Pr.

Bouayad/Semantics S6

Introduction :

Definition
Semantics is the study of the linguistic meaning of words, phrases and sentences. (Word meaning and
sentence meaning)

The linguistic competence of a native speaker of a language involves not only the phonological and
the morpho-syntactic knowledge but also the semantic knowledge. Semantic knowledge is the ability
of a native speaker to differentiate between meaningful and meaningless or deviant expressions of a
language.

Semantics is the branch of linguistics and logic concerned with meaning. There are a number of
branches and sub-branches of semantics, including formal semantics, which studies the logical
aspects of meaning, such as sense, reference, implication, and logical form, lexical semantics, which
studies word meanings and word relations, and conceptual semantics, which studies the cognitive
structure of meaning.
- A semantic theory aims to account for some semantic relations holding between the different infinite
number of words and sentences. It focuses on the relation holding between the meaning of words in a
sentence or in a language in general.

I- Some semantic notions

- Denotative meaning vs connotative meaning
Words can have a denotative meaning and a connotative meaning. Denotative is also
referred to as referential, cognitive, lexical or simply literal whereas connotative
meaning is a non- literal meaning which depends on the social and emotive attitude
of the speaker.(ex: woman/ female) ; we refer to a female human being. However,
the two words have different connotative meanings. Denotation is partly linked to
reference. Denotative meaning is studied in semantics more than the connotative
meaning. The latter is more related to the intentions of the speaker and the external
context, falling outside the scope of semantics and hence, dealt with in Pragmatics.
- Reference vs Sense:
Reference basically relates the meaning of words to what they refer to in the real
world. Words which refer to specific entities in the world are said to have reference.
Sense is concerned with the various relationships which exist between the meanings
of words or sentences. Sense is the meaning of an expression. If a sentence expresses
a meaningful idea, then it makes sense.
- Semantic fields: may be defined as categories or classes which share a particular
semantic property (ex: Kinship terms: brother/son/
sister/daughter/father/uncle/mother)
- Syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations: relations holding between the meanings of
words in languages. They are sense relations
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 Syntagmatic relations : Some words are syntagmatically related at the level of a
sentence (horizontally) when the meaning of these words associate naturally or
intuitively.( dog/ bark)
Paradigmatic relations: are ‘vertical relations’ of sense holding between the
meanings of words in languages. These words can be substituted one for the other in
a sentence.( big/ small/ good/ bad…). Examples of paradigmatic relations: synonymy/
hyponymy/ homonymy/ antonymy/incompatibility/ redundancy/anomaly etc.)

II- Theories of Semantics

Semantic theories or theories of meaning seek to explain the intricate aspects

of meaning.

1- Referential theories of meaning:

They are based on the notions of reference and denotation. These are ancient
notions that have been taken again by modern semanticists. What constitute
the meaning of words is the objects they represent in the real world, that is,
meaning is associated with concrete objects (e.g. Table).

-Many words which do not have straightforward reference may be said to have
extended reference. That is, the meaning of some words may be based on an
extension of the reference of another word or words.(eg: bura:q in Standard
Arabic)

-The aspect of meaning in general and reference in particular makes translation

from one language to another somewhat difficult: drawing the boundary
between references of words is not always an easy task (eg: mountain/ hill).
What is a hill for a specific group of people might be a mountain for others and
vice versa.

- Though popular, referential theories suffer from a number of drawbacks. For

instance, abstract words like virtue, honesty, freedom.. have an inherently
abstract meaning and cannot be easily accommodated in a referential theory. A
considerable large portion of vocabulary in natural languages is totally abstract.
Such words have no reference in the external world. Yet, one cannot say that
an abstract word has no meaning if it has no referent.

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- The reference theory would imply that two words having the same referent
should necessarily be synonymous. This is not the case in words like: venus /
the morning star

- Another drawback is that the reference theory does not distinguish between
the denotative meaning and the connotative meaning (woman/ female)

- More interest is on the analysis of word meaning to the detriment of the

analysis of sentence meaning, focus is more on the characteristics of words
than the referential relations between words.

