Meaning of meaning

1. By Ika Farihah Hentihu

2. 1. Semantics
The study of linguistic meaning dealing with the literal
meaning of words and the meaning of the way they are
combined.
2. Pragmatics
The study of linguistic meaning dealing with
all the ways in which literal meaning must be refined or
enriched to arrive at an understanding of what speaker
meant in uttering
a particular expression.

3. “I forgot the paper.”
The person who is speaking at some time before the
time of speaking forgot a particular item which is a
paper

4. “I forgot the paper.”
1. In Sunday morning, Anna (the speaker) has returned to
her flat from the local shop then she realized that she
forgot to buy a copy of the Sunday newspaper for that
morning.
2. Anna comes to her table with wet hands (after washing
hands). When she wants to touch her documents, she
remember that
she did not take tissue.

5. 1. Denotation and Sense
2. Lexical and Structural Meaning
3. Categorematic and
Syncategorematic Expressions

6. • The two most basic ways of giving the meaning of words
or longer expressions
1. Denotation
giving meaning by denoting (or referring to) something
2. Sense
giving meaning by attempting to match the word with
another expression having the same sense

7. 1. Denotation
- The word „blue‟ denotes blue color
- The word „cow‟ denotes cows
* defining „blue‟ or „cow‟ by pointing the object is called
ostensive definition
2. Sense
The expression „a beautiful girl‟ has the same sense as
„gadis cantik‟ in Indonesian
- Sense can be found in translation
or dictionaries

8. The winners of Mr. Muscle Beach Contest (an annual
body building competition) are
1. Wade Rodriguez (1992)
2. Denzel Lucas (1993)
3. Josh Minamoto (1994)
4. Rob Cabot (1995)

9. • Sense of the expression „Mr. Muscle‟ refers to Rodriguez
, Luca, Minamoto, or Cabot (depending on the year).
• „Mr. Muscle‟ denotes one of the winners, but can not
denote anyone who hasn‟t won the competition.
• Sense is more basic than denotation and denotation
depends on the
sense.

10. 1. Lexical Meaning
the meaning of individual words
2. Structural Meaning
the meaning of the way the words are combined (based
on syntactic structure)

11. 1.
2.
Lexical Meaning
there are seven words:
the – rat – that – bit – dog – chase - cat
Structural Meaning (different sentences, different meanings)
a. The rat that bit the dog chased the cat.
b. The cat that chased the dog bit the rat.
c. The rat that chased the cat bit the dog.
d. The dog that chased the rat bit the cat.
e. The dog that bit the rat chased the cat.
f. The dog that chased the cat bit the rat.
g. The dog that bit the cat chased the rat.
h. The dog that chased the cat chased the rat.
i. The dog that chased the rat chased the cat.
and so on…

12. the – rat – that – bit – dog – chase – cat
A
B
C
D
[The A [that B-ed the C]] D-ed the E
The rat that chased the cat bit the dog.
X is an A
X performed the D action
Y is an E
Y undergoes the D action
X performed the B action
Z is a C
Z is the undergoer of the B action
E

13. • It must be along with syntactic rules for forming phrases
and sentences.
• Interpretation rules which combine meanings are just as
syntactic rules combine forms.

14. 1.
Categorematic Expressions
lexical items that provide a basis for categorization: in the
term of descriptive content or sense. They are noun, verbs,
& adjectives.
2. Syncategorematic Expressions
lexical items that describe their meaning only by placing
them in context or serve to modify categorematic
expressions
(the rest of all & meaningful
inflections).

15. 1. Categorematic Expressions
*the descriptive content of „chimney„
provides the basis forming the category of
„chimneys‟
*the sense of „blue‟ provides the basis for
the category of „blue things‟

16. 2. Syncategorematic Expressions
* as, some, because, for, to, so on…
*Inflections:
1. Tense: third person(-s), past tense (-ed),
progressive (-ing), past participle (-ed), future (will)
2. Number: pural (-s)
3. Case: comparative (-er), superlative (-est)
* The basis: “He BELIEVE us.”
* modified (syncategorematic) expressions:
He (believes – believed –believing – will believe) us.

