Gramatyka opisowa EXAM – extramural English studies 28.06.2014

Types of sign:

Icon - a sign that resembles something, such as photographs of people. An icon can also be illustrative or diagrammatic, for example a ‘no-smoking’ sign.

Index - a sign where there is a direct link between the sign and the object. The majority of traffic signs are Index signs as they represent information which relates to a location.

Symbol -Something that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention, especially a material object used to represent something invisible.

fast

1. That parked BMW is a fast car.

2. That car is travelling fast.

3. That doddery old man is a fast driver.

4. That’s the fast lane of the motorway.

Ad. 1. engine

Ad. 2. speeding; we can see it

Ad. 3. refers to the way the driver can drive (skills)

Ad. 4. attribute of the lane

word – the smallest semantic unit, well-defined linguistic element. By saying well-defined Palmer means a word, which describe a lexical category (noun, verb, etc.)

Conceptual domain – a set of value meanings

Synonyms (purse / handbag)

Antonyms (warm / cold ; big / small)

Homophones (to, two, too)

Polysemy ( face – of a person, building, of a clock)

Homonyms (bank – of a river, a financial institution)

Hyponyms (a horse, a dog are animals)

LEXICOLOGY – the field of linguistics that examines words

Semasiology (sema – sign) – the approach to the meaning of a word, when we begin with a form and we look for meanings that this form can represent.

Conceptual metaphor – a mapping from one conceptual domain to another one.

Metonymy – the representative of one category stands for the whole category.

e.g. I’ve just bought a new Ford.

Onomasiology – we begin with meaning, sense and we look for possible forms to express this sense, these meanings.

article of dress

skirt trousers ?

wrap-over leggings shorts jeans T-shirt sweater

skirt

LEVELS:

1. article of dress – SUPERORDINATE (conceptual general categories)

2. skirt/ trousers/ ? – BASIC (most prototypical level; we use it in everyday life)

3. wrap-over skirt etc. – SUBORDINATE

Conceptual relations in semasiological and onomasiological analysis

CONCEPTUAL RELATIONS	in SEMASIOLOGY (how senses of one word relate to each other)	in ONOMASIOLOGY (how concepts and words relate to each other)
HIERARCHY ( top / bottom )	generalizing and specializing e.g. school of artists vs school of economics	conceptual domain: taxonomies (e.g. animal, dog, Labrador and lexical fields e.g. meals)
CONTIGUITY ( close to sth.)	metonymic extensions of senses (school as institution lessons teaching staff)	conceptual metonymy CONTAINER FOR CONTAINED
SIMILARITY (like sth.)	metaphorical extensions of senses (win an argument)	conceptual metaphor, e.g. ARGUMENT IS WAR

THEORIES OF MEANING (Lyons 1996:40)

Referential (denotational) – the meaning of an expression is what at refers to or stands for.

e.g. dog – refers to individual or group of animals.

Ideational (mentalistic) – the meaning of an idea is the idea or the concept, associated with them in the mind of anyone who knows and understands the expression.

Behaviourist – connected with language, which means that the meaning of the expression is the stimuleons or the response to the stimuleons.

Meaning-is-use – meaning of the expression is determined by the use of it in the language.

Verificationist – claim that meaning of the expression is determined by the path it is possible to verify the sentence or proposition that it contains.

Truth-conditional – the meaning of expression depends on the truth condition of the sentence that contains it.

Proposition – utterance that is said in indirectly way

STRUCTURALISM by Ferdinand de Sassure

(1857 – 1913) Course in General Linguistics

A sign is the basic unit of langue (a given language at a given time). Every language is a complete system of signs. Parole (the speech of an individual) is an external manifestation of langue.

signified – concept signifier – sound image

znaczone znaczący

Langue

Parole (how an individual uses language)

Sign (system of signified and signifier)

SEMIOTIC TRIANGLE

Ogden and Richards (1923) – a model of how linguistic symbols are related to the objects they represent.

THOUGHT OF REFERENCE

symbolizes ( a causal relation) refers to (other causal relations)

SYMBOL REFERENT

stands for (an imputed relation)

1. What is a word as the smallest semantic unit?

A well-defined linguistic element (Palmer)

“Full” words (tree, sing, blue, gently); “form” words (it, the, at, and) (Sweet)

full – content words, nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs

form – more responsible for grammar : pronouns, prepositions, articles, conjunctions

the minimums free form, the smallest form that may occur in isolation (Bloomfield)

MORPHEME – a unit of meaning

• free (may occur in isolation)

• bound (need to be added to another one to mean something)

TRANSPARENT WORDS and OPAQUE WORDS

TRANSPARENT WORDS – the meaning can be read in a straight forward way, they’re not ambiguous.

