues to common usage” (p. 57)  Concerned with way a sentence can be “true”:  Empirical truth: Kelvin has dreadlocks  Linguistic truth: All men have dreadlocks…if, then, and  Point: The logical validity of sentences (via structure)  Entailment: Suzy, my cat, had her tail cut off…

Semantics: Structural   Criticisms of structural semantics?  Stop-gaps:  Contextual semantics: how people assign meaning in context (including, but not limited to possibility, probability, etc.)  Lexical semantics: Study of word meanings…  Standard Theory: (Chomsky)  Markers: characteristics that show similarity/difference: Whale Shark Jellyfish  +AQUATIC, etc.  Rules: What the category of meaning can do or not do (not semantic!): The woman carried her whale in her briefcase.

Implications of Semantics  Linguistic relativity: the future subjunctive…  Parsing meaning:  Wine  Doritos…  TP…  New words  Where do they come from?  How are they formed?  How do some catch on and others not?

Langue and Parole (beyond Ellis)  Langue: The structural meanings, usages, available in a language  Parole: The meaning of a specific utterance in its context, the actual words and behaviors of communication

The Basics  Connotation  Denotation  Triangle of Meaning  Proper meaning superstition (line at bottom should be dotted!)

Practice [B-a-b-e][A-r-a-b]

Symbolic Interactionism  Humans are distinct…symbol manipulating  “The social world is a dynamic and dialectical web”…unstable, in process, never fixed  “The social world is…interactive”  SI seeks to look beneath symbols to find “underlying patterns and forms of social life”  Implications  Mind  Self  Society (and language, and meaning!)

Semiotics  Original Semiotics—Saussure and Others  Sign = signified + signifier  Not word & object, but sound pattern & category (sense, but not reference)  Value of sign depends on relation to other signs

Semiotics--Barthes 1.Sign = signifier + signified 2.Sign systems and codes 3.Ideology/myth

Postmodernism  Fragmented meanings  Contradictory ideologies  “Pastiche”  Pleasure