Semantics

Language in Use

Members
Ni Putu Oktaviana Dewi (1112021115)
Kadek Dwi Saptayani (1112021110)
Ni Komang Fina Sasmita Sari (1112021068)
6C

Group 4
English Education Department
Language and Art Faculty
UNDIKSHA
2014
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

In the first, we want to say thank to the god that we can finish our project on time.

Then, we thankful to our lecture that guide us to finish this project. The last but not least, we

say thank to our group member that always do this project together.

Hopefully, this paper can be usefull to the reader. Thank you!

 INTRODUCTION

Languange in use is one topic that is discussed in semantics course. Language in use

is important to be discussed in semantics course. As we know that semantics is the systematic

study of meaning, how languages organize and express meanings. So, the discussion about

language in use can’t be separated by semantics term.

Moreover, language in use will discuss about signs that is shared by human in their

community, such as natural and conventional sign, linguistic sign. Besides that the

explanation about process involved in getting information conveyed also will be explained

here. Utterence and sentece, prosody and nonverbal communication also will be explained in

this paper.
 Language in Use

I. Natural and conventional signs

Language is a complex system of symbols or signs that are shared by people in their
community. These are shared while people communicating. Those symbols or signs can be
spoken, written, or signed with the hands (Kreidler, 1998, p. 19)

People share symbols or signs within a social context. There is a possible that may be
occur different symbols or signs in each community. In addition, it is also possible there is a
different thing occurs in one community where people share same symbol or sign, such as the
use of dialect.

Dialect is the form of a language that is used by a class of people by grammar, words
and pronunciation that may be different from other forms of the same language (Oxford
Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 1995, p. 319). On the use of one language people may use
different dialect, for example in Bali people have different dialect on the use of Balinese
language.

A sign can be natural and conventional. Natural sign is a sign that is formed naturally
related to its object. Meanwhile, conventional sign is a sign that is formed because of certain
intention with an arbitrary human decision (Tesauro & Masen)

Natural sign is formed naturally. It means that this sign is not formed intentionally by
people, this sign occur naturally as a representation of a thing.

Example:

1-1 Lightening
(this is the sign of thunder)
1-2 Black could
(this is the sign of the possibility of rain)
1-3 Treetops moving
(this is the sign of the wind is blowing)
1-4 Hunger pangs
(this is the sign that someone being hungry)
1-5 Footprint
 (this is the sign that someone has passed by)

Those are the example of natural signs. Those example show that natural sign is not
formed for certain intention but those signs occur naturally to represent an event or object. As
the example of number one, people know that lightening is the sign of thunder, but there is no
certain intention behind this sign, this sign only occur to represent an event.

In contrast, conventional sign is formed intentionally. People design this sign to

represent a thing which conveys some certain meaning.

Example:

1-6 Horns, whistles, sirens, buzzers, and bells,

1-7 Visual sign: sign for a slippery road, a bicycle path, the location of a
telephone, men’s and woman’s lavatories, where there is access for the
handicapped, where smoking is prohibited

Those are the examples of conventional sign. Those signs are intentionally created by
people, and the meaning conveyed behind the sign is made based on arbitrariness where they
will share it in their community.

When people share signs in their community, there are three steps in process of getting
information conveyed (Kreidler, p. 21)

1. Perception
In the first step, the observer should perceive what she/he sees. The sign and the
observer share a context of place and time in which the sign attracts her/his
attention. Example: we see a sign as the example of number 1-1 and 1-2. We see
lightening and black cloud.
2. Identification
In this step, the observer identifies what she or he sees. Every perception is a unique
experience. The observer may recognize a phenomenon, it means that the observer
match what she or he being observe with her or his previous experiences stored in
her or his memory.
3. Interpretation
 In this last step, the observer interprets what she or he being observe base on place
and time. The meaning any sign depends on place where it occurs and time when it
occurs. Like the example of conventional sign, “whistle” has different meaning in
different context. The whistle of a policemen directing traffic, the whistle of a hotel
doorman summoning a taxi.

