SEMANTICS

1. Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you/ 1. mean= “to intend”

2. Is that what you mean? 2. mean= “to convey a message”

3. Semantics means “simasiologia” in Greek. 3. mean= “a translation”

- SEMANTICS is the study of meaning in language. It can apply to an entire text

or a single word. It deals with the conceptual meaning of words and sentences.
- LEXICAL SEMANTICS- It is concerned with the contextual meaning of words and sentences.

- SYNONYMY- Words with very similar or very closely related meanings.

REFERENCE & SENSE

REFERENCE
- words relate to represent ideas or things.
- the relationship between the word and the object or idea it represents.
- it has a physical representation in the physical world.
E.g.: Rainbow

SENSE
- words that do not have concrete physical referents, but we are able to understand their meaning.
- it can be said that now all words have referents, but all of them have sense.
(E.g.: I love to see a rainbow. )
s

CONCEPTUAL/DENOTATIVE
- denotative meaning, conventional or cognitive meaning
- it refers to the literal meaning of the word which is its primary meaning.
- it is the first meaning that is conveyed to people when the word is used in isolation.
Such meaning is neutral and objective.
(e.g.: Hollywood, Ball, school, or flower.)

ASSOCIATIVE/CONNOTATIVE
- These are the meanings that cannot be found in the dictionary.
- There are particular concept or connotation about words that might be not too literal, neutral
or objective.
CONNOTATIVE MEANING- a word meaning is often in influenced by the culture, historical period,
and the experience of a person.
- a words that we try to create to base on how we associate things and experiences that we had to
those words.
E.g.: Hollywood Ball
Movies, glitz Basketball,

or celebrities Athletes, Games

SOCIAL OR STYLISTIC MEANING
- the meaning conveyed by a word is dependent on various factors or context of its use resulting to
what we call SOCIAL MEANING.
-It much more focusing on the CONTEXT.
- the decoding of a message also hinges on our knowledge of stylistics and language variations.
STYLISTICS AND LANGUAGE VARIATIONS
- are the different ways on how we converse or interact on how we talk with the other people
depending upon their roles they portray in the society and depending also our relationships towards
those people.
SOME OF THE FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE SOCIAL MEANING:

• Social background of the speaker

• The intended receiver
• Their relationship (the connection of the sender and the receiver.)
• Context or social circumstances of the use of the expression.
• Other sociolinguistics factors - formal, informal, colloquial, or slang and etc.

AFFECTIVE OR EMOTIVE MEANING

- Related to the social meaning of a word or sentence.
- it refers particularly to the Personal Feelings and Emotions of the speaker.
- The emotions or feelings involved in the communication process significantly contribute to the
meaning of words express.
SOME FACTORS THAT INVOLVE IN THIS ASPECT:

• Intonation
• Tone of voice
• Voice Quality

REFLECTED MEANING
- When a word or phrase is associated with more conceptual.
e.g.: Intercourse (dealing between people)

COLLOCATIVE MEANING
- the words that always go together or co-occur frequently.
e.g., Beautiful (woman)
Both words shared the same
Handsome (man) meaning. (Good loking)

- there are other words that when the collocate with other words, their combined meaning suggests
a new but altogether related meaning.
e.g., 1. Large mistake – big mistake 3. Fast meal – quick meal
2. Deep taste – rich taste 4. Big fun – great fun

THEMATIC MEANING
- refers to what is communicated by the way the writer or speaker organizes the message in terms
of focus, order, and emphasis.
(e.g., The Americans established the university in 1902.)
 The university was established by the Americans in 1902
The sentence (1), ‘who established the university’ is given more emphasis than sentence (2).
In sentece number (3) & (4), it can
(e.g., John is the richest man in Cebu.) be said that, the way we order our
message also conveys that is more
The richest man in Cebu is John. important and what is not.

MEANING EXTENSION
- In identifying the semantic features of lexical items, the general process of meaning extension
should also be considered. This is because many words have figurative or metaphorical meanings
rather than (or in addition to) being literal, just like the following sentences.

