Matakuliah : G0922/Introduction to Linguistics
Tahun
: 2008
Session 9
Semantic 2
LEARNING OUTCOMES
• Students are able to give their own examples on
semantics relation among sentences
• Students are able to analyze sentences using
presupposition, conversational maxims and deixis
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OUTLINE
Phrasal meaning: thematic roles
Semantic relations among sentences :
- Paraphrase,
- Entailment
- Contradiction
Pragmatics:
- Presupposition
- Conversational maxims
- deixis
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Thematic Roles
The thematic roles of verb consist of:
• Agent : the one who perform an action. Joyce runs
• Theme: the one that undergoes an action. Mary found
the puppy
• Location: the place where an action happens. It rains in
Spain
• Goal : the place to which an action is directed. Put the
cat in the porch.
• Source: the place from which an action originated. He
flew from Iowa to Idaho
• Instrument: the means by which an action is performed.
Jo cuts hair with a razor.
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Thematic roles
• Experiencer: one who perceives something. Helen heard
Robert playing the piano
• Causative: a natural force that causes a change. The
wind damaged the roof.
• Possessor : one who has something. The tail of the dog
wagged furiously.
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Semantics relation among sentences
• Truth condition : under what circumstances the sentence
is true
• Paraphrase
Two sentences that have the same meaning. Two sentences are
paraphrases if they have the same truth condition. It means
when one sentence is true the other is true; and when one is
false the other is false.
– E.g. The police chased the burglar
The burglar was chased by the police
- It is unfortunate that the team lost
– Unfortunately, the team lost
Paraphrase often involve the same vocabulary in different syntactic
structure
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Semantics relation among sentences
• Entailment
– The truth of one sentence guarantees the truth of another
sentence
– E.g. A. The park warden killed the bear
–
B. The bear is dead.
– If sentence A is true, sentence B must be true
– It means that A entails B
– Prince is a dog
– Prince is an animal
– If it is true that Prince is a dog, it must be true that Prince is an
animal
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Semantics relation among sentences
• Contradiction
– The relationship between two sentences in which that if one
sentence is true, the other sentence must be false in the same
situation and circumstances.
– E.g. A. Charles is a bachelor
–
B. Charles is married
–
If it is true that Charles is a bachelor, it must false that
Charles is married in the situation that Charles in Sentence A
and Sentence B is the same.
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Absence of Meaning
• Anomaly: expression that appear to follow the rules of
syntax, but semantically wrong. Ex. : My brother is an
only child. The bachelor is pregnant.
• Metaphor: an expression used to designated another
concept, to create implicit comparison. Ex. : My car is a
lemon.
• Idioms: an expression whose meaning cannot be
inferred from the meanings of the individual words. Ex:
She put her foot in her mouth.
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Pragmatics
• Speech Acts: uses of language to do things
- Performative verbs : bet, promise, warn,etc.
- Directive : go, put, etch.
• Presupposition : the fact whose truth is required for an
utterance to be appropriate. This is also called implication
- Have you stopped hugging your sheepdog?
- In this sentence, the speaker is said to presuppose or
assume the truth of the fact that the listener has hugged
their sheepdog in the past.
- Would you like another beer? This sentence
presuppose that you have already had at least one beer.
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Conversational maxims
• The general guide lines in conversations.
• If people break the rules, there may be
misunderstanding in the interpretation of the
conversation
• It is also called cooperative principle
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Conversational maxims
• The maxim of quantity
– Give enough information as it should be
– E.g. I think she went somewhere.
– (I know that she went to Hero Supermarket)
• The maxim of manner
– Say something clearly according to the manner of the society in order to
avoid ambiguity.
– E.g. Use “the man who lives with Mary instead of Mary’s husband’
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Conversational maxims
• The maxim of relation
–
–
–
–
Be relevant
E.g.
A: Have you finished that term paper yet?
B: It’s been raining a lot lately, hasn’t it?
• The maxim of quality
– Say something true (do not say anything that are false or for which you
lack of adequate evidence.
– A: What’s the weather like?
– B: (without knowing the truth) It’s snowing
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