A. Naming
Language might be t hought of as a
communicat ion syst em wit h on t he one hand “ t he signif ier” , and on t he ot her “ t he
signif ied” .
Signif ier --- Signif ied
a word t he obj ect in in t he language t he world t hat it
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Abst ract Nouns ???e. g. love, hat e, inspirat ion, nonsense That is t o say:
Words are not j ust names of t hings Words are not simply names of t he obj ect s of our experience.
e. g. The evening st ar and t he morning st ar They bot h denot e t he same obj ect , t he planet Venus. The meaning ???
Also, words of t en seem t o denot e a whole set of rat her dif f erent obj ect s.
Ot her t hings t o consider:
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Experienceobj ect s cannot be clearly grouped and label led by a singl e word.
Somet imes no precise equivalent s in ot her languages.
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Cul t ureThe words of a language of t en ref lect not so much t he realit y of t he world, but t he
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Scient if ic vs Common knowl edge e. g. t omat o vs apple?One possible way working out t he problem: Some words act uall y denot e obj ect s
That children learn some of t hem as label s.
Bert rand Russel l : obj ect word
Learned ost ensibly, by point ing at obj ect s dict ionary word
To be def ined in t erms of t he obj ect words.
Discussed so f ar words. Sent ence ???
B. Concept
Rel at es words and t hings direct ly?
Rel at es t hem t hrough t he mediat ion of concept s of t he mind.
Ferdinand de Saussure ‘ sign’ t heory
Thought or
Ref erence
Symbol :
t he linguist ic el ement , e. g. word, sent ence, et c
Ref erent :
t he obj ect , in t he world of experience Thought or Ref erence :
What is de Saussure’ s ‘ associat ive bond’ and t he Ogden and Richards’ link
bet ween symbol and concept ? psychol ogical one
our abilit y and pract ice of associat ing one wit h t he ot her, remembering t hat chai r
ref ers t o t he concept of ‘ chair’ .
C. Sense and Ref erence Ref erence :
The way speakers and hearers use an expression successf ull y.
Sense :
The sense of an expression is it s pl ace in a syst em of semant ic rel at ionships wit h
Sameness of meaning
I almost f el l over. nearly
Int uit ive Concept
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Ref erring Expressions, Predicat es, and Universe of DiscourseRef erring Expressions:
any expression used in an ut t erance t o ref er t o somet hing or someone (or a
cl early del imit ed coll ect ion of t hings and peopl e), i. e. used wit h a part icul ar
ref erent in mind.
Predicat or of a simple decl arat ive sent ence is t he word (somet imes a group of words) which does not belong t o any of t he ref erring
expressions and which, of t he remainder, makes t he most specif ic cont ribut ion t o t he meaning of t he sent ence.
Generic Sent ence :
A sent ence in which some st at ement is made about a whol e unrest rict ed class of individuals, as opposed t o any
part icul ar individual. Universe of Discourse :
Any ut t erance as t he part icul ar world, real or imaginary (or part real, part
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Deixis and Def init enessA deict ic word :
a word which t akes some el ement of it s meaning f rom t he cont ext or sit uat ion
(i. e. t he speaker, t he addressee, t he t ime and t he place) of t he ut t erance in which it is used.
Def init eness :
A f eat ure of a noun phrase select ed by a speaker t o convey his assumpt ion t hat t he hearer will be able t o ident if y t he
ref erent of t he noun phrase, usually
D. Kinds of Meaning
Semant ics is concerned wit h: f act ual inf ormat ion ??
proposit ions ??
Language is not only t o provide
inf ormat ion, inf orm hearers or readers of ‘ f act s’ t hat t hey do not already know.
A great deal of our meaning is not
What do we do wit h a language?
We do not merely make st at ement . quest ion, imperat ives
Speech act s, e. g. inf luencing, warning. A variet y of social relat ions.
polit e – less polit e – impol it e social l anguage : greet ing
E. The Word as a Semant ic Unit
Not all words seem t o have t he same kind of meaning.
f ull words - f orm words
f orm words grammat ical meaning
It is not all cl ear t hat t he word is a cl early def ined unit .
morpheme ?? lexeme ??
Transparent and Opaque Words
Many words in Engl ish are call ed ‘ Phonaest het ic’ .
e. g. –ump ref ers t o some kind of rounding mass plump, chump, rump, hump, st ump
not t o be generalised
Semant ic division seems t o ‘ override’ word division.
e. g. heavy smoker, good singer,