II. Linguistic signs

Linguistic signs are sometimes subdivided into complete and partial signs. Part of
complete linguistic sign is utterance or sentence. In addition, a partial linguistic sign is word.
In language use, we more discuss about utterances or sentences, and how we perceive,
identify and interpret them. In the previous explanation, we have explained that there three
steps involving in process of getting information conveyed.
In order to grasp what somebody says, we must perceive the utterance, hear the
spoken utterance or see the written one. Example: (2-1) a grandmother heard an utterance
“I’m late” from someone. Here, that grandmother percieve what she hear.
After we perceive utterances or sentences, then we should identify what we have
perceived. In the identification process the speaker and the hearer should share same
language. This process usually called “common ground” (Clark, 1996:92-121). People will
attach the same meaning to the same words and sentences. Example: continued from the
example number (2-1), after the grandmother percieved what she had heard. Then she
needed to identify that utterance, relate it to her previous experience, catch the meaning.
Finally, we after hear the utterance or see the sentence, know the meaning of the
utterance or sentence. We may be not able to fully understand the sentence or the utterance.
It is because we don’t know what is being referred to. Then, we need to interpret the
information that we have had before with the conditions and circumstances in the
environment. Example: from the example number (2-1), after that grandmother heard the
utterance, get the meaning of that utterance. That grandmother should interpret that utterance
in order to get the appropriate meaning. Consider that grandmother was in a park where she
sat close to a girl and a boy. And that utterance came from that girl, then that grandmother
knew the meaning of that sentence appropriately. She interpreted that the utterance “I’m
late” mean that girl was being pregnant.
 III. Utterance and sentence

Sentence and utterance is of fundamental importance to both semantics and pragmatics.

An utterance is the use by a particular speaker, on a particular occasion, of a piece of
language, such as a sequence of sentences, or a single phrase, or even a single word. A
sentence is a grammatically complete string of words expressing a complete thought. Those
are signals that can have different meanings in different situations. It means that different
pieces of language can have different meanings in different contexts. Let`s see the illustration
below:
III.1 A person who does activity all day says “I’m tired”;
A lady who is hopeless in their life says “I’m tired”
The two sentences have something in common but they indicate different intentions because
the situations and the participants are different. Each of illustrations above is a different
utterance but the same sentence. An utterance is an act of speech or writing; it is a specific event, at
a particular time and place and involving at least one person, the one who produces the utterance, but
usually more than one person. In our illustration each of the two utterances contains the meaning of
the sentence, and each utterance has a meaning because of the circumstances in which it occurs. The
meaning of a sentence is determined by the language, something known to all people who have
learned to use that language. The meaning of an utterance is the meaning of the sentence plus the
meanings of the circumstances: the time and place, the people involved, their backgrounds, their
relationship to one another, and what they know about one another.

Why distinguish between sentence and utterance? Because it is important to recognize

what meanings are communicated to us in language and which meanings we derive from the
contexts in which language is used. Because it is important to distinguish between linguistic
meanings (sentence meanings), what sentence or words is means by particular pieces of
language, and utterance meaning (speaker meanings), what a speaker is mean by saying
something in a particular place, at a particular time, and to certain other individuals especially
those related to context.
For example, the phrase,
III.2 “Nice day”
This sentence is equivalent to something like “This is a lovely day.” However,
depending on the situation and the speaker’s facial expressions, tone of voice, or the
relationship that exists between the speaker and hearer, it can mean the opposite, i.e. “This is
not a nice day.” From what we discussed above, it becomes clear that there is a distinction
between what would seem to be the usual meaning of a word or a sentence, and the meaning
it has in certain specific circumstances or contexts. It is this distinction that allows us to say
one thing and mean another.

An utterance is often part of a larger discourse. The linguistic context of an utterance

can make a difference of meaning, as well as the social context.

A bit of information inserted in such a context is called an implicature a conversational

implicature, to be precise. An implicature is a bridge constructed by the hearer (or reader) to
relate one utterance to some previous utterance and often the hearer or reader makes this
connection unconsciously.

