语言学教程 第五章1
语言学教程Chapter 5
Chapter 5 Meaning5.1 Meanings of “meaning”1. Meaning: Meaning refers to what a language expresses about the world we live in orany possible or imaginary world.2. Connotation: The additional meaning that a word or phrase has beyond its centralmeaning.3. Denotation: That part of the meanings of a word or phrase that relates it to phenomenain the real world or in a fictional or possible word.4. Different types of meaning (Recognized by Leech, 1974)(1) Conceptual meaning: Logical, cognitive, or denotative content.(2) Associative meaninga. Connotative meaning: What is communicated by virtue of what languagerefers to.b. Social meaning: What is communicated of the social circumstances oflanguage use.c. Affective meaning: What is communicated of the feelings and attitudes of thespeaker / writer.d. Reflected meaning: What is communicated through association with anothersense of the same expression.e. Collocative meaning: What is communicated through association with wordswhich tend to occur in the environment of another word.(3) Thematic meaning: What is communicated by the way in which the message isorganized in terms of order and emphasis.5. The difference between meaning, concept, connotation, and denotationMeaning refers to the association of language symbols with the real world. There are many types of meaning according to different approaches.Concept is the impression of objects in people’s mind.Connotation is the implied meaning, similar to implication.Denotation, like sense, is not directly related with objects, but makes the abstract assumption of the real world.5.2 The referential theory1. The referential theory: The theory of meaning which relates the meaning of a word tothe thing it refers to, or stands for, is known as the referential theory.2. The semantic triangle theoryOgden and Richards presented the classic “Semantic Triangle”as manifested in the following diagram, in which the “symbol”refers to the linguist elements (word, sentence, etc.), the “referent”refers to the object in the world of experience, and the “thought”or “reference”refers to concept or notion. Thus the symbol of a word signifies “things”by virtue of the “concept,” associated with the form of the word in the mind of the speaker of the language. The concept thus considered is the meaning of the word. The connection (represented with a dotted line) between symbol and referent is made possible only through “concept.”Concept / notionThought / reference----------------------Symbol objectWord stands for realitySignifier referentCode signified5.3 Sense relations5.3.1 SynonymySynonymy is the technical name for the sameness relation.5.3.2 AntonymyAntonymy is the name for oppositeness relation. There are three subtypes: gradable, complementary and converse antonymy.1. Gradable antonymyGradable antonymy is the commonest type of antonymy. They are mainly adjectives, e.g. good / bad, long / short, big / small, etc.2. Complementary antonymyThe members of a pair in complementary antonymy are complementary to each other. That is, they divide up the whole of a semantic filed completely. Not only theassertion of one means the denial of the other, the denial of one also means the assertionof the other, e.g. alive / dead, hit / miss, male / female, boy / girl, etc.3. Converse antonymyConverse antonyms are also called relational opposites. This is a special type of antonymy in that the members of a pair do not constitute a positive-negative opposition.They show the reversal of a relationship between two entities, e.g. buy / sell, parent /child, above / below, etc.5.3.3 HyponymyHyponymy involves us in the notion of meaning inclusion. It is a matter of class membership. That is to say, when x is a kind of y, the lower term x is thehyponym, and the upper term y is the superordinate. Two or more hyponyms of thesame one superordinate are called co-hyponyms, e.g. under flower, there are peony,jasmine, tulip, violet, rose, etc., flower is the superordinate of peony, jasmine, etc.,peony is the hyponym of flower,and peony, jasmine, tulip, violet, rose, etc. areco-hyponyms.5.4 Componential analysisComponential analysis defines the meaning of a lexical element in terms of semantic components. That is, the meaning of a word is not an unanalyzable whole. It may be seen as a complex of different semantic features. There are semantic units smaller than the meaning of a word. E.g.Boy: [+human][-adult][+male]Girl: [+human][-adult][-male]Son: child (x, y) & male (x)Daughter: child (x, y) & -male (x)Take: cause (x, (have (x, y)))Give: cause (x, (-have (x, y)))。
《语言学教程》第 5 章 语义学
⑩There are generally three kinds of sense relations recognized, namely, ⑩一般来说，公认的涵义关系有三种
sameness relation 相同关系 oppositeness relation 对立关系 inclusiveness relation. 内包关系
基本概念
What is Semantics?
①The branch of linguistics concerning the study of meaning is called Semantics. ②More specifically, semantics is the study of the meaning of linguistic units, words and sentences in particular.
⑥而且，用词的所指事物来解释词很不方便。⑦ 因为词所指的对象并不总在说话人的身边。⑧就 算是在身边，也需要听者花时间来辨认其主要特 征。⑨例如，一个人第一次见到电脑时，可能会 误认为显示器是其主要部件，认为电脑就像电视 机一样。⑩因此，有人提出应该根据涵义而非指 称来研究意义。
注：⑩ 句是 5.2 的最终结论：要将对意
第 5层 切分
↑ Word
语言中的层次（Stratification）
第1层切分 Text 语篇
第2层切分
第3层切分 第4层切分 第5层切分 第6层切分 第7层切分 第8层切分
Sentence / Clause complex 句子 / 小句复合体
Clause Word group / phrase Word Morpheme Syllable Segmental phoneme 小句/分句/子句 词组 / 短语 词 语素 音节 单个音段音位
新编简明英语语言学教程何兆熊第五章笔记和习题
Chapter 5 Semantics⏹Semantics----the study of language meaning.⏹Semantics is defined as the study of meaning. However, it is not the only linguistic discipline that studiesmeaning.⏹Semantics answers the question “what does this sentence mean”. In other w ords, it is the analysis ofconventional meanings in words and sentences out of context.⏹Meaning is central to the study of communication.⏹Classification of lexical meanings. Here are G. Leech’s seven types of meaning. ( British linguist)⏹ 1. Conceptual meaning (also called denotative or cognitive meaning) is the essential and inextricable part ofwhat language is, and is widely regarded as the central factor in verbal communication. It means that the meaning of words may be discussed in terms of what they denote or refer to.⏹ 2. Connotative meaning – the communicative value an expression has by virtue of what it refers to, embracesthe properties of the referent, peripheral⏹ 3. Social meaning (stylistic meaning) –what is conveyed about the social circumstances of the use of alinguistic expression⏹ 4. Affective meaning (affected meaning)– what is communicated of the feeling or attitude of the speaker/writertowards what is referred to⏹ 5. Reflected meaning – what is communicated through association with another sense of the same expression ⏹Taboos⏹ 6. Collocative meaning – the associated meaning a word acquires in line with the meaning of words whichtend to co-occur with it⏹(2, 3, 4, 5, 6 can be together called associative meaning–meaning that hinges on referential meaning, lessstable, more culture-specific )7. Thematic meaning—what is communicated by the way in which the message is organized in terms of order⏹What is meaning?---- Scholars under different scientific backgrounds have different understandings of language meaning.Some views concerning the study of meaning⏹Naming theory (Plato)⏹The conceptualist view⏹Contextualism (Bloomfield)⏹BehaviorismNaming theory (Plato): Words are names or labels for things.The linguistic forms or symbols, in other words, the words used in a language are taken to be labels of the objects they stand for; words are just names or labels for things⏹Limitations:1) Applicable to nouns only.2) There are nouns which denote things that do not exist in the real 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 language and the real world); rather, in the interpretation of meaning they are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind.⏹⏹The referent refers to the object in the world of experience;⏹Thought or reference refers to concept.⏹The symbol or a word signifies things by 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.⏹Meaning should be studied in terms of situation, use, context—elements closely linked with language behavior. Two types of contexts are recognized:⏹Situational context: spatiotemporal situation⏹Linguistic context: the probability of a word’s c o-occurrence or collocation.⏹For example, “black” in black hair& black coffee,or black sheep differs in meaning; “The president of the United States” can mean either the president or presidency in different situation.calls forth in the hearer⏹Behaviorists attempted to define meaning as “the situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer”.⏹The story of Jack and Jill:Jill JackS_________r--------s_________RLexical 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 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 with the relationship between thelinguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience.⏹Linguistic expressions stand in a relation to the world. There are two aspects of meaning.⏹Reference is the relation by which a word picks out or identifies an entity in the world. But the referentialtheory fails to account for certain kinds of linguistic expression.⏹Some words are meaningful, but they identify no entities in the real world, such as the words dragon, phoenix,unicorn, and mermaid.⏹It is not possible for some words to find referent in the world, such as the words but, and, of, however, the, etc.⏹Speakers of English understand the meaning of a round triangle although there is no such graph.⏹Sense is the relation by which words stand in human mind. It is mental representation, the association withsomething in t he speaker’s or hearer’s mind. The study of meaning from the perspective of sense is called the representational approach.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 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, HyponymySynonymy⏹Synonymy refers to the sameness or close similarity of meaning. Words that are close in meaning are called synonyms.1) Dialectal synonyms---- synonyms used in different regional dialects, e.g. autumn - fall, biscuit - cracker, petrol –gasoline，lift/elevator, flat/apartment…2) Stylistic synonyms----synonyms differing in style, e.g. kid, child, offspring; start, begin, commence; gentleman/guy…3) Synonyms that differ in their emotive or evaluative meaning, e.g.collaborator- accomplice, attract/seduce4) Collocational synonyms, e.g. accuse…of, charge…with, rebuke…for; …5) Semantically different synonyms, e.g. amaze, astound,…◆Synonyms are frequently used in speaking and writing as a cohesive device. In order to avoidrepetition the writer/speaker needs to use a synonym to replace a word in the previous co-text whenhe/she wants to continue to address that idea. The synonyms together function to create cohesion ofthe text.Antonymy◆Antonyms are words which are opposite in meaning.