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Curs Id Semantica
Curs Id Semantica
INTRODUCTION TO SEMANTICS
Why study semantics? Semantics (as the study of meaning) is central to the study of
communication and as communication becomes more and more a crucial factor in social
organization, the need to understand it becomes more and more pressing. Semantics is also at
the centre of the study of the human mind - thought processes, cognition, conceptualization -
all these are intricately bound up with the way in which we classify and convey our
experience of the world through language.
Because it is, in these two ways, a focal point in man's study of man, semantics has
been the meeting place of various cross-currents of thinking and various disciplines of study.
Philosophy, psychology, and linguistics all claim a deep interest in the subject. Semantics has
often seemed baffling because there are many different approaches to it, and the ways in
which they are related to one another are rarely clear, even to writers on the subject. (Leech
1990: IX).
Semantics is a branch of linguistics, which is the study of language; it is an area of
study interacting with those of syntax and phonology. A person's linguistic abilities are based
on knowledge that they have. One of the insights of modern linguistics is that speakers of a
language have different types of linguistic knowledge, including how to pronounce words,
how to construct sentences, and about the meaning of individual words and sentences. To
reflect this, linguistic description has different levels of analysis. So - phonology is the study
of what sounds combine to form words; syntax is the study of how words can be combined
into sentences; and semantics is the study of the meanings of words and sentences.
It has often been pointed out, and for obvious reasons, that semantics is the youngest
branch of linguistics (Ullmann 1962, Greimas 1962). Yet, interest in what we call today
"problems of semantics" was quite alive already in ancient times. In ancient Greece,
philosophers spent much time debating the problem of the way in which words acquired their
meaning. The question why is a thing called by a given name, was answered in two different
ways.
Some of them believed that the names of things were arrived at naturally, physei, that
they were somehow conditioned by the natural properties of things themselves. They took
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great pains to explain for instance that a letter like "rho" seems apt to express motion since the
tongue moves rapidly in its production. Hence its occurence in such words as rhoein ("to
flow"), while other sounds such as /s, f, ks/, which require greater breath effort in production,
are apt for such names as psychron ("shivering") or kseon ("shaking"), etc. The obvious
inadvertencies of such correlations did not discourage philosophers from believing that it is
the physical nature of the sounds of a name that can tell us something about its meaning.
Other philosophers held the opposite view, namely that names are given to things
arbitrarily through convention, thesei. The physei-thesei controversy or physis-nomos
controversy is amply discussed in Plato's dialogue Cratylus. In the dialogue, Cratylus appears
to be a part of the physei theory of name acquistion, while Hermogenes defends the opposite,
nomos or their point of view. The two positions are then debated by Socrates in his usual
manner. In an attempt to mediate between the two discussants he points out first of all that
there are two types of names. Some are compound names which are divisible into smaller
constituent element and accordingly, analyzable into the meaning of these constituent
elements: Poseidon derives his name from posi ("for the feet") and desmos ("fetter") since it
was believed that it was difficult for the sea god to walk in the water.
The words, in themselves, Socrates points out, give us no clue as to their "natural"
meaning, except for the nature of their sounds. Certain qualities are attributed to certain types
of sounds and then the meaning of words is analyzed in terms of the qualities of the sounds
they are made of. When faced with abundant examples which run counter the apriori
hypothesis: finding a "l" sound ("lambda") "characteristic of liquid movements" in the word
sklerotes ("hardness") for instance, he concludes, in true socratic fashion, that "we must admit
that both convention and usage contribute to the manifestation of what we have in mind when
we speak".
In two other dialogues, Theatetus and Sophists, Plato dealt with other problems such
as the relation between thought language, and the outside world. In fact, Plato opened the way
for the analysis of the sentence in terms which are parly linguistic and partly pertaining to
logic. He was dealing therefore with matters pertaining to syntactic semantics, the meaning of
utterrances, rather than the meaning of individual words.
Aristotle's works (Organon as well as Rhetoric and Poetics) represent the next major
contribution of antiquity to language study in general and semantics in particular. His general
approach to language was that of a logician, in the sense that he was interested in what there is
to know how men know it, and how they express it in langugage (Dinneen, 1967: 70) and it is
through this perspective that his contribution to linguistics should be assessed.
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In the field of semantics proper, he identified a level of language analysis - the lexical
one - the main purpose of which was to study the meaning of words either in isolation or in
syntactic constructions. He deepened the discussion of the polysemy, antonymy, synonymy
and homony and developed a full-fledged theory of metaphor.
The contribution of stoic philosophy to semantics is related to their discussion of the
nature of linguistic sign. In fact, as it was pointed out (Jakobson, 1965: 21, Stati 1971: 182,
etc.) centuries ahead of Ferdinand de Saussure, the theory of the Janus-like nature of the
linguistic sign - semeion - is an entity resulting from the relationship obtaining between the
signifier - semainon - (i.e. the sound or graphic aspect of the word), the signified -
semainomenon (i.e. the notion) and the object thus named - tynkhanon -, a very clear
distinction, therefore, between reference and meaning as postulated much later by Ogden and
Richards in the famous "triangle" that goes by their name.
Etymology was also much debated in antiquity; but the explanations given to changes
in the meaning and form of words were marred on the one hand by their belief that semantic
evolution was always unidirectional, from a supposedly "correct" initial meaning, to their
corruption, and, on the other hand, by their disregard of phonetic laws (Stati, 1971: 182).
During the Middle Ages, it is worth mentioning in the field of linguistics and
semantics the activity of the "Modistae" the group of philosophers so named because of their
writings On the Modes of Signification. These writings were highly speculative grammars in
wich semantic considerations held an important position. The "Modistae" adopted the "thesei"
point of view in the "physei-thesei" controversy and their efforts were directed towards
pointing out the "modi intelligendi", the ways in which we can know things, and the "modi
significandi", the various ways of signifying them (Dinneen, 1967: 143).
It may be concluded that throughout antiquity and the Middle Ages, and actually until
the 19th century almost everything that came to be known about meaning in languages was the
result of philosophic speculation and logical reasoning. Philosophy and logic were the two
important sciences which left their strong impact on the study of linguistic meaning.
It was only during the 19th century that semantics came into being as an independent
branch of linguistics as a science in its own right. The first words which confined themselves
to the study of semantic problems as we understand them today, date as far back as the
beginning of the last century.
In his lectures as Halle University, the German linguist Ch. C. Reisig was the first to
formulate the object of study of the new science of meaning which he called semasiology. He
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conceived the new linguistic branch of study as a historical science studying the principles
governing the evolution of meaning.
Towards the end of the century (1897), M. Bréal published an important book Essay
de sémantique which was soon translated into English and found an immediate echo in France
as well as in other countries of Europe. In many ways it marks the birthday of semantics as a
modern linguistic discipline. Bréal did not only provide the name for the new science, which
became general in use, but also circumscribed more clearly its subject-matter.
The theoretical sources of semantic linguistics outlined by Bréal are, again, classical
logic and rethorics, to which the insights of an upcoming science, namely, psychology are
added. In following the various changes in the meaning of words, interest is focused on
identifying certain general laws governing these changes. Some of these laws are arrived at by
the recourse to the categories of logic: extension of meaning, narrowing of meaning, transfer
of meaning, while others are due to a psychological approach, degradation of meaning and the
reverse process of elevation of meaning.
Alongside these theoretical endeavours to "modernize" semantics as the youngest
branch of linguistics, the study of meaning was considerably enhanced by the writing of
dictionaries, both monolingual and bilingual. Lexicographic practice found extensive
evidence for the categories and principles used in the study of meaning from antiquity to the
more modern approaches of this science: polysemy, synonymy, homonymy, antonymy, as well
as for the laws of semantic change mentioned above.
The study of language meaning has a long tradition in Romania. Stati mentioned
(1971: 184) Dimitrie Cantemir's contribution to the discussion of the difference between
categorematic and syncategorematic words so dear to the medieval scholastics.
Lexicography attained remarkably high standards due mainly to B. P. Hasdeu. His
Magnum Etymologicum Romaniae ranks with the other great lexicographic works of the time.
In 1887, ten years ahead of M. Bréal, Lazar Saineanu published a remarkable book
entitled Incercare asupra semasiologiei limbei romane. Studii istorice despre tranzitiunea
sensurilor. This constitutes one of the first works on semantics to have appeared anywhere.
Saineanu makes ample use of the contributions of psychology in his attempts at identifying
the semantic associations established among words and the "logical laws and affinities"
governing the evolution of words in particular and of language in general.
Although it doesn't contain an explicit theory of semantics, the posthumous
publication of Ferdinand de Saussure's Cours de linguistique générale 1916, owing to the
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revolutionary character of the ideas on the study of language it contained, determined an
interest for structure in the field of semantics as well.
Within this process of development of the young linguistic discipline, the 1921-1931
decade has a particular significance. It is marked by the publication of three important books:
Jost Trier, Der Deutsche Wortschatz im Sinnbezink des Verstandes (1931), G. Stern, Meaning
and Change of Meaning (1931) and C. K. Ogden and J. A. Richards: The Meaning of
Meaning (1923).
Jost Trier's book as well as his other studies which are visibly influenced by W. von
Humbold's ideas on language, represents an attempt to approach some of the Saussurean
principles to semantics. Analyzing the meaning of a set of lexical elements related to one
another by their content, and thus belonging to a semantic "field", Trier reached the
conclusion that they were structurally organized within this field, in such a manner that the
significative value of each element was determined by the position which it occupied within
the respective field. For the first time, therefore, words were no longer approached in
isolation, but analyzed in terms of their position within a larger ensemble - the semantic field -
which in turn, is integrated, together with other fields, into an ever larger one. The process of
subsequent integrations continues until the entire lexicon is covered. The lexicon therefore is
envisaged as a huge mosaic with no piece missing.
Gustav Stern's work is an ambitious attempt at examining the component factors of
meaning and of determining, on this ground, the causes and directions of changes of meaning.
Using scientific advances psychology (particularly Wundt's psychlogy) Stern postulates
several classifications and principles which no linguist could possibly neglect.
As regards Ogden and Richard's book, its very title The Meaning of Meaning is
suggestive of its content. The book deals for the most part with the different accepted
definitions of the word "meaning", not only in linguistics, but in other disciplines as well,
identifying no less than twenty-four such definitions. The overt endeavour of the authors is to
confine semantic preoccupations to linguistic problems exclusively. The two authors have the
merit of having postulated the triadic relational theory of meaning - graphically represented
by the triangle that bears their names.
A short supplement appended to the book: The Problem of Meaning in Primitive
Languages due to an anthropologist, B. Malinowski, was highly instrumental in the
development of a new "contextual" theory of meaning advocated by the British school of
linguistics headed by J. R. Firth.
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The following decades, more specifically the period 1930-1950 is known as a period
of crisis in semantics. Meaning was all but completely ignored in linguistics particularly as an
effect of the position adopted by L. Bloomfield, who considered that the study of meaning
was outside the scope of linguistics proper. Its study falls rather within the boundaries of other
sciences such as chemistry, physics, etc., and more especially psychology, sociology or
anthropology. The somewhat more conciliatory positions which, without denying the role of
meaning in language nevertheless alloted it but a marginal place within the study of language
(Hockett, 1958), was not able to put an end to this period of crisis.
Reference to semantics was only made in extremis, when the various linguistic
theories were not able to integrate the complexity of linguistic events within a unitary system.
