MODULE: SEMANTICS

ROOM: A303
TIME: 6.30 – 8.30 PM
PERIOD: 8 LESSONS (7/2 – 2/3)
LECTURER: Ms Minh
(0366 263 866, minhnh@ftu.edu.vn)

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 Understanding English
Semantics
• What is semantics?
• Semantics is the systematic study of
meaning in language. In other words, it is
the study of how language organizes and
expresses meaning

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 The meaning of what?
(What language units may be said to have meaning?)

• The levels of linguistic units:

morpheme - word - phrase - clause -
sentence/utterance - discourse
• These units do have meaning to a certain
extent

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 Reasons

Differences
a morpheme is a combination of words
a word may/may not be able to stand alone &
does not express a concept
a phrase can stand alone

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 Our view
• There are three basic types of units: the word - the
sentence/the utterance - the discourse
• Language is seen as a (0) ____ of thinking. Language
is connected to thinking through the (1) ____ which is
connected to a (2) ____ - the means by which thinking
proceeds. The (3) ____ expresses a judgment or
proposition.

Sentence, Word, Concept, Medium

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• A combination of related judgments will constitute a
discourse - the real unit of human communication.
Discourse constitutes the goal of discourse analysis -
another popular discipline.

In this course we will be giving an account of:

word meaning
sentence meaning
utterance meaning

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 Scope of semantics
(1). Word meaning
– Literal vs. transferred
– Polysemy vs. homonymy
– Synonymy vs. antonymy
– Hyponymy
– Change and development of meaning
– Transference of meaning

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(2). Sentence meaning (context - independent)
– STIR (structural, textual, interpersonal, and
representational)
– Sentence types and their meaning
– Propositions (formal semantics)

(3). Utterance meaning (context-dependent)

– Reference
– Implicature
– Presupposition
– Speech acts
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 Major philosophical theories of
meaning
(a). The referential theory.
(b). The ideational/mentalist theory.
(c). The behaviourist theory.
(d). The meaning-is-use theory.
(e). The verificationist theory.
(f). The truth-conditions theory.

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1. The referential / denotational theory

1. Definition

2. Variations and Objections

3. General Problem

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 Definition
• Meaning of an expression = What it refers to,
denotes or stands for

E.g.: “Joe”

• May be regarded as one of the simplest and most

dominant theories for quite a while.
• Focuses primarily on nouns as the object of its
investigation.
• BUT: Many other word classes do not lend
themselves easily to this theory 11
 Variations & Objections
Variation 1:
The meaning of a word = what it refers to
E.g.: “teacher”

Objection:
An object may be referred to by different expressions
which have different meanings
E.g.: my mother
the nurse
the young woman
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 Variations & Objections
Variation 2:
The meaning of a word = The relation between the
word and its referent.

Objection:
Many words (and, if, about) don’t connect to
something - its referent.

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 General Problems
• Not every word refers to an actual object
(articles, conjunction, prepositions, verbs, adjectives,
adverbs)
• According to the referential theory, something must
have a referent to have meaning. The whole
sentences, paragraphs have meaning but do not have
a referent.

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 2. Ideational / mentalist theory

a) The first version (proposed by John Locke, 7th-

century British philosopher)

The meaning of an expression is the idea or concept

associated with it in the mind of anyone who knows
and understands the expression

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 Assumptions

• Language is an instrument for the communication of

thought

• Thought is a succession of ideas in consciousness

only accessible to the possessor

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 Summary
• The speaker’s meaning of a word is the idea in the speaker’s

mind associated with the word.

e.g. “book”: Its characteristics, its appearance, etc.
• The speaker’s meaning of a whole sentence is a stream of
ideas.
e.g. The dog is chasing the cat

• Communication is successful when a similar stream of ideas

is produced in the hearer’s mind

• That success depends on the recognition that speakers

generally associate a certain idea with a certain word, which

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provides the link to word and sentence meaning.
 Objections
1. The theory does not say what an idea is.
2. Do we have ideas corresponding to each word in a
sentence, including the small words: is, on, etc?
3. Meaning is social and public while ideas are private
and differ from person to person
4. A string of idea is unstructured and so cannot
capture structural ambiguities such as: “John was a
Victorian furniture salesman.”

