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    Semantics

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    Midhun Ganeshan

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Semantics

    Uploaded by

    Midhun Ganeshan
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    22 views31 pages

    Semantics

    Uploaded by

    Midhun Ganeshan

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    of 31

    UNIT - 5

    Semantics
    Synonymy
    Antonymy
    Hyponymy
    Polysemy
    Ambiguity
    Pragmatics
    G. MIDHUN
    I M.A ENGLISH
    ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS
    Se-
    What is Semantics?
    Semantics is the study of meaning in language. It
    can be applied to a single word or the entire text.
    Semantics

    semantikos (Significant)
    In 1883 Michel Jules Alfred Breal coined the
    term ‘Semantics’ in the article ‘Les lois intel-
    lectual du langage. Fragment de se-
    Timeline of Semantics
    Semantics E

    Semantique Study of meaning


    F

    Semantikos
    G
    .

    significant
    Sema G
    sign
    Definitions
    Semantics is the study of meaning Lyons 1977

    Semantics is the study of meaning in language Huford &


    Heasley 1983
    Semantics is the study of meaning communicated Saeed 1997
    through language
    Semantics is the part of linguistics that is concerned Lobner 2002
    with meaning
    Linguistic semantics is the study of literal, Frawley 1992
    decontextualized, grammatical meaning
    Linguistic semantics is the study of how language Kreidler 1998
    organize and express meanings
    Ways to understand the meaning
     Refer to a dictionary - it will give the semantic
    meaning of the word.
     Refer to the context - it can often tell us what the
    speaker or the author intended to signify in the
    given context.
    ‘Colourless green ideas sleep furiously’
    - Noam Chomsky
    Semantic meaning is not often the best way to
    decipher the meaning of an utterance.
    Example: What is your__? Answer, Reply, Response
    The study of meaning 1981 by Geoffrey Leech

    Conceptual Meaning Reflected Meaning

    Connotative Meaning Collocative Meaning

    Social Meaning Thematic Meaning

    Affective Meaning
    Conceptual (Denotative) Meaning
    • It is widely assumed to be the central factor in linguistic
    communication.
    • It has a complex and sophisticated organization which
    may be compared with and cross related to a similar
    organization on the syntactic and phonological levels of
    language.
    • Basic and essential components of meaning that are
    conveyed by the literal use of a word.
    Example: Boy = Human + ale - adult.
    Woman = Human + Female + adult.
    Connotative (associative) Meaning
    • It is usually perceived that connotative
    meaning is open ended in nature in
    comparison to conceptual meaning as the
    referent of the meaning depends on various
    other factors such as age or society, and they
    can also depend on the individual, as claimed
    by Leech.
    Social meaning
    • It is the meaning that we gather out of an
    utterance when it is used in a social context.
    • Language varies with usages and therefore the
    meaning of what is being said also varies along
    with its use.
    Various ways to study the language variation

    i) Dialects - regional/in the sense of geographical.


    ii) Time - Shakespearean English is different from today’s English.
    iii) Province - Language of a specific domain, law, science, etc.
    iv) Status - colloquial, slang, formal.
    v) Modality - how it is spoken, in the form of lecture or a joke, etc.
    vi) Singularity - in terms of specific style such as Wordsworthian
    English or Eliot’s English or Indian writers English.
    Affective Meaning
    • It is related to the way a language can reflect
    personal feelings of the speaker that may
    include attitude to a listener or something
    he/ she is talking about.
    • It can be expressed directly and indirectly,
    once again depending on the context.
    Example:
    Example:

    ‘You are a vicious tyrant and a villainous


    reprobation and I hate you.’
    (or)
    ‘I hate you, you idiot.’
    Reflected Meaning

    • It is when one sense of a word influences our


    response to another sense.
    • It is to make sense of meaning with its asso-
    ciative power of meaning.
    Example: Futility is mentioned in poetry as
    “Are limbs so dear achieved, are sides,
    Full nerved still warm-too hard to stir”
    Daffodils
    “The could not but be gay
    In such jocund company”

    During Shakespearian age the word gay is


    commonly used but now it is changed to denote
    the male homosexual people.
    Collocative Meaning

    • It is the meaning which a word acquires in


    the company of certain words. Words
    collocated or co-occur with certain words.
    Example: pretty and handsome are similar.
    Pretty collocates with girls, women, village,
    garden, flowers.
    Handsome collocates with boys and men.

