PART 1: SOME FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS IN CLASSICAL SEMANTICS

1 WHAT IS SEMANTICS?

Meaning controls memory and perception. Meaning is the goal of communication.

Meaning underlies social activities and culture. What distinguishes human cultures are
the meanings they give to natural phenomena, artefacts, and human relations.

Lyons (1977) Semantics is the study of meaning

Hurford and Heasley

Semantics is the study of meaning in language
(1938)

Semantics is the study of meaning communicated through

Saeed (1997)
language

Löbner (2002) Semantics is the part of linguistics that is concerned with meaning

Linguistic semantics is the study of literal, decontextualized,

Frawley (1992)
grammatical meaning

Linguistic semantics is the study of how languages organize and

Kreidler (1998)
express meaning

There is no complete agreement on the definition of semantics. It concerns the study of

meaning as communicated through language, also semantics studies all aspects of
meaning and they must add the label “linguistic” to arrive at a more precise definition.
Probably, most authors agree with Kleider’s definition.

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In general terms, speaking consists of communicating information: the speaker has
something in his/her mind (an idea, a feeling, an intention, etc.) and decides to
communicate it linguistically. Vocal noises are then emitted that are heard by the hearer,
who seems to “translate” these noises back into ideas. That 'something' that was at first
in the speaker's mind and now is also in the hearer's mind (after getting the speaker’s
utterance in a language spoken or gestured and a process of successful joint attention) is
what we call meaning.

The problem is that it can be virtually anything: objects (concrete, abstract or

imaginary), events and states (past, present, future or hypothetical) or all sorts of
properties of objects, feelings, emotions, intentions, locations, etc.

1.1. BRIEF HISTORY OF SEMANTICS

The history of semantics is not straightforward. It can be traced back to the first
language studies that studied linguistic communication. For Aristotle and
Panini (IV b.C.), semantics was a central issue for linguistics, to understand
the correspondence between linguistic code and meaning was their goal.

However, there have been several disagreements and approaches, and different
theories have given semantics a different importance:

• According to Saussure, semantics was an autonomous linguistics discipline.

• Semantics was banned form linguistics by American structuralism (e.g.

Bloomfield) because as long as it was not observable, it could not be
scientifically studied.

• Following the Chomskyan generativism, semantics was not a central part of

linguistic analysis; their main focus was syntax and universal grammar.

⬇ For most of the 20th cent. semantics was banned from linguistic studies
(especially in American circles). As a consequence, throughout the mid-70s,
some scholars revolt against this SoAs in the belief that this theoretical stance
was incorrect and artificial (ex: Fillmore, Lakoff, Langacker, Talmy).

- Langacker (1970) established the centrality of meaning, which is what

language was all about; the analyst who ignores it to concentrate solely on

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 matters of form severely impoverish the natural and necessary subject of the
discipline and ultimately distorts the character of the phenomena described.

- Wilensky (1989) stated the centrality of the issue, but also recognised the
difficulty of its incorporation to the theory framework.

⬇ Nowadays, there are several theories of meaning with 2 main approaches:

1) Formal semantics (i.e.: logic)

(A.K.A.: truth-conditional semantics, model-theoretical semantics, logical

semantics). It follows Frege’s principle of compositionality, which states that
the meaning of the whole is a function of the meaning of the parts; thus, syntax
has a major role.

▪ Ex: all men are mortal. Nicolas is a man; therefore, Nicolas is mortal.

2) Cognitive semantics

It disregards truth-values and strict compositionality. The meaning of sentences

comes from the meaning of the word and the grammatical categories, but also
from the construction and context.

▪ Ex. May we come in? (Fillmore, 1971)

2 SOME PROBLEMS FOR SEMANTIC STUDIES

The object of study of semantics is much more slippery, more elusive: the goal is to
analyse the “meaning” that linguistic elements express. This is a much harder problem,
since meaning cannot be observed directly, no matter how sophisticated our brain
imaging system become. The problem of the nature of meaning is a question that has
been with us since the beginning of time, and it is not clear whether we have arrived at a
completely satisfactory conclusion.

If language evolved as a means of communication and this is its real and original
function and raison d’être, then we find meaning at the beginning and at the end of the
communication process, and it must be considered, therefore, to be a central part of the
nature of language itself. On the other hand, some scholars have proposed that the
primary function of language is not communication but mental representation. This

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would confer on humans the advantages of performing certain manipulations of those
representation, allowing us to conceive hypothetical scenarios and quite complex
reasoning patterns, which would be impossible without language. If this view of
language is the correct one, we again find meaning in a central place: if the function of
language is to represent reality in our minds, that representation is what we would call
meaning. Example. Coffee

3 HOW CAN MEANING BE COMMUNICATED?

Semantics focus on the study of meaning in a language, however, language is not the
only way to communicate meaning. Signs can also communicate meaning. The branch
of linguistics that study signs is semiotics. Semioticians normally used the distinction
by C. S. Pierce:

- Icon: a relation of similarity between the sign and what it represents. Ex.
Portrait or onomatopoeia.

- Index: contiguity in space or time. For example, cause-effect relationship. Ex.