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 b) The second version: Conceptual
theory
Thought

Symbol Referent
(By Ogden and Richards, 1923)

Meaning is seen as an indirect association

between the symbol and the referent

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 Problems
• Mental concepts are elusive things which are not
directly available to introspection.
• Assuming that meaning is language-based and that
concepts reside outside language, can meaning still be
identified with a concept?
• How are concepts acquired and do they evolve?
• If concepts change in the process children’s maturity,
does meaning then evolve parallel to the evolution of
the concept which the expression is related to?
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 3. The behaviorist theory
(Stimulus – response theory)

• The meaning of an expression is either the stimulus

that evokes it or the response that it evokes, or a
combination of both, on particular occasions of
utterance.

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 Bloomfield’s view

• The meaning of a linguistic form is the situation

in which the speaker utters it and the response
which it calls forth in the hearer.

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 Problems
• On different occasions, different responses are made
to the utterance of a given expression.
• Sometimes, there is no overt response at all to the
utterance of a given expression.
e.g.
Jill: Could you give me that apple, Jack?
Jack: (silent)

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 Example
On the bus, a girl is reading a dictionary. The guy next
to her is staring at the book. The girl said softly:
- Do you know what it means by ‘POLITE’?
The guy snatched the book from the girl’s hands.
- Let me look for it. You’ve just kept silent and not
asked for help.

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 Charles Osgood’s view
• Meaning is the fractional implicit response which the
word elicits.
e.g. Implicit actions: internal muscular contractions,
neural processes

2 unanswered questions

• How to discover fractional implicit responses ?

• Does a given word lead to exactly same implicit
responses every time?
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 Charles Morris’s View
• Meaning is the production of certain disposition which
depends on many factors other than the statement.
e.g.
Mary: The bell is ringing, honey.
(1) Nick: stays silent.
(2) Nick: Let me go open the door.
Problems
• It works for statements that apply to the immediate
environment
• Numerous dispositions can be produced to a
statement 26
 4. Meaning-is-use theory

• Speech act theory

(J. Austin & Searle) Meaning-is-use
theory
• Theory of meaning
(Wittgenstein)

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• The meaning of an expression is determined by, if not
identical with, its use in the language.
• Don’t look for the meaning of a word (expression), look
for its use.
• Saying is doing. Many acts may be performed as a
speaker speaks.

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 Speech act

Locutionary Illocutionary Perlocutionary

act act act

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 Locutionary act
The act of making an utterance according
to the rules of a given language.

Eg. You are stepping on my foot.

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 Illocutionary act
The purpose of the speaker (apologizing,
complaining, congratulating, greeting…)

Eg. You are stepping on my foot.

→ informing/complaining/warning

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 Perlocutionary act
The effects of the saying.

Eg. You are stepping on my foot.

→ The hearer apologizes/ has no
reaction

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 Summary
Locutionary Illocutionary Perlocutionary
act act act

Act of Purpose of the Effects of the

making speaker saying
utterance

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1. You are talking too much.
2. You can do better.
3. - I have a pair of tickets for “Spiderman
II” tonight.
- But I’m having a presentation tomorrow.
4. You may be late
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 5. Verification theory
• The meaning of an expression is determined by the
verifiability of the sentences, or propositions, containing
it. In other words:

– the meaning of each meaningful sentence is its

verification condition

– the meaning of a sentence depends on how we can

establish its truth

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 Objection 1
• Verificationism only applies to descriptive language,
not question, commands, jokes, etc.
1. Read after me, please!
2. Tom: Look at that guy over there. How cool he is!
3. Mary: You naughty boy! He is just a kid!

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 Objection 2
• We seemingly need to first know what a sentence
means in order to figure out how to verify it. However,
the verificationist says the opposite.
• E.g.
To determine how to verify the presence of a virus, we
must know what viruses are and where, in general, they
are to be found; thus it seems we must understand talks
of viruses in order to verify statements about viruses,
rather than vice versa.

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 Objection 3
• If the meaning is the verification condition, then a
sentence is about the observations and not about what
lies behind them
• E.g.
If …
Observation is my own private sense impressions
Then…
Verificationism denies the reality of material world
• Last night, I saw a ghost.

