Semanticsandpragmatics

UNIT 1: INTRODUCTION TO SEMANTICS AND PRAGMATICS
Phonetics studies the physiological aspects of speech, the articulation of sound.
Phonology focuses on the linguistic use of sounds/phonemes.
Morphology deals with words structure based on morphemes (take into account that
these are derivational and inflectional morphemes).
Syntax studies the way words are combined to create bigger units.
Lexicon is concerned with the words of a language.
The way they are organized is our mind is called mental lexicon. They are organized in
categories known as semantic fields. Lexical items are lexemes.
FULL LISTING HYPOTHESIS VS. COMPONENT MORPHS
It seems more likely that we have all the morphemes stored in our mind and, by acquiring
several grammatical rules, we build up words by combining them.
Pig/Pork: In English the difference between the animal and the food has been lexicalized;
whereas in Spanish it only differs in our mental lexicon.
Different languages have different patterns of organization.
Words are also organized in our mind according to sense relations: a word makes us think of
another one because of certain relation they have: antonomy, synonymy, and so on.
Pragmatics has to do with the meaning, it studies interactional conversations and -more
concretely- the intended meaning of the speakers.
SEMANTICS vs. PRAGMATICS To relate both terms we could say that meaning is the result of
semantics + pragmatics.
Semantic value is commonly used and already known by all the speakers; whereas pragmatics
is more related to the context and may be different among several people.
Meaning:
Bottom-up: we identify each part so we can presuppose bigger things before being
expose to them.
Top-down: we start from the bigger units. If someone is speaking about a topic and
suddenly you dont understand a word exactly, you are able to recognize it.
Definition of word: Although it is impossible to find one definition that suits in all languages, a
word is said to be the smallest unit of language that can be used by itself, the minimum free
GRADO EN ESTUDIOS INGLESES_SEMNTICA Y PRAGMTICA_ 2011/2012_2 SEMESTRE
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form. It is a sociological real entity for language uses. However there are words that cant go
free such as, but, and...
Classification of words:
Lexical/content words (house, boy).
Grammatical/function words (is, would).
Make a distinction between type/token and form/expression.
Type is a different unit of something.
Token is the number of times a unit is repeated.
Form is the way in which a word appears.
Expression, never mind the form but whether the meaning is the same.
In linguistics is better to talk about lexemes, rather than words. A lexeme is the abstract unit
underlying a set of grammatical variances.
Lexeme = expression. Are/is/am is the same word/lexeme because of mean. Found: find;
found1 (to establish); found2 (shape by meeting).
As the definition states, a lexeme is an abstract unit underlying a set of grammatical
variance, goes, went, going are variation or forms of the lexeme/word/expression go.
PARANOMASIA:
The reason why most people change their minds is that they never find one worth keeping.
Minds two lexemes (mind:anatomy / change your opinion).
MORPHEMES:
Lexical/Grammatical and free/bound morphemes.
Lexicalization: change from bound to free morphemes (ex exwife, teen thirteen).
PRAGMATICS:
Competence vs. Performance (Chomsky)
Two approaches to pragmatics: speaker meaning and utterance interpretation , taking only one
of these sides has important limitations. A more reasonable approach: meaning vs. interaction;
dynamic process.
Meaning is not something which is inherent in the words alone, nor is it produced by the
speaker alone. Making meaning is a dynamic process.
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Levels of meaning:
Sentence or word meaning (expression meaning/abstract meaning).

A lion ate a man / A man ate a lion it is related to syntax because the order of
words is important.
Speakers meaning (utterance/contextual meaning).

Can you pass me the salt? What a speaker tries to convey when he uses the
language.
The literal meaning would be if that person is capable of throwing the salt, but it is not what
the speaker intends to communicate. It involves reference and truth. In speakers meaning it
has no sense to talk about unicorns or the King of France because you are referring to
something real, that exists. They only have sense in abstract meaning.
The presupposition of homogeneity is wrong because it is different according to the speaker.
For me something can be beautiful but not for her.
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UNIT 2: LEXICAL SEMANTICS

