1.2 Semantics - Linguistics

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1.

2 SEMANTICS
& LINGUISTICS
Semantics
SEMANTICS andLINGUISTICS
AND Linguistics
• Almost all linguists have, explicitly or implicitly, accepted a linguistic model in
which semantics is at one 'end' and phonetics at the other, with grammar
somewhere in the middle.
Semantics -- grammar -- phonetics
• Language can be viewed as a communication system that relates something to be
communicated with something that communicates, a message on the one hand with
a set of signs or symbols on the other.
• The Swiss linguist, Ferdinand de Saussure /sɔːˈsʊər/ or /səʊˈsʊər/, referred to
these as:
The SIGNIFIER (signifiant) and the SIGNIFIED (signifie).
Semantics
SEMANTICS andLINGUISTICS
AND Linguistics
Saussure used the term SIGN to refer to the association of these two, but some of his
more recent followers have, more reasonably, used it for the signifier alone.)
Communication Cycle

Sender Message Channel Receiver

Feedback
For Communication, we need
A Communication
Language
System

Something
Message
to communicate

Something to
Signs or symbols
communicate with
SEMANTICS AND LINGUISTICS
• Different communication systems:
1. Human C.S. 2. Mechanical C.S. 3. Animal C.S.
• Language as a System of Communication - differs from other communication
systems.
• Examples are:

Traffic lights Human C.S. Animal C.S.


Semantics
SEMANTICS andLINGUISTICS
AND Linguistics
Reservations on Language Versus Other Communication:
• First, language does not always have a 'message’
• Secondly, Complexity of “signifiers and the “signified” in language. Complexity of the
relation between them.
• Thirdly difficulty (impossibility), of specifying precisely what the message is.

Problems in Defining Semantics:


• Linguistics is the ‘scientific’ study of language – Scientific study is empirical
• We can empirically study phonetics or grammar
But ‘Is semantics “scientific”?’
• one essential requirement of a scientific study is that statements made within it must, in
principle at least, be verifiable by observation.
Semantics
SEMANTICS andLINGUISTICS
AND Linguistics
 Another Difficulty with SEMANTICS – Meanings do not seem to be stable as they depend on a
number of aspects that include: speakers, hearers and context
 Ferdinand de Saussure: Made the distinction between
Noam Chomsky Made the distinction between:

Unconscious
knowledge of Actual production
possible and comprehension
grammatical of language in
structures in an specific instances of
idealized speaker language use

Competence Performance
What are they all concerned about?
They are all concerned essentially to exclude what is purely individual and
accidental (speaking or performance), and to insist that the proper study
of linguistics is language or competence.

How does Palmer differ from de Saussure and Chomsky?

 For de Saussure and Chomsky:


Language or competence is some kind of idealised system
without any clear empirical basis
 Palmer prefers to think in terms of generalisations
Recall Lewis Carroll once again (Through the Looking-Glass):
Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone,
'When I use a word, it means what I choose it to mean -
neither more nor less'.
• Semantics is not normally concerned with the meaning any individual wishes to place on
his words.
• An individual's meaning is not part of the general study of semantics.
• However, it is interesting or important for some purposes to see how and why an
individual diverges from the normal pattern.

 For example:
(1) Literature
(2) Psychiatric Studies.
Types of Meanings:

• Usual Meanings  Semantics -- meaning


• Contextual Meanings  Pragmatics -- Use
• Lyon (1977) distinguishes two types of meanings:
a. SENTENCE MEANING
&
a. UTTERANCE MEANING

`There is a book on the table' [sentence]


and
‘There is a book on the table.’ [Utterance]
UTTERANCE Meaning:
• An UTTERANCE is an event in time — it is produced by someone and at some particular
time.
• It includes all the secondary aspects of meaning, especially contextual aspects of meaning.
Whereas,
SENTENCE Meaning:
• A SENTENCE is an abstract entity that has no existence in time, but is part of the linguistic
system of a language.
• It refers to the grammatical and lexical choices

Semantics is not concerned with the meaning of utterances.


It is concerned with the meaning of sentences

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