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representational

Semantics

5.1Semanticsinlinguistics（Q1~Q2）

Q1.Whatissemantics?

Semanticsisthestudyofmeaningcommunicatedthroughlanguage.Thebasictaskinsemanticsistoshowhowpeoplecommunicatemeaningswithpiecesoflanguage.

Q2.Howmanykindsofmeaningdidlinguistsfindandstudy?

C.C.Fries（1952）makesatraditionaldistinctionbetweenlexicalmeaningandstructuralmeaning.Accordingtohim,“thetotallinguisticmeaningofanyutteranceconsistsofthelexicalmeaningoftheseparatewordsplussuchstructuralmeaning...”

G.Leech（1981）,fromafunctionalapproach,categorizessevenkindsofmeaning,fiveofwhicharebroughtunderthe“associativemeaning”（seethefollowingTable5.1）.

Table5.1

Conceptualmeaning

Logical,cognitive,ordenotative

Associativemeaning

Connotativemeaning

Socialmeaning

Affectivemeaning

Reflectedmeaning

Collocativemeaning

Whatiscommunicatedbyvirtueofwhatlanguagerefersto.

Whatiscommunicatedofthesocialcircumstancesoflanguageuse.

Whatiscommunicatedofthefeelingsandattitudesofthespeaker/writer

Whatiscommunicatedthroughassociationwithanothersenseofthesameexpression.

Whatiscommunicatedthroughassociationwithwordswhichtendtooccurintheenvironmentofanotherword.

Thematicmeaning

Whatiscommunicatedbythewayinwhichthemessageisorganizedintermsoforderandemphasis.

Differentfromthetraditionalandthefunctionalapproach,F.R.Palmer（1981）andJ.Lyons（1977）proposeapragmaticapproachwhichdrawsadistinctionbetweensentencemeaningandutterancemeaning.Theformerisdirectlypredictablefromthegrammaticalandlexicalfeaturesofthesentence,whilethelatterincludesallthevarioustypesofmeaningnotnecessarilyassociatedthereto.

5.2SemanticUnits（Q3）

Q3.Whatarethesemanticunits?

Whatarethenamingunitsandcommunicationunits?

Semantictraitsaremorpheme,word,phraseandidiom,sentenceandtext.Thebasicnamingunitinlanguageisnotionalwordandphrasemadeupofnotionalwords.Communicationunitistheunitwithwhichpeopleexpresstheirthoughts,feelingsandintentions.Sentenceisthebasicunitofthiskind.

5.3Meaningoftheword（Q4~Q7）

Q4.Howmanyviewsaretheretowardsthemeaningoftheword?

Whatarethey?

Therearethree.Referentialtheoryordenotationaltheoryisatheorywhichrelatesthemeaningofawordtothethingitrefersto,orstandsfor.

Mentalisttheoriesofmeaning（representationalapproach）holdthatthemeaningofeachwordistheideaassociatedwiththatwordinthemindsofspeakers.Therearethreeviewsinthisline:

（1）meaningasimages,

（2）meaningasconcepts,and（3）meaningassense.

Theusetheoryofmeaningadvocatesthatthemeaningofawordisdeterminedbyitsuseinthelanguagecommunity,andtospecifythatuseistospecifyitsmeaning.Q5.Whatissenseandwhatisreference?

Howaretheyrelated?

Sensereferstotheinherentmeaningofalinguisticform,whichisacollectionofsemanticmeanings,abstractanddecontextualized,whilereferenceiswhatalinguisticformreferstointherealworld.Itisamatteroftherelationshipbetweentheformandthereality.

Q6.Whatisthesemantictriangle?

Itisatheory,manifestedinthefollowingdiagram,proposedbyOgdenandRichardswhichexplicitlyemploysthenotionof“concept”tointerpretthemeaningofaword---therelationbetweenawordandathingitreferstoisthroughthemediationofconcept.

Concept

WordThing

Q7.Whatisthedifferencebetweenmeaning,concept,connotation,anddenotation?

Meaningreferstotheassociationoflanguagesymbolswiththerealworld.Therearemanytypesofmeaningsaccordingtodifferentapproaches.Conceptistheimpressionofobjectsinpeople’smind;connotationistheimpliedmeaning,similartoimplicationandimplicature;denotation,likesense,isnotdirectlyrelatedwithobjects,butmakestheabstractassumptionoftherealword.

5.4Meaningofthesentence（Q8~Q11）

Q8.Whatistherelationshipbetweensentencemeaningandwordmeaning?

Giveexamples.

Themeaningofsentenceissupposedtobethecombinationofwordmeaningandsentencestructure.SentencesusingthesamewordsmaymeanquitedifferentlyinthatthewordsarearrangedindifferentOrders.Forexample,

（a）Themanchasedthedog.

（b）Thedogchasedtheman.

Evenwhentwosentencesmeansimilarlyas（c）and（d）,thereisstilldifferenceinthematicmeaning:

（c）I’vealreadyseenthatfilm.

（d）ThatfilmI’vealreadyseen.

Withsentenceslike（e）,weneednotonlyknowthelinearorderofasentence,butalsothehierarchicalstructure:

（e）ThesonofPharaoh’sdaughteristhedaughterofPharaoh’sson.

