Semantics / semantica - English Linguistics

SEMANTICS ???

aardvark

SEMANTICS ???

aardvark

SEMANTICS: word and sentence meaning. PRAGMATICS: speaker meaning.

The semiotic triangle:

boy [+ human,+ male, -adult, ??? ] girl [+ human, -male, - adult, ???] mother [+ human, +female, adult +???] sister [+ human, +female, +daughter of, +sibling, + ???] who [+ human] which [- human]

Semantic features: ‘plus’/’minus’, [+/- ... ]

Semantic roles Agent = the instigator of an action

Theme (Patient) = the undergoer of an action, affected by the action

Instrument = the tools used to carry out an action

Experiencer = usually a subject NP subjected to a state/feeling

Source = the starting point of an action

Goal = the goal of an action

Location = place / location

Mary broke the window with a stone

We picked flowers in the garden

John heard the children

John watched the children

John is sad

Lexical relations

: closely related meanings a) Regional variation: fall – autumn b) Stylistic variation: die - pass away – pop off c) Collocation: milk is sour, butter rancid, eggs

addled d) Evaluative or emotive meaning: statesman vs

politician e) `Loose synonymy´; mature - ripe, adult, perfect,

due (used in a Thesaurus)

: gradable rich -- poor

complementary male -- female

directional up -- down

converses wife -- husband

give -- take

the most characteristic example; = ‘telephone’

Same spelling, different pronun- ciation, different meaning: row - row, sow – sow

Same pronunciation, different spelling: lead – led, to – too – two

Same spelling and pronunciation: bank -- bank, pupil -- pupil

Multiple meanings, but some common “core” meaning: head, foot

(hierachical relationships)

ANIMAL (superordinate term)

DOG CAT HORSE (co-hyponyms)

spaniel,terrier,

sheepdog…)

“connection in every day experience”, “associating two items”: a) container -- contents bottle - coke b) hole -- part Sweden beat Denmark c) representative – symbol The crown (for the State)

words that tend to occur with other words: husband and wife, knife and fork, night and day Grammar: the way in which, the place at which

PRAGMATICS

The study of intended speaker meaning, “invisible meaning”. We have to add knowledge of the world in order to understand fully what is said.

the surrounding words which help

us to decode, or interpret

items pointing to the physical context in the real world

person (I - you), time (now - yesterday - tomorrow), place (here - there)

the expression used to refer to a person/object/concept

listener strategies to decode a message

Elements that point backwards: Mary -- she, The book -- it

pointing forwards: Did you see – the book

: what the speaker assumes to be known, to be the case:

My car is a wreck/ my car is not a wreck: presupposition I own a car

When you tidy your room, don’t forget to…

(= When not if, taken for granted that you do it)

Direct and indirect speech acts

speech acts:

Speech Act: Syntactic form

Commands ------- Imperatives

Questions/

Interrogatives ------- Question clauses

Statements ------- Declarative clauses speech acts: mismatch between

syntactic form and function:

Indirect speech acts

- Could you please close that window?

- It’s cold in here!

- Why is that window open?

- BRRRR!

- You could get pneumonia in here!

close the window!

Negative face:

the need to be independent (I know you’re busy, but…).

Positive face:

the need to belong, be a member of a group (Let’s meet up for a coffee after the seminar!)

Politeness

DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

How do we make sense of an utterance? We need certain help to make sense of conversation. We are dependent on - items which help us understand how an utterance hangs together. and cohesion.

We make texts by actively filling in gaps. Conversational interaction is much more than just linguistic knowledge.

Background knowledge includes knowing about situations; schemas and scripts.

Conversational interaction involves: turn-taking, pausing, opening sequences, closing sequences.

The co-operative principle: Grice’s maxims Make your contribution such as is required by the present direction of the conversation. Quantity 1) Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purpose). 2) Do not make your contribution more informative than required. Quality Try to make your contribution one that is true. 1) Do not say what you believe to be false. 2) Do not say that for which you lack adequate information.

Relation Be relevant. Manner 1) Avoid obscurity of expression.

2) Avoid ambiguity.

3) Be brief.

4) Be orderly.

Conversational implicatures

Additional conveyed meaning based on background knowledge. This information has to be inferred.

Example: A: Is John back yet?

B: The pub is still open.