Introduction to Semantics

Questions…

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Semantics
 Usually defined as that part of
Linguistics that deals with meaning

 This lecture will try to outline:

 How to identify semantics and meaning?
References
 Introducing English Semantics (1998)
by Charles W. Kreidler
 Semantics (1997) by John I. Saeed
 Semantics: a Coursebook (1983) by
Hurford and Heasley
 Semantics 2nd Edition by R.A. Palmer
 Language Files: a compilation
(Advocate Publishing Group)
Part 1

Preliminaries
The problem of knowledge (I)

 Here’s a perfectly ordinary English

sentence:
 Arnold Schwarzenegger is better at lifting things
than he was at governing states.

 Have you ever heard this sentence before?

 Even if you haven’t you are still able to
understand it.
Semantics as part of grammar
 Grammar (in the linguist’s sense) is a
characterisation of the knowledge of a
speaker/hearer (to produce and comprehend the
language)
 Semantics is part of a speaker’s (listener’s)
linguistic knowledge.
 Therefore, semantics is part of grammar.
 Speakers have some internalised knowledge
such that:
 They understand what other people mean
 They are able to say what they mean
Compositionality
 The guiding principle to explaining
the productivity of meaning is the
Principle of Compositionality

 The meaning of a sentence is a function

of the meaning of its component words
and the way they’re combined.
Semantic Composition
 Remember, we don’t just add up all
the word meanings to get the meaning
of the whole. If semantics worked this
way, we should expect the two
sentences the cat chased the dog and
the dog chased the cat to mean
exactly the same words or maybe the
chased dog cat the
Semantic Triangle
reference

symbolizes refers to

symbol referent
stands for
object
Ogden & Richards (1923):
Symbols and Semantic Triangle

Concept

“Jaguar“ Symbol Thing

Part 2

So what can a semantic theory look

like?
An example situation
So did you
like the food?

You made
great black
coffee.
Requirements for our theory (I)
 What kinds of knowledge do you need
to understand a reply such as you
made great black coffee:
 Word meaning:
 black, coffee, great, make, you
 Phrasal and sentence meaning
(Compositionality):
 black + coffee
 You, (great + black + coffee) + (make +
PAST)
Sentence Meaning
 The basic sentence type is
declarative.
 The main use of language is to
describe states of affairs.
 The meaning of sentences should be
described in terms of truth and
falsity
Context
 The phrase you made great black
coffee seems to acquire new shades
of meaning in different contexts:
 You’re a hopeless cook, but at least, the
coffee was OK…
 You completely failed to impress me…
What is meaning?
Conceptual meaning and contextual meaning
1: conceptual meaning: basic, essential
components of meaning which are conveyed
by the literal use of a word.
2: contextual meaning: also called associative
meaning or connotative meaning. Meaning
conveyed in a specific context.

NOTE: semantics focuses its attention without

considering the specific situation in which the
word is used or the sentence is spoken.
Semantics vs. pragmatics
 Literal/conventionalised meaning
 “core meaning”, independent of
context
 This belongs to semantics proper
 Speaker meaning & context
 What a speaker means when they
say something, over and above the
literal meaning.
 This and other “contextual” effects
belong to pragmatics
Summary
 Semantics is part of linguistic and
encyclopaedic knowledge
 This is productive and systematic
 Compositionality of meaning helps us to explain
how people can interpret a potentially infinite
number of sentences
 Theories of linguistic meaning must account
for distinctions between:
 Linguistic knowledge and world knowledge
 Literal meaning vs contextualised or non-literal
meaning