Hence the widespread idea of viewing semantics as a "refuge", as a vast container in which all
language facts that were difficult to formalize could be disposed of.
The picture of the development of semantics throughout this period would be
incomplete, were it not to comprise the valuable accumulation of data regarding meaning, all
due to the pursuing of tradition methods and primarily to lexicographic practice.
If we view the situation from a broader perspective, it becomes evident that the so-
called "crisis" of semantics, actually referred to the crisis of this linguistic discipline only
from a structuralist standpoint, more specifically from the point of view of American
descriptivism. On the other hand, however, it is also salient that the renovating tendencies, as
inaugurated by different linguistic schools, did not incorporate the semantic domain until very
late. It was only in the last years of the sixties that the organized attacks of the modern
linguistic schools of different orientations was launched upon the vast domain of linguistic
meaning.
At present meaning has ceased to be an "anathema" for linguistics. Moreover, the
various linguistic theories are unanimous in admitting that no language description can be
regarded as being complete without including facts of meaning in its analysis.
A specific feature of modern research in linguistics is the ever growing interest in
problems of meaning. Judging by the great number of published works, by the extensive
number of semantic theories which have been postulated, of which some are complementary,
while some other are directly opposed, we are witnessing a period of feverish research, of
effervescence, which cannot but lead to progress in semantics.
An important development in the direction of a psycholinguistic approach to meaning
is Lakoff's investigation of the metaphorical basis of meaning (Lakoff and Johnson 1980).
This approach draw on Elinor Rosch's notion of protype, and adopt the view opposed to that
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of Chomsky, that meaning cannot be easily separated from the more general cognitive
functions of the mind.
G. Leech considers that the developments which will bring most rewards in the future
will be those which bring into a harmonious synthesis the insights provided by the three
disciplines which claim the most direct and general interest in meaning: those of linguistics,
philosophy and psychology.
In linguistic terminology the word semantics is used to designate the science of word-
meaning. The term, however, has acquired a number of senses in contemporary science. Also,
a number of other terms have been proposed to cover the same area of study, namely the study
of meaning. As to meaning itself, the term has a variety of uses in the metalanguage of several
sciences such as logic, psychology, linguistics, and more recently semiotics.
All these factors render it necessary to discuss on the one hand the terminology used
in the study of meaning and on the other hand, the main concerns of the science devoted to the
study of meaning.
One particular meaning of the term semantics is used to designate a new science,
General Semantics, the psychological and pedagogical doctrine founded by Alfred Korzybsky
(1933) under the influence of contemporary neo-positivism. Starting from the supposed
exercise upon man's behaviour, General semantics aims at correcting the "inconsistencies" of
natural language as well as their tendency to "simplify" the complex nature of reality.
A clearer definition of the meaning (or meanings) of a word is said to contribute to
removing the "dogmatism" and "rigidity" of language and to make up for the lack of
emotional balance among people which is ultimately due to language. This school of thought
holds that the study of communicative process can be a powerful force for good in the
resolution of human conflict, whether on an individual, local, or international scale. This is a
rather naïve point of view concerning the causes of conflicts (G. Leech 1990: XI). Yet, certain
aspects of the relationship between linguistic signs and their users - speakers and listeners
alike - have, of course, to be analyzed given their relevance for the meaning of the respective
signs.
Also, that there is a dialectic interdependence between language and thought in the
sense that language does not serve merely to express thought, but takes an active part in the
very moulding of thought, is beyond any doubt.
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On the whole, however the extreme position adopted by general semanticists as
evidenced by such formulations as "the tyranny of words", "the power of language", "man at
the mercy of language", etc. has brought this "science" to the point of ridicule, despite the
efforts of genuine scholars such as Hayakawa and others to uphold it.
In the more general science of semiotics, the term semantics is used in two senses:
(a) theoretical (pure) semantics, which aims at formulating an abstract theory of meaning in
the process of cognition, and therefore belongs to logic, more precisely to symbolic logic;
(b) empirical (linguistic) semantics, which studies meaning in natural languages, that is the
relationship between linguistic signs and their meaning. Obviously, of the two types of
semantics, it is empirical semantics that falls within the scope of linguistics.
The most commonly agreed-upon definition of semantics remains the one given by
Bréal as "the science of the meanings of words and of the changes in their meaning". With
this definition, semantics is included under lexicology, the more general science of words,
being its most important branch.
The result of research in the field of word-meaning usually takes the form of
dictionaries of all kinds, which is the proper object of the study of lexicography.
The term semasiology is sometimes used instead of semantics, with exactly the same
meaning. However since this term is also used in opposition to onomasiology it is probably
better to keep it for this more restricted usage. Semasiology stands for the study of meaning
starting from the "signifiant" (the acoustic image) of a sign and examining the possible
"signifiés" attached to it. Onomasiology accounts for the opposite direction of study, namely
from a "signifié" to the various "signifiants" that may stand for it.
Since de Saussure, the idea that any linguistic form is made up of two aspects - a
material one and an ideal one -, the lingistic sign being indestructible union between a
signifiant and a signifié, between an expression and a content. In the light of these concepts,
the definition of semantics as the science of meaning of words and of the changes in meaning,
appears to be rather confined. The definition certainly needs to be extended so as to include
the entire level of the content of language. As Hjelmslev pointed out, there should be a
science whose object of study should be the content of language and proposed to call it
plerematics. Nevertheless all the glossematicians, including Hjelmslev continued to use the
older term - semantics in their works.
E. Prieto (1964) calls the science of the content of language noology (from Greek noos
- "mind") but the term has failed to gain currency.
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Obviously, a distinction should be made between lexosemantics, which studies lexical
meaning proper in the traditional terminology and morphosemantics, which studies the
grammatical aspect of word-meaning.
With the advent of generative grammar emphasis was switched from the meaning of
words to the meaning of sentences. Semantic analysis will accordingly be required to explain
how sentences are understood by the speakers of language. Also, the task of semantic analysis
is to explain the relations existing among sentences, why certain sentences are anomalous,
although grammatically correct, why other sentences are semantically ambiguous, since they
admit of several interpretations, why other sentences are synonymous or paraphrases of each
other, etc.
Of course, much of the information required to give an answer to these questions is
carried by the lexical items themselves, and generative semantics does include a
representation of the meaning of lexical elements, but a total interpretation of a sentence
depends on its syntactic structure as well, more particularly on how these meanings of words
are woven into syntactic structure in order to allow for the correct interpretation of sentences
and to relate them to objective reality. In the case of generative semantics it is obvious that we
can speak of syntactic semantics, which includes a much wider area of study that lexical
semantics.
When the Stoics identified the sing as the constant relationship between the signifier
and the signified they actually had in mind any kind of signs not just linguistic ones. They
postulated a new science of signs, a science for which a term already existed in Greek:
sêmeiotikê. It is however, only very recently, despite repeated attempts by foresighted
scientists, that semiotics become a science in its own right.
A first, and very clear presentation of semiotics is it to be found in this extensive
quotation from John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. In the chapter on
the "division of the sciences", Locke mentions "the third branch (which) may be called
semiotic, or the doctrine of signs... the business whereof is to consider the nature of signs the
mind makes use of for the understanding of things, or conveying its knowledge to others. For,
since the things the mind contemplates are none of them, beside itself, present to the
understanding, it is necessary that something else, a sign or representation of the thing it
considers, should be present to it" (Locke, 1964: 309).
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Later, in the 19th century, the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce devoted a
life time work, which unfortunately remained unheeded for a long time, to the study of signs,
to setting up semiotics as a science, "as the doctrine of the essential nature and fundamental
varieties of possible «semiosis»". (R. Jakobson, 1965: 22). Ferdinand de Saussure too,
probably quite independently from Peirce, but undoubtedly inspired by the same Greek
philosophers' speculations on language, suggested that linguistics should be regarded as just
one branch of a more general science of sign systems which he called semiology. In other
words he saw no basic difference between language signs and any other kinds of sings all of
them interpretable by reference to the same general science of signs.
Peirce distinguished three main types of signs according to the nature of the
relationship between the two inseparable aspects of a sign: the signans (the material suport of
the sign, its concrete manifestation) and the signatum (the thing signified):
(i) Icons in which the relationship between the signans and the signatum is one of
the similarity.
The signans of an iconic type of sign, resembles in shape its signatum. Drawings,
photographs, etc., are examples of iconic signs. Yet, phisical similarity does not imply true
copying or reflection of the signatum by the signans. Peirce distinguished two subclasses of
icons-images and diagrams. In the case of the latter, it is obvious that the "similarity" is hardly
"physical" at all. In a diagram of the rate of population or industrial production growth, for
instance, convention plays a very important part.
(ii) Indexes, in which the relationship between the signans and the signatum is the
result of a constant association based on physical contiguity not on similarity. The signans
does not resemble the signatum to indicate it. Thus smoke is an index for fire, gathering
clouds indicate a coming rain, high temperature is an index for illness, footprints are indexes
for the presence of animals, etc.
(iii) Symbols, in which the relationship between the signans and the signatum is
entirely conventional. There is no similarity or physical contiguity between the two. The
signans and signatum are bound by convention; their relationship is an arbitrary one.
Language signs are essentially symbolic in nature. Ferdinand de Saussure clearly specified
absolute arbitrariness as "the proper condition of the verbal sign".
The act of semiosis may be both motivated and conventional. If semiosis is motivated,
than motivation is achieved either by contiguity or by similarity.
Any system of signs endowed with homogeneous significations forms a language; and
any language should be conceived of as a mixture of signs.
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Another aspect revealed by semiotics which presents a particular importance for
semantics is the understanding of the semiotic act as an institutional one. Language itself, can
be regarded as an institution (Firth, 1957), as a complex form of human behaviour governed
by signs. This understanding of language opens the way for a new, intentional theory of
meaning. Meaning is achieved therefore either by convention or by intention.
Bibliography:
1. Chiţoran, Dumitru. 1973. Elements of English Structural Semantics. Bucureşti: E.D.P.
2. Leech, G. 1990. Semantics. The Study of Meaning. London: Penguin Books.
3. Saeed, J., I. 1997. Semantics. Dublin: Blackwell Publishers.
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Chapter II
THE PROBLEM OF MEANING
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While the relation symbol- reference and reference- referent are direct and causal ones
in the sense that the symbol expresses or symbolises the reference which, in turn refers to the
referent, the relation symbol- object or referent is an imputed, indirect one.
Of the two sides of the triangle only the right-hand one can be left out – tentatively
and temporarily- in a linguistic account of meaning. The relationship between thought and the
outside world of objects and phenomena is of interest primarily to psychologists and
philosophers, linguists directing their attention towards the other two sides. (Chiţoran, 1973:
30).
Depending on what it is understood by meaning, we can distinguish two main
semantic theories:
- the referential / denotational approach-meaning is the action of putting words into
relationship with the world;
- the representational /conceptual approach-meaning is the notion, the concept or the
mental image of the object or situation in reality as reflected in man’s mind.
The two basic types of meaning were first mentioned by S. Stati in 1971- referential
definitions which analyse meaning in terms of the relation symbol- object /referent;
conceptual definitions which regard the relation symbol- thought/reference.
A. Denotational /Referential Theories of Meaning.
Before describing the characteristics of these theories, a clarification of the terms used
is necessary. All languages allow speakers to describe or model aspects of what they perceive.
