NGỮ NGHĨA – NGỮ DỤNG HỌC

COURSE OUTLINE

PART 1: SEMANTICS

I. SENTENCES,
UTTERANCES & PROPOSITIONS
II. SEMANTIC FEATURES / PROPERTIES
III. SEMANTIC / LEXICAL FIELD
IV. REFERENCE & SENSE
V. TYPES OF MEANING
1. Word meaning
2. Sentence meaning
VI. MEANING PROPERTIES / CHARACTERISTICS
1. Anomaly
2. Ambiguity
VII. MEANING RELATION
1. Word relation
2. Sentence relation
VIII. TYPES OF SENTENCE BASING ON TRUTH VALUE
1. Analytic sentence
2. Synthetic sentence
3. Contradictory sentence

PART 2: PRAGMATICS

I. SPEECH ACT
1. Definition
2. Components
3. Speech event / situation
4. Direct & indirect speech act
5. Types of speech act
II. THE COOPERATIVE MAXIMS
III. IMPLICATURE
IV. PRESUPPOSITION

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REFERENCES

Hurford, J.R. and B. Heasley. 1983. Semantics, A Course Book. Cambridge University Press.
Hudson, G. 2000. Essential Introductory Linguistics. Blackwell Publishers Ltd.

Pecci, J.S. 1999. Pragmatics. Routledge.

Richards, J., Platt, J. and Weber, H. 1987. Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics. Longman Group
Limited.

Stageberg, N.C. 1983. An Introductory English Grammar. Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

To Minh Thanh. 2007. Ngu Nghia Hoc Tieng Anh. NXB DAI HOC QUOC GIA TP Ho Chi Minh.

Yule, G. 1996. Pragmatics. Oxford University Press.

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NGỮ NGHĨA HỌC. UNIT 1

UNIT OUT LINE

I. SENTENCES, UTTERANCES & PROPOSITIONS
1. Semantics
2. Pragmatics
3. Proposition
II. SEMANTIC FEATURES / PROPERTIES
III. SEMANTIC / LEXICAL FIELD

1. Semantics + study of language meaning (relation between language & object)

+ means to convey the meaning: sentence
+ sentence: A group of words linked by grammar & conveying a complete
meaning.
Out of context / context free.
Ex: Money doesn’t make happiness
+ type of meaning studied: literal / linguistic / semantic meaning
2. Pragmatics + study of language use (relation between language & user)
+ means to convey the meaning: utterance
+ utterance: A sentence said by a speaker in a particular context.
Context bound / context dependent.
+ In written language, an utterance is put between quotation marks.
Ex: “I love you so much”
+ type of meaning studied: speaker / figurative / pragmatic meaning
Note: Semantically = Literally; Pragmatically = Figuratively

3. Proposition: A proposition is that part of the meaning of the utterance of a declarative

sentence which describes some state of affairs. (Hurford & Heasley, 1983: 19)
Some features of a proposition
 A proposition must be meaningful
 It must be an affirmative or negative sentence (declarative)
 It must be true or false
 Criterion to identify proposition: truth value (T /F). If the 1st utterance is true and the
2nd is also true, they are one proposition. If the 1st utterance is true and the 2nd is false,
they are different propositions.
Ex: (1) John gave Mary a book.
Mary was given a book by John. (2 sentences; same proposition)
(2) Isobel loves Tony.
Tony loves Isobel. (2 sentences; 2 different propositions)
(3) “Dr. Findlay caused Janet to die.”
“Dr. Findlay killed Janet.” (2 utterances; 2 different propositions) (In
the case Dr. Findlay caused Janet to die, but not intentionally)
(4) “Dr. Findlay killed Janet”
“Dr. Findlay caused Janet to die.” (2 utterances; same proposition)

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III. SEMANTIC PROPERTIES/ FEATURES
1. DEFINITION
Semantic features or properties are ‘the smallest units of meaning in a word.’ (Richards, Platt &
Weber, 1987: 254)
Example: (+: plus; - : minus) Father + human
+ male
+ mature
+ married
+ having children …..
The literal meaning of the word ‘father’ is made up by different elements / units / components.
Each unit is a semantic feature / property / component. The process of analyzing the meaning of a word
into components is called componential analysis.
2. CHARACTERISTICS
a. Primitive elements: Semantic feature are basic primitive concepts in linguistics. They are left
undefined.
Ex: human, male, animal, color etc.
b. The same semantic feature may be found in the meaning of different words
Ex: Father, mother, son, daughter, teacher baby … all share the same semantic feature
[+ human].
Mother, daughter, hen, bitch, swine … all share the same semantic feature
[+female].
c. The same semantic feature may be found in words of different parts of speech.
Ex: [+female] is the common feature of mother (N), pregnant (Adj), breast-feed (V).
[+educational] is a semantic feature of the noun teacher, the adjective educated, the verb
teach.

IV. LEXICAL / SEMANTIC FIELD

A semantic field or a lexical field is the organization of related words and expressions into a system which
show their relationship to one another. (Richards. Platt & Weber. 1987:53) In other words, it is a group of
words sharing the same Semantic property / Semantically related
Ex 1:
Human (B) Hypernym / Super-ordinate

Bachelor Father Mother Baby Uncle Sister Hyponymy

(A) Hyponyms
Hyponym is a word ‘whose referent is totally included in the referent of another term. (hypo = below)
Hypernym is a word whose referent covers all the referents of its hyponyms. (hyper = above).
Hyponymy is a one-way relation from hyponyms to hypernym.
Test: A (hyponym) is a kind of B (hypernym). We can say:
A bachelor is a kind of human. Not: A human is a kind of bachelor.
A cat is an animal. Not: An animal is a cat.

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Students are required to do the exercises in the text book