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What does “meaning” mean?

Linguistics lecture #3

November 2, 2006

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Overview

• Interfaces with and within language

• Mind/body and formalism/functionalism

• The problem of meaning

• The syntax-semantics interface

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Language is half in the mind,half in the physical world

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Interfaces

• Mental language interfaces with the physical world in semantics (meaning)

• Mental language interfaces with the physical world in phonology (form)

• Syntax is the interface between semantics and phonology

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Formalist view

• Modularity hypothesis: semantics, syntax, and phonology have their own grammatical structure, and are not influenced or shaped by their interface roles

• Thus syntax is not shaped by semantics

• Likewise, phonology is not shaped by the physical side of speech

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Functionalist view

• Interactionist hypothesis: semantics, syntax, and phonology are strongly influenced by their interface roles

• Some formalists permit functionalism, but only in biological evolution

• For example, they say that syntax is innate, but that it evolved to solve the semantics-phonology interface problem

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• Nonlinguistic cognition (e.g. vision, muscle control) interfaces with the physical world

• This interface uses nonlinguistic mental representations (e.g. visual images)

• These nonlinguistic mental representations interface with formal propositions

• Propositions interface with the actual sentences of syntax

• Syntax interfaces with phonology, which interfaces with the physical world again

Linguists see interfaces everywhere

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(images etc)

MIND

LANGUAGE

Physical world

Mental representations

Propositions

Syntax

Phonology

Physical world

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Is meaning an interface?

• What does “dog” mean? Two things:

It refers to something in the world:

“dog” = It can be defined in terms of other forms:

“dog” = “animal with four legs that…”

“dog” = 「狗」

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Yes, meanings are interfaces

• Meaning type is Reference: what a linguistic form refers to in the real world**Actually, it’s an interface between linguistic form and mental representations of the world (shaped partly by vision, etc)

• Meaning type is Sense: a formal representation of meaning**This is the mental thing that the linguistic form links to: propositions

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The nature of reference

• Proper names refer to individuals

(1) James Myers is here.

• Common words refer to classes(2) The American linguist at CCU is here.

• Note that sentences (1) and (2) seem to have the same sense (formal equivalence), but different references (e.g. if I am replaced by another American linguist)

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The reference of a sentence

• The standard theory of sentence meaning is truth-conditional semantics:A sentence refers to the conditions (maybe imaginary) under which it is true.

(1) George W. Bush is a Taiwanese.(2) All Taiwanese have three legs.

• Sentence (1) would be true under different conditions than sentence (2), so they have different meanings.

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The essential role of sense

• Words and sentences don’t link to the world directly, but instead interface through formal propositions: sense.

Sentence: “Chomsky eats dogs.”Sense: A specific person P called “Chomsky” has a relationship R called “eating” with a class C called “dogs”, such that R(P,C)

Reference: A mental representation (using images etc) of the situation described by the above proposition

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The syntax-semantics interface

• But how are sentences translated into formal propositions?

• This issue is closely related to formal logic:

(1) George W. Bush is a Taiwanese.(2) All Taiwanese have three legs.(3) Therefore, George W. Bush has three legs.

• This is logically valid : (3) follows from (1) and (2), even though they are false.

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Syntax and logic

• The above reasoning is valid because of its abstract structure:

(1) X is a Y.(2) All Y have Z.(3) X has Z.

• This is syntax: All Y have Z

Quantifier Noun VP

NP

S

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Semantics and formalism

• The syntax-proposition interface obeys its own formal rules that seem to be unrelated to experience with the real world

(1) Bill told John about him.(2) Bill told John about himself.(3) Bill told John to kill himself.(4) Bill told John he is smart.

him Bill, him John

himself = Bill

himself = John

he = Bill or he = John

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Formal semantic universals?

• “Self” words in English must be linked to words “close enough” in the sentence:Bill told John to say Henry likes himself.

himself = Henry, and nobody else

• But Chinese allows long-distance reference:麥傑告訴王一奇說襲充文喜歡自己。自己 = 襲充文 or 麥傑 (but not 王一奇 )

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Syntax and ambiguity

• Ambiguous sentences have multiple meanings:Why do you believe that James is dumb?

• Remember? In this case, ambiguity comes from two different deep structures: (1) [Why]x do you believe x that James is dumb?

“What makes you believe this about James?”

(2) [Why]x do you believe that James is dumb x ?

“What causes James to be dumb?”

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Propositions and ambiguity

• Ambiguity with only one deep structure:A student read every book.

Proposition 1:[a student]x [ [every book]y [x read y] ]

“There is a student who read every book.”

Proposition 2:[every book]y [a student]x [[x read y] ]

“For every book, there is a student who read it.”

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Ambiguity and transformations?

• The ambiguity of the “James is dumb” sentence comes from the transformation from deep structure to surface structure.

• Maybe the ambiguity of the “student” sentence comes from another transformation:

surface structure to propositions

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Transforming into propositions

• If this is right, then creating propositions should obey syntactic constraints: some transformation should be “illegal”

• So with more complex syntax, ambiguity in the “student” sentence disappears:A student said that [he read every book](1) [a student]x [[every book]y [x said that [hex read y]]]

(2) *[every book]y [[a student]x [x said that [hex read y]]]

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Semantics and functionalism

• This formal stuff works pretty well, but people also interpret sentences using real-world knowledge

(1) Bill told John she is smart.(2) Bill told John. He was surprised.(3) Bill told John. He shouldn’t have.(4) Bill told John he should listen.

she Bill or John

he = John

he = Bill

he = John…?

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Summary

• Language interfaces with the world through semantics and phonology

• Formalists believe in modularity, functionalists don’t

• Meaning involves both sense and reference• Interpreting sentences requires transforming

them into propositions• Real-world knowledge is also necessary