Basic concepts and units in semantics -...

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Basic concepts and units in semanticsFoundations and Structure of Language

Xavier Villalba

Dept. de Filologia Catalana

Xavier Villalba (Dept. de Filologia Catalana) Basic concepts and units in semantics 1 / 36

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1 Introduction

2 Reference

3 Sense

4 Denotation

5 Truth

6 Compositionality

7 Propositions

8 Predicates and arguments


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Introduction

Externalist theories: they seek for the meaning of language in thecorrespondence between linguistic expressions and reality.

Internalist theories: they seek for the meaning of language in thecorrespondence between linguistic expressions and mental concepts.

Social theories: they seek for the meaning of language in thecorrespondence between linguistic expressions and their use in socialexchanges.


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Introduction

Different visions and phenomena I

relations between words (lexical semantics):

(1) bachelor–single–unmarried–spinster

(2) tall 6= short, open 6= closed

(3) neurologist → doctor


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Introduction

Different visions and phenomena II

relations between sentences:

(4) Mary quit smoking. → Mary smoked.

(5) Mary smokes cigars. → Mary smokes.

(6) Mary does not smoke cigars. 9 Mary does not smoke.

(7) Mary does not smoke. → Mary does not smoke cigars..


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Introduction

Different visions and phenomena III

word-language fit:

(8) The door of the classroom is closed/open.

(9) The professor/The king of France is bald.


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Introduction

Different visions and phenomena IV

meaning in communication:

(10) a. Can you pass me the salt?b. #Yes. [end of exchange]/Of course, here you have it.


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Introduction

Formal semantics: the externalist approach

The formal approach to semantics stems from Gottlob Frege, whointroduced the basic concepts you found in the reading:

reference

denotation,

truth


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Reference

Reference

Referring is a particular linguistic act that a speaker performs when sheassociates a linguistic expression with an entity or situation in the world.

“Xavier Villalba”−−−−−→refers to

(11) This blackboard is dirty.

The direct reference theory assumes that the meaning of a linguisticexpression is its reference.


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Reference

Reference

Gottlob Frege (1848-1925) already pointed two problems associated withthis theory (Frege (1985)):

non-equivalence of expressions with the same reference

(12) a. Leo Messi is the Argentinian forward of Barca.b. Leo Messi is Leo Messi.

expressions without a referent

(13) a. The king of France is bald.b. The first man in Mars will find full of parking space.


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Sense

Sense

Frege (1985):

referent (German Bedeutung)

sense (German Sinn)


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Sense

Sense

(14) a. Leo Messi is the Argentinian forward of Barca. Same referentbut different sense

b. Leo Messi is Leo Messi. Same referent and same sense

(15) a. The king of France is bald. Sense without referent.b. The first man in Mars will find full of parking space. Sense

without referent.


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Sense

Sense

Exercise

From 1 and 2, can we infer 3?

1 Leo Messi is the Argentinian forward of Barca.

2 Mary believes that Leo Messi is the best football player in the world.

3 Mary believes that Leo Messi is the Argentinian forward of Barca.


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Denotation

Denotation

Denotation is a stable relationship between a linguistic expression andthe set of elements it applies to (i.e. its extension).

the noun dog denotes the set of dogs,

the DP this dog refers to this particular dog,

the proper name Fido refers to a particular dog,

extension of dog: Fido, Lassie, Rex,. . .

intension de dog: “Man’s best friend.”. . .


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Truth

Truth-conditions

(16) a. [[Today it’s Friday]] = 1 if today it’s Friday.b. [[Today it’s Friday]] = 0 t if today it’s not Friday.

We can understand the meaning of a sentence if we understand theconditions that render it true.

(17) a. En Cercedilla ha aterrizado un platillo volante.Escandell-Vidal (2004)

b. A flying saucer landed in Cercedilla.


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Truth

Truth-conditions

Since they are more accessible than internal concepts, truth-conditions area good objective starting point for building our theory of meaning. Noteour intuitions about semantic relations:

(18) semantic equivalence

a. All men are mortal. ≡ No man is immortal.b. We have few books. ≡ We don’t have many books.

(19) entailment

a. Plays the piano. ⇒ Plays an instrument.b. Everybody lies. ⇒ Somebody lies.


