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Curs Id Semantica
Curs Id Semantica
INTRODUCTION TO SEMANTICS
Why study semantics? Semantics (as the study of meaning) is central to the study of
communication and as communication becomes more and more a crucial factor in social
organization, the need to understand it becomes more and more pressing. Semantics is also at
the centre of the study of the human mind - thought processes, cognition, conceptualization all these are intricately bound up with the way in which we classify and convey our
experience of the world through language.
Because it is, in these two ways, a focal point in man's study of man, semantics has
been the meeting place of various cross-currents of thinking and various disciplines of study.
Philosophy, psychology, and linguistics all claim a deep interest in the subject. Semantics has
often seemed baffling because there are many different approaches to it, and the ways in
which they are related to one another are rarely clear, even to writers on the subject. (Leech
1990: IX).
Semantics is a branch of linguistics, which is the study of language; it is an area of
study interacting with those of syntax and phonology. A person's linguistic abilities are based
on knowledge that they have. One of the insights of modern linguistics is that speakers of a
language have different types of linguistic knowledge, including how to pronounce words,
how to construct sentences, and about the meaning of individual words and sentences. To
reflect this, linguistic description has different levels of analysis. So - phonology is the study
of what sounds combine to form words; syntax is the study of how words can be combined
into sentences; and semantics is the study of the meanings of words and sentences.
1.
It has often been pointed out, and for obvious reasons, that semantics is the youngest
branch of linguistics (Ullmann 1962, Greimas 1962). Yet, interest in what we call today
"problems of semantics" was quite alive already in ancient times. In ancient Greece,
philosophers spent much time debating the problem of the way in which words acquired their
meaning. The question why is a thing called by a given name, was answered in two different
ways.
Some of them believed that the names of things were arrived at naturally, physei, that
they were somehow conditioned by the natural properties of things themselves. They took
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great pains to explain for instance that a letter like "rho" seems apt to express motion since the
tongue moves rapidly in its production. Hence its occurence in such words as rhoein ("to
flow"), while other sounds such as /s, f, ks/, which require greater breath effort in production,
are apt for such names as psychron ("shivering") or kseon ("shaking"), etc. The obvious
inadvertencies of such correlations did not discourage philosophers from believing that it is
the physical nature of the sounds of a name that can tell us something about its meaning.
Other philosophers held the opposite view, namely that names are given to things
arbitrarily through convention, thesei. The physei-thesei controversy or physis-nomos
controversy is amply discussed in Plato's dialogue Cratylus. In the dialogue, Cratylus appears
to be a part of the physei theory of name acquistion, while Hermogenes defends the opposite,
nomos or their point of view. The two positions are then debated by Socrates in his usual
manner. In an attempt to mediate between the two discussants he points out first of all that
there are two types of names. Some are compound names which are divisible into smaller
constituent element and accordingly, analyzable into the meaning of these constituent
elements: Poseidon derives his name from posi ("for the feet") and desmos ("fetter") since it
was believed that it was difficult for the sea god to walk in the water.
The words, in themselves, Socrates points out, give us no clue as to their "natural"
meaning, except for the nature of their sounds. Certain qualities are attributed to certain types
of sounds and then the meaning of words is analyzed in terms of the qualities of the sounds
they are made of. When faced with abundant examples which run counter the apriori
hypothesis: finding a "l" sound ("lambda") "characteristic of liquid movements" in the word
sklerotes ("hardness") for instance, he concludes, in true socratic fashion, that "we must admit
that both convention and usage contribute to the manifestation of what we have in mind when
we speak".
In two other dialogues, Theatetus and Sophists, Plato dealt with other problems such
as the relation between thought language, and the outside world. In fact, Plato opened the way
for the analysis of the sentence in terms which are parly linguistic and partly pertaining to
logic. He was dealing therefore with matters pertaining to syntactic semantics, the meaning of
utterrances, rather than the meaning of individual words.
Aristotle's works (Organon as well as Rhetoric and Poetics) represent the next major
contribution of antiquity to language study in general and semantics in particular. His general
approach to language was that of a logician, in the sense that he was interested in what there is
to know how men know it, and how they express it in langugage (Dinneen, 1967: 70) and it is
through this perspective that his contribution to linguistics should be assessed.
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In the field of semantics proper, he identified a level of language analysis - the lexical
one - the main purpose of which was to study the meaning of words either in isolation or in
syntactic constructions. He deepened the discussion of the polysemy, antonymy, synonymy
and homony and developed a full-fledged theory of metaphor.
The contribution of stoic philosophy to semantics is related to their discussion of the
nature of linguistic sign. In fact, as it was pointed out (Jakobson, 1965: 21, Stati 1971: 182,
etc.) centuries ahead of Ferdinand de Saussure, the theory of the Janus-like nature of the
linguistic sign - semeion - is an entity resulting from the relationship obtaining between the
signifier - semainon - (i.e. the sound or graphic aspect of the word), the signified semainomenon (i.e. the notion) and the object thus named - tynkhanon -, a very clear
distinction, therefore, between reference and meaning as postulated much later by Ogden and
Richards in the famous "triangle" that goes by their name.
Etymology was also much debated in antiquity; but the explanations given to changes
in the meaning and form of words were marred on the one hand by their belief that semantic
evolution was always unidirectional, from a supposedly "correct" initial meaning, to their
corruption, and, on the other hand, by their disregard of phonetic laws (Stati, 1971: 182).
During the Middle Ages, it is worth mentioning in the field of linguistics and
semantics the activity of the "Modistae" the group of philosophers so named because of their
writings On the Modes of Signification. These writings were highly speculative grammars in
wich semantic considerations held an important position. The "Modistae" adopted the "thesei"
point of view in the "physei-thesei" controversy and their efforts were directed towards
pointing out the "modi intelligendi", the ways in which we can know things, and the "modi
significandi", the various ways of signifying them (Dinneen, 1967: 143).
It may be concluded that throughout antiquity and the Middle Ages, and actually until
the 19th century almost everything that came to be known about meaning in languages was the
result of philosophic speculation and logical reasoning. Philosophy and logic were the two
important sciences which left their strong impact on the study of linguistic meaning.
It was only during the 19th century that semantics came into being as an independent
branch of linguistics as a science in its own right. The first words which confined themselves
to the study of semantic problems as we understand them today, date as far back as the
beginning of the last century.
In his lectures as Halle University, the German linguist Ch. C. Reisig was the first to
formulate the object of study of the new science of meaning which he called semasiology. He
conceived the new linguistic branch of study as a historical science studying the principles
governing the evolution of meaning.
Towards the end of the century (1897), M. Bral published an important book Essay
de smantique which was soon translated into English and found an immediate echo in France
as well as in other countries of Europe. In many ways it marks the birthday of semantics as a
modern linguistic discipline. Bral did not only provide the name for the new science, which
became general in use, but also circumscribed more clearly its subject-matter.
The theoretical sources of semantic linguistics outlined by Bral are, again, classical
logic and rethorics, to which the insights of an upcoming science, namely, psychology are
added. In following the various changes in the meaning of words, interest is focused on
identifying certain general laws governing these changes. Some of these laws are arrived at by
the recourse to the categories of logic: extension of meaning, narrowing of meaning, transfer
of meaning, while others are due to a psychological approach, degradation of meaning and the
reverse process of elevation of meaning.
Alongside these theoretical endeavours to "modernize" semantics as the youngest
branch of linguistics, the study of meaning was considerably enhanced by the writing of
dictionaries, both monolingual and bilingual. Lexicographic practice found extensive
evidence for the categories and principles used in the study of meaning from antiquity to the
more modern approaches of this science: polysemy, synonymy, homonymy, antonymy, as well
as for the laws of semantic change mentioned above.
The study of language meaning has a long tradition in Romania. Stati mentioned
(1971: 184) Dimitrie Cantemir's contribution to the discussion of the difference between
categorematic and syncategorematic words so dear to the medieval scholastics.
Lexicography attained remarkably high standards due mainly to B. P. Hasdeu. His
Magnum Etymologicum Romaniae ranks with the other great lexicographic works of the time.
In 1887, ten years ahead of M. Bral, Lazar Saineanu published a remarkable book
entitled Incercare asupra semasiologiei limbei romane. Studii istorice despre tranzitiunea
sensurilor. This constitutes one of the first works on semantics to have appeared anywhere.
Saineanu makes ample use of the contributions of psychology in his attempts at identifying
the semantic associations established among words and the "logical laws and affinities"
governing the evolution of words in particular and of language in general.
Although it doesn't contain an explicit theory of semantics, the posthumous
publication of Ferdinand de Saussure's Cours de linguistique gnrale 1916, owing to the
The following decades, more specifically the period 1930-1950 is known as a period
of crisis in semantics. Meaning was all but completely ignored in linguistics particularly as an
effect of the position adopted by L. Bloomfield, who considered that the study of meaning
was outside the scope of linguistics proper. Its study falls rather within the boundaries of other
sciences such as chemistry, physics, etc., and more especially psychology, sociology or
anthropology. The somewhat more conciliatory positions which, without denying the role of
meaning in language nevertheless alloted it but a marginal place within the study of language
(Hockett, 1958), was not able to put an end to this period of crisis.
Reference to semantics was only made in extremis, when the various linguistic
theories were not able to integrate the complexity of linguistic events within a unitary system.
Hence the widespread idea of viewing semantics as a "refuge", as a vast container in which all
language facts that were difficult to formalize could be disposed of.
The picture of the development of semantics throughout this period would be
incomplete, were it not to comprise the valuable accumulation of data regarding meaning, all
due to the pursuing of tradition methods and primarily to lexicographic practice.
If we view the situation from a broader perspective, it becomes evident that the socalled "crisis" of semantics, actually referred to the crisis of this linguistic discipline only
from a structuralist standpoint, more specifically from the point of view of American
descriptivism. On the other hand, however, it is also salient that the renovating tendencies, as
inaugurated by different linguistic schools, did not incorporate the semantic domain until very
late. It was only in the last years of the sixties that the organized attacks of the modern
linguistic schools of different orientations was launched upon the vast domain of linguistic
meaning.
At present meaning has ceased to be an "anathema" for linguistics. Moreover, the
various linguistic theories are unanimous in admitting that no language description can be
regarded as being complete without including facts of meaning in its analysis.
A specific feature of modern research in linguistics is the ever growing interest in
problems of meaning. Judging by the great number of published works, by the extensive
number of semantic theories which have been postulated, of which some are complementary,
while some other are directly opposed, we are witnessing a period of feverish research, of
effervescence, which cannot but lead to progress in semantics.
An important development in the direction of a psycholinguistic approach to meaning
is Lakoff's investigation of the metaphorical basis of meaning (Lakoff and Johnson 1980).
This approach draw on Elinor Rosch's notion of protype, and adopt the view opposed to that
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of Chomsky, that meaning cannot be easily separated from the more general cognitive
functions of the mind.
G. Leech considers that the developments which will bring most rewards in the future
will be those which bring into a harmonious synthesis the insights provided by the three
disciplines which claim the most direct and general interest in meaning: those of linguistics,
philosophy and psychology.
2. Definition and Object of Semantics
In linguistic terminology the word semantics is used to designate the science of wordmeaning. The term, however, has acquired a number of senses in contemporary science. Also,
a number of other terms have been proposed to cover the same area of study, namely the study
of meaning. As to meaning itself, the term has a variety of uses in the metalanguage of several
sciences such as logic, psychology, linguistics, and more recently semiotics.
All these factors render it necessary to discuss on the one hand the terminology used
in the study of meaning and on the other hand, the main concerns of the science devoted to the
study of meaning.
One particular meaning of the term semantics is used to designate a new science,
General Semantics, the psychological and pedagogical doctrine founded by Alfred Korzybsky
(1933) under the influence of contemporary neo-positivism. Starting from the supposed
exercise upon man's behaviour, General semantics aims at correcting the "inconsistencies" of
natural language as well as their tendency to "simplify" the complex nature of reality.
A clearer definition of the meaning (or meanings) of a word is said to contribute to
removing the "dogmatism" and "rigidity" of language and to make up for the lack of
emotional balance among people which is ultimately due to language. This school of thought
holds that the study of communicative process can be a powerful force for good in the
resolution of human conflict, whether on an individual, local, or international scale. This is a
rather nave point of view concerning the causes of conflicts (G. Leech 1990: XI). Yet, certain
aspects of the relationship between linguistic signs and their users - speakers and listeners
alike - have, of course, to be analyzed given their relevance for the meaning of the respective
signs.
