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Semantics and Pragmatics

Presented to: Paola Palma

Presented by: Karol Tatiana Gomez

University of Tolima

B.A in English

Faculty of Education

Semester B

Ibague

2013

(September 6th, 2013)

Semantics as part of grammar:

Why should semantics be considered as part of grammar?

Everything we say has to have an intention; probably this intention is to be heard. If

there is not grammar, cohesion and syntax it is almost impossible to make

understandable what we are saying.

Semantic shows the meaning, and the meaning depends on how ideas are

expressed.

Grammar gives the structure, the vocabulary and the right way to use language.

Everything is based on the way you express. So, I think semantic should be part of

grammar because they both are a complement to establish a well done

conversation.

September 11th, 2013)

The denotational theory of meaning:

1. Explain what the denotational theory of meaning is.

2. On the denotational theory of meaning, if an expression has a denotation, it

has a meaning. Give at least one example of an expression for which this is

false.

Andrea is talking to her friend Ana

Andrea: I work really hard to keep my favorite luxuries

Ana: Why? If it is your husband who works really hard, and he gives you

everything

. There are two girls in a shopping mall, they are trying on some dresses, and

watching themselves in mirrors, so one says:

A: you look very beautiful

B: Do I? But if I haven't tried on any dress

A: Not you. I mean, Me!

You look very beautiful is referring to myself


The mentalist theories of meaning

1. What are the major weaknesses of the mentalist theory of meaning?

When speaking, the idea must be given in a clear way, because the

intention can be lost if there is not right use of the grammatical and semantic

components, besides the listener can confuse the meaning if the topic is not

clear. Listener must hear clear details of what has been descripted to don’t

misunderstand the idea.

Any word can refers to two or more things.

Listeners don’t have the same ideas, so, the image can be different.

Many words don’t have mental image.

2. According to the mentalist theory of meaning, ideas are mental images.

Based on this definition, how do you explain the difference between these two

sentences?

a. She speaks French and Spanish

b. She speaks French or Spanish

When we use words to express utterances we have to pay attention to the words

used. It is not the same use “and” that “or”. Semantically the intention is different.

When you say “and” is because you are adding some information and “or” is

because there is an option, one of those is right, no both.


Meaning properties and relations

Ambiguity is the property of having two or more distinct meanings or interpretations

(cf. Cipollone et al., 1998). A word or sentence is ambiguous if it can be interpreted

in more than one way. Ambiguity can be caused by factors such as homonymy,

polysemy, lack of sufficient context, etc.

Structural Ambiguity (phrases or sentences): To how many interpretations can the

following sentences lead?

We need more intelligent leaders:

The leaders that are working, are not enough: Quantity

The leaders that are working are not efficient: quality

Visiting strangers can be dangerous.

To visit some strangers can be dangerous, maybe the road, climate.

To visit strangers can be dangerous because they are unknown people.

Moving sidewalks can be useful.

To remove the sidewalks can be useful

Sliding sidewalks can be useful.

Lexical Ambiguity: It is the ambiguity that some sentences exhibit when they

contain words that can be interpreted in more than one way (those words are either

homonymous or polysemous words).

What interpretations can you identify in the underlined words? What type of lexical

relations do you find?

We can fish. Homonymy

Can= verb, auxiliary, object

Look at the spring. Homonymy

Spring= Season, object, place

John met his wife near a bank. Homonymy

Bank= Financial place, river, chair

Consider the following dialogue:

A: What chances do I have for a raise?

B: Two. Slim and fat.

Does fat mean the same thing as slim in the language, or is one of these words

being used nonliterally? Defend your answer.

The meaning is not literal because it is a word used to describe physical and

corporal shapes, not size. The right word would be big.


Truth properties and truth relations

1. Based on the theories of truth properties and truth relations, explain the

relation between these two statements:

a. If John killed the bear, then the bear died

b. John killed the bear, and the bear is still alive

The first statement is semantically true because the second part of the statement

confirm the first idea.

The second statement is significantly false, because there is a contradiction. The

second part of the sentence is saying something totally different to what was said

at the beginning.

