Semantics

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 I. Utterance vs Sentence vs proposition

Sentence Utterance

 It is a string of words put together by the  A spoken word, statement or vocal sound.
grammatical rules of a language.  Event (Real life)

 Abstract (It is out of time)  Meaningful and meaningless

 It is any stretch of talk, by one person,
before and after which there is silence.

 An utterance has time, place, speaker,

 It has no time or place, etc., but it has a definite language, but no special form or content.
linguistic form.  While reading a sentence two times out
 It is a complete expression in a language. loud, you make two different utterances, i.e.
two unique physical events took place.

 A group of words that convey a complete  It is bounded by breaths, pauses and silence;
meaning. thus usually not conveying a complete
meaning.

 Exists both in spoken and written form.  Exists only in the spoken form.

Proposition
 A proposition is that part of the meaning of the utterance of a declarative sentence which describes
some state of affairs.
 It is a claim about the world. It has the form of an idea, and it can be true or false.
e.g. the boy is playing football.
 Typically, it includes persons or things.
 Propositions, unlike sentence, cannot be said to belong to any particular language.

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  Two views of semantics that are non-satisfactory.
 Although these two views seems reasonable at first sight, they provide no
solution to semantic problems.

I. Theories concerning meaning:

1. Naming
 The Scope of Semantics Naming: Language is a communication system which with on
the one hand the signifier, on the other hand the signified.
 The problem is to establish the nature and relationship of these two.

One of the oldest views found in Plato’s dialogue is that:

Signifed (is the object in the real

Signifer (is a word in the language) world that is refers to a word in
the language)

 The question that can be asked is how can some abstract adjectives can be used as a
label to identify something that they denote?
 This problem is more obvious with verbs; it is virtually impossible to identify what is
named by a verb such as, the verb run.
 While illustrating it with a boy running, there is no obvious way in which we can
isolate the running from the picture. (The problem is there are boy and running;
how can we separate them?)
 However, we can do it with nouns to draw a picture of the object that is denoted, yet
it is difficult with verbs.
 We can find the same problem with preposition and conjunctions, and for pronouns,
it rises also a problem since they denote different things at different times.

Can the theory of naming be applied to nouns alone?

Limitations:

 There are some nouns that do not denote objects in the real world but rather
imaginary situations such as, unicorn, fairy, etc.

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  Another problem is that some nouns do not refer neither to imaginary items, nor
physical objects. For instance, love, hate, inspiration, etc.
 Besides, even where there are physical objects that are identifiable, it is by no means
the case that the meaning is the same as its denotation (the object it stands for or
refers to.)
 The other difficulty is that even though we restrict our attention to words that are
linked with visible objects in the world, they often seem to denote a whole set of
rather different objects. (chair)
 In the world of experience objects are not clearly grouped together ready to be
labeled with a single word. (this view bothered Plato)

There are two extreme but unhelpful explanations:

A. The Realist view:

o All the things called by the same name have some common
property. This is no less invalid.
B. The Nomalist view:
o Things that they have nothing in common but the name. This
is false because we do not use chair or hill for object that are
completely different.

 The words of a language often reflect not so much the reality of the world, but the
interests of the people who speak it. This is clear enough if we look at cultures
different from our own.

For instance:

Eskimos use only one word to refer to flier, be it an aeroplane, a pilot or

an insect.
 The scientific classifications of things, including animals, colours, things, are not
typical for everyday experience. Ordinary language differs from scientific language
precisely in the fact that its items are not clearly defined and its classes not
rigorously established.

Bertand Russel suggested that there are two kinds of words:

 Object words: are learnt ostensibly (by pointing at objects).

 Dictionary words: have to be defined in terms of the object words.

Limitation of ostensive definition:

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  When we point at an object, it raises the problem if we point to one part of the
object or as a whole. That is, pointing to an object itself involves the identification
of the object, the specification of the qualities that make it a chair or a table
 So far, we have talked about the meaning of words. Naming theory for sentences is
no more satisfactory than one for words.

2. Concepts
 The latter view that has been criticized related to words and things directly.
 The more sophisticated view is one that relates them through the
mediation of concepts of the mind (concepts).
This view is held by two philosophers; two of the best-known versions are:
 The ‘sign’ theory of de Saussure
 The ‘semiotic triangle of Ogden and Richards

A. The ‘sign’ theory of de Saussure

A Sign consists of:
 A signifier a sound image
 Signified a concept

They are both linked by a psychological associative bond.

 Both the noises we make and the objects of the world that we talk about are
mirrored in some way by conceptual entities.

B. The ‘semiotic triangle of Ogden and Richards

 When we think of an object, we think of a concept.
 They saw the relationship as a triangle:

Thought or Reference
(concept)

Symbol Referent

(Linguistic form, the (The object, the

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word sentence, etc. world)
language)
  Concepts are created by human’s knowledge, experience and perception
toward a phenomena, an object or an event.
 Representations construct reality, but are not reality.
 Semantic triangle: it represents the relationship between
representations and the things they represent.

 According to the theory there is no direct link between symbol and

referent (between language and the world) Yet, the link via thought or
reference, the concepts of our minds.
 This theory avoids many of the problems of naming—the classifications
 When we think of a name, we think of the concept and vice versa.

 Some scholars have actually suggested that we have some kind of image
of a chair when we talk about chairs. But this is certainly false. We can
visualize a chair in my mind’s eye, but we do not so every time we utter
the word chair.
 It this were a necessary part of talking, it would be impossible to give a
lecture.

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 3. Sense and reference:
A. Reference deals with the relationship between the
language and world
B. Sense deals with the relationships inside the
language.

 Sense relationships have formed an important part of the study of language.

Examples of sense relations:

 The relations of meaning between words, as expressed in synonymy, hyponymy, and

antonymy
Narrow/wide, male/female.

 The dictionary is usually concerned with sense relations, with relating words to words.
 It could be argued that the ultimate aim of the dictionary is to supply its user with referential
meaning (associative), and that it does so by relating a word whose meaning is unknown to a
word or words whose reference is already understood.

