PACKET 3 Cara oes ey) eee ered es Peres Cd SUL aa Re SYNTAX 7X01 There are two main fields within linguistics Cee Mesa ony Tec a ee OE Sten Re Reus processes build complex meanings out of simpler Cee eae See auc ue Rear} Dee eee Reena Uae) semanticist is technically someone who studies Pee aCe nM ec) Ce MU Eee ete uaeLearning Plan Speaker's meaning and semantic meaning Everyone knows that language can be used to express meaning, but itis not easy to define meaning. One problem is that there are several dimensions ‘of meaning. Imagine that | ask you, "Can you give me an apple?" while looking at a bowl of apples on the table beside you. What Iliterally asked is whether you have the ability to give me an apple; this is the semantic. meaning of what I said. Sometimes people will make an annoying joke by responding only to the semantic meaning of such a question; they'll just answer, “Yes, | can,” But what I almost certainly want is for you to give me ‘one of the apples next to you, and | expect you to know that this is what | Want, This speaker's meaning is what | intend to communicate, and itgoes beyond the literal, semantic meaning of what I said. Linguists study both semantic meaning and speaker's meaning. Let's look at semantic meaning first Learning Outcomes + explain the difference between speaker's meaning and semantic meaning + introduce the complexity of lexical semantics and the basics of one way of thinking about lexical meaning + illustrate the role of the major grammatical constituents in semantic meaning: subjects and other arguments, predicates, modifiers, and quantifiers + describe the nature of intentional meaning and the basics of three intentional phenomena: modality, tense, and aspectExercise 1 Determine whether the given pairs of words represent synonymy or an- tonymy. long — short 6) lucky - fortunate 2) casual — informal 7) free - independent 3) instantly - immediately 8) promote - downgrade 4 rebellious — obedient 9) above - below 3) give —take 10) private - public Exercise 2 Linguists say that synonyms are never completely equivalent in their meaning. Check the definitions of the given synonyms in a dictionary and determine their meaning differences. }) look, watch, gaze, stare, scrutinize, peep 2. lazy, idle, sluggish, languid 3) clever, intelligent, intellectual, brainy, smart, bright SEMANTICS Semantics is the branch of linguistics that studies meaning in language. It is generally accepted that words, phrases, and sentences have meaning. Lexical semantics studies the meanings of words and sense relations (such as synonymy, antonymy and hyponymy). Sentence semantics (or sentential semantics) is concemed with the meaning of sentences, The meaning of words is part of human linguistic knowledge. The meaning of the majority of words is conventional, i.e. all speakers of a language intuitively agree on their meanings. If they did not, it would not be possible for people to communicate with each other. It is possible to analyze meanings of words decomposing them into more basic semantic features. Thus the noun man can be described as having the features [+ HUMAN], [#MALE], and [+ADULT]. Componential analysis helps to clarify how words relate to other words. Com- paring man and boy, it can be noted that the two words are differentiated only by one semantic feature: boy is characterized as [- ADULT] Linguists acknowledge that itis difficult both to define and to analyze the meaning of ‘a word, One of the reasons is that word meaning is not homogeneous. A distinction is drawn between denotation, which is understood as the relationship between words and the entities in the world to which they refer, and connotation, which is understood as the additional (often emotional or evaluative) associations suggested by words. Denotation is reflected in the dictionary definitions of words. Thus the denotation of the word wolfis “a wild animal that looks like a large dog and lives and hunts in groups” (Longman Dictionary of Con- temporary English 2007: 1897). However, for a lot of people the word may arouse associations of danger and rapacity, and these associations may be treated as the word's connotation. The word home has the mean- ing of a place (house or apartment) where you live, yet it has additional associations of safeness and warmth, Denotations of words are more stable and established, while connotations are less determinate.Within the vocabulary, words are semantically related to one another in different ways. Sense relations are paradigmatic, i.e. they reflect the choice and the substitution of one word for another in a particular context, One of the most widespread sense relations is synonymy, or same- ness of meaning. However, there are no strict or perfect synonyms, ie. two words usually do not have exactly the same meaning. Compare the adjectives beautiful and pretty, Both mean someone or something that is attractive to look at, Beautiful describes someone who is good-looking in a very special and even exceptional way, whereas pretty refers to someone or something that is pleasant to look at but not impressive. Antonyms are word that are opposite with respect to some element of their meaning; for example, big and small both describe size, but opposite in regard to the extent of the size. A large number of antonymic pairs are adjectives, but this sense relation is also found among other word classes, Three different types of oppositeness of meaning can be distinguished: gradable antonyms —_(gradables), complementaries, and converses. Gradable antonyms represent a more or less less of the other. For example, rich — poor, fast — slow, tall — short. Complementaries represent an either/or relation, which means that the negation of one is the meaning of the other. For example, dead - alive, married — single. In a pair of converses, one de- scribes a relation between two objects and the other describes the same relation when the two objects are reversed. For example, teacher— pupil, parent— child, buy — sell. Semantic relations among sentences Three types of such relations can be distinguished — paraphrase, entailment, and contradiction. If two sentences have the same meaning, they are called paraphrases of each other. For example, the sentence The cat chased the mouse. is a paraphrase of the sentence The mouse was chased by the cat. Entailment is a semantic relation between two sentences when the truth of one sentence implies the truth of another but not vice versa. For