1. Semantics: is a word derived from Greek stem “seme” which meant sign, first coined by semantique M.Breal in 1893. And it was first cited by British scholar in an English report entitled “ Reflected Meaning : a point in semantics”.
2. There is no definite answer to the question “what’s the meaning of meaning”. In order to get the meaning of word, we should depend on the concrete contexts we refer to.Eg: I meant to come early. （ intentional meaning） The real flag means danger. (conventional meaning) The dark cloud means rains.( natural meaning)
Calligraphy means beautiful writing. ( linguistic meaning)
Study linguistic phenomena within the language system, not outside.
Ogden and Richard “ the meaning of meaning” in 1923, listed at list 16 different understandings of meanings.
Although different scholars hold different attitudes towards what’s the meaning of meaning, they do share something in common, that is , to explicate linguistic phenomena, the knowledge that language use must have in order to make certain judgment concerning meaning of words and sentences of their language.
3. judgment made by language uses(1) ambiguity
Polysemous words in the sentence
Eg: she cannot bear children ( put up with)Certain structures: adj + n in possessive case + N
Adj + a series of nouns More/most + adj +n V-ing + nounResulting from elliptical structure Eg; serve meat when thoroughly stewed.Homonymous words
Eg: when does the baker follow his trade? Whenever he needs( kneads) the doughLiaison
Eg: a train dear a trained deer a trained ear it rained here,.(2) anomaly
Anomaly refers to a phenomenon that various words in certain combination are anomalous. This means the combination violate semantic rules, though in agreement with grammatical or syntactical rules.
Eg: grean idears sleep furiously
-violated semantic rules, unaccepatable combinatione.g. I ate three phonemes for brbeakfast(3) Contradiction
Contradiction refers to a certain combination that is contradictory.Eg: 你以为咱家有金山银山啊
My brother is the only child
Colourless green ideas sleep furiously(4) Redundancy
Redundancy is very common in language, it is one of the features of language.Eg: I went yerterday你用脑袋好好想一想用鼻子闻一下毫无根据的诽谤（5）equivalence
Equivalence means that the propositions contains in sentences are equivalent, not sentences themselves
--- it also used in logic, referring to certain sentences are equivalent in truth value.Eg: The textbook is on the top of the desk.(6) Entailment
Some sentences or propositions logically entail other sentences or propositions.Eg: A: Mary killed spy.
B: The spy died.
Proposition: a statement is a proposition if it can be judged either T or F. ( one sentence may contain different propositions) ( different referents express different propositions)Eg: I an a teacher.
A: He almost manage to win the election B: He didn’t win the electionA entails B
A: Now he had a passport again. Bill will be able to leave the countryB: Bill left the country.A: John is a bachelor.B: John is unmarried.Some patterns
Persuade sb to do sthPersuade sb that
Eg: A: I persuade John to give the first three lectures
B: John gave the first three lectures( not entail)
A: I persuade John that he was wrong.B：John accepted that he was wrong.
( entail )
A: If you don't come before 5 o’clock. You don’t find him at home. B: You will find him if you come before 5 o’clock.
In this case, A doesn’t entail B, because “not” in A functions not only a negative mark but also shows different meanings. A means that you nay or may not find him before 5 o’clock.4 Various theories of meaning4.1 referential theory of meaningRefrence：（指称关系）Refrent：（指称物）
Referring expression: (指称表达式)
---the relationship between language and world
According to this theory, linguistic expression is what it refers to or stands for. (It is modest, because it has its own significance in the study of meaning, emphasizing relatedness of language to the world. It is too extreme, reducing language to its reference. It is the first theory to explore relation between language and world.)Why is it too extreme?
It is not convincing: for example, one-one relation
George Bush (linguistic expression): a real person; the president of U.S.( referents)One linguistic expression has more than one referent.Problems:
1. Meanings can not be equivalent with reference.e.g. Venus(金星)/启明星/长庚星
Different expressions may refers to the same thing( one referent), but mean quite differently, even when meaning and referent are identical in the following sentence containing “I”.I attend the meeting Friday. One-a lot of (relation)
2. This theory proves to be invalid, incapable of explaining expressions which do not have referent but intuitively speaking, they are meaningful.
e.g. Marilyn Monroe spends a very wonderful life.
Your apple is very sweet.
The above sentences have no referent at all.This meaning is invalidated in the theory of meaning.4.2 The ideational theory of meaning
According to this theory, the meaning of expression is the idea or the concept associated with it in the mind of anyone who knows the expression. (Changeable, flexible, different people may form different pictures when exposed to the object.)
The idea or images called concepts are fleeting (changing), and then ideas are changing. 4.3 Behaviorist theory of meaning
According to this theory, the meaning of expression is either the stimulus that evokes or the response that it evokes or a combination of both in particular occasions of an utterance
The relation between language and stimulus is not one to one, but quite complicated, perhaps one to many.
e.g. One girl sees apples on the table and she want an apple. She may express this intention in different ways.
a. Look at those apples. I am hungry. Would you please fetch one for me?b. You know I love apples.
c. I beg you cannot get that apple with a wooden leg.
- These responses are quite different in meaning, not valid to explain meaning.- Each theory has its own contribution to a certain degree in the study of meaning.4.4 The meaning-in-use theory
According to this theory, the meaning of expression is determined by if not in identical ways its use in the language. The language use cannot be separated from contexts, so the use meaning is also contextualism.Problems:
a. Meaning shouldn’t be taken as use. Meaning is logically prior to use. The use theory is questioned.
b. This theory is too over generalized and doesn’t have much actual value, because context itself is not enough for analyzing meaning.
c. To equate meaning with context, we can only account for simple instance of language use.
d. Context is related with objective world, and knowledge about word is so much limited, we cannot totally rely on this knowledge to analyze meaning, nor can we extend the scope of semantic study to the study of the world.4.5 The verification theory of meaning --Falsifiability
--Truth value theory, truth- conditional theoryLeech’s classification of meaning
--This theory is advocated by Vienna Circle ( a group of people in pursuit of empiricism) and Schick is the authority one.
