This document provides an overview of semantics and related linguistic concepts. It defines semantics as the study of meaning in language. Key points:
1. It distinguishes between literal and figurative/metaphorical meaning. Figurative meaning uses language in a non-literal way, like metaphors.
2. Related concepts discussed include denotation (explicit meaning), connotation (implied meaning), and contextual meaning (meaning depends on surrounding context).
3. It also covers lexical semantics terms like lexeme, lexical item, and semantic relations like synonymy, hyponymy and antonymy.
This document provides an overview of semantics and related linguistic concepts. It defines semantics as the study of meaning in language. Key points:
1. It distinguishes between literal and figurative/metaphorical meaning. Figurative meaning uses language in a non-literal way, like metaphors.
2. Related concepts discussed include denotation (explicit meaning), connotation (implied meaning), and contextual meaning (meaning depends on surrounding context).
3. It also covers lexical semantics terms like lexeme, lexical item, and semantic relations like synonymy, hyponymy and antonymy.
This document provides an overview of semantics and related linguistic concepts. It defines semantics as the study of meaning in language. Key points:
1. It distinguishes between literal and figurative/metaphorical meaning. Figurative meaning uses language in a non-literal way, like metaphors.
2. Related concepts discussed include denotation (explicit meaning), connotation (implied meaning), and contextual meaning (meaning depends on surrounding context).
3. It also covers lexical semantics terms like lexeme, lexical item, and semantic relations like synonymy, hyponymy and antonymy.
This document provides an overview of semantics and related linguistic concepts. It defines semantics as the study of meaning in language. Key points:
1. It distinguishes between literal and figurative/metaphorical meaning. Figurative meaning uses language in a non-literal way, like metaphors.
2. Related concepts discussed include denotation (explicit meaning), connotation (implied meaning), and contextual meaning (meaning depends on surrounding context).
3. It also covers lexical semantics terms like lexeme, lexical item, and semantic relations like synonymy, hyponymy and antonymy.
Semantics • Semantics can be defined as "the study of the meaning of morphemes, words, phrases and sentences.
• You will sometimes see definitions for semantics like
"the analysis of meaning," To see why this is too broad, consider the following.Gamini, returning home after a long day, discovers that the new puppy has crapped on the rug, and says "Oh, lovely." • Dictionary Meaning: (ADJECTIVE): [love-li-er, love-li-est]. 1. Full of love; loving. 2. Inspiring love or affection. 3. Having pleasing or attractive qualities. 4. Enjoyable; delightful. Obviously this is because Gamini is being ironic, in the sense of "using words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning". Gamini might have said "great," or "wonderful," or "beautiful", or "how exquisite", and none of the dictionary entries for these words will help us understand that Gamini means to express disgust and annoyance. • That's because a word's meaning is one thing, and Gamini 's meaning -- what Gamini means by using the word -- is something else. • There are lots of other ways besides irony to use words to mean something different from what you get by putting their dictionary entries together. • In fact, even when we mean what we literally say, we often – may be always -- mean something more as well. The study of "speaker meaning" -- the meaning of language in its context of use -- is called pragmatics. • There are a variety of common processes by which existing conventional word meanings are creatively extended or modified. • When one of processes is applied commonly enough in a particular case, a new convention is created; a new "path" is worn. • Eg: Metaphor • Metaphor • Consider the difference in meaning between "He's a leech" and. "he's a louse." Both leech and louse are parasites that suck blood through the skin of their host, and we -- being among their hosts -- dislike them for it. • According to the American Heritage Dictionary, a leech is "one who preys (Victims) on or clings to another", whereas a louse is "a mean or despicable (Contemptible) person." These extended meanings have an element of arbitrariness. Most of us regard leeches as "despicable," and lice certainly "prey on" and "cling to" their hosts. • Therefore it's appropriate for the dictionary to include these extended meanings as part of the meaning of the word. All the same, we can see that these words originally acquired their extended meanings by the completely general process of metaphor. • A metaphor is "a figure of speech in which a term is transferred from the object it ordinarily designates to an object it may designate only by implicit comparison or analogy." For instance, if we speak of "the evening of her life", we're making an analogy between the time span of a day and the time span of a life, and naming part of life by reference to a part of the day. Metaphors/ Metaphorical/Figurative Meaning
• Eg. He is the light of my life - The person described
by this metaphor isn't really providing physical light. He or she is just someone who brings happiness or joy.
• Time is a thief - Time isn't really stealing anything,
this metaphor just indicates that time passes quickly.
• He is the apple of my eye - There is, of course, no
real apple in a person's eye. The "apple" is someone beloved and held dear. • Feel blue - No one actually ever feels like the color blue, although many people say they are "feeling blue" to mean they are feeling sad. • I feel blue to see the disaster in India in the wake of Covid 19. • Literal meaning ( Surface Meaning)
• Literal meaning is most basic meaning of a word or
phrase, rather than an extended or poetic meaning.
• Eg: I want to meet you.
