Tools of Communication

BC Mod. 2

Semantics is the study of meaning

communicated through language. A person’s linguistic abilities are based on knowledge they have.

Linguistic description has different levels of analysis:

Phonology is the study of what sounds a language has and how these sounds combine to form words.

Syntax is the study of how words can be combined to form other words.

Semantics is the study of the meanings of words and sentences.

It is the study of interpretation of signs or symbols as used by agents or communities within particular circumstances and contexts.

Within this view, sounds, facial expressions, body language, proxemics have semantic content. In written language, such things as paragraph structure and punctuation have semantic content.

Semanticists examine how words, phrases and sentences combine in ways that are acceptable to language users, observing that appeals to grammaticality alone cannot explain these.

For example, the sentence Mary will arrive

tomorrow is both grammatically and semantically acceptable, but !Mary arrived tomorrow is semantically nonsensical while syntactically grammatical.

The study of semantics includes the study of

how meaning is constructed, interpreted, clarified, obscured, illustrated, simplified negotiated, contradicted and paraphrased.

Denotation This is the core or central meaning of a word.

It is therefore sometimes known as the cognitive or referential meaning.

It is possible to think of lexical items that have a more or less fixed denotation ex. sun, denoting the nearest star.

Connotation Connotation is connected with psychology and

culture, as it means the personal or emotional associations aroused by words

When these associations are widespread and become established by common usage, a new denotation is recorded in dictionaries.

A possible example of such change would be vicious. Originally derived from vice, it meant “extremely wicked”. In modern British usage it is commonly used to mean “fierce”, as in the brown rat is a vicious animal.

Idiom and Phrase

An idiom is a combination of words that has a figurative meaning owing to its common usage. An idiom's figurative meaning is separate from the literal meaning

1. She is pulling my leg. - to pull someone's leg means to trick them by telling them something untrue.

2. You should keep an eye out for that. - to keep an eye out for something means to maintain awareness of it.

3. I can't keep my head above water. - to keep one's head above water means to manage a situation.

4. It's raining cats and dogs. - raining cats and dogs means it's raining really hard (a downpour).

Tone and Style

Once one has mastered grammar, punctuation,

and sentence structure, one can continue to improve the writing by considering the more elusive issues of style.

Style is the way in which something is written, as opposed to the meaning of what is written

Style includes diction and tone. The main goal in considering style is to present your information in a manner appropriate for both the audience and the purpose of the writing.

Diction Diction is word choice. When writing, use

vocabulary suited for the type of assignment. Words that have almost the same denotation (dictionary meaning) can have very different connotations (implied meanings).

Besides the level of formality, also consider positive or negative connotations of the words chosen.

Tone Aside from individual word choice, the overall

tone, or attitude, of a piece of writing should be appropriate to the audience and purpose.

The tone may be objective or subjective, logical or emotional, intimate or distant, serious or humorous. It can consist mostly of long, intricate sentences, of short, simple ones, or of something in between.

One way to achieve proper tone is to imagine a situation in which to say the words being written. A journal might be like a conversation with a close friend where there is the freedom to use slang or other casual forms of speech

A column for a newspaper may be more like a high-school graduation speech: it can be more formal, but it can still be funny or familiar. An academic paper is like a formal speech at a conference: being interesting is desirable, but there is no room for personal digressions or familiar usage of slang words.