Approaching English

Linguistics
SS 2023 Eva Triebl
Introducing this course
• The origins and evolution of language
• When and how did humans start using language?
• What makes human language different from animal languages?
• Language as a system
• The study of linguistic meaning and meaning relations (Semantics)
• The sounds and the sound system of English (Phonetics and Phonology)
• The structure and formation of words in English (Morphology)
• The structure of sentences in English (Syntax)
• Language in use
• The study of meaning in context (Pragmatics)
• The study of the relations between language and society (Sociolinguistics)
• Language and the mind
• Language acquisition: How do children ‘crack the code’ – how has this impacted language teaching methods?
• Psycholinguisics and cognitive linguistics: where in the brain “is” language, how is the relation between
language and what we know & understand theorized?
• The history and present-day status of the English language
• Historical linguistics
• The history of the English language
• World Englishes
What is communication?
What is communication?
Transmitted via CHANNEL
(auditory, visual, tactile..)

SENDER RECEIVER
MESSAGE Hearer‘s inferred
Speaker‘s intended ENCODING DECODING
meaning Sign meaning meaning

Intended message Message reconstructed

translated into linguistic from received signal
(or other) signal (= message is inferred)
What is a (linguistic) message/a text?
Text is meaning
Meaning is encoded (and thus realized) as
• Wordings (words, parts of words, clauses)  lexicogrammatical units
• Soundings
• Spellings

[T]ext is not made of sounds or letters; and in the same way it is not made of
words and phrases and clauses and sentences. It is made of meanings, and
encoded in wordings, soundings and spellings. In other words, we are
locating text at the semantic level. A text is a semantic unit, realized as
(encoded in) lexicogrammatical units which are further realized as (recoded
in) phonological or orthographic units. (Halliday 1975)
Is this a text?
Yes, because
• A sign with an identifiable meaning has been intentionally selected
• Why can we identify a meaning?
• A linguistic choice has been made that is meaningful in the given
context
What is a text?
Text is choice
What meanings are communicated and how depends on the context
( variability)

Secondly, text is choice. A text represents a selection within numerous sets of

options; everything that is said presupposes a background of what might have been
said but was not. In linguistic terms, each decision of the speaker—each
microlinguistic act, as it were—presupposes a paradigmatic environment, a set of
options that have the potentiality of being selected under the given conditions.
This is the background of what might have been. (Halliday 1975)
Dear Mr. L’Azy,
Could you be so kind as to tell me whether or
not you shall be able to attend tomorrow’s
class?
It would be greatly appreciated if you could
provide this information.
Sincerely yours

Hey, u coming to
class tmrw?
Xoxo
2 ways of looking at relations between
meanings
Paradigmatic sense relations  Level of choice
Relations between elements of the same kind
Words that can have the same position in a sentence
 One can be substitued with the other

red, blue, white

Cold, hot
Hello, Hi, good day
Level of choice
2 ways of looking at relations between
meanings
Syntagmatic sense relations  Level of combination
Relations between elements that can be combined
One cannot be substiuted with the other (i.e. take the same slot in
the sentence)

 I had a glass of red wine.

 I had a glass of white wine.
X I had a glass of of wine.
Level of combination

? ? ? 
Today
• Different kinds of signs
• Different kinds of meaning relations between words (lexical
semantics)
SIGN
• The vehicle for a message
• A form used to express a meaning

• Form (material)  the signifier association
• Idea (mental)  the signified

„stop“
+
DIFFERENT KINDS OF SIGNS
1. Iconic versus arbitrary

• Iconic signs: form mirrors meaning, i.e. form and meaning are similar
DIFFERENT KINDS OF SIGNS
1. Arbitrary/symbolic signs:
no natural correspondence between form and meaning. The connection
between form and meaning is convention.

Gehsteig pavement trottoir тротуар

acera marciapiede
DIFFERENT KINDS OF SIGNS
2. Natural versus conventional

• Natural: automatically appear in individuals without being learned,

universal (e.g. facial expressions of fear, suprise, joy…)
DIFFERENT KINDS OF SIGNS
• Conventional = arbitrary signs: conventionally assigned meaning, have to
be learned (or acquired), cross-cultural variation

 but there are also non-linguistic signs with conventional meaning

DIFFERENT KINDS OF SIGNS
3. Continuous versus discrete

• Continuous: Iconic signs whose form and, correspondingly, meaning, is

variable

does tree refer to a higher tree than this tree?

