I.

Introduction

Semantics: definition and object

-Semantics (as the study of meaning) -central to the

study of communication;
-Semantics - at the centre of human mind (thought
processes, cognition, conceptualization).
-Semantics can be defined as a branch of linguistics
(nowadays); a long time, Cinderella of linguistics,
abandoned to philosophers and anthropologists.
-New attitude: concentration on semantics has come from
linguists as well as from logicians
an unusual
convergence of disciplines; the techniques and
investigations of philosophy and cognitive psychology, in
particular, have helped to lay a more solid foundation for
linguistic studies.
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Short history of semantics

Antiquity
- in ancient Greece, philosophers dealt with
the problem of the way in which words
acquired their meaning.
Q: Why is a thing called by a given name?
The answers divided them into two
parties:
a) the adepts of the physei theory,
b) the adepts of the thesei theory.
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Short history (cont.)

a) The physei theory - names of things were

arrived at naturally, they are somehow
conditioned by the natural properties of the
things themselves.
e.g. - the letter rho [] - seems apt to express
motion, hence its occurrence in such words as
rhoein to flow.
- [s], [f] and [ks], which require greater breatheffort - suitable in words like kseon shaking.
b) The thesei theory - opposite view, i.e. that
names are given to things arbitrarily through
convention.
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Short history (cont.)

Plato dialogues
-Cratylus -two discussants are Cratylus (physei theory),
Hermogenes (thesei point of view). Socrates = mediator
points out an interesting fact, i.e. that there are two
types of names: simple names and compound names,
which are divisible into smaller constituent elements and
analysable into the meaning of these constituents.
-Theatetus
-Sophists
-important step in the development of
semantics.
- problems dealt with: the relation between
THOUGHT, LANGUAGE and the OUTSIDE WORLD.
Language= the expression of ones thought be means of
onomata (the name of the performer) and rhemata (the
name defining the action).

Short history (cont.)

THOUGHT
LANGUAGE

OUTSIDE WORLD

onomata
rhemata
(performer) (action)
LOGOS
-analysis of the sentence in terms which are partly linguistic,
and partly pertaining to logic (utterance meaning, rather
than the meaning of individual words.
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Short history (cont.)

Aristotle
Organon
- major contribution to language study/
Rhetorics
semantics
Poetics
- approached language from the point
of view of a logician; interested in the
following issues:
What is there to know about the world?
How do men know it?
How do they express this knowledge in language?
-also identified the lexical level of language analysis the
aim of which was to study the meaning of words either in
isolation or in syntactic constructions -his own
contribution to semantics.
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Short history (cont.)

The Middle Ages (13th & 14th cent.)

- an important contribution to linguistics and
semantics a group of philosophers The
Modistae : writings entitled On the Modes of
Signification = some kind of speculative
grammars in which semantic considerations held
an important position.
- adopted the thesei point of view of the ancient
philosophers;
- their focus: the ways in which we can know
things ( modus intelligendi) and the various ways
of signifying things (modus significandi)
Modi essendi= objectively existent qualities in an
object of understanding (Aristotle)
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Short history (cont.)

The 19th century

-semantics became an independent branch of linguistics.

-The first works which dealt with the study of semantic
problems: Christian Karl Reisig (a German linguist) the
first to formulate the object of study of the new science of
meaning (semasiology) = a historical science studying
the principles governing the evolution of meaning.
- in 1897, Michel Bral (a French linguist) -Essay de
smantique the birth date of semantics as a modern
linguistic discipline.
Bral - provided the name of the new science (semantics),
- defined more clearly its subject matter.
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Short history (cont.)

-3 theoretical sources of semantics:
classical logic: laws governing the changes of meaning are arrived
at by recourse to the categories of logic:
-extension of meaning: eg. persona (Lat.) = face mask worn by actors
characters in a play a man, somebody a person (feminine or
masculine).
- narrowing of meaning: e.g. the River = the Thames, the Seine.
- transfer of meaning (metaphor): e.g. the camel = the ship of the
desert.
rhetorics
psychology:
-degradation of meaning: e.g. silly (Old English) = happy, poor,
innocent helpless stupid.
-elevation of meaning: e.g. minister = a servant an important public
official.
Lexicography - significant role in the development of semantics
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Short history (cont.)

The 20th century
1921 1931 decade has a particular significance: publication of
three important books.
1. Jost Trier (1931) -Der Deutsche Wortschatz im Sinnbezirk des
Verstandes (The German vocabulary related to the semantic field
of understanding)
- Analysis of the meaning of a set of lexical elements related to one
another by their content conclusion: they were structurally
organised within this field in such a manner, that the significative
value of each element was determined by the position which it
occupied within the respective field
- words no longer approached in isolation, but analysed in terms of
their position within a larger ensemble the semantic field the
lexicon.
- Triers valuable ideas did not enjoy broad circulation.

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Short history (cont.)

2. Gustav Stern, Meaning and Change of Meaning = attempt at
examining the component factors of meaning and of determining the
causes and directions of changes of meaning;
-several classifications and principles which are essential in answering
one of the most important problems of semantics, namely: WHY and
HOW does change of meaning occur in linguistic forms?

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Typology by Stern (1931)

Substitution: Change related to the change of an object, of the
knowledge referring to the object, of the attitude toward the object,
e.g., artillery "engines of war used to throw missiles" "mounted
guns", atom "inseparable smallest physical-chemical element"
"physical-chemical element consisting of electrons", scholasticism
"philosophical system of the Middle Ages" "servile adherence to
the methods and teaching of schools"
Analogy: Change triggered by the change of an associated word, e.g.,
fast adj. "fixed and rapid" faste adv. "fixedly, rapidly")
Shortening: e.g., periodical periodical paper
Nomination: "the intentional naming of a referent, new or old, with a
name that has not previously been used for it" (Stern 1931: 282),
e.g., lion "brave man" "lion"
Regular transfer: a subconscious Nomination
Permutation: non-intentional shift of one referent to another due to a
reinterpretation of a situation, e.g., bead "prayer" "pearl in a
rosary")
Adequation: Change in the attitude of a concept; distinction from
substitution is unclear. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_change
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3. C.K. Ogden and J.A. Richards (1923),

The Meaning of Meaning = different
accepted definitions of the word meaning
(not only in linguistics, but in other
disciplines, as well).

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Short history (cont.)

1930-1960 -a period of crisis in semantics

appeared, due Leonard Bloomfield - the
study of meaning should be the object
other sciences, such as philosophy,
psychology, sociology and anthropology.
The1960s -semantics was given again due
attention; ever growing interest in the
problem of meaning.

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1.2. Definition and object of semantics

Definition
M. Bral - semantics = the science of the meanings of words and
of the changes in their meaning (semantics included under
lexicology);
Object
(meaning of words)
the identification, definition and evolution of the meaning of words;
the uncovering of the multiple relations established among words;
the possibility of analysing the meaning of words into component
elements of meaning, which are shared by a set of words in various
combinations, characteristic of each item;
the analysis of those lexical items which are larger than just one
word (i.e. compounds) into meanings which are not simply the sum
of the meanings of the component words.

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Object
(meaning of sentences)
to explain how sentences are understood by the
speakers of a language;
to explain the relation existing among sentences, namely:
-why certain sentences are anomalous, though
grammatically correct: e.g. Colourless green ideas sleep
furiously.
- why other sentences are semantically ambiguous,
since they admit several interpretations: e.g. Flying
planes can be dangerous.
-other sentences are synonymous or paraphrases of
each other: e.g. She would water her plants every
day/She used to water her plants every day.
- The gostak distims the doshes ????? (Charles Ogden)
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