chaptersemantics语义学PPT教学课件

1、1. What is semantics? (p.104) It is the study of meaning.1.1 Ogden and Richards The Meaning of Meaning (1923) 22 major categories of meaning第1页/共57页1.2 Meaning as naming (p.105)Naming theory (Plato): the meaning of expression is what it refers to, or names. The semantic relationship holding between

2、a word and the thing it denotes is the relationship of naming. In other words, words are “names” or “labels” for things in our mind or in our experience.第2页/共57页Limitations of the naming theory: Meaning is abstract and not related to individual things. The meaning of book is related to the generatio

3、n of the common properties of things which can be called books. Meaning understood in this theory can at best cover only part of nouns, but not the rest of words of this class, nor words of other classes. e.g: sincerity, red ,that, quickly, if, and, from. 第3页/共57页1.3 Meaning as concept (p.106)Concep

4、tualist theory (Ogden and Richards) : expressions actually mean the concept or idea associated with them. Any particular sound image is psychologically associated with a particular concept.Every one of us who knows the word or expression has a concept or idea in his mind associated with it.第4页/共57页S

5、emantic Triangle by Ogden and Richards: thought (concept)symbol (word) referent (thing)第5页/共57页Explanation: The symbol refers to the linguistic elements (mainly referring to words). The referent is the object in the real world or in mans experience. Reference refers to the concept about the referent

6、. Concept is the generalization of a class of individual objects.第6页/共57页 A linguistic form symbolizes a concept and therefore there is no direct (necessary and intrinsic) relation between the symbol (the word) and the referent. The word is associated with the referent by virtue of reference (concep

7、t). The symbol and concept are linked by a psychologically associative bond.第7页/共57页Merits: It recognizes the close relation between meaning and concept and the role of concept in forming meaning.Limitations:(1) Since it only looks at the meaning of words, it cant explain how the meanings of morphem

8、es in a polymorphemic word are related to each other and how they are organized into the meaning of the word. E.g: uncompromisingly第8页/共57页(2) It fails to interpret the polysemic phenomenon, i.e. why a word may have several different meanings and how these meaning are related. e.g: ball(3) It fails

9、to interpret the question of why words with different meaning may have the same referent. e.g: morning star/ evening star Washington/ the capital of USA(4) According to the Semantic Triangle, each word in a language has its referent. However, for some words, there are not referents to them, e.g: if,

10、 and, so, perhaps, therefore.第9页/共57页(5) The referents of some words may vary according to the context in which they occur. e.g: good car/ good teacher/ good dictionary/ good-hearted(6) To summarize, the Semantic Triangle basically suffers from looking at the meaning of words in isolation and ignori

11、ng the interrelation of words and the semantic structure of a language.第10页/共57页1.4 Meaning as behavior (p.107)Behaviorism (Bloomfield): Language is regarded a kind of human behavior and can be treated in the way of treating non-verbal behaviors of human beings.Bloomfields stimulus-reaction model: S

12、 r s R第11页/共57页 Jill is hungry. She sees an apple and by saying something gets Jack to fetch it for her.S: Jills hungerr: a linguistic responses: a linguistic stimulus for JackR: non-linguistic RESPONSE of getting the apple第12页/共57页1.5 Meaning as context (p.107)Contextualist view (inspired by Malino

13、vsky, proposed by Firth): Context determines the meaning; meaning is found in the context within which a particular expression is uttered suggests that we can derive meaning from the observable context.Two kinds of context: (1) a linguistic context and (2) a situational context.第13页/共57页Situational

14、context: the spatio-temporal situation in which utterance is made.Situational context mainly include:(1)the setting (formal, informal)(2)the speaker and hearer (relationship, position)(3)the activities they are engaged in at the time(4)the presence or absence of other participants (relationship, pos

15、ition)(5)the presence of various external objects and events第14页/共57页1.6 Meaning as truth conditions (p.109)Truth-conditional theory: Knowing the meaning of a sentence is the same as knowing the conditions under which the sentence is true or false. S is true if and only if P第15页/共57页e.g: Peter is ma

16、rried. There must be some individual called Peter; There is a social institution called marriage; This individual is involved in this state of marriage.Problem: How can we discuss the meaning of interrogatives and imperatives? 第16页/共57页2. Word meaning (p.110)2.1 Sense and reference Sense is defined

17、in terms of relationships which hold between the linguistic elements themselves (mostly words), it is concerned with intralinguistic relations. Reference or extension deals with the relationship between the linguistic elements (words, sentences, etc.) and the non-linguistic world of experience (thin

18、gs, actions, events and qualities).第17页/共57页 Sense refers to the abstract properties of an entity; reference refers to the concrete entities having these properties. We can say every word has a sense, but not every word has a reference. Grammatical words like but, if, and do not refer to anything. W

19、ords like God, ghost, dragon refer to imaginary things, which have no reference. There is no absolute dividing line between what is in the world and what is in language. For Leech, sense and reference mean the similar idea as connotation and denotation. 第18页/共57页2.2 Leech: Seven types of meaning (p.