Also, that there is a dialectic interdependence between language and thought in the
sense that language does not serve merely to express thought, but takes an active part in the
very moulding of thought, is beyond any doubt.
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Later, in the 19th century, the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce devoted a
life time work, which unfortunately remained unheeded for a long time, to the study of signs,
to setting up semiotics as a science, "as the doctrine of the essential nature and fundamental
varieties of possible semiosis". (R. Jakobson, 1965: 22). Ferdinand de Saussure too,
probably quite independently from Peirce, but undoubtedly inspired by the same Greek
philosophers' speculations on language, suggested that linguistics should be regarded as just
one branch of a more general science of sign systems which he called semiology. In other
words he saw no basic difference between language signs and any other kinds of sings all of
them interpretable by reference to the same general science of signs.
Peirce distinguished three main types of signs according to the nature of the
relationship between the two inseparable aspects of a sign: the signans (the material suport of
the sign, its concrete manifestation) and the signatum (the thing signified):
(i)
Icons in which the relationship between the signans and the signatum is one of
the similarity.
The signans of an iconic type of sign, resembles in shape its signatum. Drawings,
photographs, etc., are examples of iconic signs. Yet, phisical similarity does not imply true
copying or reflection of the signatum by the signans. Peirce distinguished two subclasses of
icons-images and diagrams. In the case of the latter, it is obvious that the "similarity" is hardly
"physical" at all. In a diagram of the rate of population or industrial production growth, for
instance, convention plays a very important part.
(ii)
Indexes, in which the relationship between the signans and the signatum is the
result of a constant association based on physical contiguity not on similarity. The signans
does not resemble the signatum to indicate it. Thus smoke is an index for fire, gathering
clouds indicate a coming rain, high temperature is an index for illness, footprints are indexes
for the presence of animals, etc.
(iii)
Symbols, in which the relationship between the signans and the signatum is
entirely conventional. There is no similarity or physical contiguity between the two. The
signans and signatum are bound by convention; their relationship is an arbitrary one.
Language signs are essentially symbolic in nature. Ferdinand de Saussure clearly specified
absolute arbitrariness as "the proper condition of the verbal sign".
The act of semiosis may be both motivated and conventional. If semiosis is motivated,
than motivation is achieved either by contiguity or by similarity.
Any system of signs endowed with homogeneous significations forms a language; and
any language should be conceived of as a mixture of signs.
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Chapter II
THE PROBLEM OF MEANING
I. The concept of meaning
Ogden and Richards have pointed out in 1923 that at least three factors are
involved in any symbolic act- the symbol itself the material aspect of the linguistic sign, be it
phonic or graphic; the thought/reference the mental content that accompanies the occurrence
of the symbol in the minds of both the speaker and the listener; the object itself/ the referent
the object in the real world designated by the symbol.
The triadic concept of meaning was represented by Ogden and Richards in the form of
a triangle.
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While the relation symbol- reference and reference- referent are direct and causal ones
in the sense that the symbol expresses or symbolises the reference which, in turn refers to the
referent, the relation symbol- object or referent is an imputed, indirect one.
Of the two sides of the triangle only the right-hand one can be left out tentatively
and temporarily- in a linguistic account of meaning. The relationship between thought and the
outside world of objects and phenomena is of interest primarily to psychologists and
philosophers, linguists directing their attention towards the other two sides. (Chioran, 1973:
30).
Depending on what it is understood by meaning, we can distinguish two main
semantic theories:
- the referential / denotational approach-meaning is the action of putting words into
relationship with the world;
- the representational /conceptual approach-meaning is the notion, the concept or the
mental image of the object or situation in reality as reflected in mans mind.
The two basic types of meaning were first mentioned by S. Stati in 1971- referential
definitions which analyse meaning in terms of the relation symbol- object /referent;
conceptual definitions which regard the relation symbol- thought/reference.
A. Denotational /Referential Theories of Meaning.
Before describing the characteristics of these theories, a clarification of the terms used
is necessary. All languages allow speakers to describe or model aspects of what they perceive.
In semantics the action of picking out or identifying individuals/ locations with words is
called referring/denoting. To some linguists the two terms, denote and refer are synonymous.
J. Saeed (1997: 23) gives two examples of proper names whose corresponding referents are
easily recognizable
e. g. I saw Michael Jackson on TV last night.
We have just flown back from Paris.
The underlined words refer to/denote the famous singer, respectively the capital of France,
even if in some contexts they may be used to designate a person different from the singer, or a
locality other than the capital of France.
To John Lyons the terms denote and refer are not synonymous. The former is used to
express the relationship linguistic expression- world, whereas the latter is used for the action
of a speaker in picking out entities in the world. In the example
A sparrow flew into the room.
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A sparrow and the room are NPs that refer to things in the world.; room, sparrow
denote classes of items. In conclusion, referring is what speakers do and denoting is a
property of words. Denotation is a stable relationship in a language, it doesnt depend on
anyones use of the word unlike the action of referring.
Returning to the problem of theories of meaning, they are called referential/
denotational when their basic premise is that we can give the meaning of words and sentences
by showing how they relate to situations- proper names denote individuals, nouns denote
entities or sets of individuals, verbs denote actions, adverbs denote properties of actions,
adjectives denote properties of individuals-.In case of sentences, they denote situations and
events. The difference in meaning between a sentence and its negative counterpart arises from
the fact that they describe two situations
e. g.
Referential theories consider meaning to be something outside the world itself, an extralinguistic entity. This means reducing the linguistic sign, i. e. the word to its material aspect,
be it phonic or graphic.
The impossibility of equating meaning with the object denoted by a given word can be
explained considering three major reasons
a. the identity meaning-object would leave meaning to a large extent undefined because not
all the characteristic traits of an object as an extra- linguistic reality are identical with the
distinctive features of lexical meaning;
b. not all words have a referent in the outside world; there are:
- non- referring expressions so, very, maybe, if, not, etc.
- referring expressions used generically:
e. g. A murder is a serious felony.
- words like nouns, pronouns with variable reference depending on the context:
e. g. The president decides on the foreign policy.
She didnt know what to say.
- words which have no corresponding object in the real world in general or at a
certain moment:
e. g. The unicorn is a mythical animal.
She wants to make a cake this evening.
- different expressions/words that can be used for the same referent, the meaning
reflecting the perspective from which the referent is viewed
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relationship between an expression and its extension is called denotation.(Saeed 1997: 27)
A distinction currently made by modern linguists is that between the denotation of a
word and the connotations associated with it. For most linguists, denotation represents the
cognitive or communicative aspect of meaning (Schaff 1965), while connotation stands for
the emotional overtones a speaker usually associates with each individual use of a word.
Denotative meaning accounts for the relationship between the linguistic sign and its
denotatum. But one shouldnt equate denotation with the denotatum.What is the denotation of
a word which has no denotatum.
As far as the attitude of the speaker is concerned, denotation is regarded as neutral,
since its function is simply to convey the informational load carried by a word. The
connotative aspects of meaning are highly subjective, springing from personal experiences,
which a speaker has had of a given word and also from his/her attitude towards his/ her
utterance and/ or towards the interlocutors (Leech, 1990: 14). For example dwelling, house,
home, abode, residence have the same denotation but different connotations.
Given their highly individual nature, connotations seem to be unrepeatable but, on the
other hand, in many instances, the social nature of individual experience makes some
connotative shades of meaning shared by practically all the speakers of a language. It is very
difficult to draw a hard line between denotation and connotation in meaning analysis, due to
the fact that elements of connotation are drawn into what is referred to as basic, denotative
meaning. By taking into account connotative overtones of meaning, its analysis has been
introduced a new dimension, the pragmatic one.
Talking about reference involves talking about nominals- names and noun phrases-.
They are labels for people, places, etc. Context is important in the use of names; names are
definite in that they carry the speakers assumption that his/ her audience can identify the
referent (Saeed, 1997: 28).
One important approach in nominals analysis is the description theory (Russel, Frege,
Searle). A name is taken as a label or shorthand for knowledge about the referent, or for one
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Two distinguishable aspects of the content side of the sign can be postulated- its
signification, the real object or situation denoted by the sign, i. e. its denotation and a sense
which expresses a certain informational content on the object or situation. The relation
between a proper name and what it denotes is called name relation and the thing denoted is
called denotation. A name names its denotation and expresses its sense. (Alonso Church)
Extensional and Intensional Meaning. The definition of meaning by signification is
called extension in symbolic logic (Carnap, 1960) and what has been called sense is
equivalent to intension. Extension stands for the class of objects corresponding to a given
predicate, while intension is based on the property assigned to the predicate (E. Vasiliu, 1970).
e. g. They want to buy a new car. (intensional meaning)
There is a car parked in front of your house. (extensional meaning)
C. The Trapezium of Heger.
Klaus Heger in his article Les bases metodologiques de lonomasiologie proposes a
trapezium- like variant, which allows him to introduce new distinctions. Heger noticed as
Greimas, adept of the triadic conception agreed- that signifiant + signifie i. e. concept is
different from the linguistic sign, because the content of an expression is a semasiologic field,
which is made up of more than one concept or mental object. In its turn a concept can be
expressed by means of several signifiants.
The model of Heger gives him the possibility to analyse the content, making place
for sememes and semes. Extralinguistic reality has two levels- the logical and/or
psychological level and the level of the external world (C. Baylon, P. Fabre, 1978: 132).
The term moneme (A. Martinet) is also used by Heger and represents the minimal
unit endowed with signification; a moneme is made up of morphemes which are in a limited
number and it also represents a lexeme, the number of lexemes in a language being virtually
infinite. In conclusion, a moneme is at the same time form of expression like phonemes and
form of content like sememes. It is significant and signified. The signified depends on the
structure of the language, but the concept on the right side of the trapezium is independent.
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The onomasiology starts from the concept and tries to find the linguistic relations for
one or several languages. It tries to find monemes which by means of their significations or
sememes express a certain concept. An onomasiological field reprewsents the structure of all
the sememes belonging to different signified, so to different monemes, but making up one
concept.
Kurt Baldinger (1984: 131) comments on Hegers trapezium, analysing the succesive
stages from the substance of expression level to the final content level.
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There is a first of all a semantic dimension proper, which covers the denotatum of the
sign including also information as to how the denotatum is actually referred to, from what
point of view it is being considered. The first aspect is the signification, the latter is its sense.
e. g. Lord Byron/ Author of Child Harold have similar signification and different
senses.
He is clever. /John is clever . He and John are synonymous expressions if the
condition of co- referentiality is met.
The logical dimension of meaning covers the information conveyed by the linguistic
expression on the denotatum, including a judgement of it.
The pragmatic dimension defines the purpose of the expression, why it is uttered by a
speaker. The relation emphasized is between language users and language signs.
The structural dimension covers the structure of linguistic expressions, the complex
network of relationships among its component elements as well as between it and other
expressions.
2. Types of Meaning. Considering these dimensions, meaning can be analyzed from
different perspectives, of which G. Leech distinguished seven main types (Leech, 1990: 9).
a. Logical/ conceptual meaning, also called denotative or cognitive meaning, is considered
to be the central factor in linguistic communication. It has a complex and sophisticated
organization compared to those specific to syntactic or phonological levels of language.
The principles of contrastiveness and constituent structure paradigmatic and
syntagmatic axes of linguistic structure- manifest at this level i. e. conceptual meaning
can be studied in terms of contrastive features.
b. Connotative meaning is the communicative value an expression has by virtue of what it
refers to. To a large extent, the notion of reference overlaps with conceptual meaning. The
contrastive features become attributes of the referent, including not only physical
characteristics, but also psychological and social properties, typical rather than invariable.
Connotations are apt to vary from age to age, from society to society.
e. g. woman
any characteristic of the referent, identified subjectively or objectively may contribute to the
connotative meaning.
c. In considering the pragmatic dimension of meaning, we can distinguish between social
and affective meaning. Social meaning is that which a piece of language conveys about
the social circumstances of its use. In part, we decode the social meaning of a text
through our recognition of different dimensions and levels of style.