IV. Prosody
Prosody is the rhythm, stress and intonation of speech. In speech meanings are
communicated not merely by what is said but also by the way it is said. It means that
intonation and accent are very important when we are speaking and those together constitute
prosody. Prosody is also very important to avoid ambiguity. For Example, the sentence,
IV.1 “They invited John and Bill and Al got rejected,” it is ambiguous when is written.
However, when the sentence is read aloud, prosodic cues like pauses and changes in
intonation will make the meaning clear.

Falling tune vs. rising tune

Falling intonation means the feature of some accents of English where statements
have a falling intonation patterns or low tone in the final syllable of the utterance. Falling
intonation is the most common type of intonation in English. It is used in statements
(declarative sentences), special questions, commands (imperative sentences), and
exclamatory sentences, in the first part of disjunctive questions and in the last part of
alternative questions.

Rising intonation is most commonly found when a question is being asked. The
intonation at the end allows someone to differentiate between a question and a statement.
Rising intonation is quite difficult to describe in words. When we speak, our voices do much
more than rise or fall. The sentence may start higher or lower; stressed syllables may be
stronger or weaker, higher or lower, louder or quieter, quicker or slower; the unstressed
syllables may remain at the same level as the stressed syllable before them or go higher or
lower. And the voices are different too. All these factors interact in intonation.

Falling Tune and Rising Tune Distinctions

According to Charles.W Kreidler (p.34) there are some common distinctions made with
intonation in utterances that have the same verbal material:
1. Statement vs question (fall vs rise)
¯ Yes. Yes? ¯ This is the place. This is the place?
With a falling tone “Yes” is an answer to some question and “This is the place” is a
statement. With rising tones the speaker seeks confirmation or information from the
addressee.
2. Information sought vs repetition requested (fall vs rise)
When? Where? ¯ When? ¯ Where?
With “When?,” “Where?” rising, the speaker is asking for repetition of something that was
said; the speaker has understood enough of the previous utterance to know that some time or
place was mentioned. The falling intonation in such utterances is a request for information
that has not yet been given.
3. Parallel structure vs antithesis (fall vs fall and rise)
This is my sister, ¯ Ellen.
This is my ¯ sister, Ellen.
If sister and Ellen have the same tune, a fall on sister and a long fall on Ellen, the parallel
structure indicates a correlation of the two— specifically here, equivalence: that Ellen is the
name of the speaker’s sister. Fall on sister—typically a long fall—and a short rise on Ellen
denotes lack of correlation, so that Ellen can only be the name of the addressee, a short
vocative attached to an utterance.

4. Open question vs alternative question (rise vs rise, fall)

Do you have a pencil or a pen?
Do you have a pencil or a ¯ pen
The distinction here reflects the speaker’s attitude, perhaps about what seems appropriate in
what the addressee can answer. A yes-no question will have a rise. The alternative question
has a rise on the first of the alternatives and a fall on the second.
5. Full statement vs reservation (fall vs fall-rise)
¯ That’s true, (or That’s ¯ true.)
That’s ¯ true.
This difference reflects the speaker’s attitude. A fall expresses agreement with what has been
said; a fall and short rise expresses only partial agreement, agreement with reservations.

V. NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION
a. According to Peter A. Andersen: Nonverbal communication is a process of generating
meaning using behavior other than words. Nonverbal communication includes vocal
elements, which is referred to as paralanguage and includes pitch, volume, and rate, and
nonvocal elements, which are usually referred to as body language and includes gestures,
facial expressions, and eye contact, among other things.
b. According to Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen (1969): nonverbal communication is
we can use nonverbal signals to emphasize our words. All good speakers know how to do this
with forceful gestures, changes in vocal volume or speech rate, deliberate pauses.
c. According to Malandro (1989) Nonverbal communication is the process by which
nonverbal behaviours are used, either singly or in combination with verbal behaviours, in the
exchange and interpretation of messages within a given situation or context.

