Chapter Five Meaning
Semantics is the study of the meaning of
linguistic units, words and sentences in
particular.

Semantics is relatively young. It remains
the least known area in linguistics,
compared with phonetics, phonology,
morphology and syntax.

1. Meanings of “MEANING”
 C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards
 G. Leech
 Geoffrey Leech (1974, 1981). Semantics:

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




The Study of Meaning. Seven types of
meaning:
Conceptual meaning
Connotative meaning
Social meaning
Associative
Affective meaning
Meaning
Reflected and meaning
Collocative meaning
Thematic meaning
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3.1 Conceptual meaning
 Also called ‘denotative’ or ‘cognitive’
meaning.
 Refers to logical, cognitive or denotative
content.
 Concerned with the relationship between
a word and the thing it denotes, or refers
to.
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3.2 Connotative meaning
 The communicative value an expression
has by virtue of what it refers to, over and
above its purely conceptual content.
 A multitude of additional, non-criterial
properties, including not only physical
characteristics but also psychological
and social properties, as well as typical
features.
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 Involving the ‘real world’ experience one
associates with an expression when one
uses or hears it.
 Unstable: they vary considerably
according to culture, historical period,
and the experience of the individual.
 Any characteristic of the referent,
identified subjectively or objectively, may
contribute to the connotative meaning of
the expression which denotes it.
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3.3 Social meaning
 What a piece of language conveys about the
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




social circumstances of its use.
Dialect: the language of a geographical region
or of a social class.
Time: the language of the 18th c., etc.
Province: language of law, of science, of
advertising, etc.
Status: polite, colloquial, slang, etc.
Modality: language of memoranda, lectures,
jokes, etc.
Singularity: the style of Dickens, etc.
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 domicile: very formal,







official
residence: formal
abode: poetic
home: general
steed: poetic
horse: general
nag: slang
gee-gee: baby language
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3.4 Affective meaning
 Reflecting the personal feelings of the
speaker, including his attitude to the
listener, or his attitude to something he
is talking about.
 You’re a vicious tyrant and a villainous
reprobate, and I hate you for it!
 I’m terribly sorry to interrupt, but I
wonder if you would be so kind as to
lower your voices a little. or
 Will you belt up.
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3.5 Reflected meaning
 Arises in cases of multiple conceptual
meaning, when one sense of a word
forms part of our response to another
sense.
 When you hear ‘click the mouse twice’,
you think of Gerry being hit twice by Tom
so you feel excited.
 Many taboo terms are result of this.
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3.6 Collocative meaning
 The associations a word acquires on
account of the meanings of words which
tend to occur in its environment.
 pretty: girl, boy, woman, flower, garden,
colour, village, etc.
 handsome: boy, man, car, vessel,
overcoat, airliner, typewriter, etc.
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3.7 Thematic meaning
 What is communicated by the way in




which a speaker or writer organizes the
message, in terms of ordering, focus, and
emphasis.
Mrs Bessie Smith donated the first prize.
The first prize was donated by Mrs Bessie
Smith.
They stopped at the end of the corridor.
At the end of the corridor, they stopped.
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4. The Theory of Reference
 Words → Meaning: Words ‘name’ or ‘refer to’
things -- Platonic
 Words→Concepts→Things: Ogden & Richards
thought/concept/image
symbolizes
refers to
symbol -------------------------------------- referent
(word)
stands for
(object)
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5. Sense
 ‘Meaning’ is not some kind of ‘entity’
separate from language.
 That words ‘have meaning’ means only
that they are used in a certain way in a
sentence. There is no ‘meaning’ beyond
the meaning of individual words and
sentences.
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 ‘The meaning of a word is its use in
the language’. (Ludwig Wittgenstein)
 Meaning is studied by making detailed
analyses of the way words and
sentences are used in specific contexts.
 Reference: how language refers to this
external world
 Sense: the way people relate words to
each other within the framework of
their language
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The family tree
 舅父 = ‘mother’s




brother’
叔叔 = ‘father’s
younger brother’
伯父 = ‘father’s elder
brother’
姨母 = ‘mother’s
sister’
姑母 = ‘father’s sister’
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6. Sense Relations
 Synonymy
Gradable
 Antonymy
Complementary
Converse
 Hyponymy
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6.1 Synonymy
 buy/purchase
 thrifty/economical/stingy
 autumn/fall
 flat/apartment
 tube/underground
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6.2 Gradable antonymy
 good ----------------------- bad
 long ----------------------- short
 big ----------------------- small
 Can be modified by adverbs of
degree like very.
 Can have comparative forms.
 Can be asked with how.
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6.3 Complementary antonymy
 alive : dead

 male : female

 present : absent

 innocent : guilty

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odd : even
pass : fail
boy : girl
hit : miss
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6.4 Converse antonymy
 buy : sell