-- According this theory, the meaning of an expression, if it has one, is determined by verifiability of the sentences or propositions containing the expression.
--This theory just provides a criterion of judging whether a proposition is meaningful or not instead of what is meaning.
-- Schick said that stating the meaning of sentence amounts to stating the rules according to which the sentence is to be used.
This is the same as stating the way in which it can be verified or falsified.Problems:
1. It is hard to determine how many observations or statements will be enough to verify a proposition. ( infinite in number )e.g. My brother is bald.
For time being, whether or not I have a brother.For time being, whether or not my brother is bald.
The meaning of the above sentence is determined by a set of observations/ statements and statements are observational statements.
They provide the mean for observationally verifying whether the speaker has a brother and for time being whether he is bald. If this statement is verified, the proposition is true or it is false.2. Secondly, only deals with the meaning of declarative sentence which make statements.4.6 The true-conditional theory of meaning (logic semantics)
-- According to this theory, the meaning of expression is contribution to the truth conditions of sentences containing the expression.
-- Truth conditions are conditions under which propositions prove to be true or false.
Chapter 3. Types of Meaning
There is intrinsic connection between meaning and communication in semantics. (Intentional transmission of meaning)
In semantics, intentional transmission of communication by means of some established signal system. (Language)
3.1 classifications of signals1. verbal
Grammatical linguistic and lexical linguistic2. non-verbal
(1) Linguistic (vocal; intonation; stress)(2) Paralinguistic
Vocal (loudness, tone of voice, tempo)
Non-vocal (eye movement; facial expression, gesture)(3) non-linguistic
Vocal: individual voice3 qualityNon-vocal: blush
3.2 classification of meaning
3.2.1 Propositional meaning/conceptual/referential/denotative/
According to Herford O Hensley, propositions are things that are true or false. A proposition is that of meaning of the utterance of declarative sentence which describes some states of affairs. The difference between sentence and proposition:
a. Proposition is not the same as a sentence. The same sentence can express different propositions by means of the reference, because a speaker indicates which things or persons in this world are talked about.
e.g. here, there, nowb. Because of ambiguity
The same sentence may express different propositions.
e.g. Vagueness----referent---- not clear ( feature of language )
Possessive case:
This is Jean’s picture.
The picture taken by Jean. The picture belongs to Jean.The picture of Jean.
3.2.2. Social meaning: language is social phenomenon(1) Illocutionary meaning (2) Speaker/ addressee(3) Stylistic / register(1) Illocutionary meaning
---when we utter a sentence, we are performing a certain speech act from the perspective of semantics. It expresses a kind of logical meaning. e.g. It’s a nice day!
I state it a nice day! ----- perform a sentence---illocutionary force.
Propositional meaning vs. illocutionary meaning
Sometimes we can have illocutionary meaning without propositional meaning to perform speech act expresses illocutionary force
e.g. Good morning can’t be judged true or false.
In uttering sentences, we perform speech act under felicity condition.
e.g. In the evening, people are going to go asleep, it is not proper to say have a nice day.(2)Speaker/addressee relationship
Power vs. solidarity
The speaker may have the power over the addressee, vice versa.
e.g. In Chinese, we have 你and 您, in French we have tu and vous, but in English we don’t have this kind of phenomena.
Different pronouns indicate different relationship between speaker and addressee.Solidarity shows the equal relationship between the speaker and hearer.T/V: tu/vous formT T: Tu/Tu formReciprocal vs. non-reciprocalTerms of addressing
When addressing somebody, you can use different terms. Different choices of terms in a way may reflect a speaker and addressee relationship.Terms of addressing: the point is under the topic of “power and solidarity”. This point is related to social meaning which we can study in a diachronic way.e.g.
①We often call some colleagues teacher Wang or teacher Li, which shows that the speaker and the addressee is equal in status. And sometimes we call some of our colleagues XiaoLi or XiaoWang, which shows that the speaker is older than the addressee. In terms of age, the speaker has the power over the addressee.
②The addressing term may change with the time. We often use “同志” in Chinese, but in English the correspondent word “comrade” has another meaning (gay or homosexual). So English people don’t use this word so often. From the 1950s to present, the meaning of “comrade” has been extended and it has derogatory meaning, thus people don’t have positive association of the word meaning.
③In the 1970s or 1980s, we have the addressing terms of “师傅” and “徒弟” in the factory. At present, we call the taxi driver “师傅” instead of “comrade” or “driver”, though we don’t have the “徒弟” relationship.
师傅：master, master worker
徒弟：apprentice, follower, disciple
The addressing terms change with the time, which shows the changing and development of society have influence on language. The changing of addressing terms reflects the emotional meaning.Two points concerning social meaning in terms of speaker/addressee relationship
T/T form is more common than the T/V form. T/V form is more often used in grammatical system, while in English there is no such kind of grammatical terms to show solidarity and power of speaker and addressee relationship. But we can use titles, such as Mr., Miss, Mrs.
e.g. when we say “This is Mr. Smith” which is very formal. We can say “This is Tom” to show the intimate relationship. If we are good friends, we use a given name only, a shortened family name, or even the nickname. Such as Charles, Charli or Chuck.(3) Stylistic/register meaning.