    Leech uses the example of words like ‘to wander’


    and ‘to stroll’ and explains that it is usual that
    ‘cows may wander, but may not stroll’.
    thematic Meaning

    It provides an answer to the question.


    What is communicated by the way the author formed
    and organized the message?’
    Leech states that thematic meaning is ‘matter of choice
    between alternative grammatical constructions’
    Example :
    ‘A man is here to see you.’
    ‘There is a man here to see you.’
    Important terms in semantics
    Agent: The entity that performs the action humans, non-human
    entities that cause action.
    Theme: The entity that is involved in or affected by the action.
    Example: Ram played cricket.
    Instrument: If an agent uses another entity in order to perform
    an action, the another entity is known as instrument.
    Experiencer: When a noun phrase is used to designate an
    entity as the person who has a feeling, perception or state, it
    takes up the role of experiencer.
    Example: Raju painted the car with an old brush.
    She feels sad
    Location: Denotes where the entity is.
    Source: Where the entity moves from is the source.
    Goal: Where it moves to.
    Raju is in hospital
    Raju comes from Chennai
    Raju goes to Omalur
    Sense and Reference

    The Meaning of Meaning 1923 by L.K Ogden and I.A. Richards


    Referent (Object) - The object in the real world
    Reference (Concept) - The concept which we have of referent in
    our mind.
    Word (Symbol) – the symbol we use to indicate them.
    Reference(Concept)

    World (Symbol) Referent (Object)


    Synonymy
    Antonymy
    Polysemy
    Hyponymy
    Ambiguity
    Pragmatics
    Hyponymy
    • ‘Meaning inclusion’
    • If the meaning of one word includes the meaning of another
    word, the meaning relation between such words is known as
    hyponymy.
    • Super ordinate meaning – word that has wider meaning.
    (animal, bird,
    • Mango is hyponymous to fruit.
    • Co-hyponyms – carrot, radish
    • Prototypes (typical words)
    Synonymy
    • Two or more words with very closely related meanings.
    Example: try, strive

    Absolute synonyms
    If two or more words are identical in all the three components
    (Connotative, associative and denotative) of lexical meaning their
    called absolute synonymy.
    Example: Wireless, Radio / washroom, restroom
    Synonymy
    Near synonyms
    Words which differ at least in one of the components of lexical
    meaning.
    Example: Stipend, salary

    Partial synonyms
    A polysemous word can have different synonyms according to its
    different sense and corresponding synonyms are not synonyms
    among themselves.
    Example: Great man and Great lake.
    Antonymy
    Two forms with opposite meanings are called antonyms
    Example: Rich – Poor
    Binary Opposites
    There are pairs of antonyms in the case of where, truth of one
    word in the pair implies the falsity of the other and similarly the
    falsity of one implies the truth of the other.
    Examples: Single and Married.
    Gradable opposites
    The truth of the word in the pair implies the falsity of the other, but
    falsity of one does not necessarily imply the truth of the other.
    Examples: Large and Small.
    Antonymy
    Converse opposites
    The existence of one word in the pair inevitably implies the
    existence of the other.
    Examples: Buy - Sell.
    Multiple Incompatible
    A large number of antonyms are taken form “system of multiple
    incompatible.”
    Examples: Present, Past, Future.
    Polysemy
    The same form having more than one meaning.
    Example:
    Eye- Part of the body
    hole of the needle centre
    part of the cyclone.

    Bank- river side


    place to save and invest money.
    Ambiguity
    The meaning is unclear or you’re not sure of the meaning or
    intention because it could mean more than one thing.

    Example: ‘I promise I will give you a ring tomorrow.’


    Pragmatics
    Pragmatics is the study of how context influences how we
    interpret and make meaning of communication. It is often
    described as the study of “language in use.”

    Example:
    Use of metaphor
    Use of irony
    Use of sarcasm
    Jokes and humour
    Use of silence.
    Thank you

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