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1、Lecture 7,The meaning of English (I),Review,What are common means of cohesion in English? What do we mean by conversational repair?,Contents,7.1 The notion of semantics 7.2 Semantic properties 7.3 Semantic relations 7.4 Sense and reference,7.1 The notion of semantics,Semantics is the study of the me
2、aning of language (and the communication of meaning through language).,The meaning of mean,ASK: What does mean mean in each of the following sentences? (1) What does tall mean? (2) A nod means agreement. (3) I know the place you mean. (4) Your presence would mean a lot to me. (5) I am sorry. I didnt
3、 mean to be late. (6) The boy wasnt meant to be there.,(1)What does tall mean? (signify) (2)A nod means agreement. (indicate) (3)I know the place you mean. (refer to) (4)Your presence would mean a lot to me. (matter) (5)I am sorry. I didnt mean to be late. (intend) (6)The boy wasnt meant to be there
4、. (supposed to) More: (7)He was meant to become a journalist rather than a lawyer. (destined) (8)He doesnt know the meaning of the word fear. (sense) (9)If thats the case, his sacrifice no longer has any meaning. (significance),Approaches to the study of meaning,traditional approach structuralist ap
5、proach functional approach pragmatic approach cognitive approach,Traditional approach,A. Naming/labeling vs. convention “moon”,PP. 111-112 No. 10,Presentation Session,The naming of people in English,Structuralist approach,Treats meaning as semantic structures formed by semantic components/ semantic
6、features - componential analysis (语义成分分析）.,Componential analysis,CA is a process that breaks down the meaning of a word into its minimal distinctive features or properties (semantic components /features) using feature symbols (metalanguage 元语言). woman-+HUMAN MALE +ADULT boy-+HUMAN +MALE ADULT girl-
7、+HUMAN - MALE -ADULT,Functional approach,Geoffrey Leech (1983), Semantics. Treats meaning with reference to its function in context, to show how linguistic, situational and social contexts affects the meaning of language.,Seven types of meaning -conceptual meaning: logical, cognitive, denotative con
8、tent -associative meanings: connotative meaning social/stylistic meaning affective meaning reflected meaning collocative meaning -thematic meaning,a. Conceptual meaning (概念意义),The conceptual or denotative meaning of a linguistic form is the person, object, abstract notion, event or state which the w
9、ord or sentence denotes. e.g. school, hospital,b. Connotative meaning,Definition: it is the communicative value/subjective interpretation attached to its purely conceptual meaning. e.g.: The man is a fox. statesman, politician,Characteristics,Connotations are relatively unstable. They vary considera
10、bly according to society, historical period, and the experience of the individual. The connotative meaning can be the same /different in different languages or cultures. e.g.: fox, machine BUT: dragon, dog, elephant (White Elephant),ASK: What does white elephant mean in English?,A B C Positive conno
11、tation Neutral Negative connotation stout fat corpulent investigator detective spy decease die pegged out slim thin skinny strong-minded firm pig-headed public servant government employee bureaucrat,Connotation:,c. Social/stylistic meaning,It refers to what language conveys about the social circumst
12、ances of its use. It relates to peoples recognition of different dimensions and levels of style with the same language.,（社会/文体意义）,steed (poetic) residence (formal) horse (general) abode (poetic) nag (slang) home (general) gee-gee (baby language) domicile (very formal, official) throw (general) tiny
13、(colloquial) chuck (casual, slang) diminutive (very formal) cast (literal,biblical) wee (colloquial,dialectal),d. Affective meaning,It has to do with the personal feelings of the speaker, including his attitude to the listener, or his attitude to something he is talking about. Its often explicitly c
14、onveyed through conceptual or connotative content of the words used.,（情感意义）,“Youre a vicious tyrant and villain and I hate you!” I am terribly sorry to interrupt, but I wonder if you would be so kind as to lower your voices a little. Shut up! Keep your mouth shut!,e. Reflected meaning,Reflected mean
15、ing: the meaning which arises in cases of multiple conceptual meaning, when one sense of a word is so strong that it forms part of our response to another sense. Example: words having a taboo meaning, such as gay, intercourse,（反映意义）,f. Collocative meaning,It refers to the associations a word acquire
16、s on account of its mutual expectancy with some other words which tend to occur in its environment. Example: pretty and handsome pretty girl, boy, woman, flower, etc. handsome boy, man, car, vessel, etc. cows may wander, but may not stroll. one trembles with fear, but quiver with excitement.,（搭配意义）,
