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Introduction to Lexical Semantics
Dra. Gloria Álvarez-Benito Universidad de Sevilla
Unit Contents
- Introduction to semantics and pragmatics. 1.1. Definitions of Semantics and Pragmatics. 1.2. Meaning, thought and reality. 1.3. Reference, sense and denotation. 1.4. Sentence, utterance and proposition. 1.5. Mental representations: necessary & sufficient conditions, taxonomies, prototypes, etc.
What is Semantics?
Semantics is the study of meaning in language. It focuses on the relation between signifier (word, symbol, phrase, sign) and what they stand for (denotata).
What is Pragmatics?
Pragmatics studies the use of language in a specific context and the way this context contributes to meaning. It focuses on the relationships between the symbols of a language, their meaning, and the users of the language.
What is meaning?
Exercise: In the following exercise you have to get yourself into the habit of careful thinking about your language and the way you use it, concentrating, naturally, on instances of such words as mean, means, and meaning.
Reproduced below is a well-known passage from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass. Pick out all the instances of the word mean (or means, or meant), noting which lines they occur in. (Some line numbers are given in the margin for convenience). After the passage there are some questions for you to answer.
1 “...That shows that there are three hundred and sixty-four days when you might get un-birthday presents.” “Certainly,” said Alice. “And only one for birthday presents, you know. There’s glory for 5 you!” “ I don’t know what you mean by ‘glory’,” Alice said. Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. “Of course you don’t – till I tell you. I mean ‘there’s a nice knockdown argument for you.’” “But ‘glory’ doesn’t mean ‘a nice knockdown argument,” Alice 10 objected. “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more or less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” 15 “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master –
that’s all.”
Questions
- What word is the subject of the verb mean in line 6?
- What is the subject of the verb mean in line 9?
- What is understood as subject of the verb mean in line 12?
- List all the instances (by line number) where mean, means, or meant has a personal subject, e.g. I or you. (Include instances already listed in the questions above).
- List all the instances (by line number) where mean, means, or meant is understood as having as subject something linguistic, e.g. a word, or words. (Include instances mentioned in questions above).
Comment What Lewis Carroll is suggesting is that the meanings carried by words may be affected by a speaker’s will. On the whole, we probably feel that Alice is right, that words mean what they mean independently of the will of their users, but on the other hand it would be foolish to dismiss entirely Humpty Dumpty’s enigmatic final remark.
What is Lexical Semantics?
Lexical Semantics is the study of
- The systematic meaning-related connections among words.
- The internal meaning-related structure of each word.
Exercise
- Do the following two English sentences mean (approximately) the same thing? and I will return after some time
- Is the answer to the previous question obvious to a normal speaker of English?
- In the light of your reply to (2), if I ask “What did John mean when he said he’d be back later?”, would you be giving the helpful kind of answer that I probably want if you said “He meant that he would return after some time”?
- In asking “What did John mean when he said he’d be back later? Is the questioner primarily asking (a) what the SENTENCE means, or (b) what JOHN meant in saying it?
- A dictionary can be thought of as a list of the meanings of words, of what words mean. Could one make a list of what speakers (e.g. John, you, or I) mean?
- Do you understand this question?
Comment The word mean, then, can be applied to people who use language, i.e. to speakers (and authors), in roughly the sense of “intend”. And it can be applied to words and sentences in a different sense, roughly expressed as “be equivalent to”. The first step in working out a theory
One way or another. But one must not equate meaningfulness with informativeness. While it is true that many sentences do carry information in a straightforward way, it is also true that many sentences are used by speakers not to give information at all, but to keep the social wheels turning smoothly. Thus A and B’s uninformative exchange about the weather serves to reassure them both that a friendly courteous relationship exists between them. Even when the sentences produced are in fact informative, as when B tells A about his forthcoming trip to France, the hearer often has no specific need for the information given. The giving of information is itself an act of courtesy, performed to strengthen social relationships. This is also part of communication.
Speaker meaning
The social relationships formed and maintained by the use of language are not all courteous and amicable. Speaker meaning can include both courtesy and hostility, praise and insult, endearment and taunt.
Exercise onsider the following strained exchange between Husband and wife. Husband: “When I go away next week, I’m taking the car” Wife: “Oh. Are you? I need the car here to take the kids to school” Husband: “I’m sorry, but I must have it. You’ll have to send them on the bus” Wife: “That’ll be nice for the family. Up at the crack of dawn, (ironically) and not home till mid-evening! Sometimes you’re very inconsiderate” Husband: “Nice day”
Questions
- This conversation includes three utterances which were also used in the polite bus stop conversation between A and B. Identify these three utterances.
- When the wife in the above exchange says “Are you?” is she thereby in some sense taking up a position opposed to that of her husband?
