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Semantics and pragmatics

Yanti, Ph.D.
Course: Introduction to English Linguistics
Department: English Education

The study of meaning

• Semantics: : the study of the linguistic
meaning of morphemes, words, phrases, and
sentences.
• Pragmatics: the study of how context affects
meaning.
• Two subfields of semantics:
– Lexical semantics
– Compositional semantics

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When one knows a language…

• Knowing a language means: knowing that a certain sequences of
sounds signify certain concepts or meanings.
• What does the above statement mean?
• knowing the object a word refers to (e.g., table, chair)
• knowing when a sequence of sounds is meaningful (e.g., sleep) or meaningless
(plees)
• knowing when a sequence of words (e.g., a sentence) is meaningful (e.g., Mary
dances) or meaningless (e.g., dances metaphorical each)
• knowing whether a word is ambiguous (e.g., match) or a sentence is ambiguous
(e.g., John hit a man with an umbrella).
• knowing whether two words have the same meaning (e.g., sofa = couch or opposite
meanings (e.g., on >< off); two sentences are synonymous (e.g., Jack kicked a ball
= A ball was kicked by Jack) or have opposite meanings (e.g., Jack came x Jack
didn’t come)
• knowing the truth condition of a sentence
• knowing the relation between sentences

Knowing a language involves knowing that a

sentence is true or false
• All queens are female [true]
• All bachelors are married [false]
• Indonesia’s Declaration of Independence was
signed in 1954L: [Is this true or false?]

Knowing the meaning enables one to determine

whether a sentence is true or false.

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Knowing a language involves knowing that a

sentence is true or false
• When you hear the sentence Jack kissed
Laura, you know
– the meaning of the sentence
– you can judge whether the sentence is true or not
(whether the speaker is misinformed or lying)

• Knowing the meaning of a sentence = knowing

its truth conditions.

Knowing a language involves knowing that a

sentence is true or false
• Knowing the truth condition of a sentence
enables a speaker to know the relation
between sentences.
• If you know that this sentence is true: Nina
bathed her dogs, you can infer that the
following sentence must also be true: Nina’s
dogs got wet.
• The first sentence entails the second sentence.

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Semantic knowledge
• Knowing the truth conditions of a sentence
means:
– knowing when one sentence entails another
sentence
– knowing when two sentences are paraphrases or
synonyms
– knowing when two sentences are contradictory

Entailment
• Entailment means meaning relation.
• One sentence entails another if whenever the first
sentence is true, the second sentence is also true.
(a). Mary dances beautifully.
(b). Mary can dance.
If sentence (a), Mary dances beautifully, is true, then
you know that the sentence (b), Mary can dance, is also
true.
• What about the reverse?

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Entailment
• Mary dances beautifully entails Mary can dance.
• Mary can dance does not entail Mary dances
beautifully. Why not?
• Because knowing the truth condition of Mary can
dance does not necessitate the truth of Mary dances
beautifully. It is possible that “Mary dances poorly”.
• So: Entailment goes in only one direction.

Paraphrases
• Knowing the truth condition of a sentence enables a
speaker to know the relation between sentences.
• Two sentences are paraphrases or synonyms if they
are both true or both false with respect to the same
situations:
• Jack put off the meeting and Jack postponed the
meeting are paraphrases/synonyms.
• In this case the two sentences entail each other.

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Contradictory
• Two sentences are contradictory if whenever
one is true, the other is false.
• Jack is alive and Jack is dead are
contradictory.

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Lexical semantics: The meaning of words

• Lexical semantics is the study of individual
words and their relationships to others.
• The meaning of a word is its referent, i.e., the
thing or things in the real world that the word
refers to.
• For example, Mary [proper name] can also be
referred to as the happy swimmer, my friend,
that girl, etc.

