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ENGLISH SEMANTICS Ana Larissa Adorno Marciotto Oliveira Barbara Orfanó LETRAS/INGLÊS 5º PERÍODO

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  • ENGLISH SEMANTICS

    Ana Larissa Adorno Marciotto Oliveira

    Barbara Orfan

    LETRAS/INGLS5 PERODO

  • ENGLISH SEMANTICS

    Ana Larissa Adorno Marciotto Oliveira

    Barbara Orfan

    Montes Claros - MG, 2011

  • Copyright : Universidade Estadual de Montes Claros

    UNIVERSIDADE ESTADUAL DE MONTES CLAROS - UNIMONTES

    2011Proibida a reproduo total ou parcial.

    Os infratores sero processados na forma da lei.

    EDITORA UNIMONTESCampus Universitrio Professor Darcy Ribeiro

    s/n - Vila Mauricia - Montes Claros (MG)Caixa Postal: 126 - CEP: 39.401-089

    Correio eletrnico: [email protected] - Telefone: (38) 3229-8214

    Catalogao: Biblioteca Central Professor Antnio Jorge - UnimontesFicha Catalogrfica:

    REITORJoo dos Reis Canela

    VICE-REITORAMaria Ivete Soares de Almeida

    DIRETOR DE DOCUMENTAO E INFORMAESGiulliano Vieira Mota

    CONSELHO EDITORIALMaria Cleonice Souto de FreitasRosivaldo Antnio GonalvesSlvio Fernando Guimares de CarvalhoWanderlino Arruda

    REVISO DE LNGUA PORTUGUESAUbiratan da Silva Meireles

    REVISO TCNICALuci Kikuchi Veloso

    IMPRESSO, MONTAGEM E ACABAMENTOGrfica Yago

    PROJETO GRFICOAlcino Franco de Moura JniorAndria Santos Dias

    EDITORAO E PRODUOAna Lcia Cardoso PereiraAndria Santos DiasClsio Robert Almeida CaldeiraDbora Trres Corra Lafet de AlmeidaDiego Wander Pereira NobreJssica Luiza de AlbuquerqueKarina Carvalho de AlmeidaPatrcia Fernanda Heliodoro dos SantosRogrio Santos BrantSnzio Mendona HenriquesTatiane Fernandes PinheiroTtylla Aparecida Pimenta FariaVincius Antnio Alencar Batista

  • Ministro da EducaoFernando Haddad

    Secretrio de Educao a DistnciaCarlos Eduardo Bielschowsky

    Coordenador Geral da Universidade Aberta do BrasilCelso Jos da Costa

    Governador do Estado de Minas GeraisAntnio Augusto Junho Anastasia

    Vice-Governador do Estado de Minas GeraisAlberto Pinto Coelho

    Secretrio de Estado de Cincia, Tecnologia e Ensino SuperiorAlberto Duque Portugal

    Reitor da Universidade Estadual de Montes Claros - UnimontesJoo dos Reis Canela

    Vice-Reitora da UnimontesMaria Ivete Soares de Almeida

    Pr-Reitora de EnsinoAnete Marlia Pereira

    Coordenadora da UAB/UnimontesMaria ngela Lopes Dumont Macedo

    Coordenadora Adjunta da UAB/UnimontesBetnia Maria Arajo Passos

    Diretor do Centro de Cincias Humanas - CCHMrcio Coelho Antunes

    Chefe do Departamento de Comunicao e LetrasAna Cristina Santos Peixoto

    Coordenadora do Curso de Letras/Ingls a DistnciaHejaine de Oliveira Fonseca

  • AUTORAS

    Ana Larissa Adorno Marciotto Oliveira

    She has a PhD in Applied Linguistics and currently works at UFMG, where she teaches English and Applied Linguistics.

    Barbara Orfan

    Has a PhD in Applied Linguistcs and currently works at UFSJ, where she teaches English and Applied Linguistics.

  • SUMRIO

    Presentation ............................................................................................................................... 9

    Unit 1 ........................................................................................................................................11

    1.1 Basic Concept ................................................................................................................. 11

    1.2 Sentences, Utterances And Propositions .......................................................................... 11

    1.3 Meaning And Dictionary ................................................................................................ 12

    1.4 English Language Dictionaries ......................................................................................... 15

    1.5 Lexical Semantics ............................................................................................................ 16

    1.6 How Semantics Operates: The Two Levels ...................................................................... 17

    1.7 Sense Relations ............................................................................................................... 18

    1.8 Semantic Field ................................................................................................................. 20

    1.9 Metaphor ........................................................................................................................ 21

    1.10 Language Variation And The Issue Of Correctness .......................................................... 22

    Referncias .......................................................................................................................... 22

    Unit 2: Reference and sense ....................................................................................................... 23

    2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 23

    2.2 Cataphoric And Anaphoric References ............................................................................ 24

    2.3 Anaphoric Reference ....................................................................................................... 25

    2.4 Exophoric Reference ...................................................................................................... 25

    2.5 Reference And Sense In Descriptive Meaning .................................................................. 26

    Referncias .......................................................................................................................... 26

    Unit 3: Word Meaning in Dictionaries ....................................................................................... 27

    3.1 Dictionary Definition ...................................................................................................... 27

    3.2 The Organization Of Dictionaries ................................................................................... 28

    3.3 Encyclopedia Versus Dictionary Meaning ........................................................................ 29

    3.4 Sense Relations: Representing Semantic Information ...................................................... 29

    3.5 Properties Of Predicates .................................................................................................. 30

    3.6 Introduction To Derivation ............................................................................................. 31

    3.7 Compound Nouns .......................................................................................................... 33

    3.8 Types Of Derivation ....................................................................................................... 33

    3.9 Participant Roles ............................................................................................................ 34

    3.10 Summing Up This Unit .................................................................................................. 36

    Referncias .......................................................................................................................... 36

    Unit 4: Interpersonal and non-literal meaning ...................................................................... 37

    4.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 37

    4.2 Speech Act ...................................................................................................................... 37

    4.3 Perlocutions And Illocutions ............................................................................................ 37

  • 4.4 Felicity Conditions ........................................................................................................... 38

    4.5 Direct And Indirect Form ................................................................................................. 40

    4.6 Inference ......................................................................................................................... 40

    4.7 Entailments ..................................................................................................................... 40

    4.8 Conversational Implicature .............................................................................................. 40

    4.9 Non-Literal Meaning: Idioms, Metaphor, And Metonymy ................................................ 41

    4.10 Summing Up This Unit .................................................................................................. 44

    Referncias .......................................................................................................................... 45

    Resumo ................................................................................................................................47

    Referncias bsicas e complementares .................................................................................. 51

    Atividades de aprendizagem - AA ......................................................................................... 53

  • 9PRESENTATION

    Dear Student:

    It is a pleasure to invite you to study English Semantics with us. We are sure you will love to find out senses and meaning in the English Language. Read your Caderno Didtico very carefully and do the activities that come together with it. We are sure you will master English Semantics very easily!

    In this course you are going to learn a lot about how words and sentences work out in English. You will also learn about their references and the way we express them in English.

    We wish you all the best in your academic and professional career.

    Best,

    Ana Larissa and Brbara Orfan

  • 11

    UNIT 1

    1.1 BASIC CONCEPT

    SEMANTICS is the study of MEANING in LANGUAGE. Knowing the meaning of all the words that make up a language is not sufficient to interpret an utterance, though. We usually need access to a series of extra-linguistic information about the participants and the context, their communication intent, the degree of formality of the interactions as well as other elements, like previous knowledge about a topic, to convey meaning. For this reason, linguists usually differentiate between two complementary approaches to the area of meaning production and interpretation.

    The first area is concerned with sentence meaning and is the object of semantics. The second deals with utterance meaning and is the object of pragmatics (HUTFORD, B; HEASLEY, B & SMITH, M, 2007; MEYER, 2007).

    In order to clarify this, two questions can be addressed:

    1. What does it mean?

    (This question is a request of information and is independent of the participants in a given interaction and is in the field of Semantics)

    2. What do you mean?

    (This question is a request of information and is dependent of the participants in a given interaction and is in the field of Pragmatics).

    We have outlined the basic concepts of Semantics here. Before we move on to the activities you shall take a look at the reminders, they summarize the main topics covered in this unit. Make sure that you understand them. Do go back to the unit, if you have doubts before doing the activities.

    1.2 SENTENCES, UTTERANCES AND PROPOSITIONS

    An UTTERANCE is any stretch of talk, by one person, before and after which, there is silence on the part of that person.

    An utterance is the USE by a particular speaker, on a particular occasion, of a piece of language, such as a sequence of sentences, or a single phrase, or even a single word.

    Utterances are physical events. Events are ephemeral. Utterances die in the wind. Linguistics deals with spoken language and we will have a

    Now, analyse this sentence:

    The door is openWhat kind of meanings can

    you interpret from it?

    Someone is informing you so that there is a certain door and

    that it is open.

