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Chapter 5 Semantics Preview: The Study of Meaning Semantics: The meaning of words: Lexical semantics The meaning of sentences: Propositional meaning, compositional meaning Linguistic semantics vs. Logical semantics/philosophical semantics Pragmatics: The meaning of utterances 5.1 What is Semantics? Semantics is the study of meaning in language. Meaning has been studied for thousands of years by philosophers, logicians and linguists. E.g. Plato Aristotle. 5.2 Approaches to meaning C. K. Ogden I. A. Richards (1923). The Meaning of Meaning. John means to write. A green light means to go. Health means everything. His look was full of meaning. What is the meaning of life? What does ‘capitalist’ mean to you? What does ‘cornea’ mean? Geoffrey Leech (1974, 1981). Semantics: The Study of Meaning. Seven types of meaning: Conceptual meaning Connotative meaning Social meaning Affective meaning Reflected and meaning Collocative meaning Thematic meaning Some views concerning the study of meaning Naming theory (Plato) The conceptualist view (Ogden and Richards) Behaviorism (Bloomfield) Contextualism (J.R.Firth) Truth Conditionalism 5.2.1Meaning as naming The meaning of an expression is what it refers to, or names, is often called referential theory or naming theory. cat→ Nouns name objects or events and adjectives name the properties of those objects or events. Verbs name actions and adverbs name their properties. In this view, words are “names” or “labels” for things in our mind or in our experience. unicorn Problems: 1) Applicable to nouns only. 2) There are nouns which denote things that do not exist in the real world, e.g. ghost, dragon, unicorn… 3) There are nouns that do not refer to physical objects but abstract notions, e.g. joy, impulse, hatred… 5.2.2 Meaning as concept Def.: Expressions actually mean the concept or idea associated with them. Any particular sound image is psychologically associated with a particular concept. [chair]→{chair}(signifier vs sign