Meaning

Semantics (the study of meaning) Semantics: the study of meaning, or to be more specific, the study of the meaning of linguistic units, words and sentences in particular.

Meanings of meaning Conceptual meaning: logical, cognitive or denotative content Connotative meaning: what is communicated by what language refers to (politician statesman) Social meaning: what is communicated of the social circumstances of language use Affective meaning: what is communicated of the feelings and attitudes of the speaker/writer Reflected meaning: what is communicated through association with another sense of the same expression

Collocative meaning: what is communicated through association with words which tend to occur in the environment of another word Thematic meaning: what is communicated by the way in which the message is organized in terms of order and emphasis. What is a table? How do you explain that to a person who does not know what a table is?

The referential theory The theory of meaning which relates the meaning of a word to the thing it refers to, or stands for, is known as the referential theory. Concept—something abstract which has no existence in the material world and can only be sensed in our minds.

The semantic triangle The relation between a word and a thing is not direct, but mediated by concept. concept word thing

Sense and reference Sense—conceptual meaning (Leech) Sense and reference: connotation and denotation Sense/ connotation: abstract properties of an entity Reference / denotation: the concrete entity having these properties. Every word has a sense, but not every word has a reference. Sense: the semantic relation between one linguistic unit and another Reference: the relation between one linguistic unit and a non-linguistic entity it refers to.

Sense relations Synonymy Antonymy Hyponymy Synonymy: the term for the sameness relations between words or linguistic units. Buy-purchase World—universe Total synonymy is rare. Synonyms are all context dependent and differ in one way or another. Style: Connotations Dialectal

Antonymy The term for oppositeness relation Gradable antonymy The members of a pair differ in terms of degree and the denial of one is not necessarily the assertion of the other. hot, warm, cool, cold Antonyms of this kind are graded against different norms. There is no absolute criterion by which we may say something is good or bad, long or short. One member of the pair, usually the term for the higher degree, serves as the cover term. The cover term is used more often(unmarked), the covered term is less often used(marked)

Antonymy Complementary antonymy The members of pairs are complementary to each other. They divide up the whole of a semantic field completely. Not only the assertion of one means the denial of the other, but the denial of another means the assertion of the other. They cannot be modified by “very” and do not have comparative or superlative degree. The norm in this type is absolute. There is no cover term for the two members of a pair.

antonymy Converse antonymy Pairs which show the reversal of a relationship between two entities. Relational opposites: it is typically seen in reciprocal social roles, kinship relations, temporal and spatial relations. One presupposes the other. He is a husband

Hyponymy The inclusiveness relations between linguistic units the upper term: superordinate The lower terms: hyponyms The members of the same class: co-hyponyms living plant animal bird fish insect animal human animal tiger lion elephant

Componential analysis The analysis of the meaning of a word in terms of its semantic feature or semantic components. Boy=[human] + [young] +[ male] Girl=[human] + [young] +[ female] Man= [human] + [adult] +[ male] Binary: young [-adult], female [-male] Boy=[human] + [-adult] +[ male] Girl=[human] + [-adult] +[ -male]

Synonymous: two words or expressions which have the same semantic components Bachelor: unmarried man= [human]+[adult] + [male]+[unmarried] Words which have a contrasting component are antonyms man and woman Semantic components and sentence relations *John killed Tom but Tom did not die. Kill=CAUSE(x, (BECOME( y, (-ALIVE(y))))) John killed Tom. Tom died.

Difficulties in componential analysis Many words are polysemous Some semantic components are seen as binary taxonomies. --Male-female, young-adult --Girl-boy, gill-woman The examples are only concerned with the neatly organized parts of the vocabulary.

Sentence meaning The meaning of the sentence is not the sum of the words that are used in it. The dog chases the man. The man chases the dog. I’ve already seen that film. That film I’ve already seen. The son of pharaoh’s daughter is the daughter of pharaoh’s son. This shows that to understand the meaning of a sentence, we not only need the meaning of individual words, but also knowledge of the syntactic structure.

An integrated theory The idea that meaning of a sentence depends on the meanings of the constituent words and the way they are combined is known as the principle of compositionality. (J. Katz ) Semantics should be an integral part of grammar. (Katz & Fodor), therefore the description of the semantic component.

Semantic theory dictio- nary Grammatical classification of words More detailed than the traditional parts of speech Hit: not only verb, but Vtr. (grammatical/ syntactic marker Semantic information of words More general nature (male) (human) Semantic marker More idiosyncratic, word-specific distinguisher Proj. rules Responsible for combining the meanings of words together.

