Meaning Matters

1
Meaning Matters
Semantics is the study of meaning in language and we know that language is used to express
meanings which can be understood by others but meanings exist in our minds and we can
express what is in our minds only through the spoken and written forms of language (as well as
through gestures, action etc.). Phonological, morphological and syntactic processes are organized
in such a way that we can convey meaningful messages or receive and understand messages.
‘How is language organized in order to be meaningful?’ This is the question we ask and attempt
to answer at the level of semantics. 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. Meaning is related very closely to the human
capacity to think logically and to understand. So when we try to analyze meaning, we are trying
to analyze our own capacity to think and understand our own ability to create meaning.
The language under study can be a natural language, such as English or an artificial language,
like a computer programming language. Meaning in natural languages is mainly studied by
linguists. In fact, semantics is one of the main branches of contemporary linguistics. Theoretical
computer scientists and logicians think about artificial languages. In some areas of computer
science, these divisions are crossed. In machine translation, for instance, computer scientists may
want to relate natural language texts to abstract representations of their meanings; to do this, they
have to design artificial languages for representing meanings.
In semantics and pragmatics, meaning is the message conveyed by words, sentences, and

symbols in a context. It is also called lexical meaning or semantic meaning.
The concept of meaning has strong connections with philosophy. Earlier in this century, much
work in semantics was done by philosophers, and some important work is still being done by
philosophers.
Anyone who speaks a language has a truly amazing capacity to reason about the meanings of
texts. Take, for instance, the sentence
(S) I can't untie that knot with one hand.
Even though you have probably never seen this sentence, you can easily see things like the
following:
1. The sentence is about the abilities of whoever spoke or wrote it.

(Call this person the speaker.)
2. It's also about a knot, maybe one that the speaker is pointing at.
3. The sentence denies that the speaker has a certain ability. (This is
the contribution of the word ‘can't’.)
4. Untying is a way of making something not tied.
2
5. The sentence doesn't mean that the knot has one hand; it has to do
with how many hands are used to do the untying.
The meaning of a sentence is not just an unordered heap of the meanings of its words. If that
were true, then ‘Cowboys ride horses’ and ‘Horses ride cowboys’ would mean the same thing.
So we need to think about arrangements of meanings.
This idea that meaningful units combine systematically to form larger meaningful units, and
understanding sentences is a way of working out these combinations, has probably been the most
important theme in contemporary semantics.
Linguists who study semantics look for general rules that bring out the relationship
between form, which is the observed arrangement of words in sentences, and meaning. This is
interesting and challenging, because these relationships are so complex.
To assign meanings to the sentences of a language, you need to know what they are. It is the job
of another area of linguistics, called syntax, to answer this question, by providing rules that show
how sentences and other expressions are built up out of smaller parts, and eventually out of
words. The meaning of a sentence depends not only on the words it contains, but on its syntactic
makeup. Consider this sentence: That can hurt you.
It is ambiguous -- it has two distinct meanings. These correspond to two distinct syntactic

structures. In one structure ‘That’ is the subject and ‘can’ is an auxiliary verb (meaning “able”),
and in the other ‘That can’ is the subject and ‘can’ is a noun (indicating a sort of container).
One of the central issues with semantics is the distinction between literal meaning and figurative
meaning. With literal meaning, we take concepts at face value. For example, if we said, 'Fall
began with the turning of the leaves,' we would mean that the season began to change when the
leaves turned colors. Figurative meaning utilizes similes and metaphors to represent meaning
and convey greater emotion. For example, 'I'm as hungry as a bear' would be a simile and a
comparison to show a great need for sustenance.
We can simplify the problem a little by saying that, whatever meanings are, we are interested
in literal meaning. Semantics studies literal meanings whereas non literal meanings are studied
in pragmatics, an area of linguistics that deals with discourse and contextual effects.

Meaning Matters

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Meaning Matters

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Meaning Matters

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

1

In semantics and pragmatics, meaning is the message conveyed by words, sentences, and

(S) I can't untie that knot with one hand.

1. The sentence is about the abilities of whoever spoke or wrote it.

It is ambiguous -- it has two distinct meanings. These correspond to two distinct syntactic

You might also like