Chapter Five第五章 语义学.doc

Chapter Five第五章 语义学1、Semantics定义can be simply defined as the study of meaning. Some views concerning the study of meaning: 2、语义研究的主要流派有哪些？（四种） 1) The naming theory: 命名论. One of the oldest notions concerning meaning, and also a very primitive one, It was proposed by the ancient Greek scholar Plato. According to this theory, the linguistic forms or symbols used in a language are taken to be labels of the objects they stand for. So words are just names or labels for things. 2) The conceptualist view: 意念论 It holds that there is no direct link between a linguistic form and what it refers to. In the interpretation of meaning, they are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind. 3) Contextualism: (语境论) It is based on the presumption(假定) that one can derive推导) meaning from or reduce meaning to observable可观测的) contexts. Two kinds of context are recognized:the situational context and the linguistic context .For example, the meaning of the word seal in the sentence The seal could not be found can only be determined according to the context in which the sentence occurs: 4) Behaviorism行为主义论The contextualist view was further strengthened by Bloomfield . He drew on behaviorist psychology when he tried to define the meaning of linguistic forms. Behaviorists attempted to define the meaning of a language form as the situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer. (Bloomfield, This behaviorist theory is somewhat close to contextualism. It is linked with psychological interest.5、意义与所指有什么关系Sense and reference？ Sense and reference are two terms in the study of meaning. Sense is concerned with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form. It is the collection of all the features of the linguistic form; it is abstract and de-contextualized. It is the aspect of meaning that dictionary compilers are interested in. it is abstract and de-contextualized.Reference means what a linguistic form refers to in the real, physical world; it deals with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience. (2)关系： Obviously, linguistic forms having the same sense may have different references in different situations. On the other hand, there are less frequent occasions when linguistic forms with the same reference might differ in sense, e.g. “morning star” and “evening star”. 6、 Major sense relations: 主要的意义关系1.synonymy(同义): refers to the sameness or close similarity of meaning. Words that are close in meaning are called synonyms. 同义词可以分为哪些类别？Synonymy can be divided into the following groups: Dialectal synonyms (地域性同义词): Dialectal synonyms are words which have more or less the same meaning and are used in different regional dialects such as petroleum in British English and gasoline in American English. Dialectal synonyms can also be found within British, or American English itself. For example, girl is called lass or lassie in Scottish dialect. Stylistic synonyms文体同义词): Stylistic synonyms are words which have the same meaning but differ in style, or degree of formality. Some of the stylistic synonyms tend to be more formal , others tend to be casual , and still others are neutral in style. For example:old man, daddy, dad, father, male parent. Synonyms that differ in their emotive or evaluative meaning :感性或评价方面不同的同义词They are words that have the same meaning but express different emotions of the user. The emotions of the user indicate the attitude or bias of the user toward what he is talking about, such as thrifty and miser. Collocational synonyms搭配上的区别的同义词): Some synonyms differ in their collocation. That is, they go together with different words, for example: accuse. . . of, charge. . . with, rebuke. .-for. Semantically different synonyms(语意上的差别): They refer to the synonyms that differ slightly in what they mean. For example, amaze and astound are very close in meaning to the word surprise, but they have very subtle differences in meaning. While amaze suggests confusion and bewilderment, astound imples difficulty in believing.2.polysemy(多义)：refers to different words may have the same or similar meaning; the same one word may have more than one meaning. For example: table 1 a piece of furniture 2 all the people seated at a table 3 the food that is put on a table . 