When we refer to the meaning of a word, we are usually talking about what semanticists would
more precisely call sense (or intention).
Sense is the defining properties of a word, the list of attributes that we find to a
greater or lesser degree in the dictionary. Sense is more stable while reference is quite
changeable all the time (depending on the thing/person we are referring to in a
particular context).
A word reference is the object it refers to in the real world. However, there are cases of
expression which in a normal everyday conversation never refer to different things, i.e,
in most everyday situations they have constant reference.
The reference to an expression is often a thing or a person in the world, whereas the sense of
an expression is not a thing at all. The sense of an expression is an abstraction, but it is helpful
to note that it is an abstraction that can be entertained in the mind of a language user.
A referring expression is an expression used in an utterance to refer to something or someone,
i.e. used with a particular referent in mind Fred hit me.
DENNOTATION VS. CONNOTATION:
Denotative meaning:
Denotative meaning is also known as cognitive, descriptive, conceptual, referential,
propositional, factual or objective. The denotation of a content word is the category, or set, of
all its potential referents. The relationship between a word, its meaning and its denotation is
often depicted in the semiotic triangle. A word in not directly linked to its denotation but only
indirectly via its descriptive meaning. (e.g. the meaning of dog is a concept that determines the
category DOG of all dogs)
LEXEME
SENSE
DENOTATION
REFERENCE
Dog
A carnivorous
domesticated canine
animal that is often
kept to guard a
building
All those objects in

the real word to
which the lexeme
dog can apply
Particular instances
of dog on a
particular occasion:
my dog, that dog,
the terrier on the
chair, my aunts
doberman
Connotative meaning:
Words often have personal and cultural associations which, although peripheral and more
subjective, contributive to their meaning. These additional strands of meaning are referred to
as connotations.
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Connotations are much vaguer than denotations and much more variable and
culture bound, e.g. dog (Western culture vs. Arabic world).
Words can have the same denotative meaning but differ in connotative
meaning:
o
Woman/Lady (both denote an adult female human being)
Politician/statesman
Words can be always positive (e.g. generous) or generally negative (e.g. mean)
although in a particular context, they can be used ironically to mean just the
opposite.
Other words can be both positive and negative depending on the context. E.g.
curious.
Connotations have to be very much taken into account in issues like translation
or language learning (e.g. gregarious / gregario).
Some words have only connotative or emotive meaning because the

denotative meaning has been subordinated or even eclipsed: this fucking
knife!
SENSE RELATIONS:
Paradigmatic vs. syntagmatic relationship

o
Paradigmatic relations:
Synonymy:
The term implies that there can be two or more words with the
same meaning.
However, strict synonymy rarely exists, it is usually partial

synonymy (difficult to exchange one word for another, the issue
of collocations, e.g. observe/look at the stars; happy/merry (but
happy birthday and merry Christmas)
Choice of synonyms may also depend on social factors like

register or degree of formality: e.g. thorax/chest.
In the case of English (and because of its history), we can find a fair
number of doublets, with the same propositional meaning but a
difference in use (the Romance word being more formal):
forgive/pardon, flood/deluge.
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Differences between synonyms may be due to different varieties

of a language (e.g. British vs. American English / Peninsular
Spanish vs. Latin American Spanish).
Some synonyms can be used metaphorically while others cannot.

joya/alaja, pie/pata.
It is important to notice that words having similar meanings do

not necessarily belong to the same grammatical category. E.g. in
my opinion, in my view (prepositional group) but as far as I am
concerned.
Finally, using synonyms is a sign of stylistic variation and denotes a

richness of vocabulary (especially in written texts).
As opposed to synonymy (and other sense relations), antonym is often

binary.
Second, not all words have an opposite.
Third, one word can have more than one antonym because when
we talk about the opposite of a word, we are in fact referring to
its sense (old- young/new).
There are three main types of antonym:

o Gradable antonym.
Have a relative rather than an absolute value: big/small,

good/bad, hot/cold.
Because they are gradable, we can use them in the

comparative and superlative form and they can be
modified by adverbs (extremely, rather, very).
o Complementaries.
They are mutually exclusive (that is, if you are one you
cannot be the other) and usually come in pairs: life/death,
true/false.
Although occasionally they may have middle grounds,

married/single (separated, widowed, divorced).
o Converses.
Involve a change of perspective and interdependence of

the two terms (that is, one presupposes the other):
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buy/sell;
come/go.
teach/learn;
parent/child;
husband/wife;
Converses are difficult to acquire by children (and learners)

who often confuse pairs like tend and borrow, teach and
learn, imply and infer difficult for many adults too).
Dichotomization is one of the most important intrinsic features of

language structure: a word tends to conjure up its antonym if there is one.
Multiple incompatibility: days of the week, seasons, physical state

system
Homonymy:
Same form, different meaning.
Two kinds of homonymy: homophony and homography:

which/witch (homophone) wind/wind (noun-verb) (homographs
but not homophones).
Polysemy:
The same lexeme has multiple meanings; e.g cold (temperature,

food, character, etc).
There is a thread connecting the different meanings, they are all

connected to the basic sense.
This connection is not always transparent: e.g. bank (river) / bank

