SEMANTICS

Course outline
- lesson 1: word meaning and sentence meaning
- lesson 2: sense and reference
- lesson 3: sense relations between words
- lesson 4: Sounds properties and sense relations between sentences
Lesson 1:
I. Word meaning (reference book-Section 2)
1. semantic features and semantic field
2. denotation and connotation
3. literal meaning and figurative meaning
II. Sentence meaning and utterance meaning (textbook-unit 1 and unit 2)
1. sentence meeting and utterance meaning
2. propositions
Semantics and its main considerations
- semantics is the study of meaning in language
- semantic theory is applicable to different languages
similarities between languages, rather than on the differences
I. WORD MEANING (reference book – section 2)
 Semantic features
- The smallest units of meaning in the word (To Minh Thanh, p.12)
Ex: father: [+human], [+male], [+mature], [+parental] or [+paternal]
Mother: [+human], [-male], [+mature], [+parental], [+maternal]
- SFs also clarify how certain words relate to others:
+ Different words may share the same SF.
Darken, kill, beautify,… fall, walk, run
Build, imagine, make hit, touch, kiss
+ Synonymous relation: have the same or nearly the same SFs
+ Antonymous relation: sharing a principal SF in which they differ
Dry vs. Wet Buy vs. Sell Big vs. Red
An insect was swimming in a container of “goo”.
- Pouring goo?
- Drinking goo?
- Droplets of goo?
- The goo is leaking out?
- Seeing goo in half?
- Bending goo?
The assassin was arrested in time just before he got to Mr. Thrwacklehurst.
- Who is Mr. Thrwacklehurst likely to be?
 SFs of a word determine what other words the word can be combined with.
 - My brother is a only child.
- My bachelor is pregnant.
- Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
- This suitcase is killing me!
When semantic rules are broken  ANOMALY
(To Minh Thanh, p.21)

 Semantic field
- “A set of words with identifiable semantic affinities”
- The organization of related words into a system which shows their relationship to one another.
 Denotation and connotation
Mother: a female parent who is gentle and caring (To Minh Thanh, p.30)
 Denotation: the core meaning
- a set of SFs describing the word
 Connotation: the additional meaning
- People’s attitudes / emotions
- Affective / evaluative associations
Child
- Denotation: [+human], [-mature], [±male]
- Connotation: [+innocent], [+affectionate], [+noisy], [+irritating]
 Literal & Figurative meaning (To Minh Thanh, p.34)
- Literal meaning:
the basic or usual meaning
- Figurative meaning
create mental images to readers / listeners.
dove, sunshine, heart of stone….
 Figures of speech
simile, metaphor, metonymy, hyperbole, personification, …

 SENTENCE MEANING VS. UTTERANCE MEANING:

- Sentence meaning: what a sentence means
- Utterance meaning: what a speaker means to say when making the utterance.
 Speaker meaning.
Ex:
(A and B at a bus stop one morning)
A: Nice day.
B: Yes, a bit warmer than yesterday, isn't it?
A: We are going to France for a holiday.
B: That'll be nice for the family.
(Husband and wife in a row)
 A: You cannot take the car. I'm driving it to work. You have to send the kids to school on a bus.
B: That'll be nice for the family. Up at the crack of dawn, and not home till mid-evening! Sometimes
you're very inconsiderate.
A: Nice day.
 Sentence meaning or utterance meaning???
 The aspects of meaning which are determined by the language system rather than meanings
that involve speakers’ participation and context.
 Semantic meaning is generally “context-free”.
 PROPOSITIONS:
 Proposition: the meaning of declarative sentence which describes some state of affairs.
 Person or things referred to and the situation or action they are involved in
 Propositions of interrogative and imperative sentences
1. “Have you seen my toothbrush?”
2. “Get out of here!”
3. “I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you to leave.”
 Same proposition as declarative sentence
 But this proposition is not asserted.
 The relationship between propositions, sentences and utterances:

