Chapter 5 Meaning.ppt

语义 Meaning AStudyonModernEnglishLinguistics ChapterFive SENSEANDREFERENCE THESENSERELATION THEREFERENCIALTHEORY COMPONENTIALANALYSIS SENTENCEMEANING CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 5 1Semantics ThesubjectconcerningthestudyofmeaningiscalledSEMANTICS Morespecifically semanticsisthestudyofthemeaningoflinguisticunits wordsandsentencesinparticular Inotherwords semanticsmainlyincludes Lexicalsemantics 词汇语义学 Sententialsemantics 句子语义学 Whatissemantics 5 1Semantics OLD AsubjectwithlongtraditionYOUNG semanticsremainstheleastknownareainlinguistics comparedwithphonetics phonology morphologyandsyntax 涵义和指称 SenseandReference Superman amanofunusuallygreatabilityorstrengthSenseorreference Whatissense AccordingtoDaiandHe 2002 72 Senseisconcernedwiththeinherentmeaningofthelinguisticform Itisthecollectionofallthefeaturesofthelinguisticform Itisabstractandde contextualized Itistheaspectofmeaning dictionarycompliersareinterestedin theword dog isdefinedas adomesticcaninemammal occurringinmanybreedsthatshowagreatvarietyinsizeandform Butitdoesnotrefertoanyparticulardogthatexistsintherealworld butappliestoanyanimalthatmeetsthefeaturedescribedinthedefinition Soisthesenseof dog Whatisreference Referencemeanswhatalinguisticformreferstointhereal physicalworld itdealswiththerelationshipbetweenthelinguisticelementandthenon linguisticworldofexperience Anexample Thedogisbarking The dog in Thedogisbarking isaspecificdogknowntothespeakerandthehearer DifferencebetweenSenseandReference 指称 Sensereferstotheabstractpropertiesofanentity andreferencereferstotheconcreteentityhavingtheseproperties Ononehand linguisticformshavingthesamesensemayhavedifferentreferencesindifferentsituations Ontheotherhand therearesomeoccasions whenlinguisticformswiththesamereferencemightdifferinsensee g EveningStarandMorningStar Venus Everywordhasasense butnoteverywordhasareference e g somegrammaticalwordsandimaginarythings See Hu 2011 96 Sense 意义 andConcept Sense referstothepropertiesanentityhas Equivalenttoeachother Similartotheconnotativeinphilosophy See Hu 2011 96 Itisnotconvenienttoexplainthemeaningofawordintermsofthethingitrefersto Thethingawordstandsformaynotalwaysbeathandatthetimeofspeaking Evenitisnearby itmaytakethehearerorlistenersometimetoworkoutitsmainfeatures See Hu 2011 97 5 3TheReferentialTheory ReferentialTheoryProposedbyOgdenandRichardsinTheMeaningofMeaning Itisthetheoryofmeaning whichrelatesthemeaningofawordtothethingitrefersto orstandsfor Therelationshipbetweenawordandthethingitreferstoisnotdirect butindicatedbyconcept See Hu 2011 95 SemanticTriangle Ogden Richard desk机 桌子 5 3TheReferentialTheory Thelinguisticelements suchaswords sentences usedtoexpressthingsorobjects Theconceptofthethingsorobjectsinthehearerorthespeaker smind Thethingsorobjectsintheworldofexperience Semantictriangle 5 4SenseRelations 涵义关系 Wordsareindifferentsenserelations semanticrelation witheachother Somewordshavemoresimilarsensesthanothers e g A deskv s tableB deskv s chairC deskv s furniture See Hu 2011 97 5 4SenseRelations Therearegenerally3kindsofsenserelationsrecognized namely samenessrelation synonymy同义oppositenessrelation antonymy反义inclusivenessrelation hyponymy上下义 See Hu 2011 97 5 4SenseRelations Synonymy Samenessofmeaning e g Sidewalk AmE pavement BrE buy purchase 西红柿 番茄 镭射 激光Totalsynonymsarerare orinotherwords notwowordsshareexactlythesamemeaning Tobestrict inmostcases whatwecallsynonymsarejustnear synonyms differentwordswithclosesimilarityofmeaning Theydifferinonewayoranother See Hu 2011 97 98 Dialectalsynonym AutumnLiftLuggageLorryPetrolFlatWindscreenTorch FallElevatorBaggageTruckGasApartmentwindshieldflashlight StylisticsynonymsOldman daddy dad father maleparentStart begin commenceKid child offspringKickthebucket popoff die passaway decease CollocationalsynonymsAccuse ofCharge withRebuke for 5 4SenseRelations AntonnymyWordsthatareoppositeinmeaningareantonyms InEnglishlanguage thereareseveraltypesofantonyms GradableAntonyms等级反义关系ComplementaryAntonyms互补反义关系RelationalOpposites反向反义关系 See Hu 2011 98 101 Antonymy Gradability oldyoung lessoldlessyoung dry wet 5 4SenseRelations Antonymsofthistyperefertothosewhicharenotabsolutelyopposite theirmeaningsaregradable 1 Degrees thereareoftenintermediateformsbetweenthesetwoextremeforms Theyoftenhavecomparativeandsuperlativeforms 2 Verymodification Theycanbemodifiedby Very 3 Criterion thereisnoabsolutecriterionandthecriterionvarieswiththeobjectdescribed