These two are related, but not the same, both of them can be defined as the variety of language depending on the use rather than the user.User: dialects
Style: is defined as situationally distinctive use of a variety of language.(e.g. oral form & written form; formal form & informal form, literary form, colloquial form, technical form)
Register: is closely used in linguistics and sociolinguistics. It is a variety of language defined according to its use in social situation.
Their conceptual/propositional meanings are the same, but register/ stylistic meanings are not.e.g.分 analyze the problem (chemist)析 dissect the subject (medical)问 expounded the problem (missionary)题 explain/ make it clear (colloquial form by common people)Three points concerning stylistic/ register meaning①formality vs. informality
When we talked about register, we talk about formality and informality.e.g. 流汗：informal: sweat, formal: perspire In different context, we use different words.②province
It is referred to the professional or academic fields.
e.g. program: computer program 计算机程序， TV program 电视节目
③mode
When we talk about mode, we talk about writing and speech. Writing is more formal than speech, but not always.
Phrasal verbs are less formal than single verbs
e.g. 提出(理论)：propose, put forward, set forth, come up with, advance, initiate, advocate, etc.The point is proposed by Leech: synonyms are used in different contexts, but the conceptual meanings are the same.
e.g. Home: formal: domicile/ residence, in poetry: abode
e.g. Small: little, tiny, wee(Scottish dialect), diminutive (formal)
3.2.3 Emotive/ indexical meaning
It concerns the use of certain expression through which we can find speaker’s identity or status. It is not conveyed by linguistic components, but by non-linguistic components, such as voice quality (passive voice or active voice)
①emotional/ emotive meaning expresses speakers or writers attitude of emotional involvement, it focus on speaker and writer. Sometimes emotional meaning overlaid on propositional meaning.e.g. when the black people were transported to America as slaves, their master often called them “nigger”, later on, they called them “negro” to show their low social status contrary to their master. In the 1960s, they were called “black people” instead of “negro” contrary to the white. Later on, they called them “Afro-American”. Form this we can see the addressing terms change with time, the emotional involvement involved in these terms change with the time.
②emotional meaning is expressed without propositional meaning through tone of voice, intonation or intonation pattern. This kind of meaning can be judged as true or false as it expresses certain state of affairs.
e.g. the baby which/ who you saw this morning.
“Which” is acceptable according to grammatical rule. When we use “which”, it means we treat baby/ the man as something instead of a person, “which” shows the speaker is more separate/ distant from the things involved. “Who” shows more personal feeling with the person or man.
3.2.4 Thematic meaning
By thematic meaning, in different sources, the terms are similar. But different scholars may use different terms: theme vs. rheme; topic vs. comment; given information vs. new information; background vs. focus. All these terms are used to show thematic meaning.
Definition given by Leech: thematic meaning derives from theme. It is communicated by the way in which a speaker or writer organized the message in terms of ordering, focus or emphasis.Thematic meaning may be different according to what the speaker wants to emphasize or highlight. Under this one, we have three points:
①normally, the propositional meaning must be the same. In this case, we can compare thematic meaning. This kind of meaning can be expressed by either verbal or non-verbal component.Verbal component means the arrangement of words.
Non-verbal component means intonation, stress and etc, which are used to accompany verbal signals.
②Thematic meaning is expressed by voice
Normally, active or passive voice counterparts express the same propositional meaning, but different lies in the thematic meaning.
e.g. i. Marry donated the first prize. (The first prize is new information.)
ii. The first prize was donated by Marry. (Mary is new information.)
For the first sentence, the author wants to highlight “what is donated.” For the second sentence, the author wants to emphasize “who donated the first prize.” e.g. i. Everyone in this class speaks two languages.
ii. Two languages are spoken by everyone in this class.
For the first sentence, the people in the class can speak two languages, but the languages are not fixed. For the second sentence, the people in this class speak two fixed languages, such as English and French, or English and Germany. The propositional meaning maybe change when the thematic meaning changes.
If the voice transfers, the propositional meanings are different. Quantifier and negation transfer will cause the change of propositional meanings.
③ Thematic meaning is expressed through other grammatical constructions.e.g. i. A student is waiting ouside.(waiting outside is new information.)
ii. There is a student waiting outside.(a student waiting outside is new information.)
The proposition meaning is the same, but thematic meaning is changed. First part, “there be” is old information. Change order:
e.g. i. They stopped at the end of corridor.(at the end of corridor is new information.) ii. At the end of corridor, they stopped.(they stopped is new information.)
④ Thematic meaning is expressed through intonation, stress to highlight one part of sentence.e.g. i. ‘John kept the watch. (it is John, not somebody else who kept the watch.) ii. John ‘kept the watch. (it is kept, not buy or else)
iii. John kept the ‘watch. (it is watch, not something else that John kept.)
Connotative meaning is proposed by Leech. Connotative meaning is the communicative value, an expression has by means of what it refers to over and above its purely conceptual content.
e.g. woman [+human, +adult, -male] Psychological meaning and physical characteristics, not social. Male is unmarked.
Woman’s associate meaning: patient, irrational, wear skirt, gentle, kind, prone to tears, good at cooking, capable of speech, expression, sentimental.
Connotative meaning is not what is included in language system. People should draw a distinction between speaker’s attitudes and what is encoded in the language system.
Further discussion on proposition meaning:(1) Different between valid and invalid inferencesPremise i:Premise ii:Conclusion:
e.g. premise i: All men are mortal. (T)
premise ii: John is a man. (T)
conclusion: John is mortal. (T) valid inferencee.g. premise i: All men are mortal. (T)
premise ii: Fido is not a man. (T)
conclusion: Fido is not mortal.(F) invalid inferenceIf “not” appears in premise, the conclusion is difficult to get.(2) Different between valid and truth conclusione.g. premise i: All men are mortal.(T)
premise ii: God is not a man. (T)
conclusion: God is not mortal.(T) conclusion is true, but it is invalid inference. Since without premise i and ii, the conclusion is still right. According to common sense, the conclusion “God is not mortal” is unrelated to premise i and ii.(3) Difference between deductive and inductive
Deductive inference: the truth of the premise guarantees the truth of conclusion. It is from general truth to particular facts.
