ENGLISH SEMANTICS

I. Introduction
1.1 Definition

Semantics Pragmatics
- the study of meaning in language - The study of meaning in context (The study of
the use of lan in communication, particularly the
relationship between sentences and the contexts
and situations in which they are used.)
- context free - Context dependent

Sentence Semantic meaning Pragmatic meaning

Would you like a piece of Lose weight No. refuse the offer
cake?
I’m on a diet.
The bag is so heavy. The bag is not light. It’s heavy. Can you please help me carry the
(a man and a girl are going bag?
upstairs. The girl is carrying
the bag and she says:The bag
is so heavy”.)
It’s so hot. The weather is very hot. Speaker wants SO to open the air
condition.
Why don’t we go swimming?
Would you like an ice-cream?
Can you open the window?
I’m cold. I feel cold. Doctor: “How do you feel?”
Patient: “I’m cold.”
I’m sick. or
Speaker wants to borrow a coat. Or
A girl wants her boy friend to sit
nearer. She wants a hot, a heart.

Context

- That which occurs before and/or after a word, a phrase or even a longer utterance or a text.
- The broader social situation in which a linguistic item is used.

Contextual meaning: the meaning a linguistic item has in context.

Sentence Situation
“Do you know the meaning of war?” 1. The language teacher said to his Ss.
 2. An injured soldier says to a politician who favors
war, “War produces death, injuries, and suffering.”
I’ll have to be at the office at 8.00 this 1. Conversation between mother and son
morning. Mother: “What time will you have to be …
morning?”
Son: “I’ll have to be …. morning.”
2. Conversation between husband and wife
Wife: “Can you take the children to the school
now?”
Husband: “I’ll have to be at the office at 8.00 this
morning.”
Why don’t you send it by post? 1. Conversation between T and Ss
T asks Ss to read a sentence.
Ss read “Why don’t you send it by post?”
2. Me: “I have to give a letter to my family.”
3. John: “Why don’t you send it by post?”
“You said it.” 1. Rescue
My friend has a secret and she told me not to tell
everyone. But later everyone knows about it. I said
to her that I didn’t tell it. She rescued me: “You said
it.”

II. WORD MEANING

II.1 Semantic feature [+…]
Definition
The smallest units of meaning in a word

Word Semantic feature

father human, male, mature, parental, paternal
boy [+male], young/-adult, human
girl human, female/-male, young
assassin
teacher
hen animate, bird, fowl, fully grown, female

Characteristics
1. Some semantic features need not be specifically mentioned.
[+human] is [+animate]
2. Different words may share the same semantic feature.

Word Semantic feature

Doctor, engineer, teacher, physicist, chemist, tailor, professional
hairdresser,…
Mother, father, son, daughter, brother, sister, kinship
grandparent, aunt, uncle,…

3. Words of different parts of speech may share the same semantic feature

Part of speech Semantic feature

Mother (n) female
Breast-feed (v)
Pregnant (a)
School, teacher, textbook (n) educational
Teach, educate, instruct (v)
4. The semantic properties of words determine what other words they can be combined with
Grammatically correct and syntactically perfect but semantically anomalous
My brother is an only child.
The bachelor is pregnant.
Colorless gree ideas sleep furiously.
Exercise 1. For each group of words given below, state what semantic features are shared by the (a)
words and the (b) words, and what SFs distinguish between the classes of (a) words and (b) words.
A. Lobster, shrimp, crab, oyster, mussel
B. Trout, sole, herring, salmon, mackerel
The (a) and (b) words are [+edible water animal].
The (a) words are [+shelfish].
The (b) words are [+fish].

