Semantics and Pragmatics

Semantics vs. pragmatics

semantics → concerned w/ literal meanings, lexical → indiv works, compositional → meaning based on syntax, pragmatics → relationship btwn meaning + context (ex. it’s cold in here = please close the window)

Different types of meanings

semantic meaning → literal meaning of words put together according to syntax, speaker’s meaning → what words intent to communicate + not always literal

Lexical semantics

study of word meaning, study content word meaning not so much grammatical words, meaning broken down into smallest components possible (words + morphemes)

Ambiguity

word w/ multiple meanings, ex. I walked to the bank

Polysemy

word w/ multiple related meanings, most words to some extent, ex. ahead: there’s a storm ahead of us (location) vs. there’s trouble ahead (in the future)

Synonomy

two words (or phrases/sentences) w/ same semantic meaning, ex. big vs large

Antonymy

opposite in semantic meaning, complementary → married vs. unmarried, alive vs. dead, scalar → wet vs. dry, old vs. young

Hyponymy + hypernymy

relationship between two concepts where one is more specific than another, hyponym = more specific element, ex. poodle, hypernym = less specific element, ex. dog

Gradability

measure property along a scale, non-gradable = very dead, gradable = very cold

Ambiguity

multiple semantic meanings, ex. bright - sun is bright vs. student is bright

Tautology

sentence that must be true, ex. if fluffy is a dog → fluffy must be an animal

Contrariness

two sentences both can’t be true at once, ex. Rex is a dog vs Rex is a cat

Contradiction

sentence cannot be true, ex. It is bright outside and it is dark outside

Entailment

truth of sentence A ensures truth of sentence B, then A entails B, ex. John has traveled to every European country → John has been to France

Compositionality

semantic meaning of any unit of lang deter by semantic meanings of its parts along w/ way they are put together, ex. he wants pizza → [he[PRES[want pizza]]], thematic (theta) roles → describe roles which subject/other arguments have in action described by a verb, agent = doer of action, patient = entity undergoing effect of some action (often change in state), theme = entity which is moved by action, experiencer = entity aware of action/state described by predicate but not in control, beneficiary = entity for whose benefit action was performed, instrument = means by which action is performed, location = place in which something is situated, goal = entity towards which something moves, source = entity from which something moves

Truth conditions

meaning of a declarative sentence, ex. know “this is a white flag” = know which picture of flag is white

Idioms

compositionally does not always tell us what sentence means, literal meaning vs. intended meaning, ex. I gave her a piece of my mind

Thematic grid

way to represent arguments selected by verb, modifiers not associated w/ role in verb’s thematic grid, represents roles selected by verb in lexicon, ex. Sandra gave the book to him → Give: <agent, theme, goal>, ex. Jesse cooked dinner for Mary → Cook: <agent, patient>, beneficiary: not in grid (modifier = not needed in sentence)

Logical words

Sentences may be modified and connected using words like not (reverse truth value of sentence), and (join two sentences true ONLY IF both component sentences true), or (join two sentences true ONLY IF one component sentences true), truth values can be manipulated using these words

Pragmatics

study of meaning arises from lang use/lang in context, ex. It’s cold in here → temp is low OR close the window, speaker meaning = rules for speaking not always followed, 

Context dependency

indexicals → words whose meanings dep on context of use, deixis → gen concept, anaphor = get meaning from surrounding lang, demonstratives = deictic word w/ implicit/explicit pointing gesture, indexicals → refer to one of essential components of context (speaker, addressee, time of utterance, place of utterance)

Presupposition

proposition speaker must take for granted if what they say is to be appropriate for context of use, ex. James quit smoking → James was a smoker

Implicature

meanings above and beyond literal/semantic meaning of sentence that arise due to gen principles of conversation, ex. It’s raining → bring an umbrella, conversational → I have five children (implies no more than five), conventional → He is tall, but he is agile (contrast between being tall and agile)

Cooperative principle

speaker’s meaning calcu on basis of semantic meaning + assumption that speakers behav rationally/cooperatively (according to set of maxims)

Gricean maxims

1. maxim of quality: be truthful, 2. maxim of quantity: give as much info as req but no more, 3. maxim of relevance: be relevant, 4. maxim of manner: be clear + orderly, ***speakers can follow/flout (create implicatures), violate (may lead to misunderstandings/deception)

Expressive meaning

ineffable, speaker-oriented, convey feelings/attitude about something, That jerk ate my last bagel → express feeling about person = jerk

Social meaning

involves social relation between speaker + someone else

Semantics vs. pragmatics

semantics → compositional, following syntax w/ some context-dependency, pragmatics → derived in principled way, speaker meaning

Discourse analysis

study of lang use above (phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax) and beyond (investig lang as it is used in situated real-world contexts) the sentence, descriptive NOT prescriptive, consider: setting, participants (relationships and identities), ends (purpose of event), act (what happens), key (tone of exchange), instrumentalities (mode of communic), norms (expectations regarding behav), genre (type of event), *enhanced context compared to pragmatics, part of sociolinguistics, intersec at ling, sociology, anthropology

Approaches to language

structural approach → focus on struc of lang as a grammar, focus on uniform/universal aspects of lang, lang = referential, uniformity of speakers/comms, functional approach → struc of speech as ways of speaking, assumes range of functionos/styles/repertoires, focuses on what ppl use lang to do, investig variations among speakers/comms

Functions of language

referential → ppl use lang convey info, also: construc identities (ex. nerds, jocks), comms/comm memberships (jargon), display/construc/neg relationships, convey emotions/attitudes

Kinds of discourse

spoken, sign-based, textual forms of communic, naturally-occurring (would occur if researcher not studying), consider paraling cues (pitch/voice quality) + multimodal features (gestures + eye gaze)

Collect and analyze data in discourse analysis

collect audio (+ visual) recordings of everyday conversations, must have ethical consent, transcript → written version of recorded interactions