Yawing and boredom (the physiological effect of the emotion causes the
emotion), or, when you see someone facial expression and interpret they are
tired or sad.

- Symbol: an arbitrary, conventional relationship between sign and meaning.

Basically, an agreement by a cultural community. Ex. Red flag and danger.

Linguistic meaning will be (mainly) circumscribed to the third type, since the
connection between sounds and meaning is arbitrary and subject to cultural conventions.
This does not mean that all aspects of language are symbolic. Finally, it is not easy to
distinguish the three types of signs. Often, we find cases in which a sign is at the same
time, icon, index and symbol.

4 HOW IS MEANING COMMUNICATED THROUGH LANGUAGE?

“Everything in language conspires to convey meaning” – Wierzbicka.

There is a focus on how meaning is communicated linguistically because

communication is pre - linguistic, it is a part of cognition. Language is arbitrary and
symbolic. No unit in language is meaningless, everything conspires to convey meaning,
everything is meaningful, even silence.

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 4.1. PHONOLOGY

Phonemes have no meaning by themselves. However, we have to take into

account a theory by Plato called sound symbolism or phonosemantics. Sound
symbolism states that there is a certain association between the sound of an
utterance and its meaning. Some examples of this are:

 Front vowels VS back vowels

There seems to be an association of the sound /i/ with small, thin, light things;
while there is an association of the sound /o/ with big things. To utter the
phoneme /i/, we have to raise the tongue and leave a really small space in our
mouth, the contrast with the /o/ phoneme is evident.
Ex. Teeny vs. humongous
 Plosives VS Labials
A vast majority of people tend to associate plosive sounds /p,t,k/ with spiky
figures; while nasals /m, n/ to round, soft figures. The reason for this lies in the
shape of the mouth when pronouncing those words, which imitates the shape of
the thing being described. For example, the takete and maluma experiment. This
is also known as the bouba-kiki effect.
 Onomatopoeia

When the sound of the word reminds us of the action or object they describe.
For example, Plunge, whisper, crack, frizzle

 Phonesthemes
An association of certain sound combinations with a given meaning. For
example, the consonant cluster st- is associated with verbs indicating movement
such as stomp, step, stroll.

We can also see examples of (possible) meanings of prosody (suprasegmental

phonology), which are rhythm, stress and intonation. This last one is the most
versatile of the three. Why? By varying the pitch of the words we utter, we can
express quite different variations in meaning. Some of the ‘meanings’ that can
be expressed with intonation are related to our emotional attitude when we say
something.

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 Intonation is also connected with grammatical form and communicative
intention. It is also used to convey the distinction between new information and
old or shared information, and help us segment sentences into phrases and
understand the relationships between discourse chunks.

You are going to marry him! ≠ You are going to marry him

* However, it seems that it’s not very clear that we can predict a certain meaning from a
given sound. In all these cases, all we can find is a certain association of sounds with some
shades of meaning, but never well - defined, specific meaning.

4.2. MORPHOLOGY

Morphology studies word structure. Words are the carriers of meaning per
excellence: we use words to convey meaning. However, the different parts of
words indicate different types of meaning. Morphemes can be free (standing
alone, without any other morpheme), bond (have to be attached to a word stem),
inflectional (do not change the grammatical category of the stem and do not
change the meaning of the word, but introduces some modifications) or
derivational (change the grammatical category of the stem or alter its meaning
in a significant way).

➔ Inflectional meaning in English:

Nouns

- Plurality: to indicate that there is more than one element.

Morpheme -s Aphonic plurals Invariant forms

cat-s man – men sheep – sheep

- Possession: who the possessor of one element is.

Morpheme -s John’s cat

- Gender: in some nouns there is a distinction between male and female.

Special morpheme Different words No indication

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 Lion-ess King – Queen Doctor

- Size: the diminutive.

Book-let Pig-let

Verbs

- Aspect (e.g. -ing for progress)

- Tense (e.g. -ed for past)

- Person (e.g. -s for 3rd person singular)

- Number (e.g. singular/plural)

➔ Derivational morphemes. They do change the grammatical category of the

stem, and even if they don’t change the category of the word, they alter its
meaning in a significant way. Some derivational morphemes and their
meaning:

-er: the one that does X. -ness: state or condition of X.

-less: without X. -ly: to act in a X way.

-al: relative to X. -able: able to be X-ed.

-ation: the result of X-ing. -ful: full of X.

-ian: pertaining to X. -ology: the science of X.

4.3. LEXICOLOGY

In the linguistic level of meaning,

several researchers, like Talmi (the
father of cognitive linguistics) stated
that there are differences in the lexical
level and made a classification:

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 4.4. SYNTAX

Meaning can be expressed by ordering words in a specific way but also the
meaning of different words can be combines by joining them syntactically, like
putting together different grammatical classes language is compositional, but
sometimes is very difficult to predict the meaning of some compounds, in these
cases the context can help.

Ex. The dog bit the man

An entity is some specific, identifiable thing to which a predicate can be

applied. A predicate is a word that evoke a relation between two entities. A
predicate is a kind of incomplete proposition, which becomes a proposition
when it is applied to some entity (or to several entities).

