Unit 7

Grammatical Semantics and

Sentential Semantics
 1.Grammatical Semantics
2. Lexical meaning and Grammatical meaning
3. The meaning of major grammatical categories
4. Grammatical meaning associated with nouns
and noun phrase
5. Grammatical meaning associated with verbs
 1.Grammatical Semantics

Grammatical semantics addresses the meaning of the major

grammatical categories, grammatical meaning associated with
nouns and noun phrases, the grammatical meaning associated
with verbs, adjectives and properties and semantics of
quantification.
2. Lexical meaning and Grammatical meaning
3. The meaning of major grammatical categories
3. The meaning of major grammatical categories
 4.Grammatical meaning associated with nouns
and noun phrase
The noun is the central lexical unit of language. It is the main
nominative unit of speech. As any other part of speech, the
noun can be characterized by three criteria: semantic (the
meaning), morphological (the form and grammatical
categories) and syntactical(functions, distribution).
Semantic features of the noun. The noun possesses the
grammatical meaning of thingness, substantiality. According to
different principles of classification nouns fall into several
subclasses.
1. According to the type of nomination they may be proper
and common.
2. According to the form of existence they may be animate and
inanimate. Animate nouns in their turn fall into human and
non-human.
3. According to their quantitative structure nouns can be
countable and uncountable.
 4.1 Definiteness

Definiteness is a semantic feature of noun phrase to

distinguish between referents/ entities that are identifiable or
unidentifiable in a given context.

There is considerable variation in the expression of

definiteness across languages.
 Definiteness across languages:
 English language: it is indicated by certain determines such
as
a , an, the , every, any ,some, either, this and others.
 Some other languages like Hebrew and Arabic, it is
indicated by a clitic attaches to the noun such as ha in
Hebrew and al in Arabic.
 In German and Lithuanian, it is indicated by affixes on the
noun or on modifying adjectives.
 In Hungarian language is indicated by a mark on the verb.
 4.2 Number:
Number is an inflectional category of nouns or noun phrases,
which is not found in all languages. Semantically, number
system are concerned, one way or another, with how many
there are of some item. Number system are no to be confused
with numerical system, which are linguistic devices for
counting (one, two, forty-three, one hundred and ninety, etc.);
obviously numerals are syntactically an semantically distinct
from number markers.
The number system in English has only two terms: singular
and plural. A majority of languages have three-term number
system including dual, used for just two things. A very small
minority have four-term systems, in which the fourth term is
either a trial (for three things) or a paucal (for a few things).
 4.2 Count nouns and mass nouns:

Count nouns are objects or things that can be counted, while

non-count ones are objects or things that cannot be counted
and refer to things that can be separated or divided into units
that are distinct from one another.
Non-count nouns or mass nouns refer to things that are seen
as a whole (or a mass), which cannot be divided into distinct
parts. Non-count nouns usually refer to things that are
abstract or that have collective meaning.
 Count nouns
 Singular: A count noun is preceded by its appropriate article.
One pen (singular) The building (singular)
A window (singular) This door (singular)
That phone (singular)
As well as every, each, either and neither for the singular.
 Plural: Two magazines (plural) The birds (plural)
Those cars (plural) These parcels (plural)
Some letters (plural)
As well as any, a few and enough, plus the phrase number of
for the plural count noun.
 Mass nouns
Category Examples. Examples
Abstractions fun, help, honesty, information, intelligence,
\knowledge, patience, etc
Activities Activities homework, housework, music,
reading, singing, sleeping, soccer, etc
Some Foods Foods beef, bread, butter, fish, macaroni,
meat, popcorn, pork, poultry, toast
Gases air, oxygen, nitrogen, smog, smoke, steam,
Groups of Similar Items clothing, luggage, equipment, money,
vocabulary, etc
Liquids blood, coffee, gasoline, milk, oil, soup, water,
Natural Events electricity, gravity, heat, humidity, moonlight,
weather,
Materials aluminum, concrete, cotton, glue, wood, etc.
 The complexity of count nouns and mass

Distinguishing between the nouns lies not only in an object

,but also in the expression that refers to it.
For example:
• This coat is made of fox. I saw two foxes.
• I am cooking chicken. I have seven chickens.
5. Grammatical meaning associated with verbs
Semantic features of the verb. The verb possesses the
grammatical meaning of verbiality -the ability to denote a
process developing in time. This meaning is inherent not only
in the verbs denoting processes, but also in those denoting
states, forms of existence, evaluations, etc.
 TAM

TAM and also called tense–modality–aspect, is the

grammatical system of a language that covers the expression of
tense (location in time), aspect (fabric of time – a single block of
time, continuous flow of time, or repetitive occurrence), and
mood or modality (degree of necessity, obligation, probability,
ability). In some languages, evidentiality (whether evidence
exists for the statement, and if so what kind) and mirativity may
also be included.
 5.1 Tense
Tense is a term that refers to the way verbs change their form in
order to indicate at which time a situation occurs or an event
takes place.
Finite verb phrases, English has just one inflectional form to
express time, namely the past tense marker (-ed for regular
verbs). Therefore, in English there is just a contrast between
present and past tense.
Non-finite verb phrases (to-infinitives and –ing forms)
are not marked for tense. When occurring with modals, verb
phrases are used in their base form, with no tense marker.
 5.1 Tense
Time and tense are not overlapping concepts. Though tense is
related to time , there is no one-to-one correspondence between
the two. Tense is a grammatical category: rather than with
“reality”, it has to do with how events are placed, seen, and
referred to along the past-present-future time line. Thus, a
present tense does not always refer to present time, or a past
tense to past time. Actually, the present and past tenses can refer
to all three segments of the time line (past, present, and future).
For example, the present tense may be used to speak about a
future event (often, but not necessarily, accompanied by a future
time adverbial)
 5.1 Tense
The tense system of most of the languages are said to be
vectorial, that is, they essentially indicate the direction along the
time-line from speaking time to event time. Some languages also
grammatically encode degrees of remoteness, equivalent to
contrasts such as the following (Cruse 2000: 274)
(a) I used to go for an run every morning, once (distance past)
(b) I went for a run (past)
(c) I've just been for a run (recent past)
 5.1 Tense
The alternative to a vectorial system is a material system of
tense, based on definite intervals of time. The most frequent is
hodiernal system, which distinguishes "today" and "not today".
Up to six of seven intervals may be distinguished, with, as in most
tense system, the past being more highly differentiated than the
future. According to Comrie (1985; 99) Yagua makes the following
distinctions in its grammatical tense system (Cruse, 2000:274):
past (today), yesterday, within a few weeks ago, within a few
months ago and distant past.