VNU UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

Post-graduate Studies ---------------------------------------------------------------------

Lectures on Semantics Lecturer: Assoc Prof. Dr. V i Quang Tel: vodaiquang@yahoo.comA. Course OutlineI. Focal points in the lectures to be delivered:

0903410341;

E-mail:

1. What is meant by "Semantics"? 2. Types of meaning as the subject-matter set forth for Semantics. 3. Formal Semantics vs Cognitive Semantics. 4. Components of word meaning, sentence meaning and utterance meaning. 5. Types of meaning associated with and exhibited via speech acts. 6. The construction of meaning. 7. Discourse Semantics. 8. Presupposition vs. implicature. 9. Background knowledge and the interpretation of meaning detectable in discourse. 10. Modality vs propositional content.II. Assessment:

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Performance in the course will be assessed on the basis of one written test and an assignment.

Written Test: worth 30% of the final mark. Assignment: 3000 words; worth 60 % of the final mark. Attendance: worth 10% of the final mark Select one of the topics provided in the lectures and conduct a research into the matter specified.III. Format for Written Assignment1. Covers

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VNU University of Languages and International Studies Postgraduate Faculty

Training program:

MA in English

LinguisticsCourse title: Semantics

(Title of assignment)

By: ........................................... Date of birth: ........................... Place of birth: .......................... Group: ...................................... Tel: .......................................... E- mail: .................................... For: Assoc Prof. Dr. ............... Date due: .................................

Hanoi 200

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2. Format for written assignment structure

Acknowlegement Table of Contents: (For ease of reference page numbers must be supplied). Part A: Introduction 1. Rationale for choosing the topic 2. Aims and objectives 3. Scope of research 4. Theoretical / practical significance of the assignment. 5. Methodology: - Principles governing the techniques employed - Approach: (basic / applicative / contrastive / quantitative / qualitative research, .. ). - Techniques: Procedures, data types & analysis, ... Part B: Development (This part may be presented in the form of chapters or sections). 1. Literature Review & Theoretical background 2. (The subtitle is specific to the topic chosen at the author's will). 3. (The subtitle is specific to the topic chosen at the author's will). ... (There can be more than 3 sections/chapters to the assignment). Part C: Conclusion 1. Recapitulation: (Summary of the main points presented). 2. Concluding remarks: It is requested that this section provide conclusions on the objectives set forth in the Introduction part of the assignment. There may be more than one conclusion on a particular objective. 3. Suggestion(s) for further research. Part D: References / Bibliography: (Arranged in alphabetical order of authors' names; numbered from 1 to the end across the languages for publication or issue). Part E: Appendices (if any). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Citation mode: - Quotation marks are obligatory with the quoted part in italic. - Quotation sources are to be provided via such a symbol like [4, 25] with [4,...] indicating the numbered document in the "Reference" part and [...' 25] specifying the page in [4, ...]. - Consistency of quoting is required throughout the assignment.

III. references

1. Leech G N (1981) Semantics (2nd edition). Penguin. London. 2. Nguyen Hoa (2005) Understanding English Semantics. VNU Publishing House, Hanoi. 3. Vo Dai Quang (2005) Semantics. The Culture & Information Publishing House, Hanoi. 4. Vo Dai Quang (2005) Some Issues in Syntax, Semantics, Pragmatics and Phonology. The Culture & Information Publishing House, Hanoi. 5. Vo Dai Quang (2009) Modality - conveying Means and Devices in English and Vietnamese. VNU Publishing House. Hanoi. 6. Vo Dai Quang (2006) Pragmatics. CFL - VNU 7. Vo Dai Quang (2010) Introducing Applied Linguistics. ULIS - VNU 8. Vo Dai Quang (2005) Lectures on English Grammar. CFL - VNU 9. Vo Dai Quang (2005) Lectures on Discourse Analysis. CFL VNU .. c. Questions for classroom discussion Lecture 1 1. What is meant by Semantics? Point out the difference between semantics and meaning. 2. What are the theories of meaning you know? Give a brief description of