In semantics the action of picking out or identifying individuals/ locations with words is
called referring/denoting. To some linguists the two terms, denote and refer are synonymous.
J. Saeed (1997: 23) gives two examples of proper names whose corresponding referents are
easily recognizable
e. g. I saw Michael Jackson on TV last night.
We have just flown back from Paris.
The underlined words refer to/denote the famous singer, respectively the capital of France,
even if in some contexts they may be used to designate a person different from the singer, or a
locality other than the capital of France.
To John Lyons the terms denote and refer are not synonymous. The former is used to
express the relationship linguistic expression- world, whereas the latter is used for the action
of a speaker in picking out entities in the world. In the example
A sparrow flew into the room.
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A sparrow and the room are NPs that refer to things in the world.; room, sparrow
denote classes of items. In conclusion, referring is what speakers do and denoting is a
property of words. Denotation is a stable relationship in a language, it doesn’t depend on
anyone’s use of the word unlike the action of referring.
Returning to the problem of theories of meaning, they are called referential/
denotational when their basic premise is that we can give the meaning of words and sentences
by showing how they relate to situations- proper names denote individuals, nouns denote
entities or sets of individuals, verbs denote actions, adverbs denote properties of actions,
adjectives denote properties of individuals-.In case of sentences, they denote situations and
events. The difference in meaning between a sentence and its negative counterpart arises from
the fact that they describe two situations
e. g. There is a book on the shelf.
There isn’t a book on the shelf.
Referential theories consider meaning to be something outside the world itself, an extra-
linguistic entity. This means reducing the linguistic sign, i. e. the word to its material aspect,
be it phonic or graphic.
The impossibility of equating meaning with the object denoted by a given word can be
explained considering three major reasons
a. the identity meaning-object would leave meaning to a large extent undefined because not
all the characteristic traits of an object as an extra- linguistic reality are identical with the
distinctive features of lexical meaning;
b. not all words have a referent in the outside world; there are:
- non- referring expressions so, very, maybe, if, not, etc.
- referring expressions used generically:
e. g. A murder is a serious felony.
- words like nouns, pronouns with variable reference depending on the context:
e. g. The president decides on the foreign policy.
She didn’t know what to say.
- words which have no corresponding object in the real world in general or at a
certain moment:
e. g. The unicorn is a mythical animal.
She wants to make a cake this evening.
- different expressions/words that can be used for the same referent, the meaning
reflecting the perspective from which the referent is viewed
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e. g. The morning star is the same thing as the evening star.
The president of the USA/ George Bush/ Barbara Bush’s husband was to
deliver a speech.
Besides the referential differences between expressions, we can make useful
distinctions among the things referred to by expressions-referent = thing picked out by
uttering the expression in a particular context; extension of an expression = set of things
which could possibly be the referent of that expression. In Lyon’s terminology the
relationship between an expression and its extension is called denotation.(Saeed 1997: 27)
A distinction currently made by modern linguists is that between the denotation of a
word and the connotations associated with it. For most linguists, denotation represents the
cognitive or communicative aspect of meaning (Schaff 1965), while connotation stands for
the emotional overtones a speaker usually associates with each individual use of a word.
Denotative meaning accounts for the relationship between the linguistic sign and its
denotatum. But one shouldn’t equate denotation with the denotatum.What is the denotation of
a word which has no denotatum.
As far as the attitude of the speaker is concerned, denotation is regarded as neutral,
since its function is simply to convey the informational load carried by a word. The
connotative aspects of meaning are highly subjective, springing from personal experiences,
which a speaker has had of a given word and also from his/her attitude towards his/ her
utterance and/ or towards the interlocutors (Leech, 1990: 14). For example dwelling, house,
home, abode, residence have the same denotation but different connotations.
Given their highly individual nature, connotations seem to be unrepeatable but, on the
other hand, in many instances, the social nature of individual experience makes some
connotative shades of meaning shared by practically all the speakers of a language. It is very
difficult to draw a hard line between denotation and connotation in meaning analysis, due to
the fact that elements of connotation are drawn into what is referred to as basic, denotative
meaning. By taking into account connotative overtones of meaning, its analysis has been
introduced a new dimension, the pragmatic one.
Talking about reference involves talking about nominals- names and noun phrases-.
They are labels for people, places, etc. Context is important in the use of names; names are
definite in that they carry the speaker’s assumption that his/ her audience can identify the
referent (Saeed, 1997: 28).
One important approach in nominals’ analysis is the description theory (Russel, Frege,
Searle). A name is taken as a label or shorthand for knowledge about the referent, or for one
15
or more definite descriptions in the terminology of philosophers. In this theory, understanding
a name and identifying the referent are both dependent on associating the name with the right
description.
e. g. Christopher Marlowe / the writer of the play Dr. Faustus / the Elizabethan
playwright murdered in a Deptford tavern.
Another interesting approach is the causal theory (Devitt, Sterelny, 1987) and based on
the ideas of Kripke (1980) and Donnellan (1972). This theory is based on the idea that names
are socially inherited or borrowed. There is a chain back to the original naming/ grounding. In
some cases a name does not get attached to a single grounding. It may arise from a period of
repeated uses. Sometimes there are competing names and one wins out. Mistakes can be made
and subsequently fixed by public practice. This theory recognizes that speakers may use
names with very little knowledge of the referent, so it stresses the role of social knowledge in
the use of names. The treatment chosen for names can be extended to other nominals like
natural kinds (e. g. giraffe, gold) that is nouns referring to classes which occur in nature.
16
Two distinguishable aspects of the content side of the sign can be postulated- its
signification, the real object or situation denoted by the sign, i. e. its denotation and a sense
which expresses a certain informational content on the object or situation. The relation
between a proper name and what it denotes is called name relation and the thing denoted is
called denotation. ‘A name names its denotation and expresses its sense.’ (Alonso Church)
Extensional and Intensional Meaning. The definition of meaning by signification is
called extension in symbolic logic (Carnap, 1960) and what has been called sense is
equivalent to intension. Extension stands for the class of objects corresponding to a given
predicate, while intension is based on the property assigned to the predicate (E. Vasiliu, 1970).
The model of Heger gives him the possibility to analyse the content, making place
for sememes and semes. Extralinguistic reality has two levels- the logical and/or
psychological level and the level of the external world (C. Baylon, P. Fabre, 1978: 132).
The term moneme (A. Martinet) is also used by Heger and represents the minimal
unit endowed with signification; a moneme is made up of morphemes which are in a limited
number and it also represents a lexeme, the number of lexemes in a language being virtually
infinite. In conclusion, a moneme is at the same time form of expression like phonemes and
form of content like sememes. It is significant and signified. The signified depends on the
structure of the language, but the concept on the right side of the trapezium is independent.
17
The onomasiology starts from the concept and tries to find the linguistic relations for
one or several languages. It tries to find monemes which by means of their significations or
sememes express a certain concept. An onomasiological field reprewsents the structure of all
the sememes belonging to different signified, so to different monemes, but making up one
concept.
Kurt Baldinger (1984: 131) comments on Heger’s trapezium, analysing the succesive
stages from the substance of expression level to the final content level.
18
There is a first of all a semantic dimension proper, which covers the denotatum of the
sign including also information as to how the denotatum is actually referred to, from what
point of view it is being considered. The first aspect is the signification, the latter is its sense.
e. g. Lord Byron/ Author of Child Harold have similar signification and different
senses.
He is clever. /John is clever . He and John are synonymous expressions if the
condition of co- referentiality is met.
The logical dimension of meaning covers the information conveyed by the linguistic
expression on the denotatum, including a judgement of it.
The pragmatic dimension defines the purpose of the expression, why it is uttered by a
speaker. The relation emphasized is between language users and language signs.
The structural dimension covers the structure of linguistic expressions, the complex
network of relationships among its component elements as well as between it and other
expressions.
2. Types of Meaning. Considering these dimensions, meaning can be analyzed from
different perspectives, of which G. Leech distinguished seven main types (Leech, 1990: 9).
a. Logical/ conceptual meaning, also called denotative or cognitive meaning, is considered
to be the central factor in linguistic communication. It has a complex and sophisticated
organization compared to those specific to syntactic or phonological levels of language.
The principles of contrastiveness and constituent structure – paradigmatic and
syntagmatic axes of linguistic structure- manifest at this level i. e. conceptual meaning
can be studied in terms of contrastive features.
b. Connotative meaning is the communicative value an expression has by virtue of what it
refers to. To a large extent, the notion of reference overlaps with conceptual meaning. The
contrastive features become attributes of the referent, including not only physical
characteristics, but also psychological and social properties, typical rather than invariable.
Connotations are apt to vary from age to age, from society to society.
e. g. woman [capable of speech] [experienced in cookery]
[frail] [prone to tears]
[non- trouser- wearing]
Connotative meaning is peripheral compared to conceptual meaning, because
connotations are relatively unstable. They vary according to cultural, historical period,
experience of the individual. Connotative meaning is indeterminate and open- ended that is
19
any characteristic of the referent, identified subjectively or objectively may contribute to the
connotative meaning.
c. In considering the pragmatic dimension of meaning, we can distinguish between social
and affective meaning. Social meaning is that which a piece of language conveys about
the social circumstances of its use. In part, we ‘decode’ the social meaning of a text
through our recognition of different dimensions and levels of style.
One account (Crystal and Davy, Investigating English Style) has recognized several
dimensions of socio-linguistic variation. There are variations according to:
- dialect i. e. the language of a geographical region or of a social class;
- time , for instance the language of the eighteenth century;
- province/domain I. e. the language of law, science, etc.;
- status i. e. polite/ colloquial language etc.;
- modality i. e. the language of memoranda, lectures, jokes, etc.;
- singurality, for instance the language of a writer.
It’s not surprising that we rarely find words which have both the same conceptual and
stylistic meaning, and this led to declare that there are no ‘true synonyms’. But there is much
convenience in restricting the term ‘synonymy’ to equivalence of conceptual meaning. For
example, domicile is very formal, official, residence is formal, abode is poetic, home is the
most general term. In terms of conceptual meaning, the following sentences are synonymous.
e. g. They chucked a stone at the cops, and then did a bunk with the loot.
After casting a stone at the police, they absconded with the money.
In a more local sense, social meaning can include what has been called The
illocutionary force of an utterance, whether it is to be interpreted as a request, an assertion, an
apology, a threat, etc.
d. The way language reflects the personal feelings of the speaker, his/ her attitude towards
his/ her interlocutor or towards the topic of discussion, represents affective meaning.
Scaling our remarks according to politeness, intonation and voice- timbre are essential
factors in expressing affective meaning which is largely a parasitic category, because it
relies on the mediation of conceptual, connotative or stylistic meanings. The exception is
when we use interjections whose chief function is to express emotion.
e. Two other types of meaning involve an interconnection on the lexical level of language.
Reflected meaning arises in cases of multiple conceptual meaning, when one sense of a
word forms part of our response to another sense. On hearing, in a church service, the
synonymous expressions the Comforter and the Holy Ghost, one may react according to
20
the everyday non- religious meanings of comfort and ghost. One sense of a word ‘rubs
off’ on another sense when it has a dominant suggestive power through frequency and
familiarity. The case when reflected meaning intrudes through the sheer strength of
emotive suggestion is illustrated by words which have a taboo meaning; this taboo
contamination accounted in the past for the dying- out of the non- taboo sense;
Bloomfield explains in this way the replacement of cock by rooster.
f. Collocative Meaning consists of the associations a word acquires on account of the
meanings of words which tend to occur in its environment/ collocate with it.
e. g. pretty girl/ boy/ flower/ color
handsome boy/ man/ car/ vessel/ overcoat/ typewriter .
