SEMANTICS
2) Semantics is a sub discipline of
linguistics which focuses on the study of meaning. Semantics tries to
understand what meaning is as an element of language and how it is constructed
by language as well as interpreted, obscured and negotiated by speakers and
listeners of language.
Semantics is the study of
meaning, but what do we mean by 'meaning'?
Meaning = Connotation?
Is meaning simply the set of
associations that a word evokes, is the meaning of a word defined by the images
that its users connect to it?
So 'winter' might mean 'snow',
'sledging' and 'mulled wine'. But what about someone lives in the amazon? Their
'winter' is still wet and hot, so its original meaning is lost. Because the
associations of a word don't always apply, it was decided that this couldn't be
the whole story.
Meaning = Denotation?
It has also been suggested that
the meaning of a word is simply the entity in the World which that word refers
to. This makes perfect sense for proper nouns like 'New York' and 'the Eiffel
Tower', but there are lots of words like 'sing' and 'altruism' that don't have
a solid thing in the world that they are connected to. So meaning cannot be
entirely denotation either.
Meaning = Extension and Intention
So meaning, in semantics, is
defined as being Extension: The thing in the world that the word/phrase refers
to, plus Intention: The concepts/mental images that the word/phrase evokes.
3) Semantics is the study of meaning. It is a wide
subject within the general study of language. An understanding of semantics is
essential to the study of language acquisition (how language users acquire a
sense of meaning, as speakers and writers, listeners and readers) and of
language change (how meanings alter over time).
Some important areas of semantic theory or related
subjects include these:
Symbol and referent
These terms may clarify the subject. A symbol is
something which we use to represent another thing - it might be a picture, a
letter, a spoken or written word - anything we use conventionally for the
purpose. The thing that the symbol identifies is the referent.
Conceptions of
meaning
Words “name” or “refer to” things. It works well
for proper nouns like London, Everton FC and Ford Fiesta. It is less clear when
applied to abstractions, to verbs and to adjectives - indeed wherever there is
no immediately existing referent (thing) in the physical world, to correspond
to the symbol (word).
Words and
lexemes
As a lexical unit may contain more than one word,
David Crystal has coined the term lexeme. This is usually a single word, but
may be a phrase in which the meaning belongs to the whole rather than its
parts, as in verb phrases tune in, turn on, drop out or noun phrase (a) cock
up.
Denotation
This is the core or central
meaning of a word or lexeme, as far as it can be described in a dictionary. It
is therefore sometimes known as the cognitive or referential meaning.
Connotation
Theories of denotation and
connotation are themselves subject to problems of definition. Connotation is
connected with psychology and culture, as it means the personal or emotional
associations aroused by words.
Implication
This is meaning which a speaker
or writer intends but does not communicate directly. Where a listener is able
to deduce or infer the intended meaning from what has been uttered, this is
known as (conversational) implicature. David Crystal gives this example:
Utterance:
“A bus!” → Implicature (implicit meaning): “We must run.”
Pragmatics
According to Professor Crystal,
pragmatics is not a coherent field of study. It refers to the study of those
factors which govern our choices of language - such as our social awareness,
our culture and our sense of etiquette.
Ambiguity
Ambiguity occurs when a language
element has more than one meaning. If the ambiguity is in a single word it is
lexical ambiguity.
Metaphor,
simile and symbol
Metaphors are well known as a
stylistic feature of literature, but in fact are found in almost all language
use, other than simple explanations of physical events in the material world.
Semantic
fields
In studying the lexicon of
English (or any language) we may group together lexemes which inter-relate, in
the sense that we need them to define or describe each other.
Synonym,
antonym and hyponym
Synonym and antonym are forms of
Greek nouns which mean, respectively, “same name” and “opposed (or different)
name”. We may find synonyms which have an identical reference meaning, but
since they have differing connotations, they can never be truly synonymous.
Collocation,
fixed expression and idiom
Some words are most commonly
found paired with other words, to create a semantic unit or lexeme. Thus false
is often found together with passport, teeth or promise. These pairs are known
as collocations.
