Chapter 6 - Semantics: The Meanings of Language

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F&R use an example from Alice and Wonderland to show that the meanings of words cannot be changed at will. Words have meanings and can be combined into longer units which also have meaning.

"The study of the linguistic meaning of words, phrases, and sentences is called SEMANTICS"

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| Semantic Properties |

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(useful definition - morpheme: a distinctive collocation of phonemes (as the free form pin or the bound form -s of pins) that contains no smaller meaningful parts)

F&R use an example:

The assassin was stopped before he got to Thwacklehurst.

They then say that the meaning of the word assassin includes information such as the fact that the subject is a human, that he/she is a murderer and that he/she kills important people.

"The meaning of all nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs - the "content words" - and even some of the "function words" such as 'with' or 'over' can at lest partially be defined by such properties, or SEMANTIC FEATURES.

Meanings of words can be thought of as lists of semantic properties:

actress baby girl bachelor courage

------- ---- ---- ------- -------

+human +human +human +human .......

+female ...... +female -female .......

. +young +young -young .......

. . . . +abstract

. . . . .

Some useful properties which help describe the meaning of verbs:

Semantic Properties Verbs

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+motion bring, fall, plod ...

+contact hit, kiss, touch ...

+creation build, imagine, make ...

+sense see, hear, feel ...

Here F&R describe slips of the tongue errors in which the speaker says a mixture of two words with similar semantic features as evidence for the existence of semantic properties.

"Linguistic knowledge includes knowing the meaning of words and morphemes. Because you know this you can use these words and combine them with other words and understand them when you hear them. This knowledge is part of the grammar of the language"

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| Ambiguity |

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"A word or sentence is AMBIGUOUS if it can be understood or interpreted in more than one way."

F&R discuss and give examples of three different kinds of ambiguity: lexical, metaphorical, and structural.

LEXICAL AMBIGUITY - when a sentence is ambiguous because it contains one or more ambiguous words.

One way to get lexical ambiguity is to use homophones. Homophones are words have different meanings but sound the same.

Ex- She cannot bear children.

Endings which disambiguate: ...if they are noisy.

...because she is sterile.

Other examples of lexical ambiguity:

The Rabbi married my sister.

Mary licked her disease.

The girl found a book on Main Street.

F&R then discuss ways in which the semantic properties of other words in the sentence help to disambiguate the meaning of words which can have more than one meaning. For example, "The girl found a book on language" is not ambiguous because 'on' can no longer refer to where the book or girl was.

METAPHOR - a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them (as in drowning in money)

"Some sentences are ambiguous because they have both a literal meaning and a nonliteral or metaphorical meaning."

Ex: John is a snake in the grass.

Time is money.

STRUCTURAL AMBIGUITY - when the structure of the sentence permits more than on interpretation, rather than the words in the sentence.

Ex: I know a man with a dog who has fleas.

They hated the shooting of the hunters.

The English history teacher is having her tea.

"Certain sentences whose written form is ambiguous may be disambiguated in speech." For example, depending on where the emphasis is placed 'English' either describes the type of history or the nationality of the teacher.

In all three cases the meaning of am ambiguous sentence may be disambiguated by the context.

A: Is it possible for humans to have fleas? I think my cats have given them to me!

B: I know a man with a dog who has fleas.

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| Paraphrase |

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"Sentences are PARAPHRASES if they have the same meaning (except possibly for minor differences in emphasis."

SYNONYM - words that sound different but have the same or nearly the same meaning.

LEXICAL PARAPHRASE occurs when synonyms appear in otherwise identical sentences.

Ex: I'll be glad to come./I'll be happy to come.

Paraphrases can also be formed in some cases by changing word order.

Ex: A man who Carol knows came over to visit./

A man came over to visit who knows Carol.

"Another case of paraphrase involves slight structural, morphological and 'function word' differences."

Ex: It seems that Dolores is very kind to animals./

Dolores seems to be very kind to animals.

They loaded the truck with hay./ They loaded hay onto the truck.

Paraphrase can also occur with the "deletion of identical material".

Ex: She has been dieting and he has been dieting too./

She has been dieting and he has been too./

She has been dieting and he has too.

Taroo ate fish, Keiko ate rice./

Taroo ate fish and Kieko, rice.

Similar to omitting redundant information, is substituting a shorter form. "ANAPHORA is the use of a short form or PROFORM in the place of a longer expression. Usually such a proform is used when it is clear from the context what the proform means. "

Ex: I love Disa and Jack loves Disa too./

I love Disa and Jack loves her too. pronoun

Emily acted polite and Zachary acted polite also./

Emily acted polite and Zachary did also. pro-verb

I am sick and my being sick makes me sad./

I am sick, which makes me sad. pro-phrase

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| Antonyms: Different Sounds, Opposite Meanings |

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"... the basic property of two words which are antonyms is that they share all but one semantic property."

"There are several kinds of antonymity."

