语言学第五章ppt课件

1、1,Chapter 5Semantics,2,5.1 Definition of Semantics,Semantics is the study of meaning in language. Meaning has been studied for thousands of years by philosophers, logicians and linguists. E.g. Plato different types of meaning.,4,The meaning of meaning,C. K. Ogden rather, in the interpretation of mea

2、ning they are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind.,12,Symbol (word),Referent (object/thing),Thought (concept),Ogden and Richards: Semantic triangle （1923：11）,13,airplane,14,The symbol or word signifies an object by virtue of the concept associated with the form of the word in the mi

3、nds of the speaker; and the concept looked at from this point of view is the meaning of the word.,15,Limitation,Some words have no obvious referents. e.g. of, could, if, under What is precisely the link between the symbol and concept?,16,Behaviorists attempted to define meaning as “the situation in

4、which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer”. (Bloomfield 133:139) the story of Jack and Jill ( Jill is hungry. She sees an apple and by saying something gets Jack to fetch it for her.),5.2.3 Meaning as behavior,17,Jill Jack S r-s R Meaning consists in the relationship

5、between speech indicated by the small letters r s and the practical events represented by the capitalized letters S and R that precede and follow them respectively. (meaning as speakers stimulus and hearers response),18,Limitation What if the listener does not cooperate or pretends not to understand

6、?,19,Meaning should be studied in terms of situation, use, contextelements closely linked with language behavior. (J. R. Firth) Two types of contexts are recognized: Situational context: spatio-temporal situation Linguistic context: the probability of a words co-occurrence or collocation.,5.2.4 Mean

7、ing as contextThe contextualism,20,Linguistic context,Linguistic context, some times known as co-text, is concerned with the probability of a words co-occurrence or collocation with another word, which forms part of the “meaning” of the word, and also the part of text that precedes and follows a par

8、ticular utterance.,21,e.g. Actually it is very light. This suitcase looks heavy but actually it is very light. It is not easy. It is not easy if you ask her to stop.,22,Situational context,Situational context refers to the particular spatiotemporal situation in which an utterance occurs, the main co

9、mponents of which include, apart from the place and time of the utterance, the speaker and the hearer, the actions they are performing at the time, the various objects and events existent in the situation.,23,Factors of the situational context,The setting (formal, informal) The speaker and hearer (r

10、elationship, position) The activities they are engaged in at the time The presence or absence of other participants The presence of various external objects and events,24,Knowing the meaning of a sentence is the same as knowing the condition under which the sentence is true or false. S is true if an

11、d only if P. sentence the set of conditions,5.2.5 Meaning as truth conditions,25,Truth condition: conditions which must hold for the sentence to be used to make a true statement (at least if it is used literally). Thus, before we can truthfully say, on some occasion, The cat is on the mat, there mus

12、t be some relevant feline occupying a specific position relative to an appropriate item of floor covering.,26,For example,The Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776. The Declaration of Independence was signed in 1976. Truth conditions are applicable to declaratives or statements.,27,Sense is

13、 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 way people relate words to each other within the framework of their language. bachelor = never married (词与词之间的关系),5.3.1 Sense

14、and reference,28,The family tree,舅父 = mothers brother 叔叔 = fathers younger brother 伯父 = fathers elder brother 姨妈 = mothers sister 姑妈 = fathers sister （汉语与英语词汇之间的关系）,29,Reference deals with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience. What a linguistic f

15、orm refers to in the real, physical world.（词与外部事物之间的关系） chair car,30,Linguistic forms having the same sense may have different references in different situations; on the other hand, there are also occasions, when linguistic forms with the same reference might differ in sense, e.g. the morning star a

16、nd the evening star, black tea and black hair.,31,Leech (1974:23) recognizes 7 types of meaning in his book Semantics: The Study of Meaning. e.g. He is a real man. human, adult, male: conceptual meaning (meaning in the dictionary),5.3.2 Seven types of meaning,32,1. Conceptual meaning (logic, cogniti

17、ve, denotative) 2. Connotative(内涵) meaning 3. Social(社会) meaning 4. Affective(情感) meaning 5. Reflected(反映) meaning 6. Collocative(搭配) meaning 7. Thematic meaning (order and emphasis),Associative Meaning,33,(1) Conceptual meaning,Also called denotative or cognitive meaning. Refers to logical, cogniti

18、ve or denotative content. Concerned with the relationship between a word and the thing it denotes, or refers to.,34,(2) Connotative meaning,The communicative value an expression has by virtue of what it refers to, over and above its purely conceptual content. A multitude of additional properties, in

19、cluding not only physical characteristics but also psychological and social properties, as well as typical features.,35,Involving the real world experience one associates with an expression when one uses or hears it. Unstable: they vary considerably according to culture, historical period, and the e

