Semantics.docx
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Semantics.docx
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Semantics
Semantics:
SentenceMeaning:
Context,CultureandSentenceMeaning
Tobeginwith,letmepresentmyhypothesesasfollows:
1)Contextisonlyareflectionofculturalphenomenon,thus,sentencemeaninginfactbelongstoacertainculturalmeaning;
2)Whatadeixis,whichisanelementofcontext,alwaysplaysisnotitsgrammaticalrolebutfunctionsitsstrongemotionalinformationwhenitisusedinasentence.;
3)Thuswecanhaveanothertwoterms:
culturalcontextandemotionalcontext.
1.Deixis
1)Whatdoes‘deixis’mean?
JackC.Richardsstatedthatdeixisis“atermforawordorphrasewhichdirectlyrelatesanutterancetoatime,place,orperson.”
(time==now,then,tomorrow,yesterday,thatday,thisyear)
(place===here,there,this,that)
(person===I,you,he,she)
(phrase==overthere,justnow,notlongbefore,longsince)
Palmerarguedthat“deicticsidentifyobjects,personsandeventsintermsoftheirrelationtothespeakerinspaceandtime.”
(relationbetweenspeakerandobject,speakerandlistener)
JohnLyonssaidthat“thetermdeixisisnowusedinlinguististorefertothefuctionofpersonalanddemonstrativepronouns,oftenseandofavarietyofothergrammaticalandlexicalfeatureswhichrelateutterancestothespatiotemporalco-ordinatesoftheactofutterance.
(functionofgrammaticalandlexicalfeaturesofpronounsandadverbs)
2)Typesofdeixis
Palmer:
(1)thespeakerandparticipants;
(2)theposition---distance;(3)timerelation
Saeed:
(1)spatialdeixis;
(2)persondeixis;(3)socialdeixis
JohnLyons:
(1)person-deixis;
(2)demonstrativesandthedefinite
article;(3)tense;(4)spatialexpressions;(5)aspect;(6)localism
(demonstratives==this,that,thatbook)
(definitearticle==the)
(tense==Heworkedhard;Heworkshard.)
(aspect==presenttense,pasttense,pastperfect,presentperfect)
(localism==referstothehypothesisthatspatialexpressions
aremorebasic,grammaticallyandsemantcally,thanvariouskindsofnon-spatialexpressions.Itismeantatemporalstate,suchas‘for’,‘since’,‘till’.Thus‘here’means‘atthisplace’;‘there’standsfor‘atthatplace.Localistscommonlyhavetwolocationsforlocalism:
temporallocationandspatiallocation.)
3)Thefunctionofdeixisinsentence
Asmentionedabove,itseemsthatdeixisnaturallyhasitsposition
ineverysentence.Inotherwords,itplaysacommonbutimportantroleinexpressingidea,ormakingasentence.Thus,itisworthdiscussingdeixiswhiledealingwithsentencemeaning.Now,let’smainlydiscuss,undertheguidanceofPalmer,threetypesofdeixistoreavelhowdeixisinfluencessentencemeaningandwhatfunctionithasinsentence.
(1)Theuseofpersonpronouns---persondeixis
AccordingtoPalmer,theuseofpersonpronounsofteninvolved
withparticipants,socialfactors.Forexample.
e.g.
(1)a.Weareallhere.
(1)b.咱们二班是好样的。
(We---howmanypeople?
We---includingtheaddressee?
)
(咱们---includingthespeaker?
)
If‘we’isincluded,thesentenceisinaphysicalstate,ifnot,itinaemotionalstate.
e.g.
(2)a.Thankyouverymuch!
(you---onepersonormanypersons?
)
(2)b.Howdoyoudo?
(you---你?
or您?
)
e.g.(3)Asateacher,hemustberesponsibleforstudents.
(he---oneteacheroreveryteacher?
Whoistheaddressee?
Thefocusofthepronounsinthesentencesabovecanshowatleastfourproblems:
thenumberofperson,whethertheaddresseeisinvolved,therelationshipbetweenpersonsandculturaldifference.
JohnLyonsoncestatedthattheterm‘pronoun’carriesquitedifferentimplicationsfrom‘article’.Itsuggeststhatthecharacteristicfunctionofpronounsistooperateassubstitutesfornouns.Buttosaythatpronounsdeputizesyntacticallyandsemanticallyfornounsandthatistheirprimary,orbasic,functionisseriouslymisleadingintworespects.Firstofall,itfailstodrawthedistinctionbetweennounsandnominals(名词,hassomecharacteristicsofnoun,butnotthewhole.E.g.thewounded).Pronounsarereferringexpressions,andtheyaresyntacticallyequivalenttonominal,notnouns.Secondly,tosaythatpronounsareprimarilysubstitutes,whetherfornounsornominals,istoimplythattheiranaphore(前指的)functionismorebasicthantheirdeicticfunction.
Palmeralsosaidthat“itisoftennotenoughforthespeakertobeabletoidentifythepersontowhomheisspeaking.(politeandfamiliarforms?
Secondpersonpronounandthirdpersonform?
Singularorpluralforms)
Theformsaregrammaticallyequal,butinvolvetheasymmetricrelations.
Asfortheculturaldifference,wecanseefromsomeItalian,SpanishandFrenchexamplescitedbyPalmerinthisbook,andwecanalsofindsomefromChineselanguage.Suchas我们、大家、你、您、先生.Differentculturescaninfluencetheuseofpronounsindifferentlanguages.Thus,whatpronounconveysinasentenceisnotitsgrammaticalmeaning;itpresentsakindofemotionalinformation.
