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English Semantics and Pragmatics
English Semantics and Pragmatics
What is Semantics?
• Semantics is the study of meaning.
a painting? in music?
• The meaning we are concerned with here is the meaning that we
actually find in language.
• Hence: Semantics is the study of meaning in human language(s).
• The term study indicates that it is part of Linguistics, which is the
study of human languages.
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English Semantics
Components of Grammar
• Example: Mary ate the apples.
• What is this sentence made out of?
• It is made out of the words Mary, ate, the and apples.
• There are also individual sounds that constituted this sentence.
• The elements the and apples form a phrase, i.e. a noun phrase
• Again, the verb ate can be combined with the apples and create
the verb phrase.
• The sentence also gives some sense.
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English Semantics
What is a grammar of a language?
• Generally in Linguistics, when we say grammar, we are not talking
about the type of grammar you learned at school.
• Here, grammar refers to every single part of a language; the
part that you need to make that language work.
• So, in the sentence Mary ate the apples,
̶ There are individual sounds
̶ The are words and morphemes
̶ There are phrases and a clause
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̶ The structure also gives some sense
English Semantics
Components of a grammar
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English Semantics
• To answer this question, think about the sentence we treated in our
English Morphosyntax class. That is:
e.g. Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
• What does this sentence tell you about the importance of semantics
to language?
• This sentence is made out of the following elements:
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English Semantics
• In any study or any discipline of study, there are theories.
• In Physics, for example, there are theories that explain gravity.
• Linguistics is the science of human language.
̶ Hence, it requires its own set of theories that explain d/t things.
̶ Our goal here is to develop a theory of semantics.
• The first thing in working out a theory of semantics is to identify
the phenomena that we need our theory to explain.
• A theory of semantics must seek to explain what we call
productivity.
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English Semantics
• What is productivity?
• Here, we produce new or novel meaning.
e.g. The ugly man saw Mary and her cat that was next to a bat
jump over the planet Venus.
• Have you ever heard of this sentence before? Have you ever
produced this sentence before? No!
• How do we produce new meaning?
• In language acquisition theory, especially according to Behaviorism,
by imitating from someone.
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̶ But: this is new/novel meaning produced by the speaker.
English Semantics
• How do we do that?
M1 M2 M3 + M4 NP
VP
10 ÷ 5 x 2 = ? 1) 10 ÷ 5 = 2 x 2 = 4
2) 10 ÷ (5x2) = 10 ÷ 10 = 1 12
English Semantics
• Hence, first, the word love must be combined with coffee.
• Then, “I” can be combined with the result of love and coffee.
• This is similar to Maths, i.e. we do not simply combine the
meaning of I, with the meaning of love and with the meaning of
coffee.
• We also consider how they are combined. That is, you cannot
simply add the meanings of words without considering syntax.
• Syntax and Semantics are very closely related fields (more to
come on this later).
̶ Semantico-syntax 13
English Semantics
• The principle of compositionality explains the phenomenon of
productivity.
• But: There are problems in applying this principle. Consider the
examples:
(1) A: Here’s your phone. I found it in the café.
B: Thank you!
(2) A: You’re idiot!
B: Thank you!
• Do you think that the sentence in 1 (B) and 2 (B) has the same
meaning? 14
English Semantics
• According to the principle of compositionality, the meaning of
thank you is the result of the meaning of thank and the meaning
of you.
• But this meaning is not the case in 2 (B).
• So what is the problem?
• The problem is that there is a slight difference in what the
sentence means and what the speaker means.
• Sentence meaning vs speaker meaning
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English Semantics
3. Linguistic knowledge vs world knowledge
• Consider the following example: Please open the window.
• What is the meaning of this sentence?
• Taken out of the context, this sentence means somebody wants
someone to open the window.
̶ This is a very direct meaning and also called literal meaning.
• But: It can also mean I feel hot now.
• For now, let’s take one & take a definition of the word coffee as it
is a hot drink from beans grown in Ethiopia that is black in color &
bitter in taste. 21
English Semantics
• In such a case, we may be still required to tell the meanings of bean, hot,
drinkable, etc. as given in a dictionary.
• For example, the word coffee can be assigned with a code 0110001.
̶ You do not need to go back & define the codes or the numbers.
• You cannot explain one thing with the same exact thing.
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English Semantics
Reference and Sense
Word Semantics
• Sometimes, it is also called lexical semantics.
• There are two main things that we look at within the field of
lexical semantics.
• These are reference and sense.
• Consider the following example:
A: Look at the tree
B: ……………………….
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English Semantics
Reference and Sense
• Here, the phrase this tree is used to refer to the tree in front of
him.