Ex. The rose is red

The connection between syntax and semantics is quite solid. Children use
syntactic information to infer the meaning of unknown words because syntactic
categories are normally linked to more or less broad types of meaning. The name
of this phenomenon is syntactic bootstrapping, and it was created by the
psychologist Roger Brown and his Sib experiment.

Later studies have confirmed Roger’s results and expand their scope this is the
case of Hirsh-Pasek et al. and their experiment: Dacking is the unknown word

The linguistic Adele Goldberg has studies how grammatical constructions per
se, without any lexical context, can convey a meaning of their own. In their
theory, called Construction Grammar, grammatical constructions are complex
linguistic signs: they link a certain form, for example, a grammatical
configuration, with a certain content, its associated meaning, which is conveyed
by the construction itself.

For example, the combination [Subject + Verb + Object1 + Object2] is

associated with the meaning “to transfer sth to smn”. When we insert a verb into
that construction, the meaning of the verb is adapted to the meaning conveyed
by the grammatical construction.

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 Some examples of constructions and their associated meanings:

- Transitive: [Subject + Verb + Object] – X acts on Y – John broke the

window.

- Ditransitive: [Subject + Verb + Object1 + Object2] – X causes Y to receive

Z – She sent him a letter.

- Resultative: [Subject + Verb + Object + Complement] – X causes Y to

become Z – He painted the door blue.

- Caused motion: [Subject + Verb + Object + Oblique] – X causes Y to move

Z – He kicked the ball into the room.

OTHER CONSTRUCTIONS

- What’s X doing in Y? - I don’t like X, let alone Y

- If X, then Y (conditional)

📒✏ EXERCISES

Exercise 1.1. Try to indicate all meaningful parts of the following texts:

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the
end of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit
down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

 In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit . → The sentence order is

meaningful. The speaker decides to share the location first.
 In → Predicative, content. The meaning is the containment relationship between
two entities: the inside and outside of the container. The container is the hole,
and the content is the hobbit.
 a → Determiner. It means that this hole is a specific hole, that at this point in the
text is unknown to the reader.
 hole → Container, type of entity. It has lexical meaning.

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  in → Predicative, location. The meaning is also a container relationship: the
ground is the container and the content is the hole.
 the → Determiner. The speaker uses ‘the’ to express that the entity is something
generic, not a specific thing.
 ground → Lexical meaning.
 there → It is not location, but a marker of existence.
 lived → Predicative. Marker of past tense ‘-ed’. Marks the relation between the
hobbit and the hole.
 a → Determiner. It means that this hobbit is a specific one, but unknown to the
reader.
 hobbit → Entity. Lexical meaning.
 . → It expresses the completion of the sentence.
 Not → Negative marker, so everything that comes after is not real.
 wet hole → it is not referential, type of entity.
 , → linking device that connects the adjectives.
 filled → predicative, quantity. The meaning is the containment relationship
between two entities. The container is the hole and the contain is worms and
oozy smell. In this case the container is more important than the content, since it
is the subject. Also, ‘-ed’ marks the past tense.
 with → Company. Physical collocation or property of things.
 the end of worms → modifier.
 an oozy smell → oozy is a negative adjective and the smell is the content that is
introduced. Symbolism.
 nor → It means addition. It is a construction: ‘is neither X, not Y’. Here it is not
temporal, but an emphasizer.
 nothing → Absence of something.
 in → Location.
 it → Something that has been previously mentioned, if we want to now the
meaning of it we have to take into account the context.
 to → Purpose.
 sit → Predicate.
 down → trajectory.

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  on → Predicate. Directionality.
 or → Construction. Alternatives.
 : → It means explanation, the elaboration of an idea.
 was → Its function is describing.
 hobbit-hole → Hole is the predicate and the container at the same time.
 and → Emphasizer.
 that → It refers to the hobbit-hole.
 means → It means equal. ‘-s’ marks the 3rd person singular.

Exercise 1.2. Identify the following pictures. Are they icons, indexes or symbols?

✡ ☪ ✝ ☯

Symbol, index Symbol, index Symbol, index Symbol, index

:-) :-( :( :)
Icon, index Icon, index Icon, index Icon, index

😊 🌦 🌩
;-)

Icon, index Icon, index Icon, index Icon, index

🚭 🍽 🚺
♀♂

Icon, index, symbol Icon, index Symbol, index (WC) Icon, index

🚹 ♿ ⬛ ⚫

Icon, index Icon, index Index, symbolic Index, symbolic

⏪ ⏩
▶

Index, symbolic Index, symbolic Index, symbolic Index, symbolic

Exercise 1.3. All the information that we listed in our ‘coffee’ example is clearly
culturally based. Quite probably, even within the same culture, nobody has exactly
the same information about coffee as anyone else. You could say that there are no
two exact meanings of the concept ‘coffee’ out there. How is it possible then that
we can communicate? Do we really understand each other when we talk?

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We can communicate thanks to the context, to the pragmatics. Maybe we have different
ideas about one simple term, however, with the context we will be able to understand
between us.

Exercise 1.4. The linguistic expression ‘I saw a fish this big’ on its own is probably
not enough to convey a complete meaning. What would be necessary as a
complement? Is the expression then symbolic, iconic, indexical? Can you think of
more examples like this?