    Someone is feeling cold and he or she is kindly asking you to

    close the door.

    Someone is asking you to leave the room

    A Semntica o estudo do sentido na lngua.

    Um enunciado ou (utteranace) um segmento

    de fala concretamente produzido por um falante, contm sentido completo. , normalmente, objeto de

    anlise semntico-pragmtica.

    Um perodo ou frase (sentence) um conjunto

    de palavras que seguem um padro gramatical e que

    contm sentido completo. , normalmente, objeto de

    anlise sinttica.

  • 12

    Letras/Ingls Caderno Didtico - 5 Perodo

    lot to say about utterances in this book. But we will concentrate even more on another notion, that of sentences.

    A SENTENCE is neither a physical event nor a physical object. A string of words put together by the grammatical rules of a language. A sentence can be thought of as the IDEAL string of words behind various realizations in utterances and inscriptions pragmatics (HUTFORD, B; HEASLEY, B & SMITH, M, 2007; MEYER, 2007 ).

    1.3 MEANING AND DICTIONARY

    A DICTIONARY can be thought of as a list of the meanings of words, of what words mean. Butcould one make a list of what speakers in general mean?

    The answer is NO because speakers may mean different things on different occasions, even when using the same words, as in the sentence: The door is open.

    So, it is important to understand two basic definitions: speaker meaning and sentence or word meaning.

    SPEAKER MEANING is what a speaker means, or wants to convey, when he uses a piece of language.

    SENTENCE MEANING (or WORD MEANING) is what a sentence (or word) means, i.e. what it counts as the equivalent of in the language concerned.

    This makes us come to two important definitions in our course. The definitions of sentence and utterance:

    SENTENCES are abstract grammatical elements. Utterances are concrete strings of words.

    Semantics is part of our grammatical competence and usually focuses on decontextualized meaning, while pragmatics focuses on contextualized meaning. So, the study of meaning, or SEMANTICS, has proven to be one of the more challenging levels of linguistic structure for linguists to describe. A relatively simple word such as the noun CHAIR, is a term to which the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) assigns 16 different meanings.

    Consider one of these 16 meanings as defined in the OED and two other dictionaries:

  • English Semantics UAB/Unimontes

    13

    OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY (OED):A seat for one person (always implying more or less of comfort and ease); now the common name for the movable four-legged seat with a rest for the back, which constitutes, in many forms of rudeness or elegance, an ordinary article of household furniture, and is also used in gardens or wherever it is usual to sit.

    MERRIAM-WEBSTER COLLEGIATE DICTIONARY (MW) (11TH ED.): a seat typically having four legs and a back for one person.

    AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE (AHD):A piece of furniture consisting of a seat, legs, back, and often arms, designed to accommodate one person.

    The three dictionaries agree on two characteristics of a chair: that it seats one person and has a back. While the OED and MW specify that a chair has four legs, the AHD states simply that it has legs. The AHD also notes that a chair often [has] arms, suggesting that arms are optional. The other two dictionaries say nothing about arms. The OED entry is much more detailed than the other entries, noting that chairs exhibit comfort and ease, are moveable, and are regarded as household furniture.

    Although the definitions in the three dictionaries are similar, there are enough differences to illustrate the complexity inherent in defining even the simplest notions. For this reason, many different perspectives for treating meaning have developed within the field of linguistics. Dictionary definitions fall within the province of lexical semantics, an area of linguistics concerned with the study of the meaning of individual words. Because dictionaries are intended as reference guides, they do not provide theoretical statements about the nature of lexical meaning. However, LEXICOGRAPHERS, those who create dictionaries, have developed methodologies for discovering the meanings of words and most effectively presenting these meanings to users of dictionaries.

    For this reason, modern lexicographers have abandoned handwritten citation slips created by thousands of individuals and have turned instead to collecting examples automatically from very large corpora. For instance, the publisher Harper-Collins created the Collins Word Web as the source for citation files used to create a number of dictionaries that they have published, including The Collins English Dictionary (2007). The Collins Word Web is currently 2.5 billion words in length and contains various kinds of spoken and written English. It is constantly being updated so that new words entering the language can be detected and included in upcoming editions of dictionaries.

    Advances in software development have also aided in the creation of citation slips. A CONCORDANCING PROGRAM can be used on any

  • 14

    Letras/Ingls Caderno Didtico - 5 Perodo

    computerized text to very quickly create a KWIK (keyword in context)

    concordance. All instances of chair are vertically aligned so that their use

    in context can be easily examined. Although only sentence fragments in

    which chair occurs can be seen, often, only a limited context is needed

    to determine the meaning of a word. If a larger context is desired, most

    concordancing programs allow for the entire sentence or surrounding

    sentences to be viewed.

    While lexicographers will need to examine many uses of a word

    to determine its meaning(s), the 24 instances of chair in Figure 1 begin to

    reveal it. Three of the examples point to a chair as a place to sit:

    in his gown, sitting in a chair.

    Enter the friar, sitting in a chair.

    The back of the chair on which Gennaio is sitting.

    One example actually provides a definition of a chair:

    A chair consists of four legs, a seat,.

    Another contains a few words, carved wooden chair.,

    specifying what a chair is made of.

    Other examples indicate that chair is POLYSEMOUS; that is, that

    it has more than one meaning. A chair is not simply a concrete object used

    for sitting, but an abstract noun designating someone who is the head of

    something, or who holds some highly esteemed position at a university:

    Gordon Stewart, chair of the Department of History,.

    B. Watson left his academic chair at The Johns Hopkins

    University.

    Of course, more examples beyond would be needed to verify this

    meaning of chair. But as lexicographers begin isolating multiple meanings of

    words, they can search for other examples to determine how widespread

    the meanings are.

    Words with similar pronunciations but different meanings are

    often referred to as HOMONYMS. But deciding whether a given word

    has one or more meanings is often difficult to determine. A rocking chair

    differs from other chairs because it does not have four legs but two curved

    legs that are shaped in a way that permits the chair to move forwards and

  • English Semantics UAB/Unimontes

    15

    backwards. A computer chair also moves but typically has four legs with

    wheels. A beanbag chair has no legs or arms but a flexible area for sitting.

    All of these chairs are little more than variations on the traditional notion of chair. For this reason, no lexicographer is likely to list them in a dictionary in a separate entry.

    1.4 ENGLISH LANGUAGE DICTIONARIES

    There are many different kinds of dictionaries:

    MONOLINGUAL DICTIONARIES: Monolingual dictionaries are

    intended for native speakers and, as a consequence, focus on a single

    language (e.g. English, German, French). Some of the more well-known

    monolingual English dictionaries include the Oxford English Dictionary,

    Websters Third New International Dictionary, and the American Heritage

    Dictionary of the English Language.For non-native speakers, there are

    specialized monolingual dictionaries known as learner dictionaries. For

    instance, the Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary and the Collins

    COBUILD Advanced Learners English Dictionary are written specifically for

    non-native speakers of English, and, thus, contain simpler definitions than

    would be found in a typical monolingual dictionary and a greater emphasis

    on vocabulary, such as idioms or phrasal verbs, that give individuals learning

    English as an additional language considerable difficulty.

    BILINGUAL DICTIONARIES: Bilingual dictionaries focus on two

    languages and are designed for individuals who are native speakers of a

    particular language learning another language as an additional one. For

    English speakers, there are English/Spanish dictionaries, English/Italian

    dictionaries, and so forth.

    UNABRIDGED/ABRIDGED DICTIONARIES: The major dictionary

    makers will periodically release large unabridged dictionaries from which

    they will produce smaller unabridged dictionaries that contain a subset of

    words in the abridged dictionary as well as newer words that have entered

    the language since the publication of the unabridged version. For instance,

    Websters Third New International, an unabridged dictionary produced by

    the G&C Merriam Co. in Springfield MA, was released in 1961. Since its

    the publication, Merriam-Webster has published 11 collegiate dictionaries

    - which contain fewer entries than Websters Third. At the same time they

    have been updated with newer words than the unabridged version. Because

    the Webster name is so closely associated with the 19th century American

    lexicographer Noah Webster, many dictionaries have been published

    under the Websters name. However, The G&C Merriam Company is the

    only publisher of a Webster dictionary having any connection to Noah

    Websters 1828 dictionary, American Dictionary of the English Language.

    Um dicionrio uma lista de palavras e o significado delas.

    O sentido que o falante confere sua produo

    (speakers menaing): relaciona-se ao que o falante

    quer dizer sobre algo.

    O sentido do perodo ou da frase (sentence meaning): o que o perodo ou frase

    significam no cnonstruto geral da lngua.

    Lexicgrafos (lexicographers): so os profissionais

    responsveis por coletar evidncias de uso lingustico

    para a produo de dicionrios.

    Lingustica de Corpora

    (Corpus Linguistics): um ramo da lingustica que tem

    como objeto de estudo o levantamento e anlise da

    lngua em uso com base em bancos de dados digitais

    dispoinveis.Concordance Programs e KWK (Key word in context) so ferramentas

    utilziadas pela lingustica de corpus.

