Chapter 6: Semantics: The Analysis of Meaning

- The purpose of language is communication, so it is important for our utterances to convey a message
and have content or meaning.
- Semantics is defined as the study of meaning in human language.
- We focus our discussion on four aspects:
1. The nature of meaning
2. The properties of the conceptual system underlying meaning
3. The effect of syntax on the meaning of sentences
4. The role of non-grammatical factors in understanding utterances.

6.1 The Nature of Meaning

Here we analyze the meaning of words and sentences as an introduction to other issues in the study of meaning.

6.1.1 Semantic Relations among Words

- Synonymy
Synonyms are words that have the same meaning as vacation and holiday/ buy and purchase/ youth and
adolescence. Although these words are interchangeable in some contexts, they are not identical.

- Antonymy
Antonyms are words that are opposites with respect to some components of their meaning as dark and light/ boy
and girl/ come and go. These words contrast in at least one aspect.

- Polysemy
It is when a word has two or more related meanings. For example, the word ‘bright’ which means either
‘shining’ or ‘intelligent’. Another example is the various meanings that the word ‘mark’ has.

- Homophony
It is when a word has two or more entirely distinct meanings. For example, the word light can mean
‘illumination’ or ‘not heavy’. Homophones do not need to have the same spelling as right and write.
Homophony and Polysemy can create lexical ambiguity as in ‘She bought a pen’ where a pen is either a
writing instrument or a small cage. Such ambiguities can sometimes be clear from the context as when we say ‘I
write with a pen’ or ‘I lived in a small pen’.

6.1.2 Semantic Relations Involving Sentences

- Paraphrase
When two sentences have similar meaning, they are paraphrases of each other (you just say the same thing in
another way). For example, the dog chased the man/ the man was chased by the dog and Paul bought a car
from Sue/ Sue sold a car to Paul are paraphrases. Although the meaning and truth condition (they are true in
under the same circumstances) are similar, the emphasis is different.

- Entailment
When the truth of one sentence guarantees the truth of another sentence, we say that that there is a relation of
entailment. For example, Jack is a dog/Jack is an animal and John killed the bear/the bear is dead show the
relation of entailment. If the first sentence is true, the second is true but not necessarily vice versa.

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 - Contradiction
Here if one sentence is true, the other one must be false. For example, the sentences John is married and John is
a bachelor have the relation of contradiction.

6.1.3 What is Meaning?

Although it is easy to decide if two words have similar or opposite meanings, it is more difficult to describe the
meaning of these words in the first place. This section shows different ways to describe the meaning of words
and how difficult it is.

- Connotation
The connotation of a word is a set of all the associations that a word’s use can evoke.
For example, when people in Canada use the word winter, they associate it with
snow, very cold weather, short days and frozen hands.
√ These associations make up the connotations of the word.
× They cannot be the word’s meaning because someone who lives in California (a
warm place) does not have these associations.
Winnipeg, Canada 2014

- Denotation
It is the entity to which a word refers, and it is also called a referent or detonation of the word. For example,
the word winter corresponds to the season.
√ It is easy to connect a word to its denotation.
× The meaning and the denotation of the word is not the same thing. For example, the word unicorn does not
refer to anything in the real world, but it has meaning. Also, although the phrases the teacher of the course and
the mother of Nada refer to the same entity (me!), they do not mean the same thing.

- Extension and Intention

The word’s extension corresponds to the set of all entities that the word refers
to while the word’s intention corresponds to the mental image that we have in
our mind. For example, the extension of the word woman is a set of all women Intention of dog
in real world while its intention involve notions like human and female.

√ If the meaning of a word is its intention or mental image, we can have a

mental image of a unicorn without having a reference in the real world.
× the meaning of the word dog can refer to animals of different sizes, shapes
and colors. So, the mental image should be general enough to include all kinds
of dogs (even the husky) and exclude foxes and wolves.
Husky dog

- Componential Analysis
We break the word’s meaning into smaller semantic features. For example, the word woman has the features
[+ human], [+ adult] and [- male].
√ It is useful in making generalizations. For example, we can say the verbs like marry and argue need a subject
that is [+human] or that the pronoun he is used with [+ male] and [+ human].
× there are limits to this way of analyzing meaning because some features seem to have no value if we broke
them as in the word blue, it is [+color] and what else? Blueness? How is it useful?