Thehierarchicalstructuremaybeanalyzedasthefollowing:

ThesonofPharaoh’sdaughteristhedaughterofPharaoh’sson

Sentencesalsoexhibitmeaningpropertiesandrelationsthatwordsandphrasesmaylack.Communicativepotentialisonepointinease.Adiagramforthismaybeasfollows:

（f）Declarativesentence:

Usedtoconstate（assert,state,claim,etc.）

（g）Imperative:

Usedtodirect（order,request,command,etc.

（h）Interrogative:

Usedtoquestion.

Q9.Areutterances,sentences,andpropositionsthesame?

No.Thesethreetermsareusedtodescribedifferentlevelsoflanguage.Themostconcreteisutterancewhichiscreatedbyspeaking（orwriting）apieceoflanguage.Sentences,ontheotherhand,areabstractgrammaticalelementsobtainedfromutterances.Forexample,anutterancehasatone,orperhapssomeaccentduetoregionalorsocialvariationandphoneticdetailswhichidentifyindividualspeakers,etc.Butatthelevelofsentence,thesekindsofinformationareignored.Propositionsaretheresultofafurtherabstractionofsentences,whicharedescriptionsofstatesofaffairsandwhichsomewritersseeasabasicelementofsentencemeaning.Forexample,thetwosentences“CaesarinvadedGaul”and“GaulwasinvadedbyCaesar”holdthesameproposition.

Q10.Whatisthetruthvalueofproposition,andwhatisthetruthcondition?

Truthvalueistheveryimportantpropertyofproposition.Itdescribeswhetherapropositionistrueorfalse.Thetruthconditionisthefactsthatwouldhavetoobtaininrealitytomakeapropositiontrueorfalse.

Q11.Howarethetruthvaluesofthesentences“Eitheritisraininghereoritisn’traininghere”and“Someboysthataresickarenotboys”differentfromthoseofthesentences"Theearthisround”and“PRCwasfoundedin1950”?

Theformersentencesarerespectivelylinguisticallytrue（alsocalledanalyticallytrue）andlinguisticallyfalse（contradictory）.Thelattertwosentencesarerespectivelyempiricallytrueandempiricallyfalse.

Thetruthconditionofasentencewhichislinguisticallytrueisdeterminedsolelybythesemanticsofthelanguageanditisnotnecessarytocheckifanyfactsaboutthenonlinguisticworldinordertodeterminetheirtruthorfalsehood.Whiletheknowledgeofthelanguagealonedoesnotdeterminethetruthconditionofanempiricallytruesentence,anditisnecessarytochecktheworldinordertoverifyorfalsifyit.

5.5Meaningsofphrasesandidioms（Q12~Q13）

Q12.Howisaphrasedifferentfromanidiomandaproverb?

Phraseisnotasentence.Itisthenamingunitinsteadofcommunicationunit,anditsmeaningistheresultofthecombinationofthemeaningsofitsindividualwordsandthemeaningofitsstructure.Whileanidiomisthefossilizedphrasewhosemeaning,generallyspeaking,cannotbeinferreddirectlyfromthemeaningsofitscomponentwords.Proverbsarefossilizedsentences.

Q13.Whatiscollocation?

Collocationisatermusedinlexicologybysomelinguiststorefertothehabitualco-occurrencesofindividuallexicalitems.Forexample,wecan“correct”a“mistake”,“read”a“book”,and“watchTV”.Noonecan“correct”atelevisionor“read”amistake.

Wecanfindoutthemeaningofawordbythecompanyitkeeps,accordingtoH.Firth,anEnglishsemanticist.

5.6Semanticrelations（Q14~Q31）

Q14.Whatisasemanticfield?

Canyouillustrateit?

Itisanorganizationalprinciplethatthelexiconandgroupsofwordsinthelexiconcanbesemanticallyrelated,ratherthanalistingofwordsasinapublisheddictionary.Onaverygeneralandintuitivelevel,wecansaythatthewordsinasemanticfield,thoughnotsynonymous,areallusedtotalkaboutthesamegeneralphenomenon,andthereisameaninginclusionrelationbetweentheitemsinthefieldandthefieldcategoryitself.Classicalexamplesofsemanticfieldsincludecolorterms

（red,green,blue,yellow）,kinshipterms（mother,father,sister,brother）,andcookingterms（boil,fry,broil,steam）assemanticfields.

Q15.Illustratehowthesemanticfielddiffersfromoneculturetoanother?

Let’stakekinshiptermsforexample.Everylanguagehasitskinterms,buttheyareusedindifferentways.Forinstance,thekintermsforthepeopleofthesameparentsinEnglisharebrotherandsister;whileinChinese哥哥（elderbrother）,弟弟（youngerbrother）,姐姐（eldersister）,妹妹（youngersister）.Englishmakesonlyonedistinction--sex;however,inadditiontosex,Chinesegivesanother---beingyoungerorolder.

Q16.WhatarethemajortypesofsynonymsinEnglish?

Theyaredialectalsynonyms,stylisticsynonyms,emotivesynonyms,collocationalsynonyms,andsemanticsynonyms.Examplesareasfollows:

fondof,keenon（collocational）

autumn,fall（dialectal）

dad,father（stylistic）

thrifty,miserly,economical（emotional）

escape,flee（semantic）

17.Inwhatwaydothefollowingpairsoffercontrast?

（a）earth/ə:

ө/n.1.ourplanet.2.thesoilonthesurfaceofourplanet.

Bankl/b