Introduction to SEMANTICS

MEANING, THOUGHT and REALITY

2.1 Intro – TERMINOLOGY (referring, denoting)

2.2 REFERENCE 2.3 REFERENCE as a THEORY OF MEANING 2.4 MENTAL REPRESENTATIONS 2.5 WORDS, CONCEPTS and THINKING

John I. Saeed – Chapter II

People have the ability to talk about the world.

REFERRING/ DENOTING = the action of identifying (individuals, locations, etc.) with words

REFERENT (DENOTATUM) = the entity referred to

Example:Brno is a beautiful city.

BRNO (city) is the referent of the word BRNOthe word BRNO refers to (denotes) the actual city

Intro - TERMINOLOGY

John Lyons (1970s) : refer ≠ denote

Example:A sparrow flew into the room.

the WORDS Sparrow, the room DENOTE certain classes of items.(context-independent)XSPEAKER REFERS TO a sparrow, the room (context-dependent)

Intro - TERMINOLOGY

REFERENTIAL (denotational)

Basic premise:We can give the meaning of words and sentences by showing how they relate to the world (entities in the world) and situations, respectively.

(nouns denote entities, sentences denote situations)

Theories of meaning (referential & representational)

Problem:There is a casino in Grafton Street.There isn‘t a casino in Grafton Street.

(“Sentences are meaningful because they describe situations.“)

X Under which conditions is one of the sentences a false description of the situation?

Referential theories of meaning

REPRESENTATIONAL

MENTAL MODELS OF THE WORLD in our minds Language = theory about reality

A speaker can choose to view the same situation in different ways.

Joan is sleeping. X Joan is asleep. How does the speaker view the situation in each case?

Theories of meaning (referential & representational)

The same situation viewed differently:

EN: You have a cold. Somali: ‘A cold has you.‘ Irish: ‘A cold is on you.‘ i.e. ‘You have a cold.‘

possession vs location

Any more examples....?

Different representations of reality in different languages

Principal idea:Our thinking about reality is influenced by the conceptual structures conventionalized in our language.

Representational theories of meaning

REFERENTIAL Meaning derives from language being

attached to (grounded in) reality

REPRESENTATIONAL Meaning derives from language being a

reflection of our conceptual structures.

Referential theories X Representational approaches

HOW can linguistic expression be used to refer?

(focus on nominals, i.e., nouns and noun phrases)

TYPES OF REFERENCE: 1 referring and non-referring expressions 2 constant versus variable reference 3 referents and extensions

2.2 REFERENCE

Any examples of the words which can never be used to refer?

Any examples of of potentaially referring expression? (can be used to identify an entity)

Referring and non-referring expressions

Non-referring: so, very maybe, if....

Referring: That cat looks vicious

When is the expressionreferring and when non-referring?

They performed a cholecystectomy this morning.A cholecystectomy is a serious procedure.

Referring and non-referring expressions

...the surgical removal of the gallbladder...

Ambiguous:

In a bar, detective to the barman:

“I am looking for a woman.“

What is the difference between the referring and non-referring reading?

Referring and non-referring expressions

Any examples of the expressions which will have the same referent across a range of different utterances?

Any examples of the expressions which have the referent totally dependent on context?

Constant vs. Variable reference

The Eiffel Tower – the expression has constant reference

She put it in my office. – variable reference – context needed

Note: DEIXIS (Greek ‘pointing‘) She, it, my,... Deictical expressions (context

needed to identify the referent)

Constant vs. Variable reference

What kind of contextual information do we need to identify the referent of the nominalthe President of the United States?

?

Referent of an expression = the actual thing referred to at the moment of uttering

Extension of an expression = set of things which could possibly be the referent of the expression

What is the referent of the phrase the President of the United States in October 2015?

What is the extension of the phrase the President of the United States?

Referents and extensions

In John Lyon‘s view, what is the name for the relationship between the expression and its extension?

i.e., context-indepedent relationshipCf. also “A cholecystectomy is a serious

procedure.“

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TERMINOLOGY (Lyons):

NAMES = nominals which have reference Speaker assumes that the audience can

identify the referent He looks like Eddie Murphy. ( the American

comedian)

How do names work...?

2.2 REFERENCE

Bertrand Russell (1960s), Searle (1950), Frege (1980s) – philosophers

Name = a label for knowledge about the referent

= a label for one or more definite descriptions

Christopher Marlowe = The Writer of the Play Dr Faustus

Description theory

Devitt and Sterelny (1980s); Kripke (1980s), Donnellan (1970s)

Names are socially inherited, or borrowed

(At some original point, a name is given to a person. Then the name can be passed on to other people. The users of the name form a kind of chain back to an original naming.)

Speakers can use names with very little knowledge of the referent

Causal theory

NOUNS AND NOUN PHRASES can refer.

Indefinite and definite NPs:I spoke to a woman about the noise.I spoke to the woman about the noise.

Definite NPs forming definite descriptions:She has a crush on the capitan of the

hockey team.(= whoever fits the description)

REFERENCE

NP with no referent:The king of France is bold.

NPs referring to groups of individuals- distributively (focus on individuals)- collectively (focus on the whole)

collective or distributive reference?The people in the lift were too heavy. The people in the lift avoided each other‘s eyes.

REFERENCE

NPs can denote substances, actions, and abstract ideas

Who can afford coffee? Sleeping is his hobby. She has a passion for justice.

(more in Chapter 10)

REFERENCE

Simplified formulation: reference picks out elements in the real world, i.e., proper names denote individuals verbs denote actions adjectives denote properties of individuals, etc.

2.3 REFERENCE as a THEORY OF MEANING

Problems: 1 real world referent missing (so, if, but,...) 2 non existent referent (unicorn, Father

Christmas) there words would have to be meaningless

3 lack of one-to-one correspondence between a linguistic expression and the item we want to identify Obama = father of two = the President of the US Anwar El Sadat = the President of Egypt

4 lack of awareness of all possible references

REFERENCE as a THEORY OF MEANING

Ad 4) Venus = evening star = morning star. Bill knows that evening star and morning

star both have the same referent. The morning star is the evening star. – not

a tautology for Bill (because he lacks some knowledge...)

Tautology: Venus is Venus.

REFERENCE as a THEORY OF MEANING

There is more to meaning than just reference. Frege adds a dimension of SENSE to the reference:

SENSE (Sinn)– primary understanding of an expression, allows reference

REFERENCE (Bedeutung)

It is because I understand the expression The President of Ireland that I can use it to refer.

REFERENCE as a THEORY OF MEANING

Extra dimension to denotation: SENSE SENSE places a new level between the words

and the world: a level of mental representation

A noun can denote because it is associated with something in the speaker‘s or hearer‘s mind. not everything we talk about must exist in

reality

2.4 MENTAL REPRESENTATIONS

1 images – relationship between the mental representation and the real world entity : resemblance

OK : your mother, BatmanX problem : COMMON NOUNS (car, house, even triange)

VARIATION of images among speakers!

What are mental representations?

Modification to the theory: The sense of some words, while mental, is

not visual but a more abstract element: a CONCEPT able to contain non-visual features which

make a dog a dog, democracy democracy, etc. Some concepts related to perceptual stimuli

(SUN, WATER) Other concepts – more complex (MARRIAGE)

MENTAL REPRESENTATIONS

CONCEPTS MEANING is a combination of denotation and

conceptual element What form can we assign to concepts? How do children acquire them, along with

their linguistic labels?

MENTAL REPRESENTATIONS

The answers as well as the last subchapter will be discussed next week.

...to be continued next time...

Thank you for your attention!