英语语言学自编教材第六章.docx
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英语语言学自编教材第六章.docx
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英语语言学自编教材第六章
Chapter6Semantics
1.GeneralIntroduction
●RelevantLanguageUseObservationsandQuestionstoPonderover
1)Frequentlyifwecan’tunderstandothers,wemightsayasfollows:
“Ididn’tquitegetyourmeaning,couldyouexplainthatagain?
”Itissonatural.Buthaveyouthoughtoverthemeaningof“meaning”?
Canyougivethedefinitionof“meaning”?
2)Ifyouhappentofindabottleflowingontheriver,andinthebottle,thereisapieceofpaperwiththenote“Iloveyou!
Pleasemeetmetheretomorrow!
”Doesithavemeaning?
HowdoyoudefinemeaningsofsuchwordsasI,you,me,there,tomorrowintheaboveexample?
Canyoupindowntheirreferences?
Whyorwhynot?
3)Decideonthemeaningofthefollowingwordclever.
Whenthefatherfoundthathissonhadgot99outofatotalmarkof100intheMathsExamination,thefathersaidtohisson:
“Youareclever!
”
Whenthefatherfoundthathissonhadgot20outofatotalmarkof100intheMathsexamination,thefathersaidtohisson:
“Youareclever!
”andthenstalkedoutoftheroom.
●SummariestoMakeandLinguisticViewpointstoLearn
Meaningisessentialtothestudyoflanguageandtounderstandmeaningiscrucialindailylife.Butthequestioniswhatmeaningis.Meaninghasbeenstudiedforthousandsofyearsbyphilosophers,logicians,psychologistsandlinguists,suchasPlatoandAristotle.Tomakemattercomplicatedistheyhaven’treachedanagreementonwhatthemeaningis.Logiciansandphilosophershavetendedtoconcentrateonarestrictedrangeoflinguisticexpressions.Theyhavebeeninterestedinunderstandingtherelationsbetweenlinguisticexpressionsandthephenomenaintherealworldwhichtheyreferto,andinevaluatingtruthconditionsofsuchexpressions.Thepsychologistsfocusonunderstandingthehumanmindthroughlanguage.Thelinguistsaimatstudyingthepropertiesofmeaninginasystematicandobjectiveway,withreferencetoaswidearangeofutterancesandlanguagesaspossible.Thisisnowonderwhytherearemanybookswiththesametitle“Semantics”butemphasizingdifferentthings.
Meaningscanberoughlydividedintotwobroadcategories:
themeaningsinherentinthelinguisticformsandthemeaningsarisinginparticularcontext.Inlinguistics,semanticsisthesubfieldthatisdevotedtothestudyofmeaning,asinherentatthelevelsofwords,phrases,sentences,andlargeunitsoftexts.Thesemanticmeaningisoftenregardedassomethingintrinsicandabstract,independentofcontext.
DefinitionstoClarify
Semantics:
Semanticsisgenerallydefinedasthestudyofinherentorintrinsicmeaning,themeaninginisolationfromthecontext.
2.ApproachestoSemantics
2.1TheNamingTheory
●RelevantLanguageUseObservationsandQuestionstoPonderover
1)Ifweregardtheworddogasthenameorlabelforadoginourphysicallife,isitalsothecasewithghost,unicornanddragon?
2)Whatarethefunctionswhichwordsofpartsofspeechotherthannounsplayinlanguageuse?
Aretheynamesforthings?
3)Whichofthefollowingfigureorfiguresdoyouthinkcanbeusedtoillustratetherelationshipbetweenthelinguisticformanditsreferent?
Pleasecitesomeexamplestosupportyouranswer.
FigureI
FigureIIFigureIII
●SummariestoMakeandLinguisticViewpointstoLearn
Asisthecasethatmostnouns,likedogandcat,refertophysicalentitiesintherealworld,soitseemssoplausibletodrawtheconclusionthatwordsarejustnamesoftheirreferentinourphysicalworld.Actually,theideathatwordsarejustnamesorlabelsforthingswasoneoftheoldestnotionsconcerningmeaning,andalsothemostprimitiveone.ThisnamingtheorywasproposedbytheancientGreekscholarPlato(about427-347BC).Accordingtothistheory,thelinguisticformssuchaswordsinalanguagearetakentobelabelsoftheobjectstheystandfor.Sowordsarejustnamesorlabelsforthings.Thistheoryisalsocalledreferencetheory.
However,thenamingtheoryissubjecttovariouschallenges.Firstly,thetheoryseemsapplicabletonounsonly.Whenitcomestoadjectives,adverbsandverbs,theexplanationisfarmorethansatisfactory.Wordslike“slowly”“think”aredefinitelynotlabelsofobjects.Secondly,evenwithinthecategoryofnouns,therearenounswhichdenotethingsthatdonotexistintherealworldatallandthosethatdonotrefertophysicalobjects,butabstractnotions.Finally,somewordsmayhavedifferentmeaningsindifferentcontextswhilethesamereferencemayhavedifferentnamessuchas“themorningstar”vs.“theeveningstar”.
●DefinitionstoClarify
TheNamingTheory:
ItisoneoftheoldestnotionsconcerningmeaningproposedbyPlato,whichholdstheviewthattherelationshipbetweenlinguisticformsandwhattheystandforisoneofnaming.