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Lexical semantics: The meaning of words

• Semantic properties: the components of

meaning of a word.
• The word assassin means human who kills
someone who is prominent.
• The semantic properties of the word assassin:
human, murderer, killer of an important person

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Lexical semantics: The meaning of words

• A semantic class contains words that share a

semantic property. For example:
– Female à tigress, hen, mare, girl, woman, mother
– Male à cock, man, boy, father
– Human à woman, bachelor, doctor, baby, child
– Young à baby, child

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Semantic properties of nouns

[female]: tigress, hen, aunt, widow, woman
[female], [human]: aunt, widow, woman
[female], [animal]: tigress, hen

[human]: doctor, bachelor, dean, father, uncle, baby

[human] [young]: baby, child
[human] [male] [adult]: bachelor, father
[human] [male] [adult] [parent]: father

Semantic classes may intersect.

The intersection of ‘human’ and ‘young’
are baby and child

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Semantic Properties and Features

• One way to represent semantic properties is by
using semantic features:
woman, lioness, mother: all of them share the
features [+female] and [+animate].
• Semantic features: a notational device for
expressing the presence or absence of semantic
properties by using plus and minus.
• Example:
– water, oil: [+liquid] [-count]
– dog, cat, bird: [-human] [+animate]

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Semantic features of nouns

• There is an important distinction between nouns that can be counted
(countable) and nouns that cannot (mass)
[+count]: dog, book, glass
[-count]: milk, joy

This distinction has syntactic effects:

[+count] nouns can be enumerated, pluralized, and you can add certain
determiners such as a and many.
[-count] nouns cannot be enumerated, pluralized, and you cannot add a
determiner.

Other semantic features of nouns:

[+/- human], [+/- animate], [+/- male], [+/- female], [+/-
young], [+/-adult], [+/-parent], [+/-liquid]

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Exercises
• What semantic feature distinguishes the
following words?
man, woman, girl, hen
• What semantic feature(s) do the words in
each group share?
– mother, sister, aunt, girl
– rain, blood, sugar, air, water
– table, chair, stone, boat, bottle
– teacher, driver, engineer, farmer

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Exercises
• What semantic feature distinguishes the following
words?
– man [+human, +adult, +male]
– woman [+human, +adult, -male]
– girl [+human, -adult, -male]
– hen [-human, +adult, -male]
• What semantic feature(s) do the words in each group
share?
– mother, sister, aunt, girl [+human, -male]
– rain, blood, sugar, air, water [-count]
– table, chair, stone, boat, bottle [+count]
– teacher, driver, engineer, farmer [+human]

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Marked vs. unmarked forms

• How high is the mountain? (not: How low is the
mountain?)
• How old are you? (not: How young are you?)
à high is unmarked, low is marked
• How short is the rope? (The rope is definitely short)
• How young is she? (talking about someone’s girlfriend
who is most likely to be too young for him)
cf. *How young is she? (talking about someone’s
grandmother)

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Semantic features of verbs

• Verbs with ‘cause’ feature : darken, kill, uglify
• Verbs with ‘go’ feature (a change in location or
possession): swim, crawl, throw, fly, give, buy
• Verbs with ‘become’ feature (expressing the end state of
the action of certain verbs): break, burn
• Verbs with ‘contact’ feature: hit, kiss, touch
• Verbs with ‘sense’ feature: see, hear, feel
• Verbs with ‘creation’ feature: build, imagine, make,
produce

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Other semantic features of verbs

• Eventive verbs: kiss, eat
– Mary was kissed by John.
– John is kissing Mary.
• Stative verbs: know, like
– ?Mary is known by John.
– ?John is knowing Mary.