    Polissemia (polysemy): o fenmeno semntico pelo qual uma mesma palavra

    apresenta vrios significados, reconhecveis apenas pela

    anlise do contexto. Ex: light (luz ou leve).

    Homnia (homonyny):

    fenmeno semntico pelo qual duas palavras apresentam

    significados diferentes e pronncia semelhantes. Ex: flower (flor)e flour (farinha).

  • 16

    Letras/Ingls Caderno Didtico - 5 Perodo

    THESAURUSES: These are dictionaries specialized in providing

    synonyms for the main entries that they contain. One of the more famous

    English Thesauruses is Rogets Thesaurus, published in 1852 and written by

    Peter Roget. Because the name of this dictionary was never copyrighted,

    many thesauruses contain the name Roget, even though they are not

    derivative of the original thesaurus.

    SPECIALIZED DICTIONARIES: Many dictionaries focus on

    vocabulary specific to a particular occupation or area of interest. Physicians

    and lawyers, for instance, can make use of dictionaries that define medical

    and legal terms, such as Tablers Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary or Blacks

    Law Dictionary. Musicians can consult dictionaries of musical terms, such

    as the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Scrabble players have

    dictionaries specialized in words commonly used in scrabble games. Since

    the range of interests is large, so are the number of dictionaries catering to

    these interests.

    Even though many different kinds of dictionaries exist, most

    individuals are probably most familiar with abridged or unabridged

    monolingual dictionaries: the primary focus of discussion in this section.

    The creation of a monolingual dictionary is essentially a two-stage process:

    determining the meaning of words by studying their use in context, and,

    then, crafting definitions of the words that will be appropriate for the

    readership of dictionaries.

    1.5 LEXICAL SEMANTICS

    According to HUTFORD & SMITH (2007), LEXICAL SEMANTICS

    has also been studied within linguistics. For instance, one way to describe

    the meanings of words in a more general sense is to categorize the various

    relationships existing among them: words with similar or identical meanings

    are considered SYNONYMS, those with opposite meanings ANTONYMS.

    Words with different but overlapping meanings, such as beagle or poodle,

    can be said to constitute a SEMANTIC FIELD. Within semantic fields,

    certain words will be PROTOTYPES: words more closely associated with

    the field than other ones. For instance, speakers of American English will

    regard a poodle or German Sheppard as more typical type of dog than a

    Norwegian elk hound. Another more controversial way of characterizing

    the meaning of words has been done in the area of COMPONENTIAL

    ANALYSIS. This involves defining words by breaking them down into their

    component parts and assigning them semantic features. On one level, the

    words puppy and infant share the feature newly born. These words differ

    in that infant has the feature human, while puppy does not. However,

    H vrios tipos principais de dicionrios, entre eles:

    Monolngue (monolingual): dicionrios normalmente

    direcioandos a falantes nativos ou muito proficinetes.

    Bilngue (bilingual): direcioandos para falantes

    de duas lnguas direferentes, pois contm traduao ou

    vero.H ainda dicionrios especializados, por exemplo,

    dicionrios de sinnimos (thesauruses) ou dicionrios da rea de direito (law), por

    exemplo.

  • English Semantics UAB/Unimontes

    17

    this area of semantics has proven to be problematic, primarily because it is

    difficult to determine exactly what semantic features are needed.

    While lexical semantics is concerned with the meaning of individual words, larger structures, such as sentences, also have meaning. Functional elements such as subjects and objects have SEMANTIC ROLES. In the sentence, The child made a sand castle, the subject of the sentence, the child, is the AGENT: the person responsible for carrying out the action in the sentence. The direct object, a sand castle, is the PATIENT, the person or thing directly affected by the agents actions. Recent work in frame semantics has expanded upon work on semantic roles to describe these roles in terms of the cognitive frames in which they occur. For example, the sentence The woman bought a clock would be part of the commercial transaction frame, a frame that includes many elements, in the given example a buyer (the woman) and something purchased (a clock).

    Still, words also have a pointing function. This function is known as deixis, a word borrowed from Greek that means to point or to show. In the given example, not only does the word woman means (an adult female) but it points, or refers, to a particular woman in the external world. The ability of nouns and pronouns to refer is one type of deixis: REFERENTIAL DEIXIS. Other types include TEMPORAL and SPATIAL deixis. For instance, the sentence I walked a mile yesterday contains two temporal markers that anchor this sentence in the past: the past tense marker on the verb walked and the adverb yesterday. Other time frames are indicated by the present tense marker in English as well as the two aspect markers (perfective and progressive). Spatial deixis is indicated by prepositions such as in and on or demonstratives such as this or that, which situate what is being discussed either close to the speaker/writer (This wine is giving me a headache) or away from him/her (That person always bothers me).

    Finally, language can be used to express the speaker or readers perspective on the truth of what is being said, an area of semantics known as modality. Degrees of certainty can be expressed through modal verbs such as can or may and adverbs such as perhaps, definitely, or maybe. The sentence I will help you expresses a high degree of certainty, while the sentences Perhaps I will help you or I might help you indicate a much lower degree of certainty.

    The various ways that meaning has been studied shows exactly what is meant by the notion of meaning: what philosophers of language often describe as what it means to mean (HUTFORD, & SMITH, 2007; MEYER, 2007).

    1.6 HOW SEMANTICS OPERATES: THE TWO LEVELS

    Semantic investigation operates at two levels: word and sentence level. The first explores the relationships words have with each other within

    THESE CONCEPTS ARE KEY. MAKE SURE YOU

    UNDERSTAND THEM VERY WELL BEFORE YOU GO

    AHEAD

    SYNONYMY: Synonyms are words which have a similar

    meaning. Small, tiny, little aresynonyms.

    ANTONYMY: Antonyms are words that have opposite

    meanings. Little and big are antonyms.

    HYPONOMY

    Words like creature may be seen as a superordinate term, with a more general meaning, whilst cows or mammals have

    specific meanings which come under, or are subordinate to,

    the word creature.

    These subordinate terms are called HYPONYMS.

    So, we can see cow as a

    hyponym of mammal which, in turn, is a hyponym of creature.

  • 18

    Letras/Ingls Caderno Didtico - 5 Perodo

    a language system, their sense. That can be defined in terms of SYNONYMY, ANTONYMY, POLYSEMY, HOMONYMY and HYPONYMY.

    As we remember from Saussures theory, since the relationship between words and their referents is merely symbolic they are signs each word derives a meaning not from the real world but from its existence within a semantic field of related signs.

    At the WORD LEVEL, Componential analysis breaks down the meaning of a word into components. For example, the components of the word man would be: +human + adult + male. Using these components, semanticists build grids which define the words of a particular field according to the presence or absence of a particular component. Of course, grammatical words such as and, but, for do not lend themselves to this analysis. But, above all, the elements mentioned could be endlessly broken down into smaller ones. So this method can be useful as a means of classification but not as a theory of meaning.

    At the SENTENCE LEVEL, semanticists are mainly concerned with the truth value of linguistic expressions.

    They often distinguish between analytic and synthetic truth. A synthetically true statement is true because it is an accurate representation of reality. An analytically true statement is true because it follows from the meaning relations within the sentence.

    LOGICAL SEMANTICS or TRUTH CONDITIONAL SEMANTICS draws mainly on propositional logic and is interested above all in the logical connectives of English.

    This kind of analysis implies a correspondence between language and reality, but some semanticists do not believe in this correspondence and argue that language creates reality.

    COGNITIVE SEMANTICS understands language as part of our general cognitive ability and pays special attention to metaphor pragmatics (HUTFORD, B; HEASLEY, B & SMITH, M, 2007; MEYER, C. Introducing English Linguistics . London: Longman. 2007).

    1.7 SENSE RELATIONS

    ANTONYMY is a sense relation between words which are opposite in meaning.

    There are various forms of antonymy.

    In GRADABLE ANTONYMS there can be degrees of opposition (wide/narrow, old/young/, tall/short). In this case the definition changes according to the REFERENT and there is usually a MARKED (young) and and UN-MARKED term (old ex. She is 16 years old).

    In COMPLEMENTARY ANTONYMS the opposition between the terms is absolute (alive/dead). RELATIONAL ANTONYMS are not either/or

    Sinnimos (synonyms): so palavras que apresentam

    sentido equivalente. Ex: salaray (salrio) e wage (salrio).

    Antnimos: so palavras que apresentam sentido oposto. Ex:

    high (alto) e low (baixo).Homfonos (homophoes): so

    palavras que possuem a mesma pronncia e grafia e sentidos

    diferentes. send (enviar) e sand (areia).

    Homgrafos (homographs): so palavras que possuem grafia idntica, pronncia idntica

    ou no e sentidos diferentes. Ex: bear (urso) e bear (suportar,

    aguentar).Isotopia (isotopy): conjunto de palavras que contm a mesma

    raiz semntica. Ex: digital, dgito e digitalizao.