20、111) Conceptual /denotative/ referential meaning: concerns with the relationship between a word and the thing it refers to. (central)Associative meaning (2-6): Connotative meaning: the properties of the entity a word refers to. Social meaning (usually stylistic) : the social circumstances of languag

21、e use (dialects, registers).第19页/共57页 Affective meaning: the feelings and attitudes of the speaker/writer conveyed by the word. Reflective meaning: associated with another sense of the same expression. Collocative meaning: associated with words which tend to occur in the environment of another word.

22、Thematic meaning: determined by the order of the words in a sentence and the different prominence they each receive.第20页/共57页Q1: What is the difference of Connotation and Denotation in philosophy? Can you explain this by the example of human?A1: The denotation is any person such as John and Mary, th

23、e connotation is biped, featherless, rational, etc. Q2: What is the difference between politician and statesman? A2: The affective meanings are different. The former is derogatory and the latter is favorable. 第21页/共57页Q3: What is the difference between cast, throw and chuck?A3: The social meanings (

24、stylistic meanings) are different. Cast is literary, throw is general and chuck is casual.Q4: What is the reflective meaning of intercourse?A4: Sexual.第22页/共57页Q5: What is the collocative meaning of the word pretty in pretty girl/ boy/ woman/color?A5: It has such collocative meanings: beautiful/ cha

25、rming/ graceful/ elegant.Q6: Which receives the thematic meaning in the following sentences? Mr Smith donated the money. The money was donated by Mr. Smith.A6:The underlined.第23页/共57页2.3 Semantic field (p.117)A set of words with an identifiable semantic connection.Set 1: cup, mug, wine glass, tumble

26、r, plastic cup, gobletSet 1 constitute a semantic field.Sports: tennis, badminton, golf, soccer, basketballKinship terms: father, mother, brother, sister, uncleEmotions: angry, happy, sad, afraid, depressed第24页/共57页 The absence of a word in a particular place in a semantic field of a language is cal

27、led lexical gap. In English, there is no singular noun that covers both cow and bull as horse covers stallion and mare. We have brother versus sister, son versus daughter, but no separate lexemes for “male” and “female” cousin.第25页/共57页2.4 Componential analysis (p.118) Componential analysis refers t

28、o an approach adopted by structural semanticists in describing the meaning of words or phrases. This approach is based on the belief that the total meaning of a word can be analyzed in terms of a number of distinct elements or meaning components (called semantic features).第26页/共57页 Componential anal

29、ysis is often seen as a process aiming at breaking down the meaning of a word into its minimal distinctive features or properties, which are also called components by some linguists. One way of describing the components of a word is to use feature symbols, which are usually written in capitalized le

30、tters, with “+” “-” before them, plus sign indicates the presence of a certain property, and minus sign indicates the absence of it. e.g. man : + HUMAN + ADULT + MALE woman: + HUMAN + ADULT MALE boy: + HUMAN ADULT + MALE girl: + HUMAN ADULT MALE 第27页/共57页 father = PARENT (X,Y) & MALE (X) mother = PA

31、RENT (X,Y) & - MALE (X) take = CAUSE (X, (HAVE (X,Y) give= CAUSE (X, (- HAVE (X,Y) Advantages: by specifying the semantic features of certain words, we may better account for sense relations. Synonym - words having the same semantic components. Antonym - words having a contrasting component. Hyponym

32、 - words having all semantic components of another. Disadvantages: It would be senseless to analyze the meaning of every word by breaking it into its meaning components.第28页/共57页2.5 Sense relationships (p.120)2.5.1 SynonymySameness or close similarity of meaning. Words that are close in meaning are

33、called synonyms.e.g. buy and purchase, world and universe, brotherly and fraternal 母语词 外来词 外来词 home domestic answer reply rise mount ascendQ: Why are there so many synonyms in English?第29页/共57页Discuss the following difference: 1. Little Tom buys/ purchases a toy bear. 2. Im thrifty. You are economic

34、al. And he is stingy. 3. Autumn/ fall, flats/ apartments, underground, tube/ subway4. It is a pretty little house. What a poor little boy!*It is a pretty small house. *What a poor small boy!5. Strong coffee, powerful machine *Powerful coffee, *strong machine So synonyms can differ in the aspects of

35、style, affection, dialects, connotative meaning, collocative meaning. 第30页/共57页2.5.2 Antonymy oppositeness of meaning.Words that are opposite in meaning are antonyms. 3 types: 1. Gradable antonymy2. Complementary antonymy3. Converse antonymy 第31页/共57页Gradable antonymy:The oppositeness of meaning tha

36、t holds in more than one dimension. They are gradable in the sense of more or less and there is a possibility to place an intermediate between two antonyms.long-short big-small rich-poorbeautiful-ugly good-bad old-younghot-cold tall-short第32页/共57页Characteristics of gradable antonymy:1. gradable: the