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6.2 The Conceptual System
It is the way that language speakers can organize and classify concepts and every aspect of their experience. It
underlies the use of words and sentences to express meaning in human languages. For example, you can say the
weather it is nice today or it is 16 C outside!! From your knowledge and experience, you can understand the
meaning of the second sentence and that I meant to say that the weather is nice.

6.2.1 Fuzzy Concepts

- There are words and phrases that express concepts with precise definitions and clear-cut boundaries like
being a member in the parliament or a student in the University of Manitoba.
- There are other concepts that do not have clear-cut boundaries like being rich, old or tall. We call these
fuzzy concepts.
- These fuzzy concepts can have members that are graded in their typicality. So, a football star can be
somebody who is really famous (like Cristiano Ronaldo) who is a prototypical member (represent the
core area) and is actually a better example than someone (like Mohammad Salah) who is a less typical
example (represent the peripheral area).

- Another example is like birds. English speakers think of birds

as ‘warm-blooded, egg-laying, feathered creatures. We still
feel like some are more birdlike than others. So, robins are
better more prototypical example than penguins.

6.2.2 Metaphor
It is understanding a concept by using another one. People think it is only used in poetry, but we use it a lot.

Examples:
1. We deal with time as if it is money (or a valuable physical thing) that can be saved, invested or wasted. So,
we say ‘you waste my time’, ‘this plan will save you hours’ and ‘I invested a lot of time in this project’.
2. Another metaphor we use in English is using words of spatial orientation (like up, down, high or low) to talk
about the physical and psychological states (about what we feel). So we say, I am feeling up, I am feeling
down (when we are happy or sad), you are in a high spirit and her mood dropped even lower.

By using metaphors, we express abstract concepts by the use of more physical expressions. This shows the
connections we make through our language.

6.2.3 The Lexicalization of Concepts

- We said that humans need language to express concepts, but language users are different. Languages are
different in how they (lexically) express concepts by words.
- Lexicalization is the process by which concepts are encoded in the words of a language.
- For example, in one language, there is a word for snow that is falling while in English, to express the
idea of a falling snow, we need two words for it because we don’t have one. Another example is that in
English we have so many terms for light as glimmer, flash, glow, shine, sparkle, and flicker.
- Also, there are differences between languages in the verbs of motion. In English, we have verbs that
express the concepts of motion and manner together. So we have rolled (the rocks rolled down the hill)
but in other languages, we need two words to express motion and manner. In French, there are verbs to
show motion and the direction of path (down, up) as the borrowed words in English descend and return.
Some languages have words to express motion and the thing that moves. So the word for a small shiny
thing moving is different from the word of a flat thing moving.
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6.2.4 Grammatical Concepts
- Here we discuss how languages differ in expressing concepts through functional categories like suffixes
(not through words).
- Such concepts are grammaticalized since they are expressed as affixes and non-lexical categories that
express grammatical contrast.
- Some concepts as negation, tense and number are grammaticalized in a very large number of languages.
However, a concept like evidentiality (the speaker’s evidence when saying something) is
grammaticalized in only few languages. For example, in one language, you add a suffix when you are
sure of what you are saying, and another different suffix when you are not sure (see book p.197 for more
examples). If you choose the wrong suffix, people will consider you a liar!

6.3 Syntax and Sentence Interpretation

Sometimes, the meaning is not decided only by the meaning of words themselves, but how these words are used
in the sentence. Because of this, we are interested to study the contribution of syntax on meaning in the
following aspects.

6.3.1 Constructional Meaning

- It is when the sentence has a meaning that is not based on the meaning of the words themselves but on
the structure in which the words are used.
- For example, when we say ‘the audience laughed the poor guy off the stage’, we mean that the audience
forced the guy to leave the stage by laughing at him. There is nothing in the meaning of laugh that
indicates motion, but it comes from the construction (structure of the sentence) itself.

