Semantics

Semantics is the study of meaning in language.

The aim of serious semanticists is to explain and clarify the nature of meaning
The first step in working out a theory of what meaning is, is to recognise the distinction
whether we are talking about what speakers mean or what words(or sentences ) mean.
SPEAKER MEANING : is what a speaker mean (i.e. intends to convey )when he uses apiece
of language.

SENTENCE MEANING : (or WORD MEANING ) is what a sentence (or word )means ,i.e. what
it counts as the equivalent of in the language concerned .

Two types of Meaning

- Conceptual (denotative) meaning: covers the basic essential components of meaning that are

conveyed by the literal use of a word.

- It is the type of meaning the dictionaries are designed to describe. Some of the basic components of a

word like needle in English might include thin, sharp steel instrument.

- Associative (connotative) meaning: different people might have different associations or connotation

attached to a word like needle. They might associate with pain, illness blood or drugs.
 What is the deference between Reference and Referent?

* The reference: is the actual thing in the world or in our life.

*Reference: is an act (language expression) by which a speaker (or writer) uses language to

enable a listener (or reader) to identify something in the real world.

What is the deference between Reference and Referent?

Example:

Look at this cat.

The word cat here is a (reference).

And this idea can be applied to things like door, desk etc.

The example above leads us to the expression (sense).

What do we mean by sense?

*Sense: is a mental image or concept, or (A picture of something in the mind)

When we say look at this cat, we have in our mind a mental picture of this object (which is the cat)

and the same thing in our Arabic language, but if someone who speaks Spanish and he told.

you to look at the cat and you do not know Spanish, here we have reference and referent but we

don’t have a sense because you do not know what does (gato1) mean?

So, in our mind we have pictures for the things that are existing in our life.

Types of References and Referents

*Constant Physical: in this type we have one reference (expression) refers to one referent in real

Life.

Examples:
- The moon. Here we have one reference (moon) refers to one constant physical referent (the -

moon) in real life.

We have one moon.

* Variable: in this type we have one (expression) reference and multiple referents in our real

life.

The idea to be clear, let me give you some examples:

- Orange: This (expression) reference refers to many referents (color and fruit)

* In the third type we have multiple (expressions) references and one referent, many

references refer to the same referent.

Examples:

- The 44th president of USA.

- The president of USA from 2009 to 2017.

- The first African American President of USA.

All these three (expressions) references refer to the same referent (Barak Obama).

Now what about these references (a, an, the, in, some, is and are), do we have referents for

these references in our life, I think no, here we have what we call in Semantics non-physical

referents. - A, the, an and is: these references are function words and we don’t have (physical

existence) referent for them.

- Love, hate and confidence: also these references don’t have (physical existence) referent

for them in our real life, they are abstract notions.

In this unit we have to distinguish between linguistic expressions and referring expressions.

- Linguistic expressions: (table, is, the, are, some) which one of these expressions is a referring

expression?

First, what do we mean by a referring expression?

We mean that the reference (expression) has a referent in our real life, so here the referring

expression is table, because the word table refers to something in the real life.
So (table, is, the, are, some) are linguistic expressions but one of them is a referring expression

we can say that all the referring expressions are linguistic expressions, but not all the linguistic

expressions are referring expressions.

Now let me take these references: (almost, probably, and, if, so, because), do these references refer

to things in our life?

All the above references do not have referents in the world, but they have a sense (meaning).

As a conclusion we can say that references (expressions) are used in the context and the referents

are existing in our real life, and all the referents have references, but not all the references have

referents.
Predicates

 PREDICATE: is any word (or sequence of words) which (in a given single sense) can function

as a predicator in the sentence.

 Predicator is the word that mostly contribute to the meaning of the sentence.

 PREDICATOR in the simple declarative sentence is the word which mostly contributes to the

meaning of the sentence.

 The term (predicator) identifies the semantic role played by a particular word in a particular

sentence.

 Simple sentences can only have one predicator.

 Predicators can be of various parts: nouns, adjectives, verbs, and prepositions.

 Words of other parts of speech like conjunctions (and, or , but, etc.) or articles (the, a, an,

etc.) can’t serve as predicators in sentences.

PREDICATE: is any word (or sequence of words) which (in each single sense) can function as a

predicator in the sentence.

Predicator is the word that mostly contributes to the meaning of the sentence.

Indicate the predicate in the following example according to the semantic rule.