 According to Levine and Adelman (1982:44) There are many different types of
nonverbal communication. Together, the following nonverbal signals and cues communicate
your interest and investment in others. There are many types of nonverbal communication
including:
1. Facial Expression

Facial expression carry meaning determined by context and relationships. For

instance: the smile, which is typically an expression of pleasure, has many functions. A
woman’s smile at a policeman who is about to give her ticket does not carry the same
meaning as the smile she gives to a young child. A smile may show affection, convey
politeness or disguise true feelings. Pain is conveyed by a grimace, which also signifies
disgust or disapproval. Surprise, shock, or disbelief can be shown by raising the eyebrows. A
wink given to a friend may mean “You and I have a secret” or “I’m just kidding.” Between a
man and woman, a wink can be flirtatious. Our faces easily reveal emotions and attitudes.

2. Gestures

Gestures refer to specifict body movement that carry meaning. Hands can form shapes
that convey many meaning: “ That’s expensive,” “Come here.” “Go away,” and “It’s OK”
can be expressed nonverbally using only hands. The gestures for these phrase may differ
among languages. As children we imitate and learn these nonverbal movements and often use
them to accompany or replace words. When traveling to another country, foreign visitors
soon learn that not all gestures are universal. The “OK” gesture in the American culture is a
symbol for a money in Japan. The same gesture is obscene in some Latin American countries.

3. Eye Contact

Eye contact is an important aspect of non-verbal behavior. In interpersonal

interaction, serves three main purposes: To give and receive feedback: Seeing someone lets
them know that the recipient concentrate with that said by someone. Not maintaining eye
contact can indicate disinterest. To let the couples that we are talking to know when it's ' turn’
to speak: Eye contact is more likely to continuously when someone listening, not talking.
When a person has finished what they say, they will look directly at others and this gives a
signal that the arena is open . If someone does not want to be disturbed, eye contact can be
avoided. To communicate something about the relationship between the people: If you do not
like someone, you tend to avoid eye contact and pupil size is often reduced. On the other
hand, the maintenance of a positive eye contact signals interest or attraction to the couple.

4. Space

Unconsciously, we all carry with us what us what have been called “body bubbles.”
These bubbles are like invisible walls which difine our personal space. The amount of space
changes depending on the interpersonal relationship. For example, we are usually more
comfortable standing closer to family member than to strangers. Personality allso determines
the size of this space. Introverts often prefer to interact with others at a greater distance than
extroverts. Cultural styles are important too. A japanese employer and employee usually
stand father apart while talking than their American counterparts. Latin Americans and Arabs
tend to stand closer together than Americans when talking.
 For American, distance in social conversation is about an arm’s length to four feet.
Less space in the American culture may be associated with greater intimacy or aggressive
behavior. The common practice of saying “ Excuse me,” or “ Pardon me” for the slightest
accidental touching of another person reveals an American attitude about personal space.
Thus when a person’s “space” is intruded upon by someone, he or she may feel threatened
and react defensively. In cultures where close physical contact is acceptable and desirable,
American may be perceived as cold and distant.

5. Paralanguage.

According to Ken Rutledge: Paralanguage consists of all the sound levels, tone
variations and inflections that you use; how fast you speak, how loud you speak and how
often you use fillers “uh,’’ “um” or “you know what I mean?”. Paralanguage contributes
significantly to the message that others receive from the deliverer.  People who consistently
speak too loudly are perceived as aggressive or overbearing, while people who speak too
softly are believed to be shy and timid. Those individuals, who speak fast, are generally
viewed as competent and eager while those who speak slowly can potentially convey dim-
wittedness, caution, or lack of interest. The use of too many filler words projects that the
speaker is unprepared or not knowledgeable. The overall quality of your own use of
paralanguage will rely on your ability to balance each of these nonverbal indicators and your
ability to manipulate them to get the results you need from those to whom you are
communicating.