 lend : borrow

 give : receive

 parent : child

 husband : wife

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teacher : student
above : below
before : after
host : guest
employer : employee
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6.5 Hyponymy
 Inclusiveness
 A is included in / a kind of B.
 Cf.: chair and furniture, rose and flower
 Superordinate/hypernym: the more
general term
 Hyponym: the more specific term
 Co-hyponyms: members of the same
class
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Animal
bird fish insect animal
human animal
tiger lion elephant ...
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7. Componential Analysis
 HUMAN
 man (ADULT, MALE)
 woman (ADULT, FEMALE)
 boy (NON-ADULT, MALE)
 girl (NON-ADULT, FEMALE)
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7.1 Animal words
MALE
FEMALE
NON-ADULT
bull
cow
calf
ram
ewe
lamb
boar
sow
piglet
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7.2 Domestic animals
bull ram boar cow
ewe
sow
calf lamb piglet
M
+
+
+
—
—
—
±
±
±
F
—
—
—
+
+
+
±
±
±
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7.3 English motion verbs
ONE FOOT
NATURAL HURRIED FORWARD ALWAYS ON
GROUND
walk
+
━
+
+
march
━
+
+
+
run
━
+
+
━
limp
━
━
+
+
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7.4 More complex ones
 father: PARENT (x, y) & MALE (x)
 x is a parent of y, and x is male.
 take: CAUSE (x, (HAVE (x, y)))
 x causes x to have y.
 give: CAUSE (x, (~HAVE (x, y)))
 x causes x not to have y.
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8. Meaning & Syntactic Structure
 The meaning of a
sentence is obviously
related to the
meanings of the
words used in it, but it
is also obvious that
sentence meaning is
not simply the sum
total of the words.
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 The cat is chasing the mouse.
 The mouse is chasing the cat.
 I have read that book.
 That book I have read.
 The daughter of Queen Elizabeth’s son
is the son
daughter.
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Queen
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8.1 Compositionality
 An integrated theory
 Katz & Fodor (1963): The structure of a
semantic theory. A 40-page long paper
published in Language.
 The method itself is years out of date but
the debate about the principle of
compositionality is by no means over
(Cruse, 2004: 77).
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 The idea behind the principle was to
solve the problem of generating
grammatical but incorrect sentences like
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
 The purpose was to wage an attack on
Chomsky’s basis assumption that correct
sentences could be generated by
syntactic transformations alone,
disregarding the semantic rules at
Surface Structure.
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 Although many semanticists turned away
from Chomsky by developing formal
semantic theories by themselves,
Chomsky did admit soon that semantic
rules would be found at Deep Structure as
well as Surface Structure (EST) and later
on placed semantic rules/representation
in the S-Structure altogether (since REST).
Other ideas were also incorporated into
Chomsky’s later models of grammar, e.g.
the concept of projection.
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 According to the principle of
compositionality, each word in the
lexicon is equipped with certain
components and combinations of words
into sentences must go through certain
selection restrictions in order to produce
acceptable sentences. Thus we can say
colorful ball because
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 colorful {Adj}
a. (Color) [abounding in contrast or variety
of bright colors] <(Physical Object) or
(Social Activity)>
b. (Evaluative) [having distinctive character,
vividness, or picturesqueness]
<(Aesthetic Object) or (Social Activity)>
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 ball {NC}
a. (Social Activity) (Large) (Assembly) [for
the purpose of social dancing]
b. (Physical Object) [having globular shape]
c. (Physical Object) [solid missile for
projection by engine of war]
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 Then it is possible to work out four
readings of the combinations of color
and ball, and further combinations with
other words (projections) will determine
which of the four is the actual meaning
in the sentence John hit the colorful
balls and We had a colorful ball last
night.
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8.2. Noncompositional meaning
 Idioms: cannot be built up as the sum of





its parts. Idioms are phrases derived by
metaphor and other types of semantic
extension.
get up on the wrong side of the bed
in the doghouse
green with envy
kick the bucket
face the music
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kick the bucket: which?
A. Because she
got mad, that
hen kicked a
bucket.
B. A cartoon
painter about
to kick a
bucket of
paint.
C. the process
of dying
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 Frozen metaphors: a class
of idiom-like expressions
which may show some of
the features of syntactic
frozenness typical of idioms,
such as resistance to
modification, transformation,
and so on, but which differ
from idioms in an important
respect: the effect of
synonym substitution is not
a complete collapse of the
non-literal reading.
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The ball’s in your court
now.
on your side of the net
A cat
can look at a queen.
mouse
an archbishop
I can read
her like an open book.
decipher
He has one foot in the grave.
both feet
tomb
one leg
coffin
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I gave him a piece of my mind.
part
conceptual system
He drives me up the wall.
forces
room partition
He has a bee
in his bonnet about it.
hornet
helmet
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8.4 Collocations
great heavy high extreme deep severe
frost
－
＋
－
？
－
＋
rain
－
＋
－
－
－
－
wind
？
－
＋
－
－
－
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8.5 Clichés
 I’ve made my position
absolutely clear.
 I’ve given an unambiguous
exposition of my views.
 It’s raining dogs and cats.
 He arrived safe and sound.
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8.6 Noun compounds
 pocket knife: knife that can be