From my point of view, it would be needed a type of signal with the hands, for example,
indicating how big it would be. It would be iconic.

There is a substantial amount of literature examining iconicity features in

language. We have examined the case of sound symbolism, but iconic effects may
be als found in other levels, such as the morphosyntactic. For example, think about
the sentence Veni, vidi, vici (I came, I saw, I conquered). Can its syntactic order be
considered iconic with respect to the temporal sequence of events it describes? Is
this similar to the example in Carston (1988): ‘it’s better to meet the love of your life
and get married than to get married and meet the love of your life’?

I think that, in that case, the sentence “Veni, vidi, vici” would be indexical as there is a
relation of contiguity of time. Yes, it is the same case as in Carston.

What about the complex syntactic structures such as conditionals or temporal

adverb clauses, which join two different clauses in a given order? (e.g. If you ask
me, I will sing for you or You have to wash your hands before eating).

That type of sentences, I think that would be also indexical as they have a cause-effect
relationship.

What about the lexical reduplication effect in he talks and talks and talks, in far, far
away? Or the lengthening of a phoneme as in a very looooong movie or a veeery nice
one? Can you think of other examples of iconicity like this

The iconic principle of quantity accounts for our tendency to associate more form with
more meaning and, conversely, less form with less meaning. This is what happens when
we lengthen a phoneme. Sometimes we also express the notion of plurality repeating the
same word several times.

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Exercise 1.6. Complete the following:
 ‘White hair’ is an index of aging.
 ‘Thunder’ is an index of storm.
 ‘Applause’ is an index of pleasure, happiness.
 ‘A baby cry’ is an index of distress.
 ‘Laughter’ is an index of happiness.

Exercise 1.7. What is the meaning of the following gestures?

 A nod of the head → agreeing (symbolic)
 A repeated lateral head shake → denying (symbolic)
 A shrug of your shoulders → I don’t know (symbolic)
 Crossing your fingers → good luck (symbolic)
 The cut-throat sign → threatening (indexical)
 The ‘shush’ sign → silence (symbolic)
* All of then can be indexical as long as the affect me.

Exercise 1.9. Context can also alter the meaning of non-linguistic symbols. What is
the meaning of a red light in a machine, in a radio studio, in a road or on a car
dashboard? What about the expression red-light district?
 Machine → it’s off.
 A radio station → it’s on.
 A road → stop
 Car dashboard → something is broken.
 Red-light district → Passion is associated with red.

Exercise 1.10. Try to identify the meaning of the following morphemes:

 -ish → kind of
 -ment → the act of doing something
 -ic → the quality of
 -ize → cause X to become
 - ing → progression
 -ate → cause X to be / become

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  -ity → property of being smth
 -ous → the quality of being smth

Exercise 1.11. Think of cases in which different intonations of a sentence alter its
meaning. For example, how many ways of altering the meaning of a sentence you
are going to marry him using intonation can you think of?
You are going to marry him.
You are going to marry him.
You are going to marry him.
You are going to marry him.
You are going to marry him.

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 PART 2: THE COGNITIVE BASIS OF LANGUAGE

1 SIGN SYSTEMS

A sign may be defined as a form which stands for something else, which we
understand as its meaning. For example, raising one’s eyebrows to express surprise.
There are three types of signs:

 An indexical sign or index points to something in its immediate vicinity, as is

suggested by the etymology of the Latin word index “pointing finger”. In other
words, they are signs where the signifier is caused by the signified. Its
association with its meaning is not arbitrary but is physically or causally
connected.
Ex. Signpost pointing in the direction to the next town, such as Bath.
➔ The meaning is “go in this direction to get to Bath”
Furthermore, an index produces a cause-effect relationship; conceptual
contiguity in space or time between the sign and its meaning. [i.e.: a sign that
has an impact on our behaviour.]
Ex. I see clouds on the sky; therefore, I decide to take a raincoat rather than a
simple jacket.

 An iconic sign or icon (from Greek eikon “replica”) provides a visual, auditory
or any other perceptual image of the thing it stands for. An iconic sign is like the
thing it represents.
Ex. The road sign that warns drivers to look out for children near a school
pictures 2 or 3 children crossing the road on a zebra crossing.

 A symbolic sign or symbol does not have a natural link between the form and
the thing represented, but only has a conventional link. The term symbolic as
used in linguistics is understood in the sense that, by general consent, people
have “agreed” upon the pairing of a particular form with a particular meaning.
This sense of symbolic goes back to the original meaning of the Greek word
symbolon “a token of recognition”.
Ex. The traffic sign of an inverted triangle; it does not have a natural link
between its form and its meaning “give right of way”.

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The scholarly discipline that studies systems of signs in all their manifestations is
semiotics (from Greek semeion “sign”). Human language is the most elaborate system
of signs to be studies, but semiotics also looks at other forms of human and non-human
communicative behavior.

There is a hierarchy of abstraction amongst the three types of signs. Indexical signs are
the most “primitive” (e.g., gestures) and the most limited signs in that they are restricted
to the “here” and “now”. Yet, indexical signs are very widespread in human
communication. Iconic signs are more complex in that their understanding requires the
recognition of similarity. The iconic link of similarity needs to be consciously
established by the observer.

