Semantics

The analysis of meaning

By:
Debora Carolina (163)
Krisnanda Haryo timur (155)
Firdan Baruta Arnandika (154)
Maria Apriyanti (141)
 Semantics
Semantics is the branch of
linguistics that deals with the study
of meaning, changes in meaning, and
the principles that govern the
relationship between sentences or
words and their meanings.
It is the study of the relationships
between signs and symbols and what
they represent.
What is semantics?
 Semanticsis a study of meaning. It’s a
wide subject within the general study of
language.

 How language users acquire a sense of

meaning, as speakers and writers,
listeners, and readers. And of language
change like how meanings alter over
time.
 It is important for understanding
language in social contexts, as
these are likely to affect meaning,
and for understanding varieties of
English and effects of style.

 It is thus one of the most

fundamental concepts in
linguistics.

 The study of semantics includes

the study of how meaning is
constructed, interpreted, clarified,
obscured, illustrated, simplified,
Some important areas of semantics theory
or related subjects include these :
 Symbol and referent
 Conceptions of meaning
 Words and lexemes
 Denotation, connotation, implication
 Pragmatics
 Ambiguity
 Metaphor, simile, symbol
 Semantic fields
 Synonym, antonym, hyponym.
 Collocation, fixed expression and
idiom
 Semantic change and etymology
 Polysemy
 Homonymy, homophones and
homographs
 Lexicology and lexicography
 Thesauruses, libraries and Web
portals
 Epistemology
 Colour
Lexical vs. Compositional
Semantics COMPOSITIONAL
LEXICAL Dog bites man.
(happens all the
man: 2-legged
time; not too
mammal,
interesting)
(relatively)
hairless, male Man bites dog.
sex, (newsworthy)
dog: 4-legged
mammal, hairy,
canine, definitely
loyal
Language: A multifaceted
phenomenon!
 Language meaning communicates information
about the world around us (language as a
system of symbols)
 Symbols are things that stand for or refer to other
things. Language with information content.
 Meaning is processed in the mind of the
speaker/hearer (that is, cognitive & psychological).
 Meaning is a social phenomenon (contexts
important)
 Meaning of words/sentences have various
relationships among themselves (antonyms,
synonyms, etc.) (can be studied independently)
Semantic features
 Syntactically
correct sentences but
semantically odd.
 The hamburger ate the man.
 My cat studies linguistics.
 The table listens to the radio

 Thisrelates to the conceptual

components of the words ‘hamburger,
cat & table’ not human.
 Semantic properties: The components of
meaning of a word.
 Meaning as collection of
properties/features typically with two
possible values (+ / -)
 Example of componential analysis:

baby is [+ young], [+ human],

[+animate]
How can we describe the
meaning of different words?
 Three types of semantic analysis:

 Words as ‘containers’ Semantic

features
 ‘roles’ they fulfill Semantic roles
 ‘relationship’ with other words lexical
relation
THEORIES OF MEANING
 Four theories to the meaning of words:
 Dictionary meanings
 Mental image
 Referents
 Componential
Dictionary Meanings
 demand (N)
 the need or desire that people have for
particular goods or services
 desire (N)
 a strong hope or wish
 wish (N)
 the act of wishing for something
 wish (V)
 to hope that something will happen
Problems with dictionary
meanings
 Understanding meaning of word
involves understanding all the words in
definition
 Circularity
 pride: the quality or state of being proud
 proud: feeling or showing pride
More problems with dictionary
meanings:
 They are NOT theoretical claims about
the nature of meaning, but a practical
aid to people who already speak a
language. They are usually
paraphrases.
 They may be a way of learning the
meaning of some words, but there is
much more to word meaning than the
dictionary definition. Why?
Mental image…
 Is a graphic representation in one’s mind of a referent
(when I say table, you "draw" a table in your mind)
 There is much more to meaning than a simple mental
image. Why?
 People may have very different mental images for same
word
(lecture – from perspective of student vs. teacher)
 Some words, even though having meaning, have no real
definite image
(honesty, or the)
 Mental images are usually a prototype or standard of the
referent
(bird: what bird? -- image may exclude atypical examples)
What is the prototype for bird?
But bird also includes…
Advantages of prototype
theory
 Providessome insight into the way we
conceive of certain ideas/objects
 Evidence from experimental psychology
 reaction time: typical member < atypical
member
 Prototypes
may help children learn the
meanings of new words
Disadvantages of prototype
theory
 Culturally and socially dependent.
 prototypes can vary across populations.
 Manywords have no clear mental
images.
 forget, things, without, concept, …..
Referents…
 Have to do with the fact that words usually stand for
(refer to) actual objects or relations in the world.
 Example: “Dubya”, “Florida”, “Disney World.”
 There is much more to meaning than a referent.
Why?
 It would exclude from language fantasies, speculations, and
fiction.
(Santa Claus refers to what?).
 The fact that two words (or expressions) refer to the same
thing does not indicate that they mean the same thing.
(Queen Elizabeth = Queen of England in 2005?).
 What referents do these words have: forget, the,
some…?
Componential Theory
 The meaning of a word is specified by
smaller semantic components
 Semantic components are primitive
elements of meaning expressed as
binary features (+ or -)
Semantic decomposition
woman: girl:
[+ human] [+ human]
[+ female] [+ female]
[+ adult] [- adult]

man: boy:
[+ human] [+ human]
[- female] [- female]
[+ adult] [- adult]
Advantages of componential
theory
 Captures similarities among
semantically related words
 Groups meanings into natural classes
(like phonology)
Disadvantages of
componential theory
 Difficult to analyze abstract concepts
 What are the semantic components of
blue?
 [+ color]? [+ blueness]?
 Meaning of semantic components is
sometimes no more explanatory than
the words they are specifying
Meaning relationships
Within Lexical Semantics
 Thereare many ways for words to be
related:
 Morphologically
 lift ~ lifted (same stem)
 Syntactically
 call ~ take (both transitive verbs)
 Phonologically
 knight ~ night (both [naIt]
 Semantically
Semantic relationships
 Semantic relationships indicate a similarity in
meaning between two words.
 “crayon” and “pencil.”
 But not “pencil” and “refrigerator”, for example.

 The semantic relationships we will discuss here are:

 Hyponymy
 Synonymy
 Antonymy
 Scalar/gradable pairs
Semantic roles
 Words are described according to the roles
they fulfill with the situation described in a
sentence.
 The boy kicked the ball
 verb indicates action
 Boy performs the action= agent
 Ball undergoes the action= theme
 The NPs describe the role of entities (people
or things) involved in the action, i.e. they
have certain semantic (or thematic) roles.
 Agent= the entity that performs the action
 Theme= the entity that undergoes the
action
 Experiencer= one who perceives
something
 Instrument= an entity used to perform an
action
 Location= the place where the action
happens
 Source= the place from which an action
originates
 Goal= the place where the action is
directed
Example of semantics
roles:
 John is writing with a pen
agent instrument
 Mary saw a mosquito on the wall

experiencer theme location

 The children ran from the playground to the pool

agent source goal

 The boy opened the door with a key
 The dog bit the stick
 With a stick, the man hit the dog.