- In the bus stop conversation, when A says “Are you?” (line 9), is he in any sense taking up a position opposed to B’s position?
- When the wife, above, says “That’ll be nice for the family”, is she expecting the belief that her husband’s absence with the car will be nice for the family?
- When A says to B at the bus stop “That’ll be nice for the family”, is she expecting the belief that going to France will be nice for the family?
- Is A’s remark at the bus stop “Nice day” a pointed change of subject for the purpose of ending a conversation?
- What is the function of this remark of A’s?
- When the husband uses these same words about the weather, above, what does he mean by it?
Comment The same sentences are used by different speakers on different occasions to mean (speaker meaning) different things. Once a person has mastered the stable meanings of words and sentences as defined by the language system, he can quickly grasp the different conversational and social uses that they can be put to. Sentence meaning and speaker meaning are both important, but systematic study proceeds more easily if one carefully distinguishes the two, and, for the most part, gives prior consideration to sentence meaning and those aspects of meaning generally which are determined by the language system, rather than those which reflect the will of individual speakers and the circumstances of use on particular occasions.
Speaker meaning versus sentence meaning
The gap between speaker meaning and sentence meaning is such that it is even possible for a speaker to convey a quite intelligible intention by using a sentence whose literal meaning is contradictory or nonsensical.
Exercise Whether they are intended to be taken literally (yes) or not (no).
- Tired traveller: “This suitcase is killing me”
- Assistant in a shop: “We regularly do the impossible; miracles take a little longer”
- During a business meeting: “It’s a dog-eat-dog situation”
Language and Thought
Dr Gloria Álvarez Benito Universidad de Sevilla
In 1940, a linguist called Benjamin Lee Whorf studied Hopi, a Native American language spoken in northeastern Arizona. Based on his studies, Whorf claimed that speakers of Hopi and speakers of English see the world differently because of differences in their language.
A chicken-and-egg question
Are you unable to think about things you Don't have words for, or do you lack words for them because you don't think about them?
More than just language and thought
Part of the problem is that there is more involved than just language and thought; there is also culture. Your culture, traditions, lifestyle, habits, and so on that you pick up from the people you live and interact with shapes the way you think, and also shapes the way you talk.
Guugu Yimithirr
Guugu Yimithirr (a language spoken in North Queensland, Australia) doesn't have words like left and right or front and back. Its speakers always describe locations and directions using the Guugu Yimithirr words for north, south, east, and west. So, they would never say that a boy is
Definition of Reference
By means of reference, a speaker indicates which things in the world (including persons) are being talked about. Example: “My son is in the beech tree” Identifies identifies person thing
Exercise Before answering these questions you should carry out the following simple instruction: touch your left ear. (1) Write down the last three words in the above instruction.
(2) Is the thing you touched a part of the world or a part of the language?
(3) Is your answer to (1) a part of the language?
(4) If you say to your mother “There’s a wasp on your left ear” does “your left ear” here refer to the thing you touched in response to a previous question?
Reference In the present circumstances, your left ear refers to the thing you touched in response to (1) above. We say that your left ear is the referent of the phrase your left ear: reference is a relationship between parts of a language and things outside the language (in the world). The same expression can, in some cases, be used to refer to different things. There are as many potential referents for the phrase your left ear as there are people in the world with left ears. Thus, expressions in a language can have variable reference.
Exercise (1) What would be the referent of the phrase the present Prime Minister used in Britain: (a) in 1982? (b) in 1944?
(2) Therefore we can say that the phrase the present Prime Minister has
(3) What would be the referent of the phrase the Prime Minister used in a conversation about: (a) British politics in 1982? (b) in 1944?
(4) In the light of the preceding questions, does the reference of an expression vary according to (a) the circumstances (time, place, etc.) in which the expression is used, or (b) the topic of the conversation in which the expression is used, or (c) both (a) and (b)?.
Variable versus constant reference
Variable reference : expressions that refer to different things, depending on the situation (my left ear).
Constant reference : expressions that refer to the same thing in the world. They never refer to different things (the moon, Angola, etc.).
Expressions and reference
Two different expressions can have the same referent. The classic example is the Morning Star and the Evening Star, both of which normally refer to the planet Venus.
Definition of sense
The SENSE of an expression is its place in a system of semantic relationships with other expressions in the language. The first of these semantic relationships is sameness of meaning.
Examples with same sense: I almost/nearly fell over. It is likely/probable that Raymond will leave. Examples with different sense: I’ll see you on Wednesday/Thursday.
Sense
In some cases, the same word-form can have more than one sense:
I have an account at the Bank of Scotland We steered the raft to the other bank of the river.
