English/ Sem.
3/CC-14/ Semantics
Semantics is a branch of linguistics, which is the study of language; it is an area
of study interacting with those of syntax and phonology. A person's linguistic
abilities are based on knowledge that they have. One of the insights of modern
linguistics is that speakers of a language have different types of linguistic
knowledge, including how to pronounce words, how to construct sentences, and
about the meaning of individual words and sentences.
To reflect this, linguistic description has different levels of analysis. So -
phonology is the study of what sounds combine to form words; syntax is the
study of how words can be combined into sentences; and semantics is the study
of the meanings of words and sentences.
William Frawley defines linguistic semantics as "the study of literal,
decontextualized, grammatical meaning". Semantics is concerned with the
conceptual meaning related to words. Semantics does not focus on the context,
rather it deals with the meaning according to grammar and vocabulary.
Function of Semantics
The purpose of semantics is to propose exact meanings of words and phrases,
and remove confusion, which might lead the readers to believe a word has many
possible meanings.
It makes a relationship between a word and the sentence through their
meanings. Besides, semantics enable the readers to explore a sense of the
meaning because, if we remove or change the place of a single word from the
sentence, it will change the entire meaning, or else the sentence will become
anomalous. Hence, the sense relation inside a sentence is very important, as a
single word does not carry any sense or meaning.
Seven Types of Meaning
1. Conceptual Meaning = Logical, cognitive or connotative content.
2. Connotative Meaning = What is communicated by virtue of what language
refers
3. Social Meaning = What is communicated of the social circumstances of
Language
4. Affective Meaning = What is communicated of the feelings and attitudes of
the Speaker through language.
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5. Reflected Meaning = What is communicated through associations with
another Sense of the same world.
6. Collocative Meaning = What is communicated through associations with
words which co-occur with another word.
7. Thematic Meaning = What is communicated by the way in which the
message is organized in terms of order and emphasis.
Lexical vs Grammatical Meaning
Lexical meaning is “the most outstanding individual of the word that
makes it different from any other word”. The lexical meaning of a word may be
thought of as the specific value it has in a particular language system, and the
‘personality’ it acquires through usage within that system.
The categories of English words that are lexical include nouns, adjectives, most
verbs, and many adverbs.
Lexical meaning is dominant in content words, whereas grammatical
meaning is dominant in function words, but in neither is grammatical meaning
absent.
Grammatical words include prepositions, modals and auxiliary verbs,
pronouns, articles, conjunctions, and some adverbs.
The difference between lexical words and grammatical words is
straightforward. It is an important concept for linguists because the distinction
seems to exist in all languages, not just English. Understanding these
differences helps scholars figure out the relationship between the different
languages, as well as the history of the English language. It may even give some
insight into how human minds work. Understanding these types of words will
help increase your comprehension of English.
Lexical words supply meaning to a sentence, whereas grammatical words
relate the lexical words to one another.
Look at the following sentence that only shows the lexical words:
" ___ cat jumped ___ ___ tree ___ ___ dog ran ___."
This looks like nonsense. All you know is that it is about jumping cats,
running dogs, and trees. It may be possible to guess the complete meaning of
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the sentence, but you can't know for certain because cats, dogs, and trees can be
related in different ways.
Now look at the sentence with the grammatical words re-inserted:
"The cat jumped into the tree as the dog ran forward."
The sentence makes sense. Notice, however, that if you put a different set of
grammatical words in, you get a completely different meaning: "The cat jumped
from the tree after the dog ran away." You can see that the grammatical words
clarify the logical relations between the lexical words and define their function
in the sentence.
Phrase Vs Sentence Meaning
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Phrases are groups of words that act as a part of speech but cannot stand alone
as a sentence. The words in a phrase act together so that the phrase itself
functions as a single part of speech. ... A sentence expresses a complete thought
and contains a subject (a noun or pronoun) and a predicate (a verb or
verb phrase). For examples
‘He moves faster than the speed of light’ (sentence),
‘faster than the speed of light!’ (phrase).
Phrase: the check in the mail
Sentence: I put the check in the mail. “I” is the subject. “Put” is the predicate.
“This is a sentence.” is a sentence.
“Things like this” and “a phrase” are phrases.
Utterance Meaning
An utterance is the smallest unit of speech. It is a continuous piece of speech
beginning and ending with a clear pause. In the case of oral languages, it is
generally, but not always, bounded by silence. Utterances do not exist in
written language, however, only their representations do.
"We use the term 'utterance' to refer to complete communicative units, which
may consist of single words, phrases, clauses and clause combinations spoken
in context. In contrast to the term 'sentence,' which we reserve for units
consisting of at least one main clause and any accompanying subordinate
clauses, and marked by punctuation (capital letters and full stops) in writing."
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The examples of Utterances:
how do I get a computer?
Where do I get a computer?
I want to get a computer, how do I go about it?
When can I have a computer?
The core term here is "computer.” It is not varied. Use alternatives such as
desktop computer, laptop, workstation, or even just machine. Language
understanding (LUIS) can intelligently infer synonyms from context, but when
you create utterances for training, it's always better to vary them.
Linguistically Utterances may be observed in this chatting :
1 A: I have a car
2 B: Sorry?
3 A: I have a car
4 B: You have a car
5 A: Yes.
1,3,4 = A has a car. 2 = B is sorry [presumably for misunderstanding A or
something like that?] 5 = either same 1,3,4 or the same issue as identified in the
philosophy account (is it a repetition or a claim with respect to the claim).
Apparently these terms are used in very different ways by linguists in different
sub-disciplines.
Courtesy ; Dr. Md. Ejaz Alam
