戴炜栋 Linguistics·Semantics_思维导图模板

Chapter 5
Semantics

5.1 What is semantics?

Definition of Semantics
（考点：名词解释、与语用学区分）

Semantics can be simply defined as the study of meaning.

5.2 Some views concerning the study of meaning
（考点：了解各种观点的意思、优缺点）

5.2.1 The naming theory

content

One of the oldest notions concerning meaning, and also the primitive one.

Naming theory was proposed by the ancient Greek scholar Plato. According to this theory, the linguistic forms or symbols, in other words, the words used in a language are simply labels of the objects they stand for. So words are just names or labels for things.

the limitations

This theory seems applicable to nouns only, but verbs, adjectives, and adverbs such as think, hard, slowly are definitely not labels of objects.

Within the category of nouns, there are nouns which denote things that do not exist in the real world at all such as ghost, dragon, and unicorn.

And also nouns that do not refer to physical objects, but abstract notions such as joy and impulse.

5.2.2 The conceptualist view

Definition

conceptulist 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 classic semantic triangle or triangle of significance suggested by Ogden and Richards.（具体三角图看书本P63）

In this diagram, SYMBOL or FORM refers to the linguistic forms, REFERENT refers to the object in the real world, THOUGHT or REFERENCE refers to the concept, eg. the word dog is directly associated with a certain concept in our mind, i.e. what a "dog" is like, but it is not directly linked to that particular dog mentioned in the sentence "The dog over there looks unfriendly", i.e. the referent in this particular case.

5.2.3 Contextualism

The theory holds that meaning should be studied in terms of situation, use, context- elements closely linked with language behaviour.
A representative of this approach was J.R. Firth.

The contextualist view of meaning 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 linguistic context.

For example, the meaning of word black differs in two kinds of collocations of black hair and black coffee.

5.2.4 Behaviorism

Definition

Behaviorists attempted to define the meaning of a language form as the "situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer."

Behaviorism was proposed by Bloomfield.

5.3 Lexical meaning

5.3.1 Sense and reference

sense

Sense is concerned with the inherent meaning of a linguistic form, the collection of all its features; it is abstract and de-contextualized. It is the aspect of meaning dictionary compilers are interested in.

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 experience.

例子：the sense of dog is ...
the reference of dog is ...

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, eg. the two expressions morning star and evening star. These two differ in sense but as a matter of fact, what they refer to is the same: the very same star that we see in the sky.

5.3.2 Major sense relations
(重点·考点：名词解释、判断两词的含义、举例）

5.3.2.1 Synonymy（同义现象）

Definition

Synonymy refers to the sameness or close similarity of meaning. Words that are close in meaning are called synonyms.

According to the way they differ, synonyms can be divided into the following groups

dialectal synonyms-synonyms used in different regional dialects

eg.
British English: autumn, lift
American English: fall, elevator

stylistic synonyms-synonyms differing in style

eg.
old man
daddy
dad
father
male parent

synonyms that differ in their emotive or evaluative meaning

eg.
collaborator：帮助另一个人做好事
accomplice：帮助另一个人犯罪

collocational synonyms

eg.
rotten tomatoes
sour milk

semantically different synonyms

eg.
anaze：混乱、迷惑
astound：难以相信

5.3.2.2 Polysemy（多义现象）

Definition

the same one word may have more than one meaning. This is what we call polysemy, and such a word is called a polysemic or polysemous word.

eg. table has at least 7 meanings in any dictionary

a piece of furniture

all the people seated at the table

food on the table

a thin flat piece of stone, metal, wood etc.

orderly arrangement of facts

the part of machine-tool

a level area

5.3.2.3 Homonymy（同音异义现象）

Definition

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.

Classification

homophones（同音异义词）

When two words are identical in sound, they are homophones.

eg.
rain/reign
night/knight
piece/peace
leak/leek

homographs（同形异义词）

When two words are identical in spelling, they are homographs.

eg.
bow v./bow n.
tear v./tear n.
lead v./lead n.

complete homonyms（完全同音异义词）

When two words are identical in both sound and spelling, they are complete homonyms.

eg.
fast adj./fast v.
scale n./scale v.

5.3.2.4 Hyponymy（下义关系）

Definition

Hyponymy refers to the sense relation between a more general, more inclusive word and a more specific word.

superordinate（上坐标词）

The word which is more general in meaning.

hyponyms（下义词）

The more specific words.

co-hyponyms（并列下义词）

Hyponyms of the same superordinate.

eg.
Superordinate: animal
Hyponyms: dog, car, tiger, lion, wolf, elephant, fox, bear...