OPAQUE WORDS – not obvious words, cannot be read in a straight forward way, they need a context, e.g. she, he, it context must be!

LEXEME – is used in dictionaries

SENSE RELATIONS

SYNONYMY (sameness of meaning)

• historical reasons e.g. :

• dialectical reasons : fall [ US some western counties of GB] and autumn

• words of different styles and registers:

a nasty smell and an obnoxious effluvium

gentleman, man, chap

pass away, die, pop off

• emotive or evaluative:

statesman / politician

wide / conceal

thrifty / economical / stingy

• collocational restrictions:

rancid – bacon / butter

addled – eggs / brains

BOTH MEANS THE SAME

• closeness in meaning:

mature: adult, ripe, perfect, due

loose: inexact, free, relaxed, vague, lax, unbound, slack

govern: direct, control, determine, require

TESTING SYNONYMY

• SUBSTITUTION (of one word for another)

deep / profound sympathy but only deep water

• INVESTIGATION OF “OPPOSITES”

• DIFFERENCE IN “CONNOTATIONS” (preference of use) woman is beautiful

pig-dirty

• CONTEXT-DEPENDENT SYNONYMY (dog/bitch; buy/get)

POLYSEMY

A word is polysemy when it has a set of different but related meanings

HOMONYMY

When a number of words have the same shape mail: armor, post, payment, halfpenny, spot

How to decide?

• Etymology:

homonyms: come from different origins

polysemy: come from the same origins

• to look for a central / core meaning

• to see whether a word has a number of synonyms each corresponding to one of its meaning

• to see whether a word has a set of antonyms

HOMOGRAPHY or HOMOPHONY?

HOMOGRAPHY: when words are spelt in the same way

HOMOPHONY: when words are spelt differently but pronunciated the same

ANTONYMY

Words are antonyms when they are opposite in meaning

• GRADABLE ( we place them in a graded scale for comparison) e.g. good/bad, big/small

• RELATIONAL (words which exhibit the reversal of a relationship between items), based on CONVERSENESS, e.g. buy/sell, husband/wife, above/below;

• COMPLEMENTARY (words which exhibit the contradiction), based on EXCLUSION, e.g. dead/alive, present/absent

John is like a lion ANIMALISATION

In conceptual metaphor we deal with an open mapping, which means that we map all attribute that are connected with source domain into target domain.

In a simile we deal with districted mapping A is like B. Only selected attributes are mapped a source domain onto target domain.

HAAS

Metaphor is the result of forming a new semantic field from the fields evoked by the words constituting it.

e.g. The leg of the table.

MAX BLACK

Interaction view – metaphor is based on interaction, it means primary subject and secondary subject.

e.g. Marriage is a zero-sum game. (no one wins, no one loses)

SPERBER and WILSON

Metaphor is a matter of the use of language. Metaphors are created at the moment, they’re highly individual, depend on our language competence and language performance.

The battles in the war – the events of the love relationship

the belligerents in the war – the lovers in the love relationship

the damage in the war – the damage in love to the lovers

the strategies for the war – the plans for the love relationship

the victory of a belligerent – dominance

the surrender to a belligerent – to allow partner take control

GRAMMATICAL MEANING

The meaning of major grammatical categories.

Generally: Nouns “persons, places or things”, Verb “actions”, Adjective “describe words”

Syntactically: Nouns “inflected for numbers, gender, case, take articles as modifiers”

Verbs “inflected for tense or aspect (dokonany/niedokonany)

Meaning based on the prototype theory:

Grammatical categories are like natural categories, i.e. they’re not definable by a set of necessary and sufficient conditions but with fuzzy boundaries and graded typicality.

• prototypical noun refers to a person or a thing

• prototypical verb refers to an action

FUZZY BOUNDARY – boundary between one category with another category is not the same

A COGNITIVE APPROACH

Nouns: denote a “region of cognitive space’

Verbs: denote temporal relations

Adjectives: denote/ portray a temporal states of affairs

NOUNS AND NOUN PHRASES

NUMBER

singular plural dual/trial/paucal

expressed by inflections

MASS NOUNS COUNT NOUNS

uncountable countable

(little, much, a piece of) (a few, many, numerous)

TENSES

primary secondary

(absolute) (relative)

Absolute encode event time directly in time of speaking.

Secondary encode event time relative to a secondary reference time, so the event time and speaking time are in indirect relation.

