Chapter 5 Semantics.docx

Chapter 5 Semantics.docx

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Chapter5Semantics

Chapter5:

Meaning

DefinitionsofSemantics

⏹Semanticscanbesimplydefinedasthestudyofmeaning.（Dai&He,2002,p.67）

⏹TermcoinedbyBréal（1897）forthesubdisciplineoflinguisticsconcernedwiththeanalysisanddescriptionoftheso-called‘literal’meaningoflinguisticexpressions.（Bussmann,1996,p.423）

⏹Semanticsisthestudyoflinguisticmeaning:

themeaningofwords,phrases,andsentences.（Wen,P.210）

⏹Semanticsisthestudyofmeaning,ormorespecifically,thestudyofthemeaningoflinguisticunits,wordsandsentencesinparticular.

⏹Semanticsanswersthequestion“whatdoesthissentencemean”.Inotherwords,itistheanalysisofconventionalmeaningsinwordsandsentencesoutofcontext.

⏹Thenwhatismeaning?

⏹Manyphilosophers,psychologists,andsociologistsallclaimadeepinterestinthestudyofmeaning.

⏹Thephilosophersareinterestedinunderstandingtherelationsbetweenlinguisticexpressionsandwhattheyrefertointherealworld,andevaluatingthetruthvalueoflinguisticexpressions.

⏹Thepsychologistsfocustheirinterestonunderstandingtheworkingsofthehumanmindthroughlanguage.

⏹Nowwewillstudythemeaningsofmeaningfromalinguisticpointofview.

5.1Meaningsof‘Meaning’

⏹ScholarslikeFerdinanddeSaussurehavestressedthatthestudyoflinguisticmeaningispartofthegeneralstudyoftheuseofsignsystems,andthisgeneralstudyiscalledsemiotics.

⏹Semioticiansinvestigatethetypesofrelationshipthatmayholdbetweenasignandtheobjectitrepresents,orindeSaussure’sterminology,betweenasignifier（theformwhichthesigntakes）anditssignified（theconceptitrepresent）.

⏹Onebasicdistinction,duetoC.S.Peirce,isbetweenicon图标,index标记andsymbol符号.

⏹Icon-Aniconiswherethereisasimilaritybetweenasignandwhatitrepresents,i.e.betweenaportraitanditsreal-lifeobjectoradiagramofanengineandtherealengine.

⏹Anindexiswherethesigniscloselyassociatedwithitssignified,ofteninacausalrelationship;thussmokeisanindexoffire.

⏹ThemajorityoftrafficsignsareIndexsignsastheyrepresentinformationwhichrelatestoalocation（eg,a'slipperyroadsurface'signplacedonaroadwhichispronetoflooding）

⏹Asymbolhasnologicalmeaningbetweenitandtheobject.Thereisonlyaconventionallinkbetweenthesignanditssignified,asintheuseofinsignia（徽章）todenotemilitaryranks,orperhapsthewaythatmourningissymbolizedbythewearingofblackclothesinsomecultures,andwhiteclothesinothers.Flagsarealsogoodexamplesofsymbolswhichrepresentcountriesororganisations.

⏹Question:

Whichkindarewords?

⏹1.Thenamingtheory

⏹GreekscholarPlato

⏹Thelinguisticformorsymbols,inotherwords,thewordsusedinalanguagearesimplylabelsoftheobjectstheystandfor.Sowordsarejustnamesorlabelsforthings.

⏹Reference（referentialtheory）:

⏹Thetheoryofmeaningwhichrelatesthemeaningofawordtothethingitrefersto,orstandfor,isknownasthereferentialtheory.

⏹Referenceistherelationbywhichawordpicksoutoridentifiesanentityintheworld.

⏹Wordsarebutsymbols,manyofwhichhavemeaningonlywhentheyhaveacquiredreference.Referenceistherelationshipbetweenlanguageandtheworld.

⏹“Bymeansofreference,aspeakerindicateswhichthingsintheworld（includingpersons）arebeingtalkedabout.”（HurfordandHeasley1983:

25）

⏹Onlywhenaconnectionhasbeenestablishedbetweenthelinguisticsignandareferent,i.e.anobject,aphenomenon,aperson,etc.doesthesignbecomemeaningful.

⏹Problems:

⏹1）Somewordsaremeaningful,buttheyidentifynoentitiesintherealworld,suchasthewordsdragon,phoenix,unicorn,mermaid,ghost,and,or,hard,slowly,think,etc.

⏹2）Itisnotpossibleforsomewordstofindreferentsintheworld,suchasthewordsbut,and,of,however,the,etc.

⏹3）SpeakersofEnglishunderstandthemeaningofaroundtrianglealthoughthereisnosuchgraph.

⏹2.Theconceptualistview

⏹Thisviewrelateswordsandthingsthroughthemediationofconceptsofthemind.

⏹Whenweexplainthemeaningofdeskbypointingtothethingitrefersto,wedonotmeanadeskmustbeoftheparticularsize,colorandmaterialasthedeskwearepointingto.Thereissomethingbehindtheconcretethingwecansee.Thisisabstract,whichhasnoexistenceinthematerialworldandcanonlybesensedinourminds.

⏹Itholdsthatthereisnodirectlinkbetweenalinguisticformandwhatitrefersto;rather,intheinterpretationofmeaningtheyarelinkedthroughthemediationofconceptsinthemind.ThisisbestillustratedbythesemantictriangleortriangleofsignificancesuggestedbyOgdenandRichardsinTheMeaningofMeaning（1923）.

