1. STUDY OF LINGUISTIC MEANING

2. Introduction
To
Semantics

3.  What is semantics?
 Semantics is the study of meaning. It is a wide subject within the general study of
language.
 (how language users acquire a sense of meaning, as speakers and writers, listeners and
readers) and of language change (how meanings alter over time .

4.  Symbol and referent
 Conceptions of meaning
 Words and lexemes
 Denotation, connotation, implication
 Pragmatics
 Ambiguity
 Metaphor, simile and symbol
 Semantic fields
 Synonym, antonym and hyponym

5.  The study of semantics includes the study of how meaning is constructed, interpreted,
clarified, obscured, illustrated, simplified negotiated, contradicted and paraphrased.
 Collocation, fixed expression and idiom
 Semantic change and etymology
 Polysemy
 Homonymy, homophones and homographs
 Lexicology and lexicography
 Thesauruses, libraries and Web portals
 Epistemology

6.  This is usually a single word, but may be a phrase in which the meaning
belongs to the whole rather than its parts, as in verb phrases tune in, turn
on, drop out or noun phrase (a) cock up.
Referential or denotative meaning
Referential meaning is primary while connotative meaning is secondary.
Theory of meaning, based on the first, is the theory of abstraction or referential theory,
also called the theory of signification.
This theory recognises the following three components of meaning:-
(1) the sound form or the linguistic sign,
(2) the concept underlying the form, and
(3) the actual referent, that part of the extra linguistic world

7. Connotative meaning is the communicative value which an expression has by virtue of what
it refers to.
EXP:
1. kill, murder, assassinate,
2. eat, partake, peck, wolf, devour,
3. Hindi marnaa, svargavaasii honaa, eN bolnaa,
4. khaanaa, liilnaa, bhakosnaa,
5. Bengali svaamii, bhaataar.
In the above sets of the words, we find that all the words of each set have some common
semantic features, which give their basic or denotative meaning.

8.  It is colorless and neutral. kill means simply causing death, whereas in murder there are
some additional or supplementary features which determine its meaning.
 In the same way partake, peck, wolf, devour have some additional features. These
additional features add some extra meaning to the basic denotative meanings.

9.  These features are called connotation and the meanings based on them the connotative
meaning or connotation component of meaning.
 We are connotations added to words? when a speaker feels that the denotation meaning
would not be enough to produce some desired additional effects like irony, joke, humor,
euphemism and respect etc. he adds connotations to the words.

10.  The connotation component of meaning related to the emotive or expressive
notion of the speaker or to stylistic values.
 Introduced into the language by individuals.
 Become socialized and become the part of the language.
 Originating with figurative extensions they are gradually transferred and are
stabilized in the language.
 We may take the Oriya word maharii used for female attendants in temples.
Originally meaning 'the female member of Mahar Caste' and the 'female
servant of the god' the word now means something like a 'keep' .

11.  Stylistic differences also come under connotations.
 When we compare the word pitaa 'father' paapaa
 we find that the former is stylistically neutral, whereas the latter is colloquial.
 A similar distinction can be made between friend and chum. The connotations include
the following variations of language

12.  Slangs, professionalisms, jargonisms, vulgarisms, dialectal
words, neologisms, formal, peotic, baby language etc.
 The connotative meaning is vary significant for a lexicographer.
 When he analyses the semantic structure of individual lexical units, especially the
polysemous ones, he has to distinguish between the denotative and connotative
meanings for fixing the arrangement of meanings.

13. SENTENCE INTERPRETATION TYPE OF MEANING
John kicked John hit the bucket Compositional Meaning
the bucket. with his leg.
John died.(idiomaic Non-Compositional Meaning
meaning)
The sentence pabucu dama atıldı includes such an example in Turkish.We know it
includes the meaning ‘He has fallen out of favor’ but not the origin of that
meaning.

14. Idiomatic meaning for a Turkish idiom
SENTENCE INTERPRETATION TYPE OF MEANING
His shoes were thrown out Compositional Meaning
Pabucu dama atıldı. onto his shop roof.
He is forbidden to work in Original Meaning
shoe business.
He has fallen out of Non-Compositional Meaning
favor.(idiomatic meaning)
Collocational Meaning
You shall know a word by the company it keeps.

15. 1. Buxom lass attractive woman
2. Blond hair fair (yellow)hair
3. Cascading water wave-like dropping of water
4. Glooomy weather depressing weather
5. Vested interest secure possession
6. Fancy dress unusual costume
What do all these phrases have in common?
The obvious answer is that they are used in combination or
arrangement pretty frequently.
15

16. There is a saying in Turkish:’ Leb demeden, leblebiyi anlamak’. Now ,let us take a test:when
someone begins with the Turkish word zifiri…,can you predict the next word?Yes, it is
karanlık qualifies for a true collocation.
DIFFERENCES IN ENGLISH TURKISH
COLLOCATIONS
water water
soup soup
DRINK
x cigarette
x oath
İnterpret İnterpret(a dream)
DREAM (a dream)
I had a dream about I saw you in my
you. dream.