Tense systems:

1. VECTORIAL I used to go for a walk (distant past)

I went for a run (past)

I’ve just been for a walk (recent past)

In the vectorial tense system events are indicated along the time line usually from speaking time to event time.

1. METRICAL

Definite intervals of time : past, present, future

1. HODIERNAL

Distinguishes two tenses, which are based on a concept

Aspect

Perspective/ Imperceptive

Completed event, usually viewed holistically

Imperceptive focuses on progressive aspect that marks intermediate stageous.

I saw Mary cross the road (completed)

I saw Mary crossing the road (stage of crossing)

Aspectual character of verbs

Inchoative: be born (beginning of the state)

Medial: live (denote middle stage of the process)

Terminative: die (end of a state)

As soon as I saw him I knew he was guilty.

I knew the answers to all of the question.

We soon exhausted our stocks of food.

Other aspectual distinctions:

1. Punctual / Durative (happens once, duration of the state)

John sat on the chair. / John sat there (repeated with short intervolves)

1. Punctual / Iterative

John sneezed. / John was sneezing. (reappearing on regular basis)

1. Punctual / Habitual

John switched on the lights. / John switches on the lights at 5 p.m.

VOICE

• ACTIVE : John opened the door.

• PASSIVE: The door was opened by John.

• MIDDLE: The door opened.

More active: syntactically a subject

Less active: syntactically a direct object

The box contains Mary’s jewelry.

One participant (the most active) uses force to do sth with the other participant or one participant exerts on another participant.

In Passive the less active participant becomes a subject.

FUNCTIONAL ROLES – FILLMORE’S LIST

Noun phrases as they’re defined by the kind of verb.

AGENTIVE:

Mary killed the ball.

The major participant in a sentence.

INSTRUMENTAL:

John used the hammer to break the window.

The hammer broke the window.

An inanimate noun by means of which one action is performed.

DATIVE:

Mary heard the nightingale.

Noun phrase that is the subject to an action of some other participant in the same action.

FACTITIVE:

John cooked a delicious meal.

Noun phrase which is the result of an action performed by agentive.

LOCATIVE:

John put his finger on the button.

Refers to the location towards which an action is directed.

OBJECTIVE:

Mary opened the door.

The door opened.

The noun phrase that undergoes the change.

MODALITY:

John should be there by now.

Expresses the attitude towards a given situation.

DEONTIC:

John is under an obligation to be there by now.

EPISTEMIC:

It is likely John is there by now.

Truth of proposition.

Means that the meaning is analyzed with reference of truth of proposition.

HALLIDAY (three levels of modality)

1. high

must | ought to | need | have to | is to |

1. median

will | would | shall | should |

1. low

may | might | can | could |

CROSS-CULTURAL SEMANTICS

LINGUISTIC UNIVERSALISM

assumes that differences in linguistic conceptualization play a marginal role that human thought is significantly similar across all cultures; conceptual categories are shared by all cultures.

Weak version: LINGUISTIC RELATIVITY: each language reflects a different worldview (Weltsicht)

Strong version: LINGUISTIC DETERMINISM: language determines thought

LINGUISTIC RELATIVITY:

assumes that most linguistic concepts are language specific;

because we use different languages, we think and conceptualize in a different way. (by Humboldt)

LINGUISTIC DETERMINISM:

assumes the way we think

• The role of categories, category labels

• conceptual distinction are LEXICALIZED

Saphir-Whorf Hypothesis

e.g. snow – Inuit: quanik, aput

Eskimos: circa 30 names of snow

English: It’s more like slush than snow outside.

Tuvuluan: different names for different types of coconut.

• There is intodependence between people and language.

• Kinship terms: mother, father, uncle

grandmother (Norwegian) farmor mormor

• time concepts

(Hopi have no terms connected with clock)

SEMANTIC PRIMES / SEMANTIC PRIMITIVES:

basic “atoms” of meaning in terms of which other complex meanings are composed

OBSCURE DEFINITIONS: unclear paraphrasing

incomplete definitions, the meaning is not explained

CIRCULAR DEFINITIONS: A is B, B is C and C is A

e.g. masło jest maślane

Most words don’t have precise equivalents.

ETHNOCENTRISM: when defining a term in one language one uses terms typical of this language (e.g. bigos :D)

CULTURE SPECIFIC WORDS: don’t have equivalents in other language.

