1
Semantics &
Pragmatics
2
Types of meaning



Word meaning
(Lexical meaning)
Sentence meaning (Structural meaning)
Meaning in context (Pragmatics)
1 Chien is French for ‘dog’.
2 The mailman bit the dog.
3 To the airport. Fast.
Referent vs. Sense
Who/what a word or phrase stands for in the world
• Barrack Obama refers to
• The U.S. president refers to
• Yet the phrases The U.S. president and Barrack
Obama have different senses.
• Compare: The phrase the birthday boy has the constant sense
“a guy who was born on this date”, but the set of
people it refers to changes every day.
Shifting reference
• Pronouns like I, you, he, she, it, we, and
they have shifting referents. (They refer to
different entities any time they are used.)
it
you
I
refers to whatever entity I have in mind.
refers to whomever I am addressing.
refers to whoever is doing the talking.
Lexical semantics
• Capture systematic relations between word
meanings by semantic features:
[adult]
[male]
[human]
[married]
Man Boy Girl Woman Bachelor
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
o
o
o
o
-
The -Nyms
• Synonyms
- same meaning
• Antonyms
- opposite meaning
• Hyponyms
- subclass of a category
• Homonyms - sound the same
• Homographs - spelled the same
Synonyms
• Examples:
car - automobile
fall - autumn
buy - purchase
• There are no complete synonyms.
- different style/register
- different dialects
- different evaluation
- different collocations
- near synonyms
(spit - expectorate)
(bucket - pail)
(thrifty - stingy)
(sour milk - *sour butter)
(loose - inexact - free - lax)
Antonyms
•
Complementary pairs: [negate each other]
dead - alive, present - absent, male - female
•
Gradable pairs:
[more or less]
young - old, big - small, poor - rich
[Intermediate terms: hot > warm > cool > cold]
•
Relational opposites: [symmetrical endpoints]
teach - learn, doctor - patient, parent - child
Hyponyms
• Birch, oak, & pine are hyponyms of tree.
• Multiple levels: plant > tree > fir > pine
• Missing words:
Category
Male
Female
Non-adult
Sheep
dog
giraffe
ram
?
?
ewe
bitch
?
lamb
puppy
?
Homonyms
• Have no special meaning relationship at all.
• Accidentally look alike.
• Examples:
- flour, flower
- to, two, too
- school, school (of fish)
• Polysemy: One word with many meanings.
- mouse, computer mouse
Polysemy: cell
Denotation & connotation
• Denotation: Dictionary definition of a word.
• Connotations:
- Emotional shadings and attitudes towards a
word.
- May differ from person to person.
What is your attitude toward the following:
cop
whistleblower
informant
actress
Speech acts: Doing things with words
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
You’re fired. [Employment termination announcement]
I do. [Accepting marriage proposal]
I am sorry. [Apology]
I bet you $50 the Lakers are going to win. [Bet]
Hand me the screwdriver! [Command]
Can you fix it? [Question]
My windshield has a crack in it. [Statement]
Speech acts in action
You’re fired.
I do.
Indirect speech acts
•
•
•
•
•
•
Can you fix it? [as a request]
My windshield has a crack in it. [Request to a mechanic]
We may have to let you go, Bob. [cf. “You’re fired.”]
This room is a mess. [Command]
Have you cleaned up your room yet? [Command]
Children who don’t clean up their room don’t get
any ice cream. [Command, desperate version]
Messy room