2 Descriptive meaning and reference,
social and expressive meaning
social and expressive meaning
2.1 Meanings as concepts
2
1M
i
• S1: Mary just back from her trip, finds her daughter Sheila quite upset Sheila has spent the time with Mary'ss dog quite upset. Sheila has spent the time with Mary
dog
Ken, and the two don't like each other. When asked what happened, Sheila answers (1):
(1) Mary: What happened?
Sheila: The dog has ruined my blue skirt.
Expression meaning: the meaning of an expression taken h
f
k
in isolation. simple expression: lexical meaning
simple expression: lexical meaning
complex expression: phrasal meaning, up to clause meaningg
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2 Descriptive meaning and reference,
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¾ MEANINGS OF CONTENT WORDS AS CONCEPTS
(1) The dog has ruined my blue skirt.
• A word carries with it a sound pattern. The sound pattern is stored A
d
i
ith it
d tt
Th
d tt
i t d
together with the lexical and grammatical meaning in the mental lexicon. • The lexical meaning of words like dog, mistake, noise, thought, structure etc. are a mental descriptions, concepts for an entity. If Mary recognizes the concept described by the meaning of dog, she can figure out that the DP the dog refers to Ken.
• Mary can figure out the referent of the dog because of the definite Mary can figure out the referent of the dog because of the definite
article the. The definite determiner the signals that the description supplied by dog applies to an object in the given CoU which the discourse participants are supposed to be able to sort out.
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¾ MEANINGS OF SENTENCES AS SITUATION CONCEPTS
(1) The dog has ruined my blue skirt.
• If Mary composes the expression meaning of (1),
(1) she gets a
complex concept which combines all the elements of the sentence
meaning. This complex concept is called a situation concept.
• The essential concept of this situation concept is the concept 'ruin' contributed to by the verb ruin. It connects 'dog' and 'blue skirt' in a particular way.
ti l
Th
The predicate ruin denotes a concept for an event of di t
i d
t
tf
t f
the kind 'x ruins y'. It involves three elements: the event itself, i.e. the potential situation, the ruiner
p
x and the ruined object y.
j y
argument structure of ruin:
x ruin y, ruin (x), (y), ruin (y), (x)
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• Situation concept of (1): The dog has ruined my blue skirt.
( )
The total situation concept, which is described by the expression meaning of the sentence:
meaning of the sentence: The event is described as one of ruining, the ruiner is described as a dog that is identifiable in the
the ruiner is described as a dog that is identifiable in the given CoU, the ruined object is described as a blue skirt linked to the speaker. The present perfect contributes the specification that the situation at the time of utterance results from a previous
situation at the time of utterance results from a previous event.' ¾ A situation concept
p is also called p
proposition.
opos o
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2 Descriptive meaning and reference,
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• Summing up:
– The meaning of a word (content word) is a concept that provides a mental description of a certain kind of entity
– The meaning of a sentence is a concept that provides a mental description of a certain kind of situation
mental description of a certain kind of situation
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social and expressive meaning 2.2
Meaning and reference
¾ Descpriptive and referential meaning for XPs
(1)The dog has ruined my blue skirt.
Referent Referent in S1
Referent
Referent in S1
type
Referring
element
Syntactic
category
object
object
the dog
my blue skirt
DP
DP
ruin
present perfect
VP
IP
event
time
<the dog>
<the speaker‘s
blue skirt
skirt>
<… ruining …>
utterance time
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2 Descriptive meaning and reference,
social and expressive meaning
• Content words have potential referents. There are referents for nouns, for verbs and even for adjectives and adverbials. dj ti
d d bi l
Adjectives and adverbials, however, never have a referent of their own but they are always related to the referent of
of their own, but they are always related to the referent of some DP (noun) or CP (verb), respectively.
• The descriptive meaning of a content word is a concept for its potential referents.
potential referents.
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2 Descriptive meaning and reference,
social and expressive meaning
•
•
•
•
The concepts can be categorized:
h
b
d
– shirt: object
– ruin:
event
– blue:
property
The categories object, event, property can be regarded as abstract objects.
A content word refers to a particular entity in a CoU if this entity is given in this CoU.
Reference is enabled by functional elements:
– determiners for Noun Phrases: the, a, a certain, ...
, ,
,
– tense, mood, ... for sentences (Cps) Paul wishes Ben were with him
– sentential adverbials Anne has presumably forgotten the key
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2 Descriptive meaning and reference,
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¾ Descpriptive
Descpripti e and referential meaning for sentences
for sentences
(1) The dog has ruined my blue skirt. • Descriptive meaning
Recall: The descriptive meaning of a sentence is its propo‐
sition. A proposition is a concept that provides a mental de
de‐
scription of the kind of situation (situation concept) it
potentially refers to.
• Situation concept of (1):
The event is described as one of ruining, the ruiner is
described as a dog that is identifiable in the given CoU, the
ruined object is described as a blue skirt linked to the speaker.
speaker
The present perfect contributes the specification that the
situation at the time of utterance results from a previous
event.
event.'