5.3.2.5 Antonymy（反义现象）

Definition

The term antonymy is used for oppositeness of meaning; words that are opposite in meaning are antonyms.

Classification

gradable antonyms

Some antonyms are gradable because there are often intermediate forms between the two members of a pair. So it is a matter of degree.

eg.
Between hot and cold there exist varying qualities of being neither hot nor cold, such as cool, warm and lukewarm.

complementary antonyms

A pair of complementary antonyms is characterized by the feature that the denial of one member of the pair implies the assertion of the other.

eg.
a person can be either alive or dead, either male or female; there is no third possibility. Therefore, alive and dead are a pair of comlementary antonyms.

relational opposites

Pairs of words that exhibit the reversal of a relationship between the two items are called relational opposites.

eg.
husband and wife
father and son
doctor and patient
buy and sell

5.4 Sense relations between sentences
（考点：分析句子间的关系）

X is synonymous with Y.

eg.
X: He was a bachelor all his life.
Y: He never married all his life.

In terms of truth condition, if X is true, Y is true, and if X is false, Y is false.

X is inconsistent with Y.

eg.
X: John is married.
Y: John is a bachelor.

In terms of truth condition, if X is true, Y is false, and if X is false, Y is true.

X entails Y. (Y is an entailment of X.)

eg.
X: John married a blond heiress.
Y: John married a blond.

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

eg. If he has been to France, he must have been to Europe.

If X is false, Y may be true or false.

eg. If he has not been to France, he may have been to Europe or he has not been to Europe.

X presupposes Y. (Y is a prerequisite of X.)

eg.
X: John's bike needs repairing.
Y: John has a bike.

If X is true, Y must be true.

eg. If John's bike needs repairing, John must have a bike.

If X is false, Y is still true.

eg. If John's bike does not need repairing, John still has a bike.

X is a contradiction.

When X is a contradiction, it is invariably false.

eg. My unmarried sister is married to a bachelor.

X is semantically anomalous.

When X is semantically anomalous, it is absurd in the sense that it presupposes a contradiction.

eg. The table has bad intentions. ( This sentence is obviously absurd.)

5.5 Analysis of meaning

5.5.1 Componential analysis-a way to analyse lexical meaning

Definition

Componential analysis is a way proposed by the structural semanticists to analyze word meaning.

The approach is based upon the belief that the meaning of a word can be dissected into meaning components, called semantic features. This is parallel to the way a phoneme is analyzed into smaller components called distinctive features.

Analysis methods

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 incapital letters.

eg. the word man analyzed as comprising the features of +HUMAN, +ADULT, +ANIMATE, +MALE.

Advantage

One advantage of componential analysis is that by specifying the semantic features of certain words, it will be possible to show how these words are related in meaning.

5.5.2 Predication analysis-a way to analyze sentence meaning

Two aspects of sentence meaning

grammatical meaning

its grammaticality i.e. its grammatical well-formedness. The grammaticality of a sentence is governed by the grammatical rules of the language.

Whether a sentence is semantically meaningful is governed by the rules called selectional restrictions, i.e. constraints on what lexical items can go with what others.

semantic meaning

Definition

The predication analysis is proposed by the British linguist G. Leech.

In his frameword of analysis, the basic unit is called predication, which is the abstraction of the meaning of a sentence.

This applies to all forms of a sentence, including statements, imperative and interrogative forms.

Composition of predication

argument(s)

An argument is a logical participant in a predication, largely identical with a nominal element in a sentence.

predicate

A predicate is something said about an argument or it states the logical relation linking the arguments in a sentence.

eg.
the predication of the sentence "Tom smokes" is said to consist of the argument "TOM" and the predicate "SMOKE", and the predication can be written as: TOM (SMOKE)

The grammatical form of the sentence does not affect the semantic predication of the sentence.
All the following sentences are said to have the same predication:

eg.
Tom smokes.
Tom is smoking.
Tom has been smoking.
Tom, smoke!
Does Tom smoke?
Tom does not smoke.

PS. It is hot.的 It 不能被看做是变元，所以本句子的述谓结构的谓词：（BE HOT）

Classification
（according to the number of arguments contained in a predication）

two-place predication

containing two arguments

one-place predication

containing one argument

no-place predication

containing no argument