Chapter 5

Chapter 5. Semantics：5.1 What is semantics、5.2 Some views concerning the study of meaning、5.3 Lexical meaning……

Chapter 5. Semantics

• 5.1 What is semantics
  • The study of meaning
• 5.2 Some views concerning the study of meaning
  • 1.The naming theory (Plato)
    • Names for thing
  • 2.The conceptualist view
    • Semantic triangle or triangle of significance
  • 3.Contextualism (J.R.Firth)
    • Situation, use, context— elements closely linked with language behavior.
    • The situational context and The linguistic context.
  • 4.Behaviorism (Bloomfield)
    • Behaviorists attempted to define the meaning of a language form as the “situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer. ”
• 5.3 Lexical meaning
  • Sense and reference
    • Sense is concerned with the inherent meaning of a linguistic form, the collection of all its features; It is abstract and de-contextualized. it is the aspect of meaning dictionary complies are interested in.
    • Reference refers to in the real, physical word. The relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience.
  • Major sense relations
    • Synonymy
      • 1.Dialectal synonyms
      • 2.Stylistic synonyms
      • 3.synonyms that differ in their emotive or evaluative meaning
      • 4.Collocation synonyms
      • 5.Semantically different synonyms
    • Polysemy
    • Homonymy
      • Homophones(同音异形）
        • Piece-Peace
      • Homographs（同形异音异义词）
        • Tear(V)-Tear(N)
      • Complete homonyms（同音同形异义词）
        • Fast adj- Fast V
    • Hyponymy
      • Superordinate
        • general in meaning
      • Hyponyms
        • specific words
      • Co-hyponyms
        • Hyponyms of the same superordinate
    • Antonymy
      • Gradable antonyms
        • Hot-Cold ， Old-Young
      • Complementary antonyms
        • Alive-Dead, Male-Female
      • Relational opposites
        • Husband-Wife Doctor-Patient
• 5.4 Sense relations between sentences
  • 1） X is synonymous with Y
  • 2）X is inconsistent with Y
  • 3）X entails Y.(Y is an entailment of X)
  • 4）X presupposes Y.(Y is a prerequisite of X.)
  • 5）X is a contradiction.
  • 6）X is semantically anomalous.
• 5.5 Analysis of meaning
  • Componential analysis-成分分析法
    • Is a way proposed by the structural semanticists to analyze world meaning.The approach is based upon the belief that the meaning of a word can be dissected into meaning components, called semantic features.
      • Man +HUMAN +ADULT +ANIMATE +MALE
  • Predication analysis- 述谓结构分析法 G.Leech
    • Grammatical meaning and Semantic meaning
    • Whether a sentence is semantically meaningful is governed by rules called selectional restrictions.（选择性限制）
    • Predication
      • The abstraction of the meaning of a sentence.
    • Argument
      • It is a logical participant in a predication, largely identical with a nominal element in a sentence
    • Predicate
      • It is something said about an argument or it states the logical relation linking the arguments in a sentence.