 Taken from "The Modern Communicator" by Daniel Oneil and Adam Earnhardt.
There are five functions of non-verbal communication: Reinforcement, Contradiction,
Substitution, Accentuation, and Regulation. All of these functions help the person sending a
message and the person receiving the message my making the substance of the
communication more understandable.
1. Reinforcement

The amount of redundancy nonverbal communication adds to the verbal message. For
example if you say “Hi” or “Bye” you will probably wave your hand also, and if you say
you’re hungry you might rub your stomach. If something tastes bad you would express your
dislike accompanied with a disgusted look on your face.

2. Substitution
Substitution occurs when the nonverbal message replaces the verbal. Once again, actions
speak louder than words. Using a nonverbal action or cue instead of speaking. For example
instead of actually saying “Hi” or “Bye” you might just wave a hand at someone. When we
are not able to speak to a person we use a nonverbal cue.

3. Contradiction

The use of a nonverbal message to negate the verbal message. For example if you ask how
someone is and they say “Good” but they roll their eyes or look down at the floor and shrug
their shoulders, you know they are actually not good and they have just negated the verbal
message they were sending.

4. Accentuation

Accenting differs from complementing in that accenting punctuates a part of a

message, rather then lending general support to the entire message. The use of nonverbal cues
to intensify the verbal message. For example if you speak louder and quickly you are adding
intensity to the verbal message. We can tell when a person is excited because they usually
speak loud and their eyes widen, making the message more clear.

5. Regulation

The turn taking cues of conversational order, for example we use hand signals to
indicate that we are done talking and it is someone else’s turn to talk. We also use nonverbal
signals like looking at the other person as if to say “What do you think about that” without
actually speaking the words.
 Conclusion

Natural sign is a sign that is formed naturally related to its object. Meanwhile,
conventional sign is a sign that is formed because of certain intention with an arbitrary
human decision (Tesauro & Masen). Linguistic signs are sometimes subdivided into
complete and partial signs. Part of complete linguistic sign is utterance or sentence. In
addition, a partial linguistic sign is word.

The meaning of a sentence is determined by the language, something known to all

people who have learned to use that language. It is the meanings of the individual words and

the meaning of the syntactic construction in which they occur. The meaning of an utterance is

the meaning of the sentence plus the meanings of the circumstances: the time and place, the

people involved, their backgrounds, their relationship to one another, and what they know

about one another. Prosody is also very important to avoid ambiguity. In speech meanings are

communicated not merely by what is said but also by the way it is said. It means that

intonation and accent are very important when we are speaking and those together constitute

prosody.

Nonverbal communication is a process of generating meaning using behavior other

than words. Nonverbal communication includes vocal elements, which is referred to as

paralanguage and includes pitch, volume, and rate, and nonvocal elements, which are usually

referred to as body language and includes gestures, facial expressions, and eye contact,

among other things. There are five functions of non-verbal communication: Reinforcement,

Contradiction, Substitution, Accentuation, and Regulation. All of these functions help the

person sending a message and the person receiving the message my making the substance of

the communication more understandable.

Quention and Answer

1. What is the differences between natural sign and conventional sign?

Answer: natural sign and conventional sign is different from the prosess they are

formed. Natural sign is formed unintentionally, this sign is formed naturally.

Meanwhile conventional sign is formed intentionally by the people, and the meaning

behind the sign is formed by arbitrariness and people share its meaning in their

community.

2. Word is a linguistic sign, but why in language use sentece/utterence is more

interesting to discussed?

Answer: sentence/utterence is more interesting to be discussed in language in use

because language use is not only deals with the meaning of “one word” but it deals

with the meaning of words in their suquence. In other word, in language use we not

only use one word to express our intention, surely we use some sequence of words in

the form of utterance/sentence.

3. Why do we need to interpret what we hear/see after we percieve and identify it?

Answer: we need to interpret what we hear/see because sometimes what we hear/see

can convey different meaning in different contex. So we need to interpret what we

hear/see with the condition and circumstances of the environment.

4. What is the meaning of an utterance?

Answer: The meaning of an utterance is the meaning of the sentence plus the

meanings of the circumstances: the time and place, the people involved, their

backgrounds, their relationship to one another, and what they know about one

another.