Widow, mother, sister, aunt, seamstress
Widower, father, brother, uncle, tailor
Bachelor, son, paperboy, pope, chief
Bull, rooster, drake, ram, stallion
Table, pencil, cup, house, ship, car
Milk, tea, wine, beer, water, soft drink
Book, temple, mountain, road, tractor
Idea, love, charity, sincerity, bravery, fear
Rose, lily, tulip, daisy, sunflower, violet
Ash, oak, sycamore, willow, beech
Pine, cedar, jew, spruce, cypress
Book, letter, encyclopedia, novel, notebook,
dictionary
Typewriter, pencil, ballpoint, crayon, quill,
charcoal, chalk
Walk, run, skip, jump, hop, swim
Fly, skate, ski, ride, cycle, canoe, hang-glide
Ask, tell, say, talk, converse
Shout, whisper, mutter, drawl, holler
Alive, asleep, awake, dead, half-dead, pregnant
Depressed, bored, excited, upset, amazed,
surprised

Exercise 2. Identify the semantic features in each of the following words.

Child Actress Actress Imagine Tiptoe
Aunt Plod Plod Doe Pine (tree)
Hen Ewe Ewe Drive Owe
Oak (tree) Fly (v) Fly (v) Home Computer
Flower Fly (insect) Fly (insect) Elm Honesty
Palm (hand) Stallion Stallion Chalk Maid
Palm (tree) Police-officer Police-officer Rose
Bachelor Beauty Beauty Chick
spinster Imagine Pap

Exercise 3. How can you distinguish the words given in the following table from one another, considering
their semantic features?

Malay English Vietnamese Chinese

Brother Anh Huynh
Đệ
Sadara Em
Sister Muội
Chị Tỷ

II.2 Semantic field/lexical field /lexical set

The organization of related words and expressions into a system which shows their
relationship to one another

Word Semantic field

Kinship Father, mother, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, …
Adjectives describing human emotional Angry, sad, happy, exuberant, depressed, afraid,…
states
Drinking vessels Cup, mug, tumbler, wine glass, beer glass,…

Ways of organizing semantically similar items into semantic fields

Way
Types of fruit Apples, oranges, grapes, bananas, pears, plums,…
Items related by
Pieces of furniture Seats, tables, beds, storage,…
topics
Terms of color Blue, red, yellow, green, black, white,…
Ways of cooking Stew, boil, fry, steam, roast, grill, smoke,…
Ways of looking Gaze, glance, peer, squint, stare
Items similar in
Ways in which a liquid Drip, leak, ooze, run, seep
meaning
escapes from its
container
Terms describing Thin, bony, skinny, scrawny, underweight, emaciated,
people whose slender, slim
weight is below
normal
Items which form Long-short
pairs of antonyms Light-heavy
Alive-dead
 Love-hate
Approve-disapprove
Begin-end
Inside-outside
Upstairs-downstairs
Smart-bright-intelligent
Items which form Conserve-preserve-safeguard
pairs or trios of Fix-repair-mend
synoyms Kind-sort-type-variety
Happy-glad
Do the house work Clean the rooms, do the washing, iron the clothes, get
Items grouped as an the food, prepare a meal, wash up
activity or a process Do research Make hypotheses, collect data, analyze data, get results,
come to conclusions
Sex Male-female:
waiter-waitress,
tiger- tigress,
actor-actress,
host-hostess,
landlord-landlady,
sir-madam
Age Grown-ups, adults, elderly people, middle-aged people,
Items classified
teenagers, children, infants, babies
according to
Age and sex Horse:
Stallion: [male, fully grown]
Mare: [female, fully grown]
Foal: [+-male, -fully grown]
Dog:
Dog: : [male, fully grown]
Bitch: [female, fully grown]
Puppy: [+-male, -fully grown]

Exercise 4. Organize the given words into three semantic fields.

Shirts, end, forward, new, hats, lend, coats, shorts, beginning, trousers, amble, out, limp, tiptoe, plod,
socks, trudge, borrow, stomp, in, stump, old, backward, tramp
II.3 Lexical gap
The absence of a word in a particular place in a lexical field of a language

Word Male Female baby

Horse Stallion Mare Foal
Goat Billy-goat Nanny-goat Kid
? Bull Cow Calf
Dog Dog Bitch puppy
Exercise 5. Try to fill in each of the two blanks with an appropriate word to prove that there is no lexical
gap in the given semantic fields.

