Nadelyn Pichardo Perkins Ling 100 800 4 2 13 Semantics Meaning in language meanings at the level of words and or meaning at the level of sentences 1 What are we talking about Philosophy of language point textbook words are about real things in the world Pros fairly intuitive Cons falls apart for abstractions and cross linguistic categorization my version words are about concepts Pros accounts for cross linguistic variation and misunderstandings Cons not intuitive 2 Referent what a word refers to Ways of presenting semantics definition Dictionary style definitions necessarily circular within a language words defined in terms of other words in a language demonstrate a complete language Descriptive approach define words as language users use them current Prescriptive approach define words as language users ought to use them until Usage based definitions descriptive but not for dictionaries come with examples Vibrant about vibrations in 1960s buzzword that s poorly defined people want to live 1960s 3 Mental image definitions Hard to picture abstractions Oxford English Dictionary in our city attached to arts etc Nolifer no lifer no lifer 4 Lexical semantics words Relationships among words hyponym cat hypernym mammal antonyms synonyms politically this is the underdog in linguistics Len Talmy what does it take to make a word appropriate in certain contexts defenestrate 5 Sentential semantics formal semantics sentences Componential analysis we can figure out from words and their logical relationships in a sentence what the sentence means 6 Idioms to strike out literal baseball to fail To hit it out of the park to succeed A whole new ballgame a change To kick the bucket 7 Logic propositional logic predicate calculus logic is cool because it underlies math which underlies science which is the religion of the day Logic is an invented language smaller more restricted than human languages Language is logic could be an opportunity to expand logic Usually human language forced into an existing logical form Some scholars are starting to use language to expand logic Logic Truth Falsehood each sentence has a meaning true or false I have a black cat False p I have a cold True q Berlin is the capital of Germany True r Willy does not have access to a laboratory True s Kelly is a biology major False u Is it normal abnormal Check against reality Reliability of source Idiolect Make decisions psychological principles expert majority sensory data 8 Saul Kripke possible world semantics It s true if it has to be that way in all possible worlds it s only possible if it might be that way in all some possible worlds it s false if it can t be that way in any possible world Combinations of sentences propositions Really basic truth value predicate calculus Terms p q r relationships And relationship but Or inclusive or exclusive or XOR v If then causality time If and only if then biconditional iff p r T T F F p T T F F P T T F F T T F F T F F F v T T T F T F T T T F F T q P iff T F T F r T F T F T F T F q T F T F If I get my homework done I will go out for ice cream I went out for ice cream Therefore I got my homework done fallacy of affirming the consequent Fallacy of denying the antecedent