Word meaning
●
One word means many things
–
jack has 14 meanings
• fruit, garment, flag, tea, tired, steal . . .
Word meaning
●
Word meaning changes over time
–
retain meant take again
•
And now it came to pass that when Zerahemnah had heard these sayings he came
forth and delivered up his sword and his cimeter, and his bow into the hands of
Moroni, and said unto him: Behold, here are our weapons of war; we will deliver
them up unto you, but we will not suffer ourselves to take an oath unto you, which
we know that we shall break, and also our children; but take our weapons of war,
and suffer that we may depart into the wilderness; otherwise we will retain our
swords, and we will perish or conquer.
•
And now when Moroni had said these words, Zerahemnah retained his sword,
and he was angry with Moroni, and he rushed forward that he might slay Moroni;
but as he raised his sword, behold, one of Moroni's soldiers smote it even to the
earth, and it broke by the hilt; and he also smote Zerahemnah that he took off his
scalp and it fell to the earth.
Word meaning
●
Word meaning changes over time
–
Changes don't wipe out old meaning
–
Meanings coexist as in retain (keep, retake)
Word meaning
●
Word meaning changes over time
–
In King James Bible by and by means
immediately
Word meaning
●
Word meaning changes over time
–
In King James Bible by and by means
immediately
–
In King James Bible conversation meant
behavior
• Let no man despise thy youth; but be
thou an example of the believers, in
word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit,
in faith, in purity.
Word meaning
●
Word meaning changes over time
–
Definition of random
• haphazard or aimless
Word meaning
●
Word meaning changes over time
–
Definition of random
–
• haphazard or aimless
What is the new meaning?
Metaphor
●
Words have central, prototypical meaning
–
Metaphors are at the extreme edges
Metaphor
●
Words have central, prototypical meaning
–
Metaphors are at the extreme edges
• lettuce
Metaphor
●
Words have central, prototypical meaning
–
Metaphors are at the extreme edges
• lettuce
Metaphor
●
Words have central, prototypical meaning
–
Metaphors are at the extreme edges
• sharp
Metaphor
●
Words have central, prototypical meaning
–
Metaphors are at the extreme edges
• sharp
Metaphor
●
Words have central, prototypical meaning
–
Metaphors involve describing something in
terms used to describe something else
• broken
• relationships are like fragile objects
Metaphor
●
Words have central, prototypical meaning
–
Metaphors involve describing something in
terms used to describe something else
• in a rut, smooth sailing, moving ahead,
bumpy road
• relationships are like traveling
Metaphor
●
Words have central, prototypical meaning
–
Metaphors involve describing something in
terms used to describe something else
• shoot down, attack (enemy)
Metaphor
●
Words have central, prototypical meaning
–
Metaphors involve describing something in
terms used to describe something else
• shoot down, attack (enemy)
• shoot down, attack (idea)
• debate is like war
Metaphor
●
Words have central, prototypical meaning
–
Metaphors involve describing something in
terms used to describe something else
• strike out, score, second base (baseball)
Metaphor
●
Words have central, prototypical meaning
–
Metaphors involve describing something in
terms used to describe something else
• strike out, score, second base (baseball)
• strike out, score, second base (sex)
• sex is like baseball
Metaphor
●
Words have central, prototypical meaning
–
Metaphors involve describing something in
terms used to describe something else
• Emotions are like temperature
Metonymy
●
When something appears in the context of something
else and is referred to as that something else
Metonymy
●
●
When something appears in the context of something
else and is referred to as that something else
have coffee means sit and talk
Metonymy
●
When something appears in the context of something
else and is referred to as that something else
●
have coffee means sit and talk
●
hands or heads means entire thing
–
all hand on deck
–
head count
Metonymy
●
When something appears in the context of something
else and is referred to as that something else
–
The crown cannot tolerate . . .
–
The White House announced . . .
–
Nice threads
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
●
Sapir
–
Are our own concepts of time, space, and
matter given in substantially the same form by
experience to all men, or are they in part
conditioned by the structure of particular
languages?
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
●
Sapir
–
Are our own concepts of time, space, and
matter given in substantially the same form by
experience to all men, or are they in part
conditioned by the structure of particular
languages?
–
Are there traceable affinities between (a)
cultural and behavioral norms and (b) largescale linguistic patterns?
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
●
Whorf
–
We dissect nature along lines laid down by our native languages.
The categories and types that we isolate from the world of
phenomena we do not find there because they stare every
observer in the face; on the contrary, the world is presented in a
kaleidoscopic flux of impressions which has to be organized by
our minds—and this means largely by the linguistic systems in
our minds. We cut nature up, organize it into concepts, and
ascribe significances as we do, largely because we are parties to
an agreement to organize it in this way — an agreement that
holds throughout our speech community and is codified in the
patterns of our language... all observers are not led by the same
physical evidence to the same picture of the universe, unless
their linguistic backgrounds are similar, or can in some way be
calibrated.
