语言学讲稿二(研究生).pptVIP

Lecture TwoSemantics Definition Approaches to meaning Word meaning (sense and reference; types of meaning) Lexical field (semantic field) Semantic relationships between words Sentence meaning The definition of semantics Legal scholars argue about the interpretation—that is, the meaning—of a law or a judicial decision. Literary scholars, likewise, quarrel over the meaning of some poem or story. All this is related to meaning. Meaning is fundamental to human society and language is one of the primary ways of conveying meaning. Semantics is the branch of linguistics which studies meaning in language. It stands at the very center of the linguistic quest to understand the nature of language and human language ability because expressing meanings is what languages are all about. Meaning can be studied from different angles. Approaches to meaning i. meaning as naming ii.meaning as concept iii.meaning as context  Meaning as naming If we ask someone the meaning of the word cat, we are very likely to be told that it is what the word refers to in the world. This view that the meaning of an expression is what it refers to, or names, is often called referential theory or naming theory. The word tree, for example, names the object tree in the real world. The object tree is called the referent. The word tree stands for the properties that all trees have or for the class of trees. In this view, words are “names” or “labels” for things in our mind or in our experience. What do conjunctions like but and and refer to? What do prepositions like for and to stand for? Meaning as concept One of the most usual ways to cope with some of the problems involved with the theory of naming has been to take the view that expressions actually mean the concept or idea associated with them. So, when the word chair is spoken, the concept of chair is called up in the mind of the hearer. Every one of us who knows the word or expression has a con