Inductive inference: the method of reasoning from particular facts to general truth.e.g. premise i: Professor Smith had 200 students in his class at beginning of the semester.
Premise ii: Three weeks later, he had only 10 students in his class.Conclusion: Professor Smith course is unpopular.
This adopts the deductive method, but the conclusion is invalid.There are two conditions:
①The number of the students in the Mr. Smith’s class is not the convincing evidence to prove whether Mr. Smith’s class is popular or not.
②Maybe, at first the students thought the course provided by Mr. Smith is interesting at the first sight, but when they attended the class for themselves, they finally find that it is very hard for them to follow the teacher; therefore they were absent form the teacher’s class.(4) Analytic proposition and synthetic proposition
Normally, analytic proposition is one whose truth is independent of the way the world we live in happens to be. The truth of this kind of proposition is true in all possible words.
In contrast, synthetic proposition is one whose truth is dependent on the way the world we live in happens to be.
(Analytic:措辞为真，保证命题为真， synthetic:需用事态来衡量)e.g. All spinsters are unmarried.
This is analysis proposition, since its truth is independent of the world we live in.e.g. My brother is a bachelor.
This is synthetic proposition, since its truth is dependent on the verification of whether the speaker has a brother or not and whether or not for the time being her/ his brother is a bachelor.(5) the propositional calculus
The basic formation of proposition: simple proposition and complex proposition.Simple proposition is one that doesn’t contain any constituent propositions within it.
Complex proposition is one that is formed from one or more constituent propositions by means of connective.
“and”, “and then”, “or”, and “not” are logic connectives. They are also called operators.
e.g. John did not buy a Ford.(it is a simple sentence, but a complex proposition with “not” in it.)e.g. they got married and they got a baby. (“and” shows the logic order. It is different from “and” in the sentence “Mary and I go to the cinema.”)(6) truth function connective
A connective is said to be truth functional if and only if the truth value of the complex propositions formed by applying it to one or more constituent propositions. It is fully determined by the truth values of those component propositions.
(如果构成复合命题的各自命题为真， 则复合命题为真；如果构成复合命题的各子命题不能保证为真，则connective不具有真值涵项性)Truth Table
①同真为真，一假为假pTFTFpTTFF
qTTFFqTFTF
p&qTFFFp q TFFFp T T F F
q T F T F
p v (or)qTTTF
p T T F F
q T F T F
p≡q p ) q
TFFT
②一个为假，则为假 if前件…then后件，p→q
e.g.: John went to Paris before Mary died 1 2
This is a complex proposition. Supposed that 1 and 2 are the facts, but the connective “before” is not truth functional, since we can not decide whether or not John went to Paris before or after.e.g.: The question is discussed in the aspects or syntactic structure.The connective “or” is truth functional“and” conjunction
“v” “or” discojunction inclusive 讨论的是命题“)” if…then 蕴含关系 implication“≡” equivalence“~” negation
[8]. Formation of structure of simple proposition(1) Predicate 谓元 vs argument 主元
Structure of simple proposition is formed by combining predicate with one or more arguments.e.g.: Mary is tall. Argument predicate John loves Mary. Argument predicate argument
By predicate, we mean a term which is used in combination with a name in order to give some information about individual that the name refers to. Usually verbs, adjectives and common names are used as predicates.
Argument: According to John Lyons, something which is named or talked about usually proper names are used.e.g.: Brute is a mouse Proper name common names Argument predicate
The classification of predicate: one-place, two-place, three-place
According to the number of arguments, they are combined to form a simple proposition.e.g.: Mary is tall. ------------One-place This one is preferable to that one-------------two-place He gave me a rose----------three-place I bought this clothe from Internet for 100RMByuan. -----------four-placeTraditionally, the classification of predicates is according to the number of objects.No-objects one-object two-objects4. structural semantics: sense relation
4.1 Structural semantics states or analyzes the meaning of words in terms of their association with other words in the language system.
Association is the key word. Words in the vocabulary form a kind of relation in the system. Semanticists focus their attention on what is called implicational lexical relations. The main concern is lexical meaning.
4.2 Sense relation: refers to the relations of sense holding within sets of lexemes.
“sense”, this term was used early in the last century, may at the end of the 19th century. A famous scholar Fregue drew a distinction between sense and reference. If we use the sense of a word, we mean its place in the system of relationships which it contrasts with other words in the vocabulary of certain language.
Reference: studies the relation between language and the world.Sense: studies the relation within the language systemWhy people use “sense”, this term instead of “meaning”?
since meaning is too general and vague, we need to be specific we use sense instead of meaning.4.3 Six types of sense relation-----可以用蕴含公式表达Square not triangle incompatibleCat ←→ not dog
Easy ←→ difficult → antonymWife ←→ husband → converse
Single ←→ married → complementary
4.3.1 Hyponymy (superordinates, originally called inclusion by analogy.)Hyponym 共同下义词
e.g.: He caught a sparrow.------ He caught a bird.(yes, entail) He didn’t catch a sparrow. ------ He didn’t catch a bird. (No) This is a rose. -------- This is a flower. (Yes) I hate roses. ----- I hate flowers. (No)n →谓语(蕴含关系)n →宾语(一般不是)
----Hyponymy is a relative notion not absolute one, which means a certain lexemes or words maybe surperordinates in contrast with one set of words, but may also be hyponyms in contrast with other sets of words.