We have then two kinds of semantics:

 One that deals with semantic structure (Semantic structure is a fancy term for an
organization that represents meaning. For example, an English sentence is a semantic
structure. Consider the following sentence structure: subject - verb - object.)
 The other that deals with meaning in terms of our experience outside language.
 It is enough to see that there may be two kinds of semantics, one that relates to non-
linguistic entities, and one that is intra-linguistic.

Some linguists have attempted to limit semantics, both in theory and practice, to sense relations.

Katz and Fodor:

 They talk about sentences, but their theory is based upon word meaning.

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  The statement ‘a semantic theory….’ Means that a semantic theory must account for
ambiguity, anomaly and paraphrase.
 What seemed at first be the essential aspect of meaning, the relation between language and
the world, is to be ignored or given second place.

There are some further difficulties. It is not always possible to distinguish clearly between sense and reference

 It is because that the categories of our language correspond to real-world distinctions. For instance, male
and female.

 However, some languages don’t make the same distinctions. That is, they have natural
classes for some words, such as Mammals.

4. Kinds of meaning
 We should not say that the prime or only function of language is to provide
information, to inform the hearers or readers of facts they do not already know
(ideational).
 The deal of our meaning is inter-personal or social, relating ourselves to others.

There are a number of ways in which we can see that language is not
simply a matter of providing factual information: (kinds of meaning)

1. We do not merely make statements; we also ask questions and

give orders.
2. There are a variety of what today are called ‘speech acts’. We
persuade, we warn, etc.; we use language to influence other
people in many different ways. This is the first aspect of language.
This aspect of language has recently come to interest linguists, but
its relation to ideational meaning is not at all clear yet.
3. Much of what we say is not a statement of fact but an evaluation.
????
4. Language is often deeply concerned with a variety of social
relations. We can be rude or polite, depending upon the social
relationship with the person to whom we are speaking (teacher,
colleague, father...)

For instance:
Giving orders, salutation, etc.
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 Good morning, how are you?
That is, the speaker is talking to make only social contact. The
small talks are not intended to transmit information, but is simply
part of the social activity.

5. In language, sometimes, we need not mean what we say. We can

by the appropriate use of intonation be sarcastic. We can also with
the appropriate intonation imply what is not said.

For instance:

I don’t like coffee with a fall-rise intonation may well simply imply I like tea.

6. There is presupposition in speech.

For instance:

The king of France is bald presupposes that there is a King of France and that
presupposing his existence does not assert it.

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  Under the subject of semantics we shall deal with the following areas
of interest :
1. A word can have more than one meaning.
For example:

Ball can be both a dance and a round object for bouncing.

2. Different words appear to have the same meaning.

For example:

Big and large

3. Some words seem to have opposites

For example:

Good and bad

4. The meanings of some words are included in the

meaning of others.
For example:

Vegetable (potato)

5. Certain combinations of words have meanings

which are very different from the combination of
their separate meanings.
For example:

‘Pass’ plus the meanings of ‘on’ can mean something different.

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Polysemy (many meanings) Homonyms

o It can be defined as one form (written or o A homonym is a word, written or spoken,

spoken) having multiple meanings that which has two or more unrelated meanings.
are all related by extension.
o Meaning is determined by context.
Bright means shining and
intelligent.
Head: object of the head of
your body
At the top of a company or department

 In a dictionary, meanings are listed in

particular order with the central
meaning given first, followed by the
most closely related meanings and with
metaphorical extensions coming last.
In theory and practice, there are
problems, especially in relation to
drawing boundary lines between
o Homonyms are words that have separate
words.
The essential problem is that it is not meanings and histories, but have accidentally
always easy or even possible to be come to have exactly the same form.
certain whether we are dealing with
polysemy or homonymy.
The phenomenon of polysemy is found
as well in prefixes as full words
(unkind—undo)

Homograph(homo=the same---graph=written)
Words which have :
o Same spellings
o Different pronunciation
o Different meaning
He used a saw to cut the board
I saw my friend after school.

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 Synonymy
 A synonym is a word that has the same or slightly different meaning as
another word.
 Absolute synonymy does not exist: there always some contexts in which
one member of the pair cannot be used.
Almost/Nearly----buy/purchase

 The closet we come to absolute synonymy is when the synonyms belong

to different dialects as with:
1. British and US usage (regional):
Autumn-----Fall

2. We can find formal/informal (register)

Die pass on/over
Steal relieve one of

3. They can differentiate in positive or negative connotations

For instance:
Sanitation engineer vs garbage collector

 Choosing one word rather than its synonym can have an effect on the
words and phrases that can co-occur with it.

Antonymy
 Antonyms are words that have opposite meanings.
 They are two forms with opposite meaning.
Bad/good-----Hot/ cold

 In general, we can categorize antonyms to three types

3 types of antonyms:

1. Implicitly graded antonyms (Gradable antonyms)

 Two predicates are gradable antonyms if they are at opposite ends of a
continuous scale of values.
For instance:
Hot and cold (between them is continuous scales of
values; warm, cool).

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 Young and Old (between them is continuous scales of
values; teenagers, adult.

2. Complementarity (Non-gradable--- Binary antonyms)

 They are synonyms which not admit a midpoint.
 It is characteristic of such pairs that the denial of one implies the assertion
of the other.
 Thus, if one is not male, then one is certainly female.
Alive---dead
Male—female
Open—closed

3. Converseness (Relational antonyms)

 In which one word implies its opposite related word even if it is not
mentioned.
 It refers to the same situation in different perspective.
Above---below
Buy---sell

Hyponymy
 It is the state or phenomenon that shows the relationship between more
general term (lexical representation) and the more specific instances of it.
 It is invented method of indicating the relationships that can exist between
words.