One account (Crystal and Davy, Investigating English Style) has recognized several
dimensions of socio-linguistic variation. There are variations according to:
- dialect i. e. the language of a geographical region or of a social class;
- time , for instance the language of the eighteenth century;
- province/domain I. e. the language of law, science, etc.;
- status i. e. polite/ colloquial language etc.;
- modality i. e. the language of memoranda, lectures, jokes, etc.;
- singurality, for instance the language of a writer.
Its not surprising that we rarely find words which have both the same conceptual and
stylistic meaning, and this led to declare that there are no true synonyms. But there is much
convenience in restricting the term synonymy to equivalence of conceptual meaning. For
example, domicile is very formal, official, residence is formal, abode is poetic, home is the
most general term. In terms of conceptual meaning, the following sentences are synonymous.
e. g. They chucked a stone at the cops, and then did a bunk with the loot.
After casting a stone at the police, they absconded with the money.
In a more local sense, social meaning can include what has been called The
illocutionary force of an utterance, whether it is to be interpreted as a request, an assertion, an
apology, a threat, etc.
d. The way language reflects the personal feelings of the speaker, his/ her attitude towards
his/ her interlocutor or towards the topic of discussion, represents affective meaning.
Scaling our remarks according to politeness, intonation and voice- timbre are essential
factors in expressing affective meaning which is largely a parasitic category, because it
relies on the mediation of conceptual, connotative or stylistic meanings. The exception is
when we use interjections whose chief function is to express emotion.
e. Two other types of meaning involve an interconnection on the lexical level of language.
Reflected meaning arises in cases of multiple conceptual meaning, when one sense of a
word forms part of our response to another sense. On hearing, in a church service, the
synonymous expressions the Comforter and the Holy Ghost, one may react according to
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the everyday non- religious meanings of comfort and ghost. One sense of a word rubs
off on another sense when it has a dominant suggestive power through frequency and
familiarity. The case when reflected meaning intrudes through the sheer strength of
emotive suggestion is illustrated by words which have a taboo meaning; this taboo
contamination accounted in the past for the dying- out of the non- taboo sense;
Bloomfield explains in this way the replacement of cock by rooster.
f. Collocative Meaning consists of the associations a word acquires on account of the
meanings of words which tend to occur in its environment/ collocate with it.
e. g. pretty girl/ boy/ flower/ color
handsome boy/ man/ car/ vessel/ overcoat/ typewriter .
Collocative meaning remains an idiosyncratic property of individual words and it shouldnt
be invoked to explain all differences of potential co- occurrence. Affective and social
meaning, reflected and collocative meaning have more in common with connotative meaning
than with conceptual meaning; they all have the same open- ended, variable character and
lend themselves to analysis in terms of scales and ranges. They can be all brought together
under the heading of associative meaning. Associative meaning needs employing an
elementary associationist theory of mental connections based upon contiguities of
experience in order to explain it. Whereas conceptual meaning requires the postulation of
intricate mental structures specific to language and to humans, and is part of the common
system of language shared by members of a speech community, associative meaning is less
stable and varies with the individuals experience. Because of so many imponderable factors
involved in it, associative meaning can be studied systematically only by approximative
statistical techniques. Osgood, Suci and Tannenbaum (The Measurement of Meaning, 1957),
proposed a method for a partial analysis of associative meaning. They devised a technique
involving a statistical measurement device, - The Semantic Differential -, for plotting
meaning in terms of a multidimensional semantic space, using as data speakers judgements
recorded in terms of seven point scales.
Thematic Meaning means what is communicated by the way in which a speaker/
writer organizes the message in terms of ordering, focus or emphasis. Emphasis can be
illustrated by word- order:
e.g. Bessie donated the first prize.
The first prize was donated by Bessie.
by grammatical constructions:
21
2. Connotative Meaning
3. Social Meaning
4. Affective Meaning
5. Reflected Meaning
22
Logical, cognitive or
denotative content
What is communicated by
virtue of what language refers
to
What is communicated of the
social circumstances of
language use
What is communicated of the
feelings and attitudes of the
speaker/ writer
What is communicated
through association with
another sense of the same
expression
6. Collocative Meaning
7. Thematic Meaning
What is communicated
through association with
words tending to occur in the
environment of another word
What is communicated by the
way in which the message is
organized in terms of order
and emphasis
23
Chapter III.
M O T I VAT I O N O F M E A N I N G
Ferdinand de Saussure's apodictic statement: "the linguistic sign is arbitrary" in the
sense that there is no direct relationship between the sound sequence (the signifiant) and the
"idea" expressed by it (signifi) is taken for granted in the study of language. The resumption
of the discussion on the arbitrary character of the linguistic sign in the late thirties and early
forties proved however that the problem is not as simple as it might seem. There are numerous
words in all languages in which a special correlation may be said to exist between meaning
and sound. These words include in the first place interjections and onomatopoeia, which are
somehow imitative of non-linguistic sounds as well as those instances in which it can be said
that some sounds are somehow associated with certain meanings, in the sense that they
suggest them. This latter aspect is known as phonetic symbolism.
But in addition to these cases which still remain marginal in the language, there is also
another sense in which the meaning of words may be said to be related to its form, namely the
possibility of analyzing linguistic signs by reference to the smaller meaningful elements of
which they are made up. Indeed, derivative, complex and compound words are analyzable
from the point of view of meaning in terms of their constituent morphemes.
It is obvious that while the general principle remains valid, namely that there is no
inherent reason why a given concept should be paired to a given string of sounds, it is the
linguist's task to examine those instances, when it is possible to say something about the
meaning of a linguistic sign by reference to its sounds and grammatical structure, in other
words, it is necessary to assess the extent to which there is some motivation in the case of at
least a number of words in the language.
Ullmann (1957) made a distinction between opaque and transparent words. In the
latter case of transparent words, Ullmann discusses three types of motivation: phonetic,
grammatical and semantic (motivation by meaning, as in the case of "breakfast", whose
meaning can be derived from the meaning of its component elements).
There are two main types of linguistic motivation already postulated by de Saussure:
absolute and relative motivation.
24
1.
Absolute motivation
Absolute motivation includes language signs whose sound structure reproduces certain
features of their content. Given this quasi-physical resemblance between their signifiant and
their signifi, these signs are of an iconic or indexic nature in the typology of semiotic signs,
although symbolic elements are present as well in their organization:
There are several classes of linguistic signs, which can be said to be absolutely
motivated:
(i) Interjections. It would be wrong to consider, as is sometimes done, that
interjections somehow depict exactly the physiological and psychological states they express.
The fact that interjections differ in sound from one language to another is the best proof of it.
Compare Romanian au! aoleu! vai! etc. and English ouch!, which may be used in similar
situations by speakers of the two languages.
(ii) Onomatopoeia. This is true of imitative or onomatopoeic words as well. Despite
the relative similarity in the basic phonetic substance of words meant to imitate animal or
other sounds and noises, their phonological structure follows the rules of pattern and
arrangement characteristic of each separate language. There are instances in which the degree
of conventionality is highly marked, as evidenced by the fact that while in English a dog goes
bow-wow, in Romanian it goes ham-ham. Also, such forms as English whisper and Romanian
opti are considered to be motivated in the two languages, although they are quite different in
form.
(iii) Phonetic symbolism. Phonetic symbolism is based on the assumption that certain
sounds may be associated with particular ideas or meanings, because they somehow seem to
share some attributes usually associated with the respective referents. The problem of
phonetic symbolism has been amply debated in linguistics and psychology and numerous
experiments have been made without arriving at very conclusive results.
It is quite easy to jump at sweeping generalizations starting from a few instances of
sound symbolism.
Jespersen attached particular attention to the phonetic motivation of words and tried to
give the character of law to certain sound and meaning concordances. He maintained for
instance, on the basis of ample evidence provided by a great variety of languages, that the
front, close vowel sound of the [i] type is suggestive of the idea of smallness, rapidity and
weakness. A long list of English words: little, slim, kid, bit, flip, tip, twit, pinch, twinkle, click,
etc. can be easily provided in support of the assumption, and it can also be reinforced by
examples of words from other languages: Fr. petit, It. piccolo, Rom. mic, etc. Of course, one
25
can equally easily find counter examples - the most obvious being the word big in English but on the whole it does not seem unreasonable to argue that a given sound, or sequence of
sounds is associated to a given meaning impression, although it remains a very vague one.
Sapir (1929) maintained that a contrast can be established between [i] and [a] in point
of the size of the referents in the names of which they appear, so that words containing [a]
usually have referents of larger size. Similar systematic relations were established for
consonants as well.
Initial consonant clusters of the /sn/, /sl/, /fl/ type are said to be highly suggestive of
quite distinctive meanings, as indicated by long lists of words beginning with these sounds.
2.
Relative motivation
Relative motivation. In the case of relatively motivated language signs, it is not the
sounds which somehow evoke the meaning; whatever can be guessed about the meaning of
such words is a result of the analysis of the smaller linguistic signs which are included in
them. Relative motivation involves a much larger number of words in the language than
absolute motivation. There are three types of relative motivation: motivation by derivation; by
composition and semantic motivation.
An analysis of the use of derivational means to create new words in the language will
reveal its importance for the vocabulary of a language. The prefix {-in}, realized
phonologically in various ways and meaning either (a) not and (b) in, into, appears in at least
2,000 English words: inside, irregular, impossible, incorrect, inactive etc.
Similarly, the Latin capere ("take") appears in a great number of English words:
capture, captivity, capable, reception, except, principal, participant, etc.
It is no wonder that Brown (1964) found it possible to give keys to the meanings of
over 14,000 words, which can be analyzed in terms of combinations between 20 prefixes and
14 roots. Some of his examples are given below:
Words
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Precept
Detain
Intermittent
Offer
Insist
Monograph
Epilogue
Aspect
Prefix
predeinterobinmonoepiad-
Common Meaning
before
away, down
between, among
against
into
alone, one,
upon
to, towards
26
Root
capere
tenere
mittere
ferre
stare
graphein
legein
specere
Common
Meaning
take, seize
hold, have
send
bear, carry
stand
write
say, study of
see
This table alone is sufficient to indicate the importance of relative motivation for the
analysis of meaning.
It is obvious that the lexicon of a language presents items which differ in the degree to
which their meaning can be said to be motivated; while some are opaque (their sound give no
indication of their meaning), others are more or less transparent, in the sense that one can
arrive at some idea of their meaning by recourse to their phonetic shape or to their
derivational structure or to some semantic relations which can be established with other words
in the language.
In Prcis de smantique franaise (1952), Ullman suggested several criteria of
semantic structure which enabled him to characterize English as a "lexical language", as
opposed to French which is a more "grammatical" one: the number of arbitrary and motivated
words in the vocabulary; the number of particular and generic terms; the use of special
devices to heighten the emotive impact of words. Three other criteria are based on multiple
meaning (patterns of synonymy, the relative frequency of polysemy, and the incidence of
homonymy) and a final one evaluates the extent to which words depend on context for the
clarification of their meaning. This is an area of study which could be continued with
profitable results for other languages as well.
Bibliography:
Chioran, Dumitru. 1973. Elements of English Structural Semantics, Bucureti, Ed. Didactic
i Pedagogic.
Exercises:
1. Give examples of words which are absolutely motivated.
2. Analyse the following words in terms of relative motivation: rowboat, impermeability,
wholesaler, pan-African, childless, playing-field, incredible, scare-crow, counterattack, imperfect, overdose, shareholder, caretaker, salesman, foresee,
misunderstanding.
3. Give examples of words build with the help of the following prefixes: bi-, in-, mis-,
de-, anti-, non-, out-, super-, dis-, mal-, a-, en-, over-.
4. Analyze the following blends in point of their relative motivation: sportcast, smog,
telescreen, mailomat, dictaphon, motel, paratroops, cablegram, guestar, transistor.
5. Write the word forms of the following words and analyze them in terms of relative
motivation: move, comment, place. Consider Saussures types of associations and find
possible associations among the word forms that you previously found.
27
Chapter IV
STRUCTURAL APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF MEANING
1. COMPONENTIAL ANALYSIS
Though structuralism in linguistics should be connected to structuralism in other
sciences, notably in anthropology, it should also be regarded as a result of its own inner laws
of development as a science.