Projection rules Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. S NP VP Det. N V NP The man hits Det N the Adj. N colorful ball The man hits the colorful ball.

Selection restrictions Colorful { adj } a. (color) [abounding in contrast or variety of bright colors] < (physical object) or (social activity) > b. (evaluative) [having distinctive character, vividness, or picturesqueness] < (aesthetic object) or (social activity) > Ball { Nc } a. (social activity) (large) (assembly) [for the purpose of social dancing] b. (physical object) [having globular shape] c. (physical object) [ solid missile for projection by engine of war] Colorful (a)+ball (a); colorful (a)+ball (b); colorful (a)+ball ©; colorful (b) + ball (a)

The integration of syntax and semantics The problems in the integrated theory --The distinction between semantic marker and distinguisher is not very clear. --There are some cases in which the collocation of words cannot be accounted for by grammatical markers, semantic markers or selection restrictions. The girl gave her own dress away. * The girl gave his own dress away. He said hello to the nurse and she greeted back. He said hello to the nurse and he greeted back. My cousin is a nurse. My cousin is a female nurse.

Logical semantics Philosophers are the first to study meaning. Traditional grammarians were more concerned with word meanings, while philosophers are more concerned with sentence meaning. Propositional logic (命题逻辑propositional calculus/sentential calculus)： the study of the truth conditions for propositions: how the truth of a composite proposition is determined by the truth value of its constituent propositions and the connections between them. I saw something. I saw a desk.

proposition A proposition is what is expressed by a declarative sentence when that sentence is uttered to make a statement. An important property of the proposition is that it has a truth value, namely, it is either true or false. The truth value of a composite proposition is said to be the function of, or is determined by, the truth values of its component propositions and the logical connectives used in it. If a proposition is true, then its negation is false. P is true, then ~P is false.

Logical connectives ~ negation (one-place connective) & conjunction disjunction implication two-place connectives = equivalence

Truth table P Q P & Q P V Q P Q P = Q T T T T F F F T F F Conditionfor the truth value of the composite When both p and q are true, The formula p & q will be true. (necessary and sufficient) Only when and as long as one of the constituents is true, the composite is true. Unless the antecedent is true and the consequent is false, the composite proposition will be true. If and only if both constituent propositions are of the same truth value, the composite is true.

The truth function of the logical connectives are not exactly the same as their counterparts in English: not, and, or, if…then. Conjunction: if both p and q are true, then p & q are definitely true. He arrived late and was criticized by the teacher. He was criticized by the teacher and arrived late . implication: If both constituents are true, the composite is necessarily true. If snow is white, then grass is green. --therefore, the propositional logic is not concerned with daily conversation.

Predicate logic (述谓逻辑predicate calculus） The propositional logic is concerned only with the semantic relation between propositions and treats a simple proposition as an unanalyzes whole. The predicate logic s concerned with the study of the internal structure of simple propostion. Socrates is a man. An argument refers to some entity abut which a statement is being made. A predicate ascribes some property, or relation, to the entity, or entities referred to. M(s) : A simple proposition is seen as a function of its argument. M(s)=1 (true), M (g)=0 (false)

One-place predicate: man, cry. Tom cried. Two-place predicate: kill, love, watch. John killed Mary. John watched TV. Three-place argument: give, put Mary put the book on the table. Tom gave Mary a book. A predicate may take propositions as argument. Kill: CAUSE (x, (BECOME(y, (-ALIVE(y)))))

Two quantifiers Universal quantifier: Existential quantifier: x (M(x) R(x)) “For all x, it is the case that, if x is a man, then x is rational.” x(M(x) & C(x) ) “There are some x’s that are both men and clever”, or “there exists at least one x, such that x is a man and x is clever.”

Universal and existential quantifier (negation) x (P (x) )= ~ x (~ P(x)) “It is the case that all x’s have the property P” is equivalent to “There is no x, such that x does not have the property p”. ~ x (P (x) = x (~P(x)) “It is not the case that all x’s have the property P” is equivalent to “There is at least an x, such that x does not have the property P”.

x (P(x)) = ~ (~ P(x)) “There is at least an x, such that x has the property P “ is equivalent to “ It is not the case that all x’s do not have the property P.” x(P (x)) = x (~ P(x)) “There is no x, such that x has the property P” is equivalent to “ It is the case that all x’s do not have the property p”.

Set theory R M M R C

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously