Semantics session 2_13_10_2021Basic ideas in semantics.pdf
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The document provides an overview of semantics from a course at the Department of English Language and Literature. It defines semantics as the study of meaning in language. It states that the main purpose of semantics is to construct a theory of meaning - a precisely specified framework that can describe basic facts about meaning in languages. It notes that semantic theory aims to discover patterns in how individual words and sentences have meaning, and make generalizations about whole classes of items. Finally, it comments that semantics continues to develop through discussion, and modern semanticists have techniques not available in the past to further the field.
Semantics session 2_13_10_2021Basic ideas in semantics.pdf
- 1. Department of English Language and Literature Major: English Language and Literature Semantics Session 2 Basic ideas in semantics Dr. Badriya Al Mamari Academic year 2021/2022
- 2. Basic ideas in semantics •Definition: SEMANTICS is the study of MEANING in LANGUAGE
- 3. Activity 6
- 4. Comments on Activity 6 The meanings of words and sentences in a language can safely be taken as known to competent speakers of the language. Native speakers of languages are the primary source of information about meaning. The student (or the professor) of semantics may well be good at describing meanings, or theorizing about meaning in general, but he has no advantage over any normal speaker of a language. • The main purpose of semantics is an attempt to set up a theory of meaning. • A THEORY is a precisely specified, coherent, and economical frame- work of interdependent statements and definitions, constructed so that as large a number as possible of particular basic facts can either be seen to follow from it or be describable in terms of it.
- 5. Activity 7
- 6. Comments on Activity 7 The sentences in the task illustrate some particular basic facts about meaning, the kind of facts that a complete semantic theory must make sense of. In aiming to discover some system and pattern in particular facts about the meanings of individual words, sentences, and utterances, it is obviously necessary to try to move from particular facts, to generalizations, i.e. statements about whole classes of items.
- 7. Activity 8
- 8. Comments on Activity 8 The statements just considered are general in several ways: -Firstly, they deal with whole classes of words, e.g. the whole class of prepositions, -Secondly, they apply not just to English, but to human languages in general – to Arabic and Russian no less than to German and French. • So, semantic theory is applicable to all languages.
- 9. Activity 9
- 10. Comments on Activity 9 Many of the basic facts about English have exact parallels in other languages. The examples illustrate some such parallels between English, German and French. However, there are interesting differences between languages.
- 11. Activity 10
- 12. Comments on Activity 10 There are differences between languages. Semantic theory is a part of a larger, linguistic theory, which includes the study of syntax (grammar) and phonetics (pronunciation) besides the study of meaning. It is a characteristic of Linguistics as a whole that it concentrates on the similarities between languages.
- 13. Activity 11
- 14. Comments on Activity 11 Semantics is not cut-and-dried in its final state. You can contribute to its development by active discussion, many of which may be as imperfect as Hecataeus’ map. (Developmental / updated regularly) • Aristotle can be regarded as a forerunner of modern semantics, just as Hecataeus was a forerunner of modern geography. Aristotle was clearly concerned with the same general areas that concern modern semanticists. • As the subject has developed, new dimensions in the nature of meaning have begun to be described. And today’s semanticists have at their disposal certain modern techniques (e.g. symbolic logic, new theories of grammar such as cognitive and generative grammar, and research in psychology and cognitive science, to name just a few) not available to the ancients.
- 15. Home Reading Hurford, J. R., Heasley, B., & Smith, M. B. (2007). Semantics: a coursebook. Cambridge university press. Unit 1: Study Guide and Exercises (pp.14-15)
- 16. Reference: Hurford, J. R., Heasley, B., & Smith, M. B. (2007). Semantics: a coursebook. Cambridge university press.