英语语言学概论semantics

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课题名称（含教材章节）

：

Semantics

教学目的和要求：

了解并掌握语义学的定义、

语义学的 分支、有关意义的理论、语

义学的一些重要概念（

refere nce, denotation, referent, sense, extension,

intension,

concept

）

、意义的类型、意义的要素、成分分析理论、语义场理论、词

汇关系、决定句子意义的基本因素、句子之间的意义关系。

教学重点：

语义学的定义、语义学的分支、有关意义的理论、语 义学的一些重要概

念（

reference, denotation, referent, sense, extension, intension, concept

）

以及述位结构理论。

教学难点：

意义的类型、意义的要素、成分分析理论、语义场理论、词汇 关系、

决定句子意义的基本因素。

教

学

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容

（

要

点

）

Definition of semantics

Meanings of meaning

Theories of meaning

Word meaning

Componential analysis

Sentence meaning

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Definition of Semantics

?

Semantics: the subject concerning the study of meaning / the study of the

meaning of linguistic units, words and sentences in particular

?

英文

se mantics

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 。

Meanings of meaning

?

C. K. Ogden & I. A. Richards 1923

The Meaning of Meaning

22 types of

meaning

?

G. Leech 1974

Semantics

7 types of meaning:

?

1) conceptual meaning:

概念意义

?

2) connotative meaning:

内涵意义

?

3) social meaning:

社会意义

?

4) affective meaning:

感情意义

?

5) reflected meaning:

反射意义

?

6) collocative meaning:

搭配意义

?

7) thematic meaning:

主位意义

?

Reference

指称

?

Connotation and denotation:

内涵与外延

?

Human

?

Politician & statesman

?

Associative meaning

?

Thematic meaning, more peripheral (

外围的

)

Theories of meaning

?

The referential theory

指称论

?

The theory of meaning which relates the meaning of a word to the thing it

refers to, or stands for, is known as the referential theory.

?

古希腊哲学家柏拉图认为语言形式 是语言中的一个词，

语义是它所代表、

所指示、

所表示的世界上的实体

——

指称

（

referent

）

。比如

dog

这个词代

表了属于这一类的实体。

?

The most influential linguist Noam Chomsky teaches at MIT

.

?

Problems with this theory: the meaning of

desk

?

There is something behind the concrete thing we can see with our eyes. And

2

that something is abstract, which has no existence in the material world and

can only be sensed in our minds. This abstract thing is usually called

concept(

概念）

.

?

The semantic triangle

（语义三角）

proposed by Ogden and Richards in their

The Meaning of Meaning

. The relation between a word and a thing it refers to

is not direct. It is mediated by concept.

?

Richards invented the semantic triangle to demonstrate the relationship

between symbols and their referent (Griffen 60). One part of the triangle is

the symbol, or the word. An example would be a blanket. Another peak on

the triangle is the thought. This is the words that one would use to describe

the referent such as warm, cozy, cotton. The referent, the last part, is the

thing that one would picture in his mind. Richards feels that the Semantic

Triangle applies to all words.

?

The indirect theory

?

Leech uses SENSE(

涵义

) (

系统意义）

as a briefer term for his conceptual

meaning. “Sense” may be used in the same way as “connotation” is used in

philosophy. It may refer to the properties an entity has. In this sense, “sense”

is equivalent to “concept”. The definition of

desk

may also be called the

sense of desk.

?

The distinction between “sense”

（系统意义）

and “reference”

（指称意义）

is comparable to that between “connotation” and “denotation”. The former

refers to the abstract properties of an entity, while the later refers to the

concrete entities having these properties.

?

Leech’s conceptual meaning has two sides: sense and reference.

?

Another difference between sense and reference: Every word has a sense, i. e.

some conceptual content.

?

But not every word has a reference. Grammatical words like

but

,

if, and

do

not refer to anything. And words like

unicorn, Santa Claus , God, ghost ,

fairy, demon

and

dragon

refer to imaginary things, which do not exist in

reality. Abstract words like

sincerity,

love

don’t have a concrete referent in

the world.

?

What is more, it is not convenient to explain the meaning of a word in terms

of the thing it refers to.

?

We should study meaning in terms of sense rather than reference.

?

不同的人对于同一个词的脑中意象 是不一样的，例如

lecture

这个词，学

< br>3

生脑中的意象可能是一 个人站在黑板前讲话，教师脑中的意象可能是一

排排的学生面对他坐着听讲以及粉笔拿在 手里的感觉。学生脑中的意象

不同于教师脑中的意象。

?

Sense relations

?

Words are in different sense relations with each other. Some words have

similar senses than others.

desk, table, furniture

?

The sense of a word may be seen as the network of its sense relations with

others. Sense may be defined as the semantic relations between one word and

another, or more generally between one linguistic unit and another. It is

concerned with the intra-linguistic relations.

?

一个词的系统意义通过与别的词的对照关系表现出来。

例如，

ram

的指称

意义在于它指世界上为雄性的羊，

ewe

的制称意义在于它指世界上 为雌

性的羊。

我们如果把

ram

和

ewe

放在一起对照比较就会看出

ram

和

ewe

的系< /p>

统意义，它们分别指特定性别的羊。

?

Reference is concerned with the relation between a word and the thing it

refers to, or more generally between a linguistic unit and a non-linguistic

entity it refers to.

?

There are three kinds of sense relations: sameness relation, oppositeness

relation and inclusiveness relation.

?

1) Synonymy: the technical term for the sameness relation

?

Total synonyms are rare. Synonyms are context dependent. They differ in

one way or another.

?

Differ in style:

buy, purchase; pass away, die

?

Differ in connotations:

thrifty, economical, stingy; politician, statesman

?

Differ in dialects:

autumn, fall; flat, apartment; elevator, lift; sweets, candy;

biscuit, cracker; railway, railroad; ring, call

?

2) Antonymy: the name for opposite relation

?

A. Gradable antonymy: the commonest type of antonymy

good, bad;

long, short; big, small; hot, cold; beautiful, ugly; old, young; wide, narrow;

like, dislike

?

Three characteristics:

?

a. They are gradable. The members of a pair differ in terms of degree. The

denial of one is not necessarily the assertion of the other. They can be

modified by “very”.

Very young, how old.

They may have comparative and

superlative degrees. Sometimes the intermediate degrees may be lexicalized.

4

They may be expressed by separate words rather than by adding modifiers.

medium, warm, cool, lukewarm

?

b. Antonyms of this kind are graded against different norms. There is no

absolute criterion by which we may say something is

good

or

bad

,

long

or

short

,

big

or

small

. The criterion varies with the object described.

A big car

,

a small plane; a microcomputer, microorganism

?

c. One member of a pair, usually the term for the higher degree, serves as the

cover term.

How old are you?

The cover term is “unmarked”, i.e. usual, and

the covered

“marked”, or unusual.

?

B. Complementary antonymy:

?

The members of a pair in this type are complementary to each other.

alive,

dead; male, female; present, absent; innocent, guilty; odd, even; pass, fail;

hit, miss; boy, girl

?

They divide up the whole of a semantic field completely. The assertion of

one means the denial of the other, and the denial of one means the assertion

of the other. There is no intermediate ground between the two.

?

The adjectives in this type cannot be modified by “very”.

very alive, very

dead

?

The adjectives in this type do not have comparative or superlative degrees.

He is more dead than alive.

?

The difference between the gradable and the complementary can be

compared to the traditional logical distinction between the contrary and the

contradictory.

?

In logic, a proposition is the contrary of another if both cannot be true,

though they may both be false, e.g.

The coffee is hot

and

The coffee is cold

.

And a proposition is the contradictory of another if it is impossible for both

to be true, or false; e.g.

This is a male cat

and

This is a female cat

. See the

digram on Page 166.

?

The norm in complementary antonymy is absolute. It does not vary with the

thing a word is applied to. The same norm is used for all the things it is

applicable to.

For example, the criterion for separating the male from the

female is the same with human beings and animals.

?

There is no cover term for the two members of a pair of complementary

antonymy. If you do not the sex of a baby, you ask “Is it a boy or a girl?” n

ot

“How male is it?”

?

C. Converse antonymy

反向反义关系

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