• So the tree is the object of this reference which we call the
referent.
• The reference is the speaker act and it shows the intention of the
speaker.
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English Semantics
Reference and Sense
• Now, imagine you were listening to speaker A saying this and you
hear the phrase the tree before you actually see the tree in the
real world …how would you understand this phrase uttered by
speaker A before you have got the chance to look at the actual
tree in the real world?
• Well you would hear the phrase the tree and think of the a mental
image that represents what you think tree is.
̶ This mental image is what we call a concept.
̶ It is a mental representation and this is what we call sense. 37
English Semantics
Reference and Sense
• Part of being able to make reference or to refer to something is
partly based on our knowledge of the sense of the thing.
• Hence, the sense of the word or an expression determines what
can and what cannot a representative or a reference of the word
tree.
• This is called the semiotic triangle, first introduced by Ogden &
Richards in their work “The Meaning of Meaning” (1923).
• The Semiotic Triangle explains to us how we get meaning out of a
linguistic expression. 38
English Semantics
Reference and Sense
• In our example, the tree is a linguistic expression.
• This linguistic expression itself denotes an object in the real world.
The tree
denotes object
signifier
• This process is called denotation, which is purely a linguistic
phenomenon. 39
English Semantics
Reference and Sense
• When we utter the phrase or the linguistic expression the tree, what
pops up immediately to our mind is the sense of the expression.
• And the sense of the expression has one function which is
determining which objects in the world may be considered a tree
and which may not be.
sense
in the sky.
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English Semantics
Reference and Sense
2. No physical reference: this refers to the situation where you have
no physical reference.
• Typical cases: function words such as a, the, in or is.
• These words have no physical reference.
• This also includes abstract notions like love, idea, hate, etc.
• Also myth creatures or peoples.
e.g. unicorn does not exist in the real world; it does not pick out a
physical object in the real world but we can talk about it.
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English Semantics
Reference and Sense
3. The third case of reference is where one expression picks out multiple
referents in the real world.
• Imagine you walk into a classroom and there are ten female students
and you utter the expression the girl.
̶ Now, what does the girl pick out? It may pick out Aster, Foziya, Marta,
or …
̶ Hence, the same expression has several different referents.
Aster
the girl Foziya
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Marta
English Semantics
Reference and Sense
4. This is when you have multiple expressions which all pick out the
same exact thing, object or reference.
unicorn ?
Denotation
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English Semantics
Reference
1) Denotational Theory of Meaning
• If meaning equals denotation and if in this case denotation
amounts to zero/nothing, the meaning is also zero or no meaning.
• According to this theory, we cannot understand unicorn because
it has no meaning.
• Any solution to this problem?
• Let’s discuss the second theory of reference.
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English Semantics
Reference
Sense
Word Denotation
Object
• As the picture shows, a word (say unicorn) means the mental
representation or sense which pops up in our mind.
• This occurs though the expression has no object in the real world.
• Unicorn means the concept that we have in our mind i.e. sense.
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English Semantics
Theories of Concepts
• According to the Representational Theory of Meaning, a linguistic
expression or a word means the sense or the concept (or the mental
representation) that we have in our mind.
• What is this concept?
• There are some theories that try to explain what it is.
1) The Image Theory
• states that when a linguistic expression is uttered the concept that we
think of is an actual image.
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English Semantics
Theories of Concepts
2) The Classical Theory
• It is also called the Necessary and Sufficient Condition Theory.
• According to this theory, when we say a word table, the sense in our
minds is NOT an image.
̶ But: A list of conditions that a table must meet to be an actual
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English Semantics
Theories of Concepts
2) The Classical Theory
Dog: + Animate
+ four legs
- gills
Dog Thing
• You use this list of necessary & sufficient conditions to determine
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English Semantics
Theories of Concepts
2) The Classical Theory
• You use this list of necessary & sufficient conditions [+ Animal, +
four legs, - gills] to determine whether what you see in the real
world is a dog or not.
• Problems associated with this theory:
a) People do not tend to agree upon all of the necessary & sufficient C
b) How much of these necessary & sufficient conditions must we
agree to understand each other is not clear.
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English Semantics
Theories of Concepts
2) The Classical Theory
• For instance, the meaning of the word Gold is mediated by our concept.
And this concept is different for many people.
• For an ordinary person, gold might be:
Gold: [+ metal, + expensive, + yellowish, + shiny]
̶ Of course, a lot of things in the world fit this description, so how can we
still are able to understand each other on what gold is?
• Besides, for a person mining gold or a scientist: gold’s density, no of
atoms, its shape as in bent or not are considered.