⏹Gradable antonyms----there are often intermediate forms between the two members of a pair, e.g. old-young, hot-cold, tall-short, …⏹Complementary antonyms----the denial of one member of the pair implies the assertion of the other, e.g. alive-dead, male-female, …⏹Relational/ Reversal 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-below, … 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, …⏹Antonymy is frequently utilized as a rhetorical resource in language use. Oxymoron and antithesis based onantonymy. Gradable antonyms may give rise to fuzziness.Polysemy⏹Polysemy----the same one word may have more than one meaning, e.g. “table” may mean:⏹A piece of furniture⏹All the people seated at a table⏹The food that is put on a table⏹A thin flat piece of stone, metal wood, etc.⏹Orderly arrangement of facts, figures, etc.Homonymy⏹Homonymy---- the phenomenon that 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.), …⏹Complete/full homonym---- when two words are identical in both sound and spelling, e.g. ball, bank, watch, scale, fast, …⏹Note: Rhetorically, homonyms are often used as puns.⏹A polysemic word is the result of the evolution of the primary meaning of the word (the etymology of the word); while complete 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 same superordinate.Hyponymy⏹Superordinate: flower⏹Hyponyms: rose, tulip, lily, chrysanthemum, peony, narcissus, …⏹Superordinate: furniture⏹Hyponyms: bed, table, desk, dresser, wardrobe, sofa, …⏹This kind of vertical semantic relation links words in a hierarchical work.Sense relations between sentences⏹(1) X is synonymous with Y⏹(2) X is inconsistent with Y⏹(3) X entails Y⏹(4) X presupposes Y⏹(5) X is a contradiction⏹(6) X is semantically anomalousX 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: 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 relation 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 is still true.X is a contradiction⏹*My unmarried sister is married to a bachelor.⏹*The orphan’s parents are pretty well-off.X is semantically anomalous⏹*The man is pregnant.⏹*The table has bad intentions.⏹*Sincerity shakes hands with the black apple.⏹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: [+HUMAN, +ADULT, +ANIMATE, +MALE]⏹Boy: [+HUMAN, -ADULT, +ANIMATE, +MALE]⏹Woman: [+HUMAN, +ADULT, +ANIMATE, -MALE]⏹Girl: [+HUMAN, -ADULT, +ANIMATE, -MALE]⏹Father: +HUMAN +MALE +ADULT →PARENT⏹Daughter: +HUMAN –MALE 0ADULT ←PARENTPredication 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 semantically 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 semantically meaningful is governed by rules called selectional restrictions.⏹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 participant 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.⏹According to the number of arguments contained in a predication, we may classify 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 LETTERSupplementary Exercises to Chapter 5 SemanticsI. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False:1. Dialectal synonyms can often be found in different regional dialects such as British English and American English but cannot be found within the variety itself, for example, within British English or American English.2. Sense is concerned with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience, while the reference deals with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form.3. Linguistic forms having the same sense may have different references in different situations.4. In semantics, meaning of language is considered as the intrinsic and inherent relation to the physical world of experience.5. Contextualism is based on the presumption that one can derive meaning from or reduce meaning to observable contexts.6. Behaviourists 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.7. The meaning of a sentence is the sum total of the meanings of all its components.8. Most languages have sets of lexical items similar in meaning but ranked differently according to their degree of formality.9. “it is hot.” is a no-place predication because it contains no argument.10. In grammatical analysis, the sentence is taken to be the basic unit, but in semantic analysis of a sentence, the basic unit is predication, which is the abstraction of the meaning of a sentence.II. Fill in each of the following blanks with one word which begins with the letter given:11. S________ can be defined as the study of meaning.12. The conceptualist view holds that there is no d______ link between a linguistic form and what it refers to.13. R______ means what a linguistic form refers to in the real, physical world; it deals with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience.14. Words that are close in meaning are called s________.15. When two words are identical in sound, but different in spelling and meaning, they are called h__________.16.R_________ opposites are pairs of words that exhibit the reversal of a relationship between the two items.17. C ____ analysis is based upon the belief that the meaning of a word can be divided into meaning components.18. Whether a sentence is semantically meaningful is governed by rules called s________ restrictions, which are constraints on what lexical items can go with what others.19. An a________ is a logical participant in a predication, largely identical with the nominal element(s) in a sentence.20. According to the n ____ theory of meaning, the words in a language are taken to be labels of the objects they stand for.III. There are four choices following each statement. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement:21. The naming theory is advanced by ________.A. PlatoB. BloomfieldC. Geoffrey LeechD. Firth22. “We shall know a word by the company it keeps.” This statement represents _______.A. the conceptualist viewB. contexutalismC. the naming theoryD.behaviourism23. Which of the following is not true?A. Sense is concerned with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form.B. Sense is the collection of all the features of the linguistic form.C. Sense is abstract and de-contextualized.D. Sense is the aspect of meaning dictionary compilers are not interested in.24. “Can I borrow your bike?” _______ “ You have a bike.”A. is synonymous withB. is inconsistent withC. entailsD. presupposes25. ___________ is a way in which the meaning of a word can be dissected into meaning components, called semantic features.A. Predication analysisB. Componential analysisC. Phonemic analysisD. Grammatical analysis26. “alive” and “dead” are ______________.A. gradable antonymsB. relational oppositesC. complementary antonymsD. None of the above27. _________ deals with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world ofexperience.A. ReferenceB. ConceptC. SemanticsD. Sense28. ___________ refers to the phenomenon that words having different meanings have the same form.A. PolysemyB. SynonymyC. HomonymyD. Hyponymy29. Words that are close in meaning are called ______________.A. homonymsB. polysemyC. hyponymsD. synonyms30. The grammaticality of a sentence is governed by _______.A. grammatical rulesB. selectional restrictionsC. semantic rulesD. semantic featuresIV. Define the following terms:31. semantics 32. sense 33 . reference 34. synonymy35. polysemy 36. homonymy 37. homophones 38. Homographs39. complete homonyms 40. hyponymy 41.antonymy 42 componential analysis43.grammatical meaning 44. predication45. Argument 46. predicate47. Two-place predicationV. Answer the following questions:48. Why do we say that a meaning of a sentence is not the sum total of the meanings of all its components?49. What is componential analysis? Illustrate it with examples.50. How do you distinguish between entailment and presupposition in terms of truth values?51. How do you account for such sense relations between sentences as synonymous relation, inconsistent relation in terms of truth values?52. According to the way synonyms differ, how many groups can we classify synonyms into? Illustrate them with examples.53. What are the major views concerning the study of meaning? How they differ?Suggested answers to supplementary exercises:IV. Define the following terms:31. Semantics: Semantics can be simply defined as the study of meaning in language.32. Sense: Sense is concerned with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form. It is the collection of all the features of the linguistic form; it is abstract and de -contextualised.33. Reference: Reference means what a linguistic form refers to in the real, physical world; it deals with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience34. Synonymy :Synonymy refers to the sameness or close similarity of meaning.35. Polysemy :Polysemy refers to the fact that the same one word may have more than one meaning.36. Homonymy :Homonymy refers to the phenomenon that words having different meanings have the same form,i.e. , different words are identical in sound or spelling, or in both.37. homophones :When two words are identical in sound, they are called homophones38. homographs :When two words are identical in spelling, they are homographs.39. complete homonyms.:When two words are identical in both sound and spelling, they are called complete homonyms.40.Hyponymy :Hyponymy refers to the sense relation between a more general, more inclusive word and a more specific word.41. Antonymy :Antonymy refers to the relation of oppositeness of meaning.42. Componential analysis : Componential analysis is a way to analyze word meaning. It was proposed by structural semanticists. The approach is based on the belief that the meaning of a -word can be divided intomeaning components, which are called semantic features.43.The grammatical meaning : The grammatical meaning of a sentence refers to its grammaticality, i.e. , its grammatical well-formedness . The grammaticality of a sentence is governed by the grammatical rules of the language.44. predication :The predication is the abstraction of the meaning of a sentence.45. argument : An argument is a logical participant in a predication. It is generally identical with the nominal element (s) in a sentence.46. predicate : A predicate is something that is said about an argument or it states the logical relation linking the arguments in a sentence.47. two-place predication : A two-place predication is one which contains two arguments.Answer the following questions:48. Why do we say that a meaning of a sentence is not the sum total of the meanings of all its components?The meaning of a sentence is not the sum total of the meanings of all its components because it cannot be worked out by adding up all the meanings of its constituent words. For example;(A) The dog bit the man. (B) The man bit the dog.If the meaning of a sentence were the sum total of the meanings of all its components, then the above two sentences would have the same meaning. In fact they are different in meanings.As we know, there are two aspects to sentence meaning: grammatical meaning and semantic meaning. The grammatical meanings of “the dog” and “the man” in (A) are different from the grammatical meanings of “the dog” and “the man” in (B). The meaning of a sentence is the product of both lexical and grammatical meaning. It is the product of the meaning of the constituent words and of the grammatical constructions that relate one word syntagmatically to another.49. What is componential analysis? Illustrate it with examples.Componential analysis, proposed by structural semanticists, is a way to analyze word meaning. The approach is based on the belief that the meaning of a word can be divided into meaning components, which are called semantic features. Plus and minus signs are used to indicate whether a certain semantic feature is present or absent in the meaning of a word, and these feature symbols are usually written in capitalized letters. For example, the word “man” is ana lyzed as consisting of the semantic features of [+ HUMAN, + ADULT, + ANIMATE, +MALE]50. How do you distinguish between entailment and presupposition in terms of truth values?Entailment is a relation of inclusion. Suppose there are two sentences X and Y:X: He has been to France.Y: He has been to Europe.In terms of truth values, if X is true, Y is necessarily true, e.g. If he has been to France, he must have been to Europe.If X is false, Y may be true or false, e. g. If he has not been to France, he may still have been to Europe or he has not been to Europe. If Y is