SEMANTICS and PRAGMATICS

The Study of Meanings

What is Semantics?
Semantics is concerned with the study of meaning of words, phrases and sentences in language. It examines the way in which language expressions have meaning.

What is Odd in these sentences?

My cat studies linguistics. The hamburger ate the man. A table was listening to some music. The television drank my water. My homework flew out of the window.

What is Odd in these sentences?

Marriage is very importance in our daily lives. In this era of globalization, many people has get married at a young age. Everyone in this world want to marry someone. In my point of view, early marriages is a plan for disaster.

What is Odd in these sentences?

She is mad about him. He is the apple of her eye. She likes his monkey tricks. I am so hungry that I could eat a horse. The pen is mightier than the sword.

Same or Different Meaning

John is happy. John is glad. He is a bachelor. He is an unmarried man. The library has some new books on linguistics. The library has some new titles in linguistics.

Same or Different Meaning

The dog killed the rat. The rat was killed by the dog. This table is too heavy for me to lift. This table is so heavy that I cannot lift it. Platinum is the most precious metal. No other metal is as precious as platinum. Platinum is more precious than any other metal.

What is Semantics?
Language is primarily a means of communication. The most important feature of communication is to convey meaning from the speaker to the hearer. Understanding the meaning intended by the speaker is an important part of the communication process. The act of understanding is a two way process where the speaker presents his message clearly while the listener has the responsibility to understand the message accurately. Semantics is the study of meaning in human language.

Understanding Meaning Correctly

A man telephoned the airline office and asked, How long does it take to fly to Boston? The clerk said, Just a minute Thank you, the man said and hung up. When asked to fill in the column Sex: _____ in a questionnaire, a candidate wrote: Never!

Semantics and Pragmatics

Semantics refers to the meaning of words in a language and the meaning within the sentence. Semantics considers the meaning of the sentence without the context. Pragmatic meaning looks at the same words and grammar used semantically within a context. It examines the situation in which a conversation took place, the relationship between the participants and other contextual factors.

Understanding Pragmatic Meaning

Beg your pardon. Can you switch off your laptops? Could I say something? He was so tired he could sleep for days. Its been ages since we last met.

Rewrite these sentences without changing the meaning.

She has been feeling blue lately . Yesterday, she made some off the cuff remarks about me. She was trying to dig into my past history. I was quite taken aback when I came to know about it. Hope you all appreciate my discomfort.

Types of Meanings
It is very difficult to account for all shades of meaning because meaning is not stable, it is highly elusive and changeable. Factors such as individuals experiences, contexts, beliefs, situations and so many other variables affect meaning. Linguists have categorized the various dimensions or aspects of meaning into two major classes: denotative and connotative meanings.

Denotative Meaning
The denotative meaning is also referred to as the primary or literal meaning of a word or an utterance. Linguistics is the scientific study of languages. Contexts or emotions of either the speaker or the hearer do not affect the conceptual or the denotative meaning of an expression.

Connotative Meaning
This is the meaning an expression has over and above its conceptual content. It is the additional communicative value an expression has. This includes the association between the expression and real world experiences. Linguistics is an interesting field of study.

Socio-affective Meaning
Also known as emotive or attitudinal meaning, affective meaning is the type of meaning that reflects the personal feeling/attitude of the speaker towards his listener or a particular subject matter. Linguistics is a fascinating subject. I certainly do not despise it.

Collocative Meaning
Collocative meaning is the type of meaning, which a word acquires because of the other words surrounding it. Words that always occur together are known as collocates of each other. Linguistics really puts me off. It certainly is not my cup of tea. I dread to think what the linguistics examination would be like.

Denotative and Connotative Meanings

Those who are lonely and detached live in a house. Those who live with loved ones and in happiness live in a home. A mother and father have procreated or produced children. A mom and a dad are loving parents. Many wise men have made plans. Many cunning scoundrels have devised a scheme. I'm sick and tired of listening to politicians, but give us a good statesman and our country will make real progress.

Identify the words which indicate connotative meaning

smart vs. dashing greedy vs. ambitious idle vs lazy inexpensive vs cheap stupid vs slow amazed vs stupefied clever vs shrewd speculate vs invest stay-at-home mom vs homemaker

Some Meaning Relations at the Word Level

Synonymy
Synonymy is the semantic relationship between two words that express the same, identical or very similar meaning in a given context. Synonyms can be any part of speech (e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs or prepositions) as long as both members of the pair are of the same parts of speech.

Synonymy: Examples
Nouns: Verbs: Adjectives: student thief jump hold sick tiny pretty pupil burglar leap grip ill/unwell minute attractive

Synonymy: Examples
1. The word pupil as the aperture in the iris of the eye is not synonymous with the word student. 2. The sentence He expired means the same as He died, yet My driving license has expired cannot be replaced with My driving license has died.

