Chapter 6: Semantics… … the Study of Meaning NOTES: About exercising: it keeps you healthy: physically & mentally… I’ve tried to match the slides to the order of the textbook this time…

What is “Truth”? - Pilate- c 33AD I went to Bi-Lo this morning Bi-Lo is a grocery store You are too young to drink You are not old enough to drink Dave spent 4 years in Tokyo, Japan Dave was once in Tokyo, Japan

Truth & Contradiction Paraphrase: Two sentences: the same truth conditions Entailment JFK was assassinated  __________ Contradictions *The king is a woman Anomalies Colorless green ideas sleep furiously

What I meant to say was…

Principle of Compositionality The meaning of a sentence comes (mostly) from its constituents and the way they are positioned.

Ambiguity The man saw the fish with binoculars.

You Try it Create an ambiguous sentence… How does ambiguity relate to compositionality, truth, entailment, etc?

Think About It… What are some benefits & dangers of ambiguity in our communication?

Types of Meaning Linguistic Reference GWB became the 43 rd president Meaning Al Gore nearly became GWB???? Social Y’all Affective How many times have I asked you to…

It all depends… Band practice… My house 6 to 8 Band practice… My house 6 to 8 Band practice… My house 6 to 8 Band practice… My house 6 to 8 Thanks for the reminder Thanks for the warning

Pragmatics What’s the message? My wife in the car while we’re driving… “I’m getting cold…” Me sitting making these slides… “Honey, do we have any fruit…?”

Why “Fine”? … Why Ask?

Any Questions… … before we move on?

Systematicness of Language Phonology Syntax Lexis Predictable Unpredictable

Word Relationships Hyponymy Color – Red, blue, green, etc. Converseness Reciprocal relationship Polysemy & Homonymy Plain Bat

Ice H2OH2O Fuzzy Concepts (Lexical Semantics) Rain Ice Nose Hana (Japanese) Nos (Russian)

Think About It… How can knowing about word relationships help us study another language or communicate with a non-native speaker of English?

Any Questions… … before we move on?

Meaning Categories Tense & Modality Deixis

Semantic Roles Verb-Centered Agent  one doing the action Theme (patient)  one receiving the action Experiencer  one who perceives Identify A, T & E below (two in each…) Humpty-Dumpty sat on a wall. Bo Peep pushed Humpty off the wall Miss Muffet heard Humpty shatter

Thematic Roles?

Themes in other lanaguages Apache *My horse kicked me I allowed myself to be kicked by my horse German In diesem hotel sind hunde verboten In this hotel are dogs forbidden * This hotel forbids dogs

Think About It… How do thematic roles apply to how we create sentences?

Any Questions…. … before we move on?

Maxims of Conversation Grice, 1975

Maxim of Conversation #1 Relevance Be relevant

Maxim of Conversation #2 Quantity Be as informative as required…

Maxim of Conversation #3 Quality Truthful, Supportable claims

Maxim of Conversation #4 Manner Brief, orderly Not ambiguous nor obscure

Recommended Exercises 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15 Enough of each to get the point