Generally, structuralist linguistics may be characterised by a neglect of meaning, but
this must not lead to the conclusion that this direction in linguistics has left the study of
meaning completely unaffected. Structural research in semantics has tried to answer two basic
guestions:
a) is there a semantic structure/system of language, similar to the systemic
organisation of language uncovered at other levels of linguistic analysis
(phonology and grammar) ?
b) can the same structure methods which have been used in the analysis of
phonological and grammatical aspects of languages be applied to the analysis of
meaning ?
In relation to question a), the existence of some kind of systemic organisation within
the lexicon of a language is taken for granted. F de Sanssure pointed aut that the vocabulary
of a language cannot be regarded as a mere catalogue. But this aaceptance does not mean it
is an easy job to prove the systematic character of the lexicon. First of all, it would mean the
study of the entire civilization it reflects and secondly, given the fluid and vague nature of
meaning, semantic reality must be analysed without recourse to directly observable entities as
it happens in case of sound and grammatical meaning.
One solution was to group together those elements of the lexicon which form more or
less natural series. Such series are usually represented by kinship terms, parts of the human
body, the term of temporal and spatial orientation,etc, that can be said to reveal a structural
organisation. Structural considerations were applied to terms denoting sensorial perceptions:
colour, sound , swell, taste, as well as to terms of social and personal appreciation.
The existence of such semantic series, the organisation of words into semnatic fields
justified the structural approach to the study of lexicon.
28
English
Russian
mana
hand
pyka
brat
arm
Since significations as invariants find their material manifestation in senses as their
invariants, in terms of glossematics, a theory of signification stands for content form alone, so
signification is no more semantic than other aspects of content form dealt with by grammar. It
follows that only a theory of the sense (substance of content) could be the object of study of
semantics(Chitoran, 1973:48).
In Hjelmslevs opinion, sense is characteristic of speech, not of language, pertains to
an empirical level, so below any interest of linguistics. Any attempt to uncover structure or
system at the sense level can be based on the collective evaluation of sense. For Hjelmslev,
lexicology is a sociological discipline which makes use of linguistic material : words. This
extreme position is in keeping with the neopositivist stand adopted by glossematics, according
to which form has primacy over substance, that language is form, not substance and what
29
matters in the study of meaning is the complex network of relations obtaining among
linguistic elements.
Keeping in mind the basic isomorphism between expression and content, it is essential
to emphasize some important differences between the two language levels:
-
the number of units to be uncovered at the expression level is relatively small, and
infinitely greater at the content level.
It is generaly accepted that the meanings of a word are also structured, that they form
microsystems, as apposed to the entire vocabulary which represents the lexical macrosystem.
The meanings of a lexical element display three levels of structure, starting from a basic
significative nucleus, a semantic constant (Coteanu, 1960) which represents the highest level
of abstraction in the structuration of meaning. Around it different meanings can be grouped
(the 2 nd level). (Chioran, 1973:51)
The actual uses of a lexical item, resulting from the individualising function of words
(Coteanu, 1960) belong to speech. Monolingual dictionaries give the meanings of a lexical
item abstracted on the basis of a wide collection of data. As far as the semantic constant is
concerned, its identification is the task of semnatics and one way of doing that is by means of
the Componential Analysis.
Componential Analysis assumes that all meanings can be further analysed into
distinctive semantic features called semes, semantic components or semantic primitives, as the
ultimate components of meaning. The search for distinctive semantic features was first limited
to lexical items which were intuitively felt to form natural structures of a more ar less closed
nature. The set kinship terms was among the first lexical subsystems to be submitted to
componential analysis :
father [+male][+direct line] [+older generation]
mother [-male][+direct line] [+older generation]
son [+male][+direct line] [-older generation]
daughter [_male][+direct line] [-older generation]
uncle[+male][_direct line] [+older generation]
aunt [-male] [-direct line] [+older generation]
nephew [+male] [-direct line] [-older generation]
niece [-male] [-direct line] [-older generation]
30
It is evident than there exist the same hierarchy of units and the same principle of
structuring lower level units into higher level ones (Pottier, 1963):
Distinctive feature
Set of distinctive features
Expression
pheme (f)
phememe(F)
Content
seme (s)
sememe (S)
(a set of pheme)
phoneme(P)
(A set of semes)
lexeme(L)
Distinctive features
(the formalization of a
formalization of a sememe
phememe)
The sememes are arrived at by comparing various lexical items in the language.
Starting from the dictionary definitions, the semantic features encountered in case of furniture
intended for siting are :
Semantic
feature/
Lexical item
Stool
Chair
Armchair
Bench
Sofa
for sitting
+
+
+
+
+
with back
with support
for arms
+
+
+
+
+
*
*
for more
people
+
+
upholstered
*
*
*
+
representations of the components of the semantic statum sememes may be accounted for by
general construction rules, the combination of semons must be listed individually for each
31
Sememic stratum
L intense
S quick-witted, clever
Lexemic stratum
Sememeic statum
L vivid
L bright
Lgifted
S/piece of wood
Lexemic stratum
L clever
L capable
s/group of people
s/(food)
board
The first is accounting for the semasiological direction, the second for the
onomasiological direction (from denotata and significata to a linguistic form-explaining
synonymy). In the process of neutalization which accounts for polysemy, one lexema is
connected to several sememes in an either-or type of relationship. But the lexeme/lamb/is
connected both to the sememe/sheep/ and the sememe /young/. A given lexeme may connect
first to several units in an either-or relationship, which in turn may connect to several
sememes in a both-and relationship. The intermediate units between the lexeme and the
sememes are called by Lamb sememic signs.
/male/
Sememic stratum
(intermediate)
sememic sign
(sememe)
/unmarried
person /
/owner of the
/ male /
st
1 Acad. Degree/
/unmarried
man/
lexemic stratum
/university
graduate/
/young
knight/
bachelor
(negative, unmarked)
Not all semantic contrasts are binary In fact componential analysis assumes that
meanings are organised in multi-dimensional contrasts. Taxonomic (hierarchical arrangement
of categories) oppositions can be :
-
The link between componential analysis and and basic statements is made through the
mediation of hyponymy (inclusion)
/+ adult/
/+male/
/+animate/
combines with
/+countable/
organisation of the language. The oppositions concrete and + countable have many other
oppositions dependent on them and so they are in key positions as it happens with the feature
+ animate. (G. Leech, 1990:111).
Binary oppositions frequently have marked and unmarked terms. That is, the terms
are not entirely of equivalent weight, but one (the unmarked) is neutral or positive in contrast
to the other.
e.g.
book
books
petit
petite
duck
drake
long
short
opposition. Often the marked term is indicated by a negative suffix or prefix : happy-unhappy,
useful-useless. People tend to respond more quickly to unmarked than to marked terms. This
could
be explained by their tendency to look on the bride side of life and associate
unmarkedness with good evaluations and markedness with bad ones (Leech, 1990:114).
There is also a factor of bias in relative oppositions but this could be explained in
terms of dominance rather than markedness. We prefer to use the dominant term before the
other or to use it alone.
parent/child
see
own/belong to
hit
in front/behind
have
Markedness and dominance vary in strength (they can grow weak even become
inexistent left/right) and are also subject to contextual influences.
Criticisms of Componential Analysis. Componential analysis is considered by some
linguists as a useful and revealing technique for demonstrating relation of meaning between
words. At the same time, this theory of word-meaning has been criticised and G.Leech has
tried to comment on the main criticisms :
1. It is said that componential analysis (CA) accounts for only someparts of a
languages vocabulary (those parts which are neatly organized). Componential analysis can be
fitted into a more powerful model of meaning, with additional levels of analysis apart from
CA. Semantic features need not be atomic contrastive elements, but may have an internal
34
structure of their own, that is, the semantic features can be derived from configurations of
other features. This recursive power of feature-creation is particularly important in
considering metaphor. So, there is no need to postulate an indefinite proliferation of semantic
oppositions.
2. It is often objected than CA suffers from a vicious circle in that it merely explains
one set of symbols (e.g. English words) by another set of symbols (which also turned out to
be English words). The notation of symbols is arbitrary and the explanatory function of
features is solely their role in the prediction of basic statements.
3. Another objection is that CA postulates abstract semantic entities (semantic
features) unnecessarily. But the notation of CA is language-neutral, and so the same features,
oppositions redundancy rules may explain meaning relation in many different languages.
4. Connected to that, it has been postulated that CA implies universal features of
meaning and therefore relies on the strong assumption that the same semantic features are
found in all languages. CA fits in well with a weak universalist position whereby semantic
oppositions are regarded as language-neutral i.e. as conceptual contrasts not necessarily tied
to the description of particular languages. Semantic analyses may be generalized from one
language to another, but only to the extent that this is justified by translation equivalence.
5. It has also been claimed that CA is unexplanatory in that it does not provide for the
interpretation of semantic features in terms of the real-world properties and objects that they
refer to. For example + ADULT remains an abstract uninterpreted symbol unless we can
actually specify what adults are like i.e. how decide when the feature + ADULT refers to
something. To expect CA to provide an interpretation in this sense is to expect it to provide a
theory not only of meaning, but of reference, or not only of conceptual meaning, but also of
connotative meaning. CA cannot have this wider goal : it is meant to explain word sense, not
the encyclopedic knowledge which must enter into a theory of reference.
6. The view that word-meanings are essentially vague, that determinate criteria for the
reference of words cannot be given has received prominent support in philosophy and
linguisties. Wittgenstein exemplified this with the word game : he could find no essential
defining features of what constitutes a game and concluded that we know the meaning by
virtue of recognizing certain family resemblances between the activities it refers to. A more
recent critique of the deterministic view of meaning is given by Labov (1973) who conducted
an experiment in which subjects were invited to label pictures of more-or-less cup-like
objects. There was a core of agreement as to what constituted a cup but there was also a
peripheral gradient of disagreement and uncertainty. The conclusion is that cup, mug, bowl
35
and similar words are defined in terms of fuzzy sets of attributes, that is sets of attributes of
varying importance, rather than in terms of a clear-cut, unvarying set of features. We match
candidates for cuphood against a prototype or standard notion of cup. The vagueness is
referential and does not affect componential analysis because it has to do with category
recognition: the mental encyclopedia rather than the mental dictionary.
Another kind of variability of reference is presented by Lyons in case of three words:
boy, girl, child in terms of a common feature ADULT. This feature will require different
interpretations in the three cases. Within the-ADULT category there is a further binary
taxonomy distinguishing child from adolescent. ADULT stands as a common factor in the
meanings of boy, girl, child, puppy etc. but its referential interpretation is variable for reasons
which are explicable in terms of the prototypic view of categories.
There have emerged three different levels at which word-meaning can be analysed.
-
the word-sense as an entirety may be seen as a conceptual unit in its own right
prepackaged experience (Leech, 1990:121);
The idea of the organization of the entire lexicon of a language into a unitary system
was for the first time formulated by Jost Trier. Actually, Trier continued two lines of thought.
On the one hand, he was directly influenced by W. von Humboldt and his ideas of linguistic
relativism. Wilhelm von Humboldt, influenced by the romanticism of the early 19 th century
advanced the theory that languages are unique, in that each language expresses the spirit of a
people, its Volksgeist. Each language categorizes reality in different ways so that it may either
help or hinder its speakers in making certain observations or in perceiving certain relations.
Given the principle of relativism, it follows that the vocabularies of any two languages are
anisomorphic, that there are no absolute one to one correspondences between two equivalent
words belonging to two different languages. Humboldt made, also, the distinction between
language viewed statically as an ergon and language viewed dynamically, creatively, as an
energeia. Trier's semantic fields are, accordingly, closely, integrated lexical systems in a
dynamic state of continuous evolution.
36
The other line of thought which Trier continues springs from Ferdinand de Saussure's
structuralism, more specifically from the distinctions made by the latter between the
signification, and value of lexical items. According to de Saussure, words have signification,
in that they do mean something, positively, but they also have value, which is defined
negatively by reference to what the respective words do not mean. Linguistic value is the
result of the structural relationships of a term in the system to which it belongs. Thus, Trier
postulated that no item in the vocabulary can be analyzed semantically unless one takes into
account the bundle of relationships and oppositions it enters with the other words in a given
subsystem or system. One cannot assess the correct meaning of "green" for instance, unless
one knows the meaning of "red" and all the other colours in the system.