Collocative meaning remains an idiosyncratic property of individual words and it shouldn’t
be invoked to explain all differences of potential co- occurrence. Affective and social
meaning, reflected and collocative meaning have more in common with connotative meaning
than with conceptual meaning; they all have the same open- ended, variable character and
lend themselves to analysis in terms of scales and ranges. They can be all brought together
under the heading of associative meaning. Associative meaning needs employing an
elementary ‘associationist’ theory of mental connections based upon contiguities of
experience in order to explain it. Whereas conceptual meaning requires the postulation of
intricate mental structures specific to language and to humans, and is part of the ‘common
system‘ of language shared by members of a speech community, associative meaning is less
stable and varies with the individual’s experience. Because of so many imponderable factors
involved in it, associative meaning can be studied systematically only by approximative
statistical techniques. Osgood, Suci and Tannenbaum (The Measurement of Meaning, 1957),
proposed a method for a partial analysis of associative meaning. They devised a technique –
involving a statistical measurement device, - The Semantic Differential -, for plotting
meaning in terms of a multidimensional semantic space, using as data speaker’s judgements
recorded in terms of seven point scales.
Thematic Meaning means what is communicated by the way in which a speaker/
writer organizes the message in terms of ordering, focus or emphasis. Emphasis can be
illustrated by word- order:
e.g. Bessie donated the first prize.
The first prize was donated by Bessie.
by grammatical constructions:
21
e. g. There’s a man waiting in the hall.
It’s Danish cheese that I like best.
by lexical means:
e. g. The shop belongs to him
He owns the shop.
by intonation:
e. g. He wants an electric razor.
Conclusions
a. meaning, as a property of linguistic signs, is essentially a relation- conventional,
stable, and explicit- established between a sign and the object in referential definitions, or
between the sign and the concept/ the mental image of the object in conceptual definitions of
meaning;
b. an important aspect of meaning is derived from the use that the speakers make of it
– pragmatic meaning, including the attitude that speakers adopt towards the signs;
c. part of the meaning of linguistic forms can be determined by the position they
occupy in a system of equivalent linguistic forms, in the paradigmatic set to which they
belong- differential/ connotative meaning;
d. equally, part of the meaning can be determined by the position a linguistic sign
occupies along the syntagmatic axis- distributional/ collocative meaning;
e. meaning cannot be conceived as an indivisible entity; it is divisible into simpler
constitutive elements, into semantic features, like the ones displayed on the expression level
of language.
1. Conceptual Meaning Logical, cognitive or
denotative content
Associative meaning 2. Connotative Meaning What is communicated by
virtue of what language refers
to
3. Social Meaning What is communicated of the
social circumstances of
language use
4. Affective Meaning What is communicated of the
feelings and attitudes of the
speaker/ writer
5. Reflected Meaning What is communicated
through association with
another sense of the same
expression
22
6. Collocative Meaning What is communicated
through association with
words tending to occur in the
environment of another word
23
Chapter III.
M O T I VAT I O N O F M E A N I N G
24
1. Absolute motivation
Absolute motivation includes language signs whose sound structure reproduces certain
features of their content. Given this quasi-physical resemblance between their signifiant and
their signifié, these signs are of an iconic or indexic nature in the typology of semiotic signs,
although symbolic elements are present as well in their organization:
There are several classes of linguistic signs, which can be said to be absolutely
motivated:
(i) Interjections. It would be wrong to consider, as is sometimes done, that
interjections somehow depict exactly the physiological and psychological states they express.
The fact that interjections differ in sound from one language to another is the best proof of it.
Compare Romanian au! aoleu! vai! etc. and English ouch!, which may be used in similar
situations by speakers of the two languages.
(ii) Onomatopoeia. This is true of imitative or onomatopoeic words as well. Despite
the relative similarity in the basic phonetic substance of words meant to imitate animal or
other sounds and noises, their phonological structure follows the rules of pattern and
arrangement characteristic of each separate language. There are instances in which the degree
of conventionality is highly marked, as evidenced by the fact that while in English a dog goes
bow-wow, in Romanian it goes ham-ham. Also, such forms as English whisper and Romanian
şopti are considered to be motivated in the two languages, although they are quite different in
form.
(iii) Phonetic symbolism. Phonetic symbolism is based on the assumption that certain
sounds may be associated with particular ideas or meanings, because they somehow seem to
share some attributes usually associated with the respective referents. The problem of
phonetic symbolism has been amply debated in linguistics and psychology and numerous
experiments have been made without arriving at very conclusive results.
It is quite easy to jump at sweeping generalizations starting from a few instances of
sound symbolism.
Jespersen attached particular attention to the phonetic motivation of words and tried to
give the character of law to certain sound and meaning concordances. He maintained for
instance, on the basis of ample evidence provided by a great variety of languages, that the
front, close vowel sound of the [i] type is suggestive of the idea of smallness, rapidity and
weakness. A long list of English words: little, slim, kid, bit, flip, tip, twit, pinch, twinkle, click,
etc. can be easily provided in support of the assumption, and it can also be reinforced by
examples of words from other languages: Fr. petit, It. piccolo, Rom. mic, etc. Of course, one
25
can equally easily find counter examples - the most obvious being the word big in English -
but on the whole it does not seem unreasonable to argue that a given sound, or sequence of
sounds is associated to a given meaning impression, although it remains a very vague one.
Sapir (1929) maintained that a contrast can be established between [i] and [a] in point
of the size of the referents in the names of which they appear, so that words containing [a]
usually have referents of larger size. Similar systematic relations were established for
consonants as well.
Initial consonant clusters of the /sn/, /sl/, /fl/ type are said to be highly suggestive of
quite distinctive meanings, as indicated by long lists of words beginning with these sounds.
2. Relative motivation
Relative motivation. In the case of relatively motivated language signs, it is not the
sounds which somehow evoke the meaning; whatever can be guessed about the meaning of
such words is a result of the analysis of the smaller linguistic signs which are included in
them. Relative motivation involves a much larger number of words in the language than
absolute motivation. There are three types of relative motivation: motivation by derivation; by
composition and semantic motivation.
An analysis of the use of derivational means to create new words in the language will
reveal its importance for the vocabulary of a language. The prefix {-in}, realized
phonologically in various ways and meaning either (a) not and (b) in, into, appears in at least
2,000 English words: inside, irregular, impossible, incorrect, inactive etc.
Similarly, the Latin capere ("take") appears in a great number of English words:
capture, captivity, capable, reception, except, principal, participant, etc.
It is no wonder that Brown (1964) found it possible to give keys to the meanings of over 14,000 words,
which can be analyzed in terms of combinations between 20 prefixes and 14 roots. Some of his examples are
given below:
Words Prefix Common Meaning Root Common
Meaning
1. Precept pre- before capere take, seize
2. Detain de- away, down tenere hold, have
3. Intermittent inter- between, among mittere send
4. Offer ob- against ferre bear, carry
5. Insist in- into stare stand
6. Monograph mono- alone, one, graphein write
7. Epilogue epi- upon legein say, study of
8. Aspect ad- to, towards specere see
This table alone is sufficient to indicate the importance of relative motivation for the
analysis of meaning.
26
It is obvious that the lexicon of a language presents items which differ in the degree to
which their meaning can be said to be motivated; while some are opaque (their sound give no
indication of their meaning), others are more or less transparent, in the sense that one can
arrive at some idea of their meaning by recourse to their phonetic shape or to their
derivational structure or to some semantic relations which can be established with other words
in the language.
In Précis de sémantique française (1952), Ullman suggested several criteria of
semantic structure which enabled him to characterize English as a "lexical language", as
opposed to French which is a more "grammatical" one: the number of arbitrary and motivated
words in the vocabulary; the number of particular and generic terms; the use of special
devices to heighten the emotive impact of words. Three other criteria are based on multiple
meaning (patterns of synonymy, the relative frequency of polysemy, and the incidence of
homonymy) and a final one evaluates the extent to which words depend on context for the
clarification of their meaning. This is an area of study which could be continued with
profitable results for other languages as well.
Bibliography:
Chiţoran, Dumitru. 1973. Elements of English Structural Semantics, Bucureşti, Ed. Didactică
şi Pedagogică.
Exercises:
27
Chapter IV
STRUCTURAL APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF MEANING
1. COMPONENTIAL ANALYSIS
28
the vocabulary , as an open system, with a variable number of elements, does not fit such a
description unless the definition of system broadens. Melcuk (1961) stated that a set of
structurally organised objects forms a system if the objects can be described by certain rules,
on condition that the number of rules is smaller than the number of objects. Constant
reference to phonology, in terms of distinguishing between relevant and irrelevant in the study
of meaning has led to applying methods pertaining to the expression level of language to its
content level as well.
Some linguistic theories, mainly the Gloosemantic School, take it for granted that
there is an underlying isomorphism between the expression and content levels of language.
Accordingly they consider it axiomatic to apply a unique method of analysis to both levels of
language. Hjelmslev distinguishes between signification and sense and deepens this
distinction on the basis of a new dichotomy postulated by glossematics : form and substance.
While the sense refers to the substance of content, signification refers to its form or structure.
The distinction signification/sense can be analysed in term of another structuralist dichotomy:
invariant/variant. Significations represent invariant units of meaning while the sense are its
variants. There is a commutation relation between significations as invariants, and a
substitution one between senses as variants. An example is given below :
Romanian English Russian
palma
mana hand pyka
brat arm
Since significations as invariants find their material manifestation in senses as their
invariants, in terms of glossematics, a theory of signification stands for content form alone, so
signification is no more semantic than other aspects of content form dealt with by grammar. It
follows that only a theory of the sense (substance of content) could be the object of study of
semantics(Chitoran, 1973:48).
In Hjelmslev’s opinion, sense is characteristic of speech, not of language, pertains to
an empirical level, so below any interest of linguistics. Any attempt to uncover structure or
system at the sense level can be based on the collective evaluation of sense. For Hjelmslev,
lexicology is a sociological discipline which makes use of linguistic material : words. This
extreme position is in keeping with the neopositivist stand adopted by glossematics, according
to which form has primacy over substance, that language is form, not substance and what
matters in the study of meaning is the complex network of relations obtaining among
linguistic elements.
29
Keeping in mind the basic isomorphism between expression and content, it is essential
to emphasize some important differences between the two language levels:
- the expression level of language implies sequentiality, a development in time
(spoken language) or space (written language); its content level is characterised by
simultaneity;
- the number of units to be uncovered at the expression level is relatively small, and
infinitely greater at the content level.
It is generaly accepted that the meanings of a word are also structured, that they form
microsystems, as apposed to the entire vocabulary which represents the lexical macrosystem.
The meanings of a lexical element display three levels of structure, starting from a basic
significative nucleus, a semantic constant (Coteanu, 1960) which represents the highest level
of abstraction in the structuration of meaning. Around it different meanings can be grouped
(the 2 nd level). (Chiţoran, 1973:51)
The actual uses of a lexical item, resulting from the individualising function of words
(Coteanu, 1960) belong to speech. Monolingual dictionaries give the meanings of a lexical
item abstracted on the basis of a wide collection of data. As far as the semantic constant is
concerned, its identification is the task of semnatics and one way of doing that is by means of
the Componential Analysis.