(finance).To find out whether two expressions are polysemous or
only homophones, we can resort to etymology. E.g bear (animal)
and bear (suffer) are homonyms because they come from different
etymons, they are thus different lexemes even if their form
coincides. E.g. bank and bank are etymologically related, although
this relation is not transparent to us any longer.
Superordination and hyponomy:
The vocabulary of a language is multi-layered, with a basic level

(most common terms) acquired during childhood and at least one
level below and one above this basic level.
In other words, some senses are included within others. This

general sense is the superordinate and the others are the
hyponyms.
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Usually, superior levels are more general (e.g. flower) and the
more subordinate a level gets, the more specific the term (e.g. red
vs. scarlet).
PIG
Sow
Boar
Piglet
TREE
Beech
Oak
Olive
VIRTUE
Honesty
EMOTION
Fear
NICE
Tasty
Meronymy:
o
It is a part whole concept: that is, if X is a meronym of Y, X is part of Y and

the other way round, Y is the holonym of X. From Greek meron (part)
and holos (whole). Wheel is a meronym of car / sleeve is a meronym of
blouse, jacket.
As opposed to hyponymy, meronymy is not a transitive relationship. That

is, if dog is a hyponym of animal and Alsatian is a hyponym of dog, then
Alsarian is also a hyponym of animal. Finger is a meronym of hand and
hand is a meronym of arm but fingers are not a meronym of arm.
The degree of integration of a part with its whole is an important variable

in meronymy (e.g. finger hand; beard-face).
LEXICAL FIELD:
It is a group of related lexemes (according to the sense relations seen in the

points above). A lexical field is characterized by the following features.
o
The lexemes are of the same word class.
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Their meaning have something in common.
They are interrelated by precisely definable meaning relations.
The group is complete (although their size can vary and some lexical fields
are really small while others are huge).
E.g. thick and thin from a lexical field of two members because:
The lexemes are of the same word class=adjectives.
Their meanings have something in common=descriptive physical

aspect.
They
are
interrelated
relations=antonymy.
The group is complete (although their size can vary and some lexical
fields are really small while others are huge).
by
precisely
definable
meaning
COMPONENTIAL ANALYSIS AND SEMANTIC FEATURES:
According to the semantic theory of componential analysis or lexical

decomposition, a word can be broken down into a small number of semantic
components or semantic features sufficient to distinguish it from other words
in the same semantic (lexical) field or domain (kinship terms, colour terms, the
human body, plants).
HUMAN
ADULT
MALE
Man
Woman
Boy
girl
The distinctive components are referred to as diagnostic components, as

opposed to the common components that are the components of meaning
that are common to a group of words.
The analysis of lexemes into semantic components allows us to formally define

the conceptual sense of words and it also provides an economical means of
representing sense relations like hyponymy and incompatibility.
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COLLOCATIONAL GRIDS:
Abstract terms are less easy to break down into components of meaning. It is
easier for us to give examples of collocations involving them rather than
attempt to define them. A number of sample collocations will help to narrow
down the meaning of the word in question and distinguish it from words used
in similar contexts.
Collocations can be presented on grids:

Your clothes
Your mind
Emphasis
change
shift
flowers
sweetener
False
artificial
Out of the
way
teeth
light
additives
+
+
eyelashes
+
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UNIT 3: COGNITIVE SEMANTICS

ICONICITY VS. ARBITRARINESS
Arbitrariness of language.
Conventional (arbitrary) link between an object and its phonetic representation.