2. What do these statements entail?

a. The car is red

There is a car

The car is colorful

b. The needle is too short

The needle is not long enough

3. Are these two sentences true or false? Explain why.

a. All people that are sick are people

This sentence is semantically true because the second part confirm the first.

b. Every person is sick, but some person is not.

This statement is false, because the second part does not have relation with the

first. If it was said that every person is sick, it means everybody in the world or in

the context.


Denotation and reference

(Activity taken from: Study English IELTs preparation Episode 5.)

Activity 1: Identify referents and the noun phrases to which they refer in the following paragraph: The shark is a carnivorous (meat-eating) sea animal. It is one of the most feared fish in the ocean, having the reputation of attacking humans. There are many species that roam the great oceans of the world. They vary in size and habit. Though the whale shark is considered the largest, it is relatively harmless, and mainly eats small fish and plankton. Other sharks include the hammerhead, mako and bull. These are fast, powerful sea animals that feed on larger fish such as mackerel, tuna and herring. The white shark, on the other hand, is the most frightening and dangerous. It gets this reputation because of its size and keen sense, which enables it to prey successfully. Since early 1960’s, scientist have been studying sharks because of their potential to provide the medical world with defenses such as cancer and arthritis. That would be welcomed by all. Activity 2: Read the passage, choose the correct referring expression and identify its referent: A planet is a large, round object that travels around the sun. There are nine planets, which together comprise a part of the solar system. (This, these, that) include Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Much like stars in appearance, planets differ from (they, them(stars)}, their) in that (they(planets) , them, their) shine steadily, while stars twinkle. (this (Appearance), these, those) may be the result of the light and heat that stars produce on (its, they, their) own, (this(Light), these, that) which the planets emit is reflected light from the sun. Though the planets differ substantially in size and vary widely in terms of (their (surface), its, they) surface conditions, (them, they (Planets), these) are similar insofar as orbital movement is concerned. All of (them (planets), they, these) move in a westward direction across the sky. Astronomers have been fascinated by planets for thousands of years, but more recently have become interested in the feasibility of sustainable life on planets. Answers to (these, that (the feasibility of sustainable life on planets), they) may give scientist and insight into our long-term future. BOOK: Yule, G. (1996) Pragmatics. Oxford, Oxford University Press.


Reference and inference

1. What is the difference between semantic and pragmatic reference?

When we refer to something semantically it is something that is on the world, even

these referents can be imaginaries, because for example with Unicorns, these do

not exist, but we have a referent if somebody mention them.

Pragmatically, the meaning is given by the context, so, referents can just be these

things that we can perceive with our senses.


Anaphoric reference

1. Anaphora involves two kinds of linking, what are they?

Reflexive

Principle A: An anaphor must be bound in its minimal

domain;

Principle B: A pronoun must be free in its minimal domain;

Principle C: A referring expression must be free.

Reciprocal pronouns

We use reciprocal pronouns when each of two or more subjects is acting in the same way towards the other. For example, A is talking to B, and B is talking to A. So we say:

A and B are talking to each other.

My Journals

Truth Properties

18th September

Everything we say have an intention and a way to be said. Some things are not

totally true and some others actually are. It depends if the meaning is semantic or

pragmatic. In truth properties class what we did was basically to clarify the

differences between a statement which is true or false.

True property is the way that semantically what you have said have a real

meaning, for example when you say that “it is raining” actually it is raining but if you

say “it is raining here” is depends on the point of view. Actually, everything

depends on the point of view that listener has. Sometimes it is necessary to trust

on what the speaker is saying, so, it could be semantically true or false.

Syntax, semantic and grammar are part of the interpretation of the meaning. So it

is not the same saying that you like someone, that someone likes you. Even, if

grammatically it is correct, semantically it could not be.

Also this topic is related to entailment. It is the related meanings that we can have

in a sentence. Entailment depends on sentence meaning, not the context in which

the sentence is used, because for example when you say that the car is red, you

are not specifying which car, however what this statement entails is that there is a

car and this car has a color.

