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semantics

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Manuel Morales
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Semantics

By David Crystal (2010)

Semantics is the study of meaning in language. The term did not come to be widely used until
th
the 20 century, but the subject it represents is very old, reaching back to the writings of Plato and
Aristotle, and attracting the special interest of philosophers, logicians and linguists.
In modern linguistics, meaning is studied by making detailed analyses of the way words and sentences
are used in specific contexts. It is an approach shared by several philosophers and psychologists.
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889- 1951), in particular, stressed its importance in his dictum: “the meaning of a
word is its use in the language.”

Lexical Semantics
Types of meaning words can have:
1. Referent- the actual concrete item that the word refers to
Referential meaning- describes the referent, an action or state of being
2. Denotation- the dictionary meaning of a word or morpheme
Connotation- the shade of meaning for a word or morpheme

Semantic Fields
One way of imposing some order on vocabulary is to organize it into “fields” of meaning. Within
each field, the lexemes interrelate, and define each other in specific ways. For example, the various
lexemes for “parts of the body” (head, neck, shoulder, etc) form a semantic field, as do the different
lexemes for “vehicles”, “fruits”, “tools” or “color”.

Semantic Components
A further way to study lexical meaning is by analyzing lexemes into a series of semantic features,
or components. “Man” for example, could be analysed as “adult”, “human” and “male”. The approach
was originally devised by anthropologists as a means of comparing vocabulary from different cultures,
and it has been developed by semanticists as a general framework for the analysis of meaning.

Example:
Man (adult, male) woman (adult, female)
Boy (non- adult, male) girl (non- adult, female)

Male female Non- adult


Bull cow calf
Ram ewe lamb
Boar sow piglet

In componential analysis, contrasts are usually presented in terms of + or -, and often drawn in a matrix.

Example:

Bull ram boar cow ewe sow calf lamb piglet


Male + + + - - - +- +- +-
Female - - - + + + +- +- +-
The analyses become more interesting, as the lexemes become more complex. Here, for
instance, is a possible matrix for some human motion verbs:

Natural hurried forward one foot always on ground


Walk + - + +
March - + + +
Run - + + -
Limp - - + +

Sentence Meaning
The study of meaning takes us by degrees through the whole of a language, and it proves
difficult to draw a neat line around the semantic component of any linguistic framework.

1. Prosodic meaning- the way a sentence is said, using the prosody of the language can radically alter
the meaning
Ex.: John bought a red CAR (not a red bicycle).
John bought a RED car (not a green one).
JOHN bought a red car (not Michael).

2. Grammatical meaning- the categories that are established by grammatical analysis can also be
analysed from a semantic point of view.
Ex.: Jon read a book yesterday. (subject + verb + object + adverbial)

3. Pragmatic meaning- the function performed by the sentence in a discourse needs to be considered
Ex.: “There’s some chalk on the floor.”
(be interpreted as “Clean the floor.” Or “Have you seen any chalk?”)

4. Social meaning- the choice of a sentence may directly affect the social relationships between the
participants. We may convey such impressions as politeness, rudeness, competence, or distance and
this will affect our status and role within a community.

Sense Relationships
1. Synonymy- This is the relationship of “sameness” of meaning
Ex.: kingly/ royal/regal
• Pavements/ sidewalk
• Youth/ youngster

2. Hyponymy- Less familiar relationship refers to the notion of “inclusion”


• Ex: rose is a hyponym of flower, car of vehicle

3. Antonymy- this is the relationship of “opposite of meaning”


Ex.: single/ married; buy/ sell; very big/ quite small

4. Polysemy- refers to cases where a lexeme has more than one meaning
Ex.: chip (piece of wood, food, electronic circuit)

5. Homonymy- refers to cases where two (or more) different lexemes have the same shape
Ex.: bank (both a building and an area of ground)

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