The English word dog could be just as easily blat, flig, hoder or any other
combination of sounds allowed by the English language.
Saussures concept of the arbitrariness of the linguistic sign:
That the linguistic sign is arbitrary is immediately obvious when we remember that
a particular object usually has different names (or acoustic images) in different
languages: chair, silla, chaise.
Most language is arbitrary but there are cases of iconicity, i.e. cases where
language maps onto reality and seems to represent it to a certain extent.
Resemblance between form and meaning in language.
Different types of iconicity, the most obvious being onomatopoeic resemblance:

oink-oink (pigs), crash, bang.
Sound symbolism (not very testable but there seem to be some grounds for
supporting this point up to a certain extend).
o [i] = small, think, weak: little, bit, thin, diminuto.
o [a], [o], [u] = big, thick, heavy: large, grand, grande.
These sounds symbols are known as phonaesthemes (J.R. Firth) and can be
exploited by writers (e.g. Lilliput vs. Brobdingnag).
Iconicity at the grammatical level: e.g. the plural is generally longer in practically all
languages.
o CAT
o CAT-S.
CATEGORIES AND PROTOTYPE THEORY:
Cognitive science:
o
How to the human mind works, how it receives information from the
environment via the sense and processes this information, recognizing
what is perceived, comparing it to former data, classifying it and storing it
in the memory.
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Emphasis on the exploration of the concepts and categories we use.
Categorization is the fundamental notion of cognitive science. Categorizing

means to perceive something as something of a kind.
The traditional view of categorization is shaped by the model of necessary and

sufficient conditions (NSC model) that goes back to Aristotle. The traditional
model of categorization (check list model) exactly matches with the
componential analysis (binary semantic components) and it was characterized
by the following features:
o
Categorization depends on a fixed set of features.
Each condition is absolutely necessary.
The conditions are binary (yes-no).
Category membership is binary too.
Categories have clear boundaries.
All members of a category are of equal status.
E.g. cat
Mammal.
Hair.
Four legs.
Whiskers.
Tail.
Meowing.
See in darkness.
However, there are times when it is not at all easy to decide what category
something belongs to (fuzzy cases).
In order to solve this problem, in the mid 1970s, psycholinguist Eleanor Rosch
introduced what has come to be known as Prototype Theory.
Prototype theory challenged the traditional tenets of categorization (i.e. the

check-list model). Many experiments were carried out to find out whether:
o
Category membership was a matter of degree more than a binary issue.
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Categories had boundaries or in fact they were fuzzy at the edge.
The defining features were always strictly necessary and binary too.
Categories have a graded structure, that is, they have some prototypical
members that represent the category best and other members that do it to a
lesser extend but are still good examples, while others only enjoy a marginal
status and we dont know assign them to their category automatically (i.e. the
reaction time was longer in this experiments).
Since prototypical examples are what comes to our mind first, we tend to
exclude other cases (especially if they are less prototypical) as long as there is
no reason to do otherwise.
o
E.g. There is a bird on the window sill. (nobody would think of an ostrich
on the window sill).
Prototypes, however, are very often culture-bound and learnt earlier.
As opposed to the precious model of categorization, PT is characterized by the

following features:
Graded structure: the members of a category are not of equal status.
Prototypes are best examples.
No set of necessary conditions (some members especially the least

prototypical will not have some of the defining features).
Family resemblance (Wittgenstein): category members are connected by

resemblance and by similarity to the prototype.
Graded membership: category membership is not a yes or no matter but a

matter of degree.
Categories have fuzzy boundaries (e.g. is the whale a fish? Is it a mammal?)
Problems with PT:

o
Prototypes cannot be exemplars but are surely abstract concepts that fix
certain features and leave others open.
Which features make up the prototype? The concept of cue validity (i.e.
feature that applies to a high proportion of members of the category and
to a low proportion of non-members; e.g. having feathers has a high cue
validity as opposed to having wings, which applies to non-members of a
category BIRD, i.e. insects).
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Is a family resemblance really so obvious) E.g. husky, wolf and poodle.
In order for prototypes to serve as reference points of categorization they

must be defined by a set of crucial features. And it is these features that
must be checked in order to judge the similarity to the prototype (rather
than physical resemblance).
The degree of similarity and membership depends on the given context,

namely on the range of rival categories: wolves are non-members of the
category DOG, but wolves are more similar to dogs than cows. Both belong
to the superordinate category CANINE. In turn, cows are more similar to
dogs than crabs are (superordinate category: MAMMALS), crabs are more
similar to dogs than potatoes, potatoes more similar than stones
The hierarchical organization (inclusiveness) of our category system.
The basic level. What is this?
An object can always be categorized at different levels of generality. There