Word Male Female baby

Sheep Ram Ewe ?
Giraffe Male giraffe ? Baby giraffe

2.3 Referent, reference, and sense

Referent
An object or an entity in the real world or in the world of your imagination that is talked about
Reference
Reference of a word or a linguistic expression is the relationship between that word/expression and the thing, the action,
the event, the quality it refers to.

In the English language Reference In the real world

“Peter’s house” <------------------->
(English noun phrase)

The house belonging to Peter

Sense
The sense of a word or a linguistic expression shows the internal relationship between that word/expression and others in
the vocabulary of language.

Words +sense -sense +reference -reference

Teacher the one who gives a lesson
Student who has the lesson given by
teacher
A dog is chasing a cat x
A dog is human x
The King of Vietnam is bald x x
By the year 3000, our x x
descendants will have left
the Earth.

Word Referent Reference Sense

Bachelor The relationship between the Unmarried man
word bachelor and a certain
unmarried man
A man who hasn’t
ever been married
Bach Tuyet The relationship between the “Tuyet Trang”
name Bach Tuyet and the lovely
princess
 The lovely princess
in a fairy tale
Variable reference, constant reference, and co-reference

Language Referent -reference Explain More example

expression
1 >= 2 Variable “Your left ear”
6 billion people with left
ear in the world.
“Please look at your
book!”
 Student A looks at his
book. Student B looks at
her book. … Student N
looks at his book.

1 1 Constant The sun: only one The moon, Halley’s comet, the
People’s Republic of China,
Angola, the United Nations, FIFA,
UNESCO
>= 2 1 co “The leader of the Labor The morning star and the evening
Party in 1006” star
“The Prime Minister of the  the planet Venus
UK in 2006” John wearing red shirt and singing
 Mr. Tony Blair a song

The man who is my father.

The man who married my mother.

Exercise. 6 What is identified by the word mean or meaning in the following examples, i.e. reference or
sense?
1. When Albert talks about “his former friend”, he means me.
2. Daddy, what does logic mean?
3. Purchase has the same meaning as buy.
4. Look up the meaning of democracy in your dictionary.
5. If you look out of the window now, you’ll see who I mean.

II.4 Denotation and connotation

Denotation of a word is the core, central or referential meaning of the word found in a
dictionary.
Connotation: the additional meaning that the word has beyond its denotative meaning. It
shows people’s emotions and/or attitudes towards what the word refers to.

Connotation
Word Denotation
+ -
woman [+human], female, adult
man [+human], male, adult
Child Human, -mature, +-male
Rose Plant, flower, colored
Dragon Lots of tails, can fly
Owl Large round eyes, thump at
night
snake a reptile with a very long thin
body and no legs. There are
many types of snake, some of
which are poisonous
Fox a wild animal of the dog
family, with reddish-brown
fur, a pointed face and a thick
heavy tail
Christ Dec 25th
mas
June The sixth of month of the
year
Decem The twelfth month of the
ber year, next after Nov
Long hair, beautiful, kind,
devoted, patient
Strong, handsome
Affectionate, innocent
Good smelling, simple of
love, romantic, beautiful
Simple of king (Eastern
culture): powerful,
prosperous, royal,
Bad omen
(Asian culture)
Winter, cake, festival,
funny, cheerful
Summer, vacation, hot
weather
holiday season, Christmas,
winter break,
Jealous, talkative, wicked,
Shellfish, violent, heart-tempered
Noisy, irritating
Expensive, có gai???
Dangerous, destruction (Western
culture)
Wisdom
(European culture)
Evil, dangerous
A person who is cunning, deceitful
(a person who is clever and able
to get what they want by
influencing or tricking other
people)
Bad weather(usually rainy or
snowy), dark evening, grey sky,
slippery streets, loneliness,
separation from the beloved

Bachel Unmarried man - Still single after the usual age for marrying
or - decided by himself to stay single
- enjoying freedom, friendship, life
- ready for his impending marriage

Spinste Unmarried woman Still single after the usual age for marrying
r Not decided by herself to stay single
Left in an unfavorable state
A symbol for some failure in life
A red rose with green stem Symbol of passion and love

A brown cross Symbol of religion according to the media connotation.

