Semantics

The Nature of Meaning

❑ Language is conveyed in terms of expressions.
❑An Expression is a meaningful unit of language such as affix, word , phrase
or sentence.
❑ A unit is any simple or complex expression that carries a lexical or
grammatical pattern and serves a particular purpose.
❑A linguistic expression has two aspects, one is substance and the other is
use.
❑Substance consists of two facades, form and meaning.
❑Form is the orthographic representation associated with a linguistic
expression.
▪Meaning is the semantic content associated with a linguistic
expression.
▪Form serves to indicate meaning.
▪Use is the purpose for or the way in which a linguistic expression is
employed.
▪The use of a linguistic expression is determined by the way the
language user describes a situation, which differs relative to the
demands of the discourse.
 Linguistic
expression

substance use

Language
form meaning
user
Levels of meaning
▪A linguistic expression has two levels of meaning, expression meaning and utterance
meaning.
▪The first is expression meaning, the meaning of a linguistic expression, word or sentence,
taken out of context.
▪Word meaning is the literal meaning of a word taken out of context, which is derived
from the morphemes it consists of.
▪For example, the meaning of the word unanswerable, is built out of the morphemes,
un+answer+able meaning ‘ cannot be answered’.
▪Sentence meaning is the literal meaning of sentence taken out of context, which is built up
from the meanings of the words it contains.
▪For example, the meaning of the sentence, the argument is unanswerable, is that ‘the
argument cannot be answered’.
▪The second is utterance meaning, the non literal meaning of an
expression, word or sentence, which is derived from the context in
which it is used.
▪For example, the meaning of the argument is unanswerable, is that
‘the argument cannot be proved wrong and must be accepted’.
▪The distinction between sentence meaning and utterance meaning is
linked to the distinction between semantics and pragmatics.
▪ Thus, the central aim of semantics is to uncover the meanings of
linguistic expressions when they are used both in and out of context.
▪State the utterance meaning of each of the following sentences:
▪1- That is just what I need!
▪2- You have been a great help!
▪3- That will be extremely useful!
▪4- You are a very tidy cook, I see!
▪5- You have been working hard!
Aspects of Meaning
▪1- Reference Vs Sense
▪Reference is the meaning of an expression which is tied to an actual object in the
world.
▪It is the specific entity, called referent, which any expression stands for on any
occasion of use.
▪Sense, by contrast, is the concept represented by the meaning of an expression
▪It is the meaning of an expression that is basic to its individual identity.
▪It is derived from the position it occupies within the language system or its
semantic relationships with other expressions in the vocabulary of the language.
▪For example, the reference of the expression reader points to an entity that
is capable of reading, however it can be used in other senses as:
▪1- ‘someone who reads something’.
▪2- ‘a book designed for reading’.
▪3- ‘a device that reads very small writings’.
▪Unlike reference which changes each time an expression is applied to a
different referent, sense doesn’t change when the expression takes on a
different referent.
▪For example, the sense of newsreader is ‘ a person who reads the news on
TV or radio’, remains the same whether the referent is Jack or John.
▪2- Denotation Vs Connotation
▪Denotation is the literal, constant and basic meaning of an expression.
▪It is the relationship between an expression and the kind of thing it refers to in the
world.
▪It is the core meaning an expression has as described in dictionary.
▪On the other hand, connotation is the figural, cultural or emotional meaning
associated with an expression.
▪For example, the denotation of the word dog is ‘an animal with four legs and a
tail, often kept as a pet or trained for work’.
▪Its connotation is often positive meaning ‘friend’ or ‘helper’.(the connotation of
an expression depends on emotional values).
Reference Vs Denotation
▪Reference differs from denotation in two ways:
▪1- reference is the act of picking out an entity in the real world.
▪On the other hand, denotation is the relationship between an entity and
its property.
▪For example, in A wasp had flown in through the window the noun
phrases a wasp and the window denote certain classes of things.
▪Thus, the meaning of a word denotes properties of things as follows:
▪A. a proper noun denotes an individual.
▪B. a common noun denotes a set of individuals.
▪C. a verb denotes an action.
▪D. an adjective denotes a property of individual.
▪E. an adverb denotes a property of the action
▪F. the meaning of a sentence denotes a situation or event.
▪2- Reference is a momentary relationship while denotation is a stable
relationship.
▪For example, the referent of the word musician changes according to
context, which could be Mozart, Beethoven, and the like. On the other
hand, its denotation remains the same, which is a person who writes music
or plays a musical instrument professionally.
Thank you