• The sun shines – The sun smiled

• The wind blew – The wind whispered
• Put it into the basket – Put it into words

SEMANTICS FEATURES AND ROLES

Semantic Features - can be used in analyzing lexical items such as gender, count, or number, person,
agency, possession cues, and many others.
Feature Analysis - we will be able to identify the basic meaning of a word and predict whether or
not it is semantically compatible with other words in specific sentences.
SEMANTIC ROLES – also known as “thematic relations” pertaining to the roles words, especially
nouns and pronouns, fulfill within the situation described in a particular sentence.
PARTS IN SEMTANIC ROLES:

• AGENT – the entity that performs or does the action.

• PATIENT – the entity that is being affected by the action of the agent.
• INSTRUMENT – If the agent uses another entity in doing the action.
• THEME– also involved in the action of the verb in the sentence.
• EXPERIENCER – that has the state of feeling or perception which receives sensory or
emotional outputs.
(e.g.: The chicken ate the worm.)
agent patient
(e.g.: The farmer has five hens, using a net bag he caught the chicken.)
experiencer theme instrument

SEMTANIC ROLES OFTEN FOUND IN THE EVENT THAT IS BEING DESCRIBED:

LOCATION – an entity that can fill the role of location. (in the park, at my house)
SOURCE – is the origin is from where an entity moves from.
GOAL – a.k.a. “direction” is where it moves to.
(e.g.: She walked from her house to school.)
source goal

RICIPIENT – a person or thing that receives or is awarded something

TIME - the measured or measurable period during which an action
PURPOSE – the reason why the action is done.
MANNER – it described of how the action was performed.
(e.g.: To please Mary, John gave her a bouquet yesterday.)
purpose recipient time

If John gave it ‘while on his knees’ it fills the role of the manner.
 SEMANTIC ROLE DEFINITION

AGENT The volitional causer of an event.

EXPERIENCER The experiencer of an event.
FORCE The non-volitional causer of an event
THEME The participate most directly affected by an event
RESULT The end product of an event.
CONTENT The preposition or content of a prepositional event.
INSTRUMENT An instrument used in an event.
SOURCE The origin of the object of a transfer event.
GOAL The destination of an object of a transfer event.
BENEFICIARY The beneficiary of an event.

LEXICAL RELATIONS

- Words are categorized especially in terms of the sounds and structures that make them up. This
way contributes to the characterization of their meaning.
- The other way of characterizing their meaning is by a way of identifying its relationship to the
other words.
SYNONYMY – words with similar or very closely meaning. E.g.: small-tiny, big-huge, fast-quick.
- these words are synonym, but their meaning is not totally the same.
Near-Synonyms – one word is much more appropriate than the other. E.g.: answer-reply.
ANTONYMY – words with opposite meaning. E.g.: big-small, happy-sad, long-short.
TWO (2) MAIN TYPES OF ANTONYMS:

• GRADABLE ANTONYMS- are those that can be used in a comparative construction.

(taller than-shorter than.)

(e: Your house is bigger than you neighbor’s house, but its smaller than other friend’s house.)

- the meaning between small and big are on a continuum, relative to the object of
discussion.

• NON-GRADABLE ANTONYMS- a.k.a. Categorical Antonyms are those where no continuum.

(e.g.: boy-girl, dead-alive, and true-false.)

REVERSE ANTONYMS/REVERSIVES – there are neither gradable or continuous. Antonyms that

have reverse and related relationships.
(e.g.: push-pull, day-night, and borrow-lend.)
HYPONYMY – describes a hierarchical relationship between words.
- if we can say that a meaning of a words “x” is embedded in the word “y” or if x a kind of
y, a hyponymous relationship between x and y

PROTOTYPES – is a cognitive reference point that best represents the meaning or description of a
word or a category.
-Like the word “bird” not in terms of component features. (e.g.: it has feathers,
wings, etc.) but in terms of resemblance to the clearest or best example.
-The prototype for birds might be a “langgam pari”, dove, and etc.
- The concept of prototypes would help us explain the meaning of certain words or terms.

HOMONYMY – the same spelling but not the same pronunciation.

is the broad term use to describe words that are homophones/homographs or both.
Ex: sea (body of water), see (to watch), and row (argument), row (propel with oars).
Homographs – literally ‘same writing’ if they are spelled similarly, with different meanings and
regardless of pronunciations.
Homophones – If they have the same pronunciation and spelling.
Heteronyms – are subsets of homographs. They have different pronunciation but the same
spelling. (E.g.: desert (to abandon), desert (arid region), tear (to rip), tear (from the eyes).

