Transcript Semantics (pps)

Semantics
Meaning in Language
Asian 401
Semantics
 The study of the systematic ways in
which languages structure meaning,
especially in words and sentences.
 Not an easy field; the analysis of
meaning is extremely difficult and
messy
Logical Semantics
 It seems simple: words have meanings;
syntax combines the meanings in
systematic ways.
 If we know the meanings of the words
and the rules of the syntax, we know
the meaning of the sentence:
Professor Handel teaches linguistics.
Complications
 Much of what we say is not simply the
assertion of truthful statements about
the world.
 Many things we say are ambiguous or
have indirect or multiple meanings.
 Ambiguity: I saw her duck. How do we
know which meaning is intended?
Literal vs. Social Meaning
 Two friends meet. One says:
 “I really like your dress.”
 “That’s an ugly hair style you’ve got.”
 “You are very tall.”
 All three statements are true. Why say
the first but not the other two?
Literal vs. Communicative
Meaning
 Wife (sitting in living room): “Don’t
you think it’s cold in here?”
 Husband: “Yes.”
 Why is this an odd conversation?
 Because: The wife is making a request,
not asking a question.
 Husband: “I’ll turn up the heat.”
Logical Semantics
 What is the truth value of sentences?
How can it be determined from its
words and syntax?
 Entailment
 Contradiction
 “The current king of France is tall.”
Pragmatics
 The study of how context, attitude,
belief, intention, etc. inform linguistic
meaning.
 How do utterances contribute to
conversations and social relations?
 Sentences can signal intentions to be a
good conversational partner, to be
friendly, to be cooperative, etc.
Pragmatics
 When learning another language,
pragmatics can be harder to master
than semantics.
 “Why do people in China keep asking
me if I’ve eaten yet?”
 “Why does my Japanese friend always
mention the weather in his letters?”
 Politeness not related to semantics
How do Languages Encode
Meaning?
 Are linguistic concepts encoded in
words, in syntactic structures, in
intonation?
 How do languages differ?
 (Intonation: “Pinkie’s Tailor Shop”
joke.)
Today’s lecture
 Two examples of semantics:
 Lexical Semantics
 Metaphor
Lexical Semantics
 Lexeme = word
 Lexical = related to words
 Lexical semantics is the study of how
meaning is encoded in words (as
opposed to other linguistics structures
like syntax or intonation.)
Lexicalization
 As far as we know, all languages are
capable of expressing all ideas.
 Languages differ in which meaning
elements are encoded into words, and
which are expressed with phrases.
 When something is encoded in a word,
we say that it is lexicalized.
Example: Motion Verbs
 These meaning elements are relevant
to motion:
What is moving (the object)
How it is moving (the manner)
Where it is moving (the path)
 Motion in the real world always
involves all three aspects.
Lexicalization of Motion
Aspects
 Example: A rock rolls down the hill.
 Which of these three aspects are
lexicalized in different languages?
 In other words, which are encoded in
the meaning of the motion verb, and
which are expressed in other ways?
English: Motion Verbs encode
Manner
 walk; run; climb; crawl; slither; roll;
limp; slide; wriggle
 These verbs indicate the manner of
movement, but not the path or object.
 “I was crawling” says nothing about
path of motion. The sentence subject
(not the verb) tells us what is moving.
English: Motion Verbs encode
Manner
 To express path in English, we must
add a preposition to the motion verb:
Walk up the stairs
Run down the mountain
Climb over the rocks
Slide into the empty seat
 To express what is moving, we use a
sentence subject.
Romance: Motion Verbs
encode Path
 Spanish: bajar ‘move down’, subir
‘move up’, cruzar ‘move across’, salir
‘move out’
 These verbs say nothing about manner.
Describing manner requires the
addition of an adverb, like “rolling”,
“crawling”, etc.
 French, Italian, etc. are the same
Atsugewi: Motion Verbs
encode Object Type
 From our textbook, it appears that
Atsugewi motion verbs encode the
object but not the manner or path
 Lup ‘a small, shiny spherical object
moves’
 Swal ‘a limp, linear object suspended
at one end moves’
Chinese
 Two classes of motion verb:
 Class 1 encodes manner: tsow™¡¢
‘walk’, pæaw™¡¢ ‘run’, tæjaw51
‘jump’, pæa35 ‘climb’
 Class 2 encodes path: tʃin51 ‘move in’,
t®æu55 ‘move out’, kwø51 ‘move
across’, ®å≥51 ‘move up’
Chinese
 To express both manner and path, you
create a compound verb composed of
one verb from each class:
 tsow™¡tʃin51 ‘walk in’, pæaw™¡kwø51
‘run across’, tæjaw51t®æu55 ‘jump out’,
pæa35®å≥51 ‘climb up’
Metaphor
 Using a word with a literal meaning for
a second meaning that shares some
common characteristics with the first
meaning.
 We often think of metaphor as a device
in poetry or other literary genres
(“rosy-fingered dawn”). In fact our
everyday language is full of metaphors.
Metaphor: Examples
 We were in the eye of the storm.
 The dollar is falling sharply.
 The pupil breezed through the SATs.
 When his dog died, it broke his heart.
 The guitarist is really on fire tonight!
 He has a high voice.
 The computers are down.
Metaphors
 Metaphors allow us to be creative and
vivid in our use of language.
 There are universal patterns of
metaphor use found in all languages.
 But in many cases different languages
use different metaphorical systems.
Example 1: TIME is a
PRECIOUS RESOURCE
 This will save me lots of time!
 You’re wasting time.
 I’ll buy some time.
 Don’t spend so much time; it’s not
worth it.
 (Not all languages talk about time this
way!)
Example 2: LOVE is a
JOURNEY
 Our relationship just isn’t going
anywhere.
 It looks like Bill and Ann have hit a
dead end.
 I really like you, but I think we need to
slow down.
 (Can you think of other examples?)
Example 3: HEART is the seat
of emotions
 His heart isn’t in it.
 He’s got a big heart.
 The king’s heart was glad.
 Don’t break my heart.
 Chinese: få≥51 ʃin55 ‘release the heart’
= ‘set one’s mind at ease, not worry’
Example 4a: LIVER is the seat
of emotions
 Eastern Cham (Austronesian language
of Southern Vietnam)

pətaːw
on-təpon paʔ hətaːj

king
happy at liver

“The king was overjoyed.”
Example 4b: LIVER/GALL are
seats of emotions
 Mandarin Chinese:




肝膽俱裂
kan55 tan214 tʃy51 ljɛ51
liver gall
all
broken
“to be broken-hearted”
Example 5: TIME as SPACE
 We talk about time (past, present,
future) as locations in space.
 The future is in front, the past is
behind

I wonder what lies ahead?

Don’t look back at the past, look
forward into the future.
Example 5: TIME as SPACE
*Don’t look left at the past, look
right into the future.

*I wonder what’s above on our
schedule for tomorrow.

Example 5: TIME as SPACE
 Chinese: past is ABOVE, future is BELOW
 ®å≥51
 above
 ʃja51
 below
 ®å≥51
 ˚ia51
kɤ51 ʃi≥55tʃæi55
CL week
‘last week’
kɤ51 ʃi≥55t˚æi55
CL week
‘next week’
kɤ51 y‰51
kɤ51 y‰51
‘last month’
‘next month’
Handout Exercise
 Can you identify the mappings (“A is B”,
e.g. “LOVE is a JOURNEY”) that the
metaphorical expressions on your
handout are based on?
End