Katarina Rasuli

[email protected] Office hours: Tuesday, 3-5 p.m.

 The
The

study of meaning
study of meaning in language

Subject

matter?

Ogden, Charles K. & Ivor A. Richards (1923).

The Meaning of Meaning. A Study of the Influence of Language upon Thought and the Science of Symbolism.
Meaning, the central problem of Language, neglected by the sciences most concerned

Each science has tended to delegate the unpleasant task to another.

The word soporific means tending to produce sleep. Low also means depressed, as in Shes been feeling low lately. Powerful essentially means the same as strong, but we say strong tea, not powerful tea.
Brutus killed Ceasar means the same as Ceasar was killed by Brutus. The statement that Brutus killed Ceasar means that Ceasar is dead.

What do you mean by collaborative learning? Do you really mean what you say? When she says Im tired, she actually means Lets go home.

Pauses in speech may mean insecurity. High pitch and fast tempo typically mean that the speaker is excited. Smoke means fire. The red flag means danger. That phone call means trouble.

Your mother always means well. Im sorry, I didnt mean to hurt you. I meant to ring you, but I forgot. She says she will resign, and she means it.

My friends mean a lot to me. Her career means everything to her.

He is meant to become a lawyer. Are teachers meant to be fair? Mercedes is meant to be an excellent car.

Meaning is the holy grail not only of linguistics, but also of philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience not to mention more distant domains such as cultural and literary theory. Understanding how we mean and how we think is a vital issue for our intuitive sense of ourselves as human beings. For most people, meaning is intuitively the central issue in the study of language far more important than understanding details of word order and morphology. Ray Jackendoff, Foundations of Language, Oxford: OUP, 2002, p.267

Christian Karl Reisig (1825) - Vorlesungen ber

lateinische Sprachwissenschaft:

Semasiology a historical discipline aiming to establish the principles governing the development of meaning

Michel Bral (1897) Essai de smantique: science des

significations.

...the laws governing changes in meaning, the choice of new expressions, the birth and death of idioms have been left in the dark or have only been casually indicated. Since this study, no less than phonetics or morphology, deserves to have a name, we shall call it semantics, i.e. the science of meaning. /1883/ (sema) sign, (sman) "signify

On Saturday, I said that Liverpool have been rubbish this season. Peter made me temper that comment to a more reasonable "they're not playing as well as we'd expect them to". Liverpool are four points off the relegation zone. For a team like Liverpool, that's not good enough. Now you can call that rubbish, or you can say it's not good enough, or you can say they're not fulfilling their potential - but that's just semantics.
It is a Mac, not a PC, but OK, lets not argue semantics here.

Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914)

(1994) Ferdinand de Saussure - Cours de linguistique gnrale (1916) One may conceive of a science which would study the life of signs in a society... We shall call it semiology Charles Morris - Foundations of the Theory of Signs (1938) - syntactics - the formal relations of signs to each other - semantics - the relations of signs to the objects they are applied to - pragmatics - the relation of signs to interpreters

Peirce on Signs: Writings on Semiotic, J. Hoopes, ed.

Ullmann (1957): Ch 1. What is Semantics? Geeraerts (2010): Ch. 1.1 The Birth of Lexical Semantics; Ch. 1.2 The Nature of Meaning Daniel Chandler: Semiotics for Beginners http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4 B/sem02.html

The statement of meaning is the weak point in language study and will remain so until human knowledge advances well beyond its present state. Leonard Bloomfield, Language, 1933 In the meantime growing interest in linguistic semantics E.g. Lyons, John. (1977). Semantics (2 vols). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. The study of what the expressions of a natural language contribute to some overall process of interpretation that the language makes possible NB: Synchronic : diachronic approach

Phonetics Phonology Morphology Lexicology Syntax Semantics Pragmatics ...

bat-pat-mat-cat-sat glow, glitter womanizer : fertilizer untouchables take off Jack-of-all-trades songs, young, loves, the, teacher, old The King of France lost her laptop yesterday I am freezing.

Linguistic disciplines

Meaning & Linguistic units

Identifying and characterizing different types of meaning

cheap : inexpensive the Morning Star : the Evening Star Ill be back later : Ill return after some time When he says Ill be back later, he means... Does the word bachelor mean unmarried adult male?

Defining / specifying meanings

Exploring relations between form and meaning

bow miaow

Exploring the ways in which meanings combine to form more complex meanings

a red hat a small elephant a beautiful dancer

Exploring meaning relations

strong : powerful; strong : weak Her husband is a fool : She has a husband. Harry killed the dragon : The dragon is dead. crane hot

Exploring meaning extension

Exploring how meaning changes over time

nice; silly; gay breakfast; nuts-and-bolts; teens be going to; in front of; lets

Semantics : Diachronic linguistics

Exploring the meaning of grammatical items

Mary writes a blog.

Exploring the lexicon-grammar interface in meaning construction and interpretation

Mary is blogging herself sick.

Semantics : Syntax

Exploring the role of linguistic and nonlinguistic context in meaning construction and interpretation red hair, red wine She has just arrived from New York. The plane was late. - Where is your towel? - Ive come to the beach with my dad.
Semantics : Pragmatics

Examining the possibility of formalization If the sun is shining, then John is happy PQ Ss Hj Every person is mortal x (Px Mx) Some person is mortal x (Px Mx)
Semantics : Logic ...

Fundamental theoretical concepts Description of various semantic phenomena in the English language Overview of traditional and contemporary theoretical and methodological approaches Special emphasis: lexical semantics