Sentence meaning: Types of sentence meaning

1. The meaning of the sentence: Ý nghĩa của câu

- A sentence is the largest unit of grammatical organization within which parts of
speech (e.g. nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, etc.) and grammatical classes (e.g.
words, phrases, clausse) are said to function. In English a sentence normally
contains one independent clause.
- The meaning of a sentence is not the sum of the meanings of the words used in
the sentence.
- It is more correct to regard it as a function of the meanings of the words used
in the sentence, modality, and structural meaning signalled by the way
words are organized into sentences.
E.g: - There are 20 of us in the class.
- She is likely to be late.
- The there 20 of us in class are.
- Sentence and utterance
An utterance is often regarded as any stretch of speech before which and after
which there is a pause.
- An utterance may be any piece of language such as a sequence of sentences, or a
sentence, or just a phrase, or even a single word, used on a particular occasion.
- An utterance may be seen as a product of the process of uttering.
- A sentence, on the other hand, may be defined as the ideal underlying structure
behind an utterance, expressing a complete thought.
2. Grammaticality, meaningfulness and acceptability: Ngữ pháp, ý nghĩa và khả
năng chấp nhận
a. Grammaticality
- A grammatical sentence is one which is formed according to the rules of
grammar.
E.g.
 - Grammatical sentence:
There are 20 of us in the class.
- Ungrammatical sentence:
Do you angry?
b. Meaningfulness
- The meaningfulness of a sentence is conditioned by how well-informed that
sentence is semantically.
E.g. - Meaningful sentence:
Scott is a lazy, stupid, disagreeable, stubborn guy.
- Meaningless sentence:
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
Thursday is in bed with Friday.
- Most sentences we produce are grammatical and meaningful.
E.g. Nothing is gonna change my love for you.
- A sentence which is grammatically correct is not necessarily meaningful.
E.g. It asks a pile of rubbish to clean the ant.
c. Acceptability
In grammatical sense
- Some sentences are unacceptable because it is not grammatically possible.
E.g. I love speak but I think it is so difficult to get fluency.

3. The principle of compositionality: Nguyên tắc thành phần

In semantic sense
Suitability to social etiquette
After the battle, the  Unacceptable
 enemies all passed away.
You are my dog.  Unacceptable in Greece
Acceptable in Britain
Rationality/ logical coherence
She died even though she  Unacceptable
fell down from the 100th floor.
Glottlob Frege was said to be the father of compositionality.
According to him, understanding a sentence requires understanding the parts and
the way they are put together.
Compositionality is defined by Fromkin et al. as follows: The meaning of a
sentence is determined by the meanings of its parts and by the way in which those
parts are assembled.
This compositional approach will have two aspects: an account of the meanings of
the basic elements of languages (words and morphemes), and an account of how
the meanings of complex expressions (phrases and sentences) are built up from the
meanings of their parts.
On the basis of the principle of compositionality or functionality, it is possible to
speak out a number of meanings that reside in the sentence: structural, textual,
representational and interpersonal/ modality.
- The meaning of a sentence is determined by the meanings of its parts and by
the way in which those parts are assembled.

4. Variables in the function of sentence meaning: Các biến trong chức năng nghĩa
của câu.
a. The structural meaning
- The structural meaning of the sentence is the kind of meaning that results
from a particular arrangement of the parts of the sentence.
E.g.
- The mantte wernnted a yob.
 - My fueak liauded me to doen.

b. The interpersonal meaning

- Halliday’s term “interpersonal” embraces largely what is collectively expressed
by a more common term “modality”.
- Modality expresses the attitude and opinion of the speaker toward the
representational content of the sentence.
- However, “attitude” and “opinion” in this sense has little to do with the emotional
states that a person undergoes.
- In fact, the interpersonal meaning has to do with the function of speech or
“illocutionary force”.
- Then the meaning of a sentence is the function of P (Proposition) and F
(illocutionary force).
 To influence people’s behaviour and get things done.
This function may be called the instrumental function, that is influencing
people’s behaviour or getting things done.
E.g. - Could you pass me the wine? (Request)
- Why was she late? (Enquiry)
- Don’t do that again. (Warning)
- If you keep doing this, I’ll… (Threat)
The interpersonal function
 To express the speaker’s feelings, attitudes and opinions towards, or
assessment of, the representational content of the sentence via the use of
modal verbs and adverbs.
E.g.
- What she said may be right.
- You must be feeling hungry by now.
- This is probably right.
c. The textual meaning
- The textual function or meaning is to create texts. It is this function that
helps to give texts coherence and cohesion.
E.g. The healing power of maggots is not new. Human beings have discovered it
several times. The Maya are said to have used maggots for therapeutic purposes
1000 years ago. As early as the 16 th century, European doctors noticed that soldiers
with maggots-infested wounds healed well.
d. The representational meaning
- The representational meaning can be defined in terms of experiential and logical
functions.
 The experiential function: is to communicate ideas.
+ It is the main function by which a speaker expresses the content elements of his
utterance, by referring to people, objects, states of affairs, events, qualities, places,
actions and circumstances, all of which are parts of the world we live in.
E.g. John invited Susan to go to the cinema with him last night.

 The logical function: relates ideas to each other on an equal or subordinate

basis.
E.g. - The bus was crowded and I had to stand all the way (equal).
- We all believe that working hard is the key to success.
Notes: The representational meaning in Halliday’s terminology corresponds to a
much used but troublesome notion of “proposition”.
- According to Halliday, the experiental sub-component of the
representational meaning provides an account of the underlying content of a
sentence or an utterance. It handles within its scope:
 Processes: actions, events, states, relations
 Participating entities/ Participants: persons, objects, abstractions
Circumstances: time, place, reasons, conditions, results, etc. which are associated
with the process