[2]

The relationships between sentences:

Sentences can also be semantically related to one-another in a few different ways.

Semantic relationship

Definition

Example

Paraphrase

One relationship that two sentences can have with each other is being paraphrases of each other. This is a good example of how we all understand semantics already on some level because people can easily tell when a sentence is a paraphrase, because when two sentences are

paraphrases of each other, even though the form is different you will understand the same meaning from them. Paraphrases have the same truth conditions; if one is true, the other must also be true.

'The boys like the girls' and 'the girls are liked by the boys',

'John gave the book to Chris' and 'John gave Chris the book'.

Entailment

Entailment is a little more tricky than paraphrase in that the two sentences don't mean exactly the same thing, instead, when one sentence entails another, for the second sentence to be true, the first one must be true. There are two different types of entailment.

Mutual enatilment

When each sentence entails the other, i.e. each sentence must be true for the other to be true.

'John is married to Rachel' and 'Rachel is

John's wife',

'Chris is a man' and 'Chris is human'.

Asymmetrical entailment

With asymmetrical entailment, only one of the sentences must be true for the other to be true, but that sentence may be true without the other sentence necessarily having to be true.

'Rachel is John's wife' entails 'John is married' (but John is married does not entail Rachel being his wife), 'Rachel has two brothers' entails 'Rachel is not an only child' (but Rachel not being an only child does not entail Rachel having two brothers).

Contradiction

Sentences can also be semantically related when they contradict each other. Sentences contradict each other when for one to be true the other must not be.

'Rachel is an only child' and 'Rachel's brother is called Phil', 'Alex is alive' and

'Alex died last week'.

[2]

Ambiguity:

One of the aspects of how meaning works in language which is studied most in semantics is ambiguity. A sentence is ambiguous when it has two or more possible meanings, but how does ambiguity arise in language? A sentence can be ambiguous for either (or both!) of the following reasons:

Lexical Ambiguity: A sentence is lexically ambiguous when it can have two or more possible meanings due to polysemous (words that have two or more related meanings) or homophonous (a single word which has two or more different meanings) words.

Example of lexically ambiguous sentence: 'Prostitutes appeal to the Pope'. This sentence is ambiguous because the word 'appeal' is polysemous and can mean 'ask for help' or 'are attractive to'.

Structural Ambiguity: A sentence is structurally ambiguous if it can have two or more possible meanings due to the words it contains being able to be combined in different ways which create different meanings.

Example of structurally ambiguous sentence: 'Enraged cow injures farmer with axe'. In this sentence the ambiguity arises from the fact that the 'with axe' can either refer to the farmer, or to the act of injuring being carried out (by the cow)

'with axe'.[2]

Semantics in the field of Linguistics

Semantics looks at these relationships in language and looks at how these meanings are created, which is an important part of understanding how language works as a whole. Understanding how meaning occurs in language can inform other sub disciplines such as Language acquisition, to help us to understand how speakers acquire a sense of meaning,

and Sociolinguistics, as the achievement of meaning in language is important in language in a social situation. Semantics is also informed by other sub disciplines of linguistics, such as Morphology, as understanding the words themselves is integral to the study of their meaning, and Syntax, which researchers in semantics use extensively to reveal how meaning is created in language, as how language is structured is central to meaning.

To find out about some of the key researchers in semantics please follow this link.

References

[1] http://www.universalteacher.org.uk/lang/semantics.htm [Accessed 3.05.2012]

[2] Wood, G.C., (2011). Lecture on Introduction to Semantics at the University of Sheffield.

University of Sheffield 2012

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