2.2TheConceptualistTheory
●RelevantLanguageUseObservationsandQuestiontoPonderover
1)Oneday,achildaskedhisfather,“Whatisacamel?
”Hisfatherrespondedimmediately,“Letmeshowyouone.”Thenheshowedthechildapictureofacamel,andthusthechildgottoknowthemeaningofthesign“camel”.Thenextmonth,thechildwenttoaruralareawithhisparentsandsawahighmountainwiththreetoweringpeaks.“Thatmountainlookslikeahugecamel!
”heexclaimed.Howcouldthechildmakesuchacomparison?
Discussthequestionwithyourdesk-mate.
≈
2)Whenyouusewordssuchas“girl”,“camel”and“radio”tocommunicateinyourdailylife,dothesewordsoftenappearinyourmindintheformofaparticularmentalimage?
3)Trytoseethementalimageof“abeautifulgirl”inyourmind’seye,notedownwhatsortofagirlcanberegardedasbeautifulinyourpersonalopinionandthencomparewhatyouhavenoteddownwiththatofyourdeskmatetoseewhetheryouagreeonwhatmakesabeautifulgirl.
●SummariestoMakeandLinguisticViewpointstoLearn
Theanswertoquestion1)aboveliesinthefactthat,inthechild’smind,camelisanimage,withsomeprominentfeatures,suchasaheadalwaysheldhigh,andtwohumpsbehind,justlikethreepeaks.So,thereisn’tadirectlinkbetweenthesoundofawordandtheobjectitrefersto.Thereissomethingbehindtheconcretethingwecanseewithoureyes,somethingthatisabstract,hasnoexistenceinthematerialworldandcanonlybesensedinourminds.Thisabstractthingisusuallycalledconcept.Theconceptualisttheoryholdsthatwordsandthingsarerelatedthroughthemediationofconceptsofthemind.
TogetherwithhisBritishcolleague,C.K.Ogden,Richardscreatedthesemantictriangletoshowtheindirectrelationshipbetweensymbolsandtheirsupposedreferents.
Concept
Symbol/FormReferent
linguisticexpressions such theobjectintheworld
aswords,sentences ofexperience
Indirectcorrespondence
Inthissemantictriangle,the“symbol”or“form”referstothelinguisticformssuchaswords,phrases,orsentences,andthe“referent”referstotheobjectswhichthelinguisticformsstandfor.Thedottedlineinthetrianglemeansthereisnodirectlinkbetweenasymbolandwhatitrefersto.Itistheconceptthatlinksasymbolanditsreferent.The“concept”thusconsideredisthemeaningoftheword.
However,onemaincriticismofOgden&Richards’SemanticTriangleishowtoidentifyconcepts.Forexample,howdoweknowthattheconceptofpaininyourmindisthesameastheconceptofpaininmymind?
AnEnglishman’sconceptofwinemaybedifferentfromthatofaChinese.Inotherwords,cananyoneguaranteethataconceptcomingtohismindwhenheusesawordisgoingtobethesameastheonebroughttohisreader’smind?
Furthermore,ifwesaythattherelationshipbetweenasymbolanditsreferentisestablishedthroughconcept,thenhowisasymbollinkedtoitsconcept?
Tothisquestion,westillhavenosatisfactoryanswer.Somebelievethatthelinkisapsychologicalone.Inotherwords,itisthementalimagecausedbyalinguisticsymbolthatconnectsthesymbolanditsconcept.Butthisexplanationalsosufferssomedefectbecausepeopledonotactuallytrytoseetheimageofsomethingintheirmind'seyewhentheyuselinguisticssymbolssuchaswordsintheircommunication.
●DefinitionstoClarify
Symbol:
Itreferstothelinguisticelements(word,sentence,etc.)
Referent:
Itreferstotheobjectintheworldofexperience.
2.3Contextualism
●RelevantLanguageUseObservationsandQuestionstoPonderover
1)
Doyouthinkthemeaningofawordalwaysremainsthesame?
Ifnot,whatdoyouthinkinfluencesthemeaningofaword?
2)Lookatthefollowingwords:
fast,down,table,ball,seal,figure,etc.Apparently,eachwordhasmorethanonemeaning.Withoutanyparticularcontext,canyoupointouttheexactmeaningofthesewords?
3)Lookatthefollowingpairsofexamples.
Fast:
Ball:
Intheaboveexamples,canyouguessthemeaningof“fast”and“ball”withthehelpoftheparticularcontextanddifferentcollocations?
●SummariestoMakeandLinguisticViewpointstoLearn
Contextualismattachesimportancetotheinfluenceofcontextontheinterpretationofmeaning.Itholdsthatmeaningshouldbestudiedintermsofsituation,use,andcontext.ArepresentativeofthisapproachwastheBritishlinguistJohnFirth
Asearlyasthe1930’s,Firthproposedtheviewthat“Weshallknowawordbythecompanyitkeeps.”Firthalsodividedcontextintolinguisticcontext,situationalcontextandculturalcontext.Firth’stheoryofmeaningwasempiricallybased.Brieflystated,meaningisinuse.Appropriateuseoflanguageintherelevantsituationdefineditsaccurateemployment.Meaningwastobestudiedthroughahiera
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- 英语 语言学 教材 第六