true, X may be true or false, e.g. If he has been to Europe, he may or may not have been to France.If Y is false, X is false, e.g. If he has not been to Europe, he cannot have been to France.Therefore we conclude that X entails Y or Y is an entailment of X.The truth conditions that we use to judge presupposition is as follows:Suppose there are two sentences X and YX: John' s bike needs repairing.Y: John has a bike.If X is true, Y must be true, e.g. If John' s bike needs repairing, John must have a bike.If X is false, Y is still true, e. g. If John' s bike does not need repairing, John still has a bike. If Y is true, X is either true or false, e.g. If John has a bike, it may or may not need repairing. If Y is false, no truth value can be said about X, e.g. If John does not have a bike, nothing can be said about whether his bike needs repairing or not. Therefore, X presupposes Y, or Y is a presupposition of X.51. How do you account for such sense relations between sentences as synonymous relation, inconsistent relation in terms of truth values?In terms of truth condition, of the two sentences X and Y, if X is true, Y is true; if X is false, Y is false, thereforeX is synonymous with Ye.g. X; He was a bachelor all his life.Y: He never married all his life.Of the two sentences X and Y, if X is true, Y is false; if X is false, Y is true, then we can say A is inconsistent with Ye.g. X: John is married.Y: John is a bachelor.52. According to the ways synonyms differ, how many groups can we classify synonyms into? Illustrate them with examples.According to the ways synonyms differ, synonyms can be divided into the following groups.i. Dialectal synonymsThey are synonyms which are used in different regional dialects. British English and American English are the two major geographical varieties of the English language. For examples:British English American Englishautumn falllift elevatorThen dialectal synonyms can also be found within British, or American English itself. For example, "girl" is called "lass" or "lassie" in Scottish dialect, and "liquor" is called "whisky" in Irish dialect.ii. Stylistic synonymsThey are synonyms which differ in style or degree of formality. Some of the stylistic synonyms tend to be more formal, others tend to be casual, and still others are neutral in style. For example:old man, daddy, dad, father, male parentchap, pal, friend, companioniii. Synonyms that differ in their emotive or evaluative meaningThey are the words that have the same meaning but express different emotions of the user. The emotions of the user indicate the attitude or bias of the user toward what he is talking about . For example, “collaborator”and “accomplice”are synonymous, sharing the meaning of "a person who helps another", but they are different in their evaluative meaning. The former means that a person who helps another in doing something good, while the latter refers to a person who helps another in a criminal act.iv. Collocational synonymsThey are synonyms which differ in their collocation. For example, we can use accuse, charge, rebuke to say that someone has done something wrong or even criminal, but they are used with different prepositions accuse. . . of, charge. . . with, rebuke. . .for. v. V. Semantically different synonymsSemantically different synonyms refer to the synonyms that differ slightly in what they mean. For example, "amaze" and "astound" are very close in meaning to the word "surprise," but they have very subtle differences in meaning. While amaze suggests confusion and bewilderment, " astound" implies difficulty in believing. "53. What are the major views concerning the study of meaning? How do they differ?One of the oldest was the naming theory, proposed by the ancient Greek scholar Plato, who believed that the words used in a language are taken to be labels of the objects they stand for. The conceptualist view holds that there is no direct link between a linguistic form and what it refers to. The form and the meaning are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind. Contextualism is based on the presumption that one can derive meaning from or reduce meaning to observable contexts. Two kinds of context are recognized; the situational context and the linguistic context.For example, the meaning of the word "seal" in the sentence "The seal could not be found" can only be determined according to the context in which the sentence occurs:The seal could not be found. The zoo keeper became worried.(seal meaning an aquatic mammal)The seal could not be found. The king became worried.(seal meaning the king's stamp)Behaviorism drew on behaviorist psychology when he tried to define the meaning of linguistic forms. Behaviorists attempted to define the meaning of a language form as " the situation in which the speaker utters it。
语言学第五章PPT课件
Sentence meaning Semantic analysis
Componential analysis Predication analysis
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What is semantics?
英文semantics来自希腊语semantikos，意 思是siginificant(有意义)。是研究语言意义 的科学。
词的意义和句子意义. 20世纪60年代以前， 语言学家只注重研究词的意义，忽略了句子 意义。
研究语言单位的意义，尤其是词语和句子的 意义 。
.
Semantics--the study of the meaning of linguistic units, words and sentences in particular.
the meaning which arises in cases of multiple conceptual meaning, when one sense of a word is so strong that it forms part of our response to another
Within the domain of linguistics, semantics is mainly concerned with the analysis of meaning of words, phrases, or sentences and sometimes with the meaning of utterances in discourse or the meaning of a whole text.
sense.
Example: words having a taboo meaning, such as ‘gay’,
语言学教程胡壮麟（第四版）第5章