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Truth

Truth-conditions

(20) a. Mary opened the door. / The door is open.b. All politician lied. / Some politician lied.c. Few students smoke weed. / Few students smoke.d. Mary is not intelligent. / Mary is stupid.e. Mary is tall. / Mary is not short.f. No student smoke. / No student smokes weed..


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Truth

Truth-conditions

We can build two different relations based on truth-conditions:p q A p q B1 1 0 1 1 01 0 1 1 0 10 1 1 0 1 10 0 1 0 0 0

(21) a. Mary passed the exam. / Mary didn’t passed the exam.b. Mary is intelligent. / Mary is stupid.c. The door is open. / The door is closed.d. Mary is tall. / Mary is not tall.


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Truth

Truth-conditions: some problems

(22) Is the cat on the mat?

Copyright John Searle!!


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Truth


(23) Is the cat on the mat?

Copyright John Searle!!Xavier Villalba (Dept. de Filologia Catalana) Basic concepts and units in semantics 20 / 36

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Truth


Truth is evaluated with respect to some context:

(24) a. [Some coffee?] No, thank you, I had one. [= “I had onecoffee this morning.”]

b. It’s raining. [= “It’s raining here and now.”]c. Everybody is sitting down. [= “Everybody in this classroom

is sitting down at this moment.”]


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Compositionality

Compositionality

It is conceded by most philosophers of language, and recently by somelinguists, that a satisfactory theory of meaning must give an account ofhow the meanings of sentences depend on the meanings of words. Unlesssuch an account could be supplied for a particular language, it is argued,there would be no explaining the fact that we can learn the language: noexplaining the fact that, on mastering a finite vocabulary and a finitelystated set of rules, we are prepared to produce and to understand any of apotential infinitude of sentences.Donald DavidsonCompositionality principle The meaning of a expression is a function ofthe meaning of its parts and the way they combine syntactically.


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Compositionality

Compositionality

untranslatable (‘that cannot be translated’)A

un A

V

translat(a)

A

bleuntranslatable (*‘that can be not translated’)

A

V

un V

translat(a)

A

ble


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Compositionality

Compositionality

dispossession (‘action or effect of take some property away fromsomeone’)

N

V

dis V

possess

N

ion

dispossession (*‘not being the case that you have or own something’)N

dis N

V

possess

N

ion


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Compositionality

Compositionality

The strong compositional view (Richard Montague):

Syntax specifies the set of well-formed expressions of our language insuch a way that allows a compositional semantic interpretation.

Semantics provides the well-formed expressions of language with truthconditions in a compositional way.


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Propositions

The concept of proposition

Propositions are abstract semantic units that can be realized by differentsentences:

The car is parked across the street.

It is the car that it is parked across the street.

Across the street, the car is parked.

Parallel to the morpheme-allomorph and phoneme-allophone relationships.


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Propositions


Propositions (”The circle is within the square”) can be represented astruth-conditions:


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Propositions


Alternatively, we can represent propositions as sets of possibleworlds (i.e. alternative states of affairs).

(25) a. If the river had been covered with ice, Napoleon would havecrossed it.

b. If Plato had been born in Sparta, he would not have been aphilosopher.


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Predicates and arguments

Situations and participants

According to Charles Fillmore, in a commercial exchange we have thefollowing participants and transfers between them:

seller

buyer

goods

money

This abstract semantic frame can be realized by different lexicalpredicates.


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Buy

(26) a. David bought an old shirt from John for ten pounds.b. David bought an old shirt.


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Sell

(27) a. John sold an old shirt to David for ten pounds.b. John sold an old shirt.


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Charge

(28) a. John charged David ten pounds for an old shirt.b. John charged David ten pounds.c. John charged David for an old shirt.


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Pay

(29) a. David paid ten pounds to John for an old shirt.b. David paid ten pounds to John.c. David paid ten pounds for an old shirt.d. David paid ten pounds.


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Spend

(30) David spent ten pounds on an old shirt.


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Cost

(31) The old shirt cost David ten pounds


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Selected References I

Escandell-Vidal, Victoria. 2004. Norms and principles. Current trends inthe pragmatics of Spanish 123. 347.

Frege, Gottlob. 1985. on Sense and Reference. Mind 94(376). 526–537.doi:10.1093/mind/XCIV.376.526.


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