    Hiponmia (hyponymy): uma relao hierrquica entre

    termos, na qual o sentiudo de um est contido no sentido do outro. Ex: apple (ma) e fruit

    (fruta).Prototype: so palavras

    comumente associadas a um campo semntico especfico.

    Ex: o termo cachorro (dog) est mais prximo do campo

    semntico de animais domsticos do que o termo

    Wolf (lobo), embora, do ponto de vista biolgico, eles sejam

    muito semelhantes. Papis semnticos (semantic

    roles) - agente (agent): pessoa ou coisa responsvel pela ao enunciativa; paciente (patient):

    pessoa ou coisa afetada pela ao enunciativa. Ex: I closed

    the door (Eu fechei a porta). Eu (I) agente; porta (door)

    paciente.Dixis Referencial (referencial deixis): carter demonstrativo

    da linguagem, que recupera elementos anteriormente ou

    posteriormente citados no discurso. Por exemplo: Paulo

    comeu o bolo. Ele estava com fome. Ele refere-se a Paulo.

  • English Semantics UAB/Unimontes

    19

    but there is a logical relationship between them (above/below, husband/wife)

    HOMONYMY is a relation between words which have the same form, but unrelated senses.

    HOMONYMS can have the same phonological or graphical form, or both. If they have the same phonological form, they are called HOMOPHONES (sight/site).

    If they have the same graphical form, they are called HOMOGRAPHS (lead: metal and lead: conduct). Some of them are both homophonic and homographic (mail).

    POLYSEMY is a sense relation in which a word, or lexeme, has acquired more than one meaning often because of its metaphorical use or because it can refer to abstract or concrete referents.

    Sometimes homonymy is difficult to distinguish from POLYSEMY, but in fact homonyms are separate lexical items which happen to have the same form, while in the case of POLYSEMY the same lexical item has taken up more than one sense. One possibility is to take etymology as a criterion to distinguish them, but it does not always work (sole), so maybe the best approach is to look for a common core of meaning (common semes).

    An ISOTOPY is formed by repeating one seme. For example, in There was a fine ship, carved from solid gold / With azure reaching masts, on seas unknown, the words ship, masts and seas all contain the seme /navigation/ (as well as others) and thus create the isotopy /navigation/.

    HYPONYMY is a hierarchical relation between two terms, in which the sense of one is included in the other [rose (hyponym) /flower (hypernym)].

    CO-HYPONYMS are hyponyms of the same hypernym (rose, lily, daisy) and are incompatible (a rose cannot be a lily).

    There can be various levels of hyponymy (Living things - (Animal)/ Vegetable - Flower - Rose/ Lily/Daisy/ Poppy etc).

    SYNONYMY is a relation between words which have a similar meaning (mad/insane, main/chief/principal). English is particularly rich in synonyms because of the influx on it of various languages such as Latin, French and Anglo-Saxon.

    In fact, words are never totally interchangeable, so synonyms frequently differ stylistically, they belong to different language registers (mother/mom) or can be combined only with certain other words, that is they have a collocational range (powerful, mighty, strong).

    MULTI-MEANING WORDS

    In all languages, words may have multiple meanings. It is very important to consider the context in each a words is.

    Ambiguidade (ambiguity): uma palavra ou expresso

    pode conter sentidos variados, dependendo do seu contexto

    de uso. Ex: We serve turists (Ns servimos turistas). Pode

    ser entendido como turistas so servidos pelos garons de um

    restaurante. Ou, num contexto de humor, os turistas podem

    ser servidos como um prato do cardpio.

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    Letras/Ingls Caderno Didtico - 5 Perodo

    Examples:

    Argument:

    1. Making an argument expressing a point of view and supporting it with facts and evidence: He presented relevant arguments in favor of the new legislation.

    2. Harsh discussion: I had an argument with my boyfriend last night.

    AMBIGUITY

    Sentences can have different meanings, depending on how we

    interpret them. We usually rely on context and background knowledge

    to get rid of ambiguity but, sometimes, meaning must be more clearly

    conveyed.

    Examples:

    In the sentence:

    Include Your Children When Baking Cookies, the meaning is

    are children going to take part in the activity OR are they going to be

    baked together with the cookies? As we can see, meaning always depends

    on context.

    LEXICAL AMBIGUITY depends on HOMONYMY (senses not

    related) and POLYSEMY (senses related). Some sentences which contain

    ambiguous words are ambiguous while others are not, and some sentences

    which contain no ambiguous words are AMBIGUOUS while others are not.

    We have outlined the basic concepts concerning sense relations.

    Before we move on to the activities you shall take a look at the reminders,

    they summarize the main topics covered in this unit. Make sure that you

    understand them. Do go back to the unit, if you have doubts before doing

    the activities.

    1.8 SEMANTIC FIELD

    A SEMANTIC FIELD is an area of meaning containing words with

    related senses. According to this theory, meanings of words cluster together

    to form fields of meaning, which, in turn, cluster into larger ones (Ex.: veal/

    chicken/pork - meat - food).

    Each meaning is defined by the space a word occupies in the field.

    The origin of the FIELD THEORY OF SEMANTICS is the lexical

    field theory introduced by Jost Trier in the 1930s. For John Lyons (1970)

    words related in any sense belonged to the same SEMANTIC FIELD, and

    the SEMANTIC FIELD was simply a lexical category, which he described

    as a LEXICAL FIELD. So, we can say that SEMANTIC FIELDS translate into

    LEXICAL FIELDS.

    Competent speakers may consider they know the

    meaning of words or sentences of a language, however the student (or the professor) of

    Semantics may well be good at describing meanings, or

    theorizing about meaning in general. This kind of reflection

    is part of language education in general.

  • English Semantics UAB/Unimontes

    21

    Field theory is very useful in the contrastive analysis of different

    languages (wood/glass/ types of kinship). Some words can belong to

    different fields (polysemy).

    Example:

    Cat, feline, moggy, puss, kitten, tom, queen and miaow occupy the

    same semantic field.

    1.9 METAPHOR

    METAPHOR is a process in which one semantic field of reference is transferred to another.

    The new field is generally referred to as TARGET or tenor, the old one as SOURCE or VEHICLE.

    Example:

    Time is RUNNING fast.

    A CONVENTIONAL METAPHOR is a metaphor that is commonly used in everyday language in a culture to give structure to some portion of that cultures conceptual system. For example:

    The understanding of time as a resource

    Example:

    Time is RUNNING out.

    The understanding of life as a journey

    Example:

    Its time to GET ON with your life.

    COGNITIVE SEMANTICISTS, instead, do not make this distinction and consider metaphor as a natural feature of language and a consequence of the way we think about the world. (LAKOFF & JOHNSON, 1980) distinguish 3 types of metaphor:

    STRUCTURAL METAPHOR: we map one type of experience onto another. A structural metaphor is a conventional metaphor in which one concept is understood and expressed in terms of another structured, sharply defined concept: A cold person.

    An ORIENTATIONAL METAPHOR is a metaphor in which concepts are spatially related to each other (I feel down), as in the following ways:

    Up or down;

    Front or back;

    On or off;

    Deep or shallow;

    Central or peripheral.

    Metfora (metaphor): processo cognitive pelo qual um termo,

    pertencente a um determinado campo semntico transferido

    para outro. O campo original normalmente referido como fonte (source) e o novo como

    alvo (target). Ex: o termo cabea (head) pode ser usado

    no sentido de parte de um corpo vivo, como tambm

    no sentido de principal. Ex: He is the head of the

    departmente (Ele o chefe do departamento).

    Metfora convencional (conventional metaphor):

    um tipo de metfora usada rotineiramente para

    exemplificar aspectos culturais do modo como

    falantes conceitualizam um determinado conceito. Ex: na maior parte das culturas

    o verbo chegar (arrive), originalmente contm um

    sentido de aproximao fsica. Mas ele utilizado, tambm,

    no sentido temporal (The weekend is arriving: o final de

    semana est chegando).Metfora estrutural (metfora

    estrutural): um tipo de metfora que ocorre quando

    um conceito expresso em termos de uma estrutura

    lingstica semelhante. Ex: a warm person (uma pessoa

    calorosa). Warm (quente, caloroso) usado para expressar

    uma caracterstica de personalidade.

    Metfora orientacional: um tipo de metfora em que

    os conceitos espaciais esto relacionados entre si. Prices are higher (os preos esto

    mais altos). Higher (mais alto): usado para indicar elevao de

    preos.Metfora ontolgica: um tipo de metfora em eu m conceito

    abstrato representado por algo concreto. Ex: He broke my heart (ele quebrou meu

    corao). Broke my heart significando um sentimento de

    tristeza.

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    Letras/Ingls Caderno Didtico - 5 Perodo

    An ONTOLOGICAL METAPHOR is a metaphor in which an abstraction, such as an activity, emotion, or idea, is represented as something concrete, such as an object, substance, container, or person: How did Jerry get out of washing the windows?