Componential Analysis assumes that all meanings can be further analysed into
distinctive semantic features called semes, semantic components or semantic primitives, as the
ultimate components of meaning. The search for distinctive semantic features was first limited
to lexical items which were intuitively felt to form natural structures of a more ar less closed
nature. The set kinship terms was among the first lexical subsystems to be submitted to
componential analysis :
father [+male][+direct line] [+older generation]
mother [-male][+direct line] [+older generation]
son [+male][+direct line] [-older generation]
daughter [_male][+direct line] [-older generation]
uncle[+male][_direct line] [+older generation]
aunt [-male] [-direct line] [+older generation]
nephew [+male] [-direct line] [-older generation]
niece [-male] [-direct line] [-older generation]
It is evident than there exist the same hierarchy of units and the same principle of
structuring lower level units into higher level ones (Pottier, 1963):
30
Expression Content
Distinctive feature pheme (f) seme (s)
Set of distinctive features phememe(F) sememe (S)
(a set of pheme) (A set of semes)
The formalization of a set of phoneme(P) lexeme(L)
Distinctive features (the formalization of a formalization of a sememe
phememe)
The sememes are arrived at by comparing various lexical items in the language.
Starting from the dictionary definitions, the semantic features encountered in case of furniture
intended for siting are :
31
Sememic stratum S of colours; giving out/reflecting much light
Sememeic statum S/piece of wood s/on the ship s/group of people s/(food)
32
The dimensions of meaning will be termed semantic oppositions. The features of
opposition are mutually defining.
+ (marked)
- (negative, unmarked)
Not all semantic contrasts are binary In fact componential analysis assumes that
meanings are organised in multi-dimensional contrasts. Taxonomic (hierarchical arrangement
of categories) oppositions can be :
- binary : dead # alive
- multiple : gold # copper # iron # mercury etc.
The link between componential analysis and and basic statements is made through the
mediation of hyponymy (inclusion) and incompatibility. So basic logical relationships
(entailment, inconsistency) can be defined in terms of hyponymy and incompatibility (Leech,
1990:97):
e.g. The secretary is a woman entails The secretary is an adult.
I meet two boys entails I met two children.
Justifying componential analysis by following out its logical consequences in terms of
basic statements implies giving a certain priority to sentence meaning over word-meaning, so
truth-falsehood properties of sentence meanings are the surest basis for testing a description
of meaning: scared and frightened would be considered as synonyms in terms of their truth
value and would be perceived as differing in terms of stylistic meaning +/- colloquial.
The features of different semantic oppositions can be combined. Is it true that every
dimension is variable completely independent of all the other ?
/+ human/ /+ adult/ /+male/ are independently variable
/+animate/ combines with /+countable/
2 . PA R A D I G M S I N L E X I C
The Semantic Field Theory
The idea of the organization of the entire lexicon of a language into a unitary system
was for the first time formulated by Jost Trier. Actually, Trier continued two lines of thought.
On the one hand, he was directly influenced by W. von Humboldt and his ideas of linguistic
relativism. Wilhelm von Humboldt, influenced by the romanticism of the early 19 th century
advanced the theory that languages are unique, in that each language expresses the spirit of a
people, its Volksgeist. Each language categorizes reality in different ways so that it may either
help or hinder its speakers in making certain observations or in perceiving certain relations.
Given the principle of relativism, it follows that the vocabularies of any two languages are
anisomorphic, that there are no absolute one to one correspondences between two equivalent
words belonging to two different languages. Humboldt made, also, the distinction between
language viewed statically as an ergon and language viewed dynamically, creatively, as an
energeia. Trier's semantic fields are, accordingly, closely, integrated lexical systems in a
dynamic state of continuous evolution.
The other line of thought which Trier continues springs from Ferdinand de Saussure's
structuralism, more specifically from the distinctions made by the latter between the
36
signification, and value of lexical items. According to de Saussure, words have signification,
in that they do mean something, positively, but they also have value, which is defined
negatively by reference to what the respective words do not mean. Linguistic value is the
result of the structural relationships of a term in the system to which it belongs. Thus, Trier
postulated that no item in the vocabulary can be analyzed semantically unless one takes into
account the bundle of relationships and oppositions it enters with the other words in a given
subsystem or system. One cannot assess the correct meaning of "green" for instance, unless
one knows the meaning of "red" and all the other colours in the system.
Colour terms are actually often used to illustrate the semantic field theory. Let us
suppose that the field of colours, which physicists assure us forms a continuum, is covered by
the following number of terms in two languages L1 and L2:
L1: x y z
L2: a b c d e
It is evident that no single term in any of the two languages covers exactly the same
area of the spectrum; only "z" in L 1 can be said to incorporate the whole of "e" in L 2 although
it covers a small part of the area covered by "d" as well.
English and Shona, a language spoken in Rhodesia, exhibit precisely the type of
structural segmentation of the colour spectrum postulated above. While English have seven
basic terms for colour (the first level of the hierarchy), red, orange, yellow, green, blue and
purple, Shona has only three which are distributed roughly as follows: a first term "covers the
range of English orange, red and purple, and a small part of blue; another term covers the
area of green and most of blue" (Lamb 1969: 46). It is evident that the terms for colour are not
equivalent in the two languages.
Evidently the linguistic field of colour terms is a favourable one for such an analysis.
There is first of all a "metalanguage" provided by the science of physics to which one can
report the words for colour. Secondly, the number of words, is quite limited and thus
reductible to a restricted set of relationships.
But even in the case of the most elementary vocabulary one encounters a similar lack
of correspondence. English sheep and French mouton are not the same since English makes
use of another term mutton, to cover the entire area of meanings and uses covered by French
mouton.
Trier advanced the idea, that vocabulary as a whole forms an integrated system of
lexemes interrelated in sense, a huge mosaic with no loopholes or superposed terms since our
concepts themselves cover the entire Universe. According to his dynamic conception of
37
language viewed as "energeia", Trier pointed out that the slightest change in the meaning of a
term within a semantic field brings about changes in the neighbouring terms as well.
Any broadening in the sense of one lexeme involves a corresponding narrowing in the
sense of one or more of its neighbours. According to Trier, it is one of the major failings of
traditional diachronic semantics that it sets out to catalogue the history of changes in the
meanings of individual lexemes atomistically, or one by one, instead of investigating changes
in the whole structure of the vocabulary as it has developed through time. (Lyons 1977: 252).
The procedure followed by Trier in diachronic semantics is not one of comparing
successive states of the total vocabulary (which would be hardly practicable). What he does is
to compare the structure of a lexical field at time t1 with the structure of a lexical field at time
t2.
Semantic fields with a more restricted number of terms are incorporated into larger
ones, the latter are themselves structurated into even larger ones, until the entire lexicon of a
language is integrated into a unitary system. In Trier's opinion therefore semantic fields act as
intermediaries between individual lexical entries, as they appear in a dictionary, and the
vocabulary as a whole.
Despite their revolutionary character, Trier's ideas on semantics found few followers
and were consequently slow in being pursued and developed. This is normal in view of the
important objections which can be raised to his theory.
One of the objections came from those who were reluctant to admit such a perfect
organization of vocabulary into an interdependent and perfectly integrated system of elements
which delimit each other like pieces in a jig-saw puzzle. Secondly, the linguistic relativism of
Trier's ideas, his contention about the influence of language upon thought was rightly
considered as an instance of linguistic solipsism.
Much of the criticism leveled at semantic field theory originated from less
philosophical considerations. It is quite difficult to outline the actual limits of a field, its
"constant", which subsequently enables one to analyze the terms incorporated in it. Also, the
semantic field theory, if valid, accounts for only one type of relations contracted by lexical
items - the paradigmatic ones, or, a full semantic description should include syntagmatic
relations as well. In addition Trier's theory does not seem to be related to any given
grammatical theory.
Nevertheless, there were numerous attempts at developing the semantic field theory,
most of them departing to a lesser or greater extent from Trier's original ideas. L. Weisgerber
for instance, continued the analysis of the semantic field of knowledge and understanding in
38
Modern German while trying to incorporate the notion of semantic fields in his general theory
of language (1953).
P. Guiraud (1956, 1962) developed the theory of the morpho-semantic field. The
morpho-semantic field includes all the sound and sense associations radiating from a word; its
homonyms and synonyms, all other words to which it may be related formally or logically,
metaphorically, etc., as well as casual or more stable associations which can be established
between objects designated by these words.
Walter von Wartburg and R. Hallig (1952) undertook a more ambitious task. They
suggested a method of analysis based on the system of concepts which was meant to cover the
entire vocabulary of a language and, since the general classification of concepts was supposed
to have a general character, the vocabulary of any language could be incorporated into such a
conceptual dictionary.
The method is entirely reminiscent of Roget's Thesaurus in that it identifies lexical
systems with logical systems of concepts. The outline of the system of concepts has three
main components: A: The Universe; B: Man; and C: Man and the Universe. Each main
component includes several classes of concepts (and accordingly, of words designating these
concepts). Thus, component A includes the following four classes: I The sky and atmosphere;
II. The Earth; III. The Plants; IV. The Animals.
Semantic fields are structural organizations of lexis which reflect a structuration of the
content level of language. Hjelmslev and E. Coseriu (1968) considered that any semantic
theory is valid only to the extent to which it arrives at paradigms on the content level of
language.
Coseriu defined the semantic field as a primary paradigmatic structure of the lexic, a
paradigm consisting in lexical units of content (lexemes), which share a continuous common
zone of signification, being in an immediate opposition one to another. (Iliescu, Wald 1981: 39)
A semantic field should be understood in Trier's original sense, namely as a zone of
signification covered by a number of closely interrelated lexical items. In this respect the
componential analysis of meaning (Goodenough, 1956) seems to be nearer the true concept of
the semantic field.
Three main objections can be and have been raised with regard to the present state of
the semantic field theory.
(a) Is it possible to analyze the entire vocabulary into semantically structured fields, or
are they limited to certain parts of it only, namely to lexical items designating aspects of
39
reality (especially man-made reality, the reality of artifacts) which by their own nature possess
a certain structural organization?
(b) Closely related to objection (a) one can doubt the linguistic nature of semantic
fields. Do they correspond to an internal organization of the vocabulary or are they
organizations external to language?
(c) How can semantic fields be delimited? Is there an objective method of evaluating
the range of a given field and the number of elements it includes?
40
A dimension is an opposition of mutually exclusive features. The features of the
dimension sex, presumably relevant in an analysis of kinship terms, are [+Male] and
[+Female].
Any term of the paradigm will be defined componentially in terms of its coordinates in
the paradigm. The componential definition of a word is a combination of features for several
(or for all) dimensions of the paradigm.
In the componential definition of the meaning of a lexical item the linguist proceeds
from extensional definition to intensional definitions. That is, starting his analysis of say,
kinship terms, the linguist has to draw up the list of all the terms with kinship designation and,
than, to specify for each of them the set of possible denotata (the set of contextual meanings
or all the allosemes of the word).
The componential definition of a term may be taken to be an expression of its
significatum. A componential definition is therefore an intensional definition, which specifies
the distinctive features shared in common by all denotata designated by a given term.