----Vocabulary of natural language tends to have many gap related to what we are talking about.e.g.: lexical gap: (1) 阉割 (2) no common superordinates for word colourcolour ←→ white shape → triangle, squareblack, yellow
(The parts of speech of hyponymy must be the same)4.3.2 Synonymy
----Synonyms can be categorized into 2 types:
(1)Absolute synonyms: refers to the synonyms which are interchangeable in all contexts.e.g.: word-formation = word building North Korea → fatherland → motherland → homeland
(2)Relative synonyms: refers to those synonyms with common basic meaning but slightly
different in terms of use or meaning. Such synonyms are abundant in any language.e.g.: beautiful---pretty---charming---attractive empty---vacant---hollow
-----In different contexts, we use different synonyms. Many synonyms may have different senses which are in contrast with different synonyms and antonyms. Different senses contrast with different linguistic item.
e.g.: He is a bit high. = He is a bit drunkhigh
lowsobe----In sense, some words through they are synonyms, may have different selectional or collocational restrictions.
e.g.: addled egg 臭鸡蛋 rancid baken 熏猪肉
(3) Some words belonging to different parts of speech with different syntactic function may have synonymous relations, only in certain patterns.Synonym here is in a border sense.
e.g.: The workers use the plastic to make toy cars.
The workers make toy cars with plastic.John has a book here.A book here is John’s.
4.3.3 Incompatibility refers to the relation that if A is incompatible with B then, B is incompatible with A.
e.g.: It is a dog. It is not a cat.4.3.4 Complementary
-----According to traditional classification, the following 3 types were called antonyms: absolute, gradable, converse. It refers to the relation which holds between such pairs as “dead-live” “made-female” “single-married”. We can see the characteristic of these pairs; the dental of one means the assertation of the other.4.3.5 Antonymy
----According to John Lyons, antonyms are regularly gradable. For time being, gradability is more important and more essential for this kind of sense relation.“big—small” “good—bad” “cold—warm”4.3.6 Converse (relational opposition- palmer)
----According to Palmer, this kind of relation is relational opposition.
----Converse is different from other sense relations in that most other relations are one-place predicate, while, “father” is more than 2-place predicate.e.g.: A is husband of B. B is wife of A.
4.4 Sense property 意义特性
---According to Palmer, not John Lyons:4.4.1 Symmetrical 意义的对称性
---A relation is said to be symmetrical if it holds for the argument in both directions.e.g.: Susan is married to Jack.
Jack is married to Susan.
4.4.2 Non-symmetrical (maybe or may not be)e.g.: x is the teacher of y.
y may or may not be the teacher of x.4.4.3 Asymmetrical 不对称性e.g.: x is y’s father.
Y can not be x’s father.4.4.4 Transitivity 传递性
---If x exceeds y, then y exceeds z , → x exceeds z 4.4.5 Intransitivity
---If x is the father y, y is the father of z 不能推出:x is the father of z.
4.4.6 Non-transitivity 非传递性X loves y Y loves z
可推出:x may /may not love z.4.4.7 Reflexive 自反性
---Not important in natural language but in philosophical language.e.g.: Susan resembles herself. The child is identical with himself.4.5 Gradability and gradity
Gradability was first advanced by Spir Uholf-means when we consider objects, ideas, people, we often consider what is extent they may have the property.
Gradity: when we compare two or more objects with respect to their possession of certain property, it is usually appropriate to enquire whether they have this property to the same degree or not.
e.g.: It is as cold as yesterday. It is as warm as yesterday.Gradable ←→ comparable
She is as female as her mother. (Not gradable antonym, so they can not be used to
compare with others)
---Normally, adj and other words have property of gradability, and also nouns and verbs.(1) Gradability most commonly applied to adj and adv, we have gradable and upgradeable: warm, warmest; hot, hotter, hottest; but sometimes the non-grable adv can be recategorized as gradable one.
e.g.: Chinese; more Chinese way of dressing
(2)Gradability and comparison are relative, not absolute, we can distinguish overt and convert(explicit/implicit)
e.g.: John is taller than Bill. (Explicit) All women fare worse. (Implicit)
(3)Not all gradable items come in pairs, they may be dichotomous.Excellent---good-------fair------ bad
Hot----warm-------lukewarm----------cool------cold
Since, the middle term has no direction, it can not be intensified.
Chapter 5 Sense Field
Semantic field: proposed by German Scholar Trier
------ is mainly concerned with lexical structure (the structure of vocabulary in any natural language); the word “field” originates from physics.
------ using the notion of sense instead of meaning, because the notion of meaning is too vague, use of sense to try to be more specific or precise.
------ it is the semantic features that form a system called field.Three theoretical assumptions:
[1] the vocabulary of a language is integrated system of lexemes interrelated in sense; this system is in constant change.Narrowing:
e.g.: meat food in general flush of animal used for foodWidening:
e.g.: bird young bird bird as a wholeShifting:
e.g.: nice foolish, stupid beautiful, pleasant, good---- (1) we regard language as a whole system which keeps constant changes.
(2) Lexemes are interrelated, not in isolation tries to avoid and in certain fields, they have specific senses.
(3) How do we determine the meaning of lexemes?
---- Only through comparison of its sense relation with other lexemes.
In other words, in structural semantics, a word has sense, only when it is taken as a part of the whole vocabulary system.
----Influence in the light of Field theory
(1)Certain words or lexemes in a language can constitute a semantic field under so-called
common concept and the lexemes which form the field can be called hyponyms.e.g.: color → common concept
(2) Words belonging to the same semantic field are interdependent and mutually restricted semantically. To put it plainly, the meaning of a word is determined through comparing the semantic relation with other lexemes and finding out its place in the semantic field.e.g.: father, mother, sister, brother → kinship
--- At different levels, there exists different hieratical order.
