Semantics What is Semantics Origins Definitions Issues Etymology

Semantics

What is Semantics? • Origins • Definitions • Issues

Etymology • Semaino - Semiotics • Semantikos • Sema • Teche

Perspectives • 1. Philosophical • 2. Linguistic

COURSE CONTENTS • • • Perspectives of Understanding Meaning Definition of Meaning Relationships ( Lexical/Sense Relations) Word vs. Sentence Meaning Literal and Non-literal Meaning and the Human Mind Meaning and Contexts Word Meaning and Syntactic Rules Universality of Meaning Change

Sense

• Semantic feature – Semantic feature analysis • Meaning component – Componential analysis

Semantic Feature Analysis, • the description of the meaning of words through structured sets of semantic features, using the binary feature given as + , - or + / -

SEMANTIC FEATURES/SEMANTIC COMPONENTS • Meaning of a word is a complex of different semantic features (also semantic primitives/primes). There are semantic units smaller than the meaning of a word. • boy = HUMAN, YOUNG and MALE • girl = HUMAN, YOUNG and FEMALE • man = HUMAN, ADULT and MALE • woman = HUMAN, ADULT and FEMALE

• • YOUNG and ADULT combined as ADULT YOUNG = –ADULT MALE and FEMALE combined as MALE FEMALE = –MALE

• Proposition • Utterance • Sentence

• ANALYTIC SENTENCE - one that is necessarily true as a result of the senses of the words in it.

• Analytical sentences/propositions – tacit agreement about the senses of its words – always true – Tautology (useless repetition? ? ) • Synthetic sentences/propositions – can be sometimes true, sometimes false

• A CONTRADICTION is a sentence that is necessarily FALSE, as a result of the senses of the words in it. Thus a contradiction is in a way the opposite of an analytic sentence.

• SYNTHETIC sentence is one which may be either true or false by virtue of the way the world is.

• Circle A for analytic, or S for synthetic, as appropriate. For some, you will have to imagine relevant situations. • • (1) John’s brother is nine years old A/S • (2) John’s nine-year-old brother is a boy A/S • (3) Sam’s wife is married A/S • (4) Sam’s wife is not German A/S • (5) My watch is slow A/S • (6) My watch is a device for telling the time A/S

Circle the following sentences A for analytic, S for synthetic or C for contradiction, as appropriate. For some you will have to imagine relevant situations. (1) That girl is her own mother’s mother A / S / C (2) The boy is his own father’s son A/S/C (3) Alice is Ken’s sister A/S/C (4) Some typewriters are dusty A/S/C (5) If it breaks, it breaks A/S/C (6) John killed Bill, who remained alive for many years after A/S/C