However, to be more specific, this is a symbol of Christianity.
Representation of a cartoon Symbol of love and affection, not in the way of a rose, but a
heart symbol of true love and people making love together.
 Connotation
+ Neutral -
Mother, mom Woman Witch
Father, dad Man The old man
plump Overweight fat
Slender, slim Thin Skinny
Firm Obstinate Pigheaded
Thrifty, frugal Tight Stingy
Aggressive pushy
There are over 2,000 homeless There are over 2,000 people There are over 2,000 vagrants in
in the city with no fixed address in the city. the city

2.5 Figure of speech

…………………..
2.6 Sense relations
 Synonymy
A sense relation in which various words have different (written and sound) forms but have the same or nearly the
same meaning

Synonym Meaning
Hide-conceal Keep STO from being seen or known about
Kind-type-sort-variety A group of having similar characteristics
Stubborn-obstinate
Brigand-bandit
Mercury-quicksilver

Exercise/102. In the following sentences, do the capitalized pairs of words have the same sense?
1. The thief tried to CONCEAL/HIDE the evidence.
2. I’m going to PURCHASE/BUY a new coat.
3. These tomatoes are LARGE/RIPE.
4. This is a very LOOSE/SHORT definition.
5. You have my PROFOUUND/DEEP sympathy.
6. It is a very WIDE/BROAD street.
7. How many KIDS/CHILDREN have you got?
8. He comes to see us every FALL/AUTUM.
9. Nothing is more precious to us than our FREEDOM/LIBERTY.
10. The body was found in the BOOT/TRUNK of the car.
11. We’ve just bought a new HOUSE/APARTMENT.
12. John got a bullet wound in his HEAD/GUTS.
13. A BLOKE/CHAP I know has pickled onions for breakfast.

 Antonymy
A sense relation in which two words have different (written and sound) forms and are opposite in meaning

Antonym
Pass-failure Thinner-fatter Big-small
Hot-cold True-false Buy-sell

Classification

Antonymy
Characteristic
Binary/complementary Gradable Relational
Exclusive X
Not alive = dead
Not dead = alive
Gradable X
(intermediate Hot <– warm –
terms) tepid/lukewarm –
cool-chilly- > cold
used in Can not can
comparison and
how question
(degree)
“if … then …” X
If Mr. A is Jack’s employer, then
jack is Mr. A’s employee.
Example Alive-dead Wide-narrow Verb:
Married-single difficult-easy Buy-sell
Present-absent Give-receive
Awake-sleep Lend-borrow
Import-export
Own-belong to
Short<-quite tall- Noun:
>tall Employer-employee
Old-young Grandparent-grandchild
Happy-sad Father/mother-son/daughter
Fiancé-fiancée
Parent-child/offspring
Professor-student
Teacher-pupil
Doctor-patient
Debtor-creditor
Landlord/landlady-tenant
Husband-wife
Uncle/aunt-nephew/niece
Comparative adj:
Thinner-fatter
Cheaper-more expensive
Greater than-less than
 Comparative adv:
More efficiently-less efficiently
Faster-more slowly
Prep:
Above-below
In front of-behind
Over-under
Before-after
North of-south of
West of-east of

Antonymy and (unmarkedness) Remark

1-2 ( -) (occur in How?)
High (1)-low (2)
Tall-short 1 I worry about my son. He is
18 years old, but he’s very
short.
We can ask: How short is
he?
He’s 1.5ms.
Heavy-light 1
Far-near
Expensive-cheap 1
Hot-cold
Long-short
Wide-narrow
Deep-shallow 1
Difficult-easy
Married-single 1
Well-badly 1
Old-young 1 Her mother is 45 years old,
but she looks very young.
 We can ask :How young
is she?
She looks like just about 40
years old.

Exercise 13. Are the following pairs of words binary antonyms?