⏹Theyarguethattherelationbetweenawordandathingitreferstoisnotdirect.Itismediatedbyconcept.Inadiagramform,therelationisrepresentedasfollows:

⏹Semantictriangle

⏹concept（meaning）

⏹symbol/wordreferent/thing

（soundandspelling）

⏹Concept,whichisbeyondlanguage,istheresultofhumancognition,reflectingtheobjectiveworldinthehumanmind.Itisuniversaltoallmenalikeregardlessofculture,race,languageandsoonwhereasmeaningbelongstolanguage,soisrestrictedtolanguageuse.

⏹Aconceptcanhaveasmanyreferringexpressionsastherearelanguagesintheworld.Eveninthesamelanguage,thesameconceptcanbeexpressedindifferentwords.

⏹Eg.Much,many–thesameconcept

⏹Collocation:

different

⏹Muchtime,muchmoney,muchwater

⏹Manypeople,manybooks,manybuildings

⏹Synonymouspairsaregoodexamples.

⏹Sense（concept）:

⏹Sensereferstothepropertiesanentityhas.Inthissense,itisequivalentto“concept”.

⏹Senseistherelationbywhichwordsstandinhumanmind.Itismentalrepresentation,theassociationwithsomethinginthespeaker’sorhearer’smind.

Thedifferencebetweensenseandreference:

⏹1）Sensereferstotheabstractpropertiesofanentity,whilereferencereferstotheconcreteentitieshavingtheseproperties.

2）Tosomeextent,wecansaythateverywordhasasense,butnoteverywordhasareference.

⏹Thusitisreasonableforustosuggestthatweshouldstudymeaningintermsofsenseratherthanreference.

⏹Forexample:

desk

⏹1）byusinganobjectorpicture

⏹2）apieceoffurniturewithaflattopandfourlegs,atwhichonereadsandwrites

⏹3）akindoftable,whichhasdrawers

⏹4）书桌

⏹Thefirstmethodisthereferentialtheorybydirectlypointingtothethingitrefersto,whilethelastthreemethodsareindirectbyresortingtotheconceptofdesk.

3.Contextualism

⏹RepresentativelyproposedbytheBritishlinguistJ.R.FirthwhohadbeeninfluencedbythePolishanthropologistMalinowskiandtheGermanphilosopherWittgenstein.

⏹Thistendencyattemptstobasemeaningoncontext.

⏹Itholdsthatmeaningshouldbestudiedintermsofsituation,use,context–elementscloselylinkedwithlanguagebehavior.…themeaningofawordisitsuseinthelanguage.

⏹J.R.Firth–“Weshallknowawordbythecompanyitkeeps.”

⏹Thisviewisbasedonthepresumptionthatonecanderivemeaningfromorreducemeaningtoobservablecontexts.Twokindsofcontextarerecognized:

thesituationalcontextandthelinguisticcontext.Thespecificmeaningofawordisdeterminedbydifferentfactorsinthetwosituations.

ØExamples:

Ø“BlackAir”and“blackcoffee”（linguisticcontext）

Thesealcouldnotbefound.（situationalcontext）

?

⏹4.Behaviorism

⏹Bloomfield:

⏹Behavioristsattemptedtodefinethemeaningofalanguageformasthe“situationinwhichthespeakeruttersitandtheresponseitcallsfrothinthehearer.”

⏹JillJack

⏹S______r……s______R

⏹Bloomfieldarguedthatmeaningconsistsintherelationbetweenspeechindicatedbythesmallletterr….sandthepracticaleventsrepresentedbythecapitalizedlettersSandRthatprecedeandfollowthemrespectively.

5.2TypesofMeaning

⏹G.Leechrecognizes7typesofmeaninginhisSemantics（1974）:

⏹1）conceptualmeaning–alsodenotativeinthatitisconcernedwiththerelationshipbetweenawordandthethingitdenotes,orrefersto.

⏹Associativemeaning

⏹2）connotative–someadditional,especiallyemotive,meaning（philosophy–thepropertiesoftheentityaworddenotes,eg.human）

⏹3）social–thesocialcircumstancesoflanguageuse

⏹4）affective–feelingsandattitudes

⏹5）reflected–throughassociationwithanothersenseofthesameexpression

⏹6）collocative–throughassociationwithwordswhichtendtooccurintheenvironmentofanotherword

⏹7）thematic–bythewayinwhichthemessageisorganizedintermsoforderandemphasis

⏹AccordingtoLeech,theconceptualmeaningisthemostimportant.

5.3SenseRelations

⏹Sense–thesemanticrelationsbetweenonelinguisticunitandanother.Thesenseofawordcanbyseenasthenetworkofitssenserelationswithothers.

⏹Itdenotestherelationshipinsidethelanguage（intra-linguisticrelations）,whichisdifferentfromthereferencewhichconcernswiththerelationbetweenawordandthethingitrefersto.

⏹Generallyspeaking,therearethreekindsofsenserelations,namely,samenessrelation,oppositenessrelationandinclusivenessrelation.

⏹5.3.1Synonymy:

samenessrelation

⏹EnglishisrichinsynonymsduetoitsheavyborrowingsfromLatin.

⏹1）Totalsynonymyisrare（absolutesynonyms）.

⏹Theyarewordswhichareidenticalinmeaninginallitsaspects,I.e.bothingrammaticalandlexicalmeanings.Theyareinterchangeableineveryway.

⏹E.g.scarlet-fever/scarlatina猩红热

⏹composition/compounding

⏹2）Relative