Symbolic signs are the exclusive prerogative of humans. People have more
communicative needs that pointing to things and replicating things; we also want to talk
about things which are more abstract in nature such as events in the past or future,
objects which are distant from us, hopes about peace, etc. This can only be achieved by
means of symbols, which humans all over the world have created for the purpose of
communicating all possible thoughts. The most elaborate system of symbolic signs is
natural language in all its forms, which is largely based on conventionalized links
between gestures and meanings.

N
o
Indexical signs reflect a more general principle, whereby things that are contiguous can
stand for each other (e.g. metonymy is always considered indexical). Iconic signs
reflect the more general principle of using an image for the real thing. Symbolic signs
allow the human mind to go beyond the limitations of contiguity and similarity and
establish links between any form and any meaning.

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 1.1. THE PRINCIPLE OF INDEXICALITY

The principle of indexicality means that we can “point” to things in our scope
of attention. We consider ourselves to be at the centre of the universe, and
everything around us is seen from our point of view. This egocentric view of the
world also shoes in our use of language. When we speak, our position in space
and time serves as the reference point for the location of other entities in space
and time. The place where we are is referred to as “here”, and the time when we
speak is “now”.

Deictic expressions (from Greek “show”) relate to the speaking ego, who
imposes his perspective on the world. Deictic expressions depend for their
interpretation on the situation in which they are used.

The ego also serves as the “deictic centre” for locating things in space. Far
bigger things than oneself may be located with respect to the speaking ego. The
ego furthermore serves as the deictic centre for locating things with respect to
other things. When the speaker moves, his/her deictic orientation changes too.
The inherent orientation that we give to things is an extension of our human
body.

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 ➔ Explanation

We transpose our egocentric orientation onto the human being as such. Our
psychological proximity to fellow humans leads to an anthropocentric
perspective, which follows from the fact that we are foremost interested in
humans like ourselves (their actions, thoughts, experiences, possessions,
movements, etc.). We, as human beings, always occupy a privileged position in
the description of events. If a human being is involved in an event, he or she
tends to be named first, as the subject of the sentence.

Ex.
▪ She knows the poem by heart

▪ He would like some more milk in his coffee

▪ I lost my contact lenses

It is only with special focus on an object that a non-human entity is preferred

over a human entity and becomes the subject of the sentence. The human being
is given special prominence in other areas of grammar too (different between
human and non-human pronouns).

Ex. By tomorrow, this poem must be known by heart by everybody.

➔ We put our focus of attention of the date “tomorrow” and what “the poem”.

The following sentences illustrate a less clear instance of anthropocentrity:

▪ 1) His house got broken into

▪ 2) ?The house got broken into

▪ 3) ??The house got burnt down

➔ The get-passive is fully acceptable in 1), but less acceptable in 2) and hardly
acceptable in 3). What determines our judgement of acceptability of the get-
passive is the degree of human involvement in the event.

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 1.2. THE PRINCIPLE OF ICONICITY

The principle of iconicity in language means that we conceive a similarity

between a form of language and the thing it stands for. Iconicity may manifest
itself in three sub- principles, i.e. those of linguistic expressions related to
sequential order, distance and quantity.

The PRINCIPLE OF SEQUENTIAL ORDER is a phenomenon of both temporal

events and the linear arrangement of elements in a linguistic construction. In its
simplest manifestation, the principle of iconicity determines the order of two or
more clauses.

Ex. Virginia got married and had a baby

Apart from using “and ”, we can also use the temporal conjunctions “before ”
or “after ”, which may describe the event in an iconic way, where the linear
order is related to the order of events (i.e. the events are mentioned as they
happened in time), or in a non-iconic way, where the linear order is unrelated to
the order of events.

Ex. Virginia

* Formula to help see clear the process

Sequential-order iconicity is also found within the structure of a sentence. N

o
Thus, sentences with the same words but arranged in a different manner convey
different meanings.

Ex. Bill painted the door.

The iconic principle also determines the sequential order of the elements in
“binary” expressions which reflect temporal succession. All the following

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 binary expressions are irreversible. Any reversal of them would only occur for
special communicative effects. (now and then, sooner or later, etc.)

Further evidence of this iconic principle is also found in the word order of
subject, verb, and object in a sentence. In almost all languages of the world,
the subject precedes the object and it is motivated by the way humans perceive
the internal structure of events.

The PRINCIPLE OF DISTANCE accounts for the fact that things which belong
together conceptually tend to be put together linguistically, and things that do
not belong together are put at distance.

Ex. A noisy group was hanging around the bar.

A group of noisy youngsters were hanging around the bar.

It also accounts for the various types of subordinate clauses following the verb
of the main clause or the choice between the indirect object construction and the
to-phrase in English (dative alternation).

The iconic PRINCIPLE OF QUANTITY accounts for our tendency to associate

more form with more meaning and, conversely, less form with less meaning. For
example, by stretching the o-sound of long as in “That ’s a loooooooong story ”
we iconically express the idea of an extremely long story.

Children sometimes express the notion of plurality repeating the same word
several times (reduplication).