The Hierarchical diagrams are called taxonomies

o Thus, we can say red is a hyponym of color (hypernym= superordinate)
o The word rose implies the assertion of the superordinate this is flower.
o Hypernym = superordinate term
o Hyponym= subordinate term
o co-hyponyms = the set of words which are hyponyms of the same superordinate
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 term.
Incompatibility
 The definition of incompatible is things or people that cannot coexist well or
that do not go well together.
 Two opposing ideas are an example of ideas that are incompatible. A
person who is very neat and a person who is very messy are examples of
people who are incompatible

Lexical ambiguity
 Words that have more than one sense or meaning.
 A word allows more than one meaning in context:

For example:

Bank can mean ‘financial institution’, ‘edge of a river’, or other things.

 So, the sentence Ahmed has seen a bank is three-ways ambiguous.

 The ambiguity derives from syntactic form (context)

Redundancy
 It involves unnecessary repetition of meaning.
Mary is single and not married

Anomaly
 A sentence has no meaning in the everyday world
(e.g. Colourless green ideas sleep furiously)
 On the syntactic level is perfect.

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 I. Speaker-sense and linguistic-sense
 The study of sense (or meaning) can be divided into two areas:
 We deal with relationships inside language.

 Speaker’s intention behind the utterance is  Literal meaning.

for sarcasm.  It is the meaning of a linguistic expression as part
 Because it has to do with nonliteral meaning, of a language.
is outside the domain of semantics.  Since it deals solely with literal meaning and is
independent of speaker, hearer and situational
context.

 So far, the differentiation is given between dependent meaning

(speaker-sense, part of pragmatics) and independent meaning (linguistic
sense, part of semantics)

II. Sense proprieties and relations

1. Lexical Ambiguity
2. Synonymy
3. Overlap

 The meaning of two words intersect, but neither one includes the other.
 If they have the same value for some (but not all) of the semantic feature
that constitute their meaning
For example:

Sister and niece. They share female feature.

 The distinction between overlap and hyponymy is that, in hyponymy, the
meaning of one word is entirely included in the meaning of another.
4. Hyponymy, Incompatibility, antonomy
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 I. Speaker-reference and linguistic-reference
 The study of reference can be divided into two areas:
 We deal with relationships between language and world.

 It is what the speaker is referring to by using  It refers to some linguistic expression as part of a
some linguistic expression. language.
 Because it varies according to the speaker and  We refer to things as they are.
context, is outside the domain of semantics;  It deals with reference that is a systematic function
instead it is part of pragmatics. of the language itself, rather than of the speaker
and context.

II. Concepts related to reference

1. Referent
 The entity (object, person, state of affairs, etc.) in the external world to which a linguistic
expression relates in a particular situation. (Door, car, etc.)

2. Extension
 It refers to the set of all potential referents for a referring expression. (generalization)

For example:

The extension of the word chair or bird includes every chair that has been or ever
will be in the world.

3. Prototype
 A typical member of the extension of a referring expression.

For example:

A robin might be a prototype of bird.

4. Stereotype
 It is an idea or belief many people have about a thing or group that is based
upon how they look on the outside.

For example: The stereotype of bird might be something like: has two legs and two wings.

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III. Different types of linguistic reference (refer back)
1. Coreference
 It occurs when two or more expressions in a text refer to the same person or
thing; they have the same referent though do not mean the same thing.
 The two expressions have separate meanings in English, even though they now
happen to be coreferential.
The Earth is the third planet from the sun. (The Earth and the third
planet are coreferential because they both refer to the
extralinguistic object).

2. Anaphora
 It is a word that refers back to a previous word that has already been
mentioned.

For example:

The student studied really hard for her test.

Anaphora Vs Coreferential
Anaphora deals with the Coreference deals with the relation of a linguistic
relation between two linguistic expression to some entity in the real world, past,
expressions. present or future.

3. Deixis
 It is the use of general words and phrases to refer to a specific time, place, or
person in context.
 The use of a word or phrase whose meaning depends on who is talking, who
they are talking to, where they are, etc., for example "me", "here", or
"yesterday"
 Words or phrases that change what they refer to every time they’re spoken.
The meaning of these phrases depends crucially on who speaks them, and
when and where.
 The words change all the time.

For instance:

Today, Tommorw whose referents change every 24 hours.

1978 referent differs from 2009 referent.

 Personal pronouns are also part of deictic words: I, me, you, he, him, and so
on.
 Deictic words have a pointing function; they point to entities within the
context of the utterance.
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  The study of truth or truth conditions in semantics falls into two basic
categories:

I. The study of difference types of truth embodied in

individual sentence (sense properties)
 The property of being
1. Analytic sentences
 Analytic sentences are true by definition.
 They are true by virtue of the language itself.
 An analytic sentence is one that is necessarily true, as a
result of the senses of the words in it.

For example:

 Everyone has the same perception or concept about lions

and birds.
 Part of our knowledge of ordinary English is that lions are
animals and Pigeons and birds.

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 2. Contradictory sentences
 They are the opposite of analytic sentences.
 A contradiction is a sentence that is necessarily false, as a
result of the senses of the words in it.
 We know the sentence is false because we know the
meaning of the words in it.
 It is not necessary to refer to the outside world in order to
judge the sentence falseness.

For instance:

The boy is female.

Fish can breathe outside water.

3. Synesthetic sentences
 Unlike analytic and contradictory sentences, they may be
true or false depending upon how the world is. (we should
verify them)
 It is synesthetic because we cannot judge its truth or falsity
by inspecting the words in sentences, yet we can verify the
truth or falsity in the real world.
 They are referred to as empirical truths or falsities because
they are true or false by virtue of the state of the
extralinguistic world.

For instance:

My next door neighbor, Ahmed, is married.

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II. The study of different types of truth relations that hold
between sentences
1. Entailment
 Entailment is the principle that under certain conditions the truth of one
statement ensures the truth of a second statement.
 A entails B
 Whenever A is true, B is true. And, whenever A is false, B is false.
 Sentences have entailment.

For instance:

Jim rides a bike to school every morning.

Jim can ride a bike.

