Semantics

WEEK 1
Syllabus
Overview
This course aims to acquaint the student with the concepts of meaning in natural language, and related
theories. Throughout the course, we will exhibit how such knowledge will contribute to the process of
language understanding.
Objectives
students will be able to:

a. Identify and describe different types of meaning

b. Discuss and analyse the concepts and theoretical approaches related to semantics

c. Show a critical view to the theoretical perspectives of semantic phenomena

d. Apply their knowledge of linguistic semantics in the analysis of natural language data
Course Requirements:

Attendance

You are also responsible for all notes, announcements and handouts given out in class. Regular attendance
in lectures and discussion are essential to achieving the learning outcomes of this course. If you miss a class
for any reason, it is your responsibility to figure out what you missed. The material in this course progresses
cumulatively, so poor attendance will make your life difficult.
Grading
Mid Term assignment 50%

Final assignment 50%

Academic Misconduct
DON’T PLAGIARIZE
DON’T CHEAT
Textbooks
De Swart, H. (1998). Introduction to Natural Language Semantics. Stanford, California: CSLI
Publications.

Sternefeld, W., & Zimmermann, T. E. (2013). Introduction to Semantics: An Essential Guide to the
Composition of Meaning (Mouton Textbook). De Gruyter Mouton.
What is semantics?
The study of meaning of words, phrases and sentences.

In semantic Analysis: focus on what the word conventionally mean

NOT what an individual speaker might think they mean or wants them to mean, on a particular
occasion.

The study of the relationship between linguistic form and meaning.

No speaker memorize every possible sentence in a language, new and unique sentences are produced
everyday, and are understood by people hearing them for the first time.
Two Aspects of Linguistic Meaning
SENSE AND REFERENCE

THINK OF THE SENSE OF AN EXPRESSION AS SOME KIND OF MENTAL

REPRESENTATION OF ITS MEANING, OR SOME KIND OF CONCEPT.
Example
 The Examples of Diamonds

VS.

TO KNOW THE REFERENCE, YOU HAVE TO KNOW THE

SENSE
HOWEVER, KNOWING THE SENSE DOES NOT GUARANTEE
THAT YOU WILL INVARIABLY BE ABLE TO PICK OUT THE
REFERENTS.
Have sense no Referents
Multiple distinct expressions-
same referent
1. The most populous country in the world

2. The country that hosted the 2008 summer Olympics

Meaning
What we might describe as the widely accepted objective or factual meaning of words and not their
subjective or personal meaning.

Referential meaning- dictionary definition vs. associative or emotive meaning (feelings or reactions to
words that may be found among some individuals or groups but not others.

Referential meaning: basic, essential components of meaning- conveyed by the literal use of a word.

e.g. needle- thin, sharp, steel instrument

Needle- pain, illness, blood, drugs, thread, knitting, hard to find (in a haystack)- different from one
person to the next.
Cont.
The study of basic referential meaning could be helpful as a means of accounting for the “oddness” we
experience when we read sentences such as:

The hamburger ate the boy.

The table listens to the radio.

The horse is reading the newspaper.

The three levels of meaning
Word meaning

Sentence meaning

Utterance meaning (speaker meaning)

Utterance= is a speech event by a particular speaker in a specific context.

utterance meaning: the totality of what the speaker intends to convey by making the utterance.

E.g. Southern Min dialect of Chinese: Have you already eaten?

Sentence meaning= the semantic content of the sentence. The meaning which derives from the words themselves, regardless
of context.
Relation between form and
meaning
The relationship btw. Form and meaning of words are arbitrary.

Exceptions?

Onomatopoetic words (ding- dong= bell/ buzz= housefly)

The relation between the form of a sentence or a multiple- word expression, and its meaning is
generally not arbitrary, but compositional.

That is, the meaning of the expression is predictable from the meaning of the words it contains and the
way they are combined.
Semantic Features
* The hamburger ate the boy

The boy ate the hamburger.

* The horse is reading the newspaper.

The boy is reading the newspaper.

Boy [+animate], [+human]

Horse [-human]

These examples illustrate a way of analyzing the meaning of words in terms of semantic features.
Componential Analysis
Characterize which semantic feature is required in a noun for it to appear as the subject of a particular
verb.

Predict which nouns would fit in a sentence and which would be odd.

The ____________ ate all the food.

[+animate]

The ______________ is reading the newspaper.

[+human]
Componential Analysis
Semantic features: how words in a lg. are or are not connected to each other.

Components like human, animate, adult are elements of meaning in an approach called componential
analysis.
Words - containers of meaning
Analyzing basic meaning

Problems?

Component features used to differentiate the nouns advice, threat and warning?

The approach involves a view of words in a lg. as some sort of “containers” that carry meaning
components.

Too restrictive, limited in practical use.

There is more to the meaning of words than these basic types of features.
Semantic roles:
The role of words in stead words as containers of meaning.

The roles they fulfill within the situation described by a sentence.

Simple event: The boy kicked the ball. (action- kick).

The boy ( involved in the action)

Agent and theme
Agent- the entity that performs the action.

The ball- theme or patient: the entity that is involved in or affected by the action.

The theme can be an entity being described (The ball is red).

Agents are typically human, but sometimes they are not:

The wind blew the ball away.

A car ran over the ball.

The dog caught the ball.

Instrument and Experiencer
Agent uses another entity to perform an action (that other entity fills the role of instrument).

The boy cut the rope with an old razor / He drew the picture with a crayon.

(with is the clue)

Experiencer: NP used to designate an entity as the person who has a feeling, perception or a state (feel,
know, hear, enjoy)

The woman feels sad

Did you hear that noise?

Location, source and Goal
Location: an entity like on the table, in the room.

Source: where the entity moves from (from Chicago)

Goal: where the entity moves to (to New Orleans)

We drove from Chicago to New Orleans.

Discussion and Practice
1. What semantic feature must a noun have in order to be used in this sentence?

The _________ were discussing what to do.

2. Using semantic features, how would you explain the oddness of these sentences?

(a) The television drank my water.

(b) His dog writes poetry.

3. What phrase is used more often instead of “thematic roles” and what other term is used instead of
“theme” in the semantic analysis of noun phrases?
 Discussion and Practice
4. What are the semantic roles for the underlined words/ phrases:

Mary saw a fly on the wall.

She borrowed a magazine from George.

She squashed the bug with the magazine.

She handed the magazine back to George.

“Gee thanks,” said George.

Discussion and Practice
5. why are the following examples ungrammatical?

* I was surprised with the sudden bang outside my window.

* Most of his sketches were drawn by charcoal.

Discussion and Practice
We discussed that the word Unicorn has no referents.

1. Come up with three more examples of expressions that have no referents.

2. Explain in your own words why the notion of sense is important, taking into account the particular
examples you came up with for part 1.