‫يا أمير المؤمنين ‪ ،‬أقر الله عينك ‪ ،‬وفرحك بما أتاك ‪ ،‬و أتم سعدك ‪ ،‬لقد“‬

‫” حكمت فقسطت‬
 ‫‪Semantics‬‬ ‫‪Pragmatics‬‬

‫‪Linguistic‬‬
‫‪Linguistic context‬‬ ‫‪+ Non-linguistic context‬‬

‫أقر الله“‬ ‫أسكن عينك‬ ‫أعماك‬ ‫دعاء بالهالك‬

‫”عينك‬ ‫عن الحركة‬

‫فرحك بما“‬ ‫فرح بطر‪/‬‬ ‫بطرت فأخذك‬ ‫دعاء بالهالك‬

‫”أتاك‬ ‫فرح شكر‬ ‫بالعذاب‬

‫أتم“‬ ‫بلغك تمام‬ ‫أزال ملكك‬ ‫دعاء بالهالك‬

‫”سعدك‬

‫لقد حكمت“‬ ‫عدلت أو‬ ‫جرت‬ ‫خبر‬

‫”فقسطت‬ ‫جرت‬ ‫فاستحققت‬
‫عذاب جهنم‬
 Semantics vs. Pragmatics


Semantics is the study of the 
Pragmatics is the study of what
meaning of words, phrases and speakers mean, or “speaker
sentences. meaning”.

In semantic analysis, there is 
There are other aspects of
always an attempt to focus on
meaning that depend more on
what the words conventionally
mean, rather than on what an
context and the
individual speaker might want them communicative intentions of
to mean on a particular occasion. speakers.

Semantics is concerned with 
Communication clearly depends
objective or general meaning and on not only recognizing the
avoids trying to account for meaning of words in an
subjective or local meaning. utterance, but recognizing what
speakers mean by their
utterances. (subjective
meaning)
 Studying the literal meaning

Types of Word Meaning

Semantic features

Lexical relations

Studying the speaker meaning


Context and meaning interpretation

Speech acts
Semantics
 Types of Word Meaning

Associative meaning:

Conceptual meaning:
It is the associations that may differ from
covers the basic, essential components of
one person to the next. These types of
meaning that are conveyed by the
associations are not treated as part of
literal use of a word. It is the type of
the word’s conceptual meaning.
meaning that dictionaries are designed
Different people might have different
to describe.
associations or connotations attached.

Example:
The connotation of a word can be positive,
“needle”: “thin, sharp, steel instrument.” negative, neutral. It can also be cultural
or personal.

It is the concern of semanticists.

Example:
“needle”: “pain,” or “illness,” or “blood,” or
“drugs,” or “thread,” or “knitting,” or
“hard to find

It is the concern of poets, song-writers,
novelists, literary critics, advertisers and
lovers
 Semantic features


The semantic features of a word are the basic elements involved in
differentiating the meaning of each word in a language from every
other word.

Table [- animate, - human, - female, - adult]
Man: [+ animate, + human, - female, + adult]

table horse boy man girl woman

animate - + + + + +

human - - + + + +

female - - - - + +
Component Analysis
adult - + - + - +
 Semantic features

From a feature analysis like this, we can characterize the feature

that is crucially required in a noun in order for it to appear as the
subject of a particular verb, supplementing the syntactic analysis
with semantic features. We can then predict which nouns (e.g.
table, horse, hamburger) would make the sentence semantically
odd.
The______________is reading the newspaper.
N [+human]
 Semantic features

The approach just outlined is a start on analyzing the conceptual

components of word meaning, but it is not without problems.
For many words in language it may not be as easy to come up
with neat components of meaning.
For example:
If we try to think of the components or features we would use to
differentiate the nouns advice, threat and warning, for
example, we may not be very successful.
 Lexical Relations
Lexical relations show the characteristics the meaning of each word, not in
terms of its component features, but in terms of its relationship to other
words. This approach is used in the semantic description of language.

Lexical relations

(Dis)similarity “Kind of”/ “Part of” Unified form &

of meaning relations meaning variation
 Lexical relations

(Dis)similarity “Kind of”/ “Part of” Unified form &

of meaning relations meaning variation

Synonymy Antonymy Hyponymy Metonymy Homonymy Polysemy

Closely Opposite A “kind of” A “part of” One form (written One form (written
related/similar meanings relation relation or spoken) with or spoken) with
meanings between between two or more two or more
words words unrelated related meanings
meanings

big/large alive/dead rose/flower petal/flower ‫ أداة توكيد‬: ‫أَّن‬ Date: a point in

red/color ‫ فعل ماض من‬: ‫أَّن‬ time, an
buy/purchase big/small head/body
cactus/tree ‫”“يئن أنينًا‬
‫جلس‬/‫قعد‬ child/parent ‫أسد‬/‫حيوان‬ leave/tree appointment, a
‫طلب‬/‫سأل‬ ‫غروب‬/‫شروق‬ Cockroach/insect ‫بيت‬/‫قصيدة‬ Date: a point in social meeting, a
‫قصير‬/‫طويل‬ time person we love
Date: a thing we ‫ آلة‬،‫ من نبات‬:‫عود‬
eat ‫ عطر‬،‫موسيقى‬
Pragmatics
 Pragmatics
• In many ways, pragmatics is the study of “invisible” meaning, or
how we recognize what is meant even when it isn’t actually said or
written.
• We must use 1) the meanings of the words, 2) the context in which
they occur, and 3) some shared knowledge of the world in order to
we work toward a reasonable interpretation of what the
speaker/writer intended it to convey.
• Our interpretation of the “meaning” of the word/sign is not based
solely on the words, but on what we think the writer intended to
communicate.
 Context

Context
(for any message)

Linguistic context Non-linguistic context

(Co-text) (Physical context)

The set of other words The aspects of the physical context,

used in the same phrase particularly the time and place, in which
or sentence. we encounter linguistic expressions. The
background and identity of the speaker
‫أقر الله عينك‬: also plays a role.
‫ثبت و أسكن عن الحركة‬
‫فال يلتفت يمنة و يسرة‬ ‫أقر الله عينك‬:
Speaker: an opponent figure
Time: after battles ‫ أعمى‬:‫أقر‬
Place: in an assembly room

You, Tomorrow
There We need a physical context to
‫عينك‬ know what they refer to.
 Speech Acts
• We usually know how the speaker intends us to “take” (or “interpret the
function of”) what is said. In very general terms, we can usually
recognize the type of “action” performed by a speaker with the utterance.
• We use the term speech act to describe actions such as “requesting,”
“commanding,” “questioning” or “informing.” We can define a speech act
as the action performed by a speaker with an utterance.

I’ll be there at six. Declarative

Expected speech act:

Actual Speech Act: Promise
Statement

Indirect Direct
 Direct and Indirect Speech Acts
We usually use certain syntactic structures with the functions listed beside them in the
following table.

Structures Functions

Did you eat the pizza? Interrogative Question

Eat the pizza (please)! Imperative Command (Request)

You ate the pizza. Declarative Statement

Whenever one of the structures in the set above is used to perform a function other than
the one listed beside it on the same line, the result is an indirect speech act.
Direct and Indirect Speech Acts
 References

Hurtford, J., B. Heasley and M. Smith (2007). Semantics: A

Coursebook. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Kreidler, C (1998). Introducing English Semantics. London:
Routledge.
Yule, G. (1996). Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Yule, G. (2010). The Study of Language. New York,NY:
Cambridge University Press