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 Objection 4
• According to verification principle, a meaningful
sentence must be either analytic or verifiable.
• However, it is hard to verify a sentence or to show
– it is analytic
– it is verifiable

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 Objection 5

• Verification condition does not capture the

meaning of most sentences.

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• "There is a chair at the head of the table."
What is its verification condition?
If you walk into the room from the direction of
this door here, you will have an experience as of
a chair at the head of the table. But even that
depends. It depends on whether you have your
eyes open, and it depends on whether your
sensory apparatus is functioning properly, and it
depends on whether the lights are on, and....

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 6. Truth-conditions theory
• The meaning of an expression is its contribution to the
truth-conditions of the sentence containing it.
• The meaning of a sentence is the conditions under
which it is true.
• The meanings of the parts of a sentence (usually
statements) lie in their contribution to the truth
conditions.

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 Example
It is possible that Tom Cruise is going to walk through
that door
→ “It is possible that Tom Cruise is going to walk through
that door” is true if there is some possible world in
which Tom Cruise is going to walk through that door.

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 Objections
• It offers just a semantic account of statements

• We need to know the sentence meaning in order to be

able to figure out its truth conditions, which is the
opposite of what the theory says.

• It depends on an account of truth, which may entail

defining what is expressed.

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 Components of words meaning

• Denotative meaning

• Connotative meaning

• Structural meaning

• Categorical meaning

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 Concepts
The meaning a word acquires
DENOTATION by virtue of what it refers to
The meaning a word acquires
by virtue of where, when, how,
CONNOTATION and by whom, for what purpose
and in what context it is or may
be used.

STRUCTURAL The meaning a word acquires

MEANING by virtue of its membership in a
system or a set

The meaning a word acquires

CATEGORIAL
by virtue of grammatical
MEANING
classification 46
 Denotative
Conceptual meaning Referential meaning
The definitional, 'literal', Objects or things (referent)
'obvious' or 'commonsense' that the word refers to
meaning of a word

•General: The word denotes • Concrete: The word refers

the whole class of entities.
•Context-independent:
Denotation is related to the
word in isolation, not as part
of a phrase.
to a specific entity.
• Context-dependent:
Reference is related to the
expression rather than the
word.
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 Notes
• Conceptual meaning is based on 2 structural
principles: contrastiveness and constituent structure.
These two principles represent the way language is
organized on what linguists have termed the
PARADIGMATIC (or selectional) and SYNTAGMATIC
(or combinatory) axes of linguistic structure
• E.g. The word “woman” is defined conceptually by
three semantic features: +human, -male, +adult

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 Example: CHAIR
• Conceptual meaning
Chair: a piece of furniture designed for one person to
sit upon
• Referential meaning
Would you mind bringing me a chair into the kitchen?:
It could be a desk chair, a wing chair, a dining room
chair, or whatever image appears before the mind's
eye representing to that person a "chair".

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 Connotative
• Connotative meaning is the communicative value an
expression has by virtue of what it refers to, over and
above its purely conceptual content
• Unstable: Connotations vary considerably according to
culture, historical period, and personal experience.
• It is undetermined and open-ended in a sense in which
conceptual meaning is not

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 Examples of connotation
• dog
• In Arabic culture: negative connotation of dirt and
inferiority
• In British culture: positive connotation of friendship
and loyalty
• snake
• To people in general: neutral connotation: a cold-
blooded, legless reptile, has little emotional content
• To a snake-bitten person: negative connotation:
horrible, dangerous, scary animal
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 Comparison
Denotative meaning
The explicit, literal meaning,
dictionary definition
• Denotation involves a
broader consensus. The
denotational meaning of a
sign would be broadly agreed
upon by members of the
same culture, and by different
cultures.
• The denotative meaning has
neutral content.
Connotative meaning
Values, judgments, evaluative
implications behind the literal
meaning
• Connotational meaning is
determined by the cultural
codes to which the interpreter
has access.
• The connotative meaning of
a word can have a strong
emotional content 52
 1 word with both
denotation and connotation

Denotation Connotation

new recent origin better improved

excuse explanation weak reason

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 2 or more words with the same
denotation but different connotations

Denotation Connotation

house living material

accommodation
home spiritual

skinny thin negative

slender positive
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 Structural meaning

