Lecture 5 Semantics.doc

1Lecture 5: SemanticsLanguage without meaning is meaningless.Roman JakobsonWhat is semantics? Approaches to meaning Sense and referenceWord/lexical meaning Kinds of meaning Major sense relationsSentence meaning Semantic analysisComponential analysis Predication analysis英文 semantics 来自希腊语 semantikos，意思是 siginificant(有意义)是研究语言意义的科学词的意义和句子意义. 20 世纪 60 年代以前，语言学家只注重研究词的意义，忽略了句子意义研究语言单位的意义，尤其是词语和句子的意义 What is semantics? Semantics--the study of the meaning of linguistic units, words and sentences in particular.Meaning is central to the study of communication.What is meaning?-- Scholars under different scientific backgrounds have different understandings of language meaning. Philosophers are mainly interested in the relation between linguistic expressions, such as the words of a language, and persons, things, and events in the world to which these words refer. Within the domain of linguistics, semantics is mainly concerned with the analysis of meaning of words, phrases, or sentences and sometimes with the meaning of utterances in discourse or the meaning of a whole text. Some approaches to meaning Naming theory (Plato) The conceptualist view Contextualism Behaviorism (Bloomfield) Naming theory (Plato)命名说Words are names or labels for things.该理论是把词看作所指事物的名称 Limitations: 1) Applicable to nouns only.2) There are nouns which denote things that do not exist in the real world, e.g. ghost, dragon, unicorn, phenix…3) There are nouns that do not refer to physical objects but abstract notions, e.g. joy, impulse, hatred…The conceptualist view 概念说, 意念说The conceptualist view holds that there is no direct link between a linguistic form and what it refers to (i.e. between language and the real world); rather, in the interpretation of meaning they are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind.意念论认为词汇与该词汇所指的事物之间的关系不是直接的，而是间接的，是靠人脑中的意念来连接的。

词汇是通过意念来指称事物，意念便是词汇的意义 Ogden and Richards: semantic triangleSymbol/form2word/phrase/sentenceReferent/object in the world of experienceThought/reference/conceptThe symbol or form refers to the linguistic elements (words and phrases);The referent refers to the object in the world of experience;Thought or reference refers to concept.The symbol or a word signifies things by virtue of the concept associated with the form of the word in the minds of the speaker; and the concept looked at from this point of view is the meaning of the word. 意念便是词汇的意义。

This theory avoids many of the problems the naming theory has encountered. 可以通过概念，把词语与真实世界中不存在但可能世界中有的被指物联系起来 But it also raises a completely new problem of its own. For what is precisely the link between the symbol and the concept remain unclarified.并未对“概念”明确定义，用概念这种不可测量的心理状态来刻画词义，似乎有用一个未知数去代替另一个未知数的嫌疑再者，and, because, to 等功能词有时并不与相应的概念直接发生关系The contextualism 语境论 (Firth) Meaning should be studied in terms of situation, use, context--elements closely linked with language behavior.只有场合、使用、或语境等才能决定语言的意义。

Firth held the view that ‘We shall know a word by the company it keeps.’ 我们只有从词语的伴侣哪里来知晓词义伴侣指的是词语前后的词语或其周围词语所构成的微观语境Two types of contexts are recognized:Situational context: spatiotemporal situationLinguistic context: the probability of a word’s co-occurrence or collocation.situational context 四个核心因素：the speaker and the hearer; 讲话人和听话人the actions they are performing at the time; 当时双方在做的事情various external objects and events; 其他外在的事件或事物deictic features. 指示成分 （语境中的代词）linguistic context：It considers the probability of one word’s co-occurrence or collocation with another, which forms part of the meaning, and an important factor in communication. “black hair ” and “black coffee”Behaviorism 行为主义论/语义行为论Behaviorists attempted to define meaning as “the situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer”.行为主义论和语境论的相似之处，行为主义论也把语义放到语境中去研究，但它更注重人的心理活动，认为语言的意义存在于语言使用者在交际过程中对所接受的话语的反应。

The story of Jack and Jill:Jill JackS_________r--------s_________R语义必须考虑所有的因素（如场合和促成话语的生理、生物、化学、物理等变化和动因） ，这些不可能搞清楚的话，那么对语义的解释就非常有限既不能直接被观察，也不能被有效地论证，故在语言研究中只好抛弃语义，把精力主要集中在结构上mentalism 心灵说通过内省把不能直接被观察到的概念，上升到形式分析的高度，对古典概念说不可忽略的重大突破3Chomsky 生成语法 ST 模式的语义解释部分、 Katz 等人分解语义学Sense and reference 意向与指称 (Frege) are both concerned with the study of word meaning. They are two related but different aspects of meaning.是词语意义的两个相关但不同的方面Sense-- is concerned with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form. It is the collection of all the features of the linguistic form; it is abstract and de-contextualized. It is the aspect of meaning dictionary compilers are interested in.一系列抽象语义特征的集合，与语境无关，可以在字典中查到 Reference--what a linguistic form refers to in the real, physical world; it deals with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience.是语言形式在现实物质世界中所指的事物；它涉及语言形式与非语言的现实世界之间的关系。

词语有指称能力，具有指向世界中其被指物的能力词语的意向，是词语在语言体系内或语言内部的价值，表示的是语言体系内诸词语之间的彼此制约关系，这是语义的一个重要方面Words, phrases, and sentences generally have sense, which is a part of their meaning.By knowing the sense of an expressi。