Part 3
SENTENCE MEANING
Chapter 1
The meaning of the sentence
1. Sentence
• “a string of words put together by the grammatical rules of a language, (…) expressing
a complete thought’ (Hurford & B. Heasley, 2001:16,18)
2. Approaches to sentence meaning
• Denotational theory: reference and truth
• Conceptualist theory: concepts or ideas associated with the expression
• Pragmatic theory: meaning by participants in an interaction (meaning-is-use theory)
• Cognitive theory: a reflection of the way we conceptualize the world out there.
3. Grammaticality, acceptability, meaningfulness
• Grammatical sentences are not necessarily meaningful or acceptable
The farmer killed the house
• Acceptability: related to social etiquette, rationality and logical coherence
His father died last night
His father passed away last night
• Meaningfulness: conditioned by how well-formed that sentence is semantically
Colourless green ideas sleep furiously
-> meaningless, uninterpretable
4. Principle of compositionality
• The meaning of a sentence is determined by the meanings of its parts and by the way
in which those parts are assembled
=> Compositionality: structural meaning, textual meaning, representational meaning and
interpersonal meaning (modality)
• Structural meaning: results from a particular arrangement of the parts of the sentence
Ve dunno who tuk that yob.
• Representational meaning:
+ experiential function: to communicate
+ logical function: to relate ideas to each other on an equal or subordinate basis
• Interpersonal meaning: to establish and maintain social relations; to influence people’s
behaviour and get things done; to express speaker’s feelings, attitudes and opinions
• Textual meaning: to create texts, give text coherence and cohesion
5. Representational meaning
She overslept in the semantics class
• Participant: she
• Process: overslept
• Circumstance: in the semantics class
5.1. process
• In terms of transitivity: transitive and ergative
- Transitive: I gave him a book (actor, goal)
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- Ergative: I heard the noise (causer and the affected)
I grow the flowers in my garden/ the flower grow in my garden
He broke the window/ the window broke (window-doer and the affected)
In terms of complement: intensive and extensive
- Intensive (with subject complement):
John is smart
- Extensive:
+ intransitive: He smokes
+ transitive: He drinks beer
In terms of grammatical categories
Material processes (actor and goal)
He has built a fortune along the way
Mental processes (a senser and phenomenon)
Everyone likes the play
Subdivision:
- Perception (seeing, hearing, noticing, looking, smelling, tasting, etc)
- Affection (liking, fearing, hating, enjoying, etc)
- Cognition (thinking, knowing, understanding, realizing, etc)
Relational processes
Attributive
Identifying
Intensive
Students are rich
Circumstantial
(carrier and attribute)
(the identified and the identifier)
That student is in London Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day
now
Possessive
She has a wonderful
boyfriend
That student is the talk machine
This pen is Mary’s
- Behavioural processes (on the border line between material and mental)
+ Processes of consciousness in forms of behaviours
Look, watch, stare, worry, dream, etc
+ Physiological processes
Laugh, smile, sigh, whine, shout, cry. etc
+ Verbal processes as behaviour:
Chatter, grumble, talk, etc
+ Other physiological processes
Breathe, cough, faint, yawn, etc
+ Bodily postures and pastimes
Sing, dance, lie down, sit down, lean, sit cross-legged, etc
- Verbal processes (on the borderline of mental and relational, a sayer)
Tell, insult, praise, slander, accuse, scold, tc
- Existential processes (on the borderline between relational and material)
- There comes a huge man
- Once upon a time, there lived a king who had a beautiful daughter
- There exist many problems to be solved
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5.2. Participants
• Agentive
• Instrumental
• Factitive
• Locative
• Owner and possession
• Benefactive
• Comitative
• Source
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Goal
Undergoer
The behaver
The carrier and attribute
The identifier and the identified
The existent
Dative
5.3. circumstances
• Time
• Place
• Condition: if
• Concession: although, despite, in spite of
• Result: so … that
• Manner: with a smile, on purpose, with a ruler, in English
• Attending circumstances: as everyone is here
• Cause: because
• Purpose: so as to, in order to, so that, for a rest, for dinner, for a drink…
6. Interpersonal meaning
6.1. Functions of speech: expressing the speaker’s attitude and opinion
6.2.Grammaticalization of modality:
6.2.1. Mood and modality
- Indicative:
I was absent yesterday -> report
Will she marry me? -> doubt
- Imperative: Be quiet!/ take a seat! -> request
- Subjunctive: I wish I could fly -> wish (epistemic)
It is necessary that he be here -> obligation
6.2.2. Modality in subordinate clause: I order that he must be here at once.
6.3. Lexicalization of modality:
6.3.1. Modal verbs
6.3.2. modal adjectives
6.3.3. modal adverbs
6.3.4. modal nouns
6.3.5. lexical verbs
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