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Wk8 Pragmatics 20231101
Wk8 Pragmatics 20231101
Introduction to Language
Week 8
Semantics & Pragmatics
O. Lam
osclam@hku.hk
Nov. 1, 2023.
3
Today’s Plan
• Semantics
• Sense & reference
• Lexical (sense) relations
• Pragmatics
• Deixis
• Anaphora
• Presupposition
• Direct & indirect speech acts
Types of meaning
• Three different types of meaning:
1. word meaning
2. sentence meaning
• not dependent on context
3. utterance meaning (speaker meaning)
• may differ from sentence meaning depending on the context
5
• Homonyms
• Two words have the same form, but different meanings
• Reference: language allows speakers to talk about, i.e. refer to, things in the world
(3) Kroeger (2018:2)
6
Reference
• Different ways to refer to things in the world
• Referring expressions
• An expression (most commonly an NP) is used to refer a particular individual or a
particular set of things
(4) John, Mary, Mr. Lee, the books, the students, the dog
• fixed reference
(5) Dawson & Phelan (2016)
7
Reference
• Deictic elements
• The reference of a deitic element depends on the context.
(6) a. personal pronouns, e.g. I, you, she, they etc.
b. deitic pronouns, e.g. this, those, here etc.
c. reflexive pronouns, e.g. himself, ourselves etc.
(7) a. He left.
b. John stayed briefly, and then he left.
c. Mary saw herself in the mirror.
• Presupposition
• the shared hearer-speaker knowledge
• may or may not be linguistically evoked
• Information may come from the context.
8
Source: https://classroomclipart.com/image/vector-
clipart/cute-girl-stick-figure-holiding-gift-wrapped-
with-bow-clipart-54253.htm
9
(8) dog
• noun
• forms/ shapes:
• written form: dog
• spoken form: / dɒg /
• meaning: DOG
(9) poodle
• noun
• forms/ shapes:
• written form: poodle
• spoken form: / ‘pu:d(ə)l /
• meaning: POODLE
• special information:
• It’s a kind of dog.
• (Source of picture: http://www.freepik.com/free-photo/toy-poodle_532106.htm)
(Source of pictures:
(a) http://www.freepik.com/free-photo/toy-poodle_532106.htm
(b) http://www.freepik.com/free-photo/german-shepherd-dog_636711.htm
(c) http://www.freepik.com/free-photo/ -canidae-wolf-canis-hunter-lupus-predator_667525.htm)
What is a bird?
(Source of pictures:
Sparrow: http://www.freepik.com/free-photo/sparrow--gorrion_662617.htm
Pigeon: http://www.freepik.com/free-photo/bird-macro-pigeon-feather-nature-birds-walk-grey_667395.htm
Owl: http://www.freepik.com/free-photo/staring-back_634863.htm)
12
What is a bird?
penguin chicken
(Source of pictures:
Penguin: http://www.freepik.com/free-photo/humbioldt-penguin_613114.htm
Chicken: http://www.freepik.com/free-photo/just-a-hen_628304.htm)
13
Prototypes
• What’s the meaning of bird?
• Most likely, it’s not a specific image of any particular kind of bird that
comes to mind.
• Prototypes (Rosch 1973, 1975, among others; in Saeed 1997)
• The more/most representative, typical members of a category
• The prototype may not be a fixed image of any particular kind of bird, but may be
an abstract list of characteristic features.
• When we decide whether something is or isn’t a bird, we compare the features of
the object that we see to these features.
• Sparrow, pigeon, owl vs. penguin, bird
Less Less
typical typical
birds Typical birds
birds
14
• Other relations:
• Homonymy
• Homonyms are words that have the same form, but different meanings.
• Homophones: words with the same spoken form, but different meanings.
(11) two and too
• Homographs: words with the same written form, but different meanings.
(12) a. bow (and arrow) (N)
b. to bow (V)
• Gradable/scalar antonyms
• Words that mark opposite ends of a scale.
(15) hot, cold
• Differences
• Gradable antonyms mark ends of a scale, and there are often intermediate points on
the scale.
(16) hot, warm, cold
• Gradable antonyms have comparative forms.
(17) a. hotter, colder
b. ??deader
• One of the gradable antonyms is often considered to be the ‘default’.
(18) a. How old are you?
b. ??How young are you?
17
• Taxonomy
• X is a taxonym of Y if X is a kind/type of Y.
(20) a. A poodle is a kind of dog.
b. Not all dogs are poodles.
18
• sentences:
(21) The lion killed the zebra.
(22) The zebra killed the lion.
• Same words, different word orders -> different meanings
(25) S1: Do you want to have lunch together after this class?
S2: I have to get a book from the library.
• Speech acts
• A speaker performs a speech act when s/he makes an utterance.
20
• Directives
• trying to get hearers to do things
(27) Can you open the door?
(28) Go away!
• Commissives
• committing the speaker to do things in the future
(29) We will have a party next week.
(30) I promise to give it back to you.
• Expressives
• Expressing feelings and emotions about things
(31) We thank Prof. Smith for giving a wonderful talk.
• Declarations
• Bringing about immediate changes in the world
(32) I now pronounce you husband and wife.
21
Speech acts
• The three most basic types of communicative functions:
• Statements
• Questions
• Commands
Speech acts
• Direct speech acts
• Speaker performs the intended speech act by making use of the
literal meaning of the form.
• Illocutionary force: speaker’s intention
(36) Can you drive?
Face
• Indirect speech acts are often performed to save one’s
face.
• Face: a person’s ‘public self-image’ (Yule 2006:119)
References
Dawson, Hope C. & Michael Phelan (eds). 2016. Language files: Materials for an
introduction to language, 12 ed. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.
Jackendoff, Ray. 2012. A user’s guide to thought and meaning. Oxford: OUP.
Kroeger, Paul R. 2018. Analyzing meaning: An introduction to semantics and
pragmatics (Textbooks in Language Sciences 5). Berlin: Language Science Press.
Rosch, Eleanor. 1973. Natural categories. Cognitive Psychology, 4:328-50.
Rosch, Eleanor. 1975. Cognitive reference points. Cognitive Psychology, 7:532-47.
Saeed, John I. 1997. Semantics. Oxford: Blackwells.
Searle, John. 1976. The classification of illocutionary acts. Language in Society.
5(1):1-24.
Yule, George. 2006. A study of language. Cambridge: CUP.