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2 Descriptive meaning and reference,
social and expressive meaning
¾ Sit
Situation concepts can also be categorized (cf. Asher 1993):
ti
t
l b
t
i d ( f A h 1993)
• activity: run; John is running
is a temporally extended portion of a potentially larger event of
is a temporally extended portion of a potentially larger event of the same kind. It does not include the natural initial and final endpoints of the event. It denotes an indefinite temporal extension. extension
John's running lasted for hours. (container goes with indefinite temporal extension)
• state: know; Sheila knows French
are close to activities, but do not vary. Activities have different phases.
phases
cf. Sheila knows French (*Sheila is knowing French) and John is running
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2 Descriptive meaning and reference,
social and expressive meaning
– accomplishment: cross; Mary crosses the street
li h
M
h
is a temporally extended event containing its natural beginning and endpoint (i e it is not a proper part of any
beginning and endpoint (i.e. it is not a proper part of any event of the same kind). It denotes a definite temporal interval over which an event takes place.
Mary's crossing the street took 10 seconds. (container goes with definite temporal extension)
– achievement: win; Mary won the race
achievement: win; Mary won the race
is an instantaneous event whose beginning and endpoints are identical.
are identical.
Mary's winning the race happened at 10 o'clock (container with punctual temporal extension)
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2 Descriptive meaning and reference,
social and expressive meaning
• The categories (event types) can be regarded as abstract objects.
• A sentence refers to a particular situation (=event) in a particular CoU if this situation is given in this CoU Then the
particular CoU if this situation is given in this CoU. Then, the sentence, or its proposition, is true. It is false otherwise.
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expression
descriptive meaning
referent
type
bl skirt
blue
ki t
[[
[[a women‘s
‘ outer
t garmentt … which
hi h is
i blue]]
bl ]]
object
bj t
ruin
[[the event of destroying an object]]
event
I
[[thee referent
[[t
e e e t iss tthee spea
speaker]]
e ]]
object
dog
[[…]]
object
concept
( )
(1)
[[( )]] situation concept off (1)
[[(1)]] =
( )
situation
concept
(propsition)
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¾ Summary: Descriptive meaning and reference
• For a sentence
Th d
The descriptive meaning of a sentence, its proposition, is a i i
i
f
i
ii
i
concept that provides a mental description of the kind of situ‐ation it potentially refers to. The referent is a situation in a p
y
particular CoU which fits the decription.
• for a word The descriptive meaning of a word is a concept, which contributes to the descriptive sentence meaning. The referent is t ib t t th d
i ti
t
i Th
f
ti
an object of a particular CoU which fits the decription.
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2 Descriptive meaning and reference,
social and expressive meaning
¾ A sentence is true if all referents are fixed in CoU. If it is false, at least one referent cannot be fixed.
(1) There is a letter for you.
There is a letter for you
This is not true since there is not any letter.
(2) Mary puts Tom
Mary puts Tom'ss letter onto the table.
letter onto the table.
This is not true since Mary is not there, but Anne.
,
This is not true since it is not Tom's letter, but Bill's.
This is not true since Mary puts it in her bag.
This is not true since Mary is sleeping.
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2 Descriptive meaning and reference,
social and expressive meaning
social and expressive meaning
¾ Denotations and truth conditions
The denotation of a content word is the category, or set, of all it
its potential referents.
t ti l f
t
semiotic triangle
means
descriptive meaning (concept)
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content
content word
determines
denotes
denotation
(category)
2 Descriptive meaning and reference,
social and expressive meaning
social and expressive meaning
¾ Denotations and truth conditions
The truth conditions of a sentence are the conditions under which it is true.
hi h it i t
semiotic triangle
sentence
denotes
means
descriptive meaning (complex concept/
(complex concept/
proposition/
situation type)
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determines
denotation
(truth conditions/
(truth conditions/
situation)
2 Descriptive meaning and reference,
social and expressive meaning
2.3 Social meaning
• Social meaning relates to the social relationship among the di
discourse participants. It is on a par with descriptive meaning: ti i
t It i
ith d
i ti
i
it is part of the lexical meaning of certain words, phrases or grammatical forms If an expression has social meaning it has
grammatical forms. If an expression has social meaning, it has so independently of the particular CoU.Word expressions, grammatical form.
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
Your coffee, please! Thank you.
Möchten Sie einen Kaffee, Herr Zobel?
Möchtest Du einen Saft, Frank?
Hi!
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2 Descriptive meaning and reference,
social and expressive meaning
2.4 Expressive meaning
2
4E
i
i
Expressive meaning relates to emotions which are expressed lexically or grammatically It is on a par with descriptive and
lexically or grammatically. It is on a par with descriptive and social, and grammatical meaning.
¾ Expressives:
• Interjections and exclamations
(1) Gosh!
(2) Goddammit!
G dd
it!
(3) Jesus!
(4) Ouch!
(5) That hurts!
(6) What a bitch she is!
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2 Descriptive meaning and reference,
social and expressive meaning
¾ Attitude expressions
(1) Hopefully Bob will arrive tonight. ‐ Really?
(2) I hope Bob will arrive tonight. ‐
Ih
B b ill i t i ht Really?
R ll ?
(3) Unfortunately, John has not passed the examen.
¾ Swear words
Swear words
(4) But me, my eyes are wide fuckin' open.
(5) What the fuck does that mean?
What the fuck does that mean?
(6) Any of you fuckin' pricks move and I'll execute every motherfuckin' last one of you.
¾ Expressives do not make additions to the propositional content. They add an emotional charge to the whole utterance or to particular parts of the utterance.
tterance or to partic lar parts of the tterance
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