Semantics

A short introduction
semantics
• Related terms: semiotics, semiology, semasiology
• Semiotics – the study of signs
• Semantics – the study of meaning
Sign – what is it?
• Ferdinand de Saussure
• a sign as a linguisitc phenomenon
• dyadic model of a sign
• a sign as a link between a concept and a sound pattern
• Charles S. Peirce
• Signs can be other than verbal

Icons – similarity (onomatopeia)

Indices – correspondence
(pronouns)
Symbols – conventional and
arbitrary (words)
Semantic value of signs
• Roman Jacobson
• signs can create combinations (e.g. symbolic icons, iconic symbols etc.)
• Meaningful potential of written verbal signs is strenghtened by the visual
layer accompanying the transcribed words.
• Visual aspects that ascribe additional meaning to verbal language include for
example size or style of the font and color.
Meaning – what is it?
• What means something?
• What is meant by a word, text, concept, or action.
• The idea that is represented by a word, phrase, or statement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZDkp8dUWyw
Theory of meaning
• 17th century – John Locke -
linguistic meaning is mental:
words are used to encode
and convey thoughts, or
ideas. => ideational
semantics
Criticism?
Behaviorist semantics
• The American psychologist B.F.
Skinner (1904–90) => behavioristic
meaning of an expression is either (1) the
behavioral stimulus that produces the
utterance, (2) the behavioral response that
the utterance produces, or (3) a
combination of both.
• The meaning of fire! as uttered on a
particular occasion might include running
or calling for help.
Criticism?
Referential semantics
• Reference is an apparent relation
between a word and the world.
• Bertrand Russell, following the
19th-century British
philosopher John Stuart Mill, =>
linguistic expressions are signs of
something other than themselves
=> a word tomato refers to a
tomato in the real world
Criticism?
Truth-conditional
semantics
• 1960s, 1970s – Donald Davidson
• Meaning not in terms of
behaviour but on the basis
of truth.
• What is truth?
• In 1933 Alfred Tarski published
(in Polish) his analysis of the
notion of a true sentence. 
• Adopting Tarksi’s distinction
between an “object language” (an
ordinary language used to talk
about things in the world) and a
“metalanguage” (an artificial
language used to analyze or
describe an object language),
Davidson proposed:
‘S’ is true just in case p
where S is a sentence in the object
language and p is a translation of
that sentence in the metalanguage.
snow is white  => ‘snow is white’ is
true just in case snow is white
Conceptual-role semantics
• Cognitive-role, computational-role, or inferential-role
semantics.
• The meaning of an expression for a speaker is the same as
its conceptual role in the speaker’s mental life. 
• Because the conceptual role played by I is the same for both A
and B, the meanings of the two utterances of I am 30 years
old are the same, even though the referent of I in each case is
distinct.
• Criticism?
Gricean semantics
• The British philosopher Paul
Grice (1913–88) and his
followers => the meaning of
a sentence can be
understood in terms of a
speaker’s intention to induce
a belief in the hearer by
means of the hearer’s
recognition of that intention.
Cognitive semantics
 Began in the 1970s.

Sees linguistic meaning as a manifestation of conceptual

structure.
Guiding principles:

History Conceptual structure is embodied.

Semantic structure is conceptual structure.

Meaning representation is encyclopaedic.

Meaning construction is conceptualization.

 What is the nature of the relationship between conceptual
structure and the external world of sensory experience?

Embodied cognition thesis - assumes that our understanding

Conceptual of the world is shaped and limited by the morphology of our

bodies and the type of interactions they allow.

structure is The nature of conceptual organization arises from bodily

embodied
experience => bodily experience makes the conceptual
structure meaningful.

Image schema – represents one of the ways in which bodily

experience gives rise to meaningful concepts.
Image schema - CONTAINER
• Grounded in the directly embodied experience of interacting with bouded landmarks
(has enclosed sides, interior, boundary and exterior)
• Basis for abstract kinds of meaning (from Lakoff and Johnson 1980)
He is in love.
We’re out of trouble now.
He’s coming out of the coma.
I’m slowly getting into shape.
He entered a state of euphoria.
He fell into a depression.
Metaphorical projection
• The examples are based on the metaphorical projection of the CONTAINER image
schema onto the abstract conceptual domain of STATES (e.g. love, trouble,
health).
• A conceptual metaphor is created

STATES ARE CONTAINERS

Meaningful structure from bodily experience gives rise to concrete concepts like
CONTAINER image schema, which structures more abstract image schema like
STATES.
 WHY ON RATHER THAN IN?

a) The guard is on duty.

b) The blouse is on sale.
c) We’re on red alert.
Semantic structure is
conceptual structure.

