Semantics Review

LESSON 6: SENTENCES, UTTERANCES, AND PROPOSITION
- Utterance: concrete
+ is any stretch of talk, by one person, before and after which there is silence on the part of that
person.
+ is the use by a particular speaker, on a particular occasion, of a piece of language, such as a
sequence of sentences, or a single phrase, or even a single word.
⇨ Not every utterance is the same.
⇨ Can be produced in an idefinite number of time.
- A sentence is neither a physical event nor a physical object. It is, conceived abstractly, a string
of words put together by the grammatical rules of a language. (all abstract) A sentence can be
thought of as the ideal string of words behind various realizations in utterances and inscriptions.
⇨ different sentences, different utterances, same proposition.
- A proposition is that part of the meaning of the utterance of a declarative sentence which
describes some state of affairs.
- The sense of an expression is its indispensable hard core of meaning.
+ Sense properties of sentences:
● Analytic: one that is necessarily true, as a result of the senses of the words in it. An
analytic sentence, therefore, reflects a tacit (unspoken) agreement by speakers of the
language about the senses of the words in it.
● Synthetic: sentence one which is not analytic, but may either be true or false, depending
on the way the word is. => informative
● Contradictory: a sentence that is necessarily false, as a result of the senses of worlds in it.
Thus a contradiction is in a way the opposite of an analytic sentence.
A proposition is a contradictory of another proposition if it is impossible for them to be true at
the same time and of the same circumstances.
- Sense properties of a sentence
+ Sense properties of the words they contain
+ Sense relations between words they contain
LESSON 7: PARAPHRASE, ENTAILMENT
- Entailment: a relational that applies between two sentences, where the truth of one implies the
truth of the other because of the meanings of the words involved.
⮚ The source of entailment: lexical or syntactic.
+ lexical: hyponymy or antonymy

+ syntactic – paraphrases
⮚ No need to check any fact in the world.
⮚ If X entails Y, and Y entails Z, then X entails Z. => Entailment applies cumulatively.
Types of entailment:
+ One-way entailment:
EX: John saw a bear. => John saw an animal.
+ Two-way entailment:
EX: The police chased the burglar. The burglar was chased by the police.
- Paraphrases
+ Syntactic
+ Lexical: synonymy antonymy
Relation between pair of Relation between pair of
sentences word
Not necessarily symmetric Entailment Hyponymy
(one-way)
Symmetric (two-way) Paraphrase Synonymy
LESSON 7: INTRODUCTION TO SPEECH ACTS

What are speech acts?
⇨ actions performed via utterances.
An act of assertion is carried out when:

- A speaker utters a declarative sentence (T/F)
- Undertakes a certain responsibility, commitment, to the hearer that a particular state of
affairs/situations exists in the world.
⇨ Descriptive fallacy: the act of describing
Can acts be performed by physical means, such as gesture? => Yes
- A performative utterance is one that actually describes the act that it performs. i.e. it performs
some act & simultaneously describes that act.
+ Explicit performatives: I order you that you clean up this mess.
+ Implicit performatives: Clean up this mess.
Characteristics:
- Beginning with the first person pronoun: I, we
- Verbs describing verbal activities: warn, bet...
- In the simple present.
- A constative utterance is one which makes an assertion (i.e it is often the utterance of a
declarative sentence) but is not performative.
LESSON 8: PERLOCUTIONS & ILLOCUTIONS
- Locutionary act: the basic act of producing a meaningful utterance
- Illocutionary act: (or simply the ILLOCUTION) carried out by a speaker making an utterance
is the act viewed in terms of the utterance's significance within a conventional system of social
interaction. One way to think about the illocutionary act is that it reflects the intention of the
speaker in making the utterance in the first place.
- Perlocutionary act: (or just simply the PERLOCUTION) carried out by a speaker making an
utterance is the act of causing a certain effect on the hearer and others.
Classification of speech acts:
- Declaratives: kind of speech acts that change the world via their utterance.
⇨ Sentencing, dismissing, naming, announcing.
EX: I declare Donald Trump the president of the US from now on.
- Representatives: kinds of speech acts that state what the speaker believes to be the case
or not.
⇨ Asserting, stating, claiming, affirming, describing, predicting, reporting, making
hypothesis.
EX: The earth is flat.
- Expressives: kinds of speech acts that state what the speaker feels.
⇨ Greeting, apologizing, complaining, thanking.
EX: Congratulations!
- Directives: kinds of speech acts that speakers use to get someone else to do something.
⇨ Commanding, requesting, begging, warning, challenging, inviting, suggesting giving
advice, ordering.
EX: Give me a cup of coffee.
The rogatives: the special kind of directives, dealing with request for information.
- Commissives: kind of speech acts that speakers use to commit themselves to some future
actions.
⇨ Promising, vowing, offering, refusing.
- Direct & Indirect speech acts:

EX: It’s cold outside.
- Different structures can be used to accomplish the same function. => YES
+ Different utterances => same function
+ Same utterance => different functions
LESSON 9: FELICITY CONDITIONS
Illocutionary force indicating devices: I Vp you that…
- Felicity conditions: Felicity conditions are the conditions that must be fulfilled for a speech act
to be satisfactorily performed on realized.
- Sincerity condition: A condition that must be fulfilled if the act is said to be carried out
sincerely.
– Cooperative principle: make your contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it
occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged.
❖ Maxism:
1. Quantity:
+ Be brief:
● Make your contribution as informative as required
● Do not make your contribution more informative that is required.
- Quality:
+ Be true:
● Do not say what you believe to be false
● Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence
- Relevance
+ Be relevant
- Manner:
+ Be perspicuous:
● Avoid obscurity of expression
● Avoid ambiguity
● Be brief
● Be orderly
LESSON 10: DEIXIS & DISTANCE
- Deixis:
+ Person deixis (you, me, it)
+ Spatial deixis (here, there)
+ Temporal deixis (now, then)
=> Presupposition is what a speaker or writer assumes that the receiver of the message already
knows.
=> Presupposition remains the same under its negation.
★ Types of presuppositions:
- The existential presupposition:
EX: I lost my watch yesterday.
1. A possessive NP. => X had/has/will have + an indefinite NP.
EX: The American girl next door is having a party.
2. A definite NP
There be + an indefinite NP
There exist/existed + an indefinite NP
EX: The book you gave me is worth reading.
3. A definite NP => an infinite NP
- The factive presupposition

EX: She didn't realize he was ill.
- The non-factive presupposition
EX: I dreamed that I was rich.
- The lexical presupposition
EX: You’re late again.
- The structural presupposition
EX: When did he leave?
- The counter-factual presupposition
EX: If you were my friend, you would have helped me.
=> The presupposition of an utterance may be canceled under its EXTENSION.
★ Implicature:
- Generalized Conversational Implicatures:
● a/an X +> not speaker's X
EX: I was sitting in a garden one day. A child looked over the fence.
● It is when no special knowledge is required in the context to calculate the additional
conveyed meaning. (< all, most, many, some, few > always, often, sometimes>)
Ex: I'm studying linguistics and I've completed some of the required courses.
● When any form of a scale is asserted, the negative of all forms higher on the scale is
implicated.
+ The scale of likelihood
EX: It’s possible that the flight was delayed.
+ The scale of obligation
EX: This should be stored in a cool place.
Implicature Entailment
can be canceled without resulting in can be canceled with contradiction

contradiction
- Particularized Conversational Implicatures

A: Will your brother go to the conference this afternoon?
B: He's gone to Hanoi.
Presuppositions Implicatures
- Anything the speaker assumes to be true - An inference/unstated meaning drawn from

a conversation
- Straightforward, more objective
- Less straightforward, more subjective
=> Unlike presuppositions & entailments, implicatures are inferences that cannot be made in
isolated utterances.
=> They are dependent on the context of the utterance & shared knowledge of the speaker &
hearer.
- Conventional implicatures
+ Not based on cooperative principles
+ Don’t have to occur in conversations
+ Don’t depend on special context for the interpretation
+ Be associated with specific words

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LESSON 6: SENTENCES, UTTERANCES, AND PROPOSITION

⇨ Not every utterance is the same.

⇨ Can be produced in an idefinite number of time.

⇨ different sentences, different utterances, same proposition.

⮚ The source of entailment: lexical or syntactic.

+ lexical: hyponymy or antonymy

⮚ No need to check any fact in the world.

⮚ If X entails Y, and Y entails Z, then X entails Z. => Entailment applies cumulatively.

LESSON 7: INTRODUCTION TO SPEECH ACTS

⇨ actions performed via utterances.

An act of assertion is carried out when:

- Direct & Indirect speech acts:

- The factive presupposition

can be canceled without resulting in can be canceled with contradiction

- Particularized Conversational Implicatures

- Anything the speaker assumes to be true - An inference/unstated meaning drawn from

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