It is a unitary, conjunctive definition implying that all the features are simultaneously
present in every occurrence of the word.
Bibliography:
1. Chiţoran, Dumitru. 1973. Elements of English Structural Semantics, Buc.: Editura
Didactică şi Pedagogică.
2. Iliescu, M. Wald, L. 1981. Lingvistica modernă în texte. Buc.: Reprografia Universităţii
din Bucureşti.
3. Lyons, J. 1977. Semantics vol. I, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
4. Hulban, N. Luca-Lăcătuşu, T. Creţescu Kogălniceanu, C. 1983. Competenţă şi
performanţă. Exerciţii şi teste de limbă engleză. Bucureşti: Ed. Ştiinţifică şi
Enciclopedică.
1. For each of the following words try to establish sets of attributes that would
distinguish it from its companions in the group :
cake, biscuit, bread, role, bun, cracker,
boil, fry, broil, sauté, simmer, grill, roast.
41
2. For each group of words given below, state what semantic property /-ies distinguish
between the classes of a) and b) words. Do a)words and b)words share any semantic
property ?
Example: a) widow, mother, sister, aunt, maid
b) widower, father, brother, uncle, valet
a) and b) are human
a) words are female and b) male
42
Chapter V
LANGUAGE AS A CONCEPTUAL SYSTEM
Creativity in Language
Discussion for and against semantic universals usually seems to assume that a
language forms a static, closed conceptual system, and that once the fixed categories of the
language have been acquired, our semantic equipment is complete. If this were true, it would
cause us to take very seriously the sinister idea that our language is a mental strait -jacket,
which determines our thought processes and our assumption about the universe.
But fortunately for the human race, language is only a mental straitjacket if we allow it
to become one: the semantic system, like any other system relating to human society, is
continually being extended and revised. In a language, new concepts are introduced in large
numbers day by day and week by week, and in very little time, owing to modern mass
communications, become familiar to many people. The technique by which the new concepts
are introduced is lexical innovation, which may take the form of neologism and of transfer of
meaning.
Language has within itself anti-creative pressures, and the function of the literary
writer, in T. S. Eliot's words, is to "purify the dialect of the tribe" - to restore the currency to
its full value, and to resist the natural tendency to devaluation. Writers have always
considered themselves the determined enemies of jargon and cliché.
Our linguistic competence (as Chomsky pointed out) is such that with a finite number
of rules, we can generate and interpret an infinite number of sentences. Day by day we
encounter and produce sentences we have never met in our whole life before. In its semantic
aspect, this creativity of linguistic resource may be demonstrated by our ability to make up
and make sense of configurations which have virtually a nil probability of occurring in day-
to-day communication. But in performance, this creative or innovative power inherent in our
language competence is eroded by our tendency to rely on well-worn paths through
47
theoretically infinite array of possible English utterances. Thus not merely individual
concepts, but configurations of concepts, become stereotyped; jargon invades syntax. The
writer who resists this principle of least effort, by exploring new pathways and taking no
meaning for granted, is in a real sense "creative".
There is an important notion of linguistic creativity which applies pre-eminently to
poetry: one which amounts to actually breaking through the conceptual bonds with which
language constrains us. If one of the major roles of language is to reduce experience to order,
to "prepackage" it for us, then the poet is the person who unties the string. It is in this context
that the "irrational" or "counterlogical" character of poetry becomes explicable.
A very simple example of poetic irrationality in the Latin poet Catullus’ famous
paradox Odi et amo: "I hate and I love". The two-valued orientation of language makes us to
see love and hate as mutually exclusive categories. But the poet, by presenting a seeming
absurdity, shocks his reader into rearranging his categories; the stereotyped concept of love
and hate as contrasting emotions is destroyed. A kind of conceptual fission and fusion takes
place.
The quality just observed in poetic paradox is also present in metaphor - a more
pervasive and important semantic feature of poetry. Again, the mechanism can be
demonstrated by a very simple example. In an Anglo-Saxon poem, the expression mere-
hengest ("sea-steed") is used as a metaphor for "ship". The connection between steed and ship
lies in common connotations: both horses and ships convey men from one place to another;
both are used (in the heroic context of the poem) for adventurous journeys and for warfare;
both carry their riders with an up-and-down movement. By presenting the two concepts
simultaneously, as superimposed images, the poet dissolves those linguistically crucial criteria
which defines their separateness: the fact that a horse is animate whereas a ship is not; and the
fact that a horse moves over land, whereas a ship moves over water. Metaphor is, actually, a
conceptual reorganization. Through its power of realigning conceptual boundaries, metaphor
can achieve a communicative effect which in a sense is "beyond language". It has a liberating
effect. As a chief instrument of the poet's imagination, metaphor is the means by which he
takes his revenge on language for the "stereotyped ideas" which have "prevailed over the
truth". (G. Leech 1990: 38). It is not surprising that children's language produces many
instances of semantic "mistakes" which strike the adult as poetic. G. Leech gave two of such
instances: a child's description of a viaduct as a window-bridge and of the moon as that
shilling in the sky, both based, significantly, on visual analogy. The window-bridge example is
very similar to the mere-hengest of the Anglo-Saxon poet: the openings in a viaduct, when
48
seen side on, are indeed very close in appearance and construction to the window openings of
a house. Using this generalizing ability, the child hits on physical appearance as a crucial
criterion, at the expense of the criterion of function, which the language regards as more
important. The difference between the two cases, of course, is that while the poet is familiar
with the institutional categories and is aware of his departure from them, the child is not.
Conclusions
"Except for the immediate satisfaction of biological needs, man lives in a world not of
things but of symbols" (General Systems Theory, p. 245). This statement by Ludwig von
Bertalanffy is close enough to the truth to justify the concentration on the way language both
determines and reflects our understanding of the world we live in.
Thinking of a language as providing its users with a system of conceptual categories,
we may conclude:
1. That the concepts vary from language to language, and are sometimes arbitrary in
the sense that they impose a structure which is not necessarily inherent in the data of
experience.
2. That it is a matter for debate how for concepts vary from language to language,
and how far it is possible to postulate semantic universals common to all human language.
3. That although the conceptual system of a language predisposes its users towards
certain distinctions rather than others, the extent to which more is "enslaved" by his language
in this respect is mitigated by various forces of creativity inherent in the system itself.
Bibliography:
1. Chiţoran, D. 1973. Elements of English Structural Semantics. Buc.: Ed. Didactică şi
Pedagogică.
2. Leech, G. 1990. Semantics. The Study of Meaning. London: Penguin Books.
49
Chapter VI
SEMANTIC RELATIONS AND LEXICAL CATEGORIES
51
A. Paradigmatic Relations
1. The primary semantic relation on the paradigmatic axis is that of incompatibility, a
relation which is characteristic of all lexical elements based on the substitution of items:
e. g. I had tea at breakfast.
I had coffee/cocoa/milk.
Part of the meaning of a term belonging to a lexical set is its compatibility with all the
other members of the same lexical set in a given context. The wider concept of meaning
incompatibility includes distinct types of oppositeness of meaning, each of them being
designated by a separate term (J. Lyons).
a. Complementarity is a type of antonymic relation based on binary oppositions which do not
allow for gradations between the extreme poles of a semantic axis; they are two- term sets of
incompatible terms. Validity of one term implies denial of the other:
e. g. single - married
male - female
alive - dead.
b. Antonymy. The term is used to designate those meaning oppositions which admit certain
gradations with regard to the meaning expressed:
e. g. young- old;
young.........childish/juvenil.............adolescent.............young.........mature.........middle...........
aged...........old.......ancient.........
small- large; ....microscopic....tiny....little....small.....big/large.....spacious.....immense....
beautiful - ugly;
.....splendid.......wonderful....beautiful.....attractive.....handsome.....good-looking.......
pretty.....nice....pleasant....acceptable......common.....ordinary.....plain...unattrac
tive....ugly....horrible...awful....frightening....spooky....terrifying
clever - stupid;
interesting - boring;
fast - slow.
c. Reversibility refers to two terms which presuppose one another:
give- take; borrow- lend; buy- sell; husband- wife; offer- accept/refuse; employer-
employee. This type of binary opposition, a relation, involves a contrast of direction.
The relation can be realized by keeping the same lexical item and reversing the syntactic
positions of the arguments:
e. g. John is the parent of James.
52
James is the parent of John.
or by keeping the syntactic positions of the arguments constant and changing the lexical form:
e. g. John is the parent of James.
John is the child of James.
Lexical pairs such as parent and child are called converses. Because of the alternative ways of
expressing the same contrast, there arise cases of synonymy,
John is the parent of James = James is the child of John.
In case of ‘parenthood’ relation, the directional contrast is mutually exclusive, so there is an
asymmetric relation.
Alf is parent of George. is incompatible with George is parent of Alf.
An example of symmetric relation is John is married to Susan. which entails Susan is
married to John. In this case we talk about reciprocal relation.
d. Less common types of semantic opposition include hierarchic oppositions, which are
multiple taxonomies, except that they include an element of ordering. Examples are sets of
units of measurement- inch/ foot/ yard- , calendar units- month of the year- or the
hierarchy of numbers which is an open- ended, that is it has no ‘highest’ term. The days of
the week opposition is a cyclic type of hierarchy, because it has no first/ last member.
e. Last but not least, there is an interesting type of binary semantic contrast, called inverse
opposition:
e. g. all - some willing- insist
possible - necessary still- already
allow - compel remain- become.
The main logical test for an inverse opposition is whether it obeys a special rule of synonymy
which involves substituting one inverse term for another and changing the position of the a
negative term in relation to the inverse term
e. g. Some countries have no coastline. = Not all countries have a coastline.
All of us are non- smokers. = Not any of us are smokers.
We were compelled to be non- smokers. = We were not allowed to be smokers.
It is possibly true that Jack is a hippy. = It is not necessarily true that Jack is a
hippy.
2. Another type of paradigmatic relation is synonymy. There are words which sound
different, but have the same or nearly the same meaning. There is a tendency to limit
synonymic status to those elements, which given the identity of their referential, can be used
freely in a given context. There are no perfect synonyms, since no two elements can be used
53
with the same statistic probability in absolutely all contexts in which any of them can appear.
Synonymy is always related to context. Two lexical items are perfectly synonymous in a given
context or in several contexts, but never in all contexts. The term used to describe this is
relative synonymy. Context, that is the position on the syntagmatic axis, is essential for
synonymy.
e. g. deep water *deep idea
profound idea *profound water
deep / profound sleep; deep / profound thought.
We can notice that the distinction concrete/ abstract is not relevant here, since words
like idea and thought, both abstract, behave differently in relation to the pair of relative
synonyms deep and profound. Talking about the terms used in describing synonymy, it is
necessary at this point to present Lyons’ classification of synonyms into:
- absolute synonyms;
- partial synonyms;
- near synonyms.
Absolute synonyms should be fully, totally and completely synonymous.
i. Synonyms are fully synonymous if, and only if, all their meanings are identical ;
ii. synonyms are totally synonyms if and only if they are synonymous in all contexts;
iii. synonyms are completely synonymous if and only if they are identical on all relevant
dimensions of meaning.
Absolute synonyms should satisfy all the three criteria above, whereas partial
synonyms should satisfy at least one criterion (Lyons, 1981: 50-51).