17、g. Thematic Meaning,It refers to what is communicated by the way in which a speaker or writer organizes the message, in terms of ordering, focus, and emphasis. e.g.: (1) He is familiar to me. (2) Im familiar with him.,（主位意义）,a. A man is waiting in the hall. b. Theres a man waiting in the hall. a. My
18、 brother owns the largest betting-shop in London. b. The largest betting-shop in London belongs to my brother. a. What I need is a ticket. b. A ticket is what I need.,Pragmatic approach,Treat meaning as what is communicated through language, taking into account the context, language user, communicat
19、ive conventions and principles, etc.,Im in a bath.,Son: The phone is ringing,Dad, the phone is ringing!,ASK: What does the father mean?,Cognitive approach,Meaning extensions of words seen as metaphorical or metonymic processes. To be detailed in next lecture,7.2 Semantic properties,Words are seen as
20、 composed of universal semantic properties or features. P. 105 Discuss PP. 107-108 No. 2,7.3 Semantic relations,A. Synonymy B. Antonymy C. Hyponymy （上下义关系） D. Meronymy (部分-整体关系）,Synonymy,Absolute synonymy: same in meaning; grammatically/stylistically/ contextually substitutable Synonymy in a loose s
21、ense: buy-purchase fall-autumn wide-broad handsome-pretty reach-arrive at/in mature-ripe influence-effect /affect,Antonymy,a. gradable opposites b. complementary opposites c. relational opposites,a. Gradable opposites,tall-short long-short old-young -allow of intermediate states -take -er/-est -one
22、in unmarked use How tall/old is he? Hes three months old. -relative/fuzzy a big mouse, a small elephant a big pearl/ball/house/mountain/country,Discuss,PP. 109-110 No. 5,b. Complementary opposites,alive-dead male-female boy-girl present-absent true-false hit-miss,c. Relational/converse opposites,buy
23、-sell lend-borrow parent-child teacher-student above-below before-after,Hyponymy （上下义关系）,Hyponymy is a relation of inclusion. A hyponym or a specific word includes the meaning of a more general word e.g. dog and cat are hyponyms of animal,Superordinates, hyponyms, co-hyponyms,Living Things,Plant,Cre
24、ature,Insect,Vegetable,Flower,Tree,Horse,Dog,Snake,（上义词）,（下义词）,（同属下义词）,Meronymy （部分-整体关系）,Meronymy is part-whole relationship between lexical items. e.g. a “finger“ is a part of a “hand“, a “hand“ is a part of an “arm“, an “arm“ is a part of a “body“. Linguistics call the part-whole relation meronym
25、y, from “meros“ (part) + “nym“ (name). Therefore, “finger“ is a meronym of “hand“, “hand“ is a meronym of “arm“, “arm“ is a meronym of “body“.,Discuss PP. 108-109 No. 3,Homonymy, homophony, homography and polysemy,homonymy （同形同音异义）: I drove to the bank this morning. homophony（同音异义）: flour-flower swe
26、et-suite waist-waste meet-meat Homography（同形异音异义）: lead(铅）lead（引导） wind （风）wind (蜿蜒） Polysemy （多义性）: operation “（外科）手术”、“（机器） 操作”、“（商）经营”、“（复）军事演习、作战”、“（数）运算” 打 电话/饭/字/人/火/听/灯/水/草/盹/颤, etc.,Practice,What is the semantic relation between the following pairs of words? (a) shallow/ deep (b) mature/ rip
27、e (c) table/furniture (d) single/married (e) move/run (f) parent/child (g) school-college (h) body-belly,Semiotic triangle (Ogden and Richards 1923),Symbol/Word Referent/Object/Thing,Reference/Thought/Concept,Stand for,Refer to,Symbolize,7.4 Sense and reference,Sense 意义: abstract conceptual property
28、/content Reference 所指: concrete entity A word may have sense but no reference, like but, to. ASK: Do we have other words that have sense but not reference?,the man who married my sister the man who is my brother-in-law The Morning Star is the Evening Star The Morning Star is the Morning Star. Whats
29、the difference?,Assignments,P. 107 No. 1 P. 113 No. 1 P. 115 No. 8, 9,Lecture 8,The meaning of English (II),What do “sense” and “reference” mean respectively? Use an example to illustrate.,Review:,Major contents,8.1 Semantic categorization 8.2 Semantic extension 8.3 Sentence semantics 8.4 Semantic r
30、oles,8.1 Semantic categorization,The notion of “prototype” P. 133 No. 2,8.2 Semantic extension,1. Metaphor foot/脚：foot of the hill 山脚；the foot of the bed 床脚 head/头：核弹头nuclear head；头条新闻；headline,Some metaphors,Conceptual metaphors: win an argument; indefensible arguments PP. 127-128 No. 2, 3 Orientat
31、ional metaphors: P. 128 No. 4,Metonymy （转喻）,one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated. e.g. Washington for the United States government; the sword for military power; olive branch for peace (Arafat: a gun in one hand and an olive branch in the other) I like to
32、 read Jack London. Hes going to meet his Waterloo.,Presentation Session,Metonymy in English PP. 130-131 No. 8,Synecdoche (提喻）,a part is used for the whole (as hand for labor), the whole for a part (as the law for police officer), the specific for the general (as cutthroat for assassin), the general
