Chapter 4PowerPoint PresentationThe Meaning of LanguageWhat is “Semantics”Why linguists posit semantic rules for our grammarTautologies & ContradictionsWhen Compositionality Goes Awry: AnomalyWhen Compositionality Goes Awry: MetaphorWhen Compositionality Goes Awry: IdiomsLexical Semantics: ReferenceLexical Semantics: SenseSemantic FeaturesEvidence for Semantic FeaturesSemantic Features of NounsSemantic Features of VerbsSlide 16Semantic Feature of negation: negative polarity itemsArgument StructureThematic RolesTo sum up: Verb knowledgePragmaticsPronouns and Linguistic ContextDeixis: situational contextSpeech ActsExamples of Performative Speech ActsChapter 4The Meaning of LanguageCLICK ON THE VIDEOThe Meaning of Language•When you know a language you know:–WORDS and SENTENCES •when a word or sentence is meaningful or meaningless (compositionality)•when a word or sentence has two meanings (ambiguity)•when two words have the same meaning (synonymy) •what WORDS refer to, in the real world or imagination (Reference)•and whether a SENTENCE is true or false (truth conditions)What is “Semantics”Semantics is the study of the meaning of morphemes, words, phrases, and sentences–Lexical semantics: the meaning of words and morphemes–Phrasal or sentential semantics (or compositional semantics) the meaning of syntactic units larger than one word–Pragmatics: the linguistic and situational contextual meaning of languageWhy linguists posit semantic rules for our grammar•To account for various epistemological phenomena:–Our knowledge of “truth conditions”; how we determine the conditions for judging if something is true or false •“The cat barked at the man” = false–What a sentence or word is referring to (Reference)•“The president spoke and he spoke well. ” = ‘Barak Obama’ ‘he’ –What a sentence or word entails•“Lisa swam fast.” = ‘Lisa knows how to swim’; but “Lisa swam” = ‘fast’...? –Possible ambiguity•“I love Summer.” = ‘my friend Summer’ and ‘the season summer’–Ability to determine the meaning of a limitless number of expressions; or the “I get it from the context” competence•“The soldier’s panegyric on the brutalities of war moved theaudience.”Tautologies & Contradictions•Such sentences are inherently always true or false, and don’t depend on a given situation or context–Tautologies = always true–Contradictions = always false“The Pope is an atheist”When Compositionality Goes Awry: Anomaly•anomalous sentences:–Colorless green ideas sleep furiously–I accidentally chased them.•These sentences are syntactically fine, but contain semantic violations such as describing ideas as both colorless and green, and qualifying chase with accidentally•Other sentences are uninterpretable because they include nonsense words:When Compositionality Goes Awry: Metaphor•Metaphors are sentences that seem to be anomalous but are understood in terms of a meaningful concept•To understand a metaphor we must understand the individual words, the literal meaning of the expression, and facts about the world–To understand Time is money you need to know that in our society people are often paid according to the amount of time worked•“Our new product will save you hours!•“Stop wasting my time.”•“That’s not worth my while.”•“She’s invested a lot of time into that.”•“I’m living on borrowed time.”When Compositionality Goes Awry: Idioms•Idiomatic phrases are phrases with meanings that cannot be predicted based on the meanings of the individual words–The usual semantic rules for combining meanings do not apply; the principle of compositionality doesn’t apply–Idioms act like individual morphemes, in that they are not decomposable; they have fixed meanings that must be learned•He put his foot in his mouth => *His foot was put in his mouth•They hit it off => *It was hit off between them•All languages have idioms, but idioms are rarely directly translatable–“kick the bucket” •Spanish estirar la pata “to stretch the (animal) leg”•German den Löffel abgeben “to pass the spoon”•Dutch het hoekje omgaan “to turn the corner”•French passer l’arme a gauche “to pass the weapon to the left”Lexical Semantics: Reference•Referent: the real-world object designated by a word–Jack, the happy swimmer, my friend, and that guy can all have the same referent in the sentence Jack swims.–But, some NPs do not refer to any particular individual, so something about meaning beyond reference must be present•No baby drives a car.•Everyone wins. –While My friend, Barack Obama, and The President may refer to the same individual in some cases, president and friend mean something extra:•My friend Barack Obama is The President •That’s called being a good friend.•It’s the president’s job.Lexical Semantics: Sense•Sense: an element of meaning separate from reference and more enduring; the inherent part of an expression’s meaning that, together with context, determines its reference–‘The President’ •Michelle Obama’s husband (REF); •the man Barak Obama (REF) •the position at the head of the US government (SENSE) •The words unicorn and liger have sense but no reference (at least in the real world)•And what about words such as if, but, and nevertheless?•Sense can be hard to pin down in words:–“Perhaps the best we can do is to note that the reference part of a word’s meaning, if it has reference at all, is the association with its referent; and the sense part of a word’s meaning contains the information needed to complete the association, and to suggest properties that the referent may have, whether it exists in the real world or in the world of imagination” (Fromkin 2014: 155)Semantic Features•Semantic features are properties that are part of word meanings and reflect our knowledge about what words mean–For example, antonyms share all but one semantic feature•big has the semantic feature “about size” and red has the semantic feature “about color,” so the two cannot be antonyms–The semantic features of the word assassin include that assassins must be human and kill important peopleEvidence for Semantic Features•Speech errors, or “slips of the tongue” provide evidence for semantic features because the accidentally uttered word shares semantic features with the