Colour terms are actually often used to illustrate the semantic field theory. Let us
suppose that the field of colours, which physicists assure us forms a continuum, is covered by
the following number of terms in two languages L1 and L2:
L1:
x
y
z
L2:
a
b
c
d
e
It is evident that no single term in any of the two languages covers exactly the same
area of the spectrum; only "z" in L 1 can be said to incorporate the whole of "e" in L 2 although
it covers a small part of the area covered by "d" as well.
English and Shona, a language spoken in Rhodesia, exhibit precisely the type of
structural segmentation of the colour spectrum postulated above. While English have seven
basic terms for colour (the first level of the hierarchy), red, orange, yellow, green, blue and
purple, Shona has only three which are distributed roughly as follows: a first term "covers the
range of English orange, red and purple, and a small part of blue; another term covers the
area of green and most of blue" (Lamb 1969: 46). It is evident that the terms for colour are not
equivalent in the two languages.
Evidently the linguistic field of colour terms is a favourable one for such an analysis.
There is first of all a "metalanguage" provided by the science of physics to which one can
report the words for colour. Secondly, the number of words, is quite limited and thus
reductible to a restricted set of relationships.
But even in the case of the most elementary vocabulary one encounters a similar lack
of correspondence. English sheep and French mouton are not the same since English makes
use of another term mutton, to cover the entire area of meanings and uses covered by French
mouton.
Trier advanced the idea, that vocabulary as a whole forms an integrated system of
lexemes interrelated in sense, a huge mosaic with no loopholes or superposed terms since our
37
concepts themselves cover the entire Universe. According to his dynamic conception of
language viewed as "energeia", Trier pointed out that the slightest change in the meaning of a
term within a semantic field brings about changes in the neighbouring terms as well.
Any broadening in the sense of one lexeme involves a corresponding narrowing in the
sense of one or more of its neighbours. According to Trier, it is one of the major failings of
traditional diachronic semantics that it sets out to catalogue the history of changes in the
meanings of individual lexemes atomistically, or one by one, instead of investigating changes
in the whole structure of the vocabulary as it has developed through time. (Lyons 1977: 252).
The procedure followed by Trier in diachronic semantics is not one of comparing
successive states of the total vocabulary (which would be hardly practicable). What he does is
to compare the structure of a lexical field at time t1 with the structure of a lexical field at time
t2.
Semantic fields with a more restricted number of terms are incorporated into larger
ones, the latter are themselves structurated into even larger ones, until the entire lexicon of a
language is integrated into a unitary system. In Trier's opinion therefore semantic fields act as
intermediaries between individual lexical entries, as they appear in a dictionary, and the
vocabulary as a whole.
Despite their revolutionary character, Trier's ideas on semantics found few followers
and were consequently slow in being pursued and developed. This is normal in view of the
important objections which can be raised to his theory.
One of the objections came from those who were reluctant to admit such a perfect
organization of vocabulary into an interdependent and perfectly integrated system of elements
which delimit each other like pieces in a jig-saw puzzle. Secondly, the linguistic relativism of
Trier's ideas, his contention about the influence of language upon thought was rightly
considered as an instance of linguistic solipsism.
Much of the criticism leveled at semantic field theory originated from less
philosophical considerations. It is quite difficult to outline the actual limits of a field, its
"constant", which subsequently enables one to analyze the terms incorporated in it. Also, the
semantic field theory, if valid, accounts for only one type of relations contracted by lexical
items - the paradigmatic ones, or, a full semantic description should include syntagmatic
relations as well. In addition Trier's theory does not seem to be related to any given
grammatical theory.
Nevertheless, there were numerous attempts at developing the semantic field theory,
most of them departing to a lesser or greater extent from Trier's original ideas. L. Weisgerber
38
for instance, continued the analysis of the semantic field of knowledge and understanding in
Modern German while trying to incorporate the notion of semantic fields in his general theory
of language (1953).
P. Guiraud (1956, 1962) developed the theory of the morpho-semantic field. The
morpho-semantic field includes all the sound and sense associations radiating from a word; its
homonyms and synonyms, all other words to which it may be related formally or logically,
metaphorically, etc., as well as casual or more stable associations which can be established
between objects designated by these words.
Walter von Wartburg and R. Hallig (1952) undertook a more ambitious task. They
suggested a method of analysis based on the system of concepts which was meant to cover the
entire vocabulary of a language and, since the general classification of concepts was supposed
to have a general character, the vocabulary of any language could be incorporated into such a
conceptual dictionary.
The method is entirely reminiscent of Roget's Thesaurus in that it identifies lexical
systems with logical systems of concepts. The outline of the system of concepts has three
main components: A: The Universe; B: Man; and C: Man and the Universe. Each main
component includes several classes of concepts (and accordingly, of words designating these
concepts). Thus, component A includes the following four classes: I The sky and atmosphere;
II. The Earth; III. The Plants; IV. The Animals.
Semantic fields are structural organizations of lexis which reflect a structuration of the
content level of language. Hjelmslev and E. Coseriu (1968) considered that any semantic
theory is valid only to the extent to which it arrives at paradigms on the content level of
language.
Coseriu defined the semantic field as a primary paradigmatic structure of the lexic, a
paradigm consisting in lexical units of content (lexemes), which share a continuous common
zone of signification, being in an immediate opposition one to another. (Iliescu, Wald 1981: 39)
A semantic field should be understood in Trier's original sense, namely as a zone of
signification covered by a number of closely interrelated lexical items. In this respect the
componential analysis of meaning (Goodenough, 1956) seems to be nearer the true concept of
the semantic field.
Three main objections can be and have been raised with regard to the present state of
the semantic field theory.
(a) Is it possible to analyze the entire vocabulary into semantically structured fields, or
are they limited to certain parts of it only, namely to lexical items designating aspects of
39
reality (especially man-made reality, the reality of artifacts) which by their own nature possess
a certain structural organization?
(b) Closely related to objection (a) one can doubt the linguistic nature of semantic
fields. Do they correspond to an internal organization of the vocabulary or are they
organizations external to language?
(c) How can semantic fields be delimited? Is there an objective method of evaluating
the range of a given field and the number of elements it includes?
Componential Analysis Applied in the Analysis of Semantic Fields
One of the most important tenets of modern semantics claims that the meanings of
lexical items do not represent ultimate, indivisible entities; they are, on the contrary,
analyzable into further components. This led to a method of approach in semantic analysis,
appropriately called componential analysis, previously discussed in this chapter.
Componential analysis originally started as a method of analysing units belonging to a
certain semantic field. The method was fruitfully applied in the study of kinship terms, colour
terminology, military ranks and other fairly restricted domains of meaning.
Assuming that the meaning of a word is not an undivided entity, componential
analysis provides for the decomposition of meanings into smaller significant features.
Modeled on the analysis of phonemes into distinctive features, componential analysis is
founded on the notion of semantic contrast: the units of a field are assumed to contrast
simultaneously on different dimensions of meaning. The meanings of the field units
complement each other constituing a paradigm. A paradigm will be defined as a set of
linguistic forms wherein:
a) the meaning of every form has, at least one feature in common with the meaning
of all other forms in the set;
b) the meaning of every form differs from that of every other form of the set, by one
or more additional features.
The common feature of meaning of the set is called the root meaning. It defines the
semantic area which is analyzed by the units of the field. The words in the field will be
arranged into contrastive sets along different dimensions of meaning. Thus, just as /t/ and /d/
complement each other with respect to the dimension of voicing, old and young complement
each other with respect to the conceptual dimension of age.
40
41
2. For each group of words given below, state what semantic property /-ies distinguish
between the classes of a) and b) words. Do a)words and b)words share any semantic
property ?
Example:
42
Chapter V
LANGUAGE AS A CONCEPTUAL SYSTEM
Language is not only an instrument of communication. It is far more than this - it is
the means by which we interpret our environment, by which we classify or "conceptualize"
our experiences, by which we are able to impose structure on reality, so as to use what we
have observed for present and future learning and understanding. Leech considers language,
in its semantic aspect, as a conceptual system. Not as a closed, rigid, conceptual system which
tyrannizes over the thought processes of its users, but as an open-ended conceptual system,
one which "leaks", in the sense that it allows us to transcend its limitations by various types of
semantic creativity.
The first question which arises in whether language is a single conceptual system, or
whether there are as many conceptual systems as there are languages. Although much of
present-day thinking has tended to hypothesize a universal conceptual framework which is
common to all human language, common observation shows that languages differ in the way
they classify experience. A classic instance of this is the semantics of colour words. English
(according to Berlin and Kay, Basic Color Terms, 1969) has a range of eleven primary colour
terms (black, white, red, green, yellow, blue, brown, purple, pink, orange and grey), whereas
the Philipine language of Hanuno (according to Conklein, Hanuno Colour Categories,
1955) makes do with four.
Conceptual boundaries often vary from language to language. Languages have a
tendency to impose structure upon the real world by treating some distinctions as crucial, and
ignoring others. The way a language classifies things is sometimes blatantly man-centred.
Linguistic Relativism and Semantic Universals
Semantic relativism and semantic universals are two conflicting points of view in
relation to meaning. Both theses concern the relation between the structure of language and
the structure of the universe. They represent in fact two different ways of interpreting the
relation between the universe, as experienced by man, and language as a tool of expressing
that experience. Ever since ancient times it has been maintained that the structure of language
reflects more or less directly the structure of the Universe as well as the universal structure of
the human mind (Mounin, 1963: 41). This was taken to be a precondition of interlingual
communication as well as of the act of translation.
43
In terms of Hjelmslevian distinction between substance and form of the content, it was
agreed that there may be different ways of segmenting substance, and an even richer variety
in its form but the content itself, the world of experience remains basically the same.
Linguistic relativism. The axiomatic character of the statement which relates the
structure of language to the structure of the universe as reflected in man's mind, ceases to be
commonly agreed upon when one begins to consider the nature of this relationship.
Wilhelm von Humboldt in the first half of the 19 th century, and many philosophers and
linguists after him, assigned language a much more active role, regarding it not as a passive
carrier of thought, but, in a very direct way as a moulder of it. In their opinion, language
imposes upon thought its own system of distinctions, its own analysis of objective reality.
These ideas remained unheeded by linguists until the advent of European structuralism. The
key idea in Saussurean linguistics namely that language signs have no meaning or "value"
outside the system to which they belonged, fits perfectly the principle of linguistic relativism.
Trier and particularly Hjelmslev consider that each language structures reality in its own way
and by doing so, creates an image of reality which is not a direct copy of it. Language is the
result of the imposition of same form upon an underlying substance.
Quite independently, and emerging mainly from current observation in linguistic
anthropological research on Amerindian languages, conducted by Fr. Boas, similar ideas were
expressed by E. Sapir and B. L. Worf in America. Linguistic determinism has come to be
often referred to as the Sapir-Worf hypothesis. For Sapir (1921) and Worf (1956) objective
reality is an undifferentiated continuum which is segmented by each language in a different
way. We obtain a vision of nature, of reality which is by and large pre-determined by our
mother tongue. Each language is a vast system of structures, different from that of others in
which are ordered culturally all forms and categories by means of which the individual not
only communicates but also analyzes nature, grasps or neglects a given phenomenon or
relation, in means of which he molds his manner of thinking and by means of which he builds
up the entire edifice of his knowledge of the world. Worf provided ample evidence from
Amerindian languages of how languages segment reality differently by neglecting aspects
which are emphasized in other languages. In Europe linguists as Benveniste (1958) and
Martinet, in analyzing the relationship between categories of thought and categories of
language, are unanimous not only in pointing out a basic parallelism between the two, but
also in assigning to linguistic categories a primary role. The linguistic structure conditions,
albeit in an unconscious way, man's knowledge of the world, his spiritual and philosophical
experience.
44
of their language by a procedure of trial-and-error. It has long been noted that learning a
concept such as "cat" involves two complementary processes: (1) extension, i.e. extending the
name one has learned to apply to same referents (cat 1, cat2, cat3, etc.) to all objects sharing
certain attributes of those referents (cat 4, .... catn); and (2) differentiation, i.e. restricting the
reference of a word to objects sharing certain characteristics, but not others (e.g. not applying
the term cat to dogs, tigers, etc.). These two processes go hand in hand in the learning of
category boundaries, but a child cannot learn both aspects simultaneously, so he tends either
to overextend (e.g. "identifying "daddy" with all men) or to underextend (e.g. identifying
"man" with all strange men wearing hats).
