Semantic

It can be simply stated that:
SEMANTICS is the study of MEANING in
LANGUAGE

A theory of meaning is to recognize the
distinction between what speakers mean or
what words (or sentences) mean.
SPEAKER MEANING is what a speaker means
(i.e. intends to convey) when he uses a piece of
language.
SENTENCE MEANING (or WORD MEANING)
is what a sentence (or word) means, i.e. what it
counts as the equivalent of in the language
concerned.

The answer is that semantics is an attempt to set
up a theory of meaning.
A THEORY is a precisely specified, coherent, and
economical frame-work 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.
Example: Chemical Theory with its definition of the
elements

1. Utterance
An UTTERANCE is any stretch of talk, by one person, before and after which
there is silence on the part of that person. An utterance is the USE by a
particular speaker, on a particular occasion, of a piece of language, such as a
sequence of sentences, or a single phrase, or even a single word.
Example: “Good Morning!”
2. Sentence
A SENTENCE is neither a physical event nor a physical object. It is, conceived
(partial) abstractly, a string of words put together by the grammatical rules of a
language. A sentence can be thought of as the IDEAL string of words behind
various realizations in utterances and inscriptions.
Example: The sun rises in the East and sets on the West.
No one can talk loud sentence and we don’t talk time and place when we utter
the words.

A SENTENCE is a grammatically complete string of words
expressing a complete thought.
Example: My mother always cooks rice every morning.
3. A PROPOSITION
A PROPOSITION is that part of the meaning of the utterance of
a declarative sentence which describes some state of affairs.
The meanings of whole SENTENCES involve propositions.
If there is any conceivable set of circumstances in which one
sentence is true, while the other is false, we can be sure that
they express different propositions.

Same proposition Different proposition
•Rizal took off his jacket
•Rizal took his jacket off
• Ina hates Tomy
•Tomy hates Ina
• Jono is singing on this stage.
•Jono is not singing in this
stage.
•Nina killed the bird
•Nina caused the bird to die.

There are two quite distinct ways of talking
about the meaning of words and other
expressions.
In talking of SENSE, we deal with relationships
inside the language; Example:
› It is likely that Nini will visit me tomorrow.
› It is probably that Nini will visit me tomorrow.
› (Both likely and probably have the same sense)
In talking of REFERENCE we deal with the
relationships between language and the world.
Example: “This slide” (I mean this slide that you
looking at)

A REFERRING EXPRESSION is any expression used in
an utterance to refer to something or someone (or a clearly
delimited collection of things or people), i.e. used with a
particular referent in mind.
For example:
1. A man was looking at you.
The word “ a man” can be REFERRING EXPRESSION if
you know him on your mind.
2. a.) M. Barrack Obama visited Indonesia last year.
b.) The President of United States visited Indonesia
last year.
The words M. Barrack Obama and The President of United
States is the same REFERRING EXPRESSION.

An OPAQUE CONTEXT is a part of a sentence which could be made
into a complete sentence by the addition of a referring expression, but
where the addition of different referring expressions, even though they
refer to the same thing or person, in a given situation, will yield
sentences with DIFFERENT meanings when uttered in a given
situation.
Notice that opaque contexts typically involve a certain kind of verb,
like: want, believe, think, and wonder about.
Example:
‘Diki believes that Jono stole Smith’s book.
‘Diki believes that the person sit on the chair stole Smith’ book.
(Diki doesn’t know that the person sit on the chair is Jono, so the
sentence above are opaque context)

An EQUATIVE SENTENCE is one which is
used to assert the identity of the referents of
two referring expressions, i.e. to assert that
two referring expressions have the same
referent.
Example:
Tino Bara is the Leader of this class.
That girl sitting over there is my students.