 Entailment is what occurs if a proposition is true. If the first proposition Jim

rides a bike to school every morning is true then that proposition entails a few
things:

Jim can ride a bike

Jim goes to school every morning

 If the first sentence is true, then the second sentence must be true as well. That
is, if Jim rides his bike to school every morning, then he must be able to ride a
bike.
 We can say that the first sentence entails the second sentence.

Entailment could be thought of as

 If X, then Y.

2. Presupposition
 It is something that a person believes to be true and he uses as the beginning of an
argument even though it has not been proven.
 A presupposition constitutes a necessary assumption required to understand the
meaning of a sentence
 Presupposition deals with implicit meanings conveyed by the speaker through the use of
particular words
 John forgot to call Mary” typically has a presuppositional inference that John was
supposed to call Mary.

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 John knows that Baird invented the television
>> Baird invented the television
Baird did not invented the television (In this case,
because if B is false, the A has not truth value).
John regrets that he kissed Mary
 John kissed Mary.

Mary has stopped beating her boyfriend

 Mary has been beating her boyfriend

The king is of Canada tall.

 There is a king of Canada
 The king of Canada exists.

Presupposution vs Entailement
Speakers have presuppositions Sentences have entailments

 if we negate the sentences  The negation of the 1st sentence

in (1), as in (2), we recover will affect the truth of the second
the same presuppositions, one.
and i twill stay truth.
The king was assassinated
Her car is now  The king died
 She has a car.
The king was not assassinated
Her car is not new.  The king is alive.
 She has a car.  If is not affected, it is
presupposition.
Summary:

 The study of senses makes use of such concepts:

Lexical decomposition, semantic features, lexical ambiguity, synonymy,

hyponymy, overlap and antonymy.

 The study of reference utilizes concepts:

Referent, extension, prototype, stereotype, coreference, anaphora, Deixis.

 The study of truth conditions relies on the notions of:

Analytic sentences, contradictory sentences and synthetic sentences---

entailment and presupposition.

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22
 I. Four areas that pragmatics is concerned with :
1. Pragmatics is the study of speaker meaning
 Pragmatics is the study of speaker meaning rather than what the words and
phrases in utterances might mean themselves.

2. Pragmatics is the study of the contextual meaning.

 This type of study invloves the interpretation of what people mean in a
particular context and how the context influences what is said.

3. Pragmatics is the study of how more gets communicated

than is said.
 We might say that it is the investigation of invisible meaning

4. Pragmtics is the study of the expression of relative distance.

What determines the choices between the said and the unsaid ?

o The answer is related to the notion of closeness, whether it is

physical, social, or conceptual.

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 I. Deixis
 Deixis refers to a word or phrase that shows the time, place or situation
a speaker is in when talking. Also known as deictic expressions (or
deictics).
 Any linguistic form used to accomplish this poiting is called a deictic
expression.
 Deictic expressions are also sometimes called indexicals
 Deixis is cleary a form of referring that is tied to the speakers’ context.
 There is a distinction between deictic expressions being ‘near speaker’--
--proximal terms (this, here, now)
or

The away from speaker---distal terms (that, there, then)

For instance :

"I wish you'd been here yesterday."

 In this sentence the words 'I,' 'you', 'here', and 'yesterday' all function as deixis -
they reference a speaker and an addressee, a location and a time.
 As we are outside of the context, we cannot know who 'I' is, where 'here' is, nor
can we be entirely sure when 'yesterday' was; this information is known to the
speaker instead and is therefore termed 'deictic'.
 There are several examples of deixis in the sentence we have just looked at, e.g:
'Here', 'you' and 'where'. These are deictic expressions of place, person and
location.

II. Types of indexical

 Indexical : relating to or denoting a word or expression whose meaning is dependent
on the context in which it is used (such as here, you, me, that one there, or next
Tuesday

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 1. Person deixis
 Any expression used to point to a person
 Relating to the speaker, or the person spoken to: the 'who'.
Person deixis clearly operates on a basic three-part divisions : exemplified by
the pronouns for

 First person (‘I’),

 Second person (‘you’),
 Third person (‘he’, ‘she’, or ‘it’).

A speech event includes at least two persons :

 First person: speaker

 Second person : adressee
 Usually the third person is person is not grammatically marked, because
the only two persons are important.
A. Social deixis
 It concerns the social information that is encoded with various expressions, such as
relative social status and familiarity.
 Two major forms of it are so-called T-V distinctions and honorifics.
 The varying usage of pronouns T-V indicates something about formality, familiarity
or solidarity between the interactants.
 The T form might be used when speaking to a friend or social equal, whereas the V
form would be used speaking to a stranger or social superior. (Tu et vous la
formality)

B. Exclusive and inclusive ‘we’

 In English, there ambiguity in such uses which allows two different interpretations of
‘we’
i. Exculsive ‘we’ :
 Speaker plus other(s), excluding addressee
'We're going to the movies. See you later!

ii. Inclusive ‘we’

 Speaker and addresse included
'We're going to the movies. Are you ready yet?

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 2. Spatial /space /place deixis
 Spatial, or Local - relating to place: the 'where'.
 It is where the relative location of people and things is being indicated.

Place deixis

 It identifies entities : this /there ; that/those

 Informing about locations : here ; there, above

 In some special cases, speakers do not identify or informs by means of

locative deictic expressions, but they use them acknowledge locations.c
 Verbs of motion retain a deictic sense when they are used to mark movement
toward the speaker: come and go
Paul went to the bedroom.
(From this sentence, we can acknowledge that the speaker is not in the bedroom)

Deictic projection :
 Speakers being able to project themselves into other locations, time, or shift
person reference.
 The word now refers to any time someone tries to call on the phone, and not
actually record the phone.

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 3. Temporal deixis
 Time
 Time or temporal deixis concerns itself with the various times involved in and
reffered to in an utterance.
 This includes time adverbs like ‘now’, ‘then’, ‘soon’, and so forth and other tenses.

