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Lecture - Semantics

This document discusses semantics, which is the study of meaning in language. It provides some key principles of semantics, including speaker meaning versus sentence/word meaning. Speaker meaning refers to what a speaker intends to convey, while sentence/word meaning refers to what a word or sentence means in the language. Native speakers are the primary source of information about meaning. The purpose of semantics is to describe meanings of words as used by native speakers and to construct a theory of meaning.

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Syuhadah Baharim
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63 views15 pages

Lecture - Semantics

This document discusses semantics, which is the study of meaning in language. It provides some key principles of semantics, including speaker meaning versus sentence/word meaning. Speaker meaning refers to what a speaker intends to convey, while sentence/word meaning refers to what a word or sentence means in the language. Native speakers are the primary source of information about meaning. The purpose of semantics is to describe meanings of words as used by native speakers and to construct a theory of meaning.

Uploaded by

Syuhadah Baharim
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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GGGV1253

Semantics
Dr. Nur Ehsan bin Mohd Said
Faculty of Education
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
What is semantics?
• The study of meaning in language
Some basic principles

• Speaker meaning – what a speaker means or the


message he/she intends to convey when using a
language structure (e.g. word, phrase, clause,
sentence)

• Sentence meaning/word meaning - what a


sentence/word means in the language
For example: the expression “that is a nice dress”

Sentence meaning – the dress under discussion is nice.


In the English language, the word “nice” has a positive
connotation.

Speaker meaning – it may mean positively when said


compliment the wearer. However, it can be with a
negative note if the remark is meant to be sarcastic.
Why learn about semantics?

1. To understand different conversational and social uses that an


expression can be put to, a language learner has to master the stable
meanings of words and sentences as defined by the language system
(sentence/word meaning)

• The same sentences are used by different speakers on different


occasions to mean different things (speaker meaning).
• Sentence meaning and speaker meaning are both important.
Note:

• The is a gap between speaker meaning and


sentence/word meaning as is evidenced in
figurative speech, jokes, or sarcasm.
For example: These shoes are killing me.

• The expression is not supposed to be taken at face


value unless the shoes have the ability to kill human
beings.
• When the expression is used, it means that the shoes
are making the speaker very uncomfortable (usually
because they are tight)
• Meaning not to be understood literally
How does one study meaning?

• Called the methods of semantics


• When two people hold an ordinary conversation,
they need to first have the same word/sentence
meaning
• For example, when speaker A says to speaker B:

“Please move the table to the corner”

• They must both understand and interpret the word


and/or sentence meanings similarly. If speaker B does
not understand or has a different interpretation of a
word (e.g. table) the conversation will not lead to the
same conclusion.
Informant for meaning in languages
• If you are learning a foreign language, e.g. the Sar
language of Chad, Central Africa, how do you find out
what ndoho means in the language?
• Would one of the sensible ways to find out is to ask a
speaker of Sar (if you could find one)?
• Ndoho means nine in Sar; it is not a technical word.
Would an adult speaker of Sar know what ndoho
means?
• Native speakers are the primary source of information about meaning

Purpose of semantics:
• To describe what meanings words shall have as used by competent native
speakers of a particular language
• To set up a theory of meaning
• Theory: a precisely specified, coherent, and economical framework of
interdependent statements and definitions, constructed so that as large a
number as possible of particular basic facts can either be seen to follow
from it or be describable in terms of it.
What is a semantic theory?

• Theory refers to:

a precisely specified, coherent, and economical


framework of interdependent statements and
definitions, constructed so that as large a number as
possible of particular basic facts can either be seen to
follow from it or be describable in terms of it.
Look at the following statements.
• Alive means the opposite of dead.
• Buy has an opposite meaning from sell.
• Caesar is and . . . Is not a meaningful English sentence
• Caesar is a prime number is nonsensical
• Caesar is a man is logical.
• If someone says, “Can you pass the salt?”, he is not asking about the
hearer’s ability to pass the salt, but is requesting the hearer to pass the salt.
• If someone says, “I tried to buy some rice”, the hearer would normally infer
that he/she had actually failed to buy rice.
• All these statements help speakers to form a theory.
• Semantic theory deals with semantic facts, facts
about meaning, such as those stated in the true
statements above.
• Semantic theory is a part of a larger enterprise,
linguistic theory, which includes the study of syntax
(grammar) and phonetics (pronunciation) besides
the study of meaning.
• Semantics concentrates on the similarities
between languages, rather than on the
differences.
• Linguistics as a whole concentrates on the
similarities between languages.

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