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Word meaning
• Words can also be related to one another in other
ways:
– synonyms
– antonyms
– homonyms/homophones
– polysemy
– metonymy
– hyponyms
– hypernyms

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Word meaning: Synonyms

• Synonyms: words that have the same or nearly
the same meaning.
– “couch” vs. “sofa”
– “uninterested” vs. “indifferent”
• Not perfect synonyms? (no two words ever
have exactly the same meaning)
“deep” vs. “profound”
deep thoughts profound thoughts
deep holes *profound holes

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Word meaning: Antonyms

• Antonyms: words that have the opposite meaning.
– alive vs. dead
– complete vs. incomplete
• Three types of antonyms:
– Complementary single married
– Gradable cold cool warm hot
(test with ‘VERY’)
– Relational above below
give receive
buy sell

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Word meaning: Antonyms

• Several ways to form antonyms:
– prefix un-: likely/unlikely, able/unable,
fortunate/unfortunate
– prefix non-: entity/nonentity,
conformists/nonconformists
– prefix in-: tolerant/intolerant,
discreet/indiscreet, decent/indecent

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Word meaning: Homonyms/Homophones

• Homonym/Homophone: words with different

meanings, pronounced (sometimes also
spelled) the same
– night and knight
– too, to and two
– bank of the river and bank where we put our
money

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Word meaning: Polysemy

• Polysemy: a word with several meanings
– Hold (verb): aim / support / contain /
accommodate / regard / conduct / last / pause
– Get (verb):
• I’ll get the drink (buy)
• I don’t get it (understand)
• She got scared (became)
• I’ve got three dollars (have)

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Word meaning: Metonymy

• Metonymy: Substituting the name of an
attribute or related idea for the actual name
– I often like to listen to Bach.
– The White House has a lot of power.

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Word meaning: Hyponyms and

Hypernyms
• Hyponyms:
– Poodle and chihuahua are hyponyms of dogs
– daisy and rose are hyponyms of flower
– glimpse, stare, gaze are hyponyms of see
• Hypernym:
– Dogs is a hypernym of poodle and chihuahua
– Flower is the hypernym of daisy and rose.
– The verb see is the hypernym of glimpse, stare,
gaze

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Word meaning: Hyponyms and

Hypernyms
What is the
relation between
‘Mocca’ and
Lulu?

Sister terms:
words that have
the same
hypernyms

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Phrasal/sentential semantics
• Phrasal/sentential semantics is the study of
phrasal and sentence meanings.

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Phrasal/sentential semantics
• Verb-centered meaning
Pete broke the computer
fixed
used
• Pete is the “doer” of some action, whereas the
computer is the one which underwent the
action. “Pete” is called the agent, and “the
computer” the theme.

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Phrasal/sentential semantics
There are other thematic roles besides agent and theme
• Location: the place where an action takes place.
– He stayed in the hotel.
• Goal: the place (person) to which an action is directed.
– Give the book to the teacher.
• Source: the place from which an action originates.
– Walk from school.
• Instrument: the means by which an action is performed.
– Write with a pen.
• Experiencer: one who perceives something.
– Helen heard Robert playing the piano.

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• TWO TYPES OF SUBJECTS:

– AGENT = intention, volition
– EXPERIENCER = unintentional

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Phrasal/sentential semantics
• Thematic roles are the same in sentences that are
paraphrases:
The dog bit the stick = The stick was bitten by the
dog. The stick = The theme. Why?
• This is because certain thematic roles must be
assigned to the same deep structure position.
à The stick in the second sentence is in the object
position in the deep structure.

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Phrasal/sentential semantics
– Pete broke the computer.
agent theme
– The computer broke.
theme
– The boy opened the door with the key.
agent theme instrument
– The key opened the door
instrument theme
– The door opened
theme

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But not all verbs can alternate:

• Pete ate the chicken.
agent theme
• The chicken ate.
agent

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Transitivity
• Verbs may require an obligatory number of objects
with fixed thematic roles.
– Intransitive verb
• The boy arrived.
– ARRIVE <agent>
– Transitive verb
• She ate the cake.
– EAT <agent, theme>
– Ditransitive verb
• I gave her the book.
– GIVE <agent, goal, theme>

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Another way to classify verbs

