SEMANTICS

AN INTRODUCTION

SEMANTICS
The term semantics is a recent addition to English
Language (1948)
Taken from the word Greek noun sema which means
sign or signal, and verb semaino which means signal
or mean.
The study of meaning (Matthews/Aitchison)
The study of meaning in a language (Hurford &
Heasley)
The study of meaning communicated through
language (Saeed)
The focus is to analyze speakers semantic knowledge
Definition Theory (this theory would simply state that
to give the meaning of linguistic expression, we
should give definition of meaning of words

IN GIVING DEFINITION, WE FACE

ISSUES OF
Circularity Metalanguage
Making sure that the definitions are exact.
Thus, it relates with linguistic knowledge
(the meaning of words) & encyclopedic
knowledge (about the way the world is)
compare speakers knowledge with
dictionary
What it means in a context pay attention
in conventional & literal meaning

MEANING
The word mean can be applied to the
speakers/authors in sense of intend and to
words and sentences in a different sense, in a
sense of equivalent to
Thus, meaning can be categorized into
Speaker meaning
(What the speaker intends to convey
Sentence Meaning (or Word Meaning)
(What is a sentence/words means)

In semantics, there is a focus on what the

words conventionally means rather than what
a speaker want the words to mean in a
particular situation.

ILLUSTRATION OF SPEAKER MEANING

Husband:When I go next week, Im taking the
car
Wife:
Oh. Are you? I need the car here to
take the kids to school
Husband:Im sorry, but I must have it. Youll have
to send them on the bus
Wife:
Thatll be nice for the family. Up at the
crack of dawn, and not be home till midevening! Sometimes you are very inconsiderate
Husband:
Nice day

ILLUSTRATION OF SENTENCE/WORD
MEANING
.. that shows that there are three hundred and sixty-four days when
you might get un-birthday presents.
Certainly, said Alice.
And only one for birthday present, you know. Theres glory for you!
I dont know what you mean by glory, Alice said
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. Of course you dont till I tell
you. I meant there is a nice knockdown argument for you.
But Glory doesnt mean a nice knockdown argument, Alice objected.
When I used a word, Humpty dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, It
means just what I choose it to meanneither more nor less.
The question is, said Alice, whether you can make words mean so
many different things.
The question is, said humpty dumpty, which is to be masterthats
all.

WORD MEANING & SENTENCE

MEANING
Knowing a language, especially ones
native language, involves knowing
thousands of words. The mental storage
of these words is lexicon.
The important difference of word
meaning and sentence meaning is
productivity.
Rules for sentence formation must be
recursive & the sentence meaning is
compositional