Relationship between sense and reference
The referent of an expression is often a thing or a person in the world; whereas the sense of an expression is not a thing at all. In fact, it is difficult to say what sort of entity the sense of an expression is. It is much easier to say whether or not two expressions have the same sense. The sense of an expression is an abstraction, but it is helpful to note that it is an abstraction that can be entertained in the mind of a language user. When a person understands fully what is said to him, it is reasonable to say that he grasps the sense of the expressions he hears.
Reference versus sense
Every expression that has meaning has sense, but not every expression has reference.
Exercise Do the following words refer to things in the world? (1) almost (3) and (2) probable (4) if
Reference and sense
In talking of sense , we deal with relationships inside the language. In talking of reference , we deal with the relationships between language and the world.
Sentences, utterances and propositions
Examples I would like a cup of coffee is a sentence.
Coffee, please is not a sentence.
In the kitchen is not a sentence.
Please put it in the kitchen is a sentence.
Exercise Which of the following utterances are tokens of whole sentences (S) and which are not (NS)? “John” “Who is there?” “Mine” “It’s mine” “Where shall I?”
Comment Utterances of non-sentences, e.g. short phrases, or single words, are used by people in communication all the time. People do not converse wholly in (tokens of) well-formed sentences. But the abstract idea of a sentence is the basis for understanding even those expressions which are not sentences. In the overwhelming majority of cases, the meaning of non-sentences can best be analysed by considering them to be abbreviations, or incomplete versions, of whole sentences.
Exercise Given below are some sample conversations. In each case the second utterance is not a token of a sentence. Write out a full sentence expressing the intended meaning more fully. Magnus: “When did Goethe die?” Fred: “In 1832” Hostess: “Would you like tea or coffee?” Guest: “Coffee, please” A: “Who won the battle of waterloo?” B: “Wellington”
Comment Semantics is concerned with the meaning of non-sentences, such as phrases and incomplete sentences, just as much as with whole sentences. But it is more convenient to begin our analysis with the case of whole sentences. The meanings of whole sentences involve propositions; the notion of a proposition is central to semantics.
Proposition
A proposition is that part of the meaning of the utterance of a declarative sentence which describes some state of affairs.
State of Affairs
The state of affairs typically involves persons or things refer red to by expressions in the sentence. In uttering a declarative sentence a speaker typically asserts a proposition.
Proposition
In our definition of proposition we explicitly mentioned declarative sentences , but propositions are clearly involved in the meanings of other types of sentences, such as interrogatives and imperatives. Normally, when a speaker utters a simple declarative sentence, he commits himself to the truth of the corresponding proposition: i.e. he asserts the proposition. By uttering a simple interrogative or imperative, a speaker can mention a particular proposition, without asserting its truth.
Example: In saying, “John can go” a speaker asserts the proposition that John can go. In saying “Can John go?”, he mentions the same proposition but merely questions its truth. We say that corresponding declaratives and interrogatives (and imperatives) have the same proposi tional content.
Propositions versus Sentences
Propositions, unlike sentences, cannot be said to belong to any particular language. Sentences in different languages can correspond to the same proposition, if the two sentences are perfect translations of each other.
Propositions versus Sentences
English I am cold , Spanish tengo frío, French J’ai froid can, to the extent to which they are perfect translations of each other, be said to correspond to the same proposition.
Sentence, utterance & proposition
‘+’ or ‘-‘ as appropriate. Thus, for example, if it makes sense to think of a proposition being in a particular regional accent, put a ‘+’ in the appropriate box; if not put a ‘-‘.
Utterances Sentences Propositions
Can be loud or quiet
Can be grammatical or not
Can be true or false
In a particular regional Accent
In a particular language
Sentence, utterance & proposition
In natural taxonomies we can in some rare cases encounter lexical items that are taxonyms of two concepts.
Taxonomies
Prototypes
Rosch (1973) Concepts are organized around prototypes with degrees of membership: Bird:
- Prototype: robin
- Near central: sparrow
- Medium: hawk
- Fringe: penguin
Prototypes
Speakers regard certain items as being better examples of a category than others.
Examples: A pigeon is a better example of a bird than an ostrich. ? An ostrich is a better example of a bird than a pigeon.
A car makes a better vehicle than a tractor. ?A tractor makes a better vehicle than a car
Prototypes
Hampton (1995: 104-105): a prototype concept has three properties:
- the prototype representation itself: a generalization or abstraction of some central tendency, average or typical value of a class of instances falling in the same category.
- the prototype concept specifies a way of defining similarity to this prototype.
- there is a criterion or cut-off level of similarity for category membership. Passing the similarity criterion is both necessary and sufficient for category membership.! lack of necessary and sufficient conditions ≠ there are no membership criteria at all.
Prototypes