LEXICAL ELABORATION: language is such related with words that are culture specific and which refer to a single domain of meaning (China – kinds of rice)

CULTURAL KEY WORDS: are connected with certain concepts that are typical for a certain culture (e.g. love, freedom)

PROTOTYPICAL SCENARIOS that are presented in EXPLICATIONS:

• Are you thinking of applying for a transfer?

No, I am quite happy where I am.

• The children were playing happily.

The children were playing joyfully.

EXPLICATIONS:

descriptions composed in semantic primes, which can be transported between languages without changing the meaning. They’re not connected with jargon.

CULTURAL SCRIPTS:

cultural norms of communicational defined in terms of semantic primes.

SENTENCE MEANING/ STATEMENT MEANING / UTTERANCE MEANING

1. what is a sentence?

sequence of words that are put together according to rules of a given language.

1. What is a sentence meaning?

refers to the semantic properties of words it contains.

It’s four o’clock.

TRUTH IN A SEMANTIC THEORY

analytic synthetic

is a logical one, which depends depends upon observed fact about

upon definitions of words and relations the world so doesn’t result from

between these words the definitions

All bachelors are unmarried - A

All bachelors are miserable - S

Proposition and propositional content

(of a sentence)

PROPOSITIONAL CONTENT is the statement which the sentence makes.

Two sentence with identical propositional content.

They express two statements with the same truth conditions.

Proposition:

All flowers are yellow.

Tulip is a flower.

Hence, tulip is yellow.

It’s just statement that cooperates two aspects of meaning.

STATEMENT MEANING means incorporates all aspects of sentence meaning.

UTTERANCE MEANING the totality of what the speaker intends to convey.

QUESTIONS: a question statement pair has an answer value.

WHAT DAY IS IT TODAY?

it’s Monday today It’s Monday today

(false, if said on Tuesday) (true, if said on Monday)

LOGICAL RELATIONS BETWEEN SENTENCE:

ENTAILMENT – the truth of Q follows from the truth of P

P Q

John killed the wasp. The wasp died.

All dogs are purple. My dog is purple.

EQUIVALENCE – mutual entailment

P Q

John killed the wasp. The wasp was killed by John.

CONTRARIETY – propositions that are simultaneously false

P Q

John killed the wasp. The wasp is alive.

CONTRADICTION – if one is true, the other is false

P Q

The wasp is dead. The wasp is alive.

INDEPENDENCE – truth values vary independently of one another

P Q

John is retired. Mary is married.

PARADOX – expresses false proposition

Bachelors are married.

The red paint is green.

CLASS RELATIONS:

IDENTITY – the same (C1) fathers male parents (C2)

INCLUSION – every member of C2 is also a member of C1 (C1) animals dogs (C2)

DISJUNCTION – no member of C1 is a member of C2 (C1) red things green things (C2)

INTERSECTION - when C1 and C2 have some members in common but in C1-C2 these are some other members (C1) red things round things (C2)

UNION – a combined set of members from C1 and C2 (C1) dogs (C2) cats C1+C2=dogs and cats

LOGICAL RELATIONS (between individual entitles)

• TRANSITIVITY – if A is related to B, and B to C, that A stands to relation to C.

If A is taller than B, and B is taller than C, than A is taller than C.

• INTRANSIVITY – if A is related to B in a specific way and B to C in the same way, then A does not stand in relation to C.

if A is the mother of B is the mother of C, then A is not mother of C.

• NON-TRANSITIVE – neither transitive nor intransitive

• SYMMETRIC – if A stands in a particular relation to B then B stands in the same

relation to A.

If A is near to B then B is near to A.

• ASYMMETRIC – if A stands in relation to B then B cannot stand in the same relation

to A

A is taller than B then B cannot be taller than A.

• NON-SYMMETRIC – neither symmetric nor asymmetric

if A feels attracted to B

• REFLEXIVE – if A stands in relation to itself

‘ has the same name as’

‘ is the same age as’

• IRREFLEXIVE – if A doesn’t stand in relation itself

‘ A is taller than B’

• NON-REFLEXIVE – neither reflexive nor irreflexive

CONVERSNESS

Two relations are converses if one yields the same proposition as the other one when arguments are reversed.

‘below’ A is below B

‘above’ B is above A

DEIXIS

understanding depends on context

The cat sat on the mat.

Person deixis: pronouns (1. I, you)(2. the rest: she, he, it, they)

Spatial deixis: here/there, this/that

Temporal deixis: now/then, adverbs of time; verb tenses

Social deixis: T/V distinction (T- tu/ V-vous)

Discourse deixis: discourse makers (that help organize the discourse, e.g. linking words and phrases)

Gestural/Symbolic deixis: want three volunteers: you, you and you. Isn’t it interesting?

