What is semantics?

In general, the study of the relationship

between words and meanings....The field of
semantics has three basic concerns: the
relations of words to the objects denoted by
them, the relations of words to the interpreters
of them, and, in symbolic logic, the formal
relations of signs to one another (syntax)." (The
Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Columbia
University Press: New York. 2009)

What is pragmatics?
Pragmatics is concerned with the study of
meaning as communicated by a speaker and
interpreted by a listener. It has more to do with
what people mean than what the words or
phrases say. (Yule, 1996)

What do these words

mean?
Itchy

feet

What does this sentence

mean?
He has itchy feet

Semantics

Pragmatics

Semantics Vs.
Pragmatics
While semantics is the study of meaning in a
language, pragmatics is the study of language from
the point of view of language users. Semantic
meaning focuses on the meaning of words, phrases,
clauses, and speech acts and pragmatic meaning on
how speakers and addressees perceive language
use. Semantics is concerned with meaning
regardless of context while pragmatics is concerned
with communication within a specific context.
Distinguishing Pragmatics from Semantics: http://www.criticism.com/linguistics/semanticsvs-pragmatics.php

Semantic or pragmatic
meaning?

Joe hasnt met my parents

She hasnt taken a shower.

He was so tired he could sleep for days.

http://bitstrips.com/r/CM8

Colourless green ideas

sleep furiously
This sentence was presented by Chompsky as an
example of a series of words strung together
randomly. Explain it based on your understanding
about syntax, semantics and pragmatics.

Meaning
What do you do when you dont know the
meaning of a word?
How do you help your students when they
dont know the meaning of a word?

The Conversation
between Humpty
Dumpty
and Alice
(Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Caroll)

1
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

2
'Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!

"I don't know what you mean by 'glory,'" Alice said.

Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. "Of course you
don'ttill I tell you. I meant 'there's a nice knock-down
argument for you!'"
"But 'glory' doesn't mean 'a nice knock-down argument',"
Alice objected.
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather
a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean
neither more nor less."
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words
mean so many different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be
master
that's all."
Alice was too much puzzled to say anything, so after a
minute Humpty Dumpty began again. "They've a temper,
some of themparticularly verbs, they're the proudest
adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbshowever, I
can manage the whole lot! Impenetrability! That's what I say!"

What is meaning?
How do we attribute
meaning to words or
sentences?

The meaning of
meaning

Michelle means trouble

The principal means what he says about
discipline
Romeo and Juliet were meant for each other
This weather will mean long traffic jams
Money means nothing for me
Those dark clouds mean rain
She didnt mean to hurt you
What is the meaning of life?

The meaning of
meaning
Point,

purpose
To foretell, indicates
Denote, connote, signify, represent
To produce, cause
Intend
To have the importance of
To say or to do in all seriousness
To destine or design for a certain person
or purpose.

How do we attribute meaning

to words?
Dictionary

definitions
Mental images
Meaning and reference
Meaning and true
Meaning and language use

Conclusions
Although there is a lot to be
said about meaning, a few
things should be clear:

1.
Meaning (like any other aspect
of language) is provided by a
community of native speakers,
not by some special authority
like a dictionary or grammar
book.

2.
The meaning of an expression is
not just a definition composed
of more words in the same
language, since the meaning
system of any language would
form a vicious circle.

3.
The meaning of an expression is not
just a mental image, since mental
images seem to vary from person to
person more than meaning does, since
mental images tend to be only of
typical or ideal examples of the things
they symbolize, and since not all words
have corresponding mental images.

4.
The meaning of a word involves more
than just the actual thing the word
refers to, since not all expressions
have real-world referents, and
substituting expressions with
identical referents for each other in a
sentence can change the meaning of
the sentence as a whole.

5.
Knowing the meaning of a
sentence involves knowing the
conditions under which it
would be true, so explaining
the meaning of a sentence can
be done in part by explaining
its truth conditions.

6.
Knowing the meaning of an
utterance also involves
knowing how to use it, so
conditions on language use
also form an important aspect
of meaning.

Meaning is a complex
phenomenon involving
relationships between a
language and the minds of
its speakers, between a
language and the world,
and between a language
and the practical uses to
which it is put.

Homework
File

72: What types of meaning relationships are

presented in the text? Explain them in your own
words and give an example for each(not an
example from the reading).

File

73: Based on the theory of semantic

composition, explain the meaning in the
following sentences:
- He was eating a hamburger.
- He was eating a chair.
- He was painting a chair.