Semantic
change and etymology
Over time lexemes may change their
meaning. This kind of change is semantic change. Perhaps a connotation will
take the place of the original denotation.
Polysemy
Polysemy (or polysemia) is an
intimidating compound noun for a basic language feature.
Epistemology
This is the traditional name for
the division of philosophy otherwise known as theory of knowledge. Epistemology
underlies semantics in a fundamental way.
4) The brain mechanisms of semantic
comprehension of a word were comparatively studied in three experimental
conditions: simple perception of the nuclear value of a word-homonym determined
by the preceding context, perception of its circumferential value, and during
active semantic analysis of these values. It was shown that the amplitude of
the evoked potential component was correlated with complexity of the semantic
analysis. A decrease in this amplitude under conditions of complication of
semantic problem was associated with an increase in the activities of the
caudate nucleus and hippocampus and a parallel slight decrease in the activity
of cortical areas.
The study of how words are built
up and how they change according to their use in sentences. With syntax it
forms the grammar of the language. This can be shown in the following sentence:
Bharati’s words gave him an idea.
Morphology tells us, for example,
that the plural of the noun word is formed by adding the letter ‘s’, and that
the verb give is irregular and its past tense is gave. Syntax tells us that the
sentence is simple and is made up of a subject, verb, indirect object, and
direct object.
6) Semantics
of Linguistics
Semantics looks at these
relationships in language and looks at how these meanings are created, which is
an important part of understanding how language works as a whole. Understanding
how meaning occurs in language can inform other sub disciplines such as
Language acquisition, to help us to understand how speakers acquire a sense of meaning,
and Sociolinguistics, as the achievement of meaning in language is important in
language in a social situation.
Semantics is also informed by
other sub disciplines of linguistics, such as Morphology, as understanding the
words themselves is integral to the study of their meaning, and Syntax, which
researchers in semantics use extensively to reveal how meaning is created in
language, as how language is structured is central to meaning.
7) CONCEPT
In metaphysics, and especially
ontology, a concept is a fundamental category of existence. In contemporary
philosophy, there are at least three prevailing ways to understand what a
concept
REFERENT
A referent is the concrete object
or concept that is designated by a word or expression. A referent is an object,
action, state, relationship, or attribute in the referential realm.
GRAMMATICAL
MEANING
In linguistics, grammar is the
set of structural rules that governs the composition of clauses, phrases and
words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such
rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often
complemented by phonetics, semantics, and pragmatics. Linguists do not normally
use the term to refer to orthographical rules, although usage books and style
guides that call themselves grammars may also refer to spelling and
punctuation.
LEXICAL
MEANING
(Linguistics) the meaning of a
word in relation to the physical world or to abstract concepts, without
reference to any sentence in which the word may occur Compare
CONNOTATIVE
Is meaning simply the set of
associations that a word evokes, is the meaning of a word defined by the images
that its users connect to it?
So 'winter' might mean 'snow',
'sledging' and 'mulled wine'. But what about someone living in the amazon?
Their 'winter' is still wet and hot, so its original meaning is lost. Because
the associations of a word don't always apply, it was decided that this
couldn't be the whole story.
DENOTATIVE
It has also been suggested that
the meaning of a word is simply the entity in the World which that word refers
to. This makes perfect sense for proper nouns like 'New York' and 'the Eiffel
Tower', but there are lots of words like 'sing' and 'altruism' that don't have
a solid thing in the world that they are connected to. So meaning cannot be
entirely denotation either.
METAPHOR
A metaphor is an imaginative way
of describing something by referring to something else which is the same in a
particular way. For example, if you want to say that someone is very shy and
frightened of things, you might say that they are a mouse.
POLYSEMY
Is a word or phrase with
different, but related senses. Since the test for polysemy is the vague concept
of relatedness, judgments of polysemy can be difficult to make. Because
applying pre-existing words to new situations is a natural process of language
change, looking at words' etymology is helpful in determining polysemy but not
the only solution; as words become lost in etymology, what once was a useful
distinction of meaning may no longer be so.
CONTEXT
The part of a text or statement
that surrounds a particular word or passage and determines its meaning.
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