Introduction to semantics week 3
- 1. Introduction to semanticsweek 35 minute Quiz:1. What is semantics?2. How does semantics characterize meaning?3. Give an example of : synonyms, homophones, homographs
- 2. REFERENCEA simple approach to meaning is to associate each expression with a particular object in the world.>>>>>> Reference: picking out objects>>>>>> Referent: the object picked out
- 3. REFERENCEWhat are the referents of the following expressions? ‘The president of the USA’ ‘The highest mountain in the world’ ‘The first astronaut’ Answer Barack Obama Mount Everest Yuri Gagarin
- 4. REFERENCE - PROBLEMSReference is an important part of meaning. But it is not everything. You can be mistaken about the answer to one of the questions while understanding perfectly its meaning. The referent of some of these descriptions changes over time. (Does this mean that we want to say that a description such as ‘the president of the USA’ has changed its meaning?) More than one description can have the same reference. But does this mean that they have the same meaning? ‘the morning star’ ‘the evening star’ because morning is opposite of evening
- 5. SENSE The sense of an expression is the intuitive sense of meaning which remains constant when the referent changes. If we know its sense, then we can select the correct referent.Exercice:Distinguish at least TWO senses for the following words:Bank, star, pig
- 6. DENOTATION Denotation and reference are sometimes used interchangeably. The phrase ‘the president of the USA’ The referent of the phrase: Barack Obama Its denotation: includes all those individuals that could be referred to using the phrase ‘the president of the USA’ Denotation is classifying objects into those which come under the heading ‘the president of the USA’ and those which don’t-It is specific and direct meaning, usually elicited by most speakers. Denotation includes those entities which can be classified by a given sense of the phrase ‘the president of the USA’
- 7. CONnotationIs the secondary meaning for a word:Example:‘my home’ >>>> my house, a place of warmth and comfort. In this case it is a positive connotation.‘a prison’, example: it’s a prison, the word ‘prison’May refer to a home, a job etc>>>this is negative connotation.