• Whether or not the action is causal or there is a
change as the result of the action:
• Eventive vs. Stative
– eventive verbs describe events (AGENT subjects)
– stative verbs describe states (EXPERIENCER
subjects)

– Test: BE –ING only works with eventives

• eat, run, talk, pretend
• know, notice, hear, like

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Phrasal/sentential semantics
• There are cases when the meaning of larger units
does not follow from the meaning of its parts.
– Anomaly: when the pieces do not fit sensibly together. E.g.
The dog spoke eloquently.
– Metaphors: sentences that appear to be anomalous, but to
which a meaningful concept can be attached. e.g., Time is
money.
– Idioms: fixed expressions whose meaning is not
compositional must be learned as a whole unit. e.g., kick
the bucket à ‘to die’

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Pragmatics

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What is pragmatics?
• Pragmatics is a sub-field of linguistics which studies
the ways context contributes to meaning.
• Two kinds of contexts:
– Linguistic context
• Within a discourse, the meaning of a sentence is affected by the
preceding sentences.
e.g. He went to a shop. It was closed. [we know that it refers to a
shop.
– Situational context
• the non-linguistic environment in which a sentence is uttered,
which influences the way the sentence is interpreted.
e.g. Could you turn on the AC? à a request, NOT a question
It’s very hot in here.-> may be a request to turn on the AC

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Linguistic context
• Lexical items can get their meaning from other NPs
in the sentence or in the larger discourse.
e.g.
Diana met Tom yesterday. He came to the party.
antecedent pronoun
• Any NP that a pronoun depends on for its meaning is
called an antecedent.

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Pronouns
• Reflexive pronouns in English (himself, herself,
themselves) always depend on an NP antecedent
for their meaning and the antecedent must be in
the same clause.
e.g. Tom hit himself.
*Tom said that the girl hit himself.
Tom said that his brother hit him.
Tom hit him (him must be someone else).
Tom hit himself (him must be Tom)

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Pronouns
• Pronouns cannot refer to an antecedent in the same
clause, but they are free to refer to an NP outside this
clause.
• e.g. *John knows him (him must refer to someone,
NOT John)

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Deixis
• Words/phrases/expressions which meaning
depends entirely on the situational context of
the utterance.
• Types of deixis:
Ø person deixis: he, she, this person, those children
Ø time deixis: now, this time, last week, next year
Ø place deixis: there, here, over there

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Situational context
• Contextual knowledge: knowledge of who is speaking, who is
listening, what objects are being discussed, and general facts
about the world we live in.
• Can you understand the meaning of the following
conversation?
A: I have a 14 year old son.
B: Well that’s right.
A: I also have a dog.
B: Oh, I’m sorry.

• It would be hard to catch it, unless you know that A is trying to

rent an apartment from B and B doesn’t accept pets.

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Situational context
• It’s cold in here.
– Possible interpretation?
• Situational context may take the form of a
gesture such as pointing:
– He went that way.

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Grice’s Cooperative Principles and the

Conversational Maxims
• Maxims of quantity
– Make your contribution as informative as required.
– Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.
• Maxims of quality
– Do not say what you believe to be false.
– Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.
• Maxim of relevance
– Be relevant.
• Maxims of manner
– Avoid obscurity of expression.
– Avoid ambiguity.
– Be brief.
– Be orderly.

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Implicature
• Interpreting sentences based not only on what
was said, but also on assumption about what the
speaker is trying to achieve.
– A: Is Alex dating someone these days?
– B: Well, he goes to Bandung every weekend.

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Speech Acts
• We use language to do things, such as make promises, offer
help, make a request, give warnings, tell jokes, pay
compliments, etc. The theory of speech acts explains how it
works.
• Read the following sentences:
– I pronounce you husband and wife
– I promise to perform better in the show
– I resign
– I fine you 500 thousand rupiahs for violating the red light
• The sentences above use performative verbs.
• The speaker’s intent in making an utterance is called
illocutionary force.

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