1. 1 LIN 1310B Introduction to Linguistics Prof: Nikolay Slavkov TA: Qinghua Tang CLASS 21, March 23, 2007

2. 2 Today Announcements and Reminders: -Great job, everyone! Test 2 average: 85.27 (A). -Test 2 results are posted on the website by last four digits of your ID number. -If you have questions about test 2, come see me in office hours. (You’re welcome to review your answer sheet, etc.) -Start reading Chapter 6 Today’s Lecture: -Start Semantics

3. 3 Semantics: the study of meaning So far we have seen how morphemes combine together to form words We have also seen how words combing together to form sentences We are now ready to start looking into how utterances are interpreted. The study of semantics can be very complex and can require knowledge from other disciplines such as logic, mathematics and philosophy

4. 4 The nature of meaning: semantic relations among words Meaning can be defined in different ways. One way to talk about meaning is by defining the semantic relations among words. Consider the following words: vacation holidays youth adolescent automobilecar rememberrecall purchasebuy biglarge Synonyms: words or expressions that have the same, or almost the same, meaning in some or all contexts.

5. 5 The nature of meaning: semantic relations among words Is perfect synonymy possible? It is considered that perfect synonymy is very rare. It is not economical for a language to have more than one word for the same concept, therefore, synonyms often have different nuances of meaning, and may not be interchangeable in all contexts. Consider the words holidays and vacation. I’m on holidays/vacation. Christmas holidays vs. Christmas vacation??? Consider youth vs adolescent He’s a youth. He’s an adolescent. What adolescent behaviour vs. What youth behaviour???

6. 6 The nature of meaning: semantic relations among words dark light updown boygirl hotcold comego Consider boy vs girl: what’s similar and what’s different about their meaning? What about hot vs cold, up vs down? Antonyms: words or phrases that are opposites with respect to some component of their meaning.

7. 7 The nature of meaning: semantic relations among words Consider the following: He’s a bright guy. This is a bright room. Now consider the following: This is a light bag. There is no light in this room. I took a loan from the bank. I am sitting on the bank of the river Polysemy: occurs when one word has two or more related meanings. Homophones: words that sound identically but have different, unrelated meanings. (NB! write and right are homophones)

8. 8 The nature of meaning: semantic relations among words Note that polysemy and homophony created what is know as lexical ambiguity, i.e. a single form has more than one meaning. Determine if the following sentence is ambiguous: Liz bought a pen. (Ambiguity: pen as a writing instrument vs. a small cage) How do we resolve lexical ambiguity?  Usually we have situational or linguistic context.  Note that so far we’ve only looked up to the level of a sentence in this course. However, at this point, we see evidence, that language and communication work beyond that level.  Set is one of the most ambiguous lexical items in English. Can you guess how many meanings are listed for set in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED)? …150!!! http://orbis.uottawa.ca/search

9. 9 The nature of meaning: semantic relations involving sentences 1.The police chased the burglar. 2.The burglar was chased by the police 3.I gave the book to Mary. 4.I gave Mary the book. 5.Paul bough a car from Sue. 6.Sue sold a car to Paul. Truth conditions: the circumstances under which a sentence can be uttered felicitously. 1 & 2 have the same truth conditions; so do 3&4; 5&6. Paraphrases: two sentences with the same meaning. But are the meanings in these pairs of sentences really the same? What are the subtle differences?

10. 10 The nature of meaning: semantic relations involving sentences 1.The park warden skilled the bear 2.The bear is dead 3.Prince is a dog 4.Prince is an animal Entailment: when the truth of one sentence guarantees the truth of another sentence. I.e. 1 entails 2; 3 entails 4. But not vice versa!

11. 11 The nature of meaning: semantic relations involving sentences 1.John is unemployed. 2.John has a job. Contradiction: a relationship in which if one sentence is true, the other must be false.

12. 12 What is meaning? The meaning of meaning is elusive. It can be defined in many different ways, each having its advantages and shortcomings. Connotation: the set of associations that a word’s use can evoke. E.g. winter associations: snow, bitter cold, short evenings, skating, etc. => these make up the word’s connotation. However, connotation cannot account for the entire meaning of the word, because winter does not become meaningless if a year is very mild, etc.

