MEANING

By Ika Farihah Hentihu

TWO MAIN FIELDS OF THE STUDY OF MEANING

1. SemanticsThe study of linguistic meaning dealing with the literal meaning of words and the meaning of the way they are combined.

2. PragmaticsThe study of linguistic meaning dealing with all the ways in which literal meaning must be refined or enriched to arrive at an understanding of what speaker meant in utteringa particular expression.

SEMANTIC MEANING

“I forgot the paper.”

The person who is speaking at some time before the time of speaking forgot a particular item which is a paper

PRAGMATIC MEANING

“I forgot the paper.”

1. In Sunday morning, Anna (the speaker) has returned to her flat from the local shop then she realized that she forgot to buy a copy of the Sunday newspaper for that morning.

2. Anna comes to her table with wet hands (after washing hands). When she wants to touch her documents, she remember that she did not take tissue.

THREE KINDS OF MEANING

1. Denotation and Sense2. Lexical and Structural Meaning3. Categorematic and

Syncategorematic Expressions

1. DENOTATION & SENSE• The two most basic ways of giving the meaning of

words or longer expressions1. Denotation

giving meaning by denoting (or referring to) something

2. Sense giving meaning by attempting to match the word with another expression having the same sense

DENOTATION & SENSE

1. Denotation- The word ‘blue’ denotes blue color- The word ‘cow’ denotes cows* defining ‘blue’ or ‘cow’ by pointing the object is called ostensive definition

2. SenseThe expression ‘a beautiful girl’ has the same sense as ‘gadis cantik’ in Indonesian- Sense can be found in translation or dictionaries

ILLUSTRATION

The winners of Mr. Muscle Beach Contest (an annual body building competition) are

1. Wade Rodriguez (1992)2. Denzel Lucas (1993)3. Josh Minamoto (1994)4. Rob Cabot (1995)

Denotation and Sense are not Parallel

• Sense of the expression ‘Mr. Muscle’ refers to Rodriguez , Luca, Minamoto, or Cabot (depending on the year).

• ‘Mr. Muscle’ denotes one of the winners, but can not denote anyone who hasn’t won the competition.

• Sense is more basic than denotation and denotation depends on the sense.

2. LEXICAL & STRUCTURAL MEANING

1. Lexical Meaningthe meaning of individual words

2. Structural Meaningthe meaning of the way the words are combined (based on syntactic structure)

ILLUSTRATION1. Lexical Meaning

there are seven words: the – rat – that – bit – dog – chase - cat

2. Structural Meaning (different sentences, different meanings)a. The rat that bit the dog chased the cat.b. The cat that chased the dog bit the rat.c. The rat that chased the cat bit the dog.d. The dog that chased the rat bit the cat.e. The dog that bit the rat chased the cat.f. The dog that chased the cat bit the rat.g. The dog that bit the cat chased the rat.h. The dog that chased the cat chased the rat.i. The dog that chased the rat chased the cat.and so on…

THE OUTLINE OF THE SYNTACTIC MEANING

the – rat – that – bit – dog – chase – catA B C D E

[The A [that B-ed the C]] D-ed the EThe rat that chased the cat bit the dog.

X is an AX performed the D actionY is an EY undergoes the D actionX performed the B actionZ is a CZ is the undergoer of the B action

Syntactic & Semantic Rules work in parallel

• It must be along with syntactic rules for forming phrases and sentences.

• Interpretation rules which combine meanings are just as syntactic rules combine forms.

3. CATEGOREMATIC & SYNCATEGOREMATIC EXPRESSIONS

1. Categorematic Expressionslexical items that provide a basis for categorization: in the term of descriptive content or sense. They are noun, verbs, & adjectives.

2. Syncategorematic Expressionslexical items that describe their meaning only by placing them in context or serve to modify categorematic expressions (the rest of all & meaningful inflections).

ILLUSTRATION

1. Categorematic Expressions*the descriptive content of ‘chimney‘ provides the basis forming the category of ‘chimneys’ *the sense of ‘blue’ provides the basis for the category of ‘blue things’

ILLUSTRATION

2. Syncategorematic Expressions* as, some, because, for, to, so on…*Inflections: 1. Tense: third person(-s), past tense (-ed), progressive (-ing), past participle (-ed), future (will)2. Number: pural (-s)3. Case: comparative (-er), superlative (-est)* The basis: “He BELIEVE us.”* modified (syncategorematic) expressions:He (believes – believed –believing – will believe) us.

