SEMANTICS

Understanding the basics

LECTURER: Maja Brala-Vukanović, M.Phil. Ph.D.
Room 910
Task:
What is semantics?
from Ancient Greek: σημαντικός sēmantikós, "significant„

Understanding MEANING!
vs. understanding Semantics!
Semantics: systematic study of meaning
What is meaning?
Meaning vs. linguistic meaning!!! (linguistic semantics)

CLOSE YOUR EYES AND PICTURE ……

Define ‘bachelor’
TASK: Look up ‘bachelor’ in your favourite dictionary.
In this class we will:
deal with relations of words to other words, and sentences to other
sentences;
discuss the importance of ‘tone of voice’ and ‘body language’ in face-
to-face exchanges, and the role of context in any communication;
make random comparisons of features in other languages;
explore the knowledge speakers of a language must have in common
to enable them to communicate;
discuss the nature of language; the structure of discourse; the
distinction between lexical and grammatical meaning;
examine such relations as synonymy, antonymy, and hyponymy;
ambiguity; implication; presuppositions …
discuss meaning in language and …
…have fun doing it!
Consider …
My dog is a lion when it is with smaller dogs, but when it
sees a very large dog, he becomes a pussycat. So, my dog,
actually, is a pussycat. (Ironically, I never taught higly of cat
owners).
What is meaning?
Whose is meaning?
Where is meaning?
Where does meaning come from?
How is meaning understood?
TASK: Look up the meaning of ‘meaning’ in a dictionary.
Think about this…
“I am into birds. I like them of all kinds. I love their
colours, vibrant and flamboyant. I love hearing them sing
in the summer breeze, and then raging in the dense and
humid tropical forest. I’ve seen them all, from ostriches
and cacatuas to Asian crested ibises. The only I have not
seen is the flying pig. A species that exists only in my
friends’ linguistics experiments.“
What did this text ‘do’ to you?
Any colours? Sounds?
How about ostriches, cacatuas, or Asian crested ibises?
What about flying pigs?
‘Flying pig’ ...
Do you understand it?
Can you picture it?
Can you draw it?
Flying pigs (Pigasus vs. Superswine)
Semantics ...
 Focuses on the literal meaning of words, phrases and
sentences but also their integration!
The rest of meaning (in use and what users do with
meaning) is left to pragmatics.
To understand semantic meaning, we have to bring
together 3 main components:
1) the context in which a sentence is used,
2) the meanings of the words in the sentence,
3) the morphological and syntactic structure
Systematic study of meaning:
Three (key) perspectives / disciplines:
PHILOSOPHY
LINGUISTICS
PSYCHOLOGY
Three frameworks:
Philosophical semantics

Lexical semantics

Cognitive semantics
Common goal:
Understanding how language works and what is shared
as part of general human linguistic knowledge

What does it mean to know a language

Human semantic knowledge
Recognize anomaly
Be able to paraphrase
Know synonymy (in precize contexts)
Recognize contradictory statements (if one T other F)
Know antonymy
Intuitively recognize semantic features
Recognize and understand ambiguity
Produce and deal with adjacency pairs (converse)
Understand entailment (T1 entails T2)
Understand and use presuppositions
Human linguistic knowledge
Comprises:
- Knowledge of the sound system
- Knowledge of words
- Creativity
- Knowledge of grammar (sentences vs. non-senteces)

ALL OF THE ABOVE MAKES:

LINGUISTIC COMPETENCE

(vs. linguistic performance)

Compare and contrast:
… growing foliage;
… growing children;
… growing discontent;
A growing youth has a wolf in his belly.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Don't let the grass grow under one's feet.
They grew cold.
They grew apart.
… into, out, back, down, on, up …
Look up GROW phrasal verbs!
LANGUAGE OBSERVATION POST (LOP – part
of PORTFOLIO tasks)
Assignement : LANGUAGE OBSERVATION POST –
think about an OBSERVATION regarding meaning in
language that you can make in your everyday life /
communication
Due date: any time before last class in December

hand in as part of your PORTFOLIO

(further will be posted on MERLIN)
And then, for a final few smiles, consider …
In a Norwegian cocktail lounge:
Ladies are requested not to have children in the bar.
In a Japanese hotel:
You are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid.
In a Rome laundry:
Ladies, leave your clothes here and spend the afternoon
having a good time.