    We have just outlined the definitions for metaphor. Before we move on to the activities, you shall take a look at the reminders, they summarize the main topics covered in this unit. Make sure that you understand them. Do go back to the unit, if you have doubts before doing the activities.

    1.10 LANGUAGE VARIATION AND THE ISSUE OF CORRECTNESS

    English, like most languages, has a number of different DIALECTS. Just as the pronunciation of English VARIES from one dialect to another, so there are also DIFFERENCES in the basic semantic facts from one dialect of English to another. Note that we are using dialect in normal way in Linguistics, i.e. to indicate any variety of a language, regardless of whether it has prestige or not. In this sense, every speaker, from the London stockbroker to the Californian surfer speaks some DIALECT. It is not the business of semantics to lay down standards of semantic correctness, to prescribe what meanings words shall have, or what they may be used for. SEMANTICS, LIKE THE REST OF LINGUISTICS, DESCRIBES. THERE MUST BE NO JUDGEMENTAL VIEW IN THIS DESCRIPTION. (HUTFORD, HEASLEY, & SMITH, 2007; MEYER, 2007 ).

    HURFORD, James R. & HEASTLEY, Brendan. Semantics: a coursebook. Cambrige:58 CUP, 1998.

    Chair and table are heteronyms (in the lexical field of furniture

    terms). Get on and get off are

    directional opposites with respect to time.

    Top-down and bottom-up are directional opposites with

    respect to the direction of a process.

    Before and after are directional opposites with

    respect to time.

    Now, it is time to do the activities for Unit I to check

    your comprehension and practice what you have

    learned. Go ahead!

  • 23

    UNIT 2REFERENCE AND SENSE

    2.1 INTRODUCTION

    The notions of SENSE and REFERENCE are central to the study of

    meaning. Every further unit in this book will make use of one or another

    of these notions. The idea of REFERENCE is relatively solid and easy to

    understand. The idea of SENSE is more elusive: its a bit like electricity,

    which we all know how to use (and even talk about) in various ways,

    without ever being sure what exactly it is.

    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. Intuitively,

    it is sometimes useful to think of sense as that part of the meaning of an

    expression that is left over when reference is factored out. It is much easier

    to say whether or not two expressions have the SENSE. It is like being able

    to say that two people are in the same place without being able to say

    where they are.

    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 in a

    pragmatic way (HUTFORD, B; HEASLEY, B & SMITH, M, 2007; MEYER,

    C. Introducing English Linguistics . London: Longman. 2007; KRAHMER,

    1998).

    Examples:

    When Helen mentioned the fruit cake, she meant that rock-hard

    object in the middle of the table(reference).

    When Albert talks about his former friend he means me

    (reference)

    Daddy, what does unique mean? (sense)

    Purchase has the same meaning as buy (sense)

    Look at the following cartoon. It was published in the USA in

    2009. Who (or what) do you think the father is REFERRING TO when he

    says: This time! What does the expression this time MEAN?

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    Letras/Ingls Caderno Didtico - 5 Perodo

    In: http://kingofgng.com/eng/2008/11/24/barack-obama-comic-strips-collection/, publi-shed in Jan 2009, accessed in Sep., 2010.

    The father is possibly REFERRING TO Barack Obama, the first

    black man to become the President of the United States. He probably

    means that, after years of discourse about equality in the USA, black

    people can finally be really considered equal to white people in terms of

    the opportunities they can have. To understand the charge, you need to

    grasp both REFERENCE and SENSE.

    2.2 CATAPHORIC AND ANAPHORIC REFERENCES

    CATAPHORIC REFERENCE

    A CATAPHORIC REFERENCE unit refers to another unit that is

    introduced later on in the text/speech. To understand the unit referred to

    by a CATAPHORIC REFERENCE, you would need to look ahead in the text/

    speech. CATAPHORIC means reference forwards in the text. Sometimes a

    pronoun such as he, she, it finds its reference in the following context of

    the text.

    Example:

    When he arrived, Selton was surprised to see the door open (He

    refers to Selton. He came first in the text).

    When I first met him, John Smith was wearing a very ugly T-shirt.

    Sense (sentido): uma abstrao, um sentido que

    atribumos a uma expresso como representativa do mundo

    real.

    Reference (referncia): refere-se propriedade ditica da

    linguagem, que aponta para um pessoal objeto, sentimento

    ou local no mundo.

  • English Semantics UAB/Unimontes

    25

    2.3 ANAPHORIC REFERENCE

    An ANAPHORIC REFERENCE unit, on the other hand, refers to another unit that was introduced earlier on in the text/speech. To understand the unit referred to by an ANAPHORIC REFERENCE, you would need to look back in the text/speech. ANAPHORIC REFERENCE means reference backwards in the text. A personal pronoun, for example, often has an anaphoric reference. (HUTFORD, B; HEASLEY, B & SMITH, M, 2007; MEYER, C. Introducing English Linguistics . London: Longman. 2007; KRAHMER, 1998).

    Example:

    Selton is so stressed out about the assignment he is talking about it right now. (He refers to Selton; Selton came first in the text)

    This is the girl who I told you about. (Who refers to girl; Girl came first)

    2.4 EXOPHORIC REFERENCE

    EXOPHORIC WORDS refer to something outside the text. In linguistics, exophora is reference to something extralinguistic, i.e., NOT IN THE SAME TEXT, and contrasts with endophora. Exophora can be DEICTIC, in which special words or grammatical markings are used to make reference to something in the context of the utterance or speaker.

    For example, pronouns are often EXOPHORIC, with words such as this, that, here, there, as in that chair over there is Johns, said while indicating the direction of the chair referred to.

    Given Did the gardener water those plants?, it is quite possible that those refers back to the preceding text, to some earlier mention of those particular plants in the discussion. But it is also possible that it refers to the environment in which the dialogue is taking place; to the context of the situation, where the plants in question are present and can be pointed to, if necessary. The interpretation would be those plants there, in front of us. This kind of reference is called EXOPHORA, since it takes us outside the text altogether. EXOPHORIC REFERENCE is not COHESIVE, since it does not bind the two elements together into a text.

    The study of SENSE demands, as you may have noticed, a degree of idealization of the facts about meaning. In other words, sometimes we claim to be more certain than we perhaps should be about questions like Does this expression have the same sense as that one? (HUTFORD, B; HEASLEY, B & SMITH, M, 2007; MEYER, C. Introducing English Linguistics . London: Longman. 2007; KRAHMER, 1998).

    When you look up the MEANING of a word in a dictionary, what you find

    there, are not referents, but expressions with the SAME

    SENSES

    Before you go ahead, make sure you understand these key

    concepts very well:

    ANAPHORIC REFERENCE: It is an instance of an expression

    referring to another. The referent comes first: Allan

    has just come. He is waiting outside.

    CATAPHORIC REFERENCE: It means that a word in the text refers to another and that you

    have to look forward to find the referent: He is waiting for

    you outside. You know that Allan hates waiting.

    EXOPHORIC REFERENCE: It refers to information from

    outside the text. In the following traditional song, the word you may refer to many different people in the actual

    and fictional situation:

    Well in my heart you are my darling

    And my gate you will come in (...)

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    Letras/Ingls Caderno Didtico - 5 Perodo

    2.5 REFERENCE AND SENSE IN DESCRIPTIVE MEANING

    Words are connected with certain concepts and meanings. When a word is successfully communicated, it is recognized by the addressee(s) and it triggers, in the mind of the addressees, the concept it is connected with. For example, if I hear someone telling me: Hello, Rafael and Davi have just arrived and want to talk to you, I can realize that the register of language is informal because of the use of the word hello. I can also understand the message conveyed (some people have arrived and want to talk to me) and I can also picture in my mind the image of Rafael and Davi, once I know whom they are. This is how the process of SENSE and REFERENCE operates in our minds.

    CHERCHIA, Genaro & McCONNEL, Sally. Meaning and grammar: an introduction to semantics. Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1995.

    HURFORD, James R. & HEASTLEY, Brendan. Semantics: a coursebook. Cambrige:58 CUP, 1998.

    LEECH, Geoffrey. Semantics: the study of meaning. 2 ed. London: Penguim books,1981.

    Anaphoric reference (referncia anfora): uma

    recuperao de um elemento anteriormente mencionado

    no discurso. Ex: Allan acabou de chegar. Ele est esperando

    l fora. Ele refere-se a Allan, anteriormente mencionado no

    discurso.

    Cataphoric reference (referncia catafrica): significa que um termo

    usado no discurso referido ou pode ser identificado

    posteriormente. Ex: Ele est esperando por voc l fora.

    Voc sabe que o Allan odeia esperar. Ele refere-se a Allan, posteriormente mencioando

    no discurso.

    Exophoric reference: o termo mencionado refere-se a um elemento fora do discurso.

    Pode ser recuperado por meio de vrios elementos a ele

    refelacionados, de acodo com a cultura ou conhecimento de

    mundo.