is a medium, level of generality that is preferred in thinking and
communicating. This is called the basic level of categorization.
Level
Categories
Superordinate
Garment
Vehicle
Animal
Colour
Basic level
Trousers, skirt,
shirt, bra, jacket
Bicycle, car, bus,

truck, motorbike
Dog, cat, horse,

bear, rabbit,
tiger, lion
White, black,
red, yellow,
green, blue,
brown
Subordinate
Blue jeans
Racing bike
Colue
Olive green
COGNITIVE METAPHOR AND METONYMY. CULTURAL AND COGNITIVE MODELS.

INTRODUCTION:
The traditional view of metaphor vs. conceptual metaphor.
Lakoff & Johnson (Metaphors we live by, 1980,2003).
New definition of metaphor as: conceptualization of one mental domain in

terms of another (pervasive in everyday language) = MAPPINGS
Metaphorical expressions are linguistic expressions that is the surface

realization of a cross-domain mapping LOVE IS JOURNEY
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Look how far weve come.
They will go their separate ways.
We are at a crossroads.
Their marriage is on the rocks.
Source domain/ Target domain

o
Journey/Love
Typically from more physical concepts to more abstract concepts

(embodiment).
TYPES OF CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR
Structural metaphors = one concept is metaphorically understood in terms of

another (e.g. LOVE IS A JOURNEY).
Orientational metaphors = spatial orientation based on our physical and

cultural experiences (e.g. HAPPY IS UP / SAD IS DOWN).
o
Im feeling up.
That boosted my spirits.
Im feeling down.
Physical basis: Drooping posture typically goes along with sadness and depression,
erect posture with a positive emotional state.
Ontological metaphors: derived from our need as human beings to refer,

categorize, quantify, etc. We do so when counting time into hours, minutes,
etc. We need to establish limits:
o
Entity and substance metaphors: viewing events, activities, emotions,

ideas, etc. as entities and substances (e.g. INFLATION IS AN ENTITY).
We need to combat inflation.

Inflation is backing us into a corner.
THE MIND IS A MACHINE (Im a little rusty today).
THE MIND IS A BRITTLE OBJECT (The experience shattered him).
o
Container metaphors and the visual field: even when there is no natural
physical boundary that can be viewed as defining a container, we impose
boundaries marking off territory so that it has an inside and a bounding
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surface. Your field of vision defines a boundary of the territory, namely, the
part that you can see.
VISUAL FIELDS ARE CONTAINERS:
The ship is coming into view.
I have him in sight.
Hes out of sight now.
STATES ARE CONTAINERS:
He is in love.
He fell into a depression.
o
Personification
Inflation is eating up our profits.

His religion tells him that he cannot drink fine French wines.
Life has cheated me.
Inflation has given birth to a money minded generation.
Metaphors are coherent systems (TIME IS MONEY (spend, waste, save, invest)
> TIME IS A LIMITED RESOURCE (run out of time) > TIME IS A VALUABLE
COMMODITY (Thank you for your time)) but there are some expressions that
show somewhat isolated and unsystematic (fossilized) metaphors, which are
no longer very productive.
These appear in fixed expressions like the foot of the mountain or the
shoulder of the mountain (A MOUNTAIN IS A PERSON).
GROUNDING: we typically conceptualize the non physical in terms of the

physical.
o
E.g. TIME IS SPACE (prepositions).
Cultural similarities and differences.
METONYMY:
As happens with metaphor, it is not a rhetorical figure but one of the ways
human beings conceptualize and understand reality.
It is also reflected in everyday language, even if we are not aware of using it.
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Metaphor is principally a way of conceiving one thing in terms of another while

metonymy has primarily a referential function that is, allows us to use one
entity to stand for another.
He likes to read the Marquis de Sade.
Metonymy is not only a referential device, it also provides understanding and

implies focusing on one aspect and not on another.
o
We need a couple of strong bodies for our team.
We need a couple of good heads for our team.
We need a couple of pretty faces for our team.
*In our Western culture, the metonymy face for the person is very common.
Our face identifies us (photographs, profiles, etc.)
As in the case of metaphor, metonymies are not isolated but systematic.
Typical cases:
o
Part for the whole (aka synecdoque): face for the person
We need some new faces around here
Get your butt over here!
Producer for the product:
Object used for user:
The buses are on strike
Institution for people
I have a Ford
The Government is trying to fight the crisis
Place for the institution
Moncloa is receiving several mandataries this week
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UNIT 4: CLAUSE SEMANTICS