37、 denial of one is not necessarily the assertion of the other. Some intermediate forms exist. 2. They can be modified by VERY.3. T h e y m a y h a v e c o m p a r a t i v e o r superlative degrees. 4. Antonyms of this kind are graded against different norms. No absolute criterion exists. 5. One membe

38、r of a pair, usually the term for the higher degree, serves as the cover term. 第33页/共57页Q: Can we say “How young are you”?A: No, there is a habit in it. In how old are you, old is unmarked, the usual, more often used. If something marked is used, it suggests something odd, unusual here. More often w

39、e use the cover term. 第34页/共57页Complementary antonymy:Complementary antonymy is of binary taxonomics and regarded as a special case of imcompatibility holding over a two-term set.alive-dead male-female hit -miss present-absent pass -fail innocent-guilty boy -girl第35页/共57页Characteristics of complemen

40、tary antonymy:1.The denial of one member of the pair implies the assertion of the other and the assertion of one means the denial of the other. In other words, it is not a matter of degree between two extremes, but a matter of either one or the other. There is no intermediate ground between the two.

41、 2.The adj. in this type can not be modified by VERY. 3.They do not have comparative or superlative degrees. 4.The norm is absolute.5.There is no cover term for the two members of a pair.第36页/共57页Discussion 1. 半死不活 2. He is more dead than alive. 3. true: false, which type of antonym? How do you unde

42、rstand “How true is the story?” 第37页/共57页Converse antonymy/ relational opposites:The members of a pair do not constitute a positive-negative opposition. They show the reversal of a relationship between two entities.buy -sell borrow - lend give - receive第38页/共57页 E.g: buy/sell, lend/borrow, give/rece

43、ive, parent/child, employer/employee, teacher/student, above/below, before/after Features: With gradable, or complementary, antonyms, one can say “X is good”, or “X is male”, without presupposing Y. It is, as it were, a matter of X only, which has nothing to do with Y. But with converse antonyms, th

44、ere are always two sides.第39页/共57页Disccusion 1. Can we say “He is a husband/son” ?2. How do you understand He is a child/teacher? (child: parent) (teacher: student)Different norms: child-adult, teacher-other professions 3. What type of antonymy for the following words? bigger/smaller, longer/shorter

45、, better/worse第40页/共57页1. Not all words have antonyms, like house, window, book, drink. 2. One word may have one or more antonyms, e.g. man ,animal, boy, woman3. Antonyms are stronger to negate. e.g. It is not fair to put the blame on him. It is unfair to put the blame on him. 第41页/共57页Fixed phrases

46、: Column A Column Bhusband and wife 夫妻 right and left 左右cause and effect 因果 rich and poor 贫富black and white 黑白 old and new 新旧thick and thin 厚薄 sooner or later 迟早far and near 远近 heavy and light 轻重第42页/共57页2.5.3 HyponymyThe meaning of one word is included in the meaning of another word. Superordinate

47、(the class term): genusHyponyms (the lower terms): speciese.g. seasons (superordinate) spring summer autumn winter (co-hyponyms)第43页/共57页Test pattern: X is a kind of Y Flower: rose, peony, lily, daisy, tulip, violet Color: red, green, yellow, blue, white Animal: tiger, lion, elephant, cow, horse, hu

48、man Vegetable: potato, cabbage, carrot, lettuce, eggplant第44页/共57页2.5.4 PolysemyA single word has a set of different meanings.Hand :1. part of the human arm beyond the wrist2. possession: in ones hand3. source: second-hand4. skill: She is a light hand at cookery.5.employee: Hands are wanted.第45页/共57

49、页2.5.5 Homonymy （同音异义）The phenomenon that words having different meanings have the same form, i.e., different words are identical in sound or spelling, or in both. pupil, bank, bat, race, ground2.5.6 Homophony （同音异形）When two words are identical in sound but different in writing and meaning, they are

50、 homophones. rain/reign, night/knight, piece/peace, leak/leek第46页/共57页2.5.7 Homography （同形异音）When two words are identical in spelling but differ in pronunciation, they are homographs. bow v.- bow n. tear v.- tear n. lead v.- lead n. wind n.- wind v.第47页/共57页2.5.8 Meronymy Part/ whole relationship.Te

51、st pattern: X is a part of Y body head neck trunk leg arm 第48页/共57页3. Sentence meaning(p.126)3.1 Sentence and propositionSentence: usu. express a complete thought; begin with a capital letter and end with a period, question mark or exclamation mark.Proposition: can be judged to be true or false. (P.

52、126 eg:18)1. A sentence is a proposition. (F)2. Any proposition is a sentence. (F)3. Different sentences may express the same proposition. (T)第49页/共57页3.2 semantic roles (p.127)Semantic role of a noun phrase: The hunter hit the lion.Agent: the responsible initiator of an action.Patient: the entity that undergoes a certain change of state. John likes blueberry pancakes.Experiencer: who is experiencing a physical or mental sensation.第50页/共57页 John wa