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Semantics I Introduction

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11 views

Semantics I Introduction

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Phan Hiệp
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© © All Rights Reserved
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INTRODUCTION SEMANTICS

1. What is semantics?
- Semantics is a branch of linguistics which deals with meaning.
 How many main branches of linguistics?
a. Syntax: is the study of grammar (consisting of phonology, morphology,
syntax, and textual grammar).
b. Semantics: is the study of meaning in language (i.e. what language means).
c. Pragmatics: is concerned with meaning in context (i.e. what people mean by
the language they use).
- Semantic meaning is context-free whereas pragmatic meaning
is context-dependent.
(1) A: ‘Would you like a piece of cake?’
B: ‘I’m on a diet.’
- The semantic meaning of ‘I’m on a diet’ in (1) is ‘I want to lose weight by eating
the food which is not rich in fat, sugar, etc.’
- The pragmatic meaning of ‘I’m on a diet’ in (1) is ‘I don’t want any piece of
cake’ or ‘I’m afraid that I have to refuse your invitation.’
(2) Tom: ‘Do you like the wine I picked out?’
Gina: ‘It’s Italian, isn’t it?’
- The semantic meaning of ‘It’s Italian, isn’t it?’ in (2) is ‘Is it right that the wine
is made in Italy?’
- The pragmatic meaning of ‘It’s Italian, isn’t it?’ in (2) is ‘I don’t like the wine
you picked out.’

2. Semantics and its possible included aspects.


- Semantics is kind of the study of meaning.
- Meaning is part of language.
- Semantics is part of linguistics.
- The “meaning”: covers a variety of aspects of language:
+ What aspects of it may properly be included in semantics.
+ The way in which it should be described.
- Semantics include:
+ Word meaning (or lexical meaning)
+ Utterance meaning
+ Sentence meaning
 Let’s distinguish sentence meaning and utterance meaning!
- What is a Sentence?
A sentence is a complete thought or statement which conveys a complete

meaning. This can either be in the spoken or written form. Thus, a sentence at
least primarily consists of a subject, a verb, and an object. Addition to this
fundamental parts in a sentence, there may be phrases and clauses as well.
- What is an Utterance?
An utterance is considered the smallest unit of speech. It can be defined as
“a natural unit of speech bounded by breaths or pauses.” Thus, it necessarily
doesn’t covey a complete meaning. An utterance can, therefore, be a clause, a
single word, pause, and even a meaningful statement. However, unlike a sentence
that can exist in both oral and written form, utterance exists only in the oral form.
However, they can be represented and delineated in the written form using many
ways.
An utterance, since it happens primarily in the oral speech, has several
related features such as facial expressions, gestures, and posture. These include
stress, intonation, and tone of voice, as well as ellipsis, which are words that the
listener inserts in spoken language to fill gaps. In addition to these, an utterance
may also include voiced/un-voiced pauses like “umm”, tag questions, false starts,
fillers like “and stuff”, deictic expressions such as “over there” with other simple
conjunctions like “and,” “but,” etc.
- In semantics it is necessary to make a careful distinction between utterances
and sentences. In particular we need some way of making it clear when we are
discussing sentences and when utterances. We adopt the convention that anything
EX: The word “Remarried” has 3 different levels
- Word level: Remarried may be regarded a set of the four following semantic
features: [+human], [±male], [+used to be married], and [+married again].
- Sentence level: example “She is not remarried, only the fourth semantic feature”
 only the 4th of the word, namely [+married again], is informative, it is part of
the statement.
- Utterance level: example conversation:
A: ‘How is the pastor?’
B: ‘He is remarried.’
“Remarried” occurs in B’s response, it is the word that helps the utterance
presuppose that pastor are allowed by rule to get married and implicate that the
pastor was once married.
 The nature of the subject and the variety of views on semantics and its
possible included aspects.

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