POLYSEMY – words that have related meaning and have the same spelling and pronunciation are
technically known as polysemy.

CAPITONYMS- some words have the same spelling but have different meanings when capitalized.
(e.g..: polish (make shiny), Polish (from Poland), turkey (bird), Turkey (a country).)
METONOMY – aside from Polysemy, there are another type of lexical relationship that uses a term
to stand for another word, idea, or concept.
(e.g.: Crown (refer to the king and his rule), Malacañang Palace (place for the president of the PH).
IDIOMS – type of collocations that are made up of words in a fixed order and their meaning cannot
be taken from the sum of the individual words, unlike the regular collocations.
(e.g.: pass the back (pass the blame), piece of cake (easy), all ears on me (listen to me)
 PRAGMATICS
S
PRAGMATICS – deals with the aspect of meaning that largely hinges on the context and the
communicative intention of the speaker.
- it focuses on the utterances and the intended meaning of the speaker.

SPEAKER MEANING VS. SENTENCE MEANING

SENTENCE MEANING - it is the literal meaning of a sentence.

SPEAKER MEANING - the meaning that the speaker intends that may be well beyond the sentence
conceptual meaning.
INVISIBLE MEANING- the meaning is not directly express by the speaker is what being dealt in
pragmatics.
CONTEXT – pragmatics is about the contextual meaning of the utterances which means that the
intended speaker’s meaning largely depends on the context surroundings an utterance.
THERE ARE TWO (2) KINDS OF CONTEXT:

• Linguistic Context/Co- Text- one way to identify their meaning is by recognizing the words
surrounding them.
• PHYSICAL CONTEXT – does not only mean that word meanings have to be understood as
they are use in the physical words.
- it also pertains to the connections we attached to the word as products of our experiences
in the physical world.
DEIXIS – also known as ‘Deictic Expression’
- words that can only be understood or interpreted in relation to the situation in which they
are uttered.
- is word or phrase whose meaning depends on their context of use.
THERE ARE THREE (3) MAIN TYPES OF DEIXIS:

• PERSON DEIXIS – are words used to point to people (her, them, those, etc.) and to things
(it, this, these, etc.).
• SPATIAL DEIXIS – refers to words and phrases used to point place or location (there, here,
etc.).
• TEMPORAL DEIXIS - used to point a certain time (last week, yesterday, now, etc.).
PRESUPPOSITION – referring expressions, the listeners or readers already know their referent or
already understood what we meant by the expressions.
- it can also be mistaken and most of time they are appropriate
e.g., ‘how long have you been with each other?’
IMPLICATURES – it is related to the presupposition.
- it is hidden or implied meaning in an utterance conveyed beyond its proposition.
- it is important because it help us to communicate more efficiently than by explicitly
expressing everything we want to communicate.
THE COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLE – ‘seek first to understand and to be understood.’
- consists of four (4) maxims, it is a set of norms that we have to follow to be cooperative.
PAUL GRICE – an English language philosopher, argues that our utterance is our potential
interference in the right, thoughts, and wishes of our listeners.
THE FOUR (4) MAXIMS ARE FOLLOWS:

• MAXIM OF QUANTITY
• MAXIM OF QUALITY
• MAXIM OF RELATION
 • MAXIM OF MANNER
THE FOUR (4) WAYS IN WE WHICH WE BEHAVE WITH THE 4 MAXIMS:

• Observe or follow the maxim- to obey or to adhere to it.

• Violate a maxim – it means it fail to observe it.
• Flout a maxim – deliberately to violate it, even our listener or audience is aware of it.
• Opt-out of the maxim – is to refuse to respond to the utterances /refuse to converse.