6.3.2 Structural Ambiguity

- Some sentences have structural ambiguity. That is, the meaning can be confusing because we can
understand the sentence in two different ways.
- For example, a structure like nice boys and girls can be understood either as (nice boys) and girls or as
nice (boys and girls). Also, when we say, I hit the man with the stick, it could be understood either as I
hit the man by using the stick or I hit the man who is carrying the stick.

6.3.3 Thematic Roles

- Thematic roles are the roles that the referents of NPs have in a sentence. To interpret the meaning of a
sentence, it is important to determine what role each NP play in a situation described by the sentence.
- Example (1):
The woman carried the baby from the mall to the apartment.
In this sentence, we have four NPs. The role that each NP plays in the sentence is called thematic roles.
- In the example, the woman is the agent (the entity that performs the action), the baby is the theme (the
entity undergo the action), the mall is the source (the starting point for movement) and the apartment is
the goal (the end point for a movement).
- Example (2)
The woman was cooking in the kitchen
In this example, the woman is the agent and the kitchen is the location (the place where an action
occurs).

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6.3.4 The Interpretation of Pronouns
- There are two main types of pronouns. Pronominals are like (he, him, they, them) and reflexive
pronouns are like (herself, himself, and themselves).
- The meaning of pronouns is determined by another element in the sentence which is called the
antecedent. For example, in a sentence like the girl went to school, but she was late, the pronoun is she
and the antecedent is the girl.
- Pronominals and reflexive pronouns differ in terms of where their antecedents occur.
Example: Mary knew that [Sue trusted her] → antecedent must be in a different clause
Mary knew that [Sue trusted herself] → antecedent must be in the same clause
In the first example, her refers either to Mary or someone else not mentioned in the sentence while in the
second example, herself can only refer to Sue.

6.4 Other Factors in Sentence Interpretation

Here we study the role of the context in deciding meaning (not words and not sentence structure).

6.4.1 The role of beliefs and attitude

The Judge denied the prisoner’s request because he was cautious
The Judge denied the prisoner’s request because he was dangerous
These sentences have the same structure but the referent for the pronoun changed only because we changed the
adjective.

Presupposition
Have you stopped exercising regularly?
Have you tried exercising regularly?
Using the verb stop implies that I know that you were exercising regularly and now do not anymore while such
implication is not there in the second example.

6.4.2 Setting
- Choosing to use certain forms (words) over others might be relevant to the knowledge that the speaker
has about the surrounding setting. Such words are like here, there, this and that. These words are called
deictics.
- Example: You can say give me this plate or give me that plate depending on where you sit on the table.
- Another example where we need features from the setting is in verbs like come and go.
The bear is coming to the tent
The bear is going to the tent
In the first example, it is understood that the speaker is in the tent while in the second example it is
understood that the speaker is outside the tent.

6.4.3 Discourse
- It is a connected series of utterances produced during a conversation. Sentences usually include elements
whose meaning is decided by previous utterances.
- Example: a little girl went for a walk in the park. While there, she saw a rabbit. Since it was injured, she
took it home.
- Also, there is always a distinction between the new information and old (given) information.
Example: The man was in the bus
A man was in the bus

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Topics
It is what a sentence or part of the discourse is about. It is usually in the subject position, and it is the focus of
the sentence.
Example:
Once upon a time, there was a man with two sons. The oldest son was in the university to become a doctor. As
for the other son, he was interested more in sports.
In this example, there is a shift in the topic, which can be signaled by words like “as for …”.

6.4.4 Conversational Maxims

There are rules that speakers are expected to commit to during a conversation. These expectations that we share
as speakers facilitate communication.

1. Relevance: Be relevant
Example: Can you come for my birthday party? I have to study for my test.

2. Quality: Say only things that are true

Example: How did you find the course? Interesting!

3. Quantity: Give only information as needed

Example: where do you study? I study in Canada/I study in the university of Manitoba
Hey, how is it going? Good and you!/ You can’t believe what happened yesterday
after you left.

4. Manner: Be brief and orderly, not ambiguous.

Example: Who is that guy? It is the man Mary lives with (It’s assumed he isn’t her husband)