20、xperience of the individual. Any characteristic of the referent, identified subjectively or objectively, may contribute to the connotative meaning of the expression which denotes it.,36,37,Step mother,38,39,(3) Social meaning,What a piece of language conveys about the social circumstances of its use

21、. It chiefly includes stylistic meaning of an utterance.,40,domicile: very formal, official residence: formal abode: poetic home: general steed: poetic horse: general nag: slang gee-gee: baby language,41,(4) Affective meaning,Reflecting the personal feelings of the speaker, including his attitude to

22、 the listener, or his attitude to something he is talking about. Im terribly sorry to interrupt, but I wonder if you would be so kind as to lower your voices a little. Shut up.,42,Affective meaning,Commendatory tough-minded resolute, firm childlike man of usual talent stout, solid, plum,Derogatory r

23、uthless obstinate childish freak fleshy, fat, tubby,43,(5) Reflected meaning,Arises in cases of multiple conceptual meaning, when one sense of a word forms part of our response to another sense. When you hear click the mouse twice, would you think of Jerry being hit twice by Tom? Reflective meaning

24、is the product of peoples recognition and imagination.,44,(6) Collocative meaning,The associations a word acquires on account of the meanings of words which tend to occur in its environment. pretty: girl, boy, woman, flower, garden, colour, village, etc. handsome: boy, man, car, vessel, overcoat, ai

25、rliner, typewriter, etc.,45,(7) Thematic meaning,What is communicated by the way in which a speaker or writer organizes the message, in terms of ordering, focus, and emphasis. Mrs Bessie Smith donated the first prize. The first prize was donated by Mrs Bessie Smith. They stopped at the end of the co

26、rridor. At the end of the corridor, they stopped.,46,Venus (金星), the Morning Star (启明星) and Evening Star (长庚星) One of the nicknames of Venus is “the Morning Star”. Its also known as theEvening Star. Of course, Venus isnt a star at all, but a planet. So why does Venus have these nicknames? The orbit

27、of Venus is inside the orbit of Earth. Unlike the outer planets, Venus is always relatively close to the Sun in the sky. When Venus is on one side of the Sun, its trailing the Sun in the sky and brightens into view shortly after the Sun sets, when the sky is dark enough for it to be visible. When Ve

28、nus is at its brightest, it becomes visible just minutes after the Sun goes down. This is when Venus is seen as the Evening Star. When Venus is on the other side of the Sun, it leads the Sun as it travels across the sky. Venus will rise in the morning a few hours before the Sun. Then as the Sun rise

29、s, the sky brightens and Venus fades away in the daytime sky. This is Venus the Morning Star. The ancient Greeks and Egyptians thought that Venus was actually two separate objects, a morning star and an evening star. The Greeks called the morning star Phosphoros, “the bringer of light”; and they cal

30、led the evening star Hesperos, “the star of the evening”. A few hundred years later, the Hellenistic Greeks realized that Venus was actually a single object. 指金星(Venus) ：The morning star是启明星，早上太阳升起前后最亮的星星，出现在东方；The evening star是长庚星，太阳落山前后最亮的星星，出现在西方。,47,Russel（罗素）：指称论 Frege（弗雷格）：观念论,48,5.3.3 Semanti

31、c fields,a set of words with an identifiable semantic connection. (lexical field) e.g. vegetable: tomato, onion, cucumber, eggplant fruit: _ _ _ _ _ color: _ _ _ _ _ The meaning of a word is decided not by the word itself, but by relationships with other words in the same semantic field.,49,Lexical

32、gap：The absence of a word in a particular place in a semantic field of a language. sister brother daughter son cousin? (male vs. female),50,5.3.4 Componential analysis (CA) Componential analysis- a way to analyze lexical meaning. The approach is based on the belief that the meaning of a word can be

33、dissected into meaning components, called semantic features (语义特征).,51,For example, Man: +HUMAN, +ADULT, +ANIMATE, +MALE Boy: +HUMAN, -ADULT, +ANIMATE, +MALE Woman: +HUMAN, +ADULT, +ANIMATE, -MALE Girl: +HUMAN, -ADULT, +ANIMATE, -MALE,52,The attraction of CA is that it allows a highly explicit and e

34、conomical account of meaning relations such as hyponymy and incompatibility. Hyponymy is the situation in which all the features of word A are included in those of word B. woman: HUMAN ADULT FEMALE spinster: HUMAN ADULT FEMALE MARRIED,53,Limitation: 1. How many numbers of semantic features are neces

35、sary to define a word? 2. Which value should we select for a possible component? e.g. man +male or -female?,54,5.3.5 Semantic relationships between words,1. Homonymy (同形异义)(good for humor): bank/lie: homonyms 2. Polysemy (多义)：point 3. Homophony (同音异义)：know/no (homophones) homography (同形异音异义): sow, w