1.2 Studies Based On Sense

Sense is to be more basic to ‘real’ meaning than denotation as the actual denotation of an expression depends on what the sense of the expression is.

1.2.1 Lexical Sense

Lexical sense involves relationships among word senses which are readily analysable.

One of the most familliar sense relations is opposition or antonymy.e.g black and white, night and day

Basic antonyms can be complementaries or Non-complementaries

a. Complementary

Basic antonyms which complementaries mean the entities of the terms that apply to one thing or the other but anomalous (indicates semantic anomaly)

e.g A door is either open or closed ..., He neither hit it or missed it (P.7)

b. Non-Complementary

b. Non Complementary opposites are based on a scale with opposite poles and neutral middle zone.

e.g The water is neither hot nor coldThe performance was neither good nor bad

(P.7)

Diagram of the difference between two kinds of basic antonym

Complementary :

Non-complementary: ------ hot cool cold

HIT MISS

1.2.2 Semantic Features

Semantic features is word senses may also be analyzed in terms of sense components, particularly those which determine classifications like system illustrated below;e.g (P.10)

Human man woman child girl boy

horse stallion

mare foal filly colt

sheep ram ewe lamb - -

Basic Category Words

Basic category words is the complex words which indicate the whole content. There must be some other role for all the information which seems to attach those words.

e.g BIRD 1. flies, has wings2. sings sweetly3. is small and light4. lays eggs in a nest5. is timid

Family Resemblances

Family Resemblances is different physical features that may make members of a family alike as a group although no feature is shared by all.

e.g soccer, basketball, hurling, etcrules for playcompetition/contestscoring systemphysical skill/strategy

DENOTATIONAL THEORIES

1. Denotations2. Possible Worlds, Extension, &

Intention3. Truth Conditions4. Compositional Formal Theory

*not discussed in detail

1. DENOTATIONS

1. Names denote to the owners of the names, but do not describe the owners.* name: Midge* denotation of ‘Midge’ = Midge (a small brown dog)

2. Most personal names are coded as male and female by convention, but the convention can be broken.* ‘Michael’ is a name for male; in fact, Michael Learned is an American actress . Commonly the names for female are ‘Michelle’ or ‘Michaela’

1. DENOTATIONS

3. Denotations of Categorematic (or called ‘predicate’) are the sets of things.*word (noun): dog – denotation of dogs = the set of dogs* word (noun): brown denotation of brown = the set of brown things

2. Possible Worlds, Extension & Intension

• The term of ‘possible worlds’ is used in semantics for hypothetical ways reality might be or might been.

• The way things actually are is the ‘actual world’

• The actual world is included in ‘possible world’ because it is obviously a possible reality

• A possible world is a whole alternative universe; actual world is just an alternative version of Planet Earth

2. Possible Worlds, Extension & Intension• Many possible worlds have dogs in them, which the

word dog applies to.• We can collect together all the dogs in the real world

to form the set of all real dogs – this set is the extension of dog

• What we think of as the ‘real meaning’ of the word dog, we need the intension (the set of all dogs in all possible worlds; simply, the set of all possible dogs)

• So, there are two kinds of denotation for predicates:word (noun): dogextension: the set of all dogs in the actual worldintension: the set of all dogs in the possible worlds

3. TRUTH CONDITIONS• The analysis of sentences whether the sentences

are true.• E.g. Midge is grinning

To find out whether the sentence is true, find the relevant facts; in this case, find Midge and check her facial expression

The Extension & Intension for Sentences1. The extension of a sentence is its truth value;

either true or false2. The intension of a sentence is the set of

possible worlds in which that sentence is true• Sentence: Midge is grinning• Extension: truth value (true or false) in the

actual world• Intension: the set of possible worlds

in which Midge is grinning (the truth set)

QUESTIONS???

Please…our beloved lecturer is always ready to answer^_^