SEMANTICS

n Study of meaning of morphemes, words, sentences,

utterances
n Meaning: where do you find it?
n Dictionary? (sometimes circular)
n Mental image? (dog: what kind? lecture: whose perspective?
honesty, forget, aspect?
n Meaning:
n Cannot be changed
n Shared
n Basic concepts underlie it

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Semantic properties:
n Basically, features, components of
meaning of words
n farmer: human, male, owns land, works
own land
n male: boy, man, actor, bachelor, tomcat,
rooster, bull
n animal: tiger, kitten, puppy
n young: boy, girl, gosling

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Semantic properties (cont’d):
n tomcat: animal, male, feline, domesticated
n kitten: animal, feline, young, male, female,
domesticated
n cause to do: kill, simplify, darken
n No two words have exactly same meaning:
~ make finer distinctions
n Specify only in part:
n dog: no size, breed, color or age specified!

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Justification for sem. properties:
n Slips of the tongue:
Intended: Actual:
Bridge of the nose ----> bridge of the neck
When my gums bled ----> when my tongues bled
He came too late ----> he came too early
The lady with the dachshund ---> The lady with the Volkswagen

n Blend errors:
Splinters/blisters --> splisters
Edited/annotated --> editated
Terrible/horrible --> herrible
Frown/scowl --> frowl

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Rel’ship of form and meaning:
n Not necessarily a 1-to-1 relationship
n Homophone: tale vs. tail, bear vs. bare
n Homonym: bear [n] vs. bear [vb1] vs. bear [vb2],
she can’t bear children: semantically ambiguous (not
syntactically!)
Lexical ambiguity:
She found a book on Main street.
The English teacher is having her tea.

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n Synonym: diff. form, similar meaning
mad/angry, balcony/verandah,
sweater/pullover -- most properties shared

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n Polysemous words: several meanings
Share one meaning with another word
crazy - mad / angry - upset
[fruit] ripe / mature [animal]
[future, person] bright / clever [person] - smart
[water, idea] deep / profound [idea, *water]
Crosslinguistic problem:
glass1 - pohár
glass2 - üveg1
bottle - üveg2

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n Paraphrase: use of synonyms in
otherwise identical sentences
He is bright/clever.
n Antonyms: diff form, opposite meaning
black/white, tall/short, dead/alive
Share all but one semantic property: have to
be similar to be opposite? Must be
semantically similar or in the same category.

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Kinds of antonyms:
n Complementary:
dead/alive, awake/asleep
n Negative of one = other: dead=not alive
n No comparison possible: *He is less dead than his uncle.

n Gradable:
happy/sad, tall/short
n Negative of one ≠ other: tall ≠ not short
n Comparison possible: He is taller than me.
n One marked, other unmarked:
How tall are you? (*How short are you?)
How far/*close is London from Paris?
n Relational:
give/receive, lend/borrow, buy/sell

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Breaking the rules:
n Anomaly: contradiction in meaning
My bachelor brother has a wife.
Ashtrays die young.
n Violations of semantic rules!
n OK in poetry: create effect
As I was going up the stair
I met a man who wasn’t there.
He wasn’t there again today --
I wish to God he’s go away!
n Have to be understandable:
An hour and two whiskeys/*kilos later.
Ability to recognize nonsense shows knowledge of rules!

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Extending the rules:
n Metaphorical meaning:
Mary is a snake. (treacherous, not legless!)
Metaphors depend on anomaly:
John is a snake in the grass. (John≠pet snake)

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Idioms:
n Fixed phrases (more than one word)
n Meaning can’t be inferred from meaning of words:
kick the bucket
let one’s hair down
get one’s ducks in a row
stick out like a sore thumb
n Frozen in form:
John kicked the bucket.
but *The bucket was kicked by John.
*The bucket that John kicked was ugly.
n Often violate rules of semantic properties:
eat one’s hat

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Sense and reference:
n Sense: meaning from semantic properties
n Reference: relationship between
expression and what it stands for

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Relationship between Sense &
Reference:
n Same R, different S:
evening star - morning star
the man who is my father - the man who married my mother
n Sense, but no Reference:
The present king of France is bald.
The female vice president elect of the USA.
n Reference, but no Sense:
Names: John, Mary (no meaning composed from sem. properties, exc.
male/female; symbolic and etymological meaning -- yes). Exc.: Pat,
Chris, Robin, Gabi
Exception: animal names -- Rover (dog), Bossie (cow), Bodri, Cili,
Gyurrika

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Speech act theory
n John Austin “How to do things with words”
(=“Tetten ért szavak”)
n Views semantics in larger context of human
communications
n The study of how we do things with language:
Mary is in the phone booth. -- assertion
Who is she talking to? -- direct question
Tell her to stop. -- order or request

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Performative verbs
n Verb that perform an action:
I accept your offer.
I pronounce you man and wife.
I promise to be there.
I resign.
I baptize you in the name of…
n Perform function in direct and literal way

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Indirect speech acts
n Requests:
Please take the garbage out. -- direct r.
I want you to take the garbage out -- direct r.
The garbage isn’t out yet. -- indirect r.
Can you take the garbage out? -- indirect r.
n It’s certainly hot in here.
assertion
indirect request (to open a window)
invitation (to go and be private)
refusal (to turn up the heat more)

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Meaning of speech acts:
n Can be interpreted only in the given
context. (It’s hot in here…)
n Layers of meaning of speech acts:
Locutionary meaning: literal meaning
Illocutionary force: intended meaning
Perlocutionary force: actual effect on listener

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n Illocutionary force can differ cross-
culturally:
I’m pretty busy, I need to think about this.
Don’t you want to take a shower?
Can I have a kleenex?

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Linguistics:
n Theoretical/Formal linguistics
n Phonetics
n Phonology
n Morphology
n Syntax
n Semantics
n Other aspects of language:
n Historical linguistics
n Sociolinguistics
n Applied linguistics
n Psycholinguistics
n Neurolinguistics
n Etc. etc.

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