《语言学第五章ppt课件.ppt》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《语言学第五章ppt课件.ppt（34页珍藏版）》请在三一办公上搜索。
1、Chapter 5 Semantics,Semantics-the study of language meaning.Meaning is central to the study of communication. What is meaning?- Scholars under different scientific backgrounds have different understandings of language meaning. we will study meaning from a linguistic point of view,Some views concerni
2、ng the study of meaning,Naming theory 命名论 (Plato 柏拉图) The conceptualist view 概念论Contextualism语境论 (Bloomfield布隆菲尔德) Behaviorism （行为主义）,Naming theory (Plato),Words are names or labels for things.Limitations: 1) Applicable to nouns only. 2) There are nouns which denote things that do not exist in the r
3、eal world, e.g. ghost, dragon, unicorn, phenix 3) There are nouns that do not refer to physical objects but abstract notions, e.g. joy, impulse, hatred,The conceptualist view,The conceptualist view holds that there is no direct link between a linguistic form and what it refers to (i.e. between langu
4、age and the real world); rather, in the interpretation of meaning they are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind.,Ogden and Richards: semantic triangle,Symbol/form,Referent/object in the,Thought/reference 思想/指称,Symbol/form=linguistic elements(words,phrase)符号/形式=语言成分Referent=the object
5、 in the world所指=现实世界中的物体Thought/reference=concept,Ogden and Richards: semantic triangle,The symbol or form refers to the linguistic elements (words and phrases);The referent refers to the object in the world of experience;Thought or reference refers to concept.The symbol or a word signifies things b
6、y virtue of the concept associated with the form of the word in the minds of the speaker; and the concept looked at from this point of view is the meaning of the word.,The contextualism,Meaning should be studied in terms of situation, use, contextelements closely linked with language behavior. Two t
7、ypes of contexts are recognized:Situational context: spatiotemporal situationLinguistic context: the probability of a words co-occurrence or collocation.For example, “black” in black hair & black coffee, or black sheep differs in meaning,Behaviorism,Behaviorists attempted to define meaning as “the s
8、ituation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer”.The story of Jack and Jill: Jill Jack S_r-s_R,Lexical meaning,Sense and reference are both concerned with the study of word meaning. They are two related but different aspects of meaning. Sense- is concerned with
9、the inherent meaning of the linguistic form. It is the collection of all the features of the linguistic form; it is abstract and de-contextualized. It is the aspect of meaning dictionary compilers are interested in. Reference-what a linguistic form refers to in the real, physical world; it deals wit
10、h the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience.,Note:,Linguistic forms having the same sense may have different references in different situations; on the other hand, there are also occasions, when linguistic forms with the same reference might differ in
11、 sense, e.g. the morning star and the evening star, rising sun in the morning and the sunset at dusk.,Major sense relations,Synonymy Antonymy Polysemy Homonymy Hyponymy,Synonymy,Synonymy refers to the sameness or close similarity of meaning. Words that are close in meaning are called synonyms. 1) Di
12、alectal synonyms- synonyms used in different regional dialects, e.g. autumn - fall, biscuit - cracker, petrol gasoline 2) Stylistic synonyms-synonyms differing in style, e.g. kid, child, offspring; start, begin, commence;,Synonymy,3) Synonyms that differ in their emotive or evaluative meaning, e.g.c
13、ollaborator- accomplice,4) Collocational synonyms, e.g. accuseof, chargewith, rebukefor; 5) Semantically different synonyms, e.g. amaze, astound,Antonymy,Gradable antonyms-there are often intermediate forms between the two members of a pair, e.g. old-young, hot-cold, tall-short, Complementary antony
14、ms-the denial of one member of the pair implies the assertion of the other, e.g. alive-dead, male-female, Relational opposites-exhibits the reversal of the relationship between the two items, e.g. husband-wife, father-son, doctor-patient, buy-sell, let-rent, employer-employee, give-receive, above-be
15、low, ,Gradable antonyms,Gradable antonyms -there are often intermediate forms between the two members of a pair, e.g. old-young, hot-cold, tall-short, ,Complementary antonyms,Complementary antonyms -the denial of one member of the pair implies the assertion of the other, e.g. alive-dead, male-female
16、, ,Polysemy,Polysemy-the same one word may have more than one meaning, e.g. “table” may mean:A piece of furnitureAll the people seated at a tableThe food that is put on a tableA thin flat piece of stone, metal wood, etc.Orderly arrangement of facts, figures, etc. ,Homonymy,Homonymy- the phenomenon t
17、hat words having different meanings have the same form, e.g. different words are identical in sound or spelling, or in both.Homophone - when two words are identical in sound, e.g. rain-reign, night/knight, Homogragh - when two words are identical in spelling, e.g. tear(n.)-tear(v.), lead(n.)-lead(v.
