Chapter 5 Semantics.docx
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Chapter 5 Semantics.docx
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Chapter5Semantics
Chapter5Semantics:
TheMeaningofLanguage
5.1Whatissemantics?
Generally,semanticsisabranchoflinguistics,whichisconcernedwiththestudyofmeaninginlanguage.Asmeaningplaysacentralpartinhumancommunication,semanticsisatthecenterofthestudyofcommunication.Inhumancommunication,utterancesareproducedbecausetheyconveymeaning.Semanticsstudiesthenatureofmeaningandwhyparticularlinguisticexpressionshavethemeaningstheydo.
SemanticsissaidtobeadisciplinethathasfascinatedphilosopherssincethebeginningofWesterncivilization.Philosophersaremainlyinterestedintherelationbetweenlinguisticexpressions,suchasthewordsofalanguage,andpersons,things,andeventsintheworldtowhichthesewordsrefer.Withinthedomainoflinguistics,semanticsismainlyconcernedwiththeanalysisofmeaningofwords,phrases,orsentencesandsometimeswiththemeaningofutterancesindiscourseorthemeaningofawholetext.
5.2Approachestomeaning
Everyonewhoknowsalanguagecanunderstandwhatissaidtohimorherandcanproducestringsofwordsthatconveymeaning.However,thedefinitionofmeaninghaslongplaguedlinguistsandphilosophers,because“meaning”coversavarietyofaspectsoflanguageandthereisnogeneralagreementaboutthenatureofmeaning.Variousdifferentinterpretationshavethusfararisen.
Accordingtothenamingview,languagemightbethoughtofasacommunicationsystemwithontheonehandthesignifier,andontheotherthesignified.Thesignifierisawordinthelanguageandthesignifiedistheobjectintheworldthatit“standsfor”,“refersto”or“denotes”.Words,thatistosay,are“names”or“labels”forthings.Thenamingviewisobviouslylimitedbecauseitseemstoapplyonlytonouns(ornominalexpressionsingeneral).Itisdifficult,ifnotimpossible,toextendthetheoryofnamingtoincludetheseotherpartsofspeech.Evenifwerestrictthisapproachtonounsalone,somenouns,e.g.unicorn,goblin,fairy,courage,nonsense,imagination,love,donotrefertoobjectsintheworldatall.
Differentfromthenamingviewwhichrelateswordsandthingsdirectly,conceptualismholdsthatwordsandobjectsarerelatedthroughthemediationofconceptsofthemind.Ogden&Richards(1923)werethefirsttodevelopwhatcanbecalleda“referential”theoryofmeaningillustratedbytheclassic“semiotictriangle”,whichlooksupontherelationbetweenwordsandobjectsasatriangle:
Thoughtorreference
SymbolReferent
TheSYMBOLreferstothelinguisticelement(word,sentence,etc.),theREFERENTreferstotheobjectintheworldofexperience,andTHOUGHTorREFERENCEreferstotheconcept.Therelationbetweenthesymbolandthereferentisnotdirect.Rather,thesymbolsignifiesthereferentbywayofthethoughtorreference,theconceptinthemindofthespeakerofalanguage.
Thistheoryhastakenastepfurtherthanthenamingview,butitalsoposesadifficultquestion:
whatpreciselyisthelinkbetweensymbolandconcept?
Somepeoplesaythatitisapsychologicalone,thatwhenwethinkofanamewethinkoftheconceptandviceversa.Butwhatexactlyismeantby“thinkingof”aconcept?
Toanswerthisquestion,somescholarshaveproposedtheimagetheoryofmeaning.Thatis,languageusershavesomekindofimageofachairwhentheytalkaboutchairs.Butthisiscertainlyfalse.Awordmayevokeacertainimageinourmind,butitisnottruethatwheneverweutterorhearawordwewouldvisualizeacertainimageinourmind.Ifthiswereanecessarypartoftalking,itwouldbeimpossibletocommunicateideasbetweenpeopleortogivealectureonlinguistics.Moreover,topeoplefromdifferentsocial-culturalbackgrounds,thesamewordmaycallupdifferentimages.Ifso,thesamewordwouldbesaidtohavedifferentmeaningsandcommunicationbetweenthesedifferentpeoplewouldbeimpossible.Worstofall,therearemanywordswithwhichitisimpossibletoassociateanyimageatall–and,or,because,therefore,etc.Yettheyarebynomeansmeaningless.
Therearestillotherapproachestomeaningwhichtakeintoaccounttheuseoflanguageorthecontextinwhichlanguageisused.ThebehaviouristicormechanisticapproachoftheAmericanstructurallinguistsrepresentedbyBloomfielddefinesmeaningbyusingthebehaviouristnotionsof“stimulus”and“response”,andthusthemeaningofalinguisticsignis“thesituationinwhichthespeakeruttersitandtheresponsewhichitcallsforthinthehearer”.ThecontextualtheoryofmeaningassociatedwithWittgensteinandFirthdefinesmeaningofawordasitsuseinthelanguageandarguesthatonecanderivemeaningfromorreducemeaningtoobservablecontexts,andthereforeitisuselesstostudythemeaningofwordsinisolationoftheircontextofuse.