语言学教程胡壮麟（第四版）第5章Chapter 5 Meaning第一部分Meanings of “meaning”一、The Study of Meaning：1. Meaning:refers to what a language expresses about the world we live in or any possible or imaginary world.2. Connotation: opposite to denotation, means the properties of the entity a word denotes. For example, the connotation of human is "biped", "featherless", and "rational", etc.3. Denotation: involves the relationship between a linguistic unit and the non-linguistic entity it refers to. So it is equivalent to referential meaning. For example, the denotation of human is any person such as John and Mary.二、Seven types of meaning (Recognized by Leech) 三大类七种论述1.Conceptual meaning:Logical, cognitive, or denotative content of language. It is the essential part of language and similar to literal meaning.E.g. What's this? It's a … (desk, boy, dog…). When you answer this question, you are expressing the conceptual meaning of language.Associative meaning: same in conceptual meaning but different in implication.2.Connotative meaning:What is communicated by virtue of what language refers to.E.g. “mother” implies love, “blue” implies depressed.3.Social meaning:What is communicated of the social circumstances of language use. It mainly involves dialect and status.E.g. Different style of words like horse and pony imply different social circumstances of language use.4.Affective meaning:What is communicated of the feelings and attitudes of the speaker/ writer. It involves the choice of commendatory or derogatory meanings of words.E.g. The difference between statesman and politician is connotative because the former is commendatory and the latter is derogatory .5.Reflected meaning:What is communicated through association with another sense of the same expression.E.g. Click the mouse twice. (Mouse may remind you of either the part of a computer or a kind of animal who is clicked twice by Tom in the cartoon Tom and Jerry.)6.Collocative meaning:What is communicated through association with words which tend to occur in the environment of another word.E.g. Different meanings of paper are expressed in its collocation with "exam, white and daily"7.Thematic meaning:What is communicated by the way in which the message is organized in terms of order and emphasis.E.g. I hit a dog. A dog was hit by me.1第二部分Referential theory1.The referential theory:The theory of meaning which relates the meaning of a word to the thing it refers to, or stands for, is known as the referential theory. We explain the meaning of a word by pointing to thething it refers to.E.g. proper nouns and definite noun phrases.Problem with this theory: the meaning of desk:When we explain the meaning of desk by pointing to the t hing it refers to, we don’t mean a desk must be of the particular size, shape, color and material as the desk we are pointing to at the moment of speaking. We are using this particular desk as an example of something more general.2.Semantic triangle:A th eory which employs the notion “concept”. Ogden and Richards presented the classic “Semantic Triangle”. They argue that the relation between a word and a thing it refers to is not direct. It is mediated by the concept. In a diagram form, the relation can be showed as follows:conceptword thingAnd something is abstract, which has no existence in the material world and can only be sensed in our minds. This abstract thing is usually called concept.3.Sense and referenceSense and reference are two sides of meaning. Although they are different, they are closely to each other.1. Sense is concerned with 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. Sense refers to the main features, the defining properties an entity has.2. Reference means what a linguistic form refers to in the real, physical world; it deals with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience.E.g. The sense of desk: a piece of furniture with a flap top andfour legs, at which one reads and writes. Sense is equivalent to concept. The concept of desk may also be called the sense of desk. The concrete entities a particular desk in the world is reference.3. The distinction between sense and reference:① It is comparable between connotation and denotation. The former refers to the abstract properties of an entity, while the latter refers to the concrete entities having these properties.① Every word has a sense, or we will not be able to use it or understand it. But not every word has a reference. Grammatical words like but, if, and don’t refer to anything. Words like God, ghost, and dragon refer to imaginary things, which don’t exist in reality. Abs tract words like love don’t have a concrete entities in the world.① Words are in different sense relations with each other. Sense may be defined as the semantic relations between one word and another, or more generally between one linguistic unit and another. In contrast, reference is concerned with the relation between a word and the thing it refers to, or more generally between a linguistic unit and a non-linguistic entity it refers to.第三部分sense RelationsThere are three kinds of sense relations, namely, sameness relation, oppositeness relation and inclusiveness relation.1. Synonymy 同义关系Synonymy is the technical name for the sameness relation. Synonymy refers to the sameness or close similarity of meaning.e.g. buy and purchase. Synonym refers to the words that are closed in meaning.But total synonymy is rare. It can be divided into two sub-types: absolute synonymy (they are identical in meaning.) andrelative synonymy (they are similar in meaning.).The so-called synonymy are all context dependent. E.g.Little Tom ____ a toy bear. (buy/ purchase)1) dialectal synonyms: synonyms used in different regional dialects.There are dialectal differences.E.g. Autumn is British while fall is America.2) stylistic synonyms: they may differ in style.E. g. kid, child, offspring; start, begin, commence.3) synonyms that differ in their emotive or evaluative meaning.E. g. thrifty-economical-stingy4)collocational synonyms:E. g. accuse…of, charge…with.5) semantic synonyms:E. g. amaze, surprise.2. Antonymy 反义关系Antonymy is the name for oppositeness relation. There are three sub-types: gradable, complementary, and converse antonymy.1) Gradable antonymyGradable antonymy is the commonest type of antonymy. There are often intermediate forms between the two members of a pair. They are mainly adjectives, e.g. good / bad, big / small, etc. They have three characteristics:First, they are gradable. That is, the members of a pair differ in terms of degree. E.g. big, medium, small.Second, antonymy of this kind are graded against