• Figurative Meaning or Metaphorical Meaning: (of language, words, phrases, etc.) used in a way that is different from the usual meaning, in order to create a particular mental picture. For example, ‘He exploded with rage’ shows a figurative use of the verb ‘explode
• The word “head” has several figurative senses, as in
“She's the head of the company”. Example for Figurative Language with full of figurative meaning • I could not get out of my mind the thought of a friend, who said that the rainbows over [Niagara] Falls were like the arts and beauty and goodness, with regard to the stream of life--caused by it, thrown upon its spray, but unable to stay or direct or affect it, and ceasing when it ceased. In all comparisons that rise in the heart, the river, with its multitudinous waves and its single current, likens itself to a life, whether of an individual or of a community. A man's life is of many flashing moments, and yet one stream; a nation's flows through all its citizens, and yet is more than they. In such places, one is aware, with an almost insupportable and yet comforting certitude, that both men and nations are hurried onwards to their ruin or ending as inevitably as this dark flood. Some go down to it unreluctant, and meet it, like the river, not without nobility. (Rupert Brooke, "Niagara Falls," 1913) Denotation
• Denotation is the actual object or idea to which the word
refers. • Eg. 1. Husband and wife • Pedestrians shall walk on the right side of the road. • 2.This act may be cited as the Eighteen Amendment to the Constitution. • 3. The Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka ( hereinafter referred to as “ Constitution”) is hereby amended in Article 31 thereof, as follows: • (Ammendment of Article 31 of the Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka) Connotation
• The associated or secondary meaning of
a word or expression in addition to its explicit or prim ary meaning:A possible connotation of “home” is “a place of warmth, comfort, and affection.”
• The act of connoting; the suggesting of
an additional meaning for a word or expression, apart from its explicit meaning. • Connotation
• The word "sea" denotes a large body of water, but its
connotative meaning includes the sense of overwhelming space, danger, instability; whereas "earth" connotes safety, fertility and stability. Of many potential connotations, the particular ones evoked depend upon the context in which words are used. I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
• Contextual Meaning • The definition of contextual is depending on the context, or surrounding words, phrases, and paragraphs, of the writing. An example of contextual is how the word "read" can have two different meanings depending upon what words are around it. • To get the real meaning of a word or an utterance according to J.R Firth , the ‘Context of situation’ is very much important. There is a dynamic relation between text and context of situation . Context of situation is the totality of extralinguistic features having relevance to communicative act.
• E.g . 1. Please give a brief account of the situation.
• 2. My account in the Commercial bank has been
abandoned. ( The meaning is that the bank account with credits has not been used for ten years. • Other Terminology in Lexical Semantics • In discussing semantics, linguists sometimes use the term lexeme (as opposed to word), so that word can be retained for the inflected variants. Thus one can say that the words walk, walks, walked, and walking are different forms of the same lexeme. • A lexical item (or lexical unit, lexical entry) is a single word, a part of a word, or a chain of words that forms the basic elements of a language's lexicon (≈ vocabulary). Examples are cat, traffic light, take care of, by the way, and it's raining cats and dogs. • There are several kinds of sense relations among lexemes. First is the opposition between syntagmatic relations (the way lexemes are related in sentences) and paradigmatic relation (the way words can substitute for each other in the same sentence context). • Important paradigmatic relations include: • synonymy - "sameness of meaning" (pavement is a synonym of sidewalk) • hyponymy - "inclusion of meaning" (cat is a hyponym of animal) a word with a particular meaning that is included in the meaning of a more general word, for example ‘dog’ and ‘cat’ are hyponyms of ‘animal’ • antonymy - "oppositeness of meaning" (big is an antonym of small) • Paradigmatic contrasts at the level of sounds allow one to identify the phonemes (minimal distinctive sound units) of a language: for example, bat, fat, mat contrast with one another on the basis of a single sound, as do bat, bet, bit, and bat, bap, ban. • On the lexical level, paradigmatic contrasts indicate which words are likely to belong to the same word class (part of speech): cat, dog, parrot in the diagram are all nouns, sat, slept are all verbs • Syntagmatic relations between words enable one to build up a picture of co-occurrence restrictions within SYNTAX, for example, the verbs hit, kick have to be followed by a noun (Paul hit the wall, not *Paul hit), but sleep, doze do not normally do so (Peter slept, not *Peter slept the bed). . Semantics and Grammar
• The meaning of a sentence is the product of both lexical and
grammatical meaning. Of the meaning of the constituent lexemes and of the grammatical constructions that relate one lexeme syntagmatically to another. • Compare following two sentences to make grammatical meaning clear. • 1. The dog bit the postman. • 2. The postman bit the dog. However, the word order of a language serves an expressive function. Eg : A: What would you like to eat? B: I would like to eat biscuits. C: Biscuits I would like. The word order difference in the answer of C affects the lexical meaning as it highlight the object ‘biscuits’ Exercise
• 1. Do the following two sentences in English mean
approximately the same? • 1. I will be back later. • 2. I will return after sometime.
• 2. Write two sentences with ambiguous meaning
• i……………………………………………………… • ii……………………………………………………… . Thank you