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the basic assumptions in these theories. 3. Point out the difference between Syntax, Pragmatics and Semantics as core branches of Linguistics in relation to language as a system of signs. 4. What are the possible meaning types that can be established in terms of usage? Point out the difference between these types. Give examples for illustration. 5. Discuss meaning types associated with the word, the sentence, the utterance and discourse. Point out the difference between word meaning and lexical meaning. Give an example for illustration. 6. What is "presupposition"? What are the types of presupposition you know? Give examples for illustration. 7. Discuss the properties of presupposition. Give examples. 8. What is meant by "presupposition trigger"? Discuss the types of presupposition triggers. Provide examples for illustration. 9. Point out the differences between presupposition and implicature. Give examples. 10. In what way is pragmatic presupposition different from semantic presupposition? Give examples for illustration. Lecture 2 1. What is meant by "speech act"? In what way is the sentence different from the utterance? Give examples for illustration. 2. Discuss the related acts in producing an utterance. Support what you know with typical examples. 3. What is meant by "phonic", "phatic" and "rhectic" acts? 4. In what way is illocution different from perlocution? Support your arguments with examples. 5. How can speech acts be classified? Discuss Searle's speech act classification. Illustrate the point with examples. 6. What is meant by "modality"? What are the types of modality you know? Point out the difference between these types. 7. What is "proposition"? What are the components of a proposition? Give an example for illustration.

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8. Discuss the relationship between propositional content and modality. Illustrate this with typical examples. 9. How can modality be expressed? Give examples. 10. Give a brief description of how modality can be expressed via mood as a grammatical category of the verb. Support the point with examples. 11. What are the prosodic features that can convey modality? Give examples. 12. Discuss the parameters that most obviously transmit modality. Give examples. 13. Discuss how modality can be expressed via lexical means. Give examples for illustration. 14. Point out the difference between modality and interpersonal meaning in Hallidayan terminology. 15. What do you think the word class that typically functions as modal operator in the English language? 16. What is meant by "reference"? Point out the difference between reference and inference. 17. What are the types of reference? Give examples. 18. What is meant by syllogism? Give examples. 19. Discuss the types of indexicals. Give examples. 20. What are the context types that can be established? Give examples. 21. Discuss the features of context in light of related theories. Point out the strengths and weaknesses of these theories. 22. What is meant by argumentation? Point out the difference between argumentation and inference. Lecture 3 1. What, in your opinion, are the differences between the cognitive approach and the truth conditional approach in the study of meaning? 2. What is meant by "proposition"? Point out the components in a proposition. 3. How is the predicator in a proposition to be realized? Point out the features of the predicator.

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4. Discuss the relationship between propositional content and modality. 5. Discuss the truth conditions for the logical operations you know. Give examples for illustration. Point out the truth values of "It's not the case that the dog ate the cake and Peter howled". Lecture 4 1. Discuss the Cooperative Principle and Conversational Maxims. 2. What is meant by implicature? Types and subtypes of implicature? Examples? 3. Point out the difference between conversational implicature and conventional implicature. Give examples for illustration. 4. What is meant by scalar implicature? Examples? 5. Point out the differences between generalized implicature and particularized implicature. Give examples. 6. Discuss the ways in which implicature can be created. Examples? 7. What is meant by "descriptive fallacy"? 8. Give a brief statement of the performative hypothesis. Point out the advantages and disadvantages of the performative hypothesis. 9. What are the possible types utterances? Point out the difference between these types. 10. What is meant by IFID? Give examples. 11. Point out the difference between illocutionary force and illocutionary point. Examples? 12. What is "utterance meaning"? Lecture 5 1. What does SFL stand for? Discuss the basic assumptions of the theory. 2. How is Pragmatics placed in Hallidayan model of language. 3. What are the components of Systemic Semantics? What are these components concerned with? 4. What is meant by "feature" in Hallidayan model in relation to the concept of "system network"? 5. Discuss as much as you can the history of SFL.

