SEMANTICS

LECTURE 1: INTRODUCTION

M. S. Al Fajri, M.A
STKIP Qomaruddin
alfajricorpus.blogspot.co.id
 Phonetics Morphology Semantics

Phonology Syntax Pragmatics

(Fromkin, V., et. al. , 2014)

 WHAT?

• Linguistic Semantics is the systematic study of how languages structure and express
meanings, particularly in words and sentences (Finegan, 2004; Kreidler, 1998).
 WHY?
• Consider the following sentences?
 A. He is a bachelor
B. He is unmarried
 A. Sarah is single
B. Sarah’s husband is a lecturer

 My suitcase is killing me.

 It is a piece of cake
 A. Can you do the test?
B. Yes, it is a piece of cake
 What do you
mean?

MEANING?

• Meaning refers to a relationship involving at least one of three different types of thing:
language, the world . . . and our own minds or intentions (Riemer, 2010)
 Conceptual Meaning

Connotative Meaning

TYPES OF Social Meaning

MEANING Affective Meaning

Reflected Meaning

Collocative Meaning

Thematic Meaning
(Leech, 1981)
 CONCEPTUAL MEANING
• Woman [+Human, -Man, +Adult]

• Cat =
 CONNOTATIVE
MEANING PASSION LOVE

• “the communicative value an expression

has by virtue of what if refers to over and
above its purely conceptual contents”
(Leech, 1981)
• Red Rose
• Slim, Skinny, Thin
ROMANCE
 SOCIAL MEANING
• Social meaning: The level of meaning that “conveys information about the identity of the
person who has uttered them or about the situation in which they have been uttered”
(Finegan, 2004, p. 177).
• A. Walk in the pavement
B. Walk in the sidewalk
• A. Hi, what’s up?
B. Hello, how are you?
 AFFECTIVE MEANING
• Affective meaning: “The level of meaning that conveys the language user’s feelings,
attitudes, and opinions about a particular piece of information or about the ongoing
context” (Finegan, 2004, p. 177)

A. Tina, who always boasts about her two doctorates, lectured me all night on Warhol’s art.
B. Tina, who’s got two doctorates, gave me a fascinating overview of Warhol’s art last night.
 NON-LITERAL MEANING
• Don’t judge a book by its cover • Butterflies in my stomach
• Every cloud has a silver lining
• I could eat a horse
• Go the extra mile
• The news about e-KTP Corruption is hot • Once in a blue moon
potato. • Sleep on it

• The phone costs an arm and a leg • Tip of the iceberg

• Blessing in disguise
• A leopard cannot change his spots
• My cup of a tea
 REFERENCE
• Finegan, E. (2004). Language: Its structure and use. Boston, Mass: Thomson Wadsworth.
• Fromkin,V., et. al. (2014). An Introduction to Language (10th Ed.). New York: Michael
Rosenberg
• Kreidler, Charles W. (1998). Introducing English Semantics. London: Routledge
• Leech, Geoffrey. (1981). Semantics. Middlesex: Penguin Books
• Riemer, N. (2010). Introducing Semantics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press