UNIT 4 - LINGUISTICS

WHAT IS SEMANTICS?

    -          DEFINITION: it is the study of meaning in human language, from morphemes to textual contexts. It distinguishes among the different ways in which language means. Meaning is a very complex and multifaceted notion, so we need to develop a precise way of talking about meaning. The TRUTH depends on words (whether or not the speaker is in fact telling the truth). Then, there are sentences that are semantically ANOMALOUS and others that present a CONTRADICTION although they are well formed syntactically. Because of words with distinct meanings, there are also AMBIGUOUS sentences, and finally, the sentences out of context are VAGUE.

     -          WORD MEANING: A language is a system of symbols that represents objects and states of affairs in the world. Meaning has two aspects that are complementary:

    o   INFORMATION CONTENT of language: the relationship that holds between language and the world (called REFERENCE).

    o   Meaning is also a cognitive and psychological phenomenon. The MENTAL REPRESENTATION is called SENSE, which is the meaning of words in relation to other words with a language (acception).

    -          DENOTATION AND CONNOTATION:

    o   DENOTATION: is liked with referential/information meaning, which involves world entities. However, there are words which have no referents in the real world even though they make sense.

    o   CONNOTATION: is a set of associations that a word’s use can evoke.

    -          EXTENSION AND INTENSION: There are expressions that share the same referent at a given point but differ in meaning, so the impossibility of equating an element’s meaning with its referents has led to a distinction between:

    o   EXTENSION: corresponds to the set of entities of an expression that constitute a category.

    o   INTENSION: corresponds to the inherent sense, the attributes that define an expression.

    -          SENSE RELATIONS: There are many ways for words to be related semantically:

    o   HYPONYMY (logical relations): is a relation of inclusion where words are organized in a taxonomical way: “X is a type of Y”. Subordinate terms are called HYPONYMS, whereas superordinate terms are called HYPERNYMS. Hyponymous relationships stack very well: cohyponyms are SISTER TERMS (at the same level of the hierarchy) but hyponymy may exist also at more than one level.

    o   PART/WHOLE RELATIONSHIP (Meronymy/ontological relations): is found in pairs where the referent of the first term is part of the reference  of the second term: “X is part of Y”.

    o   SYNONYMY: are words that have the same meaning in some or all contexts: “term A is synonymous with term B if every referent of A is a referent of B and vice versa”. True synonymy is inexistent (words can be similar in their meanings but differ in context), so there are different restrictions: COLLOCATIONAL, SYNTACTIC, REGISTER, GEOGRAPHICAL, CONNOTATIVE AND CONTEMPORAL.

    o   ANTONYMY: denotes opposition in meaning and it is a binary relationship at a time. The prototypical antonyms are adjectives, but nouns, adverbs and verbs also illustrate different kinds of oppositeness. There are distinct types:

-          SIMPLE/COMPLEMENTARY antonyms: stand in a “either/or” relationship

-          GRADABLE antonyms: can be placed at the two ends of a scale with a number of intermediate notions,

-          REVERSES: describe a situation which can be approached from two different ends.

-          CONVERSES: describe the same relation or action from a different perspective.

-     POLYSEMY and HOMONYMY: refer to similarities. There are different types of homonymy: HOMOGRAPHS (same spelling and pronunciation, different unrelated meanings), HETEROGRAPHS (same spelling, different pronunciation and unrelated meaning), HOMOPHONES (same pronunciation, different unrelated senses and spelling) and HOMONYMS (same written or spoken form, different unrelated senses).

On the other hand, POLYSEMIC words have related meanings (a common source) but multiple senses, only one realized in any particular context.

    -          APPROACHES TO MEANING:

    o   REFERENTIAL APPROACH: Meaning should be sought in the extra-linguistic entity that an expression pick out of the referent (objects or situations) there is an objective world that can be designed objectively and precisely by words.

    o   COMPONENTIAL ANALYSIS: is a semantic decomposition. For example, it analyses types of nouns in terms of semantic features, involving binary values (closed set of clear-cut features). Semantic properties cover sense relations.

    o   CONCEPTUAL APROACH: relates meaning to mental concepts that don’t have to correspond to objects in the world (no closed sets of features). It studies how our conceptual system is organized and some of its concepts are: FUZZY CONCEPTS and PROTOTYPES (have an internal structure).

    o   METAPHOR: Concepts make a giant network, and these associations involve metaphors (the understanding of one concept in terms of another). They have a prominent place in the conceptual system since we use language to talk about various abstract notions (emotions or psychological states in spatial terms). Many concepts are structured and understood metaphorically to our physical and cultural experience.