5

5.1
5.2
5.3
5.4

LEXICAL SEMANTICS: SENSE REL ATIONS

Some simple logic

Hypnymy v
Synonymy *

Antbnymy s
5.$ Relational opposites
5.6 Polysemy and homonymy 1
5.7 Components
5.8 The problem of universals
6

6.1
6.2
6.3
6.4
6.5
6.6
6.7
6.8

SEMANTICS AND GRAMMAR

Formal grammar . ..
Grammatical categories
Grammar and lexicon
Grammatical relations'
Components and the sentence ,
Predicates and arguments .
Case grammar
Sentence types and modality

.>
<

UTTERANCE MEANING
7.1 The spoken language
7.2 Topic and comment
-.7.3 Performatives and speech acts - 7.4 Presupposition 8*7.5
Implicatures v
7

8.2
8.3
8.4
8.5
8.6
8.7

8
SEMANTICS AND LOGIC 8. i Logic and language
Propositional logic...
Predicate logic
Intension and extension
Truth-conditional semantics
Truth conditions and linguistics
Concluding remarks

References
index

Conten
ts
83

INTRODUCTION

85
88
94
97

10 0
10S

11 4
11 8
12 4
130
135
139
!43,

14 6
14 9
i
55

15
8
16
1 :
66
77

173
180

186 "
190
195
201
206
208

214

f- - - ~

.Scmanrics ts the technical term used to refer to the study of

meaning, and, since meaning is a part of language, semant
ics is a ^art of linguistics. Unfortunately, meaningcovers a
varier, of aspects of language, and there is no general
agreement about the nature of meaning, what aspects of it
may properly be included in semantics, or the way in which
it should be described. This little book will try to show what
topics are included in semantics and some of the ways in
which they have been, or can be, handled, but because of
the nature of the subject and the variety of views about it, it
cannot hope to be more than an introductory survey.

1.1 The terms semantics and meaning

The term semantics is a recent addition to the Engiish language. A detailed account of its history' is to be found in
Read (1948}. Although there is one occurrence of semamick
in the phrase semcntick philosophy to mean divination in
the seventeenth century', semantics does not occur until it
was introduced in a paper read to the American Philological
Association in 1S94 entitled Reflected meanings: a point m
semantics. The French term smantique had been coined
from the Greek in the previous year by M. Break In both
cases the tenu was not used simply to refer to meaning, but
to its development - with what we shall later call historical
semantics. In.1900, however, there appeared Brals book
Semantics: studies in the science of meaning; the French
original had appeared three years earlier. This is a superb
little book, now sadly neglected, but well worth reading. It is
one of the earliest books on linguistics as we understand it
today, in that
historical point
2
of view (see
1 introduction
1.3).
it treated semantics as
Yet
the
term
the
science
of
semantics did not catch
meaning, and that it was
on for some time. One of
not primarily concerned
the most famous books
with
changes
of
on semantics is The
meaning
from
a
meaning of meaning by C.
K. Ogden & I. A.

Richards, first published

in 1923. Semantics docs
not occur in the main
body of the book itself,
but it appears in an
appendix, which is itself
a classic in the field,
entitled The problem of
meaning in primitive languages, written by the
anthropologist
Malinowski (1923).
Other terms besides
semantics
have been
used. H. G. Wells in The
shape of things to come
speaks of the Science of
signifies, but he says that
it was lost sight of and
not revived until the
twenty-first
century.
SEMIOTICS (or, for some
scholars, SEMIOLOGY) is in
current use to refer to
the theory of signs, or of
signalling systems, in
general. Language may,
therefore, be seen as a
semioric system, but it is
not certain that it is
useful to treSt linguistics
as a branch of semiotics
(see 1.2).
There
is,
unfortunately, a use of
the terms semantic and 7
semantics
in
popular
language, especially in
newspapers, that bears
only
a
slight
resemblance to our use.
The terms are used to
refer to the manipulation
of language, mostly to
mislead, by choosing the
right word. Thus there
were head- lines 1*1 The
Gucrdien
in
1971:
Semantic manoeuvre at
the

Pentagon'
and
Homelessness reduced
to semantics'. The first
of these headed an
article in which it was
suggested that the term
mobile manoeuvre was
being used to mean
retreat, while in the
second the point was
rather that by using a
very narrow definition of
homelessness
the
authonties were able to
suggest that the number
of
homeless
was
considerably
reduced.
There is a perfectly true
story, too, of the striptease dancer who wrote
to an eminent American
linguist asking him to
supply a word to replace
strip-tease because of its
wrong connotations. I
hope, she added, that
the science of semantics
can help the verbally
unprivileged members of
my
profession.
The
eminent
linguist,
knowing his classical,
languages,
suggested
eedysiast.

1.1 The terms semantics

and meaning
3

The term meaning is,

of course, much more
familiar to us t all. But,
the; dictionary will
suggest a number of
different \ meanings of
meaning, or, more
correctly, of the verb
mean, and Ogden &
Richards were able to
list no less than sixteen ;
different meanings that
have been favoured by
reputable I scholars. It
is no part of a book of
this kind to investigate
all I these popular and
scientific definitions of
the term, nor to ask if all
the meanings of mean
and meaning have
something in common.
But a brief look at some
of the common uses
may / be illuminating,
for we can ask which, if
any, of these comes
close, to the use of the
terms that we need in
semantics.
To begin with, we
should not see a close
link
between
the
sense We require and
the sense of intend
that we find in Imean
id be there tomomnv. It
is significant, perhaps,
that we cannot, in this
context, talk about
my meaning, to refer
to what I mean to do.
Nearer to the sense
we need is that of
Thaicloud
means
thunder or A red light
means
Stop.
For

means here is used of

signs, both natural
and conventional, that
indicate
something
that is happening or
will
happen,
or
something that has to
be
done.
Nevertheless, there is
a difference between
these two examples.
The
traffic
lights
clearly belong to a
communication
system in which it is
the convention that
red means Stop, but
the clouds do not
belong to any such
system,
and
while
they may provide us
with information, they
can hardly be said to
communicate.
Language is more like
the traffic lights, but
the analogy is not
very helpful because
their communicative
function is derived
from language and,
moreover,
from
a
limited
and
specialised
use
of
it. ; .
:

The most relevant

use of the terms for
our
purposes
is
found
in
such
sentences as What
does
calligraphy
mean?
Calligraphy
means
beautiful
handwriting.
The
reply
to
such
questions is in terms
of other words that
the speaker thinks
the
hearer
can

understand. This is,

of
course,
characteristic
of
dictionaries.
They
provide
definitions
by suggesting words
or phrases which, we

are
given
to
understand,
have
the same meaning,
though
what
is
same-ness
is
a
problem tftat