Clause:
Ideational meaning
Interpersonal
METAFUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE (HALLIDAY)
Textual meaning
Each of the three metafunctions is about a different aspect of the word, and is concerned with
a different mode of meaning of clauses:
Ideational (referential or experimental) metafunction is about the natural

world in the broadest sense, including our own consciousness, and is
concerned with clauses as representations. The clause is conceived as a
representation of our experience. Language is used to conceptualize reality.
Interpersonal metafunction is about the social world, especially the

relationship between speaker and hearer, and is concerned with clauses as
exchanges: how languages in texts create particular social relationships
between the writer and reader.
Textual metafunction is about the verbal world, especially the flow of

information in a text, and is concerned with clauses as messages: how texts are
organized to carry different meanings.
The functions of the languages are reflected in the structure of a clause, in each metafunction
an analysis of a clause gives a different kind of structure composed from a different set of
elements. In the ideational metafunction, a clause is analysed in terms of transitivity structure,
involving the linguistic expression of process, participant and circumstance, with different
participant types for different process types. In the interpersonal metafunction, a clause is
analysed in terms of the mood structure. In the textual metafunction, a clause is analysed in
terms of both the thematic and information structure.
We are going to focus in the ideational mode of meaning, that is, the clause as representation
of our experience.
In the process of representing, the clause plays a central role, because it

embodies a general principle for modeling experience namely, the principle
that reality is made up Of PROCESSES (Halliday 1985: 106), that is, our
experience consists of things going on around us (outer experience) an inside
us (iiner experience). Those goings on consists of happening, doing, sensing,
meaning, being and becoming.
TRANSITIVITY is a basic semantic system that construes the world of

experience into a manageable set of process types (Ibid).
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Processes participants and circumstances:
A process consists, basically, of three main components: the process itself, the
participants in the process and the circumstances associated with the process.
All of them provide the frame of reference for interpreting our experience of
what goes on in the world (who does what to whom in what circumstance).
The concepts of process, participant and circumstance are semantic

categories which explain in the most general way how phenomena of the real
world are represented as linguistic structures. (Halliday 1985: 109).
Type of element
Typically realized by
(i) Process
Verbal group
(ii) Participant
Nominal group
(iii) Circumstance
Adverbial group or prepositional phrase
Types of process:
MATERIAL PRCESSES are processes of doing. These processes involve an

ACTOR (the logical subject) or the one that does the deed (usually human but
no necessarily so). Some material processes, but not all, can also have a
second participant (GOAL) at which the doing is directed, i.e. an entity does
something to another entity. Some authors also talk about PATIENT, but not all
goals suffer the process in the same way, this is why the more general term
GOAL is preferable.
E.g. The man killed the pig.

When the process is extended towards a goal, it has been traditionally called
transitive verbs as opposed to intransitive ones. Finally, it is important to point
out that material processes can also be abstract doings, not necessarily physical
ones (e.g. resign).
MENTAL PROCESSES are processes of feeling, thinking and perceiving.

Clauses expressing material and mental processes are different in meaning
(semantically) and this is reflected grammatically too. Halliday distinguishes
five main differences, we can add a sixth one too:
o
In a clause of mental process, there is always a participant who is human

or humanized: the SENSER. This explains why it would be so odd to come
across a clause like it liked when talking about a cat and why speakers
prefer humanizing the subject and say she liked the milk. This
distinction between human (or conscious) and non-human (or nonconscious) is not relevant in material processes.
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The thing sensed or liked in mental processes. It is usually a thing or a

fact. This is called PHENOMENON.
Difference in tenses. Mental processes cannot take place in the continuous

from as opposed to material processes, especially in the opposition
present simple vs. present continuous (because of the meaning or aspect
of the tenses.
Material processes can be substituted by the verb do since they are

processes of doing while mental processes cannot.
He can away What he did was run away. What did he do?
While material processes can be of two types (transitive or intransitive), all