Ex. In Tok Pisin, a pidgin language, cow-cow = cows

Look, daddy, a tree and another tree and another tree.

This principle also shows up in politeness strategies. Thus, the larger the
quantity of language forms, the greater respect for the hearer.

Ex. Smoking

The use of wordy phrases also illustrates the way in which people try to attach
more importance to a subject matter (i.e. be petulant).

Finally, the quantity principle also implies that less meaning requires less form.
This is precisely what happens with information that is felt to be redundant.

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 Ex. Charles

1.3. THE PRINCIPLE OF SYMBOLICITY

The principle of symbolicity refers to the conventional pairing of form and

meaning, as is typically found in the word stock of a language. This link
between the form and the meaning of symbolic units is arbitrary. Often signs
which originally made sense have become arbitrary in the course of time.

Ex. Telephones no longer have dials for selecting telephone numbers but key-
pads in which we “punch” a number. However, we still speak of dialling a phone
number.

New words are now motivated because they are built on existing linguistic
material and, as such, are meaningful to us. Motivation refers to non-arbitrary
links between form and meaning. The factor of motivation is at work both in the
hearer and the speaker. The hearer wants to make sense of linguistic expressions,
particularly the new ones. In some cases, he will even overuse his search for
meaning and create folk etymologies (“hammock” in English from the Spanish
word “hamaca”).

Ex. Software

📒✏ EXERCISES

1. What types of signs (iconic, indexical, symbolic) are involved in the following
case?

a. Inverted triangle as a road sign → symbolic and indexical.

b. Sign depicting falling rocks → iconic, symbolic (if there’s a triangle) and indexical.

c. Morse signs → symbolic and indexical.

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d. Frozen windowpanes of a car → indexical.

e. Speedometer in car → symbolic and indexical.

f. Burglar alarm going off → indexical.

g. Baby crying → indexical.

h. Dog wagging its tail → indexical.

i. Animal drawings in cave dwellings → iconic.

j. A wedding ring → symbolic and indexical.

k. A clenched fist in the air → symbolic and indexical.

l. A ring in the nose (human) → symbolic and indexical.

2. In what way are the following expressions iconic? (Sequential order, distance,
quantity)

a. The Krio word for ‘earthquake’ is shaky-shaky. → Quantity [It is iconic because it
represents movement of back and forth.]

b. Department store ad: We rails and rails and rails of famous fashion. → Quantity

c. Police warning: Don’t drink and drive! → Sequential order [Formula: Don’t X and Y.
It is an imperative construction. X is determined by the context of the second one, in
this case if you do Y don’t do X before that]

d. Japanese ie ‘house’, ieie ‘houses’ → Quantity

e. See Naples and die. → Sequential order. [Formula: See X and Y. The relation is
precondition.]

f. I swear by Almighty God that what I am about to say is the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth. → Quantity & distance [Distance because we have an authority
relation].

3. In what way do the indexical principles, egocentricity and anthropocentricity,

play role in the ordering of the following irreversible pairs of words?

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a. Come and go, this and that, here and there. → Egocentricity. We are situating
ourselves as the starting point of the action, so the word that goes first is the one that is
closer to us.

b. Women and wine, king and country, people and places. → These are formulated from
an anthropocentric perspective because we put first the human being and then the non-
human entities.

c. Man and beast, man and dog. → This example is the same as b. The human being is
mentioned first, while the non-human entity is mentioned after.

d. Friend or foe, win or lose, live or die. → Egocentricity. In these examples we are
situating ourselves again as the most important object, therefore the entity which is best
for the person’s well-being.

4. Sentence (a) is more likely to occur than (b), which does not make much first
sight. Which indexical principle is not respected in (b)? If (b) were to occur, what
would it mean?

a. The results of the study depart from our expectation.

b. ?? Our expectation departs from the results of the study.

The first sentence is not iconic, because it doesn’t follow the temporal order. B is iconic.
The problem here is depart and it doesn’t make sense in the second sentence. ‘Depart’
doesn’t imply motion but proximal in the sense of similarity.

PART 3: SEMANTICS IN LINGUISTICS0

1 UTTERANCES

An utterance is any stretch of talk, such as a sequence of sentences, or a single

phrase, or even a single word, by one person, before and after which there is silence on
the part of that person. Furthermore, utterances are physical events. Events are
ephemeral. Utterances die on the Wind.

Not all utterances are actually tokens of sentences, but sometimes only of parts of
sentences. Utterances of non-sentences (e.g.: short phrases, or single words) are used by

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people in communication all the time. But the abstract idea of a sentence is the basis for
understanding even those expressions which are not sentences. In the overwhelming
majority of cases, the meanings of non-sentences can best be analysed by considering
them to be abbreviations, or incomplete versions, of whole sentences.

Ex. +'When did Goethe die?’

- ‘in 1832’  not a token of a sentence since it cannot be considered as a

sentence (contains no verb).

- ‘Goethe died in 1832’  token of a sentence

It would make sense to say that an utterance was in a particular accent (i.e., a particular
way of pronouncing words.) Accent and voice quality belong strictly to the utterance,
not to the sentence uttered. It also makes sense to talk about the time and place of an
utterance. One can talk of a slow utterance.