Types of Synonyms
Synonyms can be absolute or near / partial. Examples: Absolute Synonyms - anybody/anyone; nobody/no one; everybody/everyone Near Synonyms slim/skinny; miserly/thrifty; generous/large-hearted; minute/small Absolute synonyms are hard to find and this is probably due to the fact that there is little point for a language to have two or more words with exactly the same meaning.

Near Synonyms
Near synonyms are words very similar but not identical in meaning. Near synonyms have the same communicative effect in some contexts but not in all contexts. Take a look at the following examples. Deep/profound Ripe/mature Both deep and profound can occur together with thought but it is only deep that can occur together with well (a deep hole in the ground from which people take water). Similarly, both ripe and mature can occur together with fruit but it is only mature that can occur together with girl.

Find the Synonyms

Soft Wet Weak Long Run Smile

Answers: Find the Synonyms

Synonyms of soft : downy, silky, dull, low, weak, spongy, limp, malleable Synonyms of wet: moist, watery, soppy, soggy, drenched Synonyms of weak: wimpy, sapped, faint, soft, flimsy Synonyms of long: elongated, lengthy, outstretched, extended Synonyms of run: dash, gallop, sprint, scuttle, scamper Synonyms of smile: beam, grin, smirk, simper

Activity: Choose appropriate synonyms to complete the sentences.

annoyed scared frequently start fright check ring grown-ups huge amazed

1.

Larry died at a young age because he didn't have a healthy lifestyle. He was ____ (often) drunk. 2. Listen to me, Sarah! If you are good, you can eat with the ____(adults) 3. I was going to ____ (phone) Pamela but I can't find her phone number. Do you know it? 4. We are at the end of the holidays, the children____ (begin) school next week. 5. At first, he was really ____ (afraid) but he realised very soon that it was a rat which had made the noise. 6. My students are really very nice. They gave me two ____ (enormous) bunches of flowers on Teachers Day. 7. He was beginning to get ____ (angry) with the boys for their carelessness. 8. Please ____ (verify) that there are sufficient funds available in your account before issuing a cheque. 9. Neil was not well when the tournament began so his parents were ______ (astonished) to learn that he had won the competition. 10. When Mrs, Lim entered the house and saw a cobra, she got the ____ (fear) of her life.

Semantic Opposition: Antonyms

Semantic opposition is used to describe the relationship between words whose meanings contradict each other. Words that are involved in this kind of relation are known as opposites or antonyms. Semantic oppositions are basically of two major types. These are the binary contrast and the non-binary contrast.

Examples of Antonyms
short and tall dead and alive increase and decrease add and subtract Antonyms formed by adding the prefix un- : likely/unlikely, able/unable, fortunate/unfortunate, real/ unreal Antonyms formed by adding the prefix non- : entity/non-entity, conformist /non-conformist, Muslims /non-Muslims Antonyms formed by adding the prefix intolerant/intolerant, discreet/indiscreet, decent/ indecent

Examples of Antonyms (?)

The dog is not old. The dog is young. X black white enter- exit tie untie undress dress

Complementary Opposites
The contrast between the words in each of these pairs is complete and if you assert or support one of them you are contradicting the other. Examples: true and false, dead and alive, awake and sleep, open and closed, male and female, etc.

Relational Opposites
Relational opposites have an interdependence of meaning. This means that if one word in the pair of words exists, the other word is bound to exist also. Examples: employer and employee, mother and father, buyer and seller, above and below, before and after.

Directional Opposites
Pair of words, which denote directional opposites, indicate potential paths. This means that if we use these words to talk about two moving things, these things would be moving in opposite directions. Examples: north and south, east and west, up and down.

Gradable Opposites
The words cold and hot are polarity opposites. This means that they define two extremes of a scale (pole) and other possible intermediate temperature scales can also exist. Examples: cool, tepid, lukewarm and warm tiny, minute, small, big, huge, enormous foolish, stupid, dumb, wise, knowledgeable, genius

Hyponyms
Hyponyms are words that are the specific examples of a general word and indicate a class relationship. The word which operates as the head of the class is called a super-ordinate. Examples: Flowers: hibiscus, rose, petunia,tulip, etc. Cook: boil, steam, saute, grill, fry Colours: red, blue, white, black, purple Living beings: reptile, bird, fish,amphibian, mammal, insects

Activity: Hyponymy
1. List the hyponyms of each of the following super-ordinates: furniture, reptiles, musical instruments, kitchenware, sad, run, say 2. Determine the hyponymy to show the relationships among the following words. a. parmesan, cheddar, mozzarella, Gouda, feta b. glad, pleased, thrilled, delighted, overjoyed c. glide, crawl, climb, swing swim, creep, fly, walk

Use a term you have learnt to describe the basic lexical relationship between the following pairs of words:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. shallow / deep walk /amble table / furniture single / married full / empty move /run suite / sweet 8. feet / feat 9. wise / mature 10. climate / summer