AN31005BA - Semantics and Pragmatics
Spring 2017
Institute of English and American Studies
University of Debrecen
Instructor: Éva Kardos
SENSE, DENOTATION, AND TRUTH CONDITIONS
(based on Kearns 2000)
I. Introduction
The focus of this course: the discovery of literal meaning, which is the primary
objective of semantics. Meaning in a broader sense can also involve pragmatic
meaning, but we will not pay much to attention to pragmatics here.
In what follows we will be concerned with literal meaning at the level of words and
sentences.
II. How we can we define the meaning of a word?
a. by pointing to an object that is described by the word in question:
(1)
desk, book
b. by paraphrasing the meaning of the word:
(2)
linguistics, English
III. Lexical versus Structural Meaning
(3)
a. Ben who loved Mary wanted the Mercedes.
b. Mary who loved Ben wanted the Mercedes.
c. Ben who wanted Mary loved the Mercedes.
d. Mary who wanted Ben loved the Mercedes.
Q: Do human beings have an unrestricted capacity to produce language? How do we
know the answer to this question?
Compositionality: the property of being composed from parts.
Recursivity: the property of embedding a phrase inside another phrase of the same
kind, which allows for sentences to be extended in length indefinitely.
IV. Various kinds of meaning
a. denotation
When we specify the denotation of an expression, we determine what this expression
picks out in the world around us.
1
expression
the horse
type
noun phrase
horse
common noun
Barack Obama
name
break
intransitive verb
denotation
a particular equine entity,
the one referred to on a
particular occassion of
utterance
a set of animals, all of
them equines
Barack
Obama
(the
person)
the set of things that break
NB: the denotation of a noun phrase is also called its reference
b. sense
This may be more interesting than the term denotation, but sense is less clear than
denotation.
Let’s illustrate this:
(6)
a. the President of the United States of America
b. the CEO of Apple Inc.
c. smart
d. bird
NB: A word may have many senses. Dictionary definitions define sense. Names are
exceptional in this respect as they have reference.
different senses and identical denotations
Venus
the morning star
the Hungarian government
the evening star
the evening star
the President of the European Union
between January 1, 2011 and June 30,
2011
the year of Hungary’s EU accession
2004
c. two kinds of denotation: extension versus intension
We need to extend the term denotation. In order to do this, we need to introduce the
notions actual world and possible world.
the actual world: the world we live in
a possible world: an alternative to the actual world
word
cat
red
extension
the set of all cats in the
actual world
the set of all red things in
the actual world
2
intension
the set of all cats in all
possible worlds
the set of all red things in
all possible worlds
yell
the set of all creatures that the set of all creatures that
yell in the actual world
yell in all possible worlds
A quick illustration:
extension
Egon
Mozart
Becky
barks
dog
SVal(Egon) = Egon
SVal(Mozart) = Mozart
SVal(Becky) = Becky
SVal(barks) = the set of creatures that bark
SVal(dog) = Egon, Jeremy, Becky
intension
w1
w2
w3
w4
Jeremy, Mozart, Becky
Jeremy, Becky
Mozart, Becky
Jeremy, Becky, Rex
The table above is the intension of the word dog. The table is of course incomplete.
V. What is sentence meaning?
(7)
Peter runs.
The extension of a sentence: its truth value, true or false.
For example, the sentence Peter runs is true if and only if Peter is a member of the set
of creatures that run.
The intension of a sentence: the set of all possible worlds in which that sentence is true.
the intension of Queen Elizabeth II
w1
w2
w3
Queen Elizabeth II
Queen Elizabeth II
Queen Elizabeth II
the intension of the Head of the Commonwealth
w1
w2
w3
Queen Elizabeth II
Queen Ann II
Queen Mary II
the intension of Queen Elizabeth II smiles
w1
w2
w3
true
true
true
3
the intension of the Head of the Commonwealth smiles
w1
w2
w3
true
false
false
The truth value of a sentence stays the same when expressions with identical
denotations are substituted into it.
VI. Compositional semantics
Let’s illustrate this with the sentence Mary smiles.
Step 1: Provide the syntactic rules for the sentence.
Step 2: Illustrate how this sentence is interpreted.
VII. Homework
Provide the interpreted tree for the following sentence. Use extensions.
(8)
Ann smiles and Mary laughs.
4