D. A. Cruse (1987: 292) comments on Lyons’ classification, arguing that identical and
synonymous are to be understood as completely synonymous; secondly, near- synonyms ‘more
or less similar, but not identical in meaning’ qualify as incomplete synonyms, and therefore as
partial synonyms, so the distinction between the two classes is not so clear as Lyons claims.
Referring to absolute synonyms in language, Cruse states that there is no real motivation for
their existence, and if they do exist, in time one of them would become obsolete, or would
develop a difference in semantic function. For example, sofa and settee are absolute
synonyms, but at a certain point in time sofa had the feature /elegant/, which now seems to
have disappeared from the conscience of the speakers who use the two terms in free variation.
But according to Cruse, this state of affairs would not persist, since it is against the tendency
towards economy manifest in any language.
54
Examples like sofa and couch refer to the same type of object, and share most of their
semantic properties-/ piece of furniture/ / used for sitting/ /with arms/ / backed/ /
upholstered/-, so they can be considered synonymous. There are words that are neither
synonyms nor near synonyms, yet they have many semantic properties in common. For
example, man and boy imply /+male/ /+human/ features, but boy includes the property /
+youth/, so it differs in meaning from man. The question to be asked is how to determine all
relevant dimensions of meaning in order to establish the type of synonymy we are dealing
with. Cruse draws a distinction between subordinate semantic traits and capital traits.
Subordinate traits are those which have a role within the meaning of a word analogous to that
of a modifier in a syntactic construction (e. g. red in a red hat).For instance, /walk/ is the
capital trait of stroll, /good looking/ of pretty and handsome. For nag , /worthless/ is a
subordinate trait.
Sometimes words that are ordinarily opposites can mean the same thing in a certain
context, a good scare = a bad scare. The apparent synonymy of two utterances that contain a
pair of antonyms hides opposite or at least different connotations.
e.. g. How old are you? - neutral connotation; inquiry about someone’s age
How young are you? You shouldn’t smoke. -negative connotation; it’s obvious you
are too young to do that;
I don’t know how big his house is. - neutral
I don’t know how small his house is. -negative connotation; I know that it is too
small
Even when using synonyms this implies not only a high degree of semantic overlap, but
also a low degree of implicit contrastiveness,
e. g. He was murdered, or rather/ more exactly, executed.
He was cashiered, that is to say, dismissed.- the synonym is used as an explanation
for another word.
Synonymy depends largely on other factors such as:
- register used, wife [neutral], spouse [formal, legal term], old lady [highly informal];
- collocation, big trouble *large trouble;
- connotation, notorious [negative], famous [positive]; immature [negative], young
[positive].
- dialectal variations, which may be geographical ,- lift (British English), elevator
(American English)-, temporal,- wireless became radio, -, and last but not least, social -
55
toilet replaced lavatory, settee became sofa-,though the last two subtypes of variations
cannot be always separated; (Cruse, 1987: 282-283)
- morpho- syntactic behavior,
e. g. He began/ started his speech with a quotation.
Tom tried to start/ *begin his car.
At the beginning/ *start of the world…
All the examples above refer to lexical synonymy, but there are also grammatical
synonyms, operating at the level of morphology, means of expressing futurity, possibility, etc.
e. g. He will go / is going / is to go tomorrow.
He can/ may visit us next week if the weather is fine.
3. Hyponymy. Another type of paradigmatic relation is hyponymy / inclusion. It implies
as a rule multiple taxonomies, a series of hypo-ordinate / subordinate terms being included in
the area of a hyper-ordinate/ super-ordinate term. This relationship exists between two
meanings if one componential formula contains all the features present in the other formula.
Woman contains the features /+human/, /+adult/, /-male/.In different contexts, the emphasis is
on one of the features included in the meaning of woman:
e. g. Stop treating me like a child. I’m a woman [= grown- up]
She is a woman [= human being], not an object.
She is a woman [ = female] , so she wouldn’t know what a man feels like in such a
situation.
One way to describe hyponymy is in terms of genus and differentia. We can discuss
about meaning inclusion, that is all the features of adult are included in woman, and about
reference inclusion, that is all the objects denoted by woman are included into the larger
category denoted by adult.
Sometimes we can’t have a super-ordinate term expressed just by one word:
musical instrument
56
B. Syntagmatic Relations.
Relations of the type both…and… are fundamental in structuring our utterances.
The connection between paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations appears obvious, since
in choosing a certain term from a synonymic series, we must take into account
selectional restrictions. A particular type of arbitrary co- occurrence restrictions are
collocational restrictions:
e. g. Ann/ The cat/ The plant died.
Ann/ *The cat/ *The plant kicked the bucket.
Collocational restrictions vary in the degree to which they can be specified in terms of
required semantic traits. When fully specifiable, they may be described as systematic
collocational restrictions:
e. g. Pass away /animate/ and kick the bucket /human/
Grill /meat/ and toast /bread/
When there are exceptions to the general tendency in collocating, we may speak of semi-
systematic collocational restrictions:
e. g. Customer /acquiry of something material in exchange for money/
Client /acquiry of a certain type of service/, but a client of a bank is called
customer, too.
The collocational ranges of some lexical items can only be dscribed by listing
permissible collocants. Such items will be described as having idiosyncratic collocational
restrictions. (Cruse,1987: 281)
unblemished spotless flawless immaculate impeccable
performance - - + + +
argument - - + - ?
complexion ? ? + - -
behavior - - - - +
kitchen - + - + -
The table above represents Cruse’s own intuitions. No semantic motivation can be discerned
for the collocational patterns. It is debatable whether idiosyncratic restrictions are a matter of
semantics at all.
Bibliography:
1. Chiţoran, D.1973. Elements of English Structural Semantics, Bucureşti: E.D.P.
2. Cruse, D.1987. Lexical Semantics,Cambridge: CUP.
3. Leech, G.1990. Semantics, London: Penguin Books.
57
4. Lyons, J.1977. Semantics, Cambridge: CUP.
Chapter VII
SEMANTIC THEORY WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF GENERATIVE-
TRANSFORMATIONAL GRAMMAR
60
Scope and object of a semantic theory in generative-transformational grammar.
A semantic theory describes and explains the interpretative competence of the speaker. This
ability implies that a speaker can interpret sentences in the sense that he can relate them
appropriately to "states, processes and objects in the universe" (Bierwisch 1971: 167).
A speaker can understand an infinite number of sentences, some of which he has never
heard before. This is because he knows a number of rules on whose basis he can generate an
infinite number of sentences. The rules are said to project a finite set or rules on an infinite set
of sentences (Katz and Fodor, 1966: 481). The problem of formulating such rules represent
the projection problem.
This problem requires for its solution rules which project the infinite set of sentences
in a way which mirrors the way speakers understand novel sentences. In encountering a novel
sentence, the speaker is not encountering new elements but only a novel combination of
familiar elements. Since the set of sentences is infinite and each sentence is a different
concatenation of morphems, the fact that a speaker can understand any sentence must mean
that the way he understands sentences he has never previously encountered is compositional,
i.e. it is based on his knowledge of the grammatical properties and the meaning of the
morphems of the language. The rules the speaker knows enable him to determine the meaning
of a novel sentence, by following the manner in which the parts of the sentence are composed
to form wholes. As any speaker is able to grasp the difference in meaning between any two
syntactically similar strings, this ability falling under the scope of semantic theory, it follows
that the projection problem is fully solved only in as much as the grammar is supplemented by
a semantic theory.
The aims and objectives of a semantic theory as part of the transformational-
generative theory of language are:
a) to establish the meaning and the degree of ambiguity of a sentence;
b) to detect semantic anomalies;
c) to state the paraphrase relation between sentences;
d) to state other relevant semantic properties of sentences.
These objectives are self-evident for the innovative character of this semantic theory
as compared to more traditional ones. While semanticists in the past were mainly concerned
with the analysis of meaning (usually of isolated elements), the change in the evolution of
meaning etc., the interest is now switched to the analysis of the meaning of sentences, and of
their semantic properties. (Chitoran, 1973: 172).
61
The semantic component of generative-transformational grammar. The semantic
component of a linguistic description is a projective device consisting of:
1) a dictionary that provides a meaning for each of the lexical items of the language;
2) a finite set of projection rules which assign a semantic interpretation to which
string of formatives (or string of words) generated by the syntactic component. To arrive at a
semantic interpretation it is necessary for each lexical item in a string of formatives to be
assigned a meaning on the basis of the semantic information provided by the dictionary.
The projection rules then combine these meanings in a manner dictated by the
syntactic description of the string to arrive at a characterization of the meaning of the whole
string and of each of its constituents. This process reconstructs the way in which a speaker is
able to obtain the meaning of a sentence from the meaning of its lexical items and its syntactic
structure.
The dictionary part of the semantic component offers information on a lexical entry
which is analyzed at four distinct levels.
At the first level, each lexical entry is categorized grammatically by indicating its
syntactic marker, i.e. the grammatical class to which it belongs (noun, adjective, transitive,
etc.). The semantic information proper, i.e. the specification of the meaning or meanings of
the respective item is given under the form of semantic markers (as semantic categories of the
type: Animate, Human, Male, etc., which indicate the semantic relations obtaining
among various lexical units and appearing therefore in the description of many of them) and
distinguishers, which reflect the idiosyncretic elements in the meaning of lexical items.
Semantic markers and distinguishers are the transformational analogues of semes in
the structural semantics (the first are similar to classemes and the second to semantemes). The
distinction between semantic markers and distinguishers consists in the fact that semantic
markers are used in the semantic description of more formatives (words), while distinguishers
occur only in the description of a certain formative, individualizing it. For example in the case
of the formative mammal the semantic marker is (+Animate) and the distinguisher is [they
feed the young with their own milk]. The first can appear in the description of many
formatives: mammal, fish, bird and the second is applied only to mammal. (E. Ionescu 1992: 192).
The fourth type of information provided by the dictionary refers to the combinatorial
abilities of lexical items in a given syntactic construction to render a definite meaning. These
rules of the combination of items in order to render a given meaning take the form of
selectional restrictions in the dictionary suggested by Katz and Fodor. Thus, handy means
62
clever with the hands when said of persons, and easy to use, convenient to handle when used
of things and places.
The syntactic marker of an item is indicated by the grammatical terms denoting it;
semantic markers are enclosed between normal brackets (...), distinguishers are enclosed
between square brackets [...] and selectional restrictions are given between angles ....
The second constituent of the theory is represented by the projection rules
(amalgamation), whose object is to account for the semantic relations among morphems and
the interraction between meaning and syntactic structure. Projection rules are ultimately
responsible for assigning a semantic interpretation to a sentence.
This they do in the first place by associating to the lexical items of a given sentence S,
those readings which are compatible with their syntactic categorization as revealed by the
phrase marker of the respective S (Katz and Postal 1964: 18). The next operation that
projection rules perform is to combine the readings of inferior constituents into derived
readings of successively higher constituents until the readings for the whole sentence are
arrived at. The process by means of which composite readings are arrived at by combining
readings from each of the sets of readings dominated by a given node in a phrase marker, is
called amalgamation. There is an interplay of syntactic and semantic relations in regulating
the pairing of readings, since one condition for two items to be joined in syntactic relation, is
that all selectional restrictions of one be included in the semantic markers of the other.