• Discrete: signs with fixed shape, must be chosen from limited inventory
DIFFERENT KINDS OF SIGNS
4. Signs that accompany language = Paralinguistic signs
• cannot occur independently of language because
• produced during language (e.g. high volume, low tempo of speaking)
• cannot be interpreted except in connection with accompanying language
(e.g. hand movements when describing something)
• Functions:
• Like punctuation in written language (e.g. pause to segment speech)
• Modulation: to add emotional/attitudinal dimension to message
• Illustration: to depict some element in the message (can be quite literally or
metaphorically)
MEANING
• Linguistically: Fitness for communicative intent
• Meaning difference  Relative normality: if two
expressions differ in meaning, a context can be found in
which they differ in normality
• e.g. brave versus courageous
Anna was so brave at the dentist this morning.
?Anna was so courageous at the dentist this morning.
MEANING
• In our minds, meaning means
Concept

Linguistic form Object/thing in the real

reference
world
MEANING

island
CONCEPTS
• A category in our minds which subsumes elements (objects, people,
events, properties, relations…) that are sufficiently similar to each other
• Culturally variable
• Meaning = the concept(s) a linguistic sign gives access to in the cognitive
system
EXTENSIONAL VS. INTENSIONAL APPROACH
• Extension: linguistic expressions are correlated with aspects of the
world
–Reference: the relation between a linguistic form and an element in
the world (referent)
–Denotation: meaning in terms of the elements in the world that can
be subsumed under a particular concept, i.e. elements that belong to
the same class
 the elements belonging to a conceptual category
EXTENSIONAL VS. INTENSIONAL APPROACH
• Intension: a linguistic expression is associated with a mental
representation of the element referred to
• Sense: concept viewed intensionally, i.e. in terms of a set of properties
which members of a particular class have
• E.g. sense of cat: quadrupled animal, has fur, meows, often held as a pet….)

 the content of a conceptual category

• Sense of bird
“any of a class of warm-blooded vertebrates distinguished by having the body
more or less completely covered with feathers and the forelimbs modified as
wings”

• Denotation of bird

All elements sufficiently similar to fall into the category bird

REFERENCE
• Designating entities in the world by linguistic means
• Problem: no one-to-one relationship between expression and one
particular thing in the world
• Reference is not an inherent property of linguistic expressions, but depends
on the speaker‘s intention  language in use
DIFFERENT TYPES OF MEANING
• Lexical vs. grammatical meaning

• Lexical meaning: meanings whose descriptive content provides a basis for

categorization
e.g. apple  associated with idea of apple  we can identify apples and
distinguish them from bananas

• Grammatical meaning: meaning of syntactic categories and grammatical

elements (e.g. tense, aspect). Often called functions
IDEATIONAL (DESCRIPTIVE/PROPOSITIONAL) MEANING
• We use language to talk about our experience of the world (states, events,
entities involved in them)
• Proposition: attributes some property to an entity or a relation between
two or more entities and can be true or false

She is intelligent.
She is clever. Express same proposition
She is smart.
INTERPERSONAL MEANING
• Language is used to interact with other people
• To establish and maintain relations with them
• To influence them
• To tell them our view of things and elicit theirs
• 2 subtypes
• Interactive meaning: meaning of language used in interaction
• Evaluative meaning: meaning of language used to express
judgement
INTERPERSONAL MEANING
• Interactive meaning
You are doing your homework Same proposition,
Do your homework! different intention

• Evaluative meaning
 evaluation of probability/desirability by speaker
 content lexemes: connotation
 grammatical elements: modality
EVALUATIVE MEANING
• Modality

She is a good singer

She may be a good singer

He should work on his pronunciation

He must work on his pronunciation

I will not be there on Friday

I might not be there on Friday
INFORMATION STRUCTURE
The same proposition can be expressed in different ways, depending on
the speaker‘s assumptions about the hearer‘s knowledge at the time of
speaking.

Mary was there.

She was there. ( referent of she has already been introduced)
He was reading a book.
He closed it and put it back on the shelf. ( it is the book)
ENCODED VS. ACTIVATED MEANINGS
• Encoded meaning
The explicit propositional content linguistic items simply have. The starting
point from which the meaning of the whole utterance is constructed.

He jumped down from the skyscraper.

ENCODED VS. ACTIVATED MEANINGS
• Activated meaning: to arrive at the full meaning of an utterance, its literal
meaning of an utterance must be refined, enriched or extended, drawing
on our background knowledge.

He jumped down from the skyscraper.

 He died.
Lexical semantics
• Deals with the linguistic/conventional meanings of words and
sentences
• “Conventional”: the meaning of a word that is shared by all speakers
of a language and that enables us to communicate
ROSE
What is meaning and where is it?
Flower
“A plant that is cultivated or appreciated for its blossoms.”
A real, specific flower
All of these:
How is it possible to always get the right
meaning?
a golden ring
the golden shot
golden hair
golden moonboots
a heart of gold
golden globes
golden memories
golden Retriever
What’s the difference between meanings?
whore
prostitute
nag
criticize
ethanol
alcohol
obtain
get
scopophilic
Peeping Tom
Lexical semantics
Mental lexicon: list of all the words that we know in our heads.
Lexical semantics studies the organization of the mental lexicon.
Mental lexicon