  • 27

    UNIT 3WORD MEANING IN DICTIONARIES

    3.1 DICTIONARY DEFINITION

    According to Hurford, Heasley and Smith (2007:195), a dictionary is a central part of the description of any language. It usually gives at least three kinds of information:

    1. Phonological information explaining, for example, how words are pronounced;

    2. Grammatical (syntactical and morphological) containing information about its part of speech, (adjective or noun), inflections (plural number, present tense);

    3. Semantic information containing information about the word meaning. See example from figure 3.1.

    Fig. 3.1- Example taken from Cambridge dictionary online:

    Definition

    problem noun

    /prb.lm/ /pr:.blm/ n [C]

    A situation, person or thing that needs attention and needs to be dealt with or solved financial/health problems.

    Our main problem is lack of cash.

    Im having problems with my computer.

    No one has solved the problem of what to do with radioactive waste.

    The very high rate of inflation poses/presents (= is) a serious problem for the government.

    When is the government going to tackle (= deal with) the problem of poverty in the inner cities?

    [+ -ing verb] Did you have any problems (= difficulties) getting here?

    Id love to come - the only problem is Ive got friends staying that night.

    A question in mathematics which needs an answer.

    We were given ten problems to solve.

    www.cambridgedictionaryonline.com acessed: October 2010

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    Letras/Ingls Caderno Didtico - 5 Perodo

    3.2 THE ORGANIZATION OF DICTIONARIES

    A good dictionary should tell users what words mean. In relation

    to that, it can be said that dictionaries also describe the senses of predicates

    (see chapters 1 and 2), for a revision on predicates). However, within a

    modern linguistics approach, it is necessary to bear in mind that dictionaries

    are also responsible for representing important aspects of the mental

    knowledge of its users and presenting definitions that would be ratified by

    any typical native speaker of that particular language (Hurford, Heasley and

    Smith (2007).

    In addition to that, one important characteristic of dictionaries

    is the interconnectedness of definitions, as illustrated in picture 5.1. This

    interconnectedness is unavoidable, due to the fact that dictionary writers

    main purpose is to define, as completely as possible, the knowledge a

    native speaker has about all the sense relations among predicates (see

    section 3 on sense relations). This interconnectedness is also evident in

    the work of Hurford, Heasley and Smith (ibid.), who assert that dictionary

    definitions also rely on a circularity approach in order to completely define

    the meaning of the words.

    See figure 3.2, as an example of the circularity mentioned.

    www.thesaurus.com acessed October 2010

    Another important issue related to dictionaries is the matter of

    precision. A good dictionary should reveal a high standard of that. However,

    such characteristic has proved to be difficult to achieve.

  • English Semantics UAB/Unimontes

    29

    3.3 ENCYCLOPEDIA VERSUS DICTIONARY MEANING

    Another important fact influencing the organization of a dictionary is the debate between encyclopedia and dictionary. In order to explain this issue, it may be beneficial to start with briefly mentioning some of the characteristics of encyclopedias and how they are related to dictionaries.

    Remember:

    1. A dictionary describes the senses of predicates;

    2. An encyclopaedia contains factual information of a variety of types, but generally no information specifically on the meanings of words.

    Most dictionaries bring together the characteristics of encyclopedias, giving information not relevant to the sense of words. Observing the relationship between encyclopedic information and dictionary definitions, Hurford and his colleagues state that a descriptive semanticist is interested in information about words which can interpret analytic sentences (the walrus is an animal) or contradictions (the walrus Is not an animal). He also calls our attention to the fact that any other information is not semantic, but encyclopedic, and he also observes that such distinction can also be related to the notion of narrower sort of dictionary information and encyclopedic information (as mentioned before) in characterizing the meaning of a linguistic expression. The importance of the difference between the two is still being discussed by semanticists. Having mentioned the characteristics of encyclopedic information and dictionary information, the following section will concentrate on how semantic information is represented in dictionaries.

    3.4 SENSE RELATIONS: REPRESENTING SEMANTIC INFORMATION

    The aim of this unit is to present how semantic information is represented in dictionaries. Considering that a dictionary is a list of predicates and their senses, it is worth looking at how sense relations are structured in dictionaries. One cannot forget that a semanticist dictionary-writer is interested, for example, in the sense relation of the words, thus, terms like hyponymy, antonyms, synonyms, etc., prove to contribute in the definition given by dictionaries, when defining some words.

    In order to represent the semantic information present in dictionaries, first, it is necessary to introduce the central idea of a meaning postulate. According to Hurford, Heasley and Smith (2007:204), a meaning postulate is a formula expressing some aspect of the sense of a predicate.

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    Letras/Ingls Caderno Didtico - 5 Perodo

    It can be read as a proposition necessarily true by virtue of the meaning of the particular predicate involved.

    Example: Source (ibid: 205-206).

    HUMAN BEING:

    One-place

    synonym of man1

    MAN1:

    One-place

    synonym of HUMAN BEING

    MAN2:

    One-place

    hyponym of MALE

    hyponym of ADULT

    hyponym of HUMAN BEING

    As mentioned before, the predicates of a language all fit into a complicated network of interrelationships. A predicate is usually related through this network to other predicates. Despite all the connections between predicates, semanticists want the presentation of information to be economical including the minimum number of meaning postulates. However, it is important to have a general view of the most important properties of a predicate.

    3.5 PROPERTIES OF PREDICATES

    Symmetry and Asymmetry

    The dictionary can give the information that a predicate is symmetric, in the form of a meaning postulate. When predicates have a similar meaning, we say that they are symmetric. Symmetry is the opposite of asymmetry, thus when the meaning of the predicates are different, we say that they are asymmetric. See the following example of a symmetry predicate.

    Example: John is married with Anne is symmetric of Anne is married with John. Now see an example of an asymmetric predicate.

    Example: Lucy is more intelligent than Martha is asymmetric of Martha is more intelligent than Lucy.

    Reflexivity

    Reflexivity occurs when the meaning of the predicate refers back

    Dictionary definition: Its central role is to describe the

    language;

    Dictionary organization: Dictionaries represent

    definitions that should be ratified by native speakers of

    the target language;

    Encyclopedia and dictionary meaning: While dictionaries are responsible for describing

    the meaning of predicates, encyclopedias are responsible for giving factual information;

    Meaning postulate: Expresses the aspects of the sense of the

    predicates.

  • English Semantics UAB/Unimontes

    31

    to the meaning of the referring item. See the following sentence as an example of reflexivity.

    Example: Martha is quite as taller as herself

    Following the idea of symmetry and asymmetry, we also have the idea of irreflexive predicate. We have an irreflexive predicate when the referents correspond to a contradiction.

    Example: Paul is different from himself.

    Transitivity

    Transitivity occurs when compound sentences are compatible with each other.

    Take as an example the following sentence:

    Monica is in her office and her office is in this building means that Monica is in this building. So the predicate in is transitive.

    Now pay attention to the next example:

    Lucy is the mother of Linda and Linda is the mother of Martha is incompatible with Lucy is the mother of Martha, so mother of is intransitive. Another important thing to bear in mind is that just as asymmetry and irreflexivity correspond to symmetry and reflexivity, so intransitivity corresponds to transitivity.

    3.6 INTRODUCTION TO DERIVATION

    When we form new words according to a regular pattern on the basis of pre-existing words, we are using the rules of derivation. New words are formed by combining existing words with meaningful units smaller than words or with other existing words.

    Morpheme

    The meaningful units smaller than words, mentioned before, are called by linguists morphemes. According to Hurford, Heasley and Smith (2007:226), a morpheme is a minimal unit of word building that combines a minimal unit of meaning with a minimal linguistic form that carries this meaning. Morphemes are considered to be the building blocks of a language and they are very important, for example, for the concept of prefixes and suffixes.

    Prefix

    Another unit smaller than an actual word is the prefix re- in the word remake, the word re is also a morpheme, because it combines a

    Symmetry X asymmetry: Symmetry is when the

    predicates have a similar meaning, while asymmetry is when the predicate have

    different meanings;

    Reflexivity X irreflexivity: Reflexivity is when the

    meaning of a predicate refers back to the meaning of its referring item. Irreflexivity

    is when the meaning of the predicate is not related to the meaning of the referring item;

    Transitivity X intransitivity:

    Transitivity is represented when compound sentences are

    compatible with each other. When this does not happen,

    we call it intransitivity.

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    Letras/Ingls Caderno Didtico - 5 Perodo

    minimal meaning (something like repeat the activity described by the verb it is attached to) with a minimal linguistic form.

    Suffix

    The word teacher, for example, is formed by attaching the suffix er before the root word teach and the derived word remake is formed by attaching the prefix re- after the root word make. The root words in both examples correspond to the meanings of the derived words. Thus, in summary, prefixes are always attached before the root morpheme and suffixes after the root morpheme. Due to their importance and relevance to the semantics of the English Language, we shall include here a more detailed grid with the most common prefixes and suffixes, for your reference.