Chalk-cheese Dead-alive
Same-different Married-unmarried
Copper-tin Cheap-expensive
Exercise 14. Are the following pairs of words relational antonyms?
Below-above Grandparent-grandchild
Love-hate Greater than-less than
Conceal-reveal Own-belong to

Exercise 15. Identify the continuous scale of values between the two given words.
Love-hate None-all
Hot-cold Possibly-certainly
Big-small Never-always
Rich-poor

Exercise 16. State whether the following pairs of antonyms are binary, gradable or relational.
Good-bad Parent-offspring Import-export Legal-illegal
Pass-fail Beautiful-ugly Better than-worse than Asleep-awake
Deciduous-evergreen False-true Easy-difficult Rude-polite
Expensive-cheap Lessor-lessee Hot-cold Husband-wife

 Polysemy
A sense relation in which a single word has two or more slightly different but closely related meanings

Polysemous Semantic Meaning Example

word feature
A small piece of some hard substance broken A chip of glass
off from sth larger
A small cut piece of potato fried for eating Can I try one of your
[+small
Chip chips?
piece]
A small but vital piece of a computer This computer has got a
faster chip than the old
one.
Separate into two or more parts as a result of He broke that cup.
[+can no
force or strain (but not cutting)
Break longer be
Become unusable by being damaged; make sth My watch is broken.
used]
unusable by damaging
A top part of a body
Head
A head of a company
A part of human body
A gate of a river which water goes through
Mouth
before out to the sea
A part of animal
Top inner surface of a room
Ceiling
Upper limit
The planet where we are living
Earth
The soil
 To force SO to go somewhere
Drive
To provide power to make operate
Tool with sharp points for lifting food
Fork
Gardening tool with metal point
A part of animal
Tail
A part of a coat

 Hyponymy
A sense relation in which the referent of a word is totally included n the referent of another word. In
other words, hyponymy is the relationship between each of the hyponyms and it’s
superordinate/hypernyms.

Hepernym/superodinate Hyponyms
Animal Cat, dog, cow, horse
Pig Boar, sow, piglet
Virtue Carefulness, prudence, patience, generosity, kindness
Emotion Happiness, anger, anxiety, sadness
Color Yellow, grey, blue, green, red
Blue Turquoise, aquamarine, royal blue
Weapon Airplane, rocket, tank, grenade, submarine, torpedo, missile,
helicopter
Cook Grill, toast, boil, fry, roast, bake, smoke
Fry Stir-fry, sauté, deep-fry
Plant Tree, bush (shrub), flowering plant, moss, grass

Incompatibility

Animal (hypernym)
Cat Dog Horse cow
Cat-dog-horse-cow: co-hyponyms
Sense relation between co-hyponyms that have the same hypernym (animal) is
incompatibility

 Homonymy, Homophony, Homography

Homonymy is a relation in which various words have the same (written and sound) form but have
different meanings.

Word (homonym) Pronounced Meaning

A financial institution
Bank /…………/
The shore of a river
Bear (n) A large heavy animal with thick fur
Give birth to
Bear (v)
tolerate
Book (n) A book
 Book (v) To book a ticket
A part of a finger
Nail
A thing

Homophony is a relation in which various words have the same sound form but have different meanings
and written forms.

Word (homophone) Pronounced Meaning

Hour A twenty-fourth part of a day and night
/…………/
Our Belonging to us
Place A particular area off position in space
/pleIs/
Plaice A type of fish

Homography is a relation in which various words have the same written form but have different
meanings and sound forms.

Word (homograph) Pronounced Meaning

Lead (v) /li:d/ Does this road lead to town?
Lead (n) /led/ Lead is a heavy metal.
Read (v) /ri:/ V1
/red/ V3

 Lexical ambiguity
Structural ambiguity: a sentence is considered as structurally ambiguous when its structure permits
more than one interpretation.
Lexical ambiguity: any ambiguity resulting from the ambiguity of word. Both polysemy and homonymy contribute to
lexical ambiguity.

