UNIVERSITY OF DANANG

UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH

INTRODUCTION TO
ENGLISH SEMANTICS
For 3rd year Student

Chapter 3

2019
 UNIT 3 MEANING – COMPONENTS OF MEANING

REFERENCE AND SENSE

A. Reference
I. Def. 25
the symbolic relationship that a linguistic
expression has with the concrete object or
abstraction it represents
Referent:
the concrete object or concept that an expression
represents


E.g. the beech tree over there 

reference
Linguistic expression meaning referent
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 The connection of language to the world


LANGUAGE
Linguisitc expressions:
The beech tree over there
My left ear
My dog

WORLD

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 Reference: The referent:
the relationship part of the world:
between the expression touchable, visible and audible
(part of the language) The expression
and the referent part of the language:
(part of the world) readable and intelligible
II. Characteristics:
III. Types of reference
• Variable reference:
( potential referents)
E.g. The present British Prime Minister
• Constant reference:
(the same thing/ referent) E.g. The moon

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B. Sense
I. Def. p.28
II. Characteristics:
polysemy & homonymy.
III. Lexical decomposition
1. Semantic properties:
piece of information about a word, e.g.
assassinate
[agent: human, murderer
person killed: important person]
-The same semantic property in different words,
e.g. [female] helps to define tigress, hen, doe,
ewe, mare, actress, widow, woman, maiden
-The same semantic property in words of different
categories, e.g.
[+ ?] in breast-feed (V), pregnant (A),
09/12/21 [+ ?] in kill, darken, beautify 5
 2. Semantic features:
Semantic categories/ properties that indicate the
relations or classes that a word may have or share
with other words.
E.g. as in an overlap between 2 or more words
man father bachelor
+ human + human + human
- A certain semantic category may imply others,
e.g. [human] implies [animate]
IF X is human, then X is animal
- redundancy rules:
One feature automatically contains another,
e.g. [+human]  [+ animate]
- Some semantic redundancy rules reveal negative
properties,
e.g. [ +human]  [- abstract]
IF X is human, then X is not abstract
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 • 3. Denotative meaning ( Denotation):
type of meaning that can be described in terms of a
set of semantic properties which serve to identify
the concept associated with the word in question.

bachelor

+ human
+ animate
+ male
+ adult
+ unmarried

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 4. Connotative meaning ( Connotation):
affective or evaluative associations that a word may
have besides denotative meaning
father Dad
+ human + human
+ animate + animate
+ male + male
+ adult + adult
+ married + married
+ neutral + informal

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 C. Reference vs Sense
Reference Sense
- relationship between - relationships inside the
language & the world language
- The referent of an - The sense of an expression
expression is often a thing is not a thing at all
- not every expression has - Every expression that has
reference meaning has sense
- Depends on the particular - Independent of particular
context, occasion context, occasion
D. Sense vs Proposition
1. A proposition corresponds to a complete
independent thought
2. The sense of a single word or phrase only indicates
concepts, not complete thought

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E. Relationship between reference & utterance
- Both referring and uttering acts are performed
by particular speakers on particular occasions
- 2 separate utterances: 2 separate acts of
referring
- Acts of referring only actually happen in the
course of utterances, e.g.
mean: sense or reference?
“Occlaracy means the government by the mob”
(it always has this meaning regardless of the
situations of utterance)
“By Fred, I mean the fat man in the corner”
(the fat man in the corner may refer to a
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different man in a different situation of utterance) 10
 The End of Chapter 3

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