    Prefixes

    Prefix Function Examplemis- indicate the action is

    incorrectmisunderstandmisunderstanding

    over- indicates exaggeration

    overworkoversleep

    out- it means that the action is done in a better or deeper way

    to grow-----outgrowto run---- outrun

    un- negative/opposite from the original

    believable---unbelievablenecessary--- unnecessary

    il- im- in- ir-

    they form the opposite from the original word

    logical---illogicalperfect---imperfect

    dis- it forms the opposite from the original word

    to obey---disobeyto like---dislike

    half- semi-

    indicates almost asleep---half asleepconscious---semi-conscious

    self- it indicates that the action is done to/for the own person

    control---self-controlconfident---self-confident

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    Suffix (1): Transforming verbs into nouns

    Suffix verb noun

    ion- to inventto limitto compose

    inventionlimitationcomposition

    ment- to developto improve

    developmentimprovement

    ing ( when the centre of a noun phrase)Example: Her teaching is inspiring.

    to teachto lean

    teachinglearning

    ance/ence to appearto dependto rely

    appearancedependencereliance

    Suffix (2): Transforming verbs into nouns

    er-to teach-teacherto play-playerto read-readerto hang-hangerto blend-blender

    or-to direct-directorto govern-governor

    Suffix (3): Adjective into adverb

    ly-

    quickincreasebeautiful

    quicklyincreasinglybeautifully

    3.7 COMPOUND NOUNS

    Derived words are also represented by compound nouns. Compound nouns are formed when we join two pre-existing words. Examples of derived words as the following: checkout, doorknob, spaceship and babysit are compounds, as they consist of two pre-existing root words.

    3.8 TYPES OF DERIVATION

    Inchoative

    An inchoative type of derivation denotes the beginning, or coming into existence, of some state. Example: Light Dark (adjective) denotes a state. Enlighten (intransitive verb), as in: The room has enlightened, is the corresponding inchoative form, because it denotes the beginning of a state of lightness.

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    Causative

    A causative form corresponds to an action which causes something to happen. Example: close (transitive verb) is the causative form corresponding to close (intransitive verb). If one closes a door, for example, one causes it to close (in the intransitive sense of close). It is important to notice that in English zero-derivation is the most common device for producing causative forms, although causatives are also frequently formed by adding the suffix -en to the non-causative root.

    Resultative

    A resultative form denotes a state resulting from some action. Example: Broken (used as an adjective) is the resultative form corresponding to break (transitive verb). The state of being broken results from the action of breaking.

    Example: That broken door was broken yesterday by the boys.

    The following figure demonstrates graphically the concepts mentioned

    Source:HUTFORD, HEASLEY and SMITH (2007:234)

    3.9 PARTICIPANT ROLES

    Agent

    The agent of a sentence is the person carrying out the action described.

    Example: My mother in: My mother closed the window.

    Affected

    The affected participant is the thing (usually not a person, although it can be) upon which the action is carried out. In many cases, the thing is changed by the action, the window in the example given.

    Instrument

    The instrument is the thing (usually not a person) by means of which the action is carried out.

    Example: They found the place with a map.

    Check the following grid for a brief summary of the three roles given:

    Agent: The person carrying out the action;

    Affected: The thing affected by the action;

    Instrument: The thing related to the action taking place;

    Location: Refers to the place where the action takes place;

    Beneficiary: The person who

    benefits from the action;

    Experiencer: The person who experiences the action;

    Theme: Thing or person

    perceived by the experiencer.

    Derivation: When we form new words using pre-existing

    words;

    Morpheme: Meaningful units smaller than words;

    Prefix: A unit smaller than an actual word placed at the beginning of the root word;

    Suffix: A unit smaller than an actual word after the root

    word;

    Compound nouns: The combination of two pre-

    existing words;

    Types of derivation

    Inchoative: The beginning of a state;

    Causative: An action that

    causes something to happen;

    Resultative: A state resulting from some action.

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    They Agent

    the place Affected

    a map Instrument

    Location

    The role of location is played by any expression referring to the place where the action described by a sentence takes place.

    Beneficiary

    The beneficiary is the person for whose benefit or to whose detriment the action described by the sentence is carried out. It is usually assumed that the beneficiary, if mentioned, is distinct from both the agent and the affected. The following figure gives a better view of the relationship among: affect, beneficiary, location and agent. This process is illustrated below:

    Source: HUTFORD, HEASLEY and SMITH (2007:249)

    Experience

    The experiencer is a person who is mentally aware of, perceives, or experiences the action or state described by the sentence, but who is not in control of the situation. (experiencer characteristics can also sometimes be attributed to animals.)

    Example: The girls listened to the entire story.

    Theme

    The theme participant is a thing or person whose location is described, or a thing or person that is perceived by an experiencer.

    Example: The girls listened to the entire story.

    The following figure shows the relationship between experiencer and theme.

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    Source: HUTFORD, HEASLEY and SMITH (2007:251)

    3.10 SUMMING UP THIS UNIT

    We have covered the main concepts related to the definition of words. First, we briefly discussed the basics concerning the structure of a dictionary. Then, we called attention on how the semantic information is represented in the format of a dictionary. Finally, we focused on derivation and the role played by the participants involved in the construction of meaning.

    You can now do the activities (Atividades de Aprendizagem) at the end of this booklet.

    HURFORD, HEASLEY and SMITH. Semantics: a course book. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.

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    UNIT 4INTERPERSONAL AND NON-LITERAL MEANING

    4.1 INTRODUCTION

    In this unit we are going to expand the focus of our previous discussion on meaning, moving beyond the concepts of sense, reference, and logic by concentrating on aspects of interpersonal meaning, such as speech acts and various kinds of inference, including conversational implicature. This sort of meaning goes beyond literal meaning and entailment relationships based on truth conditions, and involves aspects of the context of the utterance and intentions of the speaker.

    4.2 SPEECH ACT

    Speech acts are the acts that we do with words, such as apologizing, requesting, asking, inviting and so on. The theory of speech acts came into being with Austin (1962) who differentiated between sentences that describe a state of affairs and sentences that can be considered as the performance of an act. He used the term constative to refer to the former type of sentences and performative to refer to the latter ones. There are several taxonomies for classifying speech acts; the following is Searles (1976) classification of speech acts (also quoted by Levinson, 1983: 240), who recognizes that this taxonomy is not complete or exhaustive:

    1. Representatives - which commit the speaker to the truth of the expressed proposition (asserting, concluding, etc.);

    2. Directives - which are attempts by the speaker to get the addressee to do something (requesting, questioning);

    3. Commissives - which commit the speaker to some future course of action (promising, threatening, offering);

    4. Expressives - which express a psychological state (thanking, apologizing, welcoming, congratulating);

    5. Declarations - which effect immediate changes in the institutional state of affairs and tend to rely on elaborate extra-linguistic institutions (excommunicating, declaring war, christening, firing from employment).

    4.3 PERLOCUTIONS AND ILLOCUTIONS

    Austin (ibid.) points to the existence of three kinds of action within each utterance:

    a) Locution - which is the physical act of producing an utterance;

    b) Illocution - which refers to the act which is committed by producing the utterance;

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    c) Perlocution - which is the production of an effect through locution and illocution.

    Taking into account Searles (1976) taxonomy together with Austins (1962) classification of speech acts, Bach and Harnish (1979: 39-55) develop a taxonomy of speech acts that distinguishes types of communicative illocutionary acts by the attitudes the speaker expresses in performing them. This taxonomy presents many types of illocutionary acts in detail which are classified according to the speakers intentions:

    1. Constatives: Expression of belief together with the expression of an intention that the hearer forms (or continues to hold).

    Example: I declare you husband and wife.

    b) Directives: Express the speakers attitude towards some prospective action by the hearer:

    Example: I insist that you stay for dinner.

    c) Commissives: Are acts of obliging oneself to do something specified in the propositional context, which may also specify the conditions under which the deed is to be done or does not to have to be done.

    Example: I promise Ill never talk to him again.

    d) Acknowledgments: They express certain feelings towards the hearer:

    Example: I would like to congratulate you.

    4.4 FELICITY CONDITIONS

    He pointed out that performatives, in order to be performed successfully, require a set of felicity conditions. Thus a felicity condition is considered the essential appropriate condition for a speech act to be recognized as intended.

    Searle (1969) recognizes four felicity conditions for speech acts: propositional, preparatory, sincerity and essential. An example from Levinson (1993: 240) illustrates the conditions needed for the successful illocution of requests (S = Speaker; H = Hearer):

    Propositional content: Future Act A of H

    Preparatory: 1. S believes H can do A

    2. It is not obvious that H would do A without being asked

    Sincerity: S wants H to do A

    Essential: Counts as an attempt to get H to do A

    Searle states that while the sincerity condition tells us what the speaker expresses in the performance of the act, the preparatory condition tells us (at least partially) what the speaker implies in the performance of the act. Thus, in the performance of any illocutionary act, the speaker implies that the preparatory conditions of the act are satisfied. For example, when one makes a statement, there is an implication that one can back

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    it up; when one makes a promise, there is an implication that the thing promised is in the hearers interest (Searle 1969: 65). On the other hand, Searle acknowledges that the meaning of the sentence determines the illocutionary force of its utterances (ibid: 143). This relationship between meaning and form is also highlighted by Sinclairs (1996) study, suggesting that both the form and force of an utterance are related.