The PREDICATOR of a simple declarative
sentence is the word (sometimes a group of
words) which does not belong to any of the
referring expressions and which, of the
remainder, makes the most specific contribution
to the meaning of the sentence.
Example: Vina is eating a cup cake.
Eating: predicator (focused point)

A PREDICATE is any word (or sequence of words) which (in a given
single sense) can function as the predicator of a sentence. To be is not
predicates.
Example: Adjective, verb, preposition.
The DEGREE of a predicate is a number indicating the number of
arguments, it is normally understood to have in simple sentences.
One place predicate:
› Nana is hungry = one arguments ( Nana )
Two place predicate
› Vina feeds the parrot = two arguments (Vina and the parrot)
Three place predicate
› Indonesia is between Malaisya and Australia = three arguments (Indonesia,
Malaisya, Australia)

A GENERIC SENTENCE is a sentence in which some
statement is made about a whole unrestricted class of
individuals, as opposed to any particular individual.
Example: Cat is a carnivor animal.
UNIVERSE OF DISCOURSE for any utterance as the particular
world, real or imaginary (or part real, part imaginary), that the
speaker assumes he is talking about at the time.
Example:
Fictious world: The Fairytooth will come to your house
Real : Some of these mushroom are poisonous.

A DEICTIC word is one which takes some element of its
meaning from the context or situation (example: the
speaker, the addressee, the time and the place) of the
utterance in which it is used.
Example: When Vivi says ‘I’ve lost my job’, the word I here
refers to Vivi.
The CONTEXT of an utterance is a small subpart of the
universe of discourse shared by speaker and hearer, and
includes facts about the topic of the conversation in which
the utterance occurs, and also facts about the situation in
which the conversation itself takes place.

DEFINITENESS is a feature of a noun phrase selected by a
speaker to convey his assumption that the hearer will be able to
identify the referent of the noun phrase, usually because it is the
only thing of its kind in the context of the utterance, or because it
is unique in the universe of discourse.
Example:
“That pencil” is definite. It can only appropriately be used when
the speaker assumes the hearer can tell which pencil is being
referred to.
The personal pronoun “he” is definite. It can only appropriately
be used when the speaker assumes the hearer can tell which
person is being referred to.
“The Earth” is definite. It is the only thing in a normal universe of
discourse known by this name.

The EXTENSION of a one-place predicate is the set of all
individuals to which that predicate can truthfully be
applied. It is the set of things which can POTENTIALLY be
referred to by using an expression whose main element is
that predicate.
Example:
The extension of door is the set of all doors in the
universe.
The extension of cat is the set of all cats in the universe.
The extension of mosque is the set of all mosques.
The extension of blue is the set of all blue things.

A PROTOTYPE of a predicate is an object
which is held to be very TYPICAL of the kind of
object which can be referred to by an
expression containing the predicate. In other
words, the prototype of a predicate can be
thought of as the most typical member of the
extension of a predicate.
Example:
The prototype of cat: angora cat, persian cat, etc

The REFERENT of a referring expression is the
thing picked out by the use of that expression
on a particular occasion of utterance.
The EXTENSION of a predicate is the complete
set of all things which could potentially (i.e. in
any possible utterance) be the referent of a
referring expression whose head constituent is
that predicate.
A PROTOTYPE of a predicate is a typical
member of its extension.

An ANALYTIC sentence is one that is necessarily TRUE,
as a result of the senses of the words in it. An analytic
sentence, therefore, reflects a tacit (unspoken) agreement
by speakers of the language about the senses of the
words in it.
Example: All coconut trees are plant
A SYNTHETIC sentence is one which is NOT analytic, but
may be either true or false, depending on the way the
world is.
Example: Mirna is the most diligent student.

A CONTRADICTION is a sentence that is
necessarily FALSE, as a result of the senses
of the words in it. Thus a contradiction is in a
way the opposite of an analytic sentence.
Example: All coconut trees is animal

A NECESSARY CONDITION on the sense of a predicate
is a condition (or criterion) which a thing MUST meet in
order to qualify as being correctly described by that
predicate.
For example: triangle ; the NC is “Three sided”
A SUFFICIENT SET OF CONDITIONS on the sense of a
predicate is a set of conditions (or criteria) which, if they
are met by a thing, are enough in themselves to
GUARANTEE that the predicate correctly describes that
thing.
For example: Three sided and the 180 degree

SYNONYMY is the relationship between two predicates that
have the same sense.
Example:
Vita is clever
Vita is smart
(smart and clever are synonym)
HYPONYMY is a sense relation between predicates (or
sometimes longer phrases) such that the meaning of one
predicate (or phrase) is included in the meaning of the other.
Example: the hyponym of emotion: Sad, angry, confused and
happy,

Hope you understand this semantics.
Thank you...

Semantic

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