Complimentary Pairs: alive/dead married/single

not alive = dead, not dead alive

Gradable Pairs: big/small hot/cold

more hot = less cold, more cold = less hot

Relational Opposites: give/receive buy/sell teacher/pupil

if A is B's teacher, B is A's pupil

Some can be formed by adding un-, non-, in-, or not.

likely/unlikely entity/nonentity discreet/indiscreet far/not far

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| Anomaly: No Sense and Nonsense |

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F&R next discuss phrases which are syntactically correct but don't quite make sense. The semantics of the component words don't fit together.

Ex: That bachelor is pregnant.

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

"There are other sentences that sound like English sentences but make no sense at all because they include words that have no meaning: they are UNINTERPRETABLE"

Ex: 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgabe.

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| Idioms |

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IDIOM - an expression in the usage of a language that is peculiar to itself in having a meaning that cannot be derived from the conjoined meanings of its elements

EX: eat one's hat

let one's hair down

put one's foot in one's mouth

hit it off

cut it out

Idioms cannot usually be grammatically changed.

Ex: She put her foot in her mouth. cannot usually be changed to Her foot was put in her mouth by her.

Also they often break the rules on combining semantic properties. Ex: the object of 'eat' usually must have the semantic property[+ edible]

eat your heart out and

he ate his hat disobey this

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| The "Truth" of Sentences |

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"We comprehend sentences because we know the meaning of individual words and we know the rules for combining their meanings." But just because a sentence is well formed and has a meaning doesn't necessarily make it true.

Ex: Discourse class meets on Tuesdays.

Discourse class meets on Sundays.

Both have meaning, only the first is true. Knowledge outside of the semantics of the words is required to determine the truth value.

ANALYTIC sentences can be recognized as true by virtue of linguistic knowledge alone.

Ex: Dogs are animals.

My uncle is male.

CONTRADICTORY sentences are always false.

Ex: Kings are female.

Adults are children.

"Sentences are paraphrases if they have the same truth conditions." "Knowing a language includes knowing the semantic rules for combining meanings and the conditions under which they are true."

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| Names |

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Names of people or places are PROPER NAMES. Proper names are DEFINITE in the same way a noun preceded by 'the' is definite.

Ex: Mary Smith is coming to dinner.

The nurse is coming to dinner.

vs. A nurse is coming to dinner.

The indefinite article 'a' usually doesn't refer to a particular object.

Proper names are not usually preceded by 'the' since they are already

definite.

Ex: The John Smith

The California

Exceptions sometimes occur with rivers, ships, and erected structures.

Ex: The Mississippi

The Empire States Building

The Golden Gate Bridge

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| Sense and Reference |

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"Words other than proper names both have a meaning and can be used to refer to objects. The German philosopher and mathematician Gottlob Frege proposed a distinction between the REFERENCE of a word, which is the object designated, and the SENSE of a word, which is the additional meaning.

(Presumably semantic properties fall under the sense of a word.)

These phrases usually have the same reference but different sense.

Ex: The man who is my father / The man who married my mother

Also phrases may have no reference yet still have sense.

Ex: The present King of France is bald.

(there is no present king of France)

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| Speech Acts, Pragmatics, World Knowledge |

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PERFORMATIVE VERBS are those which when said may perform a nonlinguistic act.

Ex: bet, promise, warn

Performative sentences are usually affirmative, declarative and in the present tense.

Ex: I bet you five dollars.

I challenge you to a match.

I resign.

I move that we adjourn.

Even without a performative verb, utterances can have implicit performance.

Ex It is raining. / I state it is raining.

Is it raining? / I ask if it is raining.

Leave!/ I order you to leave.

"The study of how we do things with sentence is the study of SPEECH ACTS." For example when does the question "Can you pass the salt?" mean the order "Pass the salt!"

"The general study of how context influences the way we interpret sentences is called pragmatics."

PRESUPPOSITIONS are explicit assumptions about the real world which affect the sense of an utterance.

Ex: Have you stopped hugging your sheepdog?

The present king of France is bald.

"Anomaly results partly from world knowledge."

Ex: The worm has bad intentions. - Our knowledge of zoology does not ascribe intentions to worms.

"Pragmatic considerations also work to make semantically anomalous utterances meaningful."

Ex: "That bachelor is pregnant." - at a movie theater playing "Junior"

Words in which the references rely entirely on the circumstances are DIECTIC. Deixis is an aspect of pragmatics and relate to person, time, or place.

Ex: I my yours this man now in two weeks

then here that place yonder mountain there

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| The meaning of "Meaning" |

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The definition of 'man' includes words like 'male' and 'human'. But what are the definitions of those words. PRIMITIVE SEMANTIC ELEMENTS are those words left undefined which we assume everyone the everyone knows.

Just as a language describes objects, a METALANGUAGE describes language.

Ex: the meaning of 'man' includes the semantic property "human"