(3)The semantic field under certain common concepts may be different in different languages.e.g.: color spectrum; kinship (表姨,姑 → aunt)
Seven types of semantic field by Chinese scholar 爱严德1)Taxonomic field 分类义场--- binary 二元的 →incompatiblee.g.: 硬卧 vs 软卧
---多元的 军种:海陆空 大洋: 中国烹饪方式二元的分类是指各义项之间是绝对的,无中间状态,除一些修辞用法外,如:男性---女性; 类人猿; 印度狼孩; 连衣裙; 红得发紫2)Sequential field 顺序义场
e.g.: season: spring, summer, autumn, winter
排行榜职称
3)Relational field 关系义场→ converse
e.g.: teacher--- student 进口----出口 employer---employee4) Semantic field of opposites → complementarye.g.: male—female war—peace lives—dead修辞: 虽死尤生 半死不活
4)semantic field of polarity (gradable antonyms)e.g.: 老少; 伟大—渺小; 富有—贫穷; hot—cold
Characteristics: ①两个义位之间有明显的过渡地带 ②两极对立，两个义位有程度差别，可无限延伸 e.g. 有点大，有些大，非常大，很大…… ③两个义位的分界不是固定不变的，是可以变化的 e.g. 大小，老少
6> Semantic field of Partial Negation (部分否定义场)
——义位只有两个， We talk about “seme” in semantic fields. 两个义位不是完全否定，是不完全否定
e.g. 必然→偶然，可能
（Sense relation——lexeme; Semantic field——Seme）7> Synonymous Field (同义语意场)前提：conceptual meaning 是相近的
①——refers to that semes have the similar conceptual meaning but with different additional meaning (emotive meaning) 义位的概念意义相同，但附加意义不同e.g. 星期三（礼拜三） 礼拜天——星期日
土 豆（马铃薯） 西红柿——番茄吝啬/小气/抠门儿② with the same conceptual meanings but with different collocational meanings. 概念意义相同，但用法搭配不同e.g. 二——俩 数字应用
中→双数 西→单数二胖（二肥）；肥仔
①——④有交叉的部分 优点 Hyponymy 问题 Converse Antonymy6. Componential Analysis (CA) 成分分析法
——mainly focus on notional words, not functional words.6.1 A few words about term
It is regarded as one of the ways to make or formalize something absolutely precise. The sense relations which hold among lexemes through analyzing the components of sense and meaning. Then as the name CA implies, it involves the analysis of the sense of lexemes into component parts. We have different terms for component parts: ① semantic features,semantic markers ② semes
It is believed that sense components can be categorized systematically.
CA has another term called “lexical decomposition” (词汇解构/词类分解)The earlier form originated from Danish Linguist Hjelmslev.
——American anthropologist uses CA in analyzing kinship terms while studying American Indian languages in the 1960s. Katz and Fodor use this model to provide semantic features for generative-transformational grammar. Soon, CA attracts more attention.
6.2 Exemplify (Biological Angle)A. adult-male B.adult-female C.non-adult D.Horizontallyman woman child humanbull cow calf bovine (牛科)rooster hen chicken galline (鸡科)drake duck ducking anatine (鸭科)stallion mare foal equine (马科)6.3 Evaluation of CA
1.Agreement ( who advocates the theory)Reasons:
1>The so-called Alleged Universality of Semantic Components which are derived from a set
of cognitive structure. Different semantic components are applicable to analyzing words in any language, except that they may be combined differently in different language.e.g. 书——book; 家书抵万金 （letter）→ dependent on contexts
2> Semantics Components can be used to determine whether certain combinations or words are to be generated or combined meaningful or excluded to be meaningless.
e.g. I amuse the desk. （“amuse” should be followed by something animate）
3> the meaning of a phrase or a sentence can be worked out through analyzing the semantic
cmponents and syntactic structure of individual words which comprise the phrase or the sentence.
2. Counter-argument
1> against so-called universality
①Those scholars point out that it has not yet been proved whether the semantic components are
derived from cognitive structure or not.②In reality, the number of these components is infinite.
( How many semantic components are enough or sufficient to make analysis to get the meaning of a word or a lexeme)
③People may be different in analyzing a worde.g. “Love is in the eyes of beholder.”Q1: What is the standard of beauty?(different people have different views.)
African Natives→long neckHawaii Natives→350 pounds
Ancient Chinese→short foot (三寸金莲；环肥燕瘦)Norwegian Natives→sharp long teeth
2>Componential Analysis has its own leaks, failing to explain many linguistic phenomenon,
especially when one word is used metaphorically.e.g. Usually, “angry” is used to modify the animate
——the angry ocean (inanimate) (in poem)——the wind is angry.
3>It is not necessary case that we work out the precise meaning of the whole sentence.
e.g. Be a man. (Under the context: a boy is crying. His mom says“Be a man.”)——in reality, Componential Analysis is only concerned with the biological factors.
——According to Chomsky’s T-G grammar, there are “interpretative semantics” and “generative
semantics”. Both of them use componential analysis to various degrees.
——CA has made great contribution to the study of Semantics.6.4 A note on markednessDefinition:
It is defined according to one of linguistic dictionaries. Markedness is defined as analytic principle in linguistics by which pairs of linguistic features seen as oppositions are given different values of positive (+), neutral; negative (-).