A tall handsome stranger entered the saloon.

Ahmad is tall.
He is handsome.

That man is a stranger

This is the saloon.

Indicate the predicate in the following example according to the semantic rule?????

 A tall handsome stranger entered the saloon.

 Ahmad is tall.

 He is handsome.

 That man is a stranger

 This is the saloon.

Indicate the predicator and arguments as in the following examples:

Juan is Argentinian.

Juan arrested Pablo

Juan took Pablo to Rio.

 Unit 4 - Referring expressions

 Here we are going o shed light closely on the range of expressions that speakers may use to refer to

some objects or person. We will see that some expressions can only be used as referring expressions

and some never can. Also, some expressions can be used as referring expressions or not ( depending

on the kind of sentence they occur in)

 It can be seen in :

1 – Indefinite noun phrases

2 – Definite noun phrases

3 – Opaque sentences

4 – Equative sentences

What is the definition of Referring expression?

It’s any expression used in an utterance to refer to something ( or clearly delimited collection of things

or people ) . I.e. used with a particular referent in mind

Test for you, Could the following be referring expressions or not and why?

1 –Sally

2 – my uncle

3 – Aid

4 – the girl sitting on the all by the bus stop.

5 – A man
6 – My parents

7 – Send

8 - under
 "Navigating the Shades of Meaning: Unveiling Ambiguity and Vagueness in Semantics"

Defining Ambiguity:

Ambiguity occurs when a word, phrase, or sentence has multiple interpretations or meanings, leading

to confusion or uncertainty about the intended message.

Examples

-Sam went for a walk with her friend in the red shirt.

(Sam) is wearing the red shirt

(Sam’s friend) is wearing the red shirt

Types of Ambiguity

1. Lexical Ambiguity: (within a word)

It is called homonymy or semantic ambiguity. It occurs in the sentence because of the poor vocabulary

usage that leads to two or more possible meanings.

Example (1):

My sister saw bat.

This example has four different meanings:

1-(saw) (bat the bird)

2-(saw) (the baseball bat)

3-(saw as cutting) (bat the bird)

4-(saw as cutting) (the baseball bat)

2. Syntactic Ambiguity: (within a sentence or sequence of words)

It is called structural or grammatical ambiguity. It occurs in the sentence because the sentence structure

leads to two or more possible meanings.

Example (1): I invited the person with the microphone.

Example (2): The turkey is ready to eat.

3. Semantic Ambiguity: same as lexical ambiguity but focuses on the entire sentence rather than just a

single word. For example:

She knew a little Greek.

He stood on the bank.

4. Pragmatic Ambiguity:

the speaker's intent and the listener's understanding.

Sentence Direct meaning (semantic Other meanings

meaning) (pragmatic meanings)

Do you know what time is it? Asking for the current time Expressing anger to someone

who missed the due time or

something `

Will you crack open the door? To break Open the door just a little

I am getting hot
 The chicken is ready to eat The chicken is ready to eat its The cooked chicken is ready

breakfast, for example. to be served

5- Phonetic Ambiguity / Voice/ lack of visual aids and necessary context of written language.

Example 1

“Mine is a long and a sad tale!” said the Mouse.

“It is a long tail, certainly,” said Alice, looking down with wonder at the Mouse’s tail; “but why do you call it

sad?”

Example 2

The Red Queen asked “How is bread made?”

Alice cried “You take some flour―”

“Where do you pick the flower?” the White Queen asked. “In a garden, or in the hedges?”

“Well, it isn’t picked at all,” Alice explained: “it’s ground―”

Resolving Ambiguity

To clarify the sentence and eliminate the ambiguity, you can rephrase it slightly to make the intended

meaning more explicit. Here are two possible rephrased versions of the sentence for each interpretation:

"I saw the man with the telescope."

Rephrased (Context 1): "Using the telescope, I saw the man.“

Rephrased (Context 2): "I saw the man who had a telescope."
Vagueness

a lack of clarity in language, expression, or meaning. When something due to lack definite boundaries,

details, or specifics.

-The store is near my house.

-There were a lot of people at the event.

-She finished the race quickly.

-I'll be there in a short time.

-They meet up frequently.

Minimizing Vagueness:

Using Specific Terms:

Vague: "I'll meet you somewhere around noon."

Clearer: "I'll meet you at the cafe at 12:15 PM." •