Semantics

SEMANTICS PRESENTED BY: Muhammad Sajid us Salam Mphil Linguistics Islamia University Bahawalpur [email_address]

What is semantics? Semantics is the study of meanings of words, phrases and sentences. In semantic analysis there is always an attempt to focus on what the words conventionally mean, rather than on what a speaker might want the words on a particular occasion .

Conceptual meanings Conceptual meaning covers those basic essential components of meaning which are conveyed by the literal use of a word. For Example : Some of the basic components of a word like needle in English might include “ thin sharp steel instrument”.

Associative meanings In associative meaning you may have ‘associations’ or ‘connotations’ attached to a word, For example : like needle which lead you to think of ‘painful’ whenever you encounter the said word. This ‘association’ is not treated as a conceptual meaning of needle .

Conceptual vs Associative meaning When linguists investigate the meaning of words in a language they are normally interested in characterizing the conceptual meaning and less concerned with the associative meaning of words. However, poets and advertisers are very interested in using terms in such a way that their associative meanings are evoked. For example: In the ad of Pepsi “generation next” or in Zong advertisement “sub keh do”.

Semantic Features How does semantic approach help us to understand the nature of language? It might be helpful as a means of accounting for the ‘ oddness ’ which we experience when we read English sentences such as the follows: For example: 1- The hamburger ate the man. 2- My cat studied linguistics. 3- A table was listening to some music. Above sentences are syntactically right but semantically odd.

According to some basic syntactic rules for forming English sentences we have well structured sentences . The hamburger ate the man NP V NP This sentence is syntactically good, but semantically odd. Since the sentence “The man ate the hamburger” is perfectly acceptable. The kind of noun which can be subjects of the verb ‘ate’ must denote entities which are capable of eating. The noun ‘hamburger’ does not have this property and man has .

SEMANTIC ROLES Words are not just a “containers” of meanings. They fulfill different “roles” within the situation described by a sentence. For example: If the situation is a simple event such as The boy kicked the ball The verb ‘kicked’ describes an action. The noun phrases ‘The boy’ and ‘the ball’ describe the roles of entities such as people and things involved in the action.

Agent The entity that performs the action is technically known as “agent”. For example: The boy kicked the ball. As in the sentence one role is taken by the boy and the boy performs the action, so it is agent. Although agents are typically human, they can also be non-human forces, machines or creatures. For example: The wind blew the ball away. The car ran over the ball. The dog caught the ball.

THEME The entity that is involved in or affected by the action is technically known as “theme”. For example: The boy kicked the ball. In this sentence “ball” is the theme because it is affected by the action performed by the ‘agent’. The theme can also be an entity that is simply being described, for example, The ball was red. The theme can also be human. Indeed the same physical entity can appear in two semantic roles. For example: The boy kicked himself. Here boy is agent and himself is theme.

INSTRUMENT If an agent uses another entity in performing an action, that other entity fills the role of instrument. For example: She hit the bug with the magazine. In “writing with a pen” or “eating with a spoon” the phrases “a pen” and “a spoon” have the semantic role of instrument.

EXPERIENCER When a noun phrase designates an entity as a person who has a feeling, a perception or a state, it fills the role of experiencer. If we see, know or enjoy something, we do not perform any action. In this way we are in the role of experiencer. For example: Did you hear that noise? The experiencer is “you” and theme is “that noise”.

LOCATION When an entity is in the description of the event then it fills the role of Location . (on the table, in the room etc). For example: Mary saw a mosquito on the wall. In this sentence “on the wall” is location.

SOURCE & GOAL Where an entity moves from is the Source and where it moves to is the Goal . For example: When we talk about transferring money from ‘savings’ to ‘checking’, the source is “savings” and goal is “checking”.

LEXICAL RELATIONS Words are not only the ‘containers’ or as fulfilling ‘roles’. They can also have ‘relationships’. We describe the meanings of words in terms of their relationships. For example :if we are asked the meanings of word ‘conceal’ we might reply it is same as ‘hide’. The meaning of ‘shallow’ as ‘the opposite of deep’. The meaning of ‘daffodil’ as ‘it is a kind of flower’. In doing so we are characterizing the meaning of a word not in terms of component features, but in terms of relationship to other words.