PROPER NAMES

it is difficult to find the definition for it. They have only reference.

• proper names are abbreviated descriptions

My friend Tom isn’t a gypsy prince but a Welsh ex-miner

stands for the sum of properties that distinguish the borer from all other reference

COGNITIVE APPROACH TO CONTEXT

CONTEXT SITUATION

The girl is playing with her dolls in her room.

Context is a mental phenomenon which is a cognitive representation of interaction between categories.

Situation is interaction between objects in the real world.

CONTEXT

linguistic situational

(discourse markers) situation that influences

linguistic means that the meaning (maxims, discussion)

organize language performance

CONTEXT

Linguistic approach assumes that we take into consideration linguistic material that proceeds or follows a word or a sentence.

Searle (1979:125) claims that context is the set of background assumptions that are necessary for an utterance to be intelligible.

Discourse oriented approach context is the situation in which an utterance is placed.

Malinowski (1923) cultural assumptions are im

portant. That could be cultured – conditioned.

THE RELEVANCE THEORY (Sperber and Wilson 1995) assumes that by the act of making an utterance, the speaker is conveying what she, he considers where’s listening.

ASSUMPTIONS:

1. any utterance is produced in some context

2. any utterance conveys a number of implicatures

3. speaker / hearer seek for relevant meaning in their communication

4. presumption of relevance:

   • implicit messages are relevant enough to be processed

   • speakers are economical in expressing these messages

THE POLITENESS PRINCIPLE (Leech 1983)

focus on how we behave linguistically in a given context in order not to loose our face

POLITE SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR – how we perform linguistically in order not to loose our face while speaking.

POSITIVE POLITENESS – seeking concord with other speakers in order not to put yourself in an unprivileged position;

NEGATIVE POLITENESS – avoidance on concord and than putting ourselves in unprivileged position;

NP “mitigating and imposition”

PP being complimentary and gracious to the addressee

Negative politeness:

1. hedging (hmm… well… etc.)

2. pessimism (I don’t suppose that you can do sth for me)

3. indicational deference (excuse me, would you mind…)

4. impersonalizing (passive voice)

5. apologizing

Leech’s maxims:

• Tact maxim – minimize cost to others, maximize benefits to others

• Generosity maxim – maximize cost to yourself, minimize benefits to yourself

• Approbation maxim – minimize dispraise to others, maximize praise to others

• Modesty maxim – be selective in order to maximize benefit to yourself

• Agreement maxim – minimize disagreement between yourself and others

• Sympathy maxim – maximize sympathy between yourself and others

You follow all these maxims by avoiding negative politeness.

CONTRASTIVE PRAGMATICS

Contrastive studies:

1. THEORETICAL (generative contrastive grammar)

2. PRAGMATIC (pragma-linguistics)

Contrastive studies – we compare languages as far as certain aspects are concerned.

Theoretical – can be done on the level of grammar; generative approach

Pragmatic – when we focus on structure of discourse across languages

Rilley (1979)

ASPECTS OF DISCOURSE

1. formal structure of utterances

2. illocutionary structure

3. interactional structure

Ad.a. means verbal, non-verbal means of communication; metalinguistic realization of content – convey some kind of message by tone

Ad.b. means dividing discourse according to speech acts as they were presented by Searle.

Ad.c. the structure that we use to organize a speech act (content, intention, linguistic means to use to express the content)

Riley (1979:64-65)

A: Excuse me, can you tell us how to get to St. James Park? (opening)

B: Are you on foot? (continuation)

A: Yes! Is it far from it?

B: Take these stairs down and turn right.

A: Thank you very much.

Analyzing illocutionary structure and interactional role of sentence.

ANOMALY

SEMANTIC GRAMMATICAL

the noiseless typewriter-blasts me seed two mouses

squirmed faithfully (I saw two mice)

ANOMALY – something that doesn’t follow the norm

Semantic - if something is noiseless it can’t squirmed at the same time

Grammatical – we know the rules of English syntax, grammar etc.

TYPES OF ANOMALY:

PLEONASM – It was stolen illegally. Mary deliberately made a speech.

Pleonasm is based on redundancy.

DISSONANCE – The balloon rose ever lower. The hamster was only slightly dead.

Dissonance is based on ill-matched meanings, it gives paradox or contradiction.

ZEUGMA - Mary picked the roses she had planted the year before. John expired at the same day as his TV license (died)

Zeugma is based on two semantic readings of a word, these readings make use of conceptual similarity