2- Mentalistic theories of meaning

- Meaning is abstract. The meaning of words in such theories is related to the ideas
and concepts they represent in the minds of the speakers and hearers of a given
language. The meaning of words is closely associated with mental pictures that the
speakers of the language communities in which they are used attribute to them (e.g.
ghost)
A- Componential semantics
- The meaning of words can be divided into a number of semantic components. The
number of these semantic components varies according to the nature and degree of
the semantic complexity of specific words. For instance, the word ‘boy’ can be
semantically broken down into semantic features: Boy: [+Human] [+Male] [-Adult]
- The semantic components of words are referred to as ‘semantic features’, primes or
markers. Like distinctive features, semantic features should distinguish between the
meanings of at least two words, The difference between ’boy’ and ‘man’ lies in the
semantic feature [+adult] and [- adult]/ Synonyms would have similar or identical
features/ A pair of antonyms would have a feature that is positive in one member of
the pair and negative in the other member of the pair.
- The set of features specified for a superordinate term would constitute part of the
features characterising a hyponym: All the features of flower would have to be
included in the meaning of rose which will need further features to be distinguished
from other types of flower.
- The problem with componential semantics is that it cannot provide semantic features
for all types of words (pen/ shelves/ stairs)

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 B- Truth-based semantics
Within the mentalist theories of meaning, sentence meaning is assumed to have specific
properties which differentiate it from word meaning.

- Unlike words, sentences are semantically subject to truth conditions. That is , sentences
can be either true or possible in the real world, or else false or impossible in the real world.
The truth or falsity of sentences is based on the semantic structure of such sentences, that
is, on the system of characteristics and relations that underly the meaning of these
sentences.

Examples:

a- John is honest

b- ? John is honest and dishonest

What is meant by truth here is logical truth. The (a) sentence is true in the real world while
(b) is impossible in the real world. Such a semantic analysis does not take into account
contexts of use where (b) could be attributed to a possible interpretation (there are contexts
in which (b) may be used to achieve irony or sarcasm, for instance)

-Within the truth-based theories of meaning, a characteristic of sentences is that they can be
analytic or synthetic. This characteristic of sentences mirrors the denotative/ connotative
characteristic of word meaning.

The meaning of analytic sentences is derived from an analysis or a breaking down of such
sentences into component words. The meaning and syntactic arrangement of these words
give the overall meaning of the words they contain, as well as on the syntactic arrangement
of these words. This type of analysis involves the compositionality Principle. An example af
analytic sentences:

a- Spinsters are unmarried women

b- Spinsters are unmarried

c- Spinsters are women

Sentences (b) and(c) make up the meaning of sentence (a) , of which they are components.

- Non-analytic sentences are said to be synthetic, meaning that they are not based on
the meaning and arrangement of their component words. Idiomatic expressions are a
case in point. The syntactic structure of idiomatic expressions and the literal meaning
of the words they are composed of are not relevant to their semantic structure.
Examples:
a- To be a windbag

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 b- To rain dogs and cats.
c- To see red
The interpretation of idiomatic expressions above is more related to the mind of the
speaker or hearer. The meaning is not associated with the meanings of the words
constituting these idiomatic expressions.

-Third, the truth characteristics of sentences involve truth relations between these
sentences such as entailment and presupposition.

Entailment:
- A characterizing property of sentences is that they can express entailment. One
sentence entails another sentence if whenever the first sentence is true, the other
sentence is also true (Atkinson et al, 1982). Consider the following examples:
a- Mary was not able to escape.
b- Mary did not escape
(a) is said to entail (b) because there is a similarity in meaning between ‘was not able’
and ‘did not’. The relation of entailment between the two sentences may be said to
stem from the semantic nature of the words forming these sentences. Entailment is a
symmetric semantic relation holding between sentences, meaning reversible. If
sentence (a) entails (b), then sentence (b) entails (a). This is referred to in literature
as logical equivalence. The latter can be considered as being very close to broad
synonymy between sentences.
However, there are instances where the entailment relation is not reversible as in the
following examples:
a- Mary was offered a rose.
b- Mary was offered a flower.
The fact that Mary was offered a rose entails that Mary was offered a flower but (b)
does not entail that Mary was necessarily offered a rose in spite of the fact that a
semantic relation of hyponymy holds between the words rose and flower.

Presupposition:
Consider the following example:
a- Joe speaks English fast.
b- Joe speaks English.
A given sentence presupposes another sentence if whenever sentence (a) is either
true or false, sentence (b) is true. As shown in the above examples, sentence (a)
presupposes (b) if and only if both (a) and its negative version presuppose (b)
Another example:
a- The fact that he is ill worries me
b- He is ill.
Whether his illness worries me or not presupposes the meaning that he is ill.

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