    Bach and Harnish (1979) assert that the speaker expresses the attitude towards the prepositional content as well as the intention that the hearer has or forms from a corresponding propositional attitude. The speaker having the attitude expressed is the mark of sincerity, but sincerity is not required for communicative success; nor is the hearers belief that the speaker has the attitude expressed. Thus, a communicative illocutionary act can succeed, even if the speaker is insincere, and even if the hearer believes he is insincere.

    According to Carter and McCarthy (2006), in everyday written and spoken interactions, there are some speech acts which are performed with great frequency. Some of the most frequent speech acts mentioned by Carter and McCarthy (ibid.) are summarized in the following grid:

    1. Commands and instructions: Speech acts in which the speaker is in a position to direct the behavior of the listener, and the listener has little or no freedom to negotiate the action:a) Declaratives with you can;b) Interrogatives with can/ could/ will/ would you. They soften the request or command;c) Declaratives with you must: It is used in commands and instructions in declarative clauses.

    2. Requests: Speech acts in which the speaker desires a particular course of action from the listener, but unlike commands or instructions, the listener has a choice to act in the way indicated. A request may also be concerned with asking for permission to act in a particular way.

    3. Warnings: Speech acts in which the speaker states his/her perception of the negative outcome of a particular course of action. The listener may choose to heed or not the warning.

    4. Advice: Speech acts in which the speaker proposes a desirable course of action for the listener or others, or which may include the speaker him/herself. The speaker may choose to heed or not the advice.

    5. Suggestions: Speech acts in which the speaker proposes a desirable course of action or a set of options to be considered for the listeners or others, or which may include the speaker him/herself. The listener may choose to heed or not the suggestion.

    6. Offers: Speech acts in which the speaker volunteers to do something for the listener (or a third party) or give something to the listener (or a third party). The listener may accept or reject the offer. Offers may be offers to do something or offers of physical things (e.g. food, drink).

    7. Invitations: Speech acts concerned with offering someone an opportunity to do or share something (usually pleasurable) with the speaker. The listener may accept or reject the invitation.

    8. Permissions: Speech acts concerned with requesting and granting freedom for someone to act in a particular way.

    9. Prohibitions: Denying freedom of action.

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    4.5 DIRECT AND INDIRECT FORM

    Direct form

    The direct form of an utterance is the illocution indicated by a literal reading of the grammatical form and vocabulary of the sentence uttered.

    Indirect form

    The indirect form of an utterance is any further illocution the utterance may have.

    Examples:

    Direct form: Can you pass me the butter?

    Indirect form: The indirect illocution is a request that the hearer pass the salt.

    4.6 INFERENCE

    An inference is any conclusion that one is entitled to draw from a sentence or utterance.

    4.7 ENTAILMENTS

    According to Yule (1996: 25), an entailment is something that logically follows from what is asserted in an utterance. Check the following example:

    Example: Marys father bought three cows.

    The sentence presented is treated as having the entailment that Marys father bought something. All entailments are inferences, but not all inferences are entailments, as stated by Hurford, Heasley and Smith (2007). Implicature is another kind of inference, distinct from entailment.

    4.8 CONVERSATIONAL IMPLICATURE

    Grice (1975:46) affirms that the meaning of a speaker utterance often conveys more than words literally mean. He develops the theory of implicature to refer to the process in which the listener, through implicature, recognizes the meaning of an utterance. He points out that the success of this process, which he called conversational implicature, depends on the hearers co-operation. This principle of co-operation involves four maxims:

    Quantity

    1. Make your contribution as informative as required (for the current purposes of the exchange);

    2. Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.

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    Quality

    1. Do not say what you believe to be false;

    2. Do not say that, if you do not have adequate evidence.

    Relevance

    1. Be relevant.

    Manner

    1. Avoid obscurity of expression;

    2. Avoid ambiguity;

    3. Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity);

    4. Be orderly.

    In conversational interaction, the notion of implicature is triggered when these maxims are not respected. According to Grice (ibid.), the hearer infers meaning, at some level, from the utterance and from the divergence from it. The problem regarding this theory is pointed out by Levinson (1983) and refers to the possibility of having other maxims such as the tact maxim, acknowledged by Leech (1983), which refers to the perceived cost-benefit scale in directive and commissive acts. On the other hand, the maxims are vague, and it is not always easy to determine in all interactional situations how much information one must convey in order to respect the maxim of quantity. The maxims also appear to be culturally specific, presenting degrees of appropriateness which are culturally bound. Aijmer (1996: 25), referring to the conventionalization of speech, points out the importance of acknowledging culture (see also Blum-Kulka et al. 1989; Nattinger and DeCarrico 1989; Wierzbicka 1991).Take a look at the following example:

    Example

    Charlene: I hope you brought the bread and the cheese.

    Dexter: Ah, I brought the bread.

    Charlene has to understand, after hearing Dexter utterance, that Dexter is cooperating and aware of the quantity maxim. Note that he did not mention the cheese. If he had brought the cheese, he would have said, because he would be in accordance to the quantity maxim. He must intend that she understands that what is not mentioned was not brought. Thus, Dexter has conveyed more than he said via a conversational implicature. Due to the fact that implicatures are most of the time realized by inferences, we shall take a look at them.

    4.9 NON-LITERAL MEANING: IDIOMS, METAPHOR, AND METONYMY

    Introduction:

    So far, we have looked at the literal meaning of words which is related to two basic things:

    Speech acts: Acts we do with words;

    Locution and illocutions: They refer to the act of producing an

    utterance;

    Perlocution: Production of an effect on locution and

    illocution;

    Felicity conditions: The essential condition for a speech

    act to be recognized;

    Direct X indirect forms: A direct form is the illocution

    read literally while the indirect form corresponds to further interpretations of that

    illocution.

    Inference: Further conclusions people might come to from

    sentences or utterances;

    Entailments: Logical interpretations in relation to

    any utterances;

    Implicature: The process the listener goes through to

    understand an utterance;

    Cooperative Principle: Conversational rules governing conversation: quantity, quality,

    manner and relevance.

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    1. The meanings of words and sentences are independent of the context or occasion;

    2. That the meaning of a composite expression is essentially compositional.

    At this stage, you have acquired the basics in the area of traditional Linguistic semantics. We will now take a look at the semantic phenomena usually called figurative or non-literal, such as: idiomatic expressions, metaphor, and metonymy.

    Idioms

    Moon (1997: 43) states that idioms are a type of multi-word item. She defines a multi-word item as an item which consists of a sequence of two or more words. This sequence of words semantically and/or syntactically forms a meaningful and inseparable unit. According to Moon, an idiom must have a holistic meaning that cannot be inferred from the individual meaning of the words that compose it, for example, have an axe to grind, or prepositional phrases, such as over the top (Moon ibid: 46). Similarly, Cowie (1975: 8-9) defines an idiom as a combination of two or more words which function as a unit of meaning.

    Example: I get on very well with her.

    Meaning: We are good friends.

    Metaphor

    Hurford, Heasley and Smith (2007:331) explain that metaphors are conceptual (mental) operations reflected in human language that enable speakers to structure and build abstract areas of knowledge and experience in a more concrete experiential way. According to their view of metaphor, speakers make use of a familiar area of knowledge, called the source domain, to understand an area of knowledge that is less familiar, called the target domain. The source domain is typically understood through our experience about the physical world around us. See the following examples about metaphorical expressions taken from Hurford, Heasley and Smith (2007:330).

    Example:

    My car is a lemon.

    Dr. Judith is a butcher.

    In both examples complex and/or abstract areas of knowledge involving what we know about cars and doctors have been emphasized in each metaphorical expression by linguistically linking the more abstract target domains of knowledge about cars and doctors to more particularized familiar concrete source domains (knowledge about lemons in the fruit

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    domain and butchers in the domain of possible professions, respectively) in order to specify that there is something negative about each (see more details in Hurford, Heasley and Smith (2007:331). As (ibid.) acknowledge, we know from world general knowledge, for example, that lemons are sour and that butchers can be messy and rough while doing their work. This knowledge enables us to understand certain negative aspects about cars and the medical practice in an immediate way via metaphor. Metaphors can be divided into three types:

    Structural Metaphors

    They are abstract metaphorical systems in which an entire (typically abstract) complex mental concept is structured in terms of some other (usually more concrete) concept.

    Example: Our ideas were right on target.

    Orientational metaphor

    This type of metaphor associates spatial orientation with an abstract knowledge area. The examples show how human beings understand their orientation about physical space.

    Example: Visiting her boosted my spirits.

    Ontological metaphor

    One of the main uses of an