LinguisticsThe Study of Language

Overview of semantics in linguistics

SEMANTIC THEORY MAKES A BIG CONTRIBUTION TO UNDERSTANDING HOW LANGUAGES WORK AND ALSO FEEDS INTO OTHER DISCIPLINES, LIKE COMPUTER SCIENCE FOR EXAMPLE.

In spite of big limitations, the study of semantics has made an important contribution to our understanding of how languages work.

Originally, the word “semantics” was used to refer to what we call “historical semantics” today. It was about how words changed their meaning over time.

Wicked!

People started to take semantics seriously after the publication of this book in the 1920s.

▪The word semantics did not really catch on until the 1920s when

Richards and Ogden published their famous book,

The Meaning of Meaning.

▪Today, semantics is one of the central areas of the

study in Linguistics.

▪After all, the whole purpose of language

is to communicate meaning.

                        

Today, we assume that communication is the key to language learning.

Do you agree with that?

Meaning is of central importance to language learners and teachers because it is assumed that languages are learned in the process of communication. Semantics plays an important part in most branches of Linguistics.

Meaning and language are inseparable. Meaning is deeply influenced by the sound system of a language, its grammatical structure, and the way we use language in actual conversations. Just about everythingconnected with language is related to meaning in some way or other.

Phonology

Study of the sound system of language.

Sounds (phonemes) can distinguish meanings:

“pin” does not mean the same as “bin”

“ship” means something completely different than “sheep.”

Stress can change the meaning of words and sentences in big ways: • The word “contrast” has a

different meaning depending on whether you stress the first of the second syllable

• A simple sentence like “I didn’t eat the apple” has a different interpretation if certain words are strongly stressed.

• Tone can indicate a question sentence vs. a declarative sentence.

            

Morphology

The internal structure of words, influences meaning in big ways.

Here, the suffixes “-ate” and “-tion” transform the base noun “motive” from a noun to a verb and then back into a different kind of noun.

              

Syntax investigates how words combine to form larger structures.

Syntax deals with the way words combine to form larger phrases and sentences.

Semantics is concerned with how those phrases and sentences are interpreted — their meaning.

For a very simple example, take a sentence like “The rat ate the cockroach.” Then swap around the words so you get “The cockroach ate the rat.”

These pictures show how meaning can be influenced by grammatical (syntactic) structure.

Noam Chomsky

MIT linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist1957 Syntactic Structuresgrammatically correct, but semantically nonsensical

Pragmatics

▪ The Philosopher Paul Grice made the most important contribution to the study of Pragmatics.

▪ We take meanings and then combine these meanings with other things we know about the world to create different meanings.

▪ The meaning of language is always context dependent.

Pragmatics

• concerned with the transmission of meaning through language.

• investigates the meanings that expressions have in particular situations (contexts).

• Example: “It’s hot in here.” = The temperature is high. = Open the window or = Turn the heater off.

Semioticsthe study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation● visual aspect of

semantics● signs● symbols● writing● gestures● iconography