Proximal -----------now vs Distal (both past and the future)-- -----then

It indicates the time coinciding with the It applies to both the past the future
speaker’s utterance and the time of the
speaker’s voice being heard.

We can treat temporal events as :

 Objects that move toward us (into view) ------this weekend

 Objects that move away from us (out of view) ---the past week
One type of temporal deixis in English is in the choice of verb tense. In English,
there are only two basic forms :

The present tense is the vs The past tense is the distal form.
proximal form.

 Not only in time but also because unlikely or

impossible :Ex : if i had a yacht…
 The distal forms of temoporal deixis are used to
communicate not only distance from current time but also
distance from current reality or facts.

Overall :
 Deictic expressions were all to be found in the pragmatics wastebasket. Their
interpretation depends on the context, the speaker’s intention, and they express relative
distance.

27
I. Introduction
 George Yule says that words themselves do not refer to anything, people
refer.

1. Reference :
 It is an act in which a speaker or writer uses linguistic forms to enable a listener or
reader to identify something. Those linguistic forms are called referring expressions
which can be noun phrase, proper nouns, pronouns, etc.
 The relation between the linguistic expression and the entity in the real world to which
it refers.
2. Inference :
 They are made by listeners or readers in order to arrive at an interpretation of the
intended meaning. Something that you can find out indirectly from what you already
know. (deduction) to draw/make inferences from the data

 The choice of one type of referring expression depends on what the speaker assumes
the listener already knows.
 In shared visual contexts, (take this !, look at him), the use of pronoun may lead to
successful reference, yet it is diffuclt when there is noun phrases.

 So, the reference is tied to the speaker’s goals and beliefs about the listener
knowledge in the use of language.
 For successful reference to occur, we must recognize the role of inference and
collaboration between speaker and listener in thinking what the other has in mind.
 Sometimes we use vague expressions relying on the listener’s ability to infer what
referent we have in mind.

28
 II. Referential and attributive uses
Referential uses ‫يرجع له‬ ‫االستخدامات المرجعية‬ Attributive uses ‫االستخدامات الوصفية‬
 It is the concrete thing or person that word The referent in three situations :
or words refer to. Referent is physically present but unkown
 The referent is a specific person in the There is a man waiting for you. (indefinite)
mind of the speaker.
 The speaker uses the description to enable  Referent exists but unkown.
his audience to pick out the person or the She wants to mary a man with lots of money.
thing he is talking about in his mind.  Here the speaker knows only the man in
terms of its descriptive properties.
The owner of that dirty car is lazy.  So, the word ‘a’ can be replaced by ‘any’
(definite NP) in this case.
 Whatever fits the desciption.

 Referent doesn’t exist. (indefinite NP)

I would like to see a unicorn.
 To conclude, speakers often invite us to assume, via attributive uses, that we can
identify what they are talking about even when the entity or individual described may
not exist.

III. Names and referents

 In a society, there is a convention between all members of a cultural/language
community that certain referring expressions will be used to identify certain entities
on a regular basis.
 There is an assumption about the latter convention might cause us to assume that
refering expressions can only desginate very specific entities.

For instance :

 This belief is mistaken.

 The context plays an essential role here to determine the referent in every situation.
 Therefore, there appears to be a pragmatic connection between proper names and
objects that will be conventionally associated, within culturally defined community,
with those names.
 In short, more is being communicated than is said. (invisible meaning.

29
 IV. The role of co-text
Co-text Context
 Linguistic environment  Physical environment
 Co-text means accompanied to the text.
 It is all the words which surround the
referring expression and that help us
infer the meaning.

For instance :
Brazil wins the world cup.
 So, Brazil is the referring
expression
 Wins the world cup is part of
co-text

 The referring expression provides a It is the physical environment which has a

range of possible interpretations that powerful impact on how referring expressions
we might have for a word, but co-text are to be interpreted.
limits it.

 The example of co-text that leads to

different interpretation :
The cheese sandwich is made with
white bread
The cheese sandwich left without
paying.
 The referent solely can give different interpretations.
 Overall, reference is not simply a relationship between the meaning of a
word or phrase and an object or person in the world. It is a social act.

30
V. Anaphoric reference
1. Anaphoric reference
 The use of a word that refers to or replaces another word used earlier in
a sentence.
 After the initial introduction of some entity, speakers will use
various expressions to maintain reference.
I like to eat the pizza. It is delicious when it comes with
sauce.
 The pronouns ‘it’, ‘he’ ‘her’ ‘they’ are examples of subsequent
reference to already introduced referents. It is known as
anaphoric reference or anaphora.
 Technically speaking, the initial expression is the antecdent and
the second or subsequent expresion is the anaphor.
 The anaphoric reference is a process of continuing to identify
exactly the same entity as denoted by the antecedent.

A. Zero anaphora or ellipsis :

 When the interpretation requires us to identify an entity, as in ‘cook
for three minutes’, and no linguistic expression is present, it is called
Zero anaphora.

Cataphoric reference : refers to another idea/person / thing that is

introduced later on in the text or speech.

For instance :

There was a large snake in the middle of the path

The pronoun ‘there’ is used first and it is diffuclt to interpret until the
full noun phrase is presented

Conclusion :
 Successful reference means that an intention was recognized, via
inference, indicating a kind of shared knowledge and hence social
connection.
 The assumption of shared knowledge is also crucially involved in the
study of presupposition.
31
 I. Introduction
 For reference to be successful, it was proposed that collaboration was a necessary
factor.

 When a maxim is violated, we draw an inference (i.e., implicature)

 Grice used the term flouting (to show that you have no respect for a law, etc. by
openly not obeying it) to describe the intentional violation of a maxim for the
purpose of conveying an unstated proposition.

 Implicature is attained when a speaker intends to communicate more than just

what the words they mean.

 Implicatures are primary examples of more being communicated than is said, but
in order for them to be interpreted, some basic cooperative principle must first be
assumed to be in operation.