1. Tolerate
She cannot bear children.
2. Give birth to
1. Financial institution
He waited at the bank.
2. Shore of a river.
1. That kind of peron
Is he really that kind?
2. so kind
1. The long tool for drilling
The long drill was boring. 2. Long exercise (a way of learning sth by means of
repeated exercises)
It takes a good ruler to make a straight 1. Instrument
line. 2. Governor/person who has power
1. Shining
That robot is bright.
2. intelligent
1. a phone call
He gave me a ring last night.
2. gift to a lover
 1. The boy was smiling
He greeted the girl with a smile.
2. The girl was smiling
1. Eye-glasses
Don’t seat on those glasses.
2. Glasses for drinking

Exercise 20. Explain the lexical ambiguity in each of the following sentences by providing two sentences
that paraphrase its two different meanings.
He waited by the bank.
Meaning 1: He waited by the financial institution.
Meaning 2: He waited by the shore of a river.
1. When he got the clear title to the land, it was a good deed.
2. The proprietor of the fish store was the sole owner.
3. We like the ball.
4. They passed the port at night.
5. The captain corrected the list.
6. He was knocked over by the punch.
7. The camel swallowed the chocolate and then ate it.
Exercise 21. Does polysemy or homonymy contribute to the lexical ambiguity in each of the two given
sentences?
1. She cannot bear children.
2. The cat sat on the mat.
Exer 22. In what way are homonyms related to lexical ambiguity?
Exer 23. In what way is a polysemous word related to lexical ambiguity?

III. SENTENCE MEANING

3.1 Paraphrase
- Paraphrase is the relationship between a word and a combination of other words with the
same meaning.
- A paraphrase is provided by another sentence that has virtually the same meaning.
- A sentence which expresses the same proposition as another sentence is a paraphrase of that
sentence.
- Sentences are paraphrases if they have the same meaning (except possibly for minor
differences in emphases).

Ways to paraphrase Original sent. Paraphrase

1. Change individual Cats drink cream. Domestic felines consume the liquid
words, fat of milk.
using synonyms I’ll be happy to come. I’ll be glad to come.

using relational I lent that book to Jim Jim borrowed that book from me.
 antonyms
2. Change sentence Cats drink cream.
structure
3. Change both individual
words and sentence
structure
Exer 31. The following pairs are paraphrases of each other. Identify the way employed to paraphrase them.
The house was concealed by the tree.
The house was hidden by the tree.
The needle is too short.
The needle is not long enough.
Some countries have no coastline.
Not all countries have a coastline.
Watching TV is not a waste of time.
Watching TV is a good way to spend
one’s time.
My friend loathes string beans.
My pal hates pole beans.
I’ll look for that book right now.
I’ll seek for that book at
once/immediately.
Steve hugged Jane.
Steve gave Jane a hug.
John is the parent of James.
James is the child of John.
My father owns this car.
This car belongs to my father.
John sol the book to David.
David bought the book from John.
Steve hugged Jane.
Jane was hugged by Steve.
We had hardly begun our work when it
rained.
Hardly had we begun our work when it
Cream is drunk by cats.
The liquid fat of milk is consumed by
domestic felines.
I saw Ted at the party.
It was Ted that I saw at the party.
The nearest service station is 50 miles
away.
It is 50 miles to the nearest service station.
Jenny and Kevin are twins.
Kevin and Jenny are twins.
They had a wonderful holiday even though
the weather was bad.
Despite/in spite of the bad weather, they
had a wonderful holiday.
They had a wonderful despite/in spite of
the bad weather.
Bachelors prefer red-haired girls.
Girls with red hair are preferred by
unmarried men.
Sam sliced the salami with a knife.
Sam used a knife to slice the salami.
Considering your condition, we won’t
press charges.
Under the circumstances, we won’t press
charges.
The laser has a wide variety of
applications.
As we have seen, the use of the laser is
numerous.
In order to make a good impression at a
job interview, you should prepare well for
the interview.
As you can see, it is necessary to be well
 rained. prepared for the job interview.

Sitting in one place for so long is very
uncomfortable.
It is very uncomfortable to sit in one
place for so long.
Although Grants Pass, Oregon, is a
fairly small town, it offers much to
amuse summer visitors.
If you want to give your family a nice,
wholesome vacation, try visiting GP,
Oregon.
Synonyms, word that have the same basic
meaning, do not always have the same
emotional meaning.
Many so-called synonyms are not really
synonyms at all.
The composition proficiency requirements
as now stated should not apply.
I would propose that the standard used to
judge international student papers be
relaxed or done away with.