2 SENTENCES

A sentence is neither a physical event nor a physical object. It is, conceived abstractly,
a string of words put together by the grammatical rules of a language expressing a
complete thought. A sentence can be thought of as the ideal string of words behind
various realizations in utterances and inscriptions. Although this definition is vague, it is
intended to exclude any string of words that does not have a verb in it, as well as other
strings.

✔ ❎

I would like a cup of coffee Coffee, please

Please put it in the kitchen In the kitchen

We have defined a sentence as a string of words. A given sentence always consists of

the same words, and in the same order. Any change in the words, or in their order,
makes a different sentence, for our purposes. For example, Hellen rolled up the carpet /
Hellen rolled the carpet up.

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In opposition to what we have previously stated with utterances, it would not make
strict sense to say that a sentence was in a particular accent, because a sentence itself is
only associated with phonetic characteristics such as accent and voice quality through a
speaker’s act of uttering it.

It also makes no sense to talk about the time and place of a sentence. One cannot talk of
a loud sentence. Semantics is concerned with the meanings of non-sentences, such as
phrases and incomplete sentences, just as much as with whole sentences. The meanings
of whole sentences involve propositions.

3 PROPOSITIONS

A proposition is that part of the meaning of the utterance of a declarative sentence

which describes some state of affairs (i.e.: a statement or assertion that expresses a
judgement or opinion). The state of affairs typically involves persons or things referred
to by expressions in the sentence and the situation or action they are involved in . In
uttering a declarative sentence , a speaker typically asserts / declares a proposition. The
notion of truth can be used to decide whether two sentences express different
propositions (i.e.: different descriptions of states of affairs/situation). Thus , if there is
any conceivable set of circumstances in which one sentence is true, while the other is
false, we can be sure that they express different propositions .

 George danced with Ethel

 George didn’t dance with Ethel

➔ One is true and the other is false; therefore, they express different propositions.

True propositions correspond to facts, in the ordinary sense of the word fact. False
propositions do not correspond to facts .

In our definition of ‘proposition’, we explicitly mentioned declarative sentences, but

propositions are clearly involved in the meanings of other types of sentences, such as
interrogatives (used to ask questions ) and imperatives (used to convey orders ).
Normally, when a speaker utters a simple declarative sentence, he commits himself to
the truth of the corresponding proposition: i.e. he asserts /declares the proposition. (We
normally use declarative sentences to say that something is true) By uttering a simple

25
interrogative or imperative, a speaker can mention a particular proposition, without
asserting its truth .

▪ In saying, ‘John can go’ a speaker asserts the proposition that John can go.

▪ In saying, ‘Can John go?’, he mentions the same proposition but merely
questions its truth.

➔ We say that corresponding declaratives and interrogatives (and imperatives) have the
same propositional content .

Propositions, unlike sentences, cannot be said to belong to any particular language.

Sentences in different languages can correspond to the same proposition, if the two
sentences are perfect translations of each other .

▪ English I am cold, French J’ai froid, German Mir ist kalt, and Russian Mne
xolodno

➔ They can, to the extent to which they are perfect translations of each other, be said to
correspond to the same proposition .

One may question whether perfect translation between languages is ever possible.
However, to simplify matters here we shall assume that in some, possibly very few,
cases, perfect translation IS possible . It is useful to envisage the kind of family tree
relationship between these notions shown in the diagram :

For example, a single proposition could be expressed by using several different

sentences:

▪ Prince William will inherit the throne, or The throne will be inherited by Prince
William

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 and each of these sentences could be uttered an infinite number of times.

A proposition is an abstraction that can be grasped by the mind of an individual person.

In this sense, a proposition is an object of thought. Do not equate propositions with
thoughts, because thoughts are usually held to be private, personal, mental processes,
whereas propositions are public in the sense that the same proposition is accessible to
different persons: different individuals can grasp the same proposition.

Quotation marks
Utterances Can be in a particular accent
Token of sentences and part of sentences (phrases or words)

Italicized
Sentences Cannot be in a particular accent
Grammatically complete string of words expressing a complete thought.

Utterances Sentences Propositions

❌ ❌
Can be loud or quiet ✔

❌
Can be grammatical or not ✔ ✔

Can be true or false ✔ ✔ ✔

❌ ❌
In a particular regional accent ✔

❌
In a particular language ✔ ✔

4 PREDICATES

The semantic structure of a simple declarative sentence is composed by one or more

referring expressions, used to refer to somebody or something with a particular referent
in mind. There are also a varied set of words that do not form the referring expressions,
it is always possible to find one with more meaning, this is the predicator.

Predicators are words that do not belong to the referring expression and makes the
most specific contribution to the meaning. They describe the state or process in which

27
the referring expression is involved. They all carry meaning, but each one has a
different type of meaning contribution.

Adjectives, verbs, prepositions and nouns have the property of being able to function
as predicators of sentences. They have two major roles, the predicator indicates the
relationship and the argument refers to the entity or referring expression.

 A predicate cannot be ambiguous there is only one possible sense

 Predicate: elements in the language system independent of a particular example.
Any word that given a proper context can function as a predicator.
 Predicator: semantic role of a particular word in a particular sentence.