Creativity in Language
Discussion for and against semantic universals usually seems to assume that a
language forms a static, closed conceptual system, and that once the fixed categories of the
language have been acquired, our semantic equipment is complete. If this were true, it would
cause us to take very seriously the sinister idea that our language is a mental strait -jacket,
which determines our thought processes and our assumption about the universe.
But fortunately for the human race, language is only a mental straitjacket if we allow it
to become one: the semantic system, like any other system relating to human society, is
continually being extended and revised. In a language, new concepts are introduced in large
numbers day by day and week by week, and in very little time, owing to modern mass
communications, become familiar to many people. The technique by which the new concepts
are introduced is lexical innovation, which may take the form of neologism and of transfer of
meaning.
Language has within itself anti-creative pressures, and the function of the literary
writer, in T. S. Eliot's words, is to "purify the dialect of the tribe" - to restore the currency to
its full value, and to resist the natural tendency to devaluation. Writers have always
considered themselves the determined enemies of jargon and clich.
Our linguistic competence (as Chomsky pointed out) is such that with a finite number
of rules, we can generate and interpret an infinite number of sentences. Day by day we
encounter and produce sentences we have never met in our whole life before. In its semantic
aspect, this creativity of linguistic resource may be demonstrated by our ability to make up
and make sense of configurations which have virtually a nil probability of occurring in dayto-day communication. But in performance, this creative or innovative power inherent in our
language competence is eroded by our tendency to rely on well-worn paths through
47
theoretically infinite array of possible English utterances. Thus not merely individual
concepts, but configurations of concepts, become stereotyped; jargon invades syntax. The
writer who resists this principle of least effort, by exploring new pathways and taking no
meaning for granted, is in a real sense "creative".
There is an important notion of linguistic creativity which applies pre-eminently to
poetry: one which amounts to actually breaking through the conceptual bonds with which
language constrains us. If one of the major roles of language is to reduce experience to order,
to "prepackage" it for us, then the poet is the person who unties the string. It is in this context
that the "irrational" or "counterlogical" character of poetry becomes explicable.
A very simple example of poetic irrationality in the Latin poet Catullus famous
paradox Odi et amo: "I hate and I love". The two-valued orientation of language makes us to
see love and hate as mutually exclusive categories. But the poet, by presenting a seeming
absurdity, shocks his reader into rearranging his categories; the stereotyped concept of love
and hate as contrasting emotions is destroyed. A kind of conceptual fission and fusion takes
place.
The quality just observed in poetic paradox is also present in metaphor - a more
pervasive and important semantic feature of poetry. Again, the mechanism can be
demonstrated by a very simple example. In an Anglo-Saxon poem, the expression merehengest ("sea-steed") is used as a metaphor for "ship". The connection between steed and ship
lies in common connotations: both horses and ships convey men from one place to another;
both are used (in the heroic context of the poem) for adventurous journeys and for warfare;
both carry their riders with an up-and-down movement. By presenting the two concepts
simultaneously, as superimposed images, the poet dissolves those linguistically crucial criteria
which defines their separateness: the fact that a horse is animate whereas a ship is not; and the
fact that a horse moves over land, whereas a ship moves over water. Metaphor is, actually, a
conceptual reorganization. Through its power of realigning conceptual boundaries, metaphor
can achieve a communicative effect which in a sense is "beyond language". It has a liberating
effect. As a chief instrument of the poet's imagination, metaphor is the means by which he
takes his revenge on language for the "stereotyped ideas" which have "prevailed over the
truth". (G. Leech 1990: 38). It is not surprising that children's language produces many
instances of semantic "mistakes" which strike the adult as poetic. G. Leech gave two of such
instances: a child's description of a viaduct as a window-bridge and of the moon as that
shilling in the sky, both based, significantly, on visual analogy. The window-bridge example is
very similar to the mere-hengest of the Anglo-Saxon poet: the openings in a viaduct, when
48
seen side on, are indeed very close in appearance and construction to the window openings of
a house. Using this generalizing ability, the child hits on physical appearance as a crucial
criterion, at the expense of the criterion of function, which the language regards as more
important. The difference between the two cases, of course, is that while the poet is familiar
with the institutional categories and is aware of his departure from them, the child is not.
Conclusions
"Except for the immediate satisfaction of biological needs, man lives in a world not of
things but of symbols" (General Systems Theory, p. 245). This statement by Ludwig von
Bertalanffy is close enough to the truth to justify the concentration on the way language both
determines and reflects our understanding of the world we live in.
Thinking of a language as providing its users with a system of conceptual categories,
we may conclude:
1. That the concepts vary from language to language, and are sometimes arbitrary in
the sense that they impose a structure which is not necessarily inherent in the data of
experience.
2. That it is a matter for debate how for concepts vary from language to language,
and how far it is possible to postulate semantic universals common to all human language.
3. That although the conceptual system of a language predisposes its users towards
certain distinctions rather than others, the extent to which more is "enslaved" by his language
in this respect is mitigated by various forces of creativity inherent in the system itself.
Bibliography:
1. Chioran, D. 1973. Elements of English Structural Semantics. Buc.: Ed. Didactic i
Pedagogic.
2. Leech, G. 1990. Semantics. The Study of Meaning. London: Penguin Books.
49
Chapter VI
SEMANTIC RELATIONS AND LEXICAL CATEGORIES
F. de Saussure directed the linguists attention to the necessity of studying the
multiple relationships among words in a systematic way. A particular lexeme may be
simultaneously in a number of such relations, so the lexicon must be thought as a network
rather than a listing of words. He suggested the existence of a network of associative fields,
covering the entire vocabulary, and this structuring the huge mass of words. So an important
organizational principle in the lexicon is the lexical field. This represents a group of words
which belong to a particular activity or area of specialized knowledge, such as terms in
cooking, sailing; the vocabulary of doctors, coal miners or mountain climbers. The effects are
the use of different senses for a word and also the use of specialized terms. In fact, each word
is a center of a constellation or series of constellations, the point towards which other
terms associated with it converge.
Saussure established four major types of associations among lexical items:
-
The types of associations listed above are illustrated by D. Chioran considering the example
of the French word enseignement.
Enseignement
Enseigner
apprentisage
Enseignons
education
changement
armement
clement
justement
semantic ties - based on the signification of words; such ties result in synonymic
syntagmatic ties obtaining among lexical items as they occur in actual utterance;
syntagmatic ties may be divided into free - relations among sit and chair/ table/ down etc.and stereotype relations among lexical items part of set idioms and phrases, as a matter of
fact, as mad as a hatter, day and night, etc.-;
-
phonetic ties based on similarities of phonic substance; the first two examples
represent minimal pairs, i. e. words which differ in just one phoneme, and the next two
examples are words which present a common grammatical marker, in this case, that for the
past participle
might - night
flown- shown
town - down
caught- taught.
51
A. Paradigmatic Relations
1. The primary semantic relation on the paradigmatic axis is that of incompatibility, a
relation which is characteristic of all lexical elements based on the substitution of items:
e. g. I had tea at breakfast.
I had coffee/cocoa/milk.
Part of the meaning of a term belonging to a lexical set is its compatibility with all the
other members of the same lexical set in a given context. The wider concept of meaning
incompatibility includes distinct types of oppositeness of meaning, each of them being
designated by a separate term (J. Lyons).
a. Complementarity is a type of antonymic relation based on binary oppositions which do not
allow for gradations between the extreme poles of a semantic axis; they are two- term sets of
incompatible terms. Validity of one term implies denial of the other:
e. g. single - married
male - female
alive - dead.
b. Antonymy. The term is used to designate those meaning oppositions which admit certain
gradations with regard to the meaning expressed:
e. g. young- old;
young.........childish/juvenil.............adolescent.............young.........mature.........middle...........
aged...........old.......ancient.........
small- large; ....microscopic....tiny....little....small.....big/large.....spacious.....immense....
beautiful - ugly;
.....splendid.......wonderful....beautiful.....attractive.....handsome.....good-looking.......
pretty.....nice....pleasant....acceptable......common.....ordinary.....plain...unattrac
tive....ugly....horrible...awful....frightening....spooky....terrifying
clever - stupid;
interesting - boring;
fast - slow.
c. Reversibility refers to two terms which presuppose one another:
give- take; borrow- lend; buy- sell; husband- wife; offer- accept/refuse; employeremployee. This type of binary opposition, a relation, involves a contrast of direction.
The relation can be realized by keeping the same lexical item and reversing the syntactic
positions of the arguments:
e. g. John is the parent of James.
52
willing- insist
possible - necessary
still- already
allow - compel
remain- become.
The main logical test for an inverse opposition is whether it obeys a special rule of synonymy
which involves substituting one inverse term for another and changing the position of the a
negative term in relation to the inverse term
e. g. Some countries have no coastline. = Not all countries have a coastline.
All of us are non- smokers. = Not any of us are smokers.
We were compelled to be non- smokers. = We were not allowed to be smokers.
It is possibly true that Jack is a hippy. = It is not necessarily true that Jack is a
hippy.
2. Another type of paradigmatic relation is synonymy. There are words which sound
different, but have the same or nearly the same meaning. There is a tendency to limit
synonymic status to those elements, which given the identity of their referential, can be used
freely in a given context. There are no perfect synonyms, since no two elements can be used
53
with the same statistic probability in absolutely all contexts in which any of them can appear.
Synonymy is always related to context. Two lexical items are perfectly synonymous in a given
context or in several contexts, but never in all contexts. The term used to describe this is
relative synonymy. Context, that is the position on the syntagmatic axis, is essential for
synonymy.
e. g. deep water *deep idea
profound idea *profound water
deep / profound sleep; deep / profound thought.
We can notice that the distinction concrete/ abstract is not relevant here, since words
like idea and thought, both abstract, behave differently in relation to the pair of relative
synonyms deep and profound. Talking about the terms used in describing synonymy, it is
necessary at this point to present Lyons classification of synonyms into:
-
absolute synonyms;
partial synonyms;
near synonyms.
Synonyms are fully synonymous if, and only if, all their meanings are identical ;
ii.
synonyms are totally synonyms if and only if they are synonymous in all contexts;
iii.
synonyms are completely synonymous if and only if they are identical on all relevant
dimensions of meaning.
Absolute synonyms should satisfy all the three criteria above, whereas partial
54
Examples like sofa and couch refer to the same type of object, and share most of their
semantic properties-/ piece of furniture/ / used for sitting/ /with arms/ / backed/ /
upholstered/-, so they can be considered synonymous. There are words that are neither
synonyms nor near synonyms, yet they have many semantic properties in common. For
example, man and boy imply /+male/ /+human/ features, but boy includes the property /
+youth/, so it differs in meaning from man. The question to be asked is how to determine all
relevant dimensions of meaning in order to establish the type of synonymy we are dealing
with. Cruse draws a distinction between subordinate semantic traits and capital traits.
Subordinate traits are those which have a role within the meaning of a word analogous to that
of a modifier in a syntactic construction (e. g. red in a red hat).For instance, /walk/ is the
capital trait of stroll, /good looking/ of pretty and handsome. For nag , /worthless/ is a
subordinate trait.
Sometimes words that are ordinarily opposites can mean the same thing in a certain
context, a good scare = a bad scare. The apparent synonymy of two utterances that contain a
pair of antonyms hides opposite or at least different connotations.
e.. g. How old are you?
register used, wife [neutral], spouse [formal, legal term], old lady [highly informal];
55
toilet replaced lavatory, settee became sofa-,though the last two subtypes of variations
cannot be always separated; (Cruse, 1987: 282-283)
-
synonyms, operating at the level of morphology, means of expressing futurity, possibility, etc.
e. g. He will go / is going / is to go tomorrow.
He can/ may visit us next week if the weather is fine.
3. Hyponymy. Another type of paradigmatic relation is hyponymy / inclusion. It implies
as a rule multiple taxonomies, a series of hypo-ordinate / subordinate terms being included in
the area of a hyper-ordinate/ super-ordinate term. This relationship exists between two
meanings if one componential formula contains all the features present in the other formula.
Woman contains the features /+human/, /+adult/, /-male/.In different contexts, the emphasis is
on one of the features included in the meaning of woman:
e. g. Stop treating me like a child. Im a woman [= grown- up]
She is a woman [= human being], not an object.
She is a woman [ = female] , so she wouldnt know what a man feels like in such a
situation.
