An Introduction to Semantics
Fundamental Concepts in Semantics
Definitions
"Semantics is the branch of linguistics that mainly concerns with
how the ‘meanings’ are conveyed by the linguistics system consisting of
different units, structures like morpheme, words, phrases and sentences. It is
the knowledge encoded in the vocabulary of the language and in its
patterns for building more elaborate meanings up to the level of sentence
meanings."
“Semantics is the toolkit for the study of the meanings of words and
sentences at the linguistics or non-linguistic levels.”
What is meaning?
Ogden and Richards (1923) define the term
‘meaning’ in their book “The Meaning
of Meaning”.
“Meaning is
an intrinsic property of something or words related to that words in the
dictionary or connotations of a word.”
“Meaning is
the thing to which the speaker of that word refers or should refer to which the
speaker of that word believes himself to be referring or the hearer of that word
believes is being referred.”
Words & Meaning
A.
Can I have your pen to write my phone number?
B.
I have a red pen.
|
Words |
Meaning |
|
Pen” is a noun, Name of concept for pen is just
pen. Words are names for their
meanings, so we could say pen means pen. |
Concepts of pen are meanings. Pen is an apparatus for writing. Part of knowledge or concept
|
|
Sense |
Referent |
|
Meaning of a word that lives permanently in the dictionary is sense. Meaning of the words “Pen” is its sense. A word’s sense does not change every time the word takes on a new referent. Regardless of whether the referent of queen is Elizabeth II or Margrethe, its sense is something like ‘female reigning monarch’. However, that ‘female reigning monarch’ is not the only sense of the word queen. Another sense of queen is ‘second highest ranking piece in a game of chess’ |
Thing referred to is called the referent. Varies from occasion to occasion A referent is the particular thing, person, place, etc. An expression stands for on a particular occasion of use, It changes each time the word is applied to a different object or situation in the world. |
Sense & Referent
Reference
There are two types
of reference, speaker's reference and linguistic reference.
Speaker-reference is
what the speaker is referring to by using some linguistic expression. E.g. here
comes my love Elizabeth….( dear & close). It is pragmatic in nature.
Linguistic-reference is the systematic denotation of some linguistic expression as part of a language. e.g. here comes Queen Elizabeth refers in fact to the public figure Queen Elizabeth. It is semantic/dictionary meaning in nature.