What I learnt about truth properties and entailment is that everything we say can be

interpreted in several ways. Basically it is important to know if the way that we are

speaking is the appropriate to make understandable our ideas. Also, it is important

to notice how necessary is to say the truth while speaking, because the listener’s

perception and assumption depend on that.

21st august 2013

Semantics and pragmatics

This presentation is related to the differences and similarities that we can find when

we talk about these two topics.

Semantics is related to the different definition that we can give to words, phrases,

sentences and utterances even if these do not exist in the real world. Meaning is

not specifically applied to a determined context, different to the pragmatics, where

everything that has been said makes sense when it is related to human daily

experiences. That is the reason why it is too important to understand how people

can perceive what we are saying. It is not the same to say “Santa Claus has given

me a gift” and “my father has given me a gift”. Older people can think that you are

crazy if you refer to Santa Claus as the person who gives you some gifts, but

children do not.

If we refer to a kid, who can imagine a lot, the pragmatic is not involved because

actually kids don not understand the pragmatic meaning of something. They just

see the world as a fantasy world. So, they set everything to their mind, their ideas,

and their wishes. Different to the rest of people, although in Christmas we can see

that some people still believe little tiny lies. Meaning and pragmatic are different,

even if both refer to the same: Meaning and the way in which it is interpreted.

When this topic was explained in class, I realized that sometimes I just speak

semantically, because I talk about things that do not exist. Even I love Unicorns

and they are not real. This was an interesting topic because help us to know when

we are speaking semantically or pragmatically.

11th September

What is meaning?

It is the definition or concept that we can have about something. But meaning is not

just what appears in a dictionary, meaning depends on different phenomena which

give the value to the word.

Mental Images: it is the image that appear in your mind when you hear any word,

for example “chair”, that is something that you have already known, but if for

example you hear the word “forget” it is difficult to have a mental idea of it.

Meaning and Reference: it depends on the relation that you have with the world,

so when you are referred to something, you will have your own meaning. Even

some fantastic thing can have their referent, because although these don’t exist,

we already got information about them.

Meaning and Truth: Talking about something does not mean that it really exists.

Fantasy does not have referents, even if we know that people are talking about

unicorns or Santa Claus, in the real life they do not exist.

Meaning and language use: The way you express, you think, you act have a

meaning and if it is true or false depends just in you, in the way you use the

language.

This presentation was really interesting because I could understand how important

is to know what and how we are saying something. Even it shows how careful we

must be with our gestures because sometimes we can hurt somebody else just

doing some movements or body expressions which can communicate even more

than words.

13th September

Pragmatics as a part of form

This presentation was interesting, although it was about something that in our

native language we have already done. It is the process of identifying the meaning

relationships that are given in a language. In primary school, this topic was

something normal to be asked about it, so if teacher asked you about the

synonyms of a word and you said an antonym, you got a bad mark but teacher did

not explain which the difference was. This topic has had a controversial point of

view because due to education, some students do not have a big idea of some

other relationships like entailment. Actually, I confess that I did not know about this

topic before the explanation.

I would like to explain a little bit about the different meaning relationships that you

can find.

Synonyms: Different writing, different sound but same meaning

Homonyms: Same spelling, same sound, different meaning.

Antonyms: Opposite meaning.

Entailment: The relation that words have between them.

I felt comfortable with this explanation because I learnt something new. Even I

remembered some topics that I had seen in my native language. But I have to take

into consideration that although are similar, meaning relationships in English can

be a little bit more complex.

25th September

Reference and inference

If we say something, there must be a listener. This listener just can understand us

if he knows what about we are talking. Sometimes thing are not said directly and

the listener can feel confused about the speaking. So, to facilitate the

understanding, it is necessary to infer what is being said. Just one word can refers

to several, but it is up to you the meaning that you are going to give it. The main

idea of inference is to know the origin and the purpose of something.

