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Semantics Unit 6 Handout

“The boss wants to see you in her office right away”. S D Employee: “But the boss is just a character in my novel!”

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101 views

Semantics Unit 6 Handout

“The boss wants to see you in her office right away”. S D Employee: “But the boss is just a character in my novel!”

Uploaded by

Nguyễn Ngọc Quỳnh Như
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Unit 6: PREDICATES, REFERRING EXPRESSIONS,

AND UNIVERSE OF DISCOURSE


Let’s study these sentences:
1. John attacked a man.
2. John is a man.

(1) a man  a referring expression


(2) a man  a predicating expression (or a
predicator)
Rule: The same is true of other indefinite NPs.
Let’s study other examples:

The man stole


my wallet.
A man stole my
wallet.
She stole my
wallet.
? Yes
She stole my
wallet.
• To sum up, predicates do not refer. But they
can be used by a hearer when contained in
the meaning of a referring expression, to
identify the referent of that expression.
Practice (p58)

Note: The correct referent of a referring expression is something


which completely fits, or satisfies, the description made by the
combination of predicates embedded in it.
Generic Sentence
A GENERIC SENTENCE is a sentence in which some
statement is made about a whole unrestricted class of
individuals, as opposed to any particular individual.
(câu tổng loại / câu khái quát)
Practice (p59)

A GENERIC SENTENCE is a sentence in which some


statement is made about a whole unrestricted class of
individuals, as opposed to any particular individual.
• Our basic, and very safe, definition of reference (Unit 3) was as a
relationship between part of an utterance and a thing in the
world.
• But often we use words in a way which suggests that a
relationship exactly like reference holds between a part of an
utterance and non-existent things.
MINDS/
INTENTIONS
(inside
ourselves)

LINGUISTIC Referent(s)
EXPRESSIONS REAL /
(REFERRING/ IMAGINARY
PREDICATING WORLD
EXPRESSIONS)
Practice (p60)
• Semantics is concerned with the meanings of words
and sentences. It should get rid of questions of what
exists and what doesn’t.
• To avoid such problems, we adopt a broad
interpretation of the notion referring expression (see
Unit 4) so that any expression that can be used to
refer to any entity in the real world or in any
imaginary world will be called a referring expression.
• Notice that we only let our imagination stretch to
cases where the things in the world are different; we
do not allow our imagination to stretch to cases
where the principles of the structure and use of
language are different.
Practice (p61)
• Even though expressions like tomorrow, the
British national anthem, eleven hundred, the
distance between the Earth and the Sun, etc. do
not indicate physical objects, language treats
these expressions in a way exactly parallel to
referring expressions.
• Language is used to talk about the real world, and
can be used to talk about an infinite variety of
abstractions, and even of entities in imaginary,
unreal worlds.
UNIVERSE OF DISCOURSE
We define the UNIVERSE OF DISCOURSE for any utterance
as the particular world, real or imaginary (or part real,
part imaginary), that the speaker assumes he is talking
about at the time.
(Ngữ cảnh phát ngôn)
Eg:
1. The Earth revolves around the Sun. (an astronomy
lecturer)  the universe of discourse is the real world
(or universe).
2. ‘The dragon set fire to the woods with his hot breath’
(bedtime story)  the universe of discourse is the
fictitious world.
PRACTICE:
Is the universe of discourse in each of the following cases the real world (as far as we
can tell) (R), or a (partly) fictitious world (F)?
1. Newsreader on April 14th 1981: “The American space-shuttle
successfully landed at Edwards Airforce Base, California,
today”. R F

2. Mother to child: “Don’t touch those berries. They might be R F


poisonous”.
3. Mother to child: “Santa Claus might bring you a toy R F
telephone”.

4. Patient in psychiatric ward: As your Emperor, I command you R F


to defeat the Parthians”.
5. Doctor to patientL: “You cannot expect to live longer than R F
another two months”.
6. Patient (joking bravely): “When I’m dead. I’ll walk to the R F
cemetary to save the cost of a hearse”.
HOWEVER:
Mother to child: “Santa Claus might bring
you a toy telephone”.

Santa Claus Fictitious


Argument

toy
telephone Real

Different universe of discourse


PRACTICE:
In the following situations, are the participants working with the same
universe of discourse (S), or different universe (D), as far as you can
tell?
A: Did Jack’s son come in this morning? S D
B: I didn’t know Jack had a son.
A: Then who’s that tall chap that was here yesterday?
B: I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure Jack hasn’t got any kids.
A: I’m sure Jack’s son was here yesterday.
Time traveller from the eighteenth century: “Is the King of France S D
on good terms with the Tsar of Russia?”
Twenty-first-century person: “Huh?”

Optician: “Please read the letters on the bottom line of the card”. S D
Patient: “ E G D Z Q N B A”.
Optician: “Correct. Well done”

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