• Language refers to concepts in the mind

of the speaker rather than to objects in
the external world.
• Semantic structure = concepts
• Meanings associated with words form
only a part of possible concepts => apart
from words we have also thoughts,
ideas, feelings that are not encoded in
language.
• There is a concept, but there is no word.
 Lexical gap (lacuna)
Children of your siblings
Boy Girl
Brother Nephew / Bratanek Niece / Bratanica
Sister Nephew / Siostrzeniec Niece / Siostrzenica

Children of your cousins

Boy Girl
Brother ??? / ??? ??? / ???
Sister ??? / ??? ??? / ???
Semantic structure
• Linguistic units, e.g. a word dog.
• Bound morphemes, e.g. –er in driver.
• Grammar, e.g. active / passive voice.
THEY ARE ALL MEANINGFUL!
Cognitive semantics => a unified account for lexical and grammatical
organisation, they are not distinct subsystems.

Semantic structure represents a subpart of conceptual structure.

BUT! Language does not relate only to concepts internal to the mind of
the speaker – extreme subjectivism.
Syntax:
William Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet.
Romeo and Juliet was written by William Shakespeare.

Generative grammar Cognitive linguistics

Same meaning Different meaning

Identical deep structure Active vs. passive schema

Semantics vs. pragmatics Pragmatics is semantics

 Unmaried adult male.

Is it true for all unmarried adult males?

BACHEL
OR
Objectivism and subjectivism

Rejects the definitional or dictionary view of

meaning in favor of encyclopaedic meaning.
 Semantic structure is encyclopaedic in nature.

Meaning Words serve as points of access to the

knowledge .
representation
is Bachelor => we have cultural knowledge, which
encyclopaedic. helps us to understand the word. It expands the
meaning
Watch out Jane! Your husband’s a right
bachelor!
Words do not represent
neatly packaged bundles
of meaning.

Semantic structure is not

like a dictionary.
 • Apart from encyclopaedic meaning, words have
also conventional meaning => a prompt for the
proces of meaning construction.
Example: safe
The child is safe.
Conventiona The beach is safe.

l meaning
The shovel is safe.
The child will not be harmed, beach is a place where
you will not be harmed, a shovel will not cause any
harm.
To understand the word safe we rely on our
knowledge relating to children, beaches and shovels
and our knowledge about what it means to be safe.
 Meaning is modulated by encyclopedic knowledge,
co-text, and context.

MEANING
CONSTRUCTION • The child is safe.
• The beach is safe.
• The shovel is safe.
 WORD MEANING

(a) That parked BMW over there is a fast car.

(b) They were travelling in the fast lane on the motorway.
(c) That car is travelling fast.
(d) He can think through a problem fast.
(e) Christmas went by fast this year.
 • Language itself does not encode
meaning.
• Meaning is constructed at the
conceptual level.
Meaning • Conceptualisation = meaning is a
construction is process, linguistic units serve as
conceptualization. prompts for conceptual operations and
the choice of background knowledge.
• Mappings – Gilles Fauconnier – local
connections between mental spaces,
conceptual packets of information.
Meaning is a dynamic process, in which linguistic units serve as
prompts for conceptual operations.

• Conceptual blending theory – meaning is created through

mappings between mental spaces e.g. counterfactuals (In
France, Bill Clinton wouldn’t have been harmed by his
relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
• Embodied simulation hypothesis – meaning is created
through embodied simulations, which utilize brain regions
responsible for sensory and motor information processing e.g.
He hates doing the dishes.
In France, Bill Clinton wouldn’t have been harmed by his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
(a counterfactual sentence)

To understand this sentence, we need to perform a number of operations in our brain, e.g. imagine
the unreal scenario in which Bill Clinton was the president of France, not United States.
Conceptual Blending Theory:
Mental space 1 – the real scenario
Mental space 2 – unreal scenario
Blended space – Clinton is the President of France, he has an affair with Lewinsky, they are found
out, but there is no scandal.
• Because of the conceptual mappings that relate the first two spaces to the third blended space,
we come to understand something additional about the original ‘input’ or reality spaces. We
learn that the cultural and moral sensitivities are different in the United States and France.
• Consider the following exchange at a dinner party and answer the questions
that follow.
Guest: Where shall I sit?
Host: Can you sit in the apple juice seat?

• (i) If you were the guest what would you make of this? Make a list of all the
possible interpretations of ‘apple juice seat’.
• (ii) What is the most likely meaning, from those you’ve listed, given the
context of a dinner party?
• (iii) Now imagine that the guest is teetotal and the rest of the guests are
drinking wine with their dinner. What does this tell you about the meaning of
‘apple juice seat’?
• (iv) Finally, what does this example illustrate in light of our discussion of the
role of language in meaning construction
• Consider the following exchange which takes place in a library:

Librarian: Yes?
Elderly man: I can’t reach Shakespeare on the top shelf.

What does the sentence uttered by the elderly man mean?