Unit 3: Semantics, Pragmatics, Child Language Acquisition, Multimodality

Semantics

study of “meaning” and interpretation in context

Reference

extensional meaning; connection between morpheme/word (its semantics) and the “world” (some world)

Claudia Sheinbaum = “the first female president of Mexico”

Sense

meaning of the word with respect to the system of words to which it relates

-stream vs. river differentiates between similar concepts in language.

Field

category, title; words typically grouped into clusters of words which have systematic relationships and shared semantic features/components

ex) pets, utensils, furniture

features

specific characteristics

ex) bird: +feathers, -four legs, +beak

prototypes

the 1st thing you think of; the most familiar/generic example

-bird —> robin, cardinal, crow

nonprototypical bird ex: ostrich

natrual classes

organized according to prototypes and degrees of closeness to the prototypes

denotation

basic sense of a word; dictionary definition

blue = color

connotation

a word’s association with social attitude, evaluation, emotional affect, etc.

blue = feeling sad

scales of connotative discription

words often have essentially the same denotation, but different connotations

examples of words with same denotation but different connotation

vagrant vs. unhoused; try-hard vs. hard worker; weed vs. varmint

deviation from perception of the social norm is more likely to acquire a

negative connotation/bias

metaphor

uses one notion to understand or describe another;

mapping from a source domain to a target domain

conceptual mapping

an ordinary way of understanding our human universe

metaphors can be harder to understand for

non-native speakers

metaphors usually rely on ________mapping

conventional

metaphors may be virtually

unnoticed

ex) he’s feeling up today

conduit metaphor

talks about the process of communication;

ideas are objects, linguistic expressions are containers, and communication is sending/trasferring

conduit metaphor example

Am I getting the message across?

I’m putting thoughts into words.

orientational metaphor

relate to orientation prepositions

orientational metaphor example

I’m feeling up today

Stock market is down

ontological metaphor

maps concrete onto the abstract;

experiences (abstract) as objects (concrete) like containers

ontological metaphor example

inflation is backing us into a corner

Pragmatics

study of interpretation and use of sentences in context; the implication of the semantics

discourse

a context for pragmatics;

thematically and temporally connected sequence of utterances/written text

given

what can be assumed by the speaker

new

what cannot be assumed by the speaker

topic marking

what the utterance can be assumed to be “about”

speech acts

how sentences are used to do things which are non-linguistic; looks at the effect of the utterance

3 types of speech acts

1. representatives

2. performatives

3. directives

representatives

speaker is committed to truth of proposition (affirm, believe, conclude, deny, report)

-expressive/affective expression: express attitude or psychological state

-”I’m sorry to hear that”

performatives

performative verbs, aka declaratives perform an action

-the utterance is the action (bet, dare, promise, resign, quit, apologize)d

directives

commands, requests, etc

-Go home; go to page 6

indirect directives

semantically not directive, but pragmatically understood as a directive

ex)

• its cold in here = Close the window

• i wonder if Emma is coming home = tell me whether Emma is coming home

Presuppositions

info assumed by a sentence

examples of presuppostions

-Anna has the best advisor (presupposes that she has an advisor)

-Blake quit drinking (presupposes he drank b4)

cooperative principle/Grice maxims

quantity, quality, relevance, manner

quantity

give enough info but not too much

quality

be truthful; base on evidence

relevance

stay relevant to the topic

manner

be clear and perspicuous; avoid ambiguity and obscurity

perspicuous: clearly expressed or presented

Grice’s cooperative principle

assumption of obedience to the maxims in speaking fosters an interpretation beyond the literal meaning

2 types of linguistic competence

linguistic and communicative

Linguistic competence

ability to produce and understand well-formed, meaningful sentences (syntax, lexicon…)

Communicative competence

ability to use sentences appropriately in various communicative interactions (pragmatics, discourse, sociolinguistics)

speech act components

illocutionary force, locution, perlocution

illocutionary force

intended function (e.g., request, query, promise)

locution

form (e.g, declarative imperative)

perlocution

effect (e.g., obtaining requested object, transmitting informative)

Between linguistic forms and intentional functions it is not 1-1 mapping instead more like…

many to many

Often we require ______ to determine intention behind sentence

context

3 phases of development of speech acts:

perlocutionary, illocutionary, locutionary

Perlocutionary

(birth-10mths) Infants do things that have communicative effects (parents do things for them) but they do not necessarily intend their actions to be communicative

-cries do not intentionally signal request for care

Illocutionary

(10-12mths) infants come to understand that they can purposefully signal their desires to other people

-critical marker is use of eye-gaze

Locutionary

(12mths. --) behavior has communicative intentions and adultlike forms

-start to use language to communicate their intentions

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0-18 mths.

-bring object to adults to show them

-requests things or tries to gain attention using gesture (e.g., pointing)

-looks at speaker and make little responses when someone speaks

18mths-2yrs

-use of words or short phrases

-use of phrases for attention

-name things

-verbal turn taking

2-3.5yrs

-can take on role during “play”

-greater number of turn taking

-begins to recognize needs of others and speak differently to adult vs. child

-use of acknowledgment words towards speaker (e.g., yeh, mm")

-request for permission

-begin to correct others

-engage in simple story telling and making guesses of what might happen (inferencing)

4-5yrs

-can use terms correctly (e.g., this, that, here, there)

-discuss emotions and feelings more

-indirect requests (im hungry to request food)

-telling stories and sequences of events

5-6yrs

-even more development of story telling, such as main characters, plot, but still struggle with ending

-can make threats and give insults

-may praise others

-beginning to be able to make promises

Differences in conversation skill in kids vs adults

initiation, topic maintenance, conversation development, closing/ending, talking down to kid, staying present vs past/future oriented.

speech acts develop over the ____ year of life

1st

verbal turn-taking is an example of…

pragmatics

child language development

-children speak using this complicated system that language is with great fluency before they can do other complicated things like math etc.

-they are not governed by stimuli to speak such as hunger

(Patricia Kuhl) Babies take stats on…

the sounds of the language in their environment

Innateness hypothesis

genetic predisposition to learn language

-pre-wired for certain tasks (e.g. facial recognition)

-recognize phonemic contrasts (e.g. difference between ph, p and b

Critical period hypothesis

biologically determined time period during which development must take place

-window for language learning usually said to be closed around 5 years or after puberty

wild children show the idea of which hypothesis

critical period; they didn’t have good environment for language learning during the “window” so have issues with language

wild child Victor

raised by animals until discovered around 12 yrs

-learned some skills and [creative] language comprehension

-unknown if he had normal brain functions though; likely abandoned as “unsuitable” sadly :(

wild child Genie

raised in an abusive household and received no language input

-never developed adult like language abilities

Struggled with: phonological production, morphological production and syntactic language

Somewhat normal phonological and morphological discrimination

-never mastered syntactic rules or grammatical morphemes; tests suggested language processing in right hemisphere

telegraph speech

simplified form of speech only really containing verbs and nouns (genie’s speech)

Deaf people in an exclusively hearing community may be…

isolated making it hard to learning a full language

deaf people isolated led to not being able to use:

syntax and not being able to state basic personal info

-listeners often need background info to fill in missing gestures

NSL developed due to

the community they had an motivation to communicate with each other

NSL is a language due to

syntax (complex rules and constraints on language all humans share; organized/structure

Alan Alda participated in an EEG study in which they

injected gel into brain and placed electrodes on scalp to see where in the brain language is processed by reading the signals received

Location of vocab versus grammar

vocab found in different specific areas of both right and left hemisphere while grammar just left

Young children process vocab and grammar

everywhere until they get older

Bilingual people who learned English as second language during “critical period” show

similar brain patterns to those who are native English speakers

-different brain patterns for those who learned second language after “window”

Sensitive period

broader windows where your brains activity can be shaped

-can improve and mold brain, but doesn’t have irreversible effects like critical period

What type of study did Deb Roy do on his baby?

case study, gib data, longitudinal, observational (continuous film of household)

What did Deb Roy find from recordings of inside home?

wordscapes: where words were said (e.g., water)

gaga —> water

Feedback loop: caregivers decreased utterances as child was acquiring new word as a way of scaffolding

Multimodality

multiple modes to something

in language: gestures and sign language

[co-speech] Gesture

body motion which is temporally and structurally related to language production

Sign language

ex ASL

Types of gesture

beats, deictic, emblems, iconic gestures

beats (gesture)

marking rhythm or emphasis or level of affect

ex: Clinton’s hand motions during speeches

Deictic (gesture)

pointing to objects or locations

Emblems (gesture)

symbolize something

-OK sign, middle finger, clenched fist, peace sign

Iconic gestures

looks like what you are talking about

-ex: flapping arms to represent bird

sign language is or is not universal?

NOT universal

-differences in hand shape, location, palm orientation, facial expression, etc.

how did Black asl develop

in black deaf schools created after civil war

-segregated from whites so had their own community

black asl signers code switch by

changing expression and slang when talking to white people versus black people

Importance of black ASL

-use of EXTRALINGUISTIC information

• things beyond just the sign itself

• adds emphasis

• more extreme movements, body language, repetition(emphasis)

Why did the sign for phone change

new techonology

Why did the sign for dog change

for functionality (video chatting)

to take up less space

how did social media influence changes is ASL

things like slang or making it easier for viewers to follow created new signs or slight adjustments

Importance of keeping old signs in use

to communicate with older generations who may stick to what they are familiar with or find it hard to keep up with modern signing.