The types of lexical relations SYNONYMY Synonyms are two or more forms with very closely related meanings, which are often, but not always, intersubstitutable in sentences. For example: broad=wide, hide=conceal, almost=nearly, cab=taxi, liberty=freedom, answer=reply. [e.g. of synonyms are in pairs] The idea of ‘sameness of meaning’ used in discussing synonymy is not necessarily ‘total sameness’ . For example: Cathy had only one ‘answer’ correct in the test. Its near synonymy would ‘reply’ would sound odd.

ANTONYMY Two forms with opposite meanings are called antonyms. For example: quick=slow, big=small, long=short, rich=poor, happy=sad, hot=cold, old=young, male=female, true=false, alive=dead. Antonyms are divided into two parts. Gradable antonyms: such as the pair big=small, can be used in comparative constructions like bigger than =smaller than. Negative of one member of the gradable pair does not necessarily imply the other. For example: Dog is not old, it does not mean that dog is young.

Non-gradable Antonyms: Such antonyms have “complementary pairs, comparative constructions and negative of one member does imply the other. For example : The person is not dead, does indeed mean that person is live. Reversives: It actually means to reverse. For example: Tie= untie, enter= exit, pack= unpack, lengthen= shorten, raise= lower and dress= undress.

HYPONYMY When the meaning of one form is included in the meaning of another, the relationship is described as hyponym. For example: Daffodil= Flower, dog= animal, poodle= dog, carrot= vegetable, banyan= tree. The concept of “inclusion’ involved here. For example: If any object is a daffodil, then it is necessary a flower, so the meaning of flower is included in the meaning of daffodil. Daffodil is hyponym of a flower. We look at the meaning of words in some type of hierarchical relationship. (Tree-Diagram).

HOMOPHONY When two or more different written forms have the same pronunciation, they are described as “Homophones”. For example: Bare – Bear, Meat – Meet, Flour – Flower, Pail – Pale, Sew – So.

HOMONYMY Homonyms are words which have quite separate meanings, but which have accidentally come to have exactly the same form. The term homonym is used when one form written or spoken has two or more unrelated meanings. For example: 1- bank= (of a river) bank= (financial institution) 2- bat= (flying creature) bat= (used in sports) 3- race= (contest of speed) race= (ethic group)

POLYSEMY If a word has multiple meanings, that is called polysemic. Relatedness of meaning accompanying identical form is technically known as polysemy. For example: The word “head” is used to refer to the object on the top of our body, on top of a glass of beer, on top of a company or department. Another word “foot” has multiple meanings such as foot of a person, of bed, of mountain etc.

MENTONYMY There is another type of relationship between words based simply on a close connection in everyday experience. That close connection can be based on a container- contents relation (bottle- coke; can- juice), a whole- part relation (car- wheels; house- roof) or a representative- symbol relationship (king- crown; The President- The White House).

COLLOCATION Frequently occurring together is known as collocation. Words tend to occur with other words. For example: If you ask a thousand people what they think when you say ‘hammer’, more than half will say ‘nail’, if you say ‘table’ they will mostly say ‘chair’ and for ‘butter- bread, for needle- thread, for salt- pepper. Some collocations are joined pairs of words such as salt and pepper or husband and wife.

QUESTIONS Q: What is semantics? Ans: Semantics is the study of meanings of words, phrases and sentences. Q: What do mean by conceptual meanings? Ans: Conceptual meaning covers those basic essential components of meaning which are conveyed by the literal use of a word.

Q: What are associative meanings? Ans: In associative meaning you may have ‘associations’ or ‘connotations’ attached to a word. Q: Describe Agent? Ans: The entity that performs the action is technically known as “agent”.

Q: What do you mean by Theme? Ans: The entity that is involved in or affected by the action is technically known as “theme”. For example: The boy kicked the ball. Q: What is experiencer? Ans: When a noun phrase designates an entity as a person who has a feeling, a perception or a state, it fills the role of experiencer. For example: Did you hear that noise?

Q: What is meant by Source and Goal? Ans: Where an entity moves from is the Source and where it moves to is the Goal . Q: How many types of Lexical relations have been discussed? a) 5 b) 7 c) 6 d) 8 Ans: 8

Semantics

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Semantics