different norms. E.g. big dog, small dog; big cat, small cat.Third, one member of a pair, usually the term for the higher degree, serves as the cover term. E.g. old covers young, highcovers low.2) Complementary antonymyThe members of a pair in complementary antonymy are complementary to each other. Not only the assertion of one means the denial of the other, the denial of one also means the assertion of the other.E.g. alive / dead, boy / girl, etc.There is no intermediate forms between the two. The adjectives of this kind can’t be modified by very, and they don’t have comparative or superlative degrees either. The norm in this type is absolute, and there is no cover term for the two members of a pair.3) Converse antonymyConverse antonyms are also called relational opposites. This is a special type of antonymy, because the members of a pair don’t constitute a positive-negative opposition. They show the reversal of a relationship between two entities, e.g. buy / sell. The comparative degrees like bigger: smaller, longer: shorter.3. Hyponymy 上下义关系The sense relation between a more general, more inclusive word and a more specific word. Inclusiveness意义内包关系: Superordinate: the word which is more general in meaning.Hyponyms: the word which is more specific in meaning.Co-hyponyms: hyponyms of the same superordinate.Hyponymy involves us in the notion of meaning inclusion. It is a matter of class membership. That is, when x is a kind of y, the lower term x is the hyponym, and the upper term y is the superordinate. E.g. under flower, there are peony, tulip, violet, rose, etc., flower is the superordinate of rose, peony, etc., peony is the hyponym of flower, and peony, tulip, violet, rose, etc. areco-hyponyms.4. Polysemy 多义现象Polysemy means the same one word may have more than one meaning. A word having more than one meaning is called a polysemic word. Historically polysemy can be understood as the growth and development or change in the meaning of words.E.g. “table” may mean a piece of furniture, all the people seated at a table, or the food that is put on a table, etc.5. Homonymy 同音异义Homonymy means different in meaning but either identical both in sound and spelling or identical only in sound or spelling. There are three kinds of homonyms:①Full hom onyms: words identical both in sound and spelling, but different in meaning.E.g. bear (n. a kind of animal), bear(v. to give birth to a baby)②Homophones: words identical only in sound but different in spelling and meaning.E.g. dear (a loved person), deer (a kind of animal)③Homographs: words identical only in spelling but different in sound and meaning.E.g. tear (n.), tear (v.)6. Sense relations between sentences 句子之间的涵义关系1) X is synonymous with Y X与Y同义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.2) X is inconsistent with Y X与Y不一致X: He is single.Y: He has a wife.If X is true, Y is false; if X is false, Y is true.3) X entails Y X 蕴含在Y里X: Marry has been to Beijing.Y: Marry has been to China.Entailment is a relation 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 false.4) X presupposes Y X预设YX: His bike needs repairing.Y: He has a bike.If X is true, Y must be true; If X is false, Y is still true.5) X is a contradiction X是矛盾的* My unmarried sister is married to a bachelor.6) X is semantically anomalous X是异常的* The man is pregnant.第四部分Componential analysisSemantic components: the meaning of a word is not an unanalysable whole. It is 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.It may be seen as a complex of different semantic features. There are semantic units smaller than the meaning of a word. For example, the meaning of the word boy may be analysed into three components: HUMAN, YOUNG and MALE.优：①By showing the semantic components of a word in this way, we may better account for sense relations. Two words, or two expressions, which have the same semantic components will be synonymous with each other. For example, bachelor and unmarried man.②And these semantic components will also explain sense relations between sentences.弊：①O ne difficulty is that many words are polysemous. They have more than one meaning, consequently they will have different sets of semantic components.②Some semantic components are seen as binary taxonomies.③There may be words whose semantic components are difficult to ascertain.第五部分Sentence meaning一、Sentence meaning 句子意义The meaning of a sentence is obviously related to the meanings of the words used in it, but it is also obvious that the sentence meaning is not simply the sum total of the words. Sentences using the same words may mean quite differently if they are arranged in different orders. E.g.The man chased the dog. (人追狗。
语言学教程[第五章意义]山东大学期末考试知识点复习
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第五章意义复习笔记I．语义学语义学是对语言单位，尤其是词和句子的意义的研究。
II.意义1．意义在语言学中，意义是指语言所表达的关于现实世界或者想象中的世界的想法。
2．内涵按照哲学界的用法，内涵和外延相对，指的是一个词所指称的实体的特性。
3．外延外延涉及语言单位跟非语言实体之间的关系。
在这个意义上，它跟指称意义是一样的。
4．意义的不同类型(1)概念意义逻辑的、认知的、外延的内容。
(2)联想意义①内涵意义：通过语言所指所传达的意义。
②社会意义：所传达的关于语言使用的社会环境的意义。
③感情意义：所传达的关于说话人／整理感情、态度方面的意义。
④反射意义：通过同一表达方式的其他意思所传达的意义。
⑤搭配意义：通过词语的常用搭配而传达的意义。
(3)主位意义通过顺序和重音这种组织信息的方式所传达的意义。
主位意义是最边缘的意义，因为它只由语序及重音所决定。
5．语境论语境论是建立在如下假设之上：意义源于语境，存在于语境。
语境有两种：情景语境和上下文。
所有的话语都是在特定的时空情景下产生的，除了话语产生的时间地点以外，情景因素还包括说话人和听话人、他们当时的行为以及情景中所存在的物与事。
上下文不仅涉及词与其他词的搭配，这种搭配构成词义的一部分，即搭配意义，它也涉及特定话语的前后部分。
6．行为主义行为主义理论把意义定义为说话者说话的环境以及听者的反应。
Ⅲ．指称理论1．定义把词语意义跟它所指称或所代表的事物了解起来的理论，叫做指称理论。
2．语义三角奥格登和理查兹在《意义的意义》一书中提出了语义三角的理论。
他们认为词与所指事物之间没有直接的关系。
它们是以概念为中介的。
概念是抽象的，没有物质存在，只能通过我们的思维来感知。
3．涵义与指称涵义与指称的区别类似于内涵和外延：前者指一个实体的抽象属性，后者指拥有这些属性的具体实体。
换句话说，Leech的概念意义包括两个方面：涵义和指称。
然而涵义和指称还有其他的不同。
在某种程度上，我们可以说每个单词都有涵义，即概念内容；但并非每个单词都有指称。
戴炜栋主编英语语言学教程第5章课件 _Syntax
4.2 Categories范畴
4.2.1 Word-level categories Category refers to a group of linguistic items which fulfill the same or similar functions in a particular language e.g. a sentence a noun phrase a verb
4.2.2 Phrase categories and their structure短语范畴及结构
Definition: Phrases refer to the syntactic units which are built around a certain word category. 围绕某一词范畴构成的句法单位
The most central categories to the syntactic study are the word-level categories (traditionally, called parts of speech) .