One way to describe hyponymy is in terms of genus and differentia. We can discuss
about meaning inclusion, that is all the features of adult are included in woman, and about
reference inclusion, that is all the objects denoted by woman are included into the larger
category denoted by adult.
Sometimes we cant have a super-ordinate term expressed just by one word:
musical instrument
clarinet
guitar
piano
trumpet
56
violin
drums
B. Syntagmatic Relations.
Relations of the type bothand are fundamental in structuring our utterances.
The connection between paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations appears obvious, since
in choosing a certain term from a synonymic series, we must take into account
selectional restrictions. A particular type of arbitrary co- occurrence restrictions are
collocational restrictions:
e. g. Ann/ The cat/ The plant died.
Ann/ *The cat/ *The plant kicked the bucket.
Collocational restrictions vary in the degree to which they can be specified in terms of
required semantic traits. When fully specifiable, they may be described as systematic
collocational restrictions:
e. g. Pass away /animate/ and kick the bucket /human/
Grill /meat/ and toast /bread/
When there are exceptions to the general tendency in collocating, we may speak of semisystematic collocational restrictions:
e. g. Customer /acquiry of something material in exchange for money/
Client /acquiry of a certain type of service/, but a client of a bank is called
customer, too.
The collocational ranges of some lexical items can only be dscribed by listing
permissible collocants. Such items will be described as having idiosyncratic collocational
restrictions. (Cruse,1987: 281)
performance
argument
complexion
behavior
kitchen
unblemished
?
-
spotless
?
+
flawless
+
+
+
-
immaculate
+
+
impeccable
+
?
+
-
The table above represents Cruses own intuitions. No semantic motivation can be discerned
for the collocational patterns. It is debatable whether idiosyncratic restrictions are a matter of
semantics at all.
Bibliography:
1. Chioran, D.1973. Elements of English Structural Semantics, Bucureti: E.D.P.
2. Cruse, D.1987. Lexical Semantics,Cambridge: CUP.
3. Leech, G.1990. Semantics, London: Penguin Books.
57
retirement
deliberate
risk
voluntary
judgement
premeditated
mistake
considered
murder
express
ignorance
wilful
wish.
4. Context is essential in choosing from a pair of synonyms. Think of contexts in which the
following pairs of words cannot be interchanged:
hurry/ hasten
pavement/ sidewalk
consider/ regard
injure/ damage
spud/ potato
confess/ admit.
5. Synonymy and antonymy are associated when arranging words expressing different
degrees of the same quality/ concept. The result is a cline/ scale. Try to arrange the
following words according to their intensity:
a. immense, big, enormous, large, gigantic, spacious, colossal, extensive;
b. little, tiny, microscopic, small, minute, infinitesimal, diminutive;
c. distinguished, famous, well- known, illustrious, renowned;
d. mansion, castle, cottage, hut, house, palace, cabin.
6. A word can have different opposites in different contexts; which are they in case of:
Light bag/ wind/ colors;
Rough sea/ texture/ area/ person/ calculation;
High marks/ opinion/ building/ price/ temperature/ wind;
Hard exam/ chair/ journey/ work/ person/ drugs.
7. Construct hyponymy trees for vehicle, tomato, bench. Then complete diagrams like the
following:
vehicle/ feature
powered
carries people
58
four- wheeled
bus
car
Chapter VII
SEMANTIC THEORY WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF GENERATIVETRANSFORMATIONAL GRAMMAR
The development of generative-transformational grammar beginning with the late
fifties of the 20th century has brought about a strong revival of interest in semantics. Particular
mention should be made of the distinction postulated by generative grammar between deep
structure and surface structure which is in many ways responsible for the recent developments
in the study of language meaning.
Generative-transformational grammar resumes many of the concerns of traditional
semantics. Thus, according to the theory, semantics should include an analysis of the way in
which words and sentences are related to objects and processes in reality reintroducing into
the discussion the problems of reference, denotation etc. Its second concern should be an
analysis of the manner in which words and sentences are related to one another. These include
an account of synonymy, antonymy entailment, contradiction, paraphrase, implication,
presupposition, etc.
1. Semantics in the Standard Generative Theory of Language
A grammar of language can be described as a system of rules that express the
correspondence between sound and meaning in the respective language. Every speaker
possesses a finite and relatively small set of simple rules, which enable the speaker to produce
and the listener to understand an infinite number of sentences. The set of rules represents - in
the Chomskyan terminology - the linguistic competence, while the utterances produced on
their basis constitute the linguistic performance.
59
Generative grammars are thus, synthetic models, able to generate all well-formed
sentences in a language. By "synthetic" it is meant that starting from a set of rules arranged in
a formalized construction, synthetic models lead finally to a set of utterances. G.T. is first of
all, a model of competence, being-conceived as a model of language acquisition.
The rules are mainly of two kinds: rewriting rules and transformational rules. These
rules are applied to symbols which make up the vocabulary of grammar.
Semantics will be concentrate on lexical categories and formatives (corresponding to
words or full-lexical meaning or content words).
The organization of a generative grammar. Generative transformational grammar is
defined in terms of 3 components: syntactic, semantic and phonological.
In the standard theory, the syntactic component in the most important one. It generates
both the deep structure - which is semantically interpreted by the semantic component - and
the surface structure which is further related to the sound aspect of language by means of the
phonological component. While the semantic and the phonological components are purely
interpretative, the syntactic component is basic to grammar since it represents the generative
source of the grammar.
The syntactic component consists of a base syntactic subcomponent and a set of
transformations, i.e. it has two kinds of rules: writing rules or phrase-structure rules and
transformational rules. The first specify the form of constituent structure trees, and the second
convert one kind of tree-structure into another (e.g. an active structure into a passive one).
Transformations are rules that act on the phrase markers generated by the base, mapping deep
structures onto the surface structures of sentences.
In the earliest published version of transformational grammar - Chomsky's Syntactic
Structures (1957) - meaning was in effect ignored. It was assumed that syntactic rules
operated in complete independence from meaning: their function was to "generate" or specify
by rule the grammatical sentences of a language, and to assign to these sentences their correct
structure. In fact, many of the transformational rules, such as that which converted an active
sentence structure into a passive sentence structure, happened in general to preserve the
meaning of sentences unaltered (and therefore to be rules of paraphrase), but this was
considered an irrelevant side-effect of such rules. However, after a pioneering article on
semantics by Katz and Fodor ("The Structure of a Semantic Theory", 1963), transformational
grammar went through a period of conceding to semantics a more and more important
position in linguistic theory. (Leech 1990: 343)
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clever with the hands when said of persons, and easy to use, convenient to handle when used
of things and places.
The syntactic marker of an item is indicated by the grammatical terms denoting it;
semantic markers are enclosed between normal brackets (...), distinguishers are enclosed
between square brackets [...] and selectional restrictions are given between angles ....
The second constituent of the theory is represented by the projection rules
(amalgamation), whose object is to account for the semantic relations among morphems and
the interraction between meaning and syntactic structure. Projection rules are ultimately
responsible for assigning a semantic interpretation to a sentence.
This they do in the first place by associating to the lexical items of a given sentence S,
those readings which are compatible with their syntactic categorization as revealed by the
phrase marker of the respective S (Katz and Postal 1964: 18). The next operation that
projection rules perform is to combine the readings of inferior constituents into derived
readings of successively higher constituents until the readings for the whole sentence are
arrived at. The process by means of which composite readings are arrived at by combining
readings from each of the sets of readings dominated by a given node in a phrase marker, is
called amalgamation. There is an interplay of syntactic and semantic relations in regulating
the pairing of readings, since one condition for two items to be joined in syntactic relation, is
that all selectional restrictions of one be included in the semantic markers of the other.
A closer analysis of the dictionary component of Katz and Fodor semantic theory
reveals many similarities with previous approaches to the science of meaning. In fact, what
Katz and Fodor do in their dictionary component of the theory is to rediscover the Aristotlean
reference to genres and species (semantic markers and distinguishers) (Mounin 1972: 168).
As Coeriu indicated (1968) what Katz and Fodor essentially do, is to study meaning
along the semasiological direction, that is starting from a given signifiant, proper signifis are
assigned to it in a given context, following certain (syntactic) operations. In its original form
the theory does not account for such well established facts as the existence of primary
meanings and secondary ones, and in particular, it does not account for transferred meanings,
and, in general, for the widespread use of metaphor in language.
An obvious criticism that was raised against the theory regards, as in the case of
componential analysis, the very hypothesis according to which linguistic signification and
semantic structure in general can be reduced to a relatively small set of "atoms" of meaning,
with no residue whatever because this hypothesis is far from having been accepted
unanimously (Chitoran 1973: 177).
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Standard Theory
Transformational Grammar 1965
Semantic Interpretation
(Projection Rules)
(Base)
DEEP STRUCTURE
(Transformational Rules)
SURFACE STRUCTURE
(Phonological Rules)
Phonetic Interpretation
(Phonological Rules)
Phonetic Interpretation
Since it eliminates the projectional rule component, the generativist model has the
advantage of overall simplicity of design. But, the simplification is necessarily at the cost of
expanding the transformational component, and making the chain of transformational
derivation for each sentence considerably longer than was envisaged by Chomsky in 1965.
(G. Leech 1990: 347).
The generativists, in the main, stayed commited to the view that transformational rules
do not change meaning. This proved the most vulnerable principle in their model, and was
subject to the severest criticisms from interpretivists.
Within the framework of generative-transformational grammar, a "battle" is being
fought not only between two rival semantic theories - interpretive semantics and generative
semantics - but also between two versions of grammar: one which is syntactically based (the
"standard" theory as developed by Chomsky, Katz, Fodor, Postal, including interpretive
semantics) and another one which is semantically based (generative semantics).
In the standard theory, syntax is independent; it is the generative source of the
grammar, which provides a deep and a surface syntactic structure. The deep structure provides
all necessary information to the semantic component whose task is to assign semantic
interpretations (readings) to the deep structures generated by the syntactic component.
With the generative semantics models, the semantic component is the generative
source of the grammar. The semantic representations which initiate the derivation of sentences
are independently generated, and are then mapped onto surface (syntactic) structures by
means of transformations. (Chitoran 1973: 181).
Thus there have been two ways heading to generative semantics:
1. the revision of the standard model particularly of the notions of deep structure, selectional
restrictions, etc.
2. a reappraisal of the semantic component, more specifically of semantic representation.
Leech (1990) considers that a simple way of defining interpretive and generative
semantics is to say that in the one case the semantic representation of a sentence is derived
from a syntactic base, whereas in the other, the (surface) syntactic representation is derived
from a semantic base.
The same author proposes a three-component model of language (semantics-syntaxphonology) in which expression rules would have the function of translating (or "recoding")
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2.
1. What is the difference between semantic markers and distinguishers? Give some examples.
Chapter VIII
NEW SEMANTIC THEORIES
1.
Categorization
WOMAN, it must contain the information necessary to decide when something in the world is
a woman or not. How can this information be organized?
Perhaps as a set of categoristics or attributes, i.e.:
X is a woman if and only if L
where L is a list of attributes, like:
X is human;
X is "adult";
X is female, etc.
One can see these attributes as conditions: if something must have them to be a
woman, then they can be called necessary conditions. In addition, if we can find the right set,
so that just that set is enough to define a woman, then they can be called sufficient conditions;
that means we have identified the right amount of information for the concept.
This theory views concepts as lists of bits of knowledge: the necessary and sufficient
conditions for something to be an example of that concept.
The Aristotleian model of necessary and sufficient conditions, very largely used in
philosophy, anthropology, psychology and linguistics is based on the following thesis:
1. Concepts and categories are entities with very clear borderlines.
2. The model is based on truth and false system: It is a dog provided that it fits the
criterial conditions of the category "dog".
3. The members of the same category have an equal status since each member has the
features required by the definition of the category. So, each member is a good as any other.
