Course unit title Semantics and Pragmatics
Course unit code IT-061254
Type of course unit Compulsory
(compulsory, optional)
Level of course unit First cycle Bachelor
(according to EQF: first
cycle Bachelor, second
cycle Master)
Year of study (if applicable) Fourth year
Semester/trimester when the Seventh semester
course unit is delivered
Number of ECTS credits 2 (two)
allocated
Name of lecturer(s)
Learning outcomes of the 1. Students understand how to explain the
course unit meaning from both (Semantics and
Pragmatics) sides.
2. Students understand the basic knowledge of
general linguistics and its function.
3. Students can develop the ability of critical
skills by analyzing linguistics meaning
(semantic sense) and/or speaker’s meaning
(speaker’s sense).
Mode of delivery (face-to-face, During Covid-19 pandemic, it is done through face
distance learning) to face and combined with virtual class (distance
learning), and also with self-learning (by reading
textbook and journal).
Prerequisites Students must first understand about general
Linguistics.
Course Content 1. Semantics: Meaning in Semantics
2. Semantics: Lexical and grammatical meaning
3. Semantics: Meaning relations
4. Semantics: Presupposition
5. Semantics: Truth conditional and non-truth
conditional
6. Semantics: Denotation and connotation
7. Semantics: Figures of speech
8. Pragmatics: Meaning in Pragmatics
9. Pragmatics: Speech acts (Locutionary,
Illocutionary, Perlocutionary)
10. Pragmatics: Cooperative principles and
politeness principles (maxims)
11. Pragmatics: Speech situation
12. Pragmatics: Direct and indirect speech acts
13. Pragmatics: Classifying speech acts
14. Pragmatics: Co-text and Context
Recommended or required 1. Allan, Keith. The Cambridge Handbook of
reading Pragmatics. University of Cambridge. 2012
2. F.X. Rahyono. Studi Makna. Jakarta. Penaku.
2011
3. Hurford, James et. al. 2007. Semantics a
Course book. Second Edition. Cambridge
University
Planned learning activities and Collaborative and discovery learning,
teaching methods contextualizing, problem based learning,
presentation, reviewing textbook/journal,
selflearning, and quiz.
Language of instruction English
Work placement(s)
Semantics & Pragmatics
2nd Meeting
Dr. Nurlaila, SS., M.Sas.
Lexical and Grammatical Semantics
(Meaning)
Lexical Semantics (A study of meaning at word level)
Grammatical Semantics (A study of meaning at above word level)
Meaning in Semantics (source: Tarjana, 2013, pp. 1-12)
Referens (Reference Meaning): Meaning associated with naming or labeling
Sens (Sense Meaning): Mental representations that support the reference
meaning
Reference and sense at word level are studied in lexical semantics.
Meanwhile,
Reference and sense at above word level are studied in compositional semantics.
Example:
Lexical Semantics: She eats a piece of cake
Grammatical Semantics: She can finish it quickly. It is a piece of cake for her.
If we analyze “a piece of cake” using lexical semantics, the meaning of it will be:
A part of a cake
However, if we analyze it using grammatical semantics, the meaning will be
different, that is:
Something easily achieved
Are all words lexical?
According to grammarians, of course not.
The lexical meaning refers to the meaning that a word has without its context.
Grammatical meaning is the meaning that occurs or appears in a grammatical
process, such as the affixation process, the reduplication process or the
composition process.
Example:
Bee: an insect of a large group to which the honeybee belongs, including many
solitary as well as social kinds.
She is a bee, very busy.
There is a bee in my room.
In grammatical semantics, we identify the classes of word, including the four
majors:
a. Noun
b. Verb
c. Adjective
d. Adverb
Once we found that the word we analyze is a noun, we continue to identify its number,
gender and anymacy.
Number has to do with countable and uncountable, singular and plural.
For example: computers Noun – countable – plural
Gender has to do with whether the noun is female, male or neutral
For example: computers Noun – countable – plural – neutral
Anymacy has to with whether the noun is animate or inanimate
For example: computers Noun – countable – plural – neutral - inanimate
Once we found that the word we analyze is a verb or predicate, we continue to identify
whether it is an action or non action. After that we identify its tense, aspect, voice and
modality
Action predicate, such as: has finished
has finished action – secondary – past – perfective – indefinite - active
Non-action predicate, such as: was a student
was a student non-action – secondary – past – perfective – definite - active
We will discuss “meaning relations” on next meeting. Please read materials on it
in the book I have shared.
Thank you