Here, word-level categories are divided into two kinds: major lexical categories and minor lexical categories.
Noam Chomsky [ˈnoʊm ˈtʃɒmski] (1928--)
---- He is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, logician,political commentator and activist, the most influential linguist of the 20th century,and was voted the "world's top public intellectual"(世界顶级公共知识分子) in a 2005 poll. Chomsky has spent most of his career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he is currently Professor Emeritus.
《语言学教程》第 5 章 语义学共86页
56、极端的法规，就是极端的不公。 ——西 塞罗 57、法律一旦成为人们的需要，人们 就不再 配享受 自由了 。—— 毕达哥 拉斯 58、法律规定的惩罚不是为了私人的 利益， 而是为 了公共 的利益 ；一部 分靠有 害的强 制，一 部分靠 榜样的 效力。 ——格 老秀斯 59、假如没有法律他们会更快乐的话 ，那么 法律作 为一件 无用之 物自己 就会消 灭。— —洛克
60、人民的幸福是至高无个的法。— —西塞 罗
1、最灵繁的人也看不见自己的背脊。——非洲 2、最困难的事情就是认识自己。——希腊 3、有勇气承担命运这才是英雄好汉。——黑塞 4、与肝胆人共事，无字句处读书。——周恩来 5、阅读使人充实，会谈使人敏捷，写作使人精确。——培根
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Category
It refers to the defining properties of these general units: Categories of the noun: number, gender, case and countability Categories of the verb: tense, aspect, voice
In a diagram form, the relation is represented as follows: concept
word
thing
5.3 Sense relations
Words are in different sense relations with each other. Some words have more similar senses than others.
5.3.1 Synonymy: the sameness relation Synonymy: ♦ buy/purchase ♦ autumn/fall ♦ flat/apartment ♦ tube/underground
Let’s take two pairs of synonyms as an example and find out their difference. • Buy/purchase ( style ) When did you buy this coat? The company has purchased large amounts of raw materials. • Flat/apartment ( dialectal difference ) Flat: British English Apartment: American English
Chapter 5 Me study of the meaning of linguistic units, words and sentences in particular. Meaning has been studied for thousands of years by philosophers, logicians and linguists. E.g. Plato & Lao Zi.
One problem of this theory is that when we explain the meaning of desk by pointing to the thing it refers to, we do not mean a desk must be of the particular size, shape, color and material as the desk we are pointing to at the moment of speaking. We are using this particular desk as an example, of something more general. That is, there is something behind the concrete thing we can see with our eyes. And something is abstract, which has no existence in the material world and can only be sensed in our minds. This abstract thing is usually called CONCEPT. A theory which explicitly employs the notion “concept” is the semantic triangle proposed by Ogden and Richards in The Meaning of Meaning.
Introduction of This Class
Step one: A brief review of the previous chapter Step two: Learning Chapter 5 Step three: Assignment
Step One A brief review of the previous chapter
5.2 The referential theory
The theory of meaning which relates the meaning of a word to the thing it refers to, or stands for, is known as the REFERENTIAL THEORY, which is a very popular theory. It is generally possible to explain the meaning of a word by pointing to the thing it refers to.
5.3.3 Hyponymy It refers to the sense relation between a more general, more inclusive word and a more specific word. In other words, hyponymy is a matter of class membership. The upper term in this sense relation, i.e. the class name, is called superordinate, and the lower terms, the members, hyponyms. These members of the same class are co-hyponyms.
Geoffrey Leech (1974, 1981). Semantics: The Study of Meaning. Seven types of meaning: • Conceptual meaning • Connotative meaning • Social meaning Associative Meaning • Affective meaning • Reflected meaning • Collocative meaning • Thematic meaning
Gradable antonyms (old and young, hot and cold, big and small) have three characteristics: • First, they are gradable. That is, the members of a pair differ in terms of degree. The denial of one is not necessarily the assertion of the other and can be modified by adverbs of degree like very. They may have comparative and superlative degrees. • Second, they are graded against different norms. • Third, one member of a pair, usually the term for the higher degree, serves as the cover term.
Complementary antonyms (alive and dead, male and female) also have three characteristics: • First, they divide the whole of a semantic field completely. Not only the assertion of one means the denial of the other, the denial of one also means the assertion of the other. So the adjectives in this type cannot be modified by very and do not have comparative or superlative degrees either. • Second, the norm in this type is absolute. • Third, there is no cover term for the two members of a pair.
Constituent
It is a part of a larger linguistic unit.
Endocentric
Endocentric construction is one whose distribution is functionally equivalent to that of one or more of its constituents, i.e., a word or a group of words, which serves as a definable centre or head.
Converse antonymy show the reversal of a relationship between two entities such as buy and sell, husband and wife, teacher and pupil, above and below, before and after. Each pair shows the same relationship from two different angles, so they are also known as RELATIONAL OPPOSITES.
5.1 Meanings of “meaning”