In most general sense, this distinction refers to presence VS. obsence of a particular linguistic feature.(某个特征的显性/隐性)e.g. man (unmarked) desk (unmarked) woman (marked) desks (marked)in French:
petit (unmarked) bon (unmarked)petite (marked) bonne (marked)Some points about markedness
1>According to its form, meaning and distribution, markedness can be classified into 3 types:①if you don’t know the specific sex, you should use “he” instead of “she”.
②In polar opposition, long and short, old and young, in each group, the former is unmarked
because of distribution.e.g. —— How long is the ruler?
—— Ten feet long.
——in terms of distribution of age, “How old are you?”Four points about Markedness:
1>If two words contrast on single dimension of meaning, the unmarked one is normally the one
which can also be applied to the whole dimension.e.g. man→human being
2> It seems that the phenomenon of markedness is said to be due to a sort of positive-negative bias, which is inherited to the semantic opposition itself. Very often, the marked term is indicated by negative prefix or suffix.
2>In other cases, it is believed that there is a set of covertelements of negation.
e.g. Dead←→alive, “alive” is unmarked
4> It is a deep explaination that comes from Pollyanna Hypothesis, which can account for markedness to some extent. Pollyanna was originally the hero in several novels of American writer Eleanor Portor. This term is used to refer to a person, especially a girl or a woman who is untiringly cheerful and optimistic, usually to the point of foolishness in the face of difficulty and disaster.
——This hypothesis supposes that people tend to look at the bright side of life, which would expoain the tendency for words with good evaluation to be unmarked and words with bad evaluation to be marked.
Chapter 7 Case Grammar7.1 Case Model
7.1.1 ——in the series of papers in mid 1960s, Charles Fillmore (American linguist) developped this idea——the central idea of case grammar is that the subjects and direct objects as defined by Chomsky are not deep structure features, which is very close to category.
——the functions we should recognize at deep structure are quite different.
——Accroding to Fillmore, at deep structure we should recognize semantic rules (case); these semantic rules are cases, such as “agent” (施事格); experiencer (经验格); goal (目标格); source（源格）
Because Fillmore believes that Chomsky’s distinction between NP, VP and Ppdoesn’t have semantic significance or any relevance at deep structure of any level.
——He proposed a deep structure in which the semantic roles are represented directly. These semantic roles are known as cases.
——Case grammar aims at the investigating the relation between syntactic structure and semantic interpretation.
——Fillmore emphasizes that case grammar is not only a new syntactic theory but also a semantic theory. His syntactic theory is not valid but his semantic theory is stimulating. That’s the origin of C.G.
7.1.2 The term “case”
——in traditional grammar, case is used for one of demensions, along which nouns are inflected in this language. In the following sentences in English, there is no difference:e.g. The master gave the servant the money.master→nominative case (主格)
servant→goal/dative case (与格) （recipient）money→accusative case (授格/宾格)7.1.3 Some difficulties in determing cases
——Determing what set of cases are poses formula problems. In surface, a case marking is different. So different scholars may talk about different set of cases.
——Fillmore and other scholars have frequently modified the inventory of definitions in the course of their study on case grammar. They had suggested various modifications of cases, but little is frequently seen.
Agent: investigator of the event (who or what brings about)Result: entity that comes into existence as a result of an action.Instrument: the stimulus or immediate physical cause of an event.Source: the place from which something movesGoal: the place to which something moves.
Experiencer(Dative): the entity which receives or accepts or experiences or undergoes the effect of an action.
7.1.4 The change in Deep Structure in Case Grammar
①②③④⑤⑥
S
Modality (模态) （tense, mood, aspect Netative element) Proposition (命题)(Verb+Case)
Case=NP+Case Mariker (每个格都有格标识)
——in English, a case marker is served by a propositione.g. ① John opened the door with a key.
S
Modality （不细分）←△ past
Proposition V Neutral instrument agent Open K NP K NP K NP Zero the door the key by
John
With K为格标识
③The key opened the door.
S
Modality △ Past
V Proposition neutral instrumentNP△the key
K Open
NP K △ Zero the door with
④The door opened.
S
Modality △ Past
Proposition V neutralOpen
K NP△the door
Zero
Conclusion:
无论主语是谁，深层Case是一样的。7.1.5 Some Case Grammar Rules1> Subject-formation rule
The subject is formed by adjoining one case as a left daughter of the S (sentence) and deleting “K” element and case label.2>Object-formation rule
The object is formed by selecting one case as immediate right (右侧的) sister of a verb and deleting its case marker under this level. According to Fillmore, usually neutral is under proposition instead of under NP.7.2.1 Semantic Justification
1) sentences with different predicates, different cases, different semantic roles/values (cases) for same Chomsky’s function.
e.g. John slapped her. (John is agent)
John has toothache. (John is experiencer) John shocked me. (John is instrument)
2) Sentence with the same predicate, same function but different semantic values.e.g. This Jacket is warm. (This Jacket is instrument)
This man is warm. (This man is experiencer)This room is warm. (This room is locative)
3) sentences with same predicates, same values, different Chomsky’s function.e.g. John opened the door with the key. (The door is object) The door is opened. (The door is subject) The key open the door. (The door is object)
4) sentences with different predicates, same semantic values, different Chomsky’s functions.e.g. John enjoyed the concert. (John is subject and experiencer) The concert pleased John. (John is object and experiencer)7.2.2 Syntactic justification
① He claims that only the NP of the same cases can be coordinated. This is also true with comparative constructions.e.g. John opened the door.
The key opened the door.
→ John and the key (×)→ differnent cases cannot put together.