3.homonymy(同音异意，同形异意)：homonymy refers to the phenomenon(现象) that words having different meanings have the same form, i.e. different words are identical (相同的)in sound or spelling , or in both. Homophones(同音异意):refer to two words are identical in sound, e.g. rain/ reign Homographs(同形异意):refer to two word are identical in spelling, e.g. tear n./tear v. 4.hyponymy(上下关系):refers to the sense relating between a more general, more inclusive word and a more specific word. The word which is more general in meaning is called superordinate, and the more specific words are called its hyponyms. Antonys：Antonymy refers to the oppositeness of meaning. Words that are opposite in meaning are called antonyms. 在语义上，反义关系可以分为哪几个类别？各有什么特征？ 1) gradable antonys渐进性关系反义: Some antonyms are gradable because there are often intermediate forms between the two members of a pair such as old/young, hot/cold. 2) Complementary antonyms完全反义: a pair of complementary antonyms is characterized by the feature that the denial of one member of the pair implies the assertion of the other. 3) Relational opposites相关对立反义: pairs of words that exhibit the reversal of a relationship between the two items.7、Sense relation between sentences句子间的关系：X is synonymous with Y (if X is true, Y is true, and if X is false, Y is false)X is inconsistent with Y (if X is true, Y is false, and if X is false, Y is true)X entails Y (Y is an entailment of X)Entailment is a relation of inclusion. If X entails Y, the meaning of X is included in Y):If X is true, Y is necessarily true. If X is false, Y maybe true and falseIf Y is false, X is falsee.g. X: He has been to France Y: He has been to Europe.X presupposes Y. (Y is a presupposition of X) (预设)If X is true, Y must be trueIf X is false, Y is still true. If Y is true, X is either true or false.If Y is false, non truth value can be said about Xe.g. X: Johns bike need repairing; Y: John has a bike.X is a contradiction (invariably false) e.g. My unmarried sister is married to a bachelor.X is semantically anomalous (语义变异)(absurd as it presupposes a contradiction): e.g. The table has bad intentions.Analysis of meaning意义分析Componential analysis(成分分析法):（词汇分析） is a way propose by the structural semanticists(语义学者) to analyze word meaning. This approach is based upon the belief that meaning of a word can be dissected into meaning components, called semantic features.句子的意义是构成句子的每个单词意义的总和吗？ The meaning of a sentence is not the sum total of the meanings of all its components. It cannot be worked out by adding up all the meanings of its constituent words. For example; The dog bit the man. The man bit the dog. The two sentences consist of exactly the same words, but they arc widely different in their meanings. Predication analysis(述谓分析法)（语义分析）: is a new approach for sentential meaning analysis. Predication is usually considered an important common category shared by propositions, questions, commands ect. Predication is to break down the sentence into their smaller constituents: argument (logical participant) and predicate(relation element). The predicate is the major or pivotal element governing the argument. 什么是述谓结构？它有那些类型？ The predication is the abstraction of the meaning of a sentence. This applies to all forms of sentence, including statements, imperative and interrogative forms. A predication consists of argument(s)论元 and predicate谓语. An argument is a logical participant in a predication. It is generally identical with the nominal element (s) in a sentence. A predicate is something that is said about an argument or it states the logical relation linking the arguments in a sentence. According to the number of arguments contained in a predication, the predications may be classified into two-place predication (containing two arguments), one-place argument (containing one argument), and no-place predication ( containing no argument). For example: His car is next to my car. (Two-place predication) He is singing. (One-place predication) It is raining. (No-place predication) What is grammaticality? What might make a grammatically meaningful sentence semantically meaningless(无意义的)? Grammaticalitythe grammatical well-formedness of a sentence. A sentence may be well-formed grammatically, i.e. it conforms to the grammatical rules of the language, but it is not necessarily semantically well-formed, i.e. it may not make sense at all. Presupposition(先设前提): is a semantic relationship or logical connection. A presupposes B. e.g. A: John watch needs repairing. B: John has a watch. If A is true, B must be true. Entailment(蕴涵):can be illustrated by the following two sentences in which sentence A entails sentence B. e.g. A : Mark married a blonde (金发碧眼的)heiress（女性继承人）. B: Mark married a blonde. A isT then B is T, B is false, A is false; A is false, B is not false. 8、语义变化的主要类型有哪些？ Semantic change refers to the chang