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Semantic Unit 3 - Part 2 2

This document discusses the concepts of sense and reference as they relate to language. It makes the following key points: - The sense of an expression is its meaning or place within the system of semantic relationships, while the referent is the thing or person in the world that the expression refers to. - Words, phrases, and sentences can have multiple senses depending on context, but not all expressions have referents. - Defining the sense of expressions can be circular in nature, as meanings are often indicated by other expressions rather than concrete referents. - The same sense can be expressed by terms in different languages or dialects, even if the actual words or connotations differ. Sense relates to conceptual meaning

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90 views15 pages

Semantic Unit 3 - Part 2 2

This document discusses the concepts of sense and reference as they relate to language. It makes the following key points: - The sense of an expression is its meaning or place within the system of semantic relationships, while the referent is the thing or person in the world that the expression refers to. - Words, phrases, and sentences can have multiple senses depending on context, but not all expressions have referents. - Defining the sense of expressions can be circular in nature, as meanings are often indicated by other expressions rather than concrete referents. - The same sense can be expressed by terms in different languages or dialects, even if the actual words or connotations differ. Sense relates to conceptual meaning

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Uyên Hoang
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Semantic Unit 3

Part 2 – Practice: 5-12


And
13-15
Sense

The sense of an expression is its place in the system of


semantic relationships with other expressions in the language.
Words, Phrases, and Sentences have sense

Sameness of Meaning:
I almost / nearly fell over. S/D
It is likely / probable that Raymond will be here tomorrow. S/D
Your gatepost doesn’t seem to be quite vertical / upright. S/D
He painted the fireplace aquamarine / vermillion. S/D
I’ll see you on Wednesday / Thursday. S/D

 
Sense of Phrases and Sentences
Intuitively, do the following pairs mean the same thing?
(1) Rupert took off his jacket
Rupert took his jacket off
(2) Harriet wrote the answer down
Harriet wrote down the answer
(3) Bachelors prefer redheads
Girls with red hair are preferred by unmarried men

In some cases, the same word can have more than one sense!
Does the word bank have the same meaning in the following sentence pairs?
(1) 1 have an account at the Bank of Scotland
We steered the raft to the other bank of the river Yes/No
(2) The DC-10 banked sharply to avoid a crash
I banked the furnace up with coke last night Yes/No
Sentences can have more than one Sense
(1) Write down two sentences bringing out clearly the two different

meanings of The chicken is ready to eat.


(2) Write down two sentences 'bringing out clearly the two
different senses of He greeted the girl with a
smile.
(3) Do likewise for He turned over the field.
On the relationship between sense and reference:
Referent of an expression is often a thing or a person in the world;
Sense of an expression is not a thing at all.
In fact, it is difficult to say what sort of entity the sense of an
expression is.
.
When a person understands fully what is said to him, it is reasonable to say that he grasps the sense of
the expressions he hears

Every expression that has meaning has sense, but not


every expression has reference.
Do these words refer to things in the world?
1. Almost 2. Probable 3. And 4.If

1. When you look up the meaning of a word in the


dictionary, what do you find there, it’s referent, or an
expression with the same sense?
(2) Is a dictionary full of words or full of things, like a
box or a sack?
Sense - continued

(3) Could a foreigner learn the meanings of his very first


words of English by having their typical referents
pointed out to him? Yes / No
(4) Could a foreigner learn the meanings of his very first
words of English by looking them up in an English
dictionary? Yes /No
Comment: 
There is something essentially circular about the set of definitions in a
dictionary. Similarly, defining the senses of words and other
expressions often has something of this circular nature. This is not
necessarily a bad thing, and in any case it is often unavoidable, since
in
" many cases (e.g. cases of expressions that have no referents: and, etc.)

there is no way of indicating the meaning of an expression except


Circular Nature of Definitions

Happy

Delighte
Glad
d

Overjoye
Ecstatic
d

Elated
Propositions are Complete Independent Thoughts

Are the senses of the following expressions propositions?


(1) Johnny has got a new master Yes / No
(2) A new master (not understood as an elliptical sentence-
fragment) Yes / No
(3) Johnny (not understood as an elliptical sentence-
fragment) Yes / No
(4) This is the house that Jack built Yes /No

To the extent that perfect translation between languages is possible


(and this is a very debatable point), the same sense can be said to belong
to expressions in different languages.
(I) Do AI. Berger s 'est rase ce marin and AI. Berger shaved
himself this morning express the same proposition? Yes/No
(2) Do the two sentences in (I) have the same sense? Yes/No
(3) Do the expressions ce marin and this morning have the Yes/No
same sense?
(4) Do the expressions s 'est rase and shaved himselfhave
the same sense? Yes/No
(5) Does ein unverheirateter Mann have the same sense as
an unmarried man? Yes / No
Comment 
Just as one can talk of the same sense in different Languages, so one can
talk of expressions in different dialects of one language as having the
same sense.
Different Dialects, Same Sense
(l) Do pavement in British English and sidewalk in American
English have the same sense? Yes/No

(2) Do pal and chum have the same sense? Yes/No

(3) Can expressions with entirely different social conno-


tations have the same sense? For example, can the
following have the same sense?

People walking in close spatio-temporal proximity


People walking near each other Yes/No

 
Both referring and uttering are acts performed, by par-
ticular speakers on particular occasions.

Imagine that a friend of yours says to you, "John is putting on


weight
these days", and imagine that a friend of ours (Le, the authors of
this
book) happens to utter the same sentence to us one day.
(1) Would this be a case of one utterance or two?
-----------------------------------
(2) Would the John refereed to be the same John or two different
Johns? '
-----------------------------------
In the two separate utterances above, there are two separate acts of
referring. In fact, most utterances contain, or are accompanied by,
Reference VS Sense

What is intended by the word mean, meaning, etc. in the following


examples, reference (R) or sense (S)? .

(I) When' Helen mentioned "the fruit cake", she meant that
rock-hard object in the middle of the table. R/S
(2) When Albert talks about "his former friend" he means me. R/S
(3) Daddy, what does unique mean? R/S
(4) Purchase has the same meaning as buy. R/S
(5) Look up the meaning of apoplexy in your dictionary.
R/S
(6) If you look out of the window now, you'll see who I mean.
R/S
Sense Reference

 Idealization of our  More concrete


understanding of meaning
 We must act more certain than  Easier to be certain of
we are about expressions and
if they have the same sense
 Can grasp the concept
 More elusive than reference
more readily
 More abstract
Assignment for Next Class
Unit 4 – Referring Expressions
Practice: 1-6

Mid. 1
Wednesday, Oct. 17
In Class

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