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English Semantics
Theories of Concepts
2) The Classical Theory
• This theory looks at things in a more either 0 or 1 relationship;
you are either a good example of something or not.
e.g. the category bird under the necessary & sufficient condition
could be: + Animal, + fly, + feathers, w/c are the basic things when
we think of a bird.
• Is sparrow a bird?
• Is chicken a bird?
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English Semantics
Theories of Concepts
3) The Prototype Theory
• states that there are degrees of membership to a category
• We have central member or prototypical or typical member.
̶ This is the member that pops to your mind when you think of a
category of a thing/object.
• When you think of the category bird, canary pops to your mind. And it is
the typical member of the category of bird.
• Other types that resemble canary are further away from the prototypical
member. These are: sparrow, blue jay, bat & penguin.
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English Semantics
Theories of Concepts
3) The Prototype Theory
Bird
Canary
sparrow Animals
that swim
bat
penguin
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English Semantics
Theories of Concepts
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English Semantics
Types or Markers of Reference
There are three main types of reference:
1) Definite reference
e.g. The man is here.
2) Indefinite reference
e.g. A man is here.
3) Generic reference
e.g. Man is the smartest creature on the earth.
• A more detailed discussion of these will come later.
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English Semantics
Denotative and Connotative Meanings
1) Denotative Meaning
• Also known as conceptual or literal meaning.
• It’s the precise, literal definition of a word as it is found in a
dictionary.
• It represents the explicit or referential meaning of a sign.
• constitutes the primary meaning of a lexical item
e.g. rose: a flower which grows on a bush
Hollywood: the American film industry that is based in
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Hollywood, California
English Semantics
Denotative and Connotative Meanings
1) Connotative Meaning
• This refers to the wide array of positive and negative associations
that most words carry with them.
• is the emotional & imaginative association surrounding a word
• goes beyond the literal or dictionary meanings of words
e.g. rose: we associate roses with romantic love, beauty, and with
special days like Valentine’s Day or anniversaries
Hollywood: connotes such things as glitz, glamour, etc.
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• Poets & advertisers exploit the connotative meanings of words.
English Semantics
Denotative and Connotative Meanings
• Identify the denotative & connotative meanings of the following
words.
A) needle
B) dog
C) politician
D) mother
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English Semantics
Semantic Roles/Thematic Roles
• We think of words as ‘containers’ of meaning (see our previous
discussion).
e.g. What is a man? Well, it contains the components or the
features [+ human, + adult, + masculine]
• It is also possible to look at the ‘roles’ they fulfill within the
situation described by a sentence.
e.g. The man ate the apples.
̶ Here, the verb describes the action
̶ The NPs describe the roles of entities, such as people & things.69
English Semantics
Semantic Roles/Thematic Roles
• We call these semantic roles or thematic roles.
• There are a few thematic roles in English.
1) Agent
• is the initiator of some action, capable of acting with volition
e.g. John cooked the food.
̶ Here, John is the entity that performed the action.
e.g. The fox jumped out of the ditch.
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English Semantics
Semantic Roles/Thematic Roles
2) Theme
• is the entity that is involved or affected by the action and this role
is known as THEME (or PATIENT)
• It is the entity undergoing the effect of some action, often
undergoing some change in state.
e.g. The sun melted the ice.
• The theme can also be an entity that is simply being described
(i.e. not performing an action).
e.g. The man is kind. 71
English Semantics
• Agents and themes are the most common semantic roles.
• Agents are typically human as in the following:
e.g. Mary ate the apple.
• But: Agents can also be non-human entities that cause actions as
in the noun phrases denoting:
̶ A natural force: The wind blew the ball away.
̶ A machine: A car ran over the ball.
̶ A creature: The dog caught the ball.
• The theme is typically non-human but can be human.
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e.g. The dog chased the boy.
English Semantics
3) Instrument
• If an agent uses another entity to perform an action, that other
entity fills the role of instrument.
e.g. The man wrote a letter with a pen.
̶ Here, the NP, a pen, is used in the semantic role of instrument.
4) Experiencer
• When a NP is used to designate an entity as the person who has a
feeling, perception/state, it fills the semantic role of experiencer.
e.g. The boy feels sad. John saw the smoke.
Did you hear that noise? 73
English Semantics
5) Location
• refers to the place in which something is situated or takes place.
• where an entity is (on the table, in the room) and fills the role of
location
e.g. The students are in the class.
6) Source: where an entity moves from
• The entity from which something moves, either literally or
metaphorically.
a) The plane came back from Mekele.
b) We get the idea from a French magazine. 74
English Semantics
7) Goal
• The entity towards which something moves, either literally or
metaphorically.
e.g. a) He handed his license to the policeman.
b) Pat told the joke to his friends.
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