Denialoftheoneisnotthenecessarilyascertainofanother 4 coverterm thetermforthehigherdegree Ifthecoveredisused thenitsuggeststhatthereissomethingunusual Thespeakermayalreadyknowthatsomebody somethingisyoung small nearandhewantstoknowtheextentingreaterdetail Characteristic Denialofoneimpliestheassertionoftheotherandtheassertionofoneimpliesthedenialoftheother Theyarecomplementarytoeachother Antonymy Complementarity 5 4SenseRelations Characteristics 1 Theydivideupthewholeofthistype 2 Criterion Absolutenorm Itdoesnotvarywiththethingawordisappliedto 3 Coverterm Nocovertermforthetwomembersofapair 4 Verymodification Wordsofthistypecannotbemodifiedby very Antonymy RelationalOpposites Converseantonymy 5 4SenseRelations Apairofwordswhichhavereversereflectedmeaning Theyoftenoccurbypairs theycannotexistindependentlywithouttheirpartners Therearealwaystwoentitiesinvolved Onepresupposestheother Theyshowthereversalofarelationshipbetweentwoentities Ifyouwanttobuysomething somebodyelsemustsellit Ifonewantstobeawife sheneedsahusband Hyponymythemeaningofonelexicalitem specific thatmaybesaidtobeincludedwithinthemeaningofanother general SeetheTreeDiagram 5 4SenseRelations Asuperordinate 上坐标词 maybeasuperordinatetoitself Wecallitauto hyponym自我下义词 5 4SenseRelations cyan blue violet orange yellow green red 5 4SenseRelations Asuper ordinatemaybemissingsometimes red 5 4SenseRelations Homonym Homophone 同音异义Wordsthathavedifferentmeaningsbutarepronouncedthesame andmayormaynotspelledthesame E g bear bareBank thefinancialinstitutionvs theriverside polysemy一词多义E g I llmeetyoubythebank Twodifferentsetofhomonyms 5 5 ComponentialAnalysis 成分分析法 Anapproachbylinguiststodescribethemeaningofwordsandphrases AccordingtoLeech theanalysisofwordmeaningisoftenaprocessofbreakingdownthesenseofwordintoitsminimalcomponents TheoreticalBase Themeaningofawordisnotanun analyzablewhole Therearesemanticunitssmallerthanthemeaningofaword Wordisregardedasacomplexofdifferentsemanticfeatures components 语义成分 See Hu 2011 102 105 EvidenceforSemanticFeatures 1 Semanticfeaturesarenotdirectlyobservable Theirexistencemustbeinferredfromlinguisticevidence Onesourceofsuchevidenceisthespeecherrors or slipsofthetongue thatweallproduce Theincorrectlysubstitutedwordsarenotrandombutsharesomesemanticfeaturewiththeintendedwords Thesemanticpropertiesthatdescribethelinguisticmeaningofawordshouldnotbeconfusedwithothernonlinguisticproperties suchasphysicalproperties Example WaterThesenseofwatertheclearliquidwithoutcolor smell ortastethatfallsasrainandthatisusedfordrinking washingetcTheproperties Itiscomposedof AningredientoflemonadeShouldwenecessarilyknowthesepropertiesofwaterinordertouseandunderstandthewordwater EvidenceforSemanticFeatures 2 Semanticfeaturesinteractwithdifferentaspectsofthegrammarsuchasmorphologyorsyntax Thiscanshowupinbothnounsandverbs Fromthelist wemayabstractthesamepropertiesofwords SemanticFeaturesofnNouns TheambiguityoftoastAsafoodFrenchtoastisamassnoun butasanorationitisacountnoun SemanticFeaturesofVerbs Cause isafeatureofverbssuchasdarken kill uglify etc Go isafeatureofverbsthatmeanachangeinlocationorpossession suchasswim crawl throw fly give buy etc Verbalfeatures likefeaturesonnouns mayhavesyntacticconsequences E g Verbscaneitherdescribeevents eventive orstates stative Whethertheycanbeusedwhenpassivized whenexpressedprogressively whenusedimperatively andwithcertainadverbs Negation Expressionssuchasever anymore havearedcentandmanymoreareungrammaticalincertainsimpleaffirmativesentences butgrammaticalincorrespondingnegativeones Suchexpressionsarecallednegativepolarityitemsbecauseanegativeelementsuchas not elsewhereinthesentenceallowsthemtoappear Thissuggeststhatverbssuchasdoubtanddespair butnotthinkandhopehave negative asacomponentoftheirmeaning SentenceMeaning sententialsemantics EntailmentandPresuppositionEntailment 蕴含 衍推 arelationshipbetweentwosentences Ifknowingthatonesentenceistruegivesuscertainknowledgeofthetruthofthesecondsentence thefirstsentenceentailsthesecond e g A ThemanassassinatedtheKing B TheKingdied Wordsinhyponymy A Johnplaystheviolin B Johnplaysamusicalinstrument ThetruthofBfollowsfromthetruthofA whilethefalsityofAfollowsthefalsityofB Presuppose 预设 Whataspeakerorwriterassumesthatthereceiverofthemessagealreadyknows e g A WhataboutinvitingSimontoourpartytonight B YouknowSimon Wordsinrelationalautonomy Father kidBuy sellLend borrow AdditionalExercises Readthefollowingsen