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
●
The structure of one’s language influences the
manner in which one perceives and understands the
world, therefore, speakers of different languages will
perceive the world differently.
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
●
Strong version
–
Language determines certain non-linguistic
cognitive processes, that is, language
determines our perception of the world.
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
●
Strong version
–
●
Language determines certain non-linguistic
cognitive processes, that is, language
determines our perception of the world.
Weak version
–
Language biases our view of the world.
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
●
Strong version
–
Reality is imposed by one's language so you
can alter someone's thoughts by altering
his/her language
• Is that even possible?
• Do totalitarian governments ban words?
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
●
Strong version
–
–
Reality is imposed by one's language so you
can alter someone's thoughts by altering
his/her language
• Is that even possible?
• Do totalitarian governments ban words?
Linguistic categories create cognitive
categories
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
●
I am hot
●
I have heat
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
●
I am hot
●
I have heat
●
I have two daisies
●
There are two daisies to me
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
●
I am hot
●
I have heat
●
I have two daisies
●
There are two daisies to me
●
We went (past tense) to the store
●
We go (past meaning, no past tense) to the store
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
●
I am leaving (marked with iterative aspect)
●
I am leaving (marked with future aspect)
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
●
Does language affect how we perceive colors?
●
How would you divide the spectrum up?
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
●
English
●
Berimno
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
●
People who don't have different words for blue and
green can't distinguish them
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
●
Strong version
–
Reality is imposed by one's language so you
can alter someone's thoughts by altering
his/her language
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
●
●
●
Chinese numbers for eleven and twelve = 10+1,
10+2, etc.
English numbers = separate words (eleven, twelve,
etc)
Chinese-speaking children learn to count and
understand numbers in the teen range better than
English-speaking children
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
●
Verbs can contain information about movement
–
path
–
manner
–
ground
–
figure
• The ball rolled down the road
– manner=roll
– path=down the road
– ground=road
– figure=ball
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
●
Verbs can contain information about movement
–
path
–
manner
–
ground
–
figure
• The ball rolled down the road
– manner=roll
– path=down the road
– ground=road
– figure=ball
• English verbs contain manner, not path
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
English verbs encode manner not path
French verbs encode path, not manner
English
figure
manner
path
ground
She
cycled
over
the bridge
The bird
flew
out of
its cage
figure
path
ground
manner
Elle
a traverse
la Manche
a velo
she
crossed
the Channel
by plane
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
●
Other examples
–
Drudge = marcher péniblement (walk
tediously)
–
March = marcher au pas (walk stepping)
–
Plod = marcher d’un pas lent (walk with a slow
step)
–
Saunter = marcher d’un pas nonchalant (walk
with a nonchalant step)
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
●
In some experiment
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
●
Languages with gender
–
all objects animate and inanimate have gender
• English and Spanish kids asked to group
objects into two
– 33% of Spanish kids did it by
gender
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
●
Languages with gender
–
all objects animate and inanimate have gender
• English and Spanish kids asked to group
objects into two
– 33% of Spanish kids did it by
gender
• Should this have a man's or woman's
voice
– Spanish did it by gender
– English had no pattern
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
●
Languages with gender
–
all objects animate and inanimate have gender
• English and Spanish kids asked to group
objects into two
– 33% of Spanish kids did it by
gender
• Should this have a man's or woman's
voice
– Spanish did it by gender
– English had no pattern
• Kids with gender language recognize
gender of other kids faster than kids with
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
●
German English bilinguals
●
Spanish English bilinguals
–
Key is feminine in Spanish and masculine in
German
–
Bridge is masculine in Spanish and feminine in
German
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
●
German English bilinguals
●
Spanish English bilinguals
–
Key is feminine in Spanish and masculine in
German
–
Bridge is masculine in Spanish and feminine in
German
• Describe key
– German: hard, heavy, jagged
– Spanish: light, shiny, little
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
●
German English bilinguals
●
Spanish English bilinguals
–
Key is feminine in Spanish and masculine in
German
–
Bridge is masculine in Spanish and feminine in
German
• Describe bridge
– German: beautiful, elegant,
peaceful, slender
– Spanish: big, dangerous, strong,
sturdy
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
●
●
English: put on versus put in
Korean: interlock things versus put loosely in
container
–
They asked kids to describe what was being
done (buttoning, joining, separating, inserting,
attaching, hanging, dressing things)
–
Korean kids classified things as interlocking
and tightly fitting by using same words to
describe them. Same words not used for “in
and on”
–
English kids the opposite