语言学第五章.ppt

What is semantics? Approaches to meaning Sense and reference Word/lexical meaning Kinds of meaning Major sense relations Sentence meaning Semantic analysis Componential analysis Predication analysis What is semantics? 英文semantics来自希腊语semantikos，意思是siginificant(有意义)。是研究语言意义的科学。 词的意义和句子意义. 20世纪60年代以前，语言学家只注重研究词的意义，忽略了句子意义。 研究语言单位的意义，尤其是词语和句子的意义 。 Semantics--the study of the meaning of linguistic units, words and sentences in particular. Meaning is central to the study of communication. What is meaning? -- Scholars under different scientific backgrounds have different understandings of language meaning. Philosophers are mainly interested in the relation between linguistic expressions, such as the words of a language, and persons, things, and events in the world to which these words refer. Within the domain of linguistics, semantics is mainly concerned with the analysis of meaning of words, phrases, or sentences and sometimes with the meaning of utterances in discourse or the meaning of a whole text. Leech’s classification of meanings Connotations are relatively unstable. They vary considerably according to society, historical period, and the experience of the individual. e.g. capitalism The connotative meaning can be the same /different in different languages or cultures. e.g. fox, machine BUT: dragon, dog, elephant (White Elephant) ASK: What does ‘white elephant’ mean in English? denotation and connotation Denotation is the part of meaning of a word or phrase that relates it to phenomena in the real world or in a fictional or possible world 将词或片语同现实世界或虚构或可能世界里的现象联系起来的那部分意义 Connotation refers to the additional meanings that a word or phrase has beyond its central meaning (denotation). These meanings show people’s emotions and attitudes. 词与片语的基本意义之外的意义。表示人们对词或片语所指称的人或事物所怀有的情感或态度 2) Social/stylistic meaning 社会/文体意义 a piece of language conveys about the social circumstances of language use. 传达的关于语言使用