FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

G. TOGIA

SECTION ΠΗ-Ω

10/14/2009

Introduction to linguistics II

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Reading material2

1. Dirven, R. & M. Verspoor (1998). Cognitive Exploration of Language and Linguistics. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Chapters 2, 7, and 8.

2. Yule, G. (2006) (3rd edition). The Study of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge Press. Chapters 10, 11, 12, 18 and 19.

3. Handouts.

4. Self-assessment tests.

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Aim of the course3

To become familiar with issues relating to:

the study of linguistic meaning, comprising semantic, pragmatic and textual parameters in the production and understanding of utterances in discourse.

the study of language in its regional and social dimensions.

CONCEPTUAL AND ASSOCIATIVE MEANING

SEMANTIC FEATURES

SEMANTIC/THEMATIC ROLES

PROTOTYPES

LEXICAL RELATIONS

10/14/2009

Part 1: Semantics4

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Today’s topics

Conceptual and associative meaningSemantic featuresSemantic/thematic roles

You can study these topics in: George Yule:

Chapter 10.

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Semantics6

Semantics is the study of the meaning of Natural Language expressions: Expressions include words, phrases, and sentences.

What is the goal of such study? Provide a definition of meaning. Explain semantic relations between expressions.

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What is meaning? an example7

Mare – stallion

Heavy – light

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How can we define meaning?

Is it the dictionary definition of a word?

Problem: circularity e.g.

pride: the belief that you are better or more important than other people .

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What is meaning? Dictionary definitions?

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So, we need to find a way of viewing meaning independent of language.

Is meaning the mental image conjured up by a word (e.g. Parthenon, Big Ben)?

What is meaning? Mental images?

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Is meaning the thing a word points to in the world, that is, its referent?

What is meaning? Reference?

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What is meaning?

Meaning is something that speakers of a language know.

Linguistic vs. encyclopedic knowledge

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Conceptual and associative meaning

Words do not have single, simple meanings.

Conceptual meaning: the basic elements conveyed by the literal meaning of

a word.

Associative meaning (or connotation): the associations (emotional or otherwise) a word

evokes.

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Conceptual and associative meaning: example

Take the words apple or organic .

Or, the words woman and chick.

Or, the words innocent and genuine.

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SEMANTIC FEATURES

Semantics

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Why is conceptual meaning helpful?

It allows us to account for the oddity of sentences such as:

?The apple ate the hay. ?The dog read the newspaper. ?Definiteness melted in the sun.

Syntactically good, but semantically odd. Why?

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Semantic features: definition

A procedure for analysing meaning into its crucial elements or features. Helps us to differentiate the meaning of one word

from another.

Words are composed of smaller meaning components, which are combined to form different words.

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Semantic features: examples17

Woman: [+animate], [+human], [+female], [+adult]

Boy: [+animate], [+human], [-female], [-adult]

Horse: [+animate], [-human], [-female], [+adult], [+equine]

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Semantic features: examples18

The same feature may be part of the meaning of many words: “human” : helps us to define, bachelor, parent, child, etc.

Woman, maiden in comparison with doctor, parent.

Child in comparison with doctor, parent.

Think of the words father and uncle.

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Semantic features: problem19

There are many words in a language that cannot be defined in terms of their semantic features. E.g. advice, threat, warning.

Exercises 1 - 4

SEMANTIC/THEMATIC ROLES

Semantics

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Semantic/thematic roles

Semantic features approach: Words are thought of as ‘containers’ of meaning.

Semantic roles approach: Another way to analyse meaning:

words can be thought of in terms of the ‘roles’ they fulfill in the situation described in a sentence.

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Semantic/thematic roles

An example:

The cat chased the mouse

2 entities in specific roles: The entity which carries out the action The entity which is affected by the action

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The number of semantic roles

There is a small number of semantic roles: Agent and theme. Instrument and experiencer. Location, source and goal.

Role assigners are mostly verbs and prepositions.

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Agent and theme 1

The boy kicked the ball.

The boy: Agent

The ball: Theme

Theme can also be an entity described: • My dress is red.

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Agent and theme 2

The wind opened the door.The earthquake destroyed the city.The dog bit the girl.The girl cut herself.

Agents and themes can be human and non-human.

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Instrument and experiencer

The boy cut the rope with a knife.A knife:

Instrument

The girl feels sad.Did you hear that noise?

The girl, you: Experiencer

E.g. See, hear, enjoy, know.

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Location

The ball is under the bed.

The bed: Location

Examples: on the table, in the house, etc.

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Source, goal

She moved from Greece to England.Greece:

Source

England: Goal/recipient

Examples: She borrowed a magazine from George. Source She handed the magazine back to George. Goal

Exercises 5 - 9

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Summary29

Semantics is: the study of words, phrases and sentences.

When discussing meaning some linguists are interested mainly in conceptual meaning, others in both conceptual and associative meaning. In this course, we will focus on conceptual meaning.

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Summary30

We can think of the conceptual meaning of words as:

The crucial features that differentiate the meaning of words.

The roles words fulfil in the situation described by a sentence.

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Next week...31

Polysemy. Homonymy. Homophony. Prototypes. Metonymy and metaphor.