18、), Complete homonym- when two words are identical in both sound and spelling, e.g. ball, bank, watch, scale, fast, ,Note:,Differences between polysemy and complete homonyms:A polysemic word is the result of the evolution of the primary meaning of the word (the etymology of the word); while complete
19、homonyms are often brought into being by coincidence.,Hyponymy,Hyponymy-the sense relation between a more general, more inclusive word and a more specific word.Superordinate: the word which is more general in meaning.Hyponyms: the word which is more specific in meaning.Co-hyponyms: hyponyms of the s
20、ame superordinate.,Hyponymy,Superordinate: flowerHyponyms: rose, tulip, lily, chrysanthemum, carnation, narcissus, Superordinate: furnitureHyponyms: bed, table, desk, dresser, co-hyponyms,Sense relations between sentences,(1) X is synonymous with Y(2) X is inconsistent with Y(3) X entails Y(4) X pre
21、supposes Y(5) X is a contradiction(6) X is semantically anomalous,X is synonymous with Y,X: He was a bachelor all his life. Y: He never got married all his life.X: The boy killed the cat. Y: The cat was killed by the boy.If X is true, Y is true; if X is false, Y is false.,X is inconsistent with Y,X:
22、 He is single. Y: He has a wife.X: This is my first visit to Beijing.Y: I have been to Beijing twice.If X is true, Y is false; if X is false, Y is true.,X entails Y,X: John married a blond heiress.Y: John married a blond.X: Marry has been to Beijing. Y: Marry has been to China.Entailment is a relati
23、on of inclusion. If X entails Y, then the meaning of X is included in Y.If X is true, Y is necessarily true; if X is false, Y may be true or false.,X presupposes Y,X: His bike needs repairing.Y: He has a bike.Paul has given up smoking.Paul once smoked.If X is true, Y must be true; If X is false, Y i
24、s still true.,X is a contradiction,*My unmarried sister is married to a bachelor.* The baby bird without wings is flying happily in the skyThe mute boy is singing a beautiful song.,X is semantically anomalous,*The man is pregnant.*The table has bad intentions.*Sincerity shakes hands with the black a
25、pple.,Analysis of meaning,Componential analysis Predication analysis,Componential analysis,Componential analysis- a way to analyze lexical meaning. The approach is based on the belief that the meaning of a word can be dissected into meaning components, called semantic features. For example,Man: +HUM
26、AN, +ADULT, +ANIMATE, +MALEBoy: +HUMAN, -ADULT, +ANIMATE, +MALEWoman: +HUMAN, +ADULT, +ANIMATE, -MALE Girl: +HUMAN, -ADULT, +ANIMATE, -MALE,Predication analysis,1)The meaning of a sentence is not to be worked out by adding up all the meanings of its component words, e.g “The dog bites the man” is se
27、mantically different from “The man bites the dog” though their components are exactly the same.2)There are two aspects to sentence meaning: grammatical meaning and semantic meaning, e.g.*Green clouds are sleeping furiously.*Sincerity shook hands with the black apple.Whether a sentence is semanticall
28、y meaningful is governed by rules called selectional restrictions.,Predication analysis,Predication analysis- a way to analyze sentence meaning (British G. Leech).Predication-the abstraction of the meaning of a sentence. A predication consists of argument(s) and predicate.An argument is a logical pa
29、rticipant in a predication, largely identical with the nominal elements in a sentence.A predicate is something said about an argument or it states the logical relation linking the arguments in a sentence.,Predication analysis,According to the number of arguments contained in a predication, we may cl
30、assify the predications into the following types:One-place predication: smoke, grow, rise, run, Two-place predication: like, love, save, bite, beat, Three-place predication: give, sent, promise, call, No-place predication: It is hot.,Predication analysis,Tom smokes. TOM (SMOKE)The tree grows well. TREE (GROW)The kids like apples. KIDS (LIKE) APPLE I sent him a letter. I (SEND) HIM LETTER,