33、for the specific (as thief for pickpocket), the container for the contained (as bottle for wine), or the material for the thing from which it is made (as Cotton suits you). 一帆风顺；贪杯 I met a couple of new faces yesterday. representational metaphor what else?,A. Radiation （辐射） An important process by w
34、hich words extend their meaning is called radiation. The primary or central meaning appears at the centre in the form of a hub and secondary meanings radiate out from the centre like the spokes of a wheel. Each of the secondary meanings is independent of all the rest, and may be traced back to the c
35、entral signification. Take power for example. Its central meaning is ability to act. It may refer to (1) control over ones subordinates; (2) delegated authority; (3) physical strength; (4) mechanical energy; (5) moral or intellectual force; (6) a person of influence; etc.,B. Concatenation （串联）,Anoth
36、er process, as opposed to radiation, is called concatenation. It means that a word moves gradually away from its original sense as a result of successive semantic changes until, in many cases, there is not a trace of connection between the sense that is finally developed and the primary sense. For e
37、xample, candidate originally meant a person dressed in white. Then, a white-robed seeker for the office, now an applicant for office, which is no longer related to the original idea.,8.3 Sentence semantics,John loves Mary. /Mary loves John. The meaning of a sentence is not the sum of the meanings of
38、 the words that make up the sentence. lexical meaning vs. grammatical/structural meaning,Meaning and truth of a sentence,Truth conditions,Relations between sentences,A. Entailment (蕴涵） B. Presupposition （前提，预设） C. Inconsistency （矛盾） D. Synonymy （同义） E. Implicature （隐含，含意）,A. Entailment,(X) She saw a
39、 girl. (Y) She saw a child. (X) He is in love. (Y) He has a girlfriend. When we say X entails B, we mean: If X is true, Y must be true. (because “a girl” entails “a child”) If X is false (e.g. She saw a teacher/boy), Y may be true or false. If Y is true, X may be true (e.g. a girl) and false (e.g. a
40、 boy). If Y is false (e.g. a teacher), X must be false.,B. Presupposition,(X) Jacks wife fell ill. (Y) Jack had a wife. (X) I lost 1 million pounds. (Y) I once had 1 million pounds. (X) I opened the door. (Y) The door was shut. When we say X presupposes Y, we mean: If X is true, Y is also true. If X
41、 is to be true, Y must be true; If X is false (e.g. Jacks wife went to work), Y can still be true; If Y is false (i.e. Jack had no wife), X must be false.,C. Inconsistency,(X) Jack is in town. (Y) He is away on business. (X) Tom is married to Mary. (Y) He is a bachelor. (X) John passed the exam. (Y)
42、 He was failed by the teacher. When we say X is inconsistent with Y, we mean: Either X is true or Y is true. Either X is false or Y is false. X and Y cannot be true or false at the same time.,D. Synonymy,(X) Jack is still single. (Y) He is a bachelor. (X) The boy killed the dog. (Y) The dog was kill
43、ed by the boy. (X) Jack sits on the left of Tom. (Y) Tom sits on the right of Jack. When we say X is synonymous with Y, we mean: When X is true, Y must be true. When X is false, Y must be false. X and Y share the same truth conditions. (真值条件）,E. Implicature,X: I cut a finger when I was preparing the
44、 dish. Y: I cut one of my finger. X: Jack dated a woman last night. Y: Jack dated a woman who was neither his sister nor his mother. A: Are you coming to the lecture this afternoon? (X) B: Im not feeling well. Y: Im not going to the lecture this afternoon. What can we say about the relation between
45、X and Y?,Meaningfulness and semantic ill-formedness,A. Redundancy （冗余，羡余） B. Tautology (同义反复） C. Semantic anomaly （语义畸形）,A. Redundancy,It refers to the situation in which an utterance contains more information than is necessary for successful communication. e.g. She is a student. les jaunes tudiente
46、s la grande salle She is a female student. He is a single bachelor. He repeated the sentence again.,B. Tautology It refers to the situation where the information contained in an argument （题元）includes the information contained in the rest of the predication （述谓结构）. Tautology: A meaningless repetition
47、 (Wardhaugh) *The male is male. *This orphan has no father. Boys are boys. P. 131 No. 9,C. Semantic anomaly It refers to the situation where one of the arguments or the predicate (谓词） is self-contradictory， or the information contained in an argument of a predication is incompatible with the informa
48、tion contained in the predicate: *This programme is for the music lovers who dislike music. *That man is female.,Other examples: *This orphan has a father. *My bother is an only child. *The orphans father drinks heavily. *That bachelor is pregnant. *John frightened a tree. *Honesty plays golf.,8.4 Semantic roles,Common roles PP. 125-126 Discuss P. 129 No. 6,a. Agent A as subject： The FBI was tapping the telephones. b. Da