Reference is about the object, noun, noun phrases definite or indefinite and

pronouns. When you talk, most of the times you refer to something. For example if

you are talking about your mom to your best friend, she is going to know who your

mom is, even if she has not met her. The listener has a referent because she also

has or had mother, so she knows about it. That is something similar when you talk

to somebody about something is a little bit difficult to think about, for example, if

somebody asks you something like: “Do you remember the guy with the blue jacket

that we saw last week in the park?” if you have a good memory, you will remember

this guy and you will identify who is she talking about, but if you don’t, it will be

difficult to know who is the person, however you have a referent and it is the blue

jacket and that he was seen in the park.

Referents allow us to know what is being said; also, allow us to infer what is going

to happen in the conversation, which sequence it is having.

This presentation I liked too much, because it was something good to understand

the role of our brain in scrambling things to make sense of these.

27th September

Presupposition and Entailment

Presupposition is given when we talk and we express an idea which allows us to

infer something, it is also related to entailment because what has been said can

also contain another meanings.

For example when you say:

“Carlos’ motorbike is beautiful”

It means that it does not matter if the motorcycle is beautiful or not, what actually

matter is that Carlos has a motorbike.

It is the same when we say:

There was a party and a lot of people went.

There was a party and nobody went.

Although the two utterances express something different, both are related to

something, “a party”. So, what matters is not what happened to the object, but the

object itself. If a lot of people went to the party, or actually nobody, it does not

matter, because what it presupposed is that there was a party.

When we hear somebody saying something like that, we can infer some

information related to previous experiences, but also, we can entail these to some

extra information.

In our country, people do not notice about the importance of know what is being

said. Sometimes they just talk and that is all. I think people must understand the

whole form of language, for example I am totally sure that most of the people do

not understand why we speak in certain way or how our language is structured. I

think it is an interesting topic that helps us to know the reasons why languages are

sometimes too difficult of understand. Languages have their own manner to be

interpreted.

2nd October

Cooperation and implicature

An implicature is when a speaker is trying to say something that is more than

words. One expression means something else. So, sometimes the listener must

assume or infer the rest of the information.

There are some kinds of implicatures that help us to develop a good conversation.

Conversational Implicature: It takes into account the cooperation of the speaker

and the inference of the listener.

i.e. Katherine: Did you visit my mom and carried her the cake I prepared?

Carlos: I visited your mom.

Generalized Conversational Implicature: It is when there is not specific information,

so the meaning of something depends on how it is said.

i.e I’m looking for the dog. He was here just one second ago.

Scarlar Implicature: it is when the listener can infer some information depending on

the prepositions or words used. It sometimes shows that the speaker wants to omit

some information. It is based on the degree of some expressions.

i.e. I often have lunch… It means that not always this person has lunch.

Particularized Conversational Implicatures: It means that the conversation must be

given in a very specific context.

i.e. A:Tell me why Carlos and Edna broke up?

B: How is your mom?

It means that somebody could be near and could hear the conversation and that is

not the right moment to have that conversation.

Cooperation is the way that you collaborate to make understandable a

conversation, saying the truth and allowing listener to infer what she wants to

know.

This presentation was something good because I could understand how important

is to collaborate to the speaker when I am listening and vice versa.

16th October

Politeness and interaction

When we want to communicate something it is necessary to do a social interaction.

In society, values are something really important because give us the clue to act

without having problems. In communication the same situation happens.

When we talk it is necessary to make that the listener can understand what we are

saying, overall if we are saying is something polite. Sometimes we are a little bit

rude while talking and we are not respectful with the different opinions that we

have, but the idea if having a good interaction is basically to be polite.

When we are polite we can find a lot of nice things, because we are going to be

respect, too.

I liked this topic so much because mention something that in our country is being

lost. We can be very rude while talking. Obviously it depends on the perception

that people have because for example, Americans feel threatened if you don’t

answer as was expecting, or if you do some gestures that they think these are

rude and you don’t.

To be polite, you need to know different cultures, but overall, you need to have

cleared your values and the importance of these in the interaction with the society.

Nowadays, values are being lost because of culture, technology and influence of

other countries. It is a shame because we have lost our identity and now we are

coping different cultures, however, education can change this situation.

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