3.2 Entailment
……………….

IV. UTTERANCE MEANING

IV.1 Deixis
IV.2 Conversational implicature
The co-operative principle make your contribution such as is required, at the stage at
which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are
engaged.
Four basic maxims:

The maxim of What we say must be

Quality True
Quantity Brief
Relevance Relevant
Manner Clear

Sorry love. I saw you were home. There’s a cat stuck under the gate.

Context Implicature
Did you buy salt? B wanted to say No, I didn’t buy salt.
I tried to.
Have you brushed your teeth and tidied the B hasn’t tidied his room.
room?
I’ve brushed my teeth.
Is Betsy in? The light is a signal for us to know that whether
 Her light is on. she is in the room or not.
Do you love me? B doesn’t love A.
I’m quite fond of you.
Was there a fiddler at the bar last night? The man wasn’t a good fiddler.
There was a man scrapping a bow across a violin.
Do you like my new carpet? B doesn’t like the carpet.
The wallpaper’s not bad.
Do you like the hamburger you are eating?
A ham is a ham.
I hope you brought the bread and the cheese. B didn’t bring the cheese.
Ah, I brought the bread.
Coffee? B would rather not drink coffee.
It would keep me awake all night.
Have you finished the student’s evaluation form B has not done the evaluation form.
and reading list?
I’ve done the reading list.
Are you going to Mark’s barbecue? She’s not going to Mark’s barbecue.
Well, Mark’s got those dogs now.

4.3 Speech acts

Speech acts is an utterance as a functional unit in communication.
Characteristic

Locutionary/propositional meaning Illocutionary

meaning/illocutionary force
Definition Its basic literal meaning conveyed by The effect the utterance might have
its particular words and structures on the hearer
A: I’m thirsty. I’m thirsty is I am suffering from my A indirectly requests B to give him
B: I’ll bring you a glass of thirst. sth to drink
water.
Can you shut the window? I wonder whether you are able to A indirectly requests B to shut the
Certainly. shut the window. window.

Classification

Speech act type Example Explain

Declarations Change the I now pronounce you man The vicar is directly announcing the
world by and wife. legal and permanent union between
bringing about a man and a woman as husband and
or altering the wife, simultaneously changing their
state of affairs it marital status
names:
Dismissing, I resign. A directly declares to give up his
sentencing, You’ll be free from current position.
naming, tomorrow. (I dismiss you B declares to dismiss A from his
 announcing from your current position.) current position.
marriage
Representatives Describe a state Where are you from? B directly gives a piece of
of affairs in the I’m from Canada. information concerning where he
world: was born and grew up.
Stating,
claiming,
describing, T: There are only two seasons T directly informs Ss of what the
predicting, in the south: the dry season weather is like in the south.
reporting and the rainy season.
S1: Then, each season is
exactly six month long?
S: Is there any transitional
period between them?

Expressive Indicates the I beg your pardon. I’ll be right The desk clerk directly apologizes to
speaker’s back. the client for his absence for a
psychological No problem. while.
state of
deeling/attitude This beer is disgusting. A directly shows that he extremely
about sth: Why don’t you learn to take dislikes the beer.
Greeting, the bad with the good?
apologizing,
thanking
Directive Intends to get The garage is a mess. B directly orders A to make the
the listener to Clean it up. garage tidy
carry out an
action: How about a dinner out? B indirectly asks A to leave her
Commanding, My essay is due tomorrow alone, writing her essay
requesting, morning. (Leave me alone to
begging, write my essay.)
warning
Commissive Commits the If you don’t stop fighting, I’ll A directly threatens to call the
speaker to a call the police. police if B and her brother don’t
course of Call them at once to turn stop fighting.
action: your brother in.
Promising,
vowing, When will I receive my
threatening, reimbursement?
offering Authors always pay their B indirectly promises to pay A back
debts. (I’ll pay you back later
later.)

Locution, illocution, and perlocution act

A locutionary act is the saying of sth which is meaning ful and can be understood.
I’ll see you later. What kinds of function can we perform?
1. A promise
2. A kind of warning