Chapter 6: Semantics…

… the Study of Meaning

NOTES: About exercising: it keeps you healthy: physically &

mentally… I’ve tried to match the slides to the order of the textbook

this time…

What is “Truth”? - Pilate- c 33AD

I went to Bi-Lo this morning Bi-Lo is a grocery store

You are too young to drinkYou are not old enough to drink

Dave spent 4 years in Tokyo, JapanDave was once in Tokyo, Japan

Truth & Contradiction Paraphrase:

Two sentences: the same truth conditions Entailment

JFK was assassinated __________ Contradictions

*The king is a woman Anomalies

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously

What I meant to say was…

Principle of Compositionality

The meaning of a sentence comes

(mostly) from its constituents and the way they are

positioned.

Ambiguity The man saw the fish with binoculars.

You Try it

Create an ambiguous sentence…

How does ambiguity relate to compositionality, truth, entailment, etc?

Think About It…

What are some benefits & dangers of ambiguity in our

communication?

Types of Meaning Linguistic

Reference GWB became the 43rd president

Meaning Al Gore nearly became GWB????

Social Y’all

Affective How many times have I asked you to…

It all depends…

Band practice…My house

6 to 8

Band practice…My house

6 to 8

Band practice…My house

6 to 8

Band practice…My house

6 to 8Thanks for the

reminder

Thanks for the

reminder

Thanks for the

reminder Thanks for the

warning

Pragmatics What’s the message?

My wife in the car while we’re driving…

“I’m getting cold…” Me sitting making these slides…

“Honey, do we have any fruit…?”

Why “Fine”? … Why Ask?

Any Questions…

… before we move on?

Systematicness of Language

Phonology

Syntax

Lexis

Predictable

Unpredictable

Word Relationships Hyponymy

Color – Red, blue, green, etc. Converseness

Reciprocal relationship Polysemy & Homonymy

Plain • Bat

IceIce

H2O

Fuzzy Concepts (Lexical Semantics)

RainIce

Nose

Hana(Japanese)

Nos(Russian)

Think About It…

How can knowing about word relationships help us study

another language or communicate with a

non-native speaker of English?

Any Questions…

… before we move on?

Meaning Categories

Tense & Modality Deixis

Semantic Roles Verb-Centered

Agent one doing the action Theme (patient) one receiving the

action Experiencer one who perceives

Identify A, T & E below (two in each…) Humpty-Dumpty sat on a wall. Bo Peep pushed Humpty off the wall Miss Muffet heard Humpty shatter

Thematic Roles?

Themes in other lanaguages Apache

*My horse kicked me I allowed myself to be kicked by my

horse German

In diesem hotel sind hunde verboten In this hotel are dogs forbidden * This hotel forbids dogs

Think About It…

How do thematic roles apply to how we create sentences?

Any Questions….

… before we move on?

Maxims of Conversation

Grice, 1975

Maxim of Conversation #1 Relevance

Be relevant

Maxim of Conversation #2 Quantity

Be as informative as required…

Maxim of Conversation #3 Quality

Truthful, Supportable claims

Maxim of Conversation #4 Manner

Brief, orderly Not ambiguous nor obscure

Recommended Exercises

1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15 Enough of each to get the point