4.1. DEGREE OF A PREDICATE

The degree of a predicate is the number of arguments that a predicate can have
in a simple sentence.

• Intransitive: take no arguments

• Transitive: take one argument

• Ditransitive: take more than 2 arguments

Predicates refer to nouns or adjectives. The majority of adjectives are one-place

predicates, but they can also require prepositions or might take two arguments.
Most of nouns are one-place predicates but some can have more. Two
predicates can have nearly the same sense, but they can only be used in different
parts of speech.

The equitative sentences are thus in which there is an identity relation. The
identity of the referents of two different referring expressions is expressed by the
verb to be. Equitative sentences play a basic role in communicating
information, they are a grammatical device used to link a predicate that is not a
verb to its first argument, and its only function is to carry the tense.

5 SEMANTICS AND PRAGMATICS

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They are related and complementary fields, their distinction is difficult and
controversial. According to Charles Moris:

Syntax ➔ relation of signs to each other

Semantics ➔ relation of signs to the object

Pragmatic relation of signs to interpreters. This is specified by Rudolph Carnap in only

➔
s linguistic signs

Crudely we could say that pragmatics is the meaning described in relation to speakers
and hearers, and semantics is the meaning abstracted to users.

Example. The place is closing.

There is also a distinction between the sentence meaning and the speaker meaning,
semantics do not include all knowledge and pragmatics are purely linguistic
interactions. The distinction between semantics and pragmatics is useful but there are
sceptical linguists about it.

Example. Is he awake?

A semantics/pragmatics division enables semanticists to concentrate on just the

linguistic element in utterance comprehension. Pragmatics would then be the field that
studies how hearers fill out the semantic structure with contextual information (e.g.,
work out who the speaker is referring to by pronouns, etc.) and make inferences that go
beyond the meaning of what was said to them (e.g. that I'm tired might mean Let's go
home).

📒✏ EXERCISES

1. Decide whether the following could represent utterances.

a. ‘Hello’ → Yes

b. ‘Not much’ → Yes

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c. ‘Utterances may consist of a single word, a single phrase or a single sentence. They
may also consist of a sequence of sentences. It is not unusual to find utterances that
consist of one or more grammatically incomplete sentence-fragments. In short, there is
no simple relation of correspondence between utterances and sentences’ → Yes, even
though it would be a bit of a mouthful to say in one utterance (i.e. without pauses).

d. ‘Pxgotmgt’ → No, this string of sounds is not from any language.

e. ‘Schplotzenpflaaaaaaargh!’ → No, for the same reason given for ‘d’.

2. Answer the question with yes or no.

a. Do all (authentic) performances of Macbeth begin by using the same sentence? →

Yes

b. Do all (authentic) performances of Macbeth begin with the same utterance. → No

c. Does it make sense to talk of the time and place of a sentence? → No

d. Does it make sense to talk of the time and place of an utterance? → Yes

e. Can one talk of a loud sentence? → No

f. Can one talk of a slow utterance? → Yes

3. For each of the following label it as an utterance or sentence.

a. ‘The train now arriving at platform one is the 11.15 from King’s Cross’ → Utterance.

b. The pelican ignores the linguist → Sentence.

4. Give out conventions, say what is wrong with the following:

a. John announced Mary’s here in his squeakiest voice → ‘Mary’s here’ should be in
quotation marks since it represents John’s utterance, i.e. the event of his using those
words on a particular occasion.

b. ‘Mary thought how nice John was’ → A sentence, which is not a physical thing,
cannot be part of an utterance, which is a physical event. ‘How nice John was’ should

30
not be italicized. (Alternatively the whole example should be italicized and the
quotation marks removed.)

5. Which of the following utterances are tokens of whole sentences (S) and which
are not (NS)?

a. John → NS

b. Who is there? → S

c. Mine → NS

d. It’s mine → S

e. Where shall I..? → NS

6. Consider the following pairs of sentences. In each case, say whether there are
any circumstances of which one member of the pair could be true and the other
false (assuming in each case that the same name, e.g. Harry, refers to the same
person).

a. Harry took out the garbage

Harry took the garbage out → No, these are always either both true or both

false. We cannot imagine any situation in which

one is true and the other false.

b. John gave Mary a book

Mary was given a book by John → No

c. Isobel loves Tony

Tony loves Isobel → Yes, one could be true and the other false.

d. George danced with Ethel

George didn’t dance with Ethel → Yes

e. Dr Findlay killed Janet

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 Dr Findlay caused Janet to die → Yes, for example in the situation where Dr

Findlay had caused Janet to die, but not

intentionally, say by sending her to a place

where, unknown to him, she was attacked.

Someone else could in fact be guilty of

killing her

7. Discuss the importance of contextual information in understanding an utterance

of the following sentences:

a. Take another shot. → There are two contexts, a bar and a situation where they
have to try again.
b. The Tigers beat the Bulldogs again. → Without the capital letters it would refer
to animals. However, because the capital letters we know we are talking about
sports.
c. Isabel is tall. → ‘is’ is not the predicate, but ‘tall’.
d. It's too hot in here. → We might know the meaning of here, but we need to
know where and who is the speaker to know that is 'here'.

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