② There may be no more than one occurance of any case within a single proposition except coorination.
e.g. run ----- agent
open ----- neutral ( agent) ( instrument )
③He believes case is one of the major factors determing subject ad object relation. Other things being equal, -----if it contains an agent, then the agent becomes the subject; -----if there is no agent and instrument becomes the subject. ( e.g. The key opened the door. ) ----- if there is no agent and instrument, then nertral will be selected as a subject, then it will become an object. ( The key opened the door.) ( if a neutral is not selected as a subject, then it will become an object. ( e.g. John opened the door. ) Hierachy:
Agent > experiencer > instrument > neutral > source > goal
4) Cases are applicable to other rules. for example, the imperative construction.
5) The case is one of the case determionance not preposition; in some language, case inflection can be indicated by post position, typically, agent(by), instrument(with), source(from), goal(to)…..7.3 Development of CGDual case
John rose: agent; neutral
7.4 The manin problems in case grammar in aspect of syntactic explanation.
1. The case dose not play significant role in syntax, so syntactic significance lies in grammatical functions, not in case functions.
e.g. The same case------coordinated sometimes different cases can be for pragmatic reason.
The damage is done by the strom and looters ( The strom and looters donot fall in the same case, but they can be coordinated for pragmatic reasons, or pragmatic acceptable.)
2. Concerning clause structure, one case for a clause, but there are sentences with two same cases in single proposition.
e.g. With one hand, he stabbed her with a knife.3. There are problems in distinguishing cases, especailly clauses expressing relationship prove to be less clear.
e.g. Jill married Bill/ Bill married Jill( These two sentences can be well understood from pragmatic roles in the perspective of pragmatics)
4. Subject---selection
-----a kind of generalization/ tendency, not something fixed, cannot be taken as grammatical rules.5. Agent in imperative structurese.g. Don’t be intimidiated by him “ you “-------experiencer.
Chapter 8 The semantic interpretation of sentences
8.1 The importance of Katz’s contribution to linguistic semantics.
In 1960, Jerrold J Katz published a book, he strongly believed in literal meaning which contrary to Searle’s compositional meaning: (morpheme-lexeme-phrase-sentence)
Jerry A. Fodor and Katz inspired the study of meaning in 1973; they published “The Structure of
Semantic Theory”.
Ideal more comprehensively presented in the book in 1992, entitled “semantic theory”.Their works established semantics as an integral part of modern linguistics.They first set goals for any satisfactory theory of sentence meaning.6 Goals:
①To define what meaning is, more specific what a sense is.
②To relate semantics to syntax and phonology by postulating semantic theory as an integral component of theory of grammar.
③To establish metalanguage in which semantic representations properties, relations are expressed. Not use ordinary but metalanguage.
④To ensure that metalanguage is universally applicable and believable by co-relating with human ability to be conceptualized.
⑤To identify the components of meaning and show how these components combined to project meaning onto structurally complex expressions.
⑥To define the form of lexicon entry.
8.2 the structure of semantic theory advocated by Katz & Fodor
SNP
N
VPVG
NP
Det
V Hit Tns Det adj Npresent the colorful ball 2 senses 8.3 selectional restriction rules
2 senses 3 senses
syntactic component 词性
Syntactic rules 句法功能 → final derived phrase marker(ps rules and transformation) (FDPM)→ 可能是句子是短语
semantic component projection rulesEach lexicon item in the FDPM recursively analyamate
is assigned the set of readings → readings of sister nodes in the FDPMfrom the dictionary entity for into sensical constructsthat item
Output
Semantically interpreted sentence
Phrase marker: represents a sentence with a syntactic description it provides input to semantic components, through this theory, we can find each lexical item, lexical formative 词项 in the final derived phrase marker.
FDPM is assigned a reading, then projective rules combined these readings into one or more reading for the whole sentence.
The lexicon and projection rules together form semantic components in their theory.Marker:(标示) 共享的部分 “( )”
Distinguisher (辨异成分) 区别于其他义项的部分 “[ ]”E.g. bachelor: (动物/人)
Marker: in the structure of semantic theory, they proposed each lexical formative in the FDPM is a reading, that is to say, the reading is semantic interpretation. Semantic marker and distinguisher are the means by which we can decompose the meaning of one sense of the lexical formative into its itematic concepts. In this way, we can show semantic structures in the dictionary and semantic relation between dictionary entries. Roughly speaking, semantic marker represent a semantic property which occurs in at least 2 readings in the dictionary which distinguisher is the bit of meaning left over one particular sense of a lexical item has been expressed as far as it can be in terms of semantic markers.Notion:
1>phonological or graphological——representationof lexical items2>Syntactic marker
——containing syntactic information about the item3> a set of semantic markers is enclosed in “( )”4> Distinguisher is enclosed in “[ ]”
5> Selectional restriction is enclosed in angled brackets “< >”e.g.
ball1→N→(social activity) →(large) →(assembly) →[for the purpose of social dancing] 辨义成分
ball2→N→(physical object) →[having globalar shape]
ball3→N→(physical object) →[solid missile for projecting by engine of war]
colorful1→adj. →(colored) →[abounding in contrast of variety of bright colors] →<(physical object) or (social acticity)>
colorful2→adj. →(evaluated)→[having distinctive character vividness or picturesque in] →<(aesthetic object) V. (social activity)>the →T →[some contextually definite]
hit1 →Vtr →(action) →(instancy) →(intensity) →[collide with an impact] →
hit2 →Vtr →(action) →(instancy) →(intensity) →[strikes with a blow or missile] →<(subject: (human) V (high animals); objects: (physical objects); instrument (physical objects)>man →N →(physical object) →(human) →(adult) →(male)
S
NP VP T N Vtr NP T N
R6
R5
R4 adj. N
a: R2+R1
b: R3+(R2+R1)=R3+a
c: R4+[R3+(R2+R1)]=R4+bd: R6+R5
e: (R6+R5)+ R4+[R3+(R2+R1)]This is surface level
R3R2 R1
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