• Reflected meaning

• Collocative meaning

• Associative meaning

• Thematic meaning

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 a. Reflected meaning
• The meaning arises in cases of multiple conceptual
meaning, when one sense of a word forms part of our
response to another sense.
• It is what is communicated through association with
another sense of the same expression.

e.g.
Reflected meaning is found in taboo words (erection,
intercourse, ejaculation). The word ‘intercourse’ immediately
reminds us of its association with sex 'sexualintercourse’,
which drives away its innocent sense. 56
 b. Collocative meaning
• It is what is communicated through association with
words which tend to occur in the environment of
another word.
• Words collocate with certain words only
E.g.
artificial limb/ flower/ sweetener
false teeth/ passport/ promise

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 c. Associative meaning
• The meaning arises because of its association with
other meanings

• Eg. high - low

beautiful - ugly
large - narrow

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 d. Thematic meaning
• It is what is communicated by the way in which the
message is organized in terms of order and emphasis.
• Eg.
Jenny often pairs me off with her cousin.
I am often paired off with Jenny’s cousin.

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 e. Categorical meaning
• One part of grammatical meaning which words
derive from is a member of one category rather
than another.

• Eg.
strength (n) strong (adj)
strengthen (v) strongly (adv)

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 Exercise 1

• Identify the denotation and connotation

meanings of the word “bug” in the
following sentences
 This place is crawling with bugs!
 He is as cute as a bug.

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 Exercise 2
Match the terms with their corresponding definitions
Conceptual emotional implication influenced by culture, historical period
and individual experience
Referential the meaning a word acquires on account of the meanings of
words which tend to occur in its environment
Connotative the meaning that serves as a classificatory basis
Reflected definitional or literal meaning of a word

Collocative the meaning acquired by the organisation of the message in

terms of order, focus and emphasis.
Associative the meaning which arises in cases of multiple conceptual
meaning
Thematic what the word refers to
Categorial the meaning which arises because of its association with other
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meanings
Lexical and grammatical meaning
• Lexical meaning is the individual meaning each word
has in the system of language. This meaning brings
together different forms of one and the same word,
whereas the grammatical meanings distinguish
between them. Different forms of the word will share
the same lexical meaning, but different grammatical
meaning

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• Grammatical meaning is the meaning of a word that
depends on its role in a sentence and varies with
inflectional form.
• The grammatical categories of English are tense,
mood, aspect, voice, number, person and comparison.

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 Distinction between
Sentence and Utterance
1. Utterance
An utterance is often regarded as any stretch of
speech before which and after which there is a
pause.
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 phrase, or even a
single word.

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2. Sentence

A sentence may be defined as the ideal underlying

structure behind an utterance expressing a complete
thought

A sentence is neither a physical event nor a physical

object. It is, conceived abstractly, a string of words
put together by the grammatical rules of a language.
A sentence can be said of as the IDEAL string of
words behind various realizations in utterance and
inscriptions
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 Distinction between
sentence and utterance
An utterance may be:
• A word: “Weird!”
• A phrase: “Where to?”
• A sentence: “Can you help me, please?”
• A sequence of sentences:
“Both President Bush and I love this country very
much, there’s no doubt I think about that. But we have
a different set of convictions about how we make our
country stronger here at home and respected again in
the world. 67
 Distinction between
Utterance and Sentence
Utterance Sentence

Range a word a sentence

a phrase (a subject + a
a sentence predicate)
a sequence of
sentences

Context Yes No

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 Sentence meaning and
utterance meaning

• Sentence meaning is • Utterance meaning is

what a sentence what a speaker
means regardless of means when he
the context or makes an utterance in
situation in which it a certain situation
may be used

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 Exercise 1
Identify whether the statements below are
sentence or utterance:
1. How beautiful she is!
2. Shh!
3. How come?
4. Hey! What’s up?
5. Ouch!
6. A: What are you doing?
B: I am preparing for tomorrow’s exam.
7. How beautiful she is!
8. A: Can you show me the way to the post office?
B: Go along the street. Then turn left at the first corner.
It’s the first building on the right.
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 Exercise 2
Imagine the context in which the following
sentences are uttered.
1. “You did a good job!”
2. “Touching your heart”
3. “Ladies and gentlemen!”
4. “Wow!!!”
5. “Please mind the gap between
train and platform.”

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