 The same proposition can be expressed by different sentences and the same sentence
can be realized by different utterances.
REFERNCE and SENSE
I. Reference and sense (Unit 3)
1. Reference
2. Sense
II. Reference and referring expressions (Unit 4, 6, 7)
1. Referring expressions
2. Equative sentences and Generic sentences
3. Deixis and definiteness
I. REFERNCE and SENSE (Unit 3)
 Two distinct ways of talking about word meaning: reference and sense.
 Reference: the relationships between language and the world.
 Sense: the relationships inside the language.
1. Reference:
- Reference: a speaker indicates which things/persons in the world are being talked about.
- Reference: the language – things outside the language (part of the world).
- Referent
1. When I show you a book and say, “I’ll lend you this book”, what is the referent of “this
book”?
2. Is there a fixed referent of “this book”?
3. How many referents can be referred to by the expression “this book”?
4. Considering the type of reference, is the expression “the sun” similar to “this book”?
5. Can you list other expressions that are similar to “this book” / “the sun” in terms of
reference?
6. Can different expressions have the same referent?
- Variable reference:
+ the same expression referring to different referents
- Constant reference:
+ the same referent in normal everyday conversations
- Co-reference:
+ two or more expressions sharing the same referent

2. Sense:
- The indispensable core of meaning
- It shows the semantic relationship between expressions in the language, such as sameness of
meaning, oppositeness of meaning.
Bachelor – married
Mother – father – child – son – daughter
- Can a word have more than one sense?
 The relationship between reference and sense
 Referent: often a thing or a person
 Sense: an abstract notion
 Sense provides the information needed to complete the association, to suggest
properties the referent may have.
 Every expression that has meaning has sense, but not every expression has reference.

II. REFERENCE and REFERRING EXPRESSIONS (unit 4, 6, 7)

1. Referring expressions (unit 4)
  An expression used to refer to something or someone (i.e used with a particular
referent in mind)

a. Definite noun phrases

1. Our neighbor is very kind.
2. He’s my friend
3. Fred hit me
4. The man I met at the party last night is really interesting.
 Proper names, personal pronouns, descriptive noun phrases
1. There’s no Fred at this address.
2. If anyone marries Nancy, he’s in for a bad time.
3. Every man who owns a donkey beats it.
b. Indefinite noun phrases
“a man” ?
a. A man was in here looking for you last night.
b. The first sign of the monsoon is a cloud on the horizon no bigger than a man’s hand.
c. John is a man.
 To sum up, whether an expression is a referring expression or not is heavily dependent on the
linguistic context and on circumstances of the utterance.
a. Nancy wants to marry a Norwegian
2. Equative sentences – Generic sentences
 Tony Blair was the UK Prime Minister in 2005.
 That woman over there is my daughter’s teacher.
 Two referring expressions have the same referent
1. John is the person in the corner. v
2. Cairo is not the largest city in Africa. X
3. Cairo is a very large city. x
4. Dr Jekyll is Mr Hyde. v
5. Ted is an idiot. X
 The order of the two referring expressions can often be reserved without loss of
acceptability.
+ That is the man who kipnapped my boss.
+ * The man who kipnapped my boss is that.
+ What I need is a pint of Guinness.
+ A pint of Guinness is what I need.
- The whale is the largest mammal
+ Does “the whale” refer to a particular whale?
+ Does “the largest mammal” refer to a particular mammal?
+ Are there any referring expressions in the sentence?
 GENERIC SENTENCE (p.59)
- About a whole unrestricted class of individuals, as apposed to any particular individual
 + The whale is a mammal.
+ The whale over there is clever.
1. Gentleman prefers blondes.
2. Jasper is a twit.
3. The male of the species guards the eggs.
4. A wasp makes its nest in a hole in a tree.
5. A wasp just stung me on the neck
 Generic sentences can be introduced by either a or the (or neither).