example, the sentence Peter saw a fox. entails Peter saw an animal. However, to say that Peter saw an animal does not mean that he saw a fox —he might have seen a wolf, a lion, etc. ‘Two sentences are contradictory when they both cannot be true at the same time. In other words, if one sentence is true, the other has to be false. For example, Miranda is alive. is a contradiction to Miranda is dead.Exercise 3 Mark the following pairs of words as homophones, homographs or homonyms. (Check the pronunciation of the words) })_ bat (animal) — bat (wooden implement) 2) route (a way from one place to another) - root (the part of a plant under the ground) 3) bow (to bend the top part of your body) — bow (a weapon used for shooting arrows) 4 rose (a flower) — rose (the past tense of rise) 5) bear (an animal) - beer (a drink) 6 bear (animal) — bear (to bravely accept a difficult situation) 7). race (running) — race (one of the main groups that people can be divided into) Exercise 4 There are several kinds of oppositeness of meaning. Indicate whether the pairs of words are gradables, complementaries or converses. expensive - cheap 6) father - son 2) husband - wife 7) in - out 3) soft — hard 8) buy - sell 4) pretty- plain 9) legal - illegal 5) false —true 10) deep - shallow Exercise 5 Which of the three semantic relations (paraphrase, entailment and contradiction) is represented in the given pairs of sentences? » 2 es 2 John is a bachelor. John is married. Mary gave me this book. it was Mary who gave me this book My brother studies at Vilnius University. My brother is a student, Kate bought a chair. Kate bought something My uncle built this house twenty years ago. This house was built by my uncle twenty years ago. Susan is the only child. William is Susan’s brother. My cat's name is Socks. I've got a cat He saw a big mouse. He saw a big animalExercise 6 (Advanced) Using the definitions of the given words, carry out their componential analysis. The definitions are taken from Longman Dictionary of contemporary English. 2007. Footwear ‘Shoe - something that you wear to cover your feet, made of leather or some other strong material Boot — a type of shoe that covers the whole foot and the lower part of the leg ‘Sandal — a light shoe that is fastened onto your foot by bands of leather or cloth, and is wor in warm weather Sling back — a woman's shoe that is open at the back and has a narrow band going around the heel Moccasin — a flat comfortable shoe made of soft leather Platforms — shoes that have a thick layer of wood, leather, etc. under the front part and the heel Slipper — a light soft shoe that you wear at home Clog — a shoe made of wood with a leather top that covers the front of your foot but not, your heel Exercise 7 (Advanced) Using the definitions of the given words, carry out their componential analysis. The definitions are taken from Longman Dictionary of contemporary English. 2007. Hairstyles: Bob — a way of cutting hair so that it hangs to the level of your chin and is the same length all the way round your head Braid — a length of hair that has been separated into three parts and then woven together Crew cut ~ a very short hair style for men Dreadlocks - a way of arranging your hair in which it hangs in thick pieces that look like ropes Ponytail — hair tied together at the back of your head and falling like a horse tail Bun — if a woman's hair is in a bun, she fastens it in a small round shape at the back of her head Mohican — a hairstyle in which the hair is cut off the sides of the head, and the hair on top of the head is made to stick up and is sometimes brightly coloured Perm - straight hair made curly by using chemicals Exercise 8 (Advanced) Which of the given words, in your opinion have connotations? What kind of associations do they arouse to you? ) sea 2) school 3) table 4) candle 5) street 6 soup7 train 8) bear 9 pencil Questions and tasks: 1 2 English is very rich in synonyms. The fact is related to the English language history. Can you explain this relationship? (Advanced) Componential analysis helps to analyze groups of words with related meanings. But it is not easily applicable to all kinds of words. What words would be difficult or even impossible to analyze using this method? Why? (Advanced) Using a dictionary of synonyms, choose a synonymic set of four ~ five words and compare their meanings. Then check their typical usage in a dictionary of collocations Sentence semantics is also called truth-conditional semantics. How do you understand this term?Packet 4 Summary Semantic meaning is the literal meaning of a word, phrase, or sentence; speaker's meaning is what a language user intends to communicate by his or her words. Semantic meaning is derived in accordance with the Principle of Compositionality through the interplay of lexical meaning, grammatical structure, and the context of use. Speaker's meaning is in turn derived from the interaction between semantic meaning and the context of use. Semantics, the study of semantic meaning, focuses on the contribution which particular words or features of grammar make to meaning, and in this vein semanticists study such things as individual parts of speech, predicates, arguments, ‘quantifiers, and so forth. Suggestions for further reading Green, G. 1996, Pragmatics and natural language understanding, 2nd edition, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. This short, engagingly written book discusses a remarkably wide range of issues in pragmatics. It emphasizes a single, coherent perspective on the nature of pragmatics: pragmatics is a component of cognitive science Which aims to understand the crucial role which the intentions and plans of speakers have in creating meaning Martin, R. 1987, The meaning of language, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. This book gives an accessible introduction to the philosophical issues relevant to the study of meaning, including many not touched on in this chapter. It also briefly develops some standard ideas about compositional semantics. Portner, P. 2004, What is meaning? An introduction to formal semantics, Oxford and Malden, MA: Blackwell. This book gives a introduction to contemporary formal semantics without requiring any logical or mathematical machinery. It discusses philosophical issues and the meanings of a wide variety of words and grammatical constructions, including referential noun phrases, predicates, modifiers, quantifiers, tense, aspect, and modaiity.