carried in the pocket
kitchen knife: knife for use in
the kitchen
meat knife: knife for cutting
meat
tablecloth: cloth used to cover a
table
dishcloth: cloth used to wipe
dishes
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8.7 “Active zones”
 a red hat: whole hat is




red
a red book: outside
covers are red
a red apple: a
significant portion of
outer skin is red
a yellow peach: inner
flesh is yellow
a pink grapefruit: inner
flesh is pink
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 a red traffic sign:
symbols only are red
 a red pencil: (1) red on
outside; (2) writes red
 red eyes: ‘white’ of
eyes is red
 blue eyes: iris is blue
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9. Propositional Logic
 Truth condition:
 conditions which must hold for the
sentence to be used to make a true
statement (at least if it is used literally).
Thus, before we can truthfully say, on
some occasion, The cat is on the mat,
there must be some relevant feline
occupying a specific position relative to
an appropriate item of floor covering.
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 Those aspects of the meaning of a sentence
which determine its truth conditions are
collectively known as the propositional content
of the sentence.
 Two sentences with identical propositional
content will yield statements with the same truth
values on all occasions of use, as for instance,
John caressed Mary and Mary was caressed by
John.
 By the same token, if two sentences have
different propositional content, there will
necessarily exist some conceivable situation in
which they will yield statements with opposite
truth values.
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 Proposition: a statement,
with a truth value (true or
false), eg
 The earth is flat.
 The earth goes around the
sun.
 All teachers are female.
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9.1 Logical relations
 Not﹁/～: ¬P
 And ∧: P∧Q
 Or ∨: P∨Q, ﹁P∨Q
 If … then →: P→Q
 Equals to ↔ : P↔ Q
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9.1.1 Truth value: Not ¬
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P
¬P
T
F
F
T
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9.1.2 Truth value: And ∧
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P
Q
P∧Q
F
F
F
F
T
F
T
F
F
T
T
T
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9.1.3 Truth value: Or ∨: P∨Q
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P
Q
P∨Q
F
F
F
F
T
T
T
F
T
T
T
T
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9.1.4 Truth value: Or ∨: ¬P∨Q
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¬P
Q
¬P∨Q
F
F
T
F
T
T
T
F
F
T
T
T
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9.1.5 Truth value: If…then →
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P
Q
P→Q
F
F
T
F
T
T
T
F
F
T
T
T
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9.1.6 Truth value: Equals to ↔
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Q
PQ
F
F
T
F
T
F
T
F
F
T
T
T
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9.2 Predicate Logic
 Argument and Predicate
 John runs.  runs’ (John’) or R(j)
 John loves Mary.  loves’ (John’, Mary’)
or L(j, m)
 John gave Mary a book.  gave’ (John’,
Mary’, book’) or G(j, m, b)
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 One-place predicate: run
 Two-place predicate: love
 Three-place predicate: give
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 Quantifiers: all ∀ , some ∃
 All teachers are female.
 ∀ x (T(x)  F(x)) = For all x, if x is a
teacher, x is female.
 Some teachers are female.
 ∃ x (T(x)∧F(x)) = There are some x’s
that are both teachers and female.
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 All teachers are female.
 ∀ x (T(x)F(x))
 John is a teacher.
 T(j)
 Hence, John is female.
 ∴ F(j)
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5.4 componential analysis
 What is it?
 The relation between it and the distinctive
features of a phoneme in phonology
 The advantage of it
 Problems with it
5.5 sentence meaning
 1.
 2.
 3.
5.5.1 an integrated theory
 The definition of it
 Suggested by ?
 How was it put forward? The process
 How it went?
 Problems with it



dictionary part



Integrated theory



Projection rules
Grammatical classification
( grammatical markers )
( syntactic markers)
general one
(semantic markers)
Semantic information
idiosyncratic one
( distinguishers)
 Problems:
 1.
 2.
 3.
5.5.2 logical semantics
 The different stress of traditional
grammarians and philosophers

propositional logic
 Two ideas

predicate logic
Propositional logic
 What is it?
 How it goes?
 Why it can not be applied to the natural
languages?
 The difference between propositional logic
and predicate logic
 命题逻辑不能处理的问题
 Knowledge of predicate logic
 Propositions with “all” or “some”
 The universal quantifier “all”
 The existential quantifier “some”
 The difference of the two
 How the two relate to each other
 set theory: another way to explain the validity of
inferences with the universal qualifier and
existential qualifier
The development of logic semantics
 Montague semantics
 ( Montague grammar)