Exploring Language and Linguistics

PREVIEW

This chapter provides an introduction to semantics, which we define as the study of meaning in language. The chapter begins by drawing a fluid boundary between semantics and pragmatics, characterizing the former as knowledge of the linguistic system and the latter as its use in real-life situations. An important distinction is made between reference, the act of using language to identify items in the world, and sense or meaning, which allows the link to be made between sounds and reality. The chapter discusses meaning at the levels of word and sentence. At the word or lexical level, a number of semantic relations are identified, such as synonymy, antonymy and hyponymy. These relations structure a language's vocabulary. We will see how some relations, such as hyponymy, have effects at both word and sentence level. At the sentence level, the chapter introduces some of the rich repetoire of semantic systems which allow speakers a choice in characterizing situations, including situation type, aspect, tense and semantic roles. A central theme will be construal, the choice of semantic options made by a speaker when talking about a situation or event. The discussion moves on to examine the proposal that the philosophical notion of truth should be used to characterize sentence meaning. The chapter closes with the distinction between literal and non-literal language, looking briefly at the cognitive semantics position that questions this traditional and longstanding distinction. By the end of the chapter you will have been introduced to a range of semantic systems that are embodied in speakers’ knowledge of their native language.

Introduction

Semantics is the study of linguistic meaning. It shares this interest with pragmatics, which is the subject of the next chapter. The dividing line between the two areas is fluid and depends in part on the type of linguistic theory we employ. However, in advance of both chapters we can say that in studying semantics we try to model what speakers implicitly know about the meanings of words, phrases and sentences in their native languages. A primary concern of pragmatics, on the other hand, is how speakers integrate contextual and non-linguistic knowledge in the communication of meaning. Another way of making the distinction is to say that semantics is concerned with language as a system, while pragmatics is concerned with how speakers use language.