17. As the study of meaning of the linguistics expressions,semantics is
conveniently divided into two:
 Sentential Semantics
 Lexical Semantics

18. Meaning Inclusion Entailment
SENTENTIAL SEMANTICS Meaning Equation Ambiguity
paraphrase
S Inconsistency Contradiction
E Meaning Inclusion Hyphonymy
M
A Meaning polysemy
N Relations
Meaning Extension Metonymy
T
Metaphor
I
C Meaning Equation Synonymy
S LEXICAL Ambiguity
SEMANTICS Lexical Relations Inconsistency Antonymy
Anomaly

19.  Paraphrasing
 Entailment
 Ambiguity and
 contradiction

20.  Paraphrasing at the sentence level is much more complicated.The
commonest ones in structural change include:
 Active-passive transformation Paraphrased Entailed
 Inversion
 It-clefts
 Wh-clefts
 Non-referential’there’
 Fronting Utterance
Paraphrase
Paraphrase and entailment

21.  Entyailment refers to the recognition of the shared,presupposed knowledge.All
Utterances are based on certain entailments.
ACTUAL UTTERANCE ENTAILED KNOWLEDGE
How’s school going? I know you study at a school.
Did you quit smoking? I know you were smoking
I’m not going to speak of my My political opponent has
political opponent’s blunders. blunders.

22.  Existence of ‘ambiguity’ in natural languages.
They hated the shooting of the ‘They hated the hunters who did
hunters. the shooting’
‘They hated the fact that the
hunters were shot.’
Lexical semantics
Studies meaning of words
Divided into two:Meaning Relations and Lexical Relations

23.  Meaning Relations is about the interaction of meanings within and across lexical items
in the vocab.
 Meaning Inclusion
 Meaning Extension
 Meaning Equation

 Meaning Inclusion:Polysemy,Entailment and Hyphonmy.

24.  Polysemy and Homonymy
Polysemy
1. Directly related with metaphor
2. Common in languages
3. Multiple related meanings on the basis of analogy,similarity
Head (n) a)’Part of human body’
b)’President of an institution’
c)’Go’(v) where are you heading?

25.  It involves two or more lexical items
 Having same shape either in the form of pronunciation or spelling
 Club(n) a)Society of persons
b)Heavy stick,baton
c)A kind of playing card
A:Do you believe in clubs for young people?
B:Only when kindness fails,my friend!

26.  Have the same pronunciation but different spelling.
 Threw/through /θru:/
 I/eye /aı/
 Homographs
 Have the same spelling but different pronunciation.Compare:
 Wind in the sense of blowing./wınd/
 Wind in the sense of bendind./waınd/

27. The meaning of one includes the meaning of the other word.
The word that includes is called a ‘superordinate’ while the one that is included in the
meaning of the superordinate is called a ‘hyponym’.
SUPERORDINATE SPEAK
Hyponyms Shout,tell,say,utter,pronounce,murmur,mutter,whisper,grumple,
mumble
SUPERORDINATE WRITE
Hyponyms Inscribe,red,pink,orange,green,y
ellow,blue,purple,white.

28. SUPERORDINATE COLOR
Hyponyms Black,red,pink,orange,yellow,blue,purple,white.
Metaphor
It ıncludes two major subsections:metaphor and metonymy.
The sole purpose of linguistic communaication (metaphor)
Express the word in a creative way that based on perceptual,functional or physical
resemblances.

29.  It is a semantic relationship that holds between two words in terms of part
whole,content-container,symbol-represented.connections.
 Can you light up the stove?
 What is to be lit is not the stove,but the contents of the stove.
 Meaning Equation
 Synonymy
 Extremely useful tool for people not to sound too repetitive as well as to be understood
when the listener is not familiar with the word.
 To consist of
 To comprise
 To be composed of

30. FREEDOM LIBERTY STATUS
Freedom of speech Liberty of speech Synonymous
*Civil freedoms Civil liberties Not synonymous
*At freedom At liberty Not synonymous
Synonymy through collocations ‘Car’
CAR AUTOMOBILE STATUS
Car mechanic *Automobile mechanic Not synonymous
Car wash *Automobile wash Not synonymous
Car show Automobile show Synonymous

31.  A word,phrase or sentence that has more than one meaning is said to be ‘ambiguous’.
 Where are the glasses? (‘seeing glasses’ vs. window glasses’)
 Inconsistency
 Antonymy
 A relationship of oppositeness
 Richxpoor

32.  What’s odd in the following?
 My cat wishes to study linguistics for a change.
COMPONENTIAL ANALYSIS
EXAMPLES HUMAN ADULT
Study (+) (+)
Cat (-) (+)
BURCU KESİKOĞLU
100908016
SİNAN DERİNOĞLU
100908033