5. Why the same sentence can have different meaning?

Answer: It is because the situations and the participants are different and based on utterance

meaning (what is a speaker mean by saying something in a particular place, at a particular

time, and to certain other individuals especially those related to context). For example, the

phrase “Nice day”, this sentence is equivalent to something like “This is a lovely day.”

However, depending on the situation and the speaker’s facial expressions, tone of voice, or

the relationship that exists between the speaker and hearer, it can mean the exact opposite, i.e.

“This is not a nice day.” From what we discussed above, it becomes clear that there is a

distinction between what would seem to be the usual meaning of a word or a sentence, and

the meaning it has in certain specific circumstances or contexts. It is this distinction that

allows us to say one thing and mean another.

6. When does the British use falling tune when speaking?

Answer: They used falling tune when making statements (declarative sentences), special

questions, commands (imperative sentences), and exclamatory sentences, in the first part of

disjunctive questions and in the last part of alternative questions.

7. What is facial expression? give example!

Answer : The face is the most expressive area for nonverbal communications. Facial

expressions are used for the majority of non-verbal communication in everyday life. In facial

expression can provide a lot of information that is delivered with a smile or a frown. While

nonverbal communication and behavior can vary dramatically between cultures, facial

expressions of happiness, sadness, anger and fear that we often use without us knowing. For

example: a woman’s smile at a policeman who is about to give her ticket does not carry the

same meaning as the smile she gives to a young child. A smile may show affection, convey

politeness or disguise true feelings.

 8. What is nonverbal communication?

Answer: Nonverbal communication is a process of generating meaning using behavior other

than words. Nonverbal communication includes vocal elements, which is referred to as

paralanguage and includes pitch, volume, and rate, and nonvocal elements, which are usually

referred to as body language and includes gestures, facial expressions, and eye contact,

among other things.

9. Please mention and explain two functions of nonverbal communication!

Answer: a). Accentuation is accenting differs from complementing in that accenting

punctuates a part of a message, rather then lending general support to the entire message. The

use of nonverbal cues to intensify the verbal message. For example if you speak louder and

quickly you are adding intensity to the verbal message. We can tell when a person is excited

because they usually speak loud and their eyes widen, making the message more clear.

b). Regulation is the turn taking cues of conversational order, for example we use

hand signals to indicate that we are done talking and it is someone else’s turn to talk. We also

use nonverbal signals like looking at the other person as if to say “What do you think about

that” without actually speaking the words.

10. Why eye contact important aspect of nonverbal communication?

Answer: eye contact important aspect of nonverbal communication because eye contact use

to interpersonal interaction or to give and receive feedback: Seeing someone lets them know

that the recipient concentrate with that said by someone. Not maintaining eye contact can

indicate disinterest. To let the couples that we are talking to know when it's ' turn’ to speak:

Eye contact is more likely to continuously when someone listening, not talking. When a

person has finished what they say, they will look directly at others and this gives a signal that
the arena is open . If someone does not want to be disturbed, eye contact can be avoided. To

communicate something about the relationship between the people: If you do not like

someone, you tend to avoid eye contact and pupil size is often reduced.
 References

Kreidler, Charles W. 1998. Introducing English Semantics. London:Roudledge

Hornby, A S. 1995. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English. Oxford

University

Tesauro & Masen. Signs. Retrieved from

http://www.camrax.com/symbol/signintro.php4

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosody_(linguistics)

Peter A. Andersen. Non-Verbal Communication. Retrieved from

C:/Users/acer/Downloads/s04-nonverbal-communication.html

Malandro. 1989. Non-Verbal Communication. Retrieved from (http://coral.lili.uni-

bielefeld.de/Classes/Winter97/PhonMM/phonmm/node38.html)

Daniel Oneil and Adam Earnhardt. Functions of Non-verbal Communication. Retrieved

from http://functionsofnonverbalcommunication.blogspot.com/2009/04/5-functions-of-non-
verbal-communication.html

Levine, Deena R and Adelman,Mara B. 1982. Beyond Language.

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