Tahri Mohammed University - Bechar Academic Year: 2024/2025

Faculty of Letters and Languages Level & Module: 2 ANG 36

Department of English Teacher: Dr. Khelf Y.

Semantics

1. Definition of Semantics
Semantics is the level of linguistics that is concerned with the study of the meaning of words, phrases and
sentences in the language. It examines the way in which language expressions have meaning.

2. The Role of Semantics in Human Communication

Language is at the centre of human communication and essentially a vehicle, through which humans pass
and receive information. Communication plays a very vital role in the day-to-day activities of humans. Since the
essence of communication is to convey meaning from the speaker to the hearer, it follows that communication
becomes effective when the receiver shares the intended meaning of an expression.

3. Sense and Reference

In semantics, words are usually divided into their sense and reference. The reference of an expression is
the entity it refers to while sense refers to the ordinary linguistic meaning of an expression.

4. Types of Meaning
It is very difficult to account for all shades of meaning because meaning is not stable, it is highly elusive.
Factors such as individuals’ experiences, contexts, beliefs, situations and so many other variables affect
meaning.

4.1. Conceptual Meaning

The conceptual meaning is also referred to as the denotative, cognitive, logical, central, or even the
primary meaning of a word. It is concerned with the inherent linguistic meaning central to communication,
which the speaker of a language associates with an expression. Contexts or emotions of either the speaker or the
hearer do not affect the conceptual meaning of an expression.
4.2. Associative Meaning
The kind of meaning a word or an expression has over and above its conceptual meaning is referred to as
the associative meaning. Experiences and beliefs of individuals, contexts, situations and other factors affect the
associative meaning. The associative meaning of an expression varies from person to person, place to place and
culture to culture.
 5. Semantic/lexical Fields
A lexical field denotes a segment of the reality symbolized by a set of related words. The words in a
semantic field share a common semantic property. Most often, fields are defined by subject matter, such as body
parts, landforms, diseases, colors, foods, or kinship relations.

6. Semantic Features
Semantic features are the smallest units of meaning in a word. The semantic features/properties of words
determine what other words they can be combined with. Different words may share the same feature. Ex:
doctor, engineer, teacher, tailor [+ professional], mother, daughter, aunt, son [+ kinship].

7. Semantic Roles
A semantic role is an underlying relationship that a participant has with the main verb in a clause. If
someone named John purposely hits someone named Bill, then John is the agent and Bill is the patient of the
hitting event. Therefore, the semantic role of Bill is the same (patient) in both of the following sentences: John
hit Bill. Bill was hit by John. (In both of the above sentences, John has the semantic role of agent).

7.1. Types of Semantic Roles

 Agent: the initiator of some action, capable of acting with volition. Ex: John kicked the ball
 Patient: entity undergoing the effect of some action and undergoing a change in state. Ex: John pruned the
trees.
 Theme: entity that is moved by the action, or whose location is described. Ex: Mary threw the ball/ Mary
hid the ball under the table.
 Experiencer: entity which is aware of the action or state described by the predicate but which is not in
control of the action or state. Ex: the explosion was heard by everyone.
 Stimulus/percept: an entity which is perceived or experienced. Ex: John saw the moon/ Mary feared the
dark.
 Beneficiary: the entity that benefits from the action or event denoted by the predicate. Ex: John bought
Mary a car.
 Goal: entity towards which something moves literally or metaphorically. Ex: John walked to school.
 Force: an entity that instigates an action, but not consciously or voluntarily. Ex: The hurricane destroyed
the house.
 Location: is the place where something is situated or takes place. Ex: John saw the man at the library.
 Source: entity from which something moves. Ex: John walked home from school.
 Instrument: the means by which an action is performed. Ex: John hit Bob with a stick.
 8. Semantic Relations
The words which are part of a lexical field enter into sense or meaning relationships with one another.

Synonymy Antonymy Homonymy Polysemy Hyponymy Taxonomy Meronymy

A relation in which A relation in which two words A relation in which various words A relation in which a single A relation in A hierarchical The relation
various words have have different (written and have the same (sound and written) word has two or more which the relation where between
different (written and sound) forms and are opposite form but have different meanings. slightly different but closely referent of a two words or words is
sound) forms but in meaning. related meanings. word is totally more may be whole-part
have similar or included in the related to a relation
nearly the same referent of field on equal
meaning another word. footing.

Ex: hide and conceal 1. Binary: the negation 1. Ex: the noun bear, which Ex: The noun chip has Ex: a cat is a Ex: colors, Ex: book/
of the meaning of one refers to a large heavy animal with three meanings: (i) a small hyponym of a months, days cover, car/
lexeme gives us the thick fur, the verb bear, which means piece of some hard mammal. and seasons. seat, head/
meaning of the other, give birth to; all being pronounced substance which has been face.
e.g. dead vs. alive /beə(r)/ in RP. broken off from something
2. Gradable: More of 1. Homophony: words have larger: a chip of wood/glass.
one is less of the the same sound form but (ii) a small piece of fried
other, e.g. smaller have different meanings and potato: Can I try one of your
means ‘less large’, written forms; ex: hour and chips? (iii) a small but vital
larger means ‘less our; both being pronounced piece of a computer: This
small’ /aʊə (r)/ in RP computer has got a faster
3. Relational: opposite 2. Homography: words have chip than the old one. They
aspects of the same the same written form but all contain the semantic
situation, cf. e.g. have different meanings and feature [+small piece].
employer vs. sound forms. Ex: lead /li:d/
employee and lead /led/
4. Directional: are
related to movement
as: up/ down, right/
left.
 9. Ambiguity
Ambiguity is a semantic relation whereby a grammatical expression can have more than one
interpretation. Ambiguity can be lexical or structural.

1.1. Lexical Ambiguity

Lexical ambiguity results in a sentence because a word or a phrase in the sentence is ambiguous as shown
by the following examples.
(i) John went to the bank (John went to the side of a river or John went to a financial institution
(ii) It is a wonderful table (It is a wonderful item of furniture or It is a wonderful graphic design (on a paper).

1.2. Structural Ambiguity

An expression is structurally ambiguous due to the fact that words in the expression relate to each other in
different ways even though none of the words is ambiguous. Examples include.
(i) The chicken is ready to eat (The chicken is ready to eat its meal or The chicken is ready to be eaten.)

1.3. Anomaly
An anomalous sentence presents incompatible semantic features. For example, the following sentences
are anomalous. (i)*John killed the book. (ii)*Mary fried the idea. In sentence (i), the verb kill cannot co-occur
or is incompatible with the noun book, while in (ii), the verb fried is also incompatible with the noun idea.

1.4. Contradiction
A contradictory statement contains two oppositions that contradict each other and is necessarily false
because of the senses of the words in it. (i) The dead cat is alive. (ii) The married man is a bachelor.

1.5. Redundancy
Redundancy is a semantic relation that results when certain linguistic units that do not add to the semantic
value of larger units are allowed to be part of such larger units. Examples of redundant units have been
italicized in the following expressions. (i) John repeated his actions again. (i) John arrived by 9 p.m. in the
evening