4.

The structure, meaning and communicative function of linguistic expressions

Word meaning and sentence meaning. The compositionality principle. The content of
linguistic communication: sentence meaning versus utterance meaning. The context of
utterance interpretation. Inference in utterance interpretation. Criticism of the naïve
assumption of a biunique relation between structural sentence types and discourse functions.
One-to-many and many-to-one correspondence between structural sentence types and
discourse functions. Declaratives and interrogatives as indirect directives.
Word meaning and sentence meaning
Word meaning refers to what a word stands for or represents. It can be divided into two
types:
 Denotative meaning: This is the basic, literal meaning of a word. It's like the
dictionary definition. Denotative meaning is important for understanding the definitions of
words, which helps people communicate clearly, and prevent misunderstandings.
 For example, the word "book" means an object made of pages with a cover that you
can read.

 Connotative meaning: This is the extra meaning, or feelings associated with a word. It
refers to the emotional and cultural associations of a word. It can vary from person to
person or be influenced by culture. For example, the word "book" might make you think
of learning, enjoyment, or memories you have associated with reading.

 There are three types of connotative meanings: positive, negative, and neutral.
o Positive connotation carries favourable associations. Tom is an extraordinary guy.
o Negative connotation carries unfavourable associations. Tom is a weird guy.
o Neutral connotation carries neither favourable nor unfavourable associations. Tom is
an unusual guy.

So, word meaning is about understanding what a word literally means and the extra thoughts
or emotions it brings to mind.

Sentence meaning refers to the overall message or information conveyed by a complete

sentence.
It describes eventualities (descriptive meaning), expresses propositions (logical meaning) and
structures information (communicative meaning).
It depends on two main things: the meanings of the words in the sentence and the way the
words are arranged.
The context or specific situation don't affect sentence meaning; it's just about
understanding what the sentence itself is saying.
So, sentence meaning is the intended or understood message that comes from the combination
of words and their structure in a sentence.
The compositionality principle
 Compositionality principle suggests that the meaning of a sentence is derived from the
meanings of its individual words and the way they are combined within the sentence
structure.
 In other words, the meaning of a sentence can be understood by understanding the
meanings of its parts and how they are put together.
 Sentences are not stored in our minds. Instead, we have the ability to generate and
comprehend an infinite number of sentences by applying rules of grammar and
combining words based on their meanings.
 It allows us to understand and create new sentences that we have never encountered
before, as long as we know the meanings of the words and the rules of grammar.
 For example, consider the sentence: "The cat is on the mat." The meaning of this
sentence is composed by understanding the meanings of the words "cat," "on," and
"mat," as well as the grammatical structure that connects them. By knowing the
meanings of these individual words and understanding how they are arranged in the
sentence, we can interpret the sentence to mean that a cat is positioned on a mat.

Content of Linguistic Communication: Sentence Meaning vs. Utterance Meaning

1. Sentence Meaning: Sentence meaning refers to the inherent meaning or interpretation
of a grammatically correct and complete sentence.
 It is the meaning that is derived from the words and structure of the sentence
itself, regardless of the specific context or situation in which it is used.
 Sentence meaning is concerned with the content and message conveyed by the
sentence as a linguistic unit.
 It involves analysing the meanings of individual words and the syntactic
structure of the sentence to understand its intended interpretation.

2. Utterance Meaning: In linguistics, an utterance is a unit of speech. Utterance meaning,

also known as speaker meaning, refers to the meaning understood by the speaker when they
produce an utterance in a specific context.
 Utterance meaning goes beyond the sentence meaning by considering the speaker's
intention, context, and other situational factors.
 Sentences are grammatically complete strings of words that follow the rules of a
language, while utterances are any fields of spoken language, including words,
phrases, sentences, or fragments.
 When a speaker uses a sentence in a particular context, they produce an utterance.
Utterance meaning considers both the literal meaning of words as well as any
additional meaning implied by the context.
 Sentence meaning is context-independent, focusing only on the literal definition of
words, while utterance meaning is context-dependent and can imply different
meanings depending on how the sentence is used.