MAXIM OF QUANTITY – we are reminded that in our talk exchange with people we have just to say
enough, nothing more, nothing less.
- Our contribution must also be informative but just enough, not more informative as is required of
the purpose of the exchange.
MAXIM OF QUALITY – there is one supermaxim of quality. That is, we have to be truthful.
BASE O THIS SUPERMAXIM, THE ARE TWO SPECIFIC MAXIMS:

• We should not say what we believe to be false. Since we cannot be sure all the time that what
we are going to say is true, the best thing that we should say only what we believe to be true.
• We should not say anything that we are not sure of or if we lack of lack adequate evidence.
We should avoid saying that we cannot back up with supporting evidence.
MAXIM OF RELATION – a.k.a. ‘Maxim Relevance’, following its two-word dictum that we must “be relevant”.
- to be relevant means that in a conversation, we should say things not only to the
context of the discourse but also to the context of the situation.

MAXIM OF MANNER – how we express our thoughts matters in a talk exchange.

- we should provide information in a concise manner and orderly fashion.

- “Seek first to understand and to be understood.”

SPEECH ACT THEORY

J.L Austin (1975) – claimed that we do not used our words to present or state information, but also
to carry out actions. He called this the Speech Act Theory.
SPEECH ACT – is defined as the ‘force’ in words that forces us to do or act.
- We use it to describe actions such as requesting, commanding, questioning, and etc.
THERE ARE THREE (3) KINDS OF SPEECH ACTS:

• LOCUTIONARY ACT- an act performing an utterance with it’s intended meaning and hence of
a speech act. - It’s a basic meaningful utterances humans make into communicate their needs &
wants. (what was said and meant) E.g.: “Don’t do that!”

• ILLOCUTIONARY ACT- said to be true speech act. It expresses an illocutionary force that
carries the intended speakers meaning. What has to be done or what was done.
J.R. Searle – an American philosopher, developed further the Speech Act Theory of Austin especially
the illocutionary act.
- THERE ARE ONLY FIVE (5) ILLOCUTIONARY SPEECH ACTS THAT WE CAN ACHIEVE IN OUR
UTTERANCE, According to Searle et al. (1980).
1. ASSERTIVES – where speakers assert their intentions and beliefs on the preposition by making
statements that can verified as either true or false.
(e.g.: “Thanks for thinking of me, but I'm going to say no this time.”, “Unfortunately, I can't take on any
more tasks at the moment.”, “Please don't walk away from me while we're having a conversation.”, “I
respect your opinion, but let's agree to disagree.”)

2. DIRECTIVES – speech acts that are intended to get someone to do what the speakers desires, such
as request, and commands.
(e.g.: `Could you close the window?'')
3. COMMISIVES – speech acts of committing to someone future actions, such as promises and oaths.
(E.G.: I'm going to Paris tomorrow''.)

4. EXPRESSIVES – speech acts that express speakers attitudes and emotions manifested through the
utterances such as excuses and thanks.
- They express how the speaker feels about the situation. The different kinds are: thanking, apologizing,
welcoming, deploring. (E.G.: “I’m sorry that I lied to you.”)

5. DECLARATIONS – speech acts that change the propositional content corresponding with reality
such as baptisms, pronouncing someone guilty, or pronouncing someone husband and wife.

• PERLOCUTIONARY – denotes the effects in the listener through performing the illocutionary act.
- This speech acts have a effect on the feelings, thoughts, or actions of the speaker, of the listener,
or of the other persons.
The effects are special to the context or occasions and may or may not what the speaker intended

QUIZ REVIEW!!!

• SEMANTICS It deals with the conceptual meaning of words and sentences.

• PRAGMATICS It is concerned with the contextual meaning of words and sentences.

• LEXICAL SEMANTICS It is a term referring to the meaning of individual words.

• COMPOSITIONAL SEMANTICS It is a term referring to the meaning of phrases or sentences.

• REFERENCE It is the relationship between the word and the object or idea it represents.

• DENOTATIVE MEANING It refers to the literal meaning of the word which is its primary

meaning. It is the first meaning conveyed to people when the word is used in isolation.

• ASSOCIATIVE MEANING This meaning refers to the connections you attach with the object

aside from its conceptual or conventional meaning.

• AFFECTIVE MEANING This aspect of meaning refers mainly to the personal feelings and

emotions of the speaker, including the attitude of the listener towards the speaker or vice-

versa.

• REFLECTED MEANING This type of meaning is formed when a word or phrase is associated

with more than one conceptual meaning.

• THEMATIC This type of meaning refers to what is communicated by the way a writer or

speaker organizes the message in terms of the order, focus, and emphasis.