mental processes potentially involve both a senser and a phenomenon,
even if they are not present in the clause.
Tom knows.
SUB-TYPES OF MENTAL PROCESSES: we can distinguish three main subtypes:
PERCEPTION (seeing, hearing, etc.).
AFFECTION (linking, fearing, etc.).
COGNITION (thinking, knowing, understanding, etc.).
RELATIONAL PROCESSES are processes of being, but not in the sense of existing, but in the
sense of establishing a relation between two elements, in English, there are three main subtypes_
INTENSIVE: s is a as in Helen is pretty.
CIRCUMSTANTIAL: s is at a as in Helen is in Madrid.
POSSESIVE: s has a as in Helen has a car.
Each of these can be:
Attribute: a is an attribute of x (they are not reversible). In the attribute

mode, an entity /the CARRIER) has some quality ascribed to it (the ATTRIBUTE)
or is being assigned to a class.
Identifying: a is the identity of s (they are reversible). In other words, one

entity (the IDENTIFIER) is used to identity another (the IDENTIFIED).
Pgina 20
attributive
Identifying
Intensive
Helen is pretty
Helen is the teacher
Circumstantial
Helen is in Madrid
Tomorrow is Wednesday
Possessive
Helen has a car
The car is Helens
Helen is pretty
Helen is the prettiest one
BEHAVIOURAL PROCESSES are processes of (typically human) physiological and

psychological behavior, e.g. breathing: coughing, smiling, dreaming, staring,
etc. However, they do not have clearly defined characteristics of their own, in
other words, they are partly like material processes and partly like mental
processes. The participant who is behaving is called BEHAVER and id typically a
conscious being (like the sense) but the process is more like one of doing
and it is simply called PROCESS.
o
(near material) processes of consciousness represented as forms of

behavior, e.g. look, watch, stare, listen, think, worry, dream, etc.
(near verbal) processes manifesting degrees of consciousness, e.g. cry,

laugh, smile, frown, sigh, whine, etc.
other physiological processes, e.g. breathe, cough, faint, yawn, pee, etc.
(near material) bodily postures and pastimes, e.g. sing, dance, lie (down),
sit (down), etc.
VERBAL PROCESSES are processes of saying. The main participant is the

SAYER, which does not need to be human but anything that puts out a signal,
like a notice, a watch, etc. In addition to the SAYER they can also include three
more participants:
o
The RECEIVER is the one to whom the saying is directed (and can become
the subject is a passive voice):
She told me the whole truth.
I was told the whole truth.
The VERBIAGE can be the content of what is said or the name of the
saying:
She told me about her plans for the weekend.
She asked me a question. They made a statement.
Pgina 21
The TARGET is the entity that is targeted by the process of saying:
She always praised him to her friends.
EXISTENTIAL PROCESSES represent something that happens or exists:

o
There is a fly in my soup.
They typically have the verb to be but also other verbs like to exists, remain,
arise, occur, come about, happen or take place. The object or event which is
being said to exist is labeled EXISTENT.
METEOROLOGICAL PROCESSES like its raining can be construed as:

o
Existential processes: there was a storm.
Material events: the winds blowing. The sun is shining.
Relational attributes: Its foggy, Its cold.
FORCE:
Prototypical agents include features such as animacy, intention, motivation,

responsibility and control of the process:
o
Tommy splashed us with mud.
Force refers to inanimate agents. Forces instigate and initiate processes but
cannot control it because they are not responsible or intentional agents.
o
An earthquake destroyed most of the city.
Anxiety can ruin your health.
AFFECTED SUBJECT:
Not all material processes involve a voluntary action carried out by an Agent.
When the participant (even if animate) is neither controlling nor initiating the
action, we can describe it as an affected subject.
PROCESSES OF TRANSFERS:
They are material processes which involve three participants: (e.g. give, send,
lend, charge, pay, offer, owe, etc.)
o
Agent.
Recipient or beneficiary.
Affected.
Pgina 22
The recipient is a central participant, encoding the one who receives the
transferred material.
The beneficiary is the optional participant for whom some service is done.
The difference is also encoded syntactically to vs. for (indirect object).
Both recipient and beneficiary can appear in the same clause:

o
She gave me a present for my daughter.
Activity 1. Identify the italicised participant as Recipient or Beneficiary:

