Semantics
Semantics is the study of meaning in language. We know that language is used to express meanings that can be understood by others. But meanings exist in our minds and we can express what is in our minds through the spoken and written forms of language as well as through gestures, action, etc. The sound patterns of language are studied at the level of phonology and the organization of words and sentences is studied at the level of morphology and syntax. These are in turn organized in such a way that we can convey meaningful messages or receive and understand messages.
Semantics is that level of linguistic analysis where meaning is analyzed. It is the most abstract level of linguistic analysis since we cannot see or observe meaning as we can observe and record sounds.
We can discuss the different aspects of the meaning of a word as follows:
The logical or denotative meaning
This is the literal meaning of a word indicating the idea or concept to which it refers.
The connotative meaning
This is the additional meaning that a concept carries. That is apart from its logical or essential attributes, there is a further meaning attached to a word, which comes from its reference to other things in the real world.
The social meaning
This is the meaning that a word or a phrase conveys about the circumstances of its use. That is the meaning of a word is understood according to the different styles and situations in which the word is used. Social meaning derives from an awareness of the style in which something is written and spoken and of the relationship between the speaker and hearer- whether that relationship is formal, official, casual, polite, or friendly.
Thematic meaning
This is the meaning which is communicated by how a speaker or writer organizes the message in terms of the order, focus and emphasis. It is often felt, for example, that an active sentence has a different meaning from its passive equivalent although its conceptual meaning seems to be the same.
Distinctions in Semantics
Lexical and Phrasal Semantics
Lexical semantics is concerned with the meanings of words and the meaning of relationships among words, while phrasal semantics is concerned with the meaning of syntactic units larger than the word. Semantic properties are the components of the meanings of words. For example, the semantic property "human" can be found in many words such as a parent, doctor, baby, professor, widow, and aunt. Other semantic properties include animate objects, male, female, countable items, and non-countable items.
Sense and Reference
The -nyms
Homonyms: different words that are pronounced the same, but may or may not be spelled the same (to, two, and too)
Polysemous: the word that has multiple meanings that are related conceptually or historically (bear can mean to tolerate or to carry or to support)
Homograph: different words that are spelled identically and possibly pronounced the same; if they are pronounced the same, they are also homonyms (pen can mean writing utensil or cage)
Heteronym: homographs that are pronounced differently (dove the bird and dove the past tense of dive)
Synonym: words that mean the same but sound different (couch and sofa)
Antonym: words that are opposite in meaning
Complementary pairs: alive and dead
Gradable pairs: big and small (no absolute scale)
Hyponym: a set of related words (red, white, yellow, blue are all hyponyms of "color")
Metonym: a word used in place of another to convey the same meaning (jock used for athlete, Washington used for the American government, the crown used for the monarchy)
Retronym: expressions that are no longer redundant (silent movies used to be redundant because a long time ago, all movies were silent, but this is no longer true or redundant)
Thematic Roles
Thematic roles are the semantic relationships between the verbs and noun phrases of sentences.
Thematic Role: Agent
Description: the one who performs an action
Example: Maria ran
Sentential Meaning
The meaning of sentences is built from the meaning of noun phrases and verbs. Sentences contain truth conditions if the circumstances in the sentence are true. Paraphrases are two sentences with the same truth conditions, despite subtle differences in structure and emphasis. The ball was kicked by the boy is a paraphrase of the sentence the boy kicked the ball, but they have the same truth conditions - that a boy kicked a ball. Sometimes the truth of one sentence entails or implies the truth of another sentence. This is called entailment and the opposite of this is called contradiction, where one sentence implies the falseness of another. He was assassinated entails that he is dead. He was assassinated contradicts the statement he is alive. A sentence may presuppose other sentences, eg: the sentence ‘Shiva’s son is named Ganesh’ presupposes the sentence ‘Shiva has a son’. PresuppositionThe presupposition is the previously known meaning which is implied in the sentence. While entailment is a logical meaning inherent in the sentence, presupposition may depend on the knowledge of facts, shared by the speaker and the hearer.
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