5.3Senseandreference
Toexplicatethecomplicatednatureofmeaning,twodifferentaspectsofmeaningcanbeproposed:
senseandreference.Referenceistherelationshipbetweenlanguageandtheworld.Itdealswiththerelationshipbetweenthelinguisticelements,words,sentences,etc.,andthenon-linguisticworldofexperience.Senseistherelationshipinsidethelanguage.Bythesenseofawordwemeanitsplaceinthesystemofrelationshipswithotherwordsinthevocabulary.Inotherwords,senserelatestothecomplexsystemofrelationshipsthatholdbetweenthelinguisticelementsthemselves(mostlythewords);itisconcernedonlywithintra-linguisticrelations.
Inthevocabulariesofalllanguages,therearecertainitemsthatcanbeusedtorefertothephysicalworld.WhenasentencelikeJohnisateacherisuttered,thespeakerreferstoacertainindividualexistentinthesituationorknownbyboththespeakerandhearer.Althoughnotallwordscanbeusedinthisway,itisfairtosaythatwordsarerelatedinonewayoranother.Whetherawordhasreferenceornot,wecanaskwhetherthewordhasmeaninginacertaincontext.Awordcanenterintoparadigmaticrelationswithotherwordswhichcanalsooccurinthesamecontext.Awordcanalsoenterintosyntagmaticrelationswithotherunitsofthesamelevelinalinearorsequentialstructure.Forexample,insuchcontextsasa…ofmilk,thewordpintformsparadigmaticrelationswithsuchotherwordsasbottle,cup,gallon,andsyntagmaticrelationswitha,ofandmilk.
Thus,indiscussingmeaning,wemayrelateourlanguagetoourexperienceortalkaboutsenserelations.Toillustrate,let’sconsiderthewordsramandewe.Theseontheonehandrefertoparticularkindsofanimalsandderivetheirmeaninginthisway.ButtheyalsobelongtoapatterninEnglishthatincludescow/bull,sow/boar,mare/stallion,etc.Butthereareotherkinds,e.g.duck/duckling,pig/piglet(involvingadultandyoung),orfather/son,uncle/nephew(involvingfamilyrelationships),andthesearenotusuallythoughttobegrammatical.Theyareratherapartofthe“semanticstructure”ofEnglish.
Itisverydifficulttomakeaclear-cutdistinctionbetweensenseandreference.Thecategoriesinlanguagecorrespond,tosomedegreeatleast,toreal-worlddistinctions.Thefactthatwehaveram/ewe,bull/cowispartofthesemanticstructureofEnglish,butitalsorelatestothefactthattherearemaleandfemalesheepandcattle.TheunderstandingofthesemanticanomalyofasentencelikeJohn’sprinterhasbadintentionsnotonlydependsonthelanguageuser’sabilitytointerpretthesenserelationswithinthesentence,butalsotheabilitytorelatethesentencetotheworldofexperience.However,wehavetoremember
(1)thatnotalllanguageswillmakethesamedistinctions,
(2)thatthereisconsiderableindeterminacyinthecategorisationoftherealworld:
somethings(e.g.themammals)fallintofairlynaturalclasses,whileothersdonot.Itisbecauseofthisthatwecandistinguishsenseandreference,yetmustallowthatthereisnoabsolutelinebetweenthem,betweenwhatisintheworldandwhatisinlanguage.
5.4Wordmeaning
Intalkingaboutwordmeaning,weareactuallydealingwithlexicalsemantics,whichisconcernedwiththemeaningsofwordsandtherelationsbetweenthemeaningsofwords.Wordmeaningismadeupofvariouscomponentswhichareinterrelatedandinterdependent.Thesecomponentsarecommonlydescribedastypesofmeaning.
5.4.1Grammaticalmeaningandlexicalmeaning
Generallyspeaking,wordmeaningcanbeclassifiedintotwobroadtypes:
grammaticalandlexical.Grammaticalmeaningreferstothatpartofthewordmeaningwhichindicatesgrammaticalconceptsorrelationshipssuchasword-class,gender,number,case,tenseandallothergrammaticalformsknownasinflectionalparadigm.Agrammaticalorinflectionalparadigmisthesetofgrammaticalformsofawordthatindicatessingularandpluralmeaningofnouns,ortensemeaningsofverbs,andsoon.
Lexicalmeaningisthatpartofthemeaningofawordthatremainsconstantinallformsofoneandthesameword.Thatistosay,forthesameword,thelexicalmeaningisthesamethroughouttheparadigm;thatis,alltheword-formsofoneandthesamewordhavethesamelexicalmeaning.Thisisdifferentfromthegrammaticalmeaningoftheword,whichvariesfromoneword-formtoanother.Forexample,thewordwalkhasthesamelexicalmeaningnomatterwhatgrammaticalformsitmaytake.
5.4.2Classificationoflexicalmeaning
AccordingtoLeech(1981),lexicalmeaningfallsintotwobroadcategories:
conceptualmeaningandassociativemeaning.Conceptualmeaningisthemeaninggiveninthedictionaryandformsthecoreofwordmeaning.Associativemeaningisthesecondarymeaningbeyondtheconceptualmeaning.Itisopen-endedandindeterminateasit
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