(1) Dont forget to send us a postcard RECIPIENT.
(2) My brother-in-law has been offered a job analysing mud for an oil company
RECIPIENT.
(3) Can I get you something to eat? - BENEFICIARY
(4) I think Sammy would like you to buy him an ice-cream - BENEFICIARY
(5) How much do we owe your parents for the tickets? - RECIPIENT
Activity 2. Identify each process in the following examples as a material, mental or relational
process.
(1) This country exports raw materials. MATERIAL
(2) I prefer ballet to opera. MENTAL
(3) The abbey is now a ruin. RELATIONAL
(4) Do you know the authors name? MENTAL
(5) The wounded soldier staggered down the road. MATERIAL
(6) The weather has turned warm. RELATIONAL
Pgina 23

Semanticsandpragmatics

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Semanticsandpragmatics

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UNIT 1: INTRODUCTION TO SEMANTICS AND PRAGMATICS

Phonetics studies the physiological aspects of speech, the articulation of sound.

Phonology focuses on the linguistic use of sounds/phonemes.

Lexicon is concerned with the words of a language.

GRADO EN ESTUDIOS INGLESES_SEMNTICA Y PRAGMTICA_ 2011/2012_2 SEMESTRE

Lexical/content words (house, boy).

Grammatical/function words (is, would).

Make a distinction between type/token and form/expression.

Type is a different unit of something.

Token is the number of times a unit is repeated.

Form is the way in which a word appears.

Lexical/Grammatical and free/bound morphemes.

Sentence or word meaning (expression meaning/abstract meaning).

Speakers meaning (utterance/contextual meaning).

GRADO EN ESTUDIOS INGLESES_SEMNTICA Y PRAGMTICA_ 2011/2012_2 SEMESTRE

UNIT 2: LEXICAL SEMANTICS

All those objects in

Woman/Lady (both denote an adult female human being)

Some words have only connotative or emotive meaning because the

Paradigmatic vs. syntagmatic relationship

However, strict synonymy rarely exists, it is usually partial

Choice of synonyms may also depend on social factors like

GRADO EN ESTUDIOS INGLESES_SEMNTICA Y PRAGMTICA_ 2011/2012_2 SEMESTRE

Differences between synonyms may be due to different varieties

Some synonyms can be used metaphorically while others cannot.

It is important to notice that words having similar meanings do

Finally, using synonyms is a sign of stylistic variation and denotes a

As opposed to synonymy (and other sense relations), antonym is often

Second, not all words have an opposite.

There are three main types of antonym:

Have a relative rather than an absolute value: big/small,

Because they are gradable, we can use them in the

Although occasionally they may have middle grounds,

Involve a change of perspective and interdependence of

GRADO EN ESTUDIOS INGLESES_SEMNTICA Y PRAGMTICA_ 2011/2012_2 SEMESTRE

Converses are difficult to acquire by children (and learners)

Dichotomization is one of the most important intrinsic features of

Multiple incompatibility: days of the week, seasons, physical state

Same form, different meaning.

Two kinds of homonymy: homophony and homography:

The same lexeme has multiple meanings; e.g cold (temperature,

There is a thread connecting the different meanings, they are all

This connection is not always transparent: e.g. bank (river) / bank

Superordination and hyponomy:

The vocabulary of a language is multi-layered, with a basic level

In other words, some senses are included within others. This

GRADO EN ESTUDIOS INGLESES_SEMNTICA Y PRAGMTICA_ 2011/2012_2 SEMESTRE

It is a part whole concept: that is, if X is a meronym of Y, X is part of Y and

As opposed to hyponymy, meronymy is not a transitive relationship. That

The degree of integration of a part with its whole is an important variable

It is a group of related lexemes (according to the sense relations seen in the

The lexemes are of the same word class.

GRADO EN ESTUDIOS INGLESES_SEMNTICA Y PRAGMTICA_ 2011/2012_2 SEMESTRE

Their meaning have something in common.

They are interrelated by precisely definable meaning relations.

The lexemes are of the same word class=adjectives.

Their meanings have something in common=descriptive physical

COMPONENTIAL ANALYSIS AND SEMANTIC FEATURES:

According to the semantic theory of componential analysis or lexical

The distinctive components are referred to as diagnostic components, as

The analysis of lexemes into semantic components allows us to formally define

GRADO EN ESTUDIOS INGLESES_SEMNTICA Y PRAGMTICA_ 2011/2012_2 SEMESTRE

Collocations can be presented on grids: