Symbols in Language and Meaning

Symbols in Language

• What we study in Linguistics:
  • The form and structure of language
  • The organization & expression of meaning
  • The relationship between language and culture
  • The abstract and computational representation of language

Language in Life

• This course:
  • Language as an artifact of culture
  • Language as a computational system
  • The links between the two
• Culture:
  • The beliefs and practices shared by some community (including language).
• Computational system:
  • A system that combines and arranges symbols.

Symbols and Meaning

• Symbol:
  • Some physical object that represents a concept other than itself.
  • Written and spoken words are both symbols.
• Conceptual space:
  • Range of all real & imaginable existence.
• Language:
  • A symbolic system that allows us to communicate about anything from conceptual space.
  • Studying linguistics entails studying the many nuances of these systems.
• Meaning:
  • The interface between symbols and conceptual space.

Meaning and Language

• Conceptual Space:
  • Everything in existence + everything imaginable.
• Meaning:
  • Acts as an intermediary.
• Form:
  • Linguistic expressions (words and phrases).

Symbols

• Features of (some) symbols:
  • Arbitrariness
  • Abstractness

Symbols - Arbitrariness

• Arbitrariness:
  • The form of a symbol is independent of what it represents.
  • Example: The word "duck" is arbitrary.
  • A duck-shaped symbol is not arbitrary.
  • The opposite of arbitrary is iconic.
  • Almost all symbols of language are arbitrary.

Symbols - Consequences of Arbitrariness

• Some consequences of arbitrariness:
  • Polysemy & homophony
    • Words may have more than one meaning
  • Language change
    • Meaning & pronunciation changes over time

Symbols - Abstractness

• Abstractness:
  • The form of a symbol is simpler than what it represents
    • Most abstract: the word duck
    • A duck-like emoticon <(˚)
    • A duck-shaped symbol
    • Least abstract: a detailed image
  • The opposite of abstract is concrete.
  • All symbols of language are abstractions.

Symbols - Layers of Representation

• Language uses multiple layers of symbolic representation
  • Words: linguistic forms that have content / semantic meaning
    • Free standing & minimal in structure
  • Phonemes: sounds used to assemble words
    • "Duck" is made from 3 phonemes

Symbols - Phonemes and Glyphs

• Phonemes:
  • Sounds used to assemble words
• Glyphs:
  • Written characters that represent phonemes, syllables, or whole words
  • Examples:
    • "duck" [dʌk]
    • "&" and [ænd]
    • "3" three [θriː]

Symbols - Multiple Layers and Properties

• All languages rely on multiple layers of symbols
  • Words, phonemes, etc.
• Symbolic relationships differ across cultures
• The number of symbols is finite
• Additional properties of linguistic symbols:
  • Combinatorial: Symbols may combine into more complex structures
  • Discreteness: You can identify separate parts; same components may be used in multiple structures

Ambiguity

• A situation in which a symbol has multiple possible interpretations
• Any symbol can be ambiguous

Ambiguity - Implications

• Implications:
  • Arbitrariness and abstractness are distinct
  • Iconic symbols can still be misunderstood
  • Symbols can be ambiguous

Kinds of Meaning

• Semantics
• Pragmatics
• Indexical meaning
• Metaphor
• Cultural meaning

Semantics

• The meaning retrievable from expressions (words, phrases, and sentences)
• …irrespective of other context

Semantics - Lexical Semantics

• Lexical semantics:
  • Meanings of words
  • Example: ‘duck’
    • Bird with webbed feet that is adept at water
    • More or less waterproof
    • Quacks
• Lexicalization
  • Complex concept expressed as single units
    • palm; wine
  • Phrasal expression
    • back of the hand; fermented juice

Semantics - Propositional Semantics

• Propositional semantics:
  • Meanings of complex elements (combinations of ordered, meaningful symbols)
  • Example:
    • The duck gave the goose a puppy.
    • The puppy gave the duck a goose.

Pragmatics

• Additional meaning that can be reconstructed from an expression
• Relies on knowledge of how people use language
• Interpretation of symbols depends on context

Pragmatics - Examples

• Examples:
  • Wow that’s really loud!
  • Can you name a movie about a submarine?
  • I just had lunch (← Are you hungry?)
  • Extra meaning does not come from extra symbols

Indexical Meaning

• The social meaning that can be found in expressions
• Knowledge about identity / background of speakers
• Form can differ and vary across groups
• Examples:
  • Pronunciation: look, there’s a rainbow outside
  • Word choice:
    • lovely / swell / awesome / nice / cool / rad / lit

Layers of Meaning - Example

• Are you mad?
• Semantics
  • are: verb that links subject with some concept
  • you: refers to the addressee
  • mad: angry; disturbed
  • arbitrary: meaning does not resemble form
  • abstractness: lots of info packed into each word
• Pragmatics
  • expr. likely is a response to situational context
• Indexicality
  • anything in the voice, accent, or word choice that identifies traits of the speaker

Layers of Meaning - Slang and Idiom

• Semantics also includes slang and idiom
  • Slang: novel, informal word usage
    • hey that shirt is dope
  • Idiom: complex structure whose meaning is not predictable from the meanings of its parts
    • She burned the candle at both ends (‘she worked hard’)

Layers of Meaning - Conventionalization

• Meaning is conventionalized
• Speakers of the same variety adhere to the same system of form-meaning relationship
• True at all levels of meaning

Summary

• Units of language are symbols
  • Objects that represent categories
• Symbols can be described in terms of arbitrariness, abstractness
• There are different layers of meaning in language
  • semantics, pragmatics, social meaning
  • metaphor, culturally differentiated meaning

Metaphor

• Expressing some concepts in terms of some other concept
• Extends the symbolic scope of expressions
• Examples:
  • “face of the mountain”, “mouth of the river”
• Target and Source domains
  • Example: LANDMASS = BODY
• Source can fade over time
  • broadcast

Metaphor - Extended Metaphor

• Extended metaphor
  • A system in which two or more words demonstrate an analogous metaphorical relationship
  • Example: TIME = MONEY
    • spend / waste / invest / save / lose / gain time

Cultural Meaning

• Culture:
  • The beliefs and practices shared by some community (including language)
• Things that differ across cultures:
  • The set of symbolic forms
  • The ways of combining them
  • The layers of pragmatics and indexicality
  • Metaphorical devices
  • The organization of meaningful categories

Cultural Meaning - Examples

• Metaphor
  • body & space
• Organization of categories
  • color terms

Culture and Metaphor

• Source and Target domains may vary across cultures

Zapotec Spatial Terms

• Zapotec
  • Encompasses dozens of languages
  • Oaxaca, Mexico
  • Zapotecan, Mixtecan are Oto-Manguan
  • e.g., Ayoquesco Zapotec

Zapotec Spatial Terms - Body Part Terminology

• Body part terminology:
  • gɨk: head
  • lō: face
  • ro’o: mouth
  • là’áyn: belly
  • ye’e: foot

Zapotec Spatial Terms - RECEPTACLE=BODY

• RECEPTACLE = BODY
  • gɨk: head, top
  • lō: face, front surface
  • ro’o: mouth
  • là’áyn: belly, interior
  • ye’e: foot, bottom edge

Zapotec Spatial Terms - Discussion

• RECEPTACLE = BODY
  • Not unique to Ayoquesco (or to Oto-Manguan)
  • Partial analogs elsewhere
    • back, face, side
  • Source & target are obscure

Culture and Color Terms

• "Basic" color terms
  • Terms that refer to general color categories
  • If X is a type of Y, then Y is a basic color term
    • crimson is a type of red
    • royal blue is a type of blue

Culture and Color Terms - Tile Experiment

• Using unlabeled tiles:
  • Are two similar tiles a type of the same color?

English Basic Color Terms

• "Basic" color terminology of English:
  • Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, white, brown, gray, (pink)
  • Orange is a basic color term in English, regardless of its history
  • Indigo is not a basic color term in English
    • (if you agree that indigo is a type of blue or purple)

Categories Across Cultures

• Languages vary by:
  • Number of basic categories
  • Boundaries within spectrum
• Examples:
  • Himba
    • Black/Purple: zoozu
    • White: vapa
    • Red: serandu
    • Yellow: dumbu
  • Berinmo
    • Black/Purple: kel
    • White: wap
    • Red: mehi
    • Yellow: wor
    • Green / Blue: burou
    • nol

Implications of Color Terminology

• An inability to detect some visual contrasts?
  • No
• The mapping of concepts to symbols differs across cultures
  • …concept and symbol are independent

Addendum - Russian Blue

• Russian words for blue
  • синий siniy ‘dark blue’
  • голубой goluboy ‘light blue’

Summary

• Meaning is culturally constructed
• Meaning is not equivalent to reality
• Metaphorical relationships
• Extended metaphors
• Categorization schemes