II. The cooperative principle

 Cooperative Principle consists four conversational maxims:
 When a maxim is violated, we draw an inference (i.e., implicature)
 Grice used the term flouting (to show that you have no respect for a law, etc. by
openly not obeying it) to describe the intentional violation of a maxim for the
purpose of conveying an unstated proposition.

1. Maxim of Quantity
 A participant’s contribution should be no more or less informative than
required.
 Make your contribution as informative as is required
For instance:

Ahmed asked Tom, what are you doing?

Khalid responded with “A book!”, which raised an implicature.

 Khalid appeared to be flouting the Maxim of Quantity.

 The inference (i.e., the implicature) that should be drowned is that he did

2. Maxim of Quality

32
  A participant’s contribution should be truthful and based on sufficient
evidence.
 Avoid stating information that you believe might be wrong, unless there
is some compelling reason to do so.
 As speaker we have to tell the truth or something that is provable by
adequate evidence.

3. Maxim of Relation
 Be relevant (closely connected with the subject you are discussing or the
situation you are in)
 Each participant’s contribution should be relevant to the subject of the
conversation.

For instance:

Ahmed asked his wife, what time is it?

She responded with “Well, the paper is already come”. Her statement raises
an implicature.

 The wife appeared to be flouting the Maxim of relation.

 The inference (i.e., the implicature) that should be drowned is that the
wife did not know the answer, but the arrival of the newspaper has
something to do with the time.

4. Maxim of Manner
 Avoid ambiguity and obscurity
 be brief and orderly
 Each participant’s contribution should be expressed in reasonably
clear.

For instance:

By spelling out the word McDonald’s, she appeared to be flouting.

 She appeared to be flouting the Maxim of manner.

 The inference (i.e., the implicature) that should be drowned is that she
did not talk clearly since the kids cannot spell.

33
III. Hedges
 Hedges are expressions used to communicate the speaker's weak commitment to
information conveyed.
 A word or phrase used to indicate that you are not really sure that what you are saying
is sufficiently correct or complete.
1. Maxim of quality
o To indicate that what we are saying may not be totally accurate.
( As far as I know, I may be mistaken, I’m not sure, etc.)

2. Maxim of quantity
o This type can be used also to show that the speaker is conscious
of the quantity maxim.
( As you probably know, to cut a long story short)

3. Maxim of relation
o These expressions are used to indicate that they may have drifted
into a discussion of some possible non-relevant speech.
(Anyway, Oh, by the way, Well, anyway)

4. Maxim of manner

(This may be a bit confisued, I am not sure if this makes sense)

In short :
 All the hedges above are good indications that the speakers are not only aware of the
maxims, but that they want to show that they are trying to observe them.

Implicatures :

34
 I. Converstional implicature (‫)المعنى الضمني للمحادثة‬
 Conversational implicature is an indirect or implicit speech act: what is meant by a
speaker's utterance that is not part of what is explicitly said.
 The term is also known simply as implicature.
 What is meant by the speaker often goes beyond what is said and is inferred by the
listener.

Types of Conversional implicature

1. Generalized conversional implicatures ‫تعميم‬

 It doesn’t refer to a special context.
 The listener has no knowledge of the context of the utterance
made
 The listener still understands the conveyed meaning.
 When there is indefinite articles

A. Scalar implicatures
 Scalar implicatures are given rise by the use of certain scales of
value.

<All, most, many, some, few>

<Always, often, sometimes>

 By choosing ‘some’, the speaker creates an implicature (not all)

 The basis of scalar implicature is that, when any form in a scale is
asserted, the negative of all forms higher on the scale is implicated.

For instance :

Some of the boys went to the party.

The implicature( not all the boys went to the party.)the use of one in the scale, excule all
others. (not most,not few)

35
 2. Particularized conversional implicatures
‫تخصيص‬
 Context is important to infer the right implicature.
 No yes AND no answers
 It violates the maxim of relevance. The answer seems irrelevant.

II. Properties of conversionatal implicatures

 All the implicatures taken in consideration are part of what is communicated and
not said.
 Speakers can always deny that they intended to communicate such meanings.
 Conversational implicatures can be calculated, suspended, cancelled and
reinfroced. (those are its properties)

IV. Conventional implicature (literal meaning)

1. The properties of the conventional implicature
 It is not based on the Grice’s four maxims :
 It does not have to occur in conversation.
 It does not depend on special texts for the interpretation
 It is associated with specific words and results in additional conveyed
meanings when those words are used.
 When there is linking words, i know that this it is conventional
implicature.

 Conventional implicatures are associated with specific words and result in

additional conveyed meanings when those words are used.
For example :

She put on her clothes, and left the house.

Implicature : after she put her clothes, she left the house.

36
  Speech act theory is a subfield of pragmatics
 The speech act theory was introduced by Oxford philosopher J.L. Austin (1911-60)
in How to Do Things with Words and further developed by American philosopher J.R.
Searle, who was one of Austin’s former students.

 John Austin had the fundamental insight that an utterance can be used to perform an act.
 He was the first to point out that in uttering a sentence; we can do things as well as say
things.

For instance:
When you say “Please close the door”, you are not just saying something but also making
request.

Thus, each speech event (or speech act) has at least two facets to it:
 Locutionary act: (the act of saying something)
 Illocutionary act: (the act of doing something)

I. Performatives versus constatives

1. The performative / constative dichotomy
 Austin (ibid.:10) distinguishes between performatives and constatives.

Sentence is divided into two categories

Perfomatives constatives
 Performative is a sentence which does not describe nor  constative sentence is a sentence
affirm about fact but contains a felicity condition. which affirms about fact, reports
 The point of uttering such sentences is not just to say things, events, and describes situation and
but also actively to do things or perfom acts. condition. It must contain truth
values.
For instance :
I now pronounce you husband and wife.
I sentence you to ten years in prison.

 In the sentences above, the performative verbs cannot be

deleted as they are essential element to perfom the action
such as, promise, pronounce, etc. that is, we cannot make
a promise without using the verb promise.