One major problem with this approach has been that it seems to assume that if
speakers share the same concept they will agree on the necessary and sufficient conditions: if
something has them, it is an x; if not, not. But it has proved difficult to set these up even for
nouns which identify concrete and natural kinds like dog or cat. Saeed (1997: 36) takes as an
example the noun zebra. We might agree on some attributes: is an animal, has four legs; is
striped, is a herbivore. The problem we face, though is: which of these is necessary? The first
obviously, but the rest are more problematic. If we find in a herd of zebra, one that is pure
white or black, we might still want to call it a zebra. Or if by some birth defect, a three-legged
zebra comes into the world, it would still be a zebra. Similarly, if a single zebra got bored with
a grass diet and started to include a few insects, would it cease to be a zebra? Of course, these
seem rather whimsical or strange questions, perhaps problems for philosophers rather than
linguists, and indeed this zebra example is just a version of Saul Kripke's example about tigers
(Kripke 1980) or Putnam's fantasy about cats (Putnam 1962). Questions such as these have
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important consequences for our ideas about concepts: if we cannot establish a mutual definition
of a concept, how can we use its linguistic label?
Another argument against necessary and sufficient conditions as the basis for
linguistic concepts is Putnam's (1975) observations about ignorance. Speakers often use
words to refer knowing very little, and sometimes nothing, about the identifying
characteristics of the referent. Putnam's examples include the tree names beech and elm: like
Putnam, many English speakers cannot distinguish between these two trees yet use the words
regularly. Such a speaker would presumably be understood, and be speaking truthfully, if he
said:
In the 1970s Dutch elm disease killed a huge number of British elms.
Perhaps as Putnam suggests, we rely on a belief that somewhere there are experts who
do have such knowledge and can tell the difference between different species of trees. In any
case it seems, as with other natural kind terms like gold or platinum, we can use the words
without knowing very much about the referent. It seems unlikely then that a word is referring
to a concept composed of a set of necessary and sufficient conditions, or what amounts to the
same thing, a definition. The idea is that natural kind terms, like names are originally fixed by
contact with examples of the kind. Thereafter, speakers may receive or borrow the word,
without being exposed to the real thing, or knowing very much about its characteristics. As
we have seen, philosophers like to use examples of metals like gold or silver. Any inability to
identify correctly or define the substance silver does not prevent one from using the word
silver. We assume that someone once had the ability or need to recognize the individual metal
and that somewhere there are experts who can identify it empirically. Putnam speaks about a
"division of labour" in a speech community: between "expert" and "folk" uses of a term. Only
the expert or scientific uses of a word would ever be rigorous enough to support necessary
and sufficient conditions, but speakers happily go on using the word.
The Prototype Theory. Because of problems with necessary and sufficient
conditions, or definitions, several more sophisticated theories of concepts have been
proposed. One influential proposal is due to Eleanor Rosch and her co-workers (Rosch 1973,
1975, Rosch and Mevis 1975, Rosch et al. 1976) who have suggested the notion of
prototypes. This is a model of concepts which views them as structural so that there are
central or typical members of a category, such as BIRD or FURNITURE, but then a shading
off into less typical or peripheral members. So chair is a more central member of the category
FURNITURE than lamp, for example. Or sparrow a more typical member of the category
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BIRD than penguin or ostrich. This approach seems to have been supported by Rosch's
experimental evidence: speakers tend to agree more readily on typical members than on less
typical members; they come to mind more quickly, etc. Another result of this approach and
similar work (e.g. Labov 1973) is that the boundaries between concepts can seem to speakers
uncertain, or "fuzzy", rather than clearly defined.
G. Kleiber (1999) speaks about two sciences of prototype theory: the standard theory
and the extended theory. The standard theory corresponds to the period when E. Rosch and
her team publish their work. According to prototype theory, the category is structured on two
dimensions: the horizontal dimension (the internal structure) and the vertical dimension
(intercategorial relations).
The Horizontal Dimension. The prototype is the best exemplar, the central instance of
a category. This new conception is based on the following principles (Kleiber 1997: 51).
1. The category has an internal prototypical structure.
2. The borderlines of the categories or concepts are not very clearly delimited, they
are vague.
3. Not all the members of a category present common characteristics; they are
grouped together on the basis of the family resemblance.
4. An entity is a member of a certain category if it presents similarities with the
prototype.
So, this approach allows for borderline uncertainty: an item in the world might bear
some resemblance to two different prototypes. Here we might give examples of speakers
being able to use the word whale, yet being unsure about whether a whale is a mammal or a
fish. In the prototype theory of concepts, this might be explained by the fact that whales are
not typical of the category MAMMAL, being far from the central prototype. At the same time,
whales resemble prototypical fish in some characteristic features: they live underwater in the
oceans, have fins, etc.
There are a number of interpretations of these typicality effects in the psychology
literature: some researchers for example have argued that the central prototype is an
abstraction. This abstraction might be a set of characteristic features to which we compare real
items. These characteristic features of BIRD might describe a kind of average bird, small,
perhaps, with wings, feathers, the ability to fly, etc. but of no particular species. Other
researchers have proposed that we organize our categories by exemplars, memories of actual
typical birds, say sparrows, pigeons and hawks, and we compute the likelihood of something
we meet being a bird on the basis of comparison with these memories of real birds.
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(iii) It also explains the hierarchical conceptual structure and intercategorial relations.
We also have to take into account that this theory is a theory of categorization, first
intended for psychological goals.
The Vertical Dimension. Relations between Concepts. The relational nature of
conceptual knowledge is an important issue in semantics. Words are in a network of semantic
links with other words and it is reasonable to assume that conceptual structures are similarly
linked.
Models of conceptual hierarchies are fundamental in the cognitive psychology
literature. A model based on defining attributes was proposed by Collins and Quillian (1969).
In this model, concepts are represented by nodes in a network, to which attributes can be
attached and between which there are links.
Proponents of prototype theory, (Rosch et al. 1976) have also investigated conceptual
hierarchies and have proposed that such hierarchies contain three levels of generality: a
superordinate level, a basic level, and a subordinate level. The idea is that the levels differ in
their balance between informativeness and usefulness. If we take one of Rosch et al.'s (1976)
examples, that of furniture, the superordinate level is FURNITURE, which has relatively few
characteristic features; the basic level would include concepts like CHAIR, which has more
features,
and
the
subordinate
level
would
include
concepts
like ARMCHAIR,
DININGCHAIR, etc., which have still more features and are thus more specific again. The
basic level is identified as cognitively important; it is the level that is most used in everyday
life; it is acquired first by children; in experiments it is at which adults spontaneously name
objects; such objects are recognized more quickly in tests, and so on.
This model has proved to be very robust in the psychological literature, though the
simple picture we have presented here needs some modifications. It seems that the
relationship between the classic level and the intermediate term might vary somewhat from
domain to domain: man-made categories like FURNITURE differ somewhat from natural
kind terms, and the relationship may vary depending on the person's experience of the
categories. So a person's expert knowledge of a domain might influence the relationship
between the basic and subordinate levels. Tancka and Taylor (1991) suggest that experts on
dogs and birds might have a different, richer structure at subordinate levels for these
categories from the average person.
2.
Cognitive Semantics
Toward the end of the 20th century, there is both a dissatisfaction with existing formal
semantic theories and a wish to preserve insights from other semantic traditions. Cognitive
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semantics, the latest of the major trends which have dominated the last decades, attempts to
do this by focusing on meaning as a cognitive phenomenon.
As is often the case with labels for theories, the term cognitive semantics might be
objected to as being rather uninformative: in this instance because in many semantic
approaches it is assumed that language is a mental faculty and that linguistic abilities are
supported by special forms of knowledge. Hence, for many linguists semantics is necessarily
a part of the inquiry into cognition. However, writers in the general approach called cognitive
linguistics, and other scholars who are broadly in sympathy with them, share a particular view
of linguistic knowledge. This view is that there is no separation of linguistic knowledge from
general thinking or cognition. Contrary to the influential views of the philosopher Jerry Fodor
or of Noam Chomsky, these scholars see linguistic behaviour as another part of the general
cognitive abilities which allow learning, reasoning, etc. So perhaps we can take the label
cognitive linguistics as representing the slogan "linguistic knowledge is part of general
cognition". (Saeed 1997: 299).
Cognitive linguists often point to a division between formal and functional
approaches to language. Formal approaches, such as generative grammar are often associated
with a certain view of language and cognition: that knowledge of linguistic structures and
rules forms an antonomous module (faculty), independent of other mental processes of
attention, memory and reasoning. This external view of an independent linguistic module is
often combined with a view of internal modularity: that different levels of linguistic analysis,
such as phonology, syntax and semantics, form independent modules.
Functionalism, with which cognitive linguists identify themselves, implies a quite
different view of language: that externally, principles of language use embody more general
cognitive principles; and internally, that explanation must cross boundaries between levels
and analysis. Thus, it makes sense to look for principles shared across a range of cognitive
domains. Similarly, it is argued that no adequate account of grammatical rules is possible
without taking the meaning of elements into account.
This general difference of approach underlies specific positions taken by cognitive
linguists on a number of issues: in each case their approach seeks to break down the
abstractions and specializations characteristic of formalism. Studies in cognitive semantics
have tented to blur, if not ignore, the commonly made distinctions between linguistic
knowledge and encyclopaedic, real world knowledge and between literal and figurative
language. Cognitive linguists consider that syntax can never be antonomous from semantics
or pragmatics. So, the explanation of grammmatical patterns cannot be given in terms of
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abstract syntactic principles but only in terms of the speaker's intended meaning in particular
contexts of language use.
A further distinction that is reassessed in this framework is the traditional structuralist
division between, to use Ferdinand de Saussure's terms, diachronic (or historical) linguistics
and synchronic linguistics. In his foundational lectures, de Saussure, attempting to free
linguistics from etymological explanation, proposed his famous abstraction: a synchronic
linguistics, where considerations of historical change might be ignored, as if in describing a
language we could factor out or "freeze" time. This consideration has been accepted in many
linguistic theories, but is currently questioned in functional approaches. Linguistic structures,
in a functionalist perspective, have envolved through long periods of use and the processes of
change are evident in and relevant to an understanding of the current use of language.
If we turn to meaning, a defining characteristic of cognitive semantics is the rejection
of what is termed objectivist semantics. G. Lakoff (1988) assigns to objectivism the basic
metaphysical belief that categories exist in objective reality, together with their properties and
relations, independently of consciousness. Associated with this in the view that the symbols of
language are meaningful because they are associated with these objective categories. This
gives rise to a particular approach to semantics, Objectivist Semantics, which Lakoff
characterizes under three "doctrines" (adapted from Lakoff 1988: 125-6):
a. The doctrine of truth-conditional meaning: Meaning is based on reference and
truth.
b. The "correspondence theory" of truth: Truth consists in the correspondence
between symbols and states of affairs in the world.
c. The doctrine of objective reference: There is an "objectively correct" way to
associate symbols with things in the world.
In rejecting these views, cognitive semanticists place themselves in opposition to the
formal semantics approach. For these writers, linguistic truth and falsity must be relative to
the way an observer construes a situation, based on his or her conceptual framework. The real
focus of investigation should, in this view, be these conceptual frameworks and how language
use reflects them.
In the cognitive semantics literature meaning is based on conventionalized conceptual
structures. Thus semantic structure, along with other cognitive domains, reflects the mental
categories which people have formed from their experience of growing up and acting in the
world. A number of conceptual structures and processes are identified in this literature but
special attention is often given to metaphor.
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Cognitive linguists agree with the proposal by G. Lakoff and Johnson (1980) that
metaphor is an essential element in our categorization of the world and our thinking
processes. Metaphor is seen as related to other fundamental structures such as image
schemas, which provide a kind of basic conceptual framework derived from perception and
bodily experience, and Fauconnier's notion of mental spaces, which are mental structures
which speakers set up to manipulate reference to entities. Cognitive linguists also investigate
the conceptual processes which reveal the importance of the speaker's construal of a scene.
A consequence of this view of language is that the study of semantics and linguistics
must be an interdisciplinary activity. One result is that scholars working within this and
related frameworks tend to stray across intra- and inter-disciplinary boundaries more easily
than most. The approach to metaphor has been applied not only to the study of grammar and
semantics, but also to historical linguistics, categories of thought, poetic language, rhetoric
and ethics amongst other areas.
Bibliography:
1. Kleiber, G. 1990. La smantique du prototype. Paris. Presses Universitaires de France.
2. Leech, G. 1990. Semantics. The Study of Meaning. London. Penguin Books.
3. Saeed, J. 1997. Semantics. Blackwell Publishers.
TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION
1. What is a prototype? Give examples.
2. What are conceptual hierarchies? Provide examples.
3. State the main principles of Cognitive Semantics.
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