17. Sense is to be more basic to „real‟
meaning than denotation as the
actual denotation of an expression
depends on what the sense of the
expression is.

18. Lexical sense involves relationships among word senses which
are readily analysable.
One of the most familliar sense relations is opposition or
antonymy.
e.g black and white, night and day
Basic antonyms can be complementaries or Noncomplementaries

19. Basic antonyms which complementaries mean the entities of the
terms that apply to one thing or the other but anomalous (indicates
semantic anomaly)
e.g A door is either open or closed
..., He neither hit it or missed it (P.7)

20. b. Non Complementary opposites are based on a scale with
opposite poles and neutral middle zone.
e.g
The water is neither hot nor cold
The performance was neither good nor
bad (P.7)

21. Complementary :
HIT
Non-complementary:
MISS
-----hot
cool
cold

22. Semantic features is word senses may also be
analyzed in terms of sense components,
particularly those which determine classifications
like system illustrated below;
e.g (P.10)
Human
man
woman
child
girl
boy
horse
stallion
mare
foal
filly
colt
sheep
ram
ewe
lamb
-
-

23. Basic category words is the complex words
which indicate the whole content. There
must be some other role for all the
information which seems to attach those
words.
e.g
BIRD
1. flies, has wings
2. sings sweetly
3. is small and light
4. lays eggs in a nest
5. is timid

24. Family Resemblances is different physical features that may make
members of a family alike as a group although no feature is shared
by all.
e.g
soccer, basketball, hurling, etc
rules for play
competition/contest
scoring system
physical skill/strategy

25. 1.
2.
3.
4.
Denotations
Possible Worlds, Extension, & Intention
Truth Conditions
Compositional Formal Theory
*not discussed in detail

26. 1. Names denote to the owners of the names, but
do not describe the owners.
* name: Midge
* denotation of „Midge‟ = Midge (a small brown
dog)
2. Most personal names are coded as male and
female by convention, but the convention can
be broken.
* „Michael‟ is a name for male; in fact, Michael
Learned is an American actress . Commonly
the names for female are „Michelle‟ or
„Michaela‟

27. 3. Denotations of Categorematic (or called „predicate‟) are
the sets of things.
*word (noun): dog –
denotation of dogs = the set of dogs
* word (noun): brown
denotation of brown = the set of brown
things

28. • The term of „possible worlds‟ is used in
semantics for hypothetical ways reality might be
or might been.
• The way things actually are is the „actual world‟
• The actual world is included in „possible world‟
because it is obviously a possible reality
• A possible world is a whole alternative universe;
actual world is just an alternative version of
Planet Earth

29. • Many possible worlds have dogs in them, which the word
dog applies to.
• We can collect together all the dogs in the real world to
form the set of all real dogs – this set is the extension of
dog
• What we think of as the „real meaning‟ of the word dog,
we need the intension (the set of all dogs in all possible
worlds; simply, the set of all possible dogs)
• So, there are two kinds of denotation for predicates:
word (noun): dog
extension: the set of all dogs in the actual world
intension: the set of all dogs in the possible worlds

30. • The analysis of sentences whether the sentences are
true.
• E.g. Midge is grinning
To find out whether the sentence is true, find the relevant
facts; in this case, find Midge and check her facial
expression

31. 1.
2.
•
•
•
The extension of a sentence is its truth value; either true or
false
The intension of a sentence is the set of possible worlds in
which that sentence is true
Sentence: Midge is grinning
Extension: truth value (true or false) in the actual world
Intension: the set of possible worlds
in which Midge is grinning
(the truth set)

32. Please…
our beloved lecturer is
always ready to
answer
^_^