37
Explicit performative Nonexplicit performative
It describes an utterance that contains a Any utterance not containing a performative
performative verb used in its performative sense. verb used in its performative sense, we call it
a nonexplicit performative.

Any type of illocutionary act can be achieved through either an explicit or nonexplicit
performative utterance.

For instance:

Explicit Performative Nonexplicit Performative

Representative I deny that I killed Cock I did not kill Cock Robin.
Robin.

Directive I forbid you to leave your Don’t leave your room.

room.
Question I ask you where your were Where were you on the night of May
on the night of May 21 21?

Commissive I vow that I will be faithful I will be faithful to you

to you.
Expressive I thank you for your help. I appreciate your help.

Declaration I resign. I don’t work here anymore.

We might treat nouns derived from performative verbs(e.g., advice from advise) as capable of
functioning as explicit performatives.
Note:
The utterance My advice is for you to leave now corresponds precisely to the explicit
performative I advise you to leave now.

38
II. Austin’s felicity conditions on performatives
Felicity conditions ‫الشروط الالزمة لتحقيق او نجاح الكالم‬
 Felicity conditions are the conditions that must be in place and the criteria that must
be satisfied for a speech act to achieve its purpose.
 They are not valid until the participants and the circumstances must be appropriate.

 Necessary conditions are needed for the success of speech act

For a speech act to work, Austin argues , there are number of felicity conditions that must be
met.

1. There must be a generally accepted procedure for successfully carrying out the
speech act. Also, the cirucumanstances must be appropriate for the use of
speech act and the person who uses the speech act must be the appropriate
person to use it in the particular context.

For instance :

Only certain people are qualified to declare war, baptize people or sentence
criminals.

2. The procedure must be executed correctly and completely.

For instance :

The bride and the broom should reply ‘I do’ (rather than okay) and the
marriage license must be signed.

3. The person must (in most cirucumstances) have the required thoughts,
feelings and intentions for the speech act to be felicitous. That is, the
communication must be carried out by the right person, in the right place, at
the right time, and with certain intention or it will not work.

However,

o If the first two of these conditions are not satisified, the act will not be acheived and
will misfire.
o If the third of these conditions does not hold, then the procedure will be abused.

39
III. Locutionary, illocutionary, and
perlocutionary speech acts
 The previous distinction between performatives and constatives had been earlier
rejected by him in favour of a general theory of speech acts.

What led Austin to abondon the performative/constative dichotomy ?

 He noted that like performatives, constatives are also subject of felicity conditions.
 Austin observed that performatives and constatives may be impossible to distinguish
even in truth-conditional terms. There are some utterances that pass the hereby test,
and therefore are performatives by definition, but that nevertheless are used to state or
assert.

Austin divided speech act into three categories:

1. Locutionary act
 It is the act of making a meaningful utterance. (the literal meaning)
 This is the act of simply uttering a sentence from a language.
 It can take any number of forms. There can be statement, questions and
all sorts of grammatical variations.
 It is the act of using of using a referring expression (e.g., a noun phrase)
and a predicating expression (e.g., verb phrase) to express a proposition.
You must stop smoking.
 Utterance: would you like a cup of coffee?
 Illocutionary act: Offering

Austin further analyses the locutionary act into three sub-types :

A. Phonic act :
 The process of producing the sounds. It is concerned with the physical
act of making a certain sequence of vocal sounds, in case of spoken
language, or a set of written symbols.
B. Phatic act :
 The act of constructing a particular word, phrase or sentence.
 The structural and syntactic arrangement of the sounds produced by the
speaker.
C. Rhetic act

The act of contextualizing a sentence.

The sorting of the utterance by the speaker to deliver a certain
message to the hearer.
 These three sub-acts are modes of explanation in linguistic theory, ,namely,
phonetics /phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantic/pragmatics

40
 2. illocutionary act
 The illocutionary act refers tothe purpose ofspeaking. It refers to the
type of function thespeaker intends to fulfill, orthe action thespeaker
intends to accomplishin the courseof producing an utterance.
 This is what the speaker does in uttering a sentence.
 It is doing something perhaps different from what is said (the intended
meaning).
 Illocutionary act is using a sentence to perfom a function.
Examples of illocutionary acts

Accusing,apologizing,blaming,congratulating, etc.
o illocutionary force
 it is the functions or actions that the speaker
intends behind the utterance. (promise, giving
persmission, ordering, etc.)
 Sometimes, the same linguistic expression can be used to carry out a
wide variety of different speech acts, so that the same locutionary act
can count as having different illocutionary forces in different contexts.

3. Perlocutionary act
 The perlocutionary act is related to the reflection of the locutionary act
on the hearer.
 When a husband, for example, says to his wife:" I promise you a
diamond ring", the perlocutionary act is to bring happiness and
satisfaction on the wife.
 A perlocutionary act concerns the effect an utterance may have on the
addressee.
 A perlocution is the act by which the illocution produces a certain
effect in or exerts a certain influence on the addressee.
 Perlocutionary act represents aconsequenceorby-product of speaking,
whetherintentional or not.
 Perlocutionary act is the results or effects that are produced by means
of saying something .
 The effect of the act being performed by speaking is generally known
as the perlocutionary effect

41
Difference between illocutionary act and perlocutionary act
Illocutionary acts Perlocutionary acts
They are intended by the speaker. They are not always intended by
the by her or him.

They are under the speaker’s full They are not under the his or her
control. full control.
They are in principle determinate They are often indeterminate

IV. Searle’s typology of speech acts

Austin classified speech acts into five types :
1. Verdictives
 Typified by the giving of the verdict by a jury, umpire and arbitrator.
 The decision that is given by the jury or judge at the end of a trial.

2. Exercitives
 Which are the exercising of powers, rights or influence such as appoint, order,
advise, and warn.

3. Commissives
 Which commit the speaker to do something, but also include declarations or
announcements of intention such as promise, guarantee, and bet.
4. Behabitives
 They are concerned with attitudes and social behavior such as, apologies,
criticize, bless and challenge.