36、ind 4. Synonymy (近义)：big/large 5. Antonymy (反义)： good/bad (gradable), boy/girl (complementary), sell/buy (converse) 6. Hyponymy (上下义)：vegetable/potato 7. Meronymy (部分义/整体部分义)：car/wheel,55,flower rose tulip lily orchid daisy daffodil snowdrop crocus,56,car wheel engine door window ,57,5.4.Sentence Me

37、aning,5.4.1 Sentence and Proposition sentence is “something that expresses a complete thought”. Sentences are more knowable than thoughts. In spite of individual differences, speakers of a language generally agree on what is or is not a sentence in their language. (1) a. We walk in the park. b. our

38、walk in the park c. for us to walk in the park,58,They have the same semantic content but different grammaticality. The semantic content shared by the three expressions (1a, b, c) is a proposition which may be judged by truth conditions. A proposition can be expressed in different sentences: (2) a.

39、John broke the glass. b. The glass was broken by John. c. It was John who broke the glass. 形式为简单陈述句的一个陈述，其主要内容构成一个意义单位。 不同语言形式如何表达同一命题； 一个语言形式如何分析为几个不同命题。 命题=谓词（动）+ 实体（名）,59,5.4.2 Semantic roles (NPs),Words and sentences are the two units of language that carry meaning. The sentence meaning must rel

40、y on the meaning of individual words it contains. How we retrieve sentence meaning from word meaning is a complex question. One obvious naive hypothesis is that the meaning of a sentence is simply the sum of the meanings of its words and other constituents which compose it. But this is not necessari

41、ly true.,60,(1) a. My wife has a new dog. b. My new wife has a dog. c. My new dog has a wife. (2) a. The hunter bit the lion. b. The lion was bitten by the hunter. (3) a. Peter sliced the bread with a knife. b. Peter used a knife to slice the bread. Sentences in examples (2a,b), (3a,b) have the same

42、 proposition, but how? The crucial factor in the way sentence meaning is constructed is the role played by each noun phrase in relation to the verb. We thus need to introduce the notion semantic role of a noun phrase.,61,By semantic role we mean such things as who did what to whom, with whom, and fo

43、r whom. In other words, the semantic role of a noun phrase is the role that its referent plays in the action, state or situation described by the sentence. Semantic role is not an inherent property of a noun phrase: a given noun phrase can have different semantic roles in different sentences, as in

44、the following: (4) He lived in Beijing. (locative state) (5) He went to Beijing. (locative motion),62,The first semantic roles we need to identify are agent (施事(格): the responsible initiator of an action) and patient (受事: the entity that undergoes a certain change of state). John (agent) kissed Mary

45、 (patient). Mary (patient) was kissed by John (agent). Another semantic role is about an experiencer (感事: defined as that which receives a sensory input). (6) John likes blueberry pancakes. (7) John felt threatened by the lion. (8) John sometimes astounds me with his wit.,63,Role of cause(使役): any n

46、atural force that brings about a change of state . Instrument(工具)the intermediary through which an agent performs the action (9) John was injured by a stone. (cause) (10) John was injured with a stone. (instrument) Instruments and causes can be expressed in prepositional phrases (as in the previous

47、examples) or subjects as in: (11) The silver key opens the door to the wine cellar. (instrument) (12) The snow caved in the roof. (cause),64,A noun phrase can be a recipient (接受者, 受格: that which receives a physical object), a benefactive (受益格: that for which an action is performed), a locative (处所:

48、the location of an action or state), or temporal (时间: the time at which the action or state occurred). (16) I gave John a puppy. (recipient) (17) John passed the message to me for Tom. (benefactive) (18) Beijing is cold in winter. (locative) (19) She left home the day before yesterday. (temporal),65

49、,理论优点： 1. The point of this theory is to characterize all possible semantic roles that noun phrases can play in a sentence. Every noun phrase in a clause is assigned a semantic role, and, aside from coordinate NPs, the same semantic role cannot be assigned to two different noun phrases within the sa

50、me clause. So, for example, sentence (20) is ruled out as being semantically anomalous because it contains two different instrumental noun phrases, namely the two italicized noun phrases: (20) *This ball broke the window with a hammer.,66,2. In addition, in most cases a single noun phrase can be ass

51、igned only one semantic role. In rare cases, a noun phrase can be assigned two different roles. In the sentence (21) John rolled down the hill. If John rolled down the hill deliberately, he is both agent and patient, because he is at once the responsible initiator of the action and the entity that u

52、ndergoes the change of state. So far we can say that sentential semantics is concerned with semantic roles and with the relationship between words within a sentence.,67,5.4.3 Semantic relationships between sentences (1) X is synonymous with Y (2) X is inconsistent with Y (3) X entails (蕴含) Y (4) X presupposes (预设) Y (5)Implicature (含义),68,X: He was a bachelor all his life. Y: He never got married all his