13. 13 What is meaning? -Denotation: equating a word or phrase with the entity or entities to which it refers. The denotation of the word winter corresponds to the season between autumn and spring (regardless of whether it is cold or unpleasant). The denotation of the word dog is a set of canines, etc. However, phrases like the present king of France are problematic. Why? =>because such phrases have no referent, no denotation. Another problem is that two different expressions may have the same referent or denotation: The leader of the conservative party = Steven Harper The Prime Minister of Canada = Steven Harper =>it seems problematic to assume that both these phrases mean the same thing!

14. 14 What is meaning? Extension vs. Intension: An expression’s extension corresponds to the set of entities that it refers to in the world. An expression’s intension is its inherent sense, the concepts that it evokes. E.g. woman: a set of real world entities (women)  extension woman: notions like ‘female’, ‘human,’ etc.  intension Prime Minister: referent, Steven Harper  extension Prime Minister: notion, the leader of a governing party  intension

15. 15 What is meaning? Componential Analysis (Semantic Decomposition): an approach that tries to represent a words intension by decomposing it into smaller semantic units or features. E.g. boygirlmanwoman +human+human +human +human +male-male +male -male -adult-adult +adult+adult

16. 16 What is meaning? One advantage of Componential Analysis is that it allows us to group entities into natural classes. A natural class is a class of elements containing shared features. E.g. What are the features that man and woman share? [+adult, + human] What are the features that girl and woman share? [-male, + human]

17. 17 What is meaning? How is componential analysis (semantic decomposition) useful? I.e. what advantages are there to decomposing words into features??? Consider the verbs marry, argue, buy, etc. What kind of subject do they take? Can you assign a feature to these verbs which indicates the kind of subject that they take? [+human] Thus, we have a tool for analysing or describing the meaning of whole classes of words, not just individual words.

18. 18 What is meaning? Are features always useful? Consider the following: blue [+colour, +??? blueness???] In this case, we cannot really decompose the meaning of this word.

19. 19 What is meaning? Componential analysis and verb meaning: -Componential analysis is most successful in the study of verb meanings. -Componential analysis does not necessarily have to work with binary (+/-) features. -We can just use CAPITALS to represent a semantic concept.

20. 20 What is meaning? Consider a typical concept of verb meaning: GO. This concept is associated with changes. Manifestations of GO Positional change: Harry went from Ottawa to Toronto. Possessional change: The money went to my granddaughter. Identificational change: I went from being a nice guy to being a cranky old man.

21. 21 What is meaning? Note that we don’t need to use the verb go but can still have a manifestation of the concept GO: The bird flew to its nest. The coach gave a new ball to the team. The caterpillar turned into a butterfly. Note that the concept GO always involves an entity undergoing the change (single underline) as well as an endpoint for the change (double underline)

22. 22 What is meaning? So we have discovered that the concept GO is part of the meaning of many different verbs. Positional GO: fly, crawl, climb, walk Possessional GO: give, buy, inherity Identificational GO: become, turn into

23. 23 What is meaning? Verb Meaning and Subcategorization Features of verb meaning can have an impact on what kind of phrases a verb combines with. Consider the following data: throw [ NP the boy][ NP a ball] vs. *push [ NP the boy][ NP a ball] toss *pull kick *lift fling *haul ballistic motion, sudden, instantaneous application of force and release continuous application of force without release as the object moves

24. 24 What is meaning? Let’s try another one… fax [Helen][the news] vs. *murmur [Helen] [the news] wire *mumble radio *mutter phone *shriek There is no straightforward explanation as to why components of verb meaning can influence the type of complements (subcategorization requirements) of verbs. means of communication included in the meaning of the verb quality of voice included in the meaning of the verb

25. 25 Movie about disjunction conjunctionand disjunctionor negationnot Interestingly, when disjunction is used in combination with negation, it can have a conjunctive interpretation. i.e. when or is used with not, it means and. E.g. I don’t want a book or a pencil =I don’t want a book and I don’t want a pencil