IV. Context of Utterance Interpretation and Inference

The context of an utterance
 includes various elements such as the situation, the participants involved, their roles,
prior knowledge, cultural background, and the specific words or phrases used.
 This context provides crucial clues for interpreting the meaning of the message
accurately.
Inference
 plays a vital role in understanding the implied meaning behind the words.
 Inferences can be made by considering the context, the speaker's tone of voice, body
language, and other non-verbal cues.

For example, consider the sentence, "It's getting hot in here." Without any context, this
sentence could be interpreted literally, referring to the increasing temperature in the room.
However, if this sentence is spoken in a flirty or suggestive manner during a conversation, the
implied meaning could be that the atmosphere is becoming sexually charged.

V. Criticism of the naive assumption of a biunique relation between sentence types and
discourse functions
Speech Act Theory:
 theory centres on the idea that words, when placed together, do not always have a
fixed meaning.
 The theory of speech acts suggests that even though words (phrases, sentences) encode
information, people do more things with words than convey information, and that
when people do convey information, they often convey more than their words encode.
 Philosophers use the term speech acts for things you can do with sentences of your
language - things like making statements, asking questions, issuing commands, or
uttering exclamations.

The syntax of English distinguishes a set of clause types that are characteristically used to
perform different kinds of speech acts. Simple sentences maybe divided into four major
syntactic types, whose use correlates largely with different discourse functions:

I. Declaratives: are sentences in which the subject is present and generally precedes
the verb: (The cat is sleeping on the couch.)

II. Interrogatives: are sentences which are formally marked in one of two ways:
1) yes-no/closed interrogatives: the operator is placed in front of the subject:
Is the cat is sleeping now?
2) wh/open interrogatives: the interrogative wh-element is positioned initially:
When did you get married?

III. Imperatives: are sentences which normally have no overt grammatical subject,
and whose verb has the base form: Give me the phone.

IV. Exclamatives: are sentences which have an initial phrase introduced by what or
how, usually with subject-verb order: What a beautiful day!

One-to-many and many-to-one correspondence between sentence types and discourse

functions
One sentence type can correspond to many discourse functions and many sentence types can
correspond to one function. This happens when the correlation fails between form and
meaning/use:
Declarative (can be declarative and directive): Passengers are requested to remain seated. I
want you to mow the lawn. (a directive)
Closed interrogative (yes/no question and directive): Could you please open the door? (a
directive: a polite request)
Imperative (imperative, directive):
Orders: Stand up. Keep off the grass. Get out of my way. Don’t move.
Requests: Please pass the salt. Kindly lower your voices.
Instructions: Shake well before using. Take the first road on the right.
Advice: Sell now while prices are high. Step this way. Mind the steps.
Invitations: Come and have lunch. Feel free to contact me.
Permissions: Come in. Make yourself at home. Take as many as you need.
Wishes: Sleep well. Get well soon.
Condition: Turn up late and you’ll be fired. (”If you turn up late, you’ll be fired.”)

Declaratives and interrogatives as indirect directives (Non-imperative directives)

 A declarative sentence is a sentence that makes a statement to convey information.
 A declarative sentence is used when someone wants to express a fact, give some
information, or explain something.
 It is also important to remember that a declarative sentence:
o Ends with a full stop.
o Can be written in the past, present or future tense.
o Can be a simple, compound or complex sentence.

Declarative
 Declarative is an utterance used by a speaker with the purpose of changing a situation
in some way once the speech act has been uttered.
 Declarations can bring about a change in the world. For example, "I now declare you
husband and wife."
 Not all declaratives are direct. It is possible for a declarative to be said as
a request. For example, if we take the utterance:
o "You haven't done the dusting yet." This could be seen as a request, as
although it expresses a fact, it is an indirect way of letting someone know that
they should do the dusting! So in this case, it is an 'indirect' request.
Interrogative
 Interrogative sentences ask a question and are punctuated with question marks.
 Interrogative sentence asks the direct question and starts in a capital letter and ends up
with the question mark.
 There is an inversion of subject and predicate in the interrogative sentence, which
means that the verb comes before the subject.
 In Indirect speech, the questions are not quoted in quotation marks as they are not the
actual words of the speaker whereas the speaker tries to quote the meaning of
someone’s else words. Transformation of sentences from direct speech to indirect
 speech involves several changes such as a change in the verb form, the removal of
quotation marks, alteration in pronouns, and a change in word order.

 For example: He asked where I was going.