5. Expositives
 Which clarify how utterances fit into ongoing discourse , or how they are
being used : argue, affirm, and concede.

 There have been many attempts to develop and strenght the original Austinian
taxonomy.
 Despite all the classifications, Austinian typology of speech acts remain the most
influential.
 John Searle pointed out that there is a seemingly endless number of illocutionary acts,
including statements, promises, commands, etc.
 At the same time, he observed that some illocutionary acts are more closely related than
others. Therefore, he attempted to classify illocutionary acts into the following types.
42
 The five types of speech act :

1. Representative:
 It is used to describe state of affairs.
 They express the speaker’s belief.
 In performing this type of speech act, the speaker represents the world as he
or she believes it is.
 It includes acts of stating, claiming, asserting, denying, confessing, admitting,
notifying, lying, concluding and predicting.
Javier plays golfs.
2. Directive:
 It is an utterance used to try to get the hearer to do something.
 It includes acts of commanding,requesting, ordering, forbidding, warning,
advising, recommending and suggesting.
I warn you to stay away from my wife

Note: Searle treated questions as a subcategory of directives

a. Question:
 It is used to get the hearer to provide information.

3. Commissive:
 It is what the speaker’s say relate to the future action. It means the speaker
commits to the listener.
 It includes acts of promising, threaths, volunteering, refusing, offering,
guaranteeing and betting.
I promise to come to your birthday.

4. Expressive:
 It is an utterance used to express the speakers’ emotional state.
 It includes acts of apologizing, thanking, congratulating, like, dislike, objecting
and welcoming.
I’m sorry for calling you dumb.

5. Declaration:
 It is an utterance used to change the status of some entity.
 It shows what the speaker say cause a change to the listener.
 In performing this type of speech act, the speaker brings about changes in the
world.
 It includes acts of naming, declaring war,firing from emplyement, resigning,
baptizing, arresting and judging. You are out! You are guilty!

43
 I. Explicit Versus Nonexplicit Illocutionary acts
 Austin realized that English contains a set of verbs, each of which actually names the
illocutionary force of that verb.

For instance,

I confess that I stole the family jewels.

I warn you to stop teasing your sister.

 If said under the right circumstances, each of these sentences performs the act
named by the verb (i.e., a type of representative, a type of directive)
 So, verbs in each sentence are known as performative verbs.

In order to perform the illocutionary act as its performative sense, it must:

1. Be positive
I can’t promise to bring the beans (not positive)

2. Be present tense
I promised I would bring the beans (not present)

3. Have a first agent (i.e., performer of the action of the verb)

Ahmed promises that he will bring the beans (not first person)

4. Refer to specific event

I promise people things from time to time. (not specific)

 So, these are not used in the performative sense.

Correct one: I promise I will bring the beans

In addition, not all verbs are performarive verbs.

For instance, know; it doesn’t meet the following criteria:

These three tests for distinguishing performative and nonperformative verbs:

1. Performative verbs describe a voluntary act
o You can’t choose to know or not to know something.

2. They describe an act that can only be performed with words

o You can know something without saying you know it.

3. They can be used with the performative indicator hereby

o You can’t say “I hereby know such and such.”

44
Explicit performative Nonexplicit performative
It describes an utterance that contains a Any utterance not containing a performative
performative verb used in its performative sense. verb used in its performative sense, we call it
a nonexplicit performative.

Any type of illocutionary act can be achieved through either an explicit or nonexplicit
performative utterance.
For instance:
Explicit Performative Nonexplicit Performative
Representative I deny that I killed Cock I did not kill Cock Robin.
Robin.

Directive I forbid you to leave your Don’t leave your room.

room.

Question I ask you where your were Where were you on the night of May
on the night of May 21 21?

Commissive I vow that I will be faithful I will be faithful to you

to you.
Expressive I thank you for your help. I appreciate your help.

Declaration I resign. I don’t work here anymore.

We might treat nouns derived from performative verbs(e.g., advice from advise) as capable of
functioning as explicit performatives.
Note:
The utterance My advice is for you to leave now corresponds precisely to the explicit
performative I advise you to leave now.

45
 V. Indirect speech acts
Direct Versus Indirect Illocutionary Acts

Particular sentence types are associated with particular illocutionary acts

Direct illocutionary acts

When there is a direct relationship between a structure (syntactic form) and a function
(Illocutionary act) of a sentence, it is called a direct illocutionary acts.

Utterance Illocutionary act Syntactic Form

Keep quite. Directive Imperative

Do you know Youssra? Yes-No question Yes-No interogative

What time is it? Wh-question Wh-interogative

How nice you are! Expressive Exclamatory

It is raining. Representative Declarative

I will help you with the Commissive Declarative

dishes.

You are fired. Declaration Declarative

Anytime a directive is issued with an imperative sentence, it constitutes a direct

Illocutionary act.

Indirect illocutionary acts

 If the relationship between structure and function is indirect (e.g., a declarative
used to make a request) it is called indirect illocutionary act.
 That is, the syntactic form of the utterance does not match the illocutionary force
of the utterance.

 Because direct illocutionary Act, including directive (imperative), can be rude and
for reasons of politeness, such speech should be softer so that we can use Indirect
Illocutionary act.

46
Utterance Illocutionary Act Syntactic Form
You might give me a hand Directive Declarative
with this.
(Give me a hand with this
“impre”)

And you are. Wh-question Declarative

(Who are you? question)

Could you keep quiet? Directive Yes-No interrogative

(Keep quiet.)

Do you have the time? Wh-question Yes-No interrogative

(What time is it?)

Can I give you a hand with Commissive Yes-No interrogative

that?
(I can give you a hand with
that)

 The Illocutionary part of a speech act is what the utterance does (rather than what
it says)
 Illocutionary acts are valid only if they their felicity conditions are met.

The following Diagram explains the previous information:

Illocutionary act
(e.g,directive)

Explicit
I insist that you Nonexplicit
clean.

Indirect
Direct
would you clean
clean up the mess up this mess?

47