A closer analysis of the dictionary component of Katz and Fodor semantic theory
reveals many similarities with previous approaches to the science of meaning. In fact, what
Katz and Fodor do in their dictionary component of the theory is to rediscover the Aristotlean
reference to genres and species (semantic markers and distinguishers) (Mounin 1972: 168).
As Coşeriu indicated (1968) what Katz and Fodor essentially do, is to study meaning
along the semasiological direction, that is starting from a given signifiant, proper signifiés are
assigned to it in a given context, following certain (syntactic) operations. In its original form
the theory does not account for such well established facts as the existence of primary
meanings and secondary ones, and in particular, it does not account for transferred meanings,
and, in general, for the widespread use of metaphor in language.
An obvious criticism that was raised against the theory regards, as in the case of
componential analysis, the very hypothesis according to which linguistic signification and
semantic structure in general can be reduced to a relatively small set of "atoms" of meaning,
with no residue whatever because this hypothesis is far from having been accepted
unanimously (Chitoran 1973: 177).
63
2. Generative Semantics Versus Interpretive Semantics
The generative-interpretative controversy raged in the early seventies, but had no
conclusive outcome. After a while the partisans of each side moved on the other topics of interest.
The popular labels generative semantics and interpretive semantics refer not so much
to ways of studying semantics per se, as to ways of relating semantics to syntax. Both
developed out of the Standard Theory of 1965 (Aspects of the Theory of Syntax) in wich a
sentence was seen as organized syntactically on two chief levels: that of deep structure and
that of surface structure. The surface structure of a sentence was derived from the deep
structure by means of transformational rules involving such operations as the delition of
constituents, the movement of constituents from one part of a sentence to another, etc. The
rules which specified the DS were phrase structure rules, which spelt out the basic
constituency of sentences in terms of categories like Noun Phrases, Verbs, etc. As it was
previously mentioned, these rules made up the base component of syntax, and had as their
output (after the insertion of lexical items) deep structures and the transformational rules
made up the transformational component of syntax, and had as their output surface structures.
Apart from syntax, which was the central part of the total grammar, these were two
interpretive components: the phonological and the semantic. The phonetic interpretation of a
sentence was derived from its surface structure by means of phonological rules, while the
semantic interpretation of a sentence was derived from the deep structure through the
operation of the so-called projection rules of semantics. The whole theory, therefore, through
the interaction of its various components, provided a matching of phonetic outputs with
semantic outputs (G. Leech 1990: 344). So, the theory provides an account of the pairing of
meanings with sounds which any complete linguistic theory must attempt. The syntactic
component has special status, being the point from which the derivation of both sounds and
meaning originates. Among the special claims of Standard Theory are (1) that syntactic
surface structure is the only level of syntax relevant to the specification of phonetic
interpretation; and (2) that syntactic deep structure is the only level of syntax relevant to
semantic interpretation. This second point brings with it the important principle that
transformational rules are meaning-preserving; that is, they do not in any way alter the
meaning of the structures that they operate on. This means, in effect, that all sentences that
have the same deep structures have the same meanings.
We can see, Standard Theory provides for an interpretative semantic component; that
is the meaning of a sentence is specified by the application of semantic rules to a syntactic
base. It may be diagrammed as follows:
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Standard Theory
Transformational Grammar 1965
Semantic Interpretation
(Projection Rules)
(Transformational Rules)
SURFACE STRUCTURE
(Phonological Rules)
Phonetic Interpretation
SEMANTIC REPRESENTATION
(or deep structure)
(Transformational Rules)
SURFACE STRUCTURE
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(Phonological Rules)
Phonetic Interpretation
Since it eliminates the projectional rule component, the generativist model has the
advantage of overall simplicity of design. But, the simplification is necessarily at the cost of
expanding the transformational component, and making the chain of transformational
derivation for each sentence considerably longer than was envisaged by Chomsky in 1965.
(G. Leech 1990: 347).
The generativists, in the main, stayed commited to the view that transformational rules
do not change meaning. This proved the most vulnerable principle in their model, and was
subject to the severest criticisms from interpretivists.
Within the framework of generative-transformational grammar, a "battle" is being
fought not only between two rival semantic theories - interpretive semantics and generative
semantics - but also between two versions of grammar: one which is syntactically based (the
"standard" theory as developed by Chomsky, Katz, Fodor, Postal, including interpretive
semantics) and another one which is semantically based (generative semantics).
In the standard theory, syntax is independent; it is the generative source of the
grammar, which provides a deep and a surface syntactic structure. The deep structure provides
all necessary information to the semantic component whose task is to assign semantic
interpretations (readings) to the deep structures generated by the syntactic component.
With the generative semantics models, the semantic component is the generative
source of the grammar. The semantic representations which initiate the derivation of sentences
are independently generated, and are then mapped onto surface (syntactic) structures by
means of transformations. (Chitoran 1973: 181).
Thus there have been two ways heading to generative semantics:
1. the revision of the standard model particularly of the notions of deep structure, selectional
restrictions, etc.
2. a reappraisal of the semantic component, more specifically of semantic representation.
Leech (1990) considers that a simple way of defining interpretive and generative
semantics is to say that in the one case the semantic representation of a sentence is derived
from a syntactic base, whereas in the other, the (surface) syntactic representation is derived
from a semantic base.
The same author proposes a three-component model of language (semantics-syntax-
phonology) in which expression rules would have the function of translating (or "recoding")
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semantic representations as syntactic representations, or vice versa (no directional precedence
was assumed). Thus we have two separate bases, with syntax and semantics both having
independent well-formedness conditions. In fact, various phonologists (Sampson 1970) have
also argued for a phonological base. Hence, Leech's model differs from both the generative
and interpretative models in containing more than one base component (Leech 1990: 349; 351).
Bibliography:
1. Chiţoran, D. 1973. Elements of English Structural Semantics, Bucureşti: E.D.P.
2. Leech, G. 1990. Semantics. The Study of Meaning. London: Penguin Books.
Chapter VIII
NEW SEMANTIC THEORIES
1. Categorization
The process of categorization is essential because it represents "the main way we
make sense of experience" (G. Lakoff 1987: XI). This mental operation, which consists in
putting together different things, is present in all our activities: thinking, perception, speaking
etc. Categorization and categories are fundamental for the organization of human experience.
Without this capacity of surpassing individual entities in order to reach a conceptual structure,
the environment would be chaotic and forever new. (E. Cauzinille-Marmèche, D. Dubois, J.
Mathieu, 1988).
Most of the concepts or mental representations correspond to certain categories and
not to individual entities. Therefore, it is fundamental to know the mechanisms of
categorization, trying to give an answer to the question: What are the criteria which decide
that an entity belongs to a category? The objectivist current gives a clear answer:
categorization is made on the basis of common characteristics. The experiential realism
imposes a different view, based on prototype theory. G. Lakoff considers that the theory of
prototype changed our conception about categorization, reasoning and other human capacities
(G. Lakoff 1987: 7).
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BIRD than penguin or ostrich. This approach seems to have been supported by Rosch's
experimental evidence: speakers tend to agree more readily on typical members than on less
typical members; they come to mind more quickly, etc. Another result of this approach and
similar work (e.g. Labov 1973) is that the boundaries between concepts can seem to speakers
uncertain, or "fuzzy", rather than clearly defined.
G. Kleiber (1999) speaks about two sciences of prototype theory: the standard theory
and the extended theory. The standard theory corresponds to the period when E. Rosch and
her team publish their work. According to prototype theory, the category is structured on two
dimensions: the horizontal dimension (the internal structure) and the vertical dimension
(intercategorial relations).
The Horizontal Dimension. The prototype is the best exemplar, the central instance of
a category. This new conception is based on the following principles (Kleiber 1997: 51).
1. The category has an internal prototypical structure.
2. The borderlines of the categories or concepts are not very clearly delimited, they
are vague.
3. Not all the members of a category present common characteristics; they are
grouped together on the basis of the family resemblance.
4. An entity is a member of a certain category if it presents similarities with the
prototype.
So, this approach allows for borderline uncertainty: an item in the world might bear
some resemblance to two different prototypes. Here we might give examples of speakers
being able to use the word whale, yet being unsure about whether a whale is a mammal or a
fish. In the prototype theory of concepts, this might be explained by the fact that whales are
not typical of the category MAMMAL, being far from the central prototype. At the same time,
whales resemble prototypical fish in some characteristic features: they live underwater in the
oceans, have fins, etc.
There are a number of interpretations of these typicality effects in the psychology
literature: some researchers for example have argued that the central prototype is an
abstraction. This abstraction might be a set of characteristic features to which we compare real
items. These characteristic features of BIRD might describe a kind of average bird, small,
perhaps, with wings, feathers, the ability to fly, etc. but of no particular species. Other
researchers have proposed that we organize our categories by exemplars, memories of actual
typical birds, say sparrows, pigeons and hawks, and we compute the likelihood of something
we meet being a bird on the basis of comparison with these memories of real birds.
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There is another approach to typicality effects within linguistics, which is interesting
because of the light it sheds on the relationship between linguistic knowledge and
encyclopedic knowledge. Kleiber called this approach the extended version of the prototype
theory. Charles Fillmore (1982) and G. Lakoff (1987) both make similar claims that speakers
have folk theories about the world, based on their experience and rooted in their culture.
These theories are called frames by Fillmore and idealized cognitive models (ICMD) by
Lakoff. They are not scientific theories or logically consistent definitions, but collections of
cultural views. Fillmore gives an example of how these folk theories might work by using the
word bachelor. It is clear that that some bachelors are more prototypical than others, with the
Pope, for example, being far from prototypical. Fillmore and Lakoff (1987) suggests that
there is a division of our knowledge about the word bachelor: part is a dictionary-type
definition ("an unmarried man") and part is an encyclopaedia-type entry of cultural
knowledge about bachelorhood and marriage - the frame or ICM. The first we can call
linguistic or semantic knowledge and the second real world or general knowledge. Their point
is we only apply the word bachelor within a typical marriage ICM: a monogamous union
between eligible people, typically involving romantic love, etc. It is this idealized model, a
form of general knowledge, which governs our use of the word bachelor and restrains us from
applying it to celibate priests, or people living in isolation like Tarzan living among apes in
the jungle. In this view, when using a word involves combining semantic knowledge and
encyclopaedia knowledge, and this interaction may result in typicality effects.
G. Leech (1990) considers that one of the flaws of the prototype semantics is that it
reduces the role of conceptual semantics, in explaining word meaning, to the minimum of
matching a word to a category. But the nominal view appears to be too restricted, because it
can only be easily applied to common nouns (rather than to adjectives, verbs, etc.).
In addition to the category - recognizing ability, human beings also have a different
order of cognitive ability - something which is much more closely tied to language - which is
the ability to recognize structural relations between categories. (G. Leech 1990: 85).
Although the prototype theory was considered a veritable revolution, it is not a
miraculous solution for all semantic problems and it cannot surpass all the difficulties which
remain unsolved in the classical model of necessary and sufficient conditions. But, the theory
brings three new elements of a great importance for lexical semantics.
(i) This theory allows us to integrate in the meaning of a word, characteristics
excluded by the classical model, being considered unnecessary, encyclopaedic features;
(ii) It proves the existence of an internal organization of the category.
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(iii) It also explains the hierarchical conceptual structure and intercategorial relations.
We also have to take into account that this theory is a theory of categorization, first
intended for psychological goals.
75
FINAL TESTS AND QUESTIONS
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