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6. What is meant by "systemic" and "functional" in Hallidayan model of language? 7. Discuss the meta-functions of language and how these functions are reflected via clauses. 8. Discuss the variables in the semantic structure of the sentence. Give examples for illustration. 9. What is meant by structural meaning of the sentence? Point out the difference between sentence meaning and utterance meaning. Give examples for illustration. 10. What is "experiential meaning"? 11. What are the types of process semantically identifiable in the sentence? Give examples. 12. Discuss the possible participant types and circumstance types. 13. What do you think the sub-functions divisible in the interpersonal meaning of the sentence? Give examples for illustration. 14. What is meant by textual meaning of the sentence? Point out as far as you know the prominent features of a text. Give examples for illustration. 15. What, in your opinion, is the difference between word meaning, sentence meaning and utterance meaning? Lecture 6 1. What are the possible sense properties of the sentence? Give examples for illustration. 2. Discuss the sense properties of the predicate. Give examples for illustration. 3. What are the types of predicate in terms of argument number? 4. How can the sense property of a predicate be identified? Give examples for illustration. 5. What, as far as you know, is Formal Semantics concerned with? Lecture 7 1. What are the components and sub-components in the semantic structure of word meaning? Give examples for illustration.

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2. Point out the difference between direct meaning and indirect meaning. Give examples for illustration. 3. What, in your opinion, is the difference between word meaning and lexical meaning? 4. What are the detectable sense relations in language? Discuss the features. 5. Point out the similarities and differences between Metaphor and Metonymy as figures of speech. Give examples for illustration. 6. How is word meaning subject to change? Give examples for illustration. 7. What are the causes of semantic change? Example? 8. What is meant by semantic field? Examples? 9. What is meant by polysemy? Types of polysemy? Examples? 10. What is meant by homonymy? Types of homonymy? Examples? 11. What is meant by antonymy? Types of antonymy? Examples? 12. What is meant by synonymy? Types of synonymy? Examples? 13. Discuss discrimination between polysemy and homonymy. Examples? 14. In what way is denotational meaning different from connotational meaning? Examples? Lecture 8 1. Point out the difference between discourse and text. Give examples for illustration. 2. Point out the difference between co-text and context of situation. Give examples for illustration. 3. What are the roles played by context in the interpretation of discourse? Give examples for illustration. 4. Discuss features of context. Give examples for illustration. 5. What is meant by "principle of local interpretation" and "principle of analogy"? Examples? 6. How can discourse content be represented? Examples? 7. What is meant by "topic of discourse"? Types of discourse? 8. What is meant by "presupposition pool"? The role played by presupposition pool?

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9. Discuss the strengths of the concept "topic framework" and enumerate the possible topic boundary markers. 10. What is meant by "relevance" and "speaking topically"? 11. Discuss the possible representation of discourse structure. 12. Discuss the features of the types of discourse. Give examples for illustration. 13. What is "thematization"? 14. What is meant by cohesion and coherence? Inter-relationship between cohesion and coherence? Examples? 15. What are the possible types of cohesive devices? Give examples for illustration. 16. Point out the difference between "Given - New structure" and "Theme - Rheme structure". Give examples for illustration. 17. Discuss the possible ways of expressing the New in English discourse. Lecture 9 1. What are the factors that affect the process of interpreting discourse? Give examples for illustration. 2. Discuss the aspects of the process of interpreting discourse. Give examples for illustration. 3. What are the types of meaning that the hearer tries to compute during communication via language? Give examples for illustration. 4. What are the possible approaches to computing communicative functions? 5. Discuss the roles played by background knowledge in interpreting discourse? 6. How can background knowledge be represented? 7. Point out the difference between "script" and "frame". Give examples for illustration. Lecture 10 1. Discuss the collaborative nature of speech act. Give examples for illustration.

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2. What is meant by pragmatic ambivalence? Give examples for illustration. 3. In what way is it possible to say that the hearer plays some part in assigning pragmatic values to speaker's words? Give an example for illustration. 4. What, in your opinion, are the things that count as evidence in pragmatics? Give examples for illustration. 5. How do you understand the type of meaning often referred to as "meaning in interaction"? 6. Point out the difference between Grammar and Pragmatics in terms of rules and principles. Give examples for illustration. 7. In real interactions, language users are often uncertain about precise meanings/intentions and can tolerate and operate with such uncertainties. What do you think is theoretically needed to make explicit the type of meaning referred to as "meaning in interaction"? 8. Provide a brief account of how meaning is to be constructed in actual communication via language?

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