(2)Spatialrelationship---spatialdeixis
Spatialdeixisreferstothedeicticpronounswhichareveryactive
insentenceconstruction,andwhichcanoftencausechangesofmeaningforasentence.Thedeicticpronounspeopleseriouslyconcernaboutare‘here’,‘there’,‘this’,‘that’,‘overthere’,also,someverbsareregardedasspatialdeixissuchas‘come’and‘go’,asPalmermentionedinhisbook.
e.g.(4)a.Hishouseishere.
(4)b.Hishouseisthere
(4)c.Hishouseisoverthere.
e.g.(5)I’mgladwemovedhere,Iwasmeltingoverthere.
Theproblemof‘here’,‘there’and‘overthere’isdistancethatishowfaritis.Keenan(1971)arguedthatthechoiceofthesewordsdependsonwhethertheobjectinquestionisvisibleornottothespeaker.ItseemsthatPalmeragreedwiththis.
However,itisahardquestionbecausethereisnosuchcriteriaforpeopletoidentifyforhowfar‘there’,or‘overthere’canbeused,especiallyfordifferentnations.Thus,somescholars(AlaskanYu’ik,AndersonandKeenan)suggestedthatspatialdeixisindicatesaposition,whichincludingthreeforms:
extended,restrictedandobscured(AndersonandKeenan,1985).
Extendedform----eitherlargeexpansesoflandorwater,orobjectsthatislengthyormoving.
Restricted----theobjectsthatarestationary,ormovingwithinaconfinedarea,andfairlysmallinextent,relativelynear,andvisible.
Obscured----objectsthatarefartherawayandnotclearlyinsight.
Thesethreeformsdescribeasemanticclassificationoftheobjectstowhichthedemonstratives
refer.
Inmyopinion,‘here’,‘there’,etc.insentences,justplayagrammaticalrole,asSaeedsaid
theyaregrammaticalized.Thesentence,infact,presentmerelya
kindofinformation,theinformationthespeakertrytoexpress,andthefunctionofdeicticpronouninsentenceisofdesalination.
Deicticscannotbeignoredinthestudyofmeaning,forordinary
languageisfulloftheiruse.Andtheuseofdeixismaycausethesentencemeaningchange.Let’ssetsomeexamplestoillustratethisphenomenon.
e.g(6)a.Youaremistakenthere(在那点).
(6)b.Youhavedoneenough,youmaystopthere(这里).
(Youhavedoneenough,youmaystopnow.)
(6)c.I’llintroduceyoutothem,butyouareonyourownfromthere.
(6)dTherenow(怎么样?
),it’sjustasIexpected.
(6)e.There,there(好啦,好啦),don’ttalknow.
e.g.(7)Here(这时)hestopreadingandlookedup.
e.g.(8)你干得忒棒。
那里,那里,只是举手之劳。
Allthe‘there’s,‘here’sand那里abovehavespecialmeaningsinthesentence.
PalmeralsomentionedtheEnglishverbs‘come’and‘go’,‘bring’and‘take’whiledealingwiththematterofposition.Theseverbsbearatleasttwodistinctcharacteristics:
indicatingdifferentpositionsnearbyandacontinualaction,andtheactioncreatedbyboththespeakerandhearer.(orientationopposite).
Forinstance,ifthespeaker’slivingplaceisinBeijing,butheisaddressingtohisfriendinGuilinnow,isitsuitableforhimtosay“Let’scometomyhouse”?
Anotherexample.
e.g.(9)a.HewillbringhiswifebackfromLiuzhouthismorning.
(9)b.Hewillhaveameeting,andthenhewilltakehiswifebackhome.
e.g.(1`0)如果我到南宁,我就给你带来(或带去)。
(toindicatethepositionrelatedtoboththespeakerandhearer,torevealadeeprelationshipbetweenthetwopersons.)
Anotherphenomenonisthetense.SemanticistsalwaystakeEnglishtenseasdeictics,becausethechangeofverbformcanproducedifferentsenses(meanings).
e.g.(11)a.Theyworkedhard.
(11)b.Theyworkhard.
(11)c.Theyareworkinghard.
(11)aindicatesapastaction.Thesentenceinfactentailsaphrase‘…ago’,whichemphasizesonlyanaction,notillustratesthefunctionofthetense.(11)bpresentsafactand(11)ctellsusasituation,thoughtheyinvolvedifferenttenses.Bothofthementailaphrase.Besides,thesentencesalsorevealtheemotionofthespeakerorwriter.IfwetranslatethesentencesintoChinese,theywillbe:
(11)a他们过去(某段时间)工作是积极的;(11)b他们一直努力工作;(11)c他们(在)努力工作着。
ItishardforustomakethembeequaltoEnglsh?
So,tenseinEnglish,inmanycases,indicatesthatthesenseofaverbinasentenceisdesalinated,itdoesn’tstandfortheconceptoftime,butabehavior.
(WhydoesEnglishlanguagehavemanytenses?
ButinChinese,thereisnoanytenseforverb,why?
)
Because:
English---parataxislanguage(verbasthecenterofasentence)
Chinses---hypotaxislanguage(nounastheaxisofasentence)
Nowlet’sturnbacktothehypothesesputforwardabove.
2.Context
Althoughdeixisdiscussedabovebelongstoscopeofcontext,itstillisnecessarytomentionitagain,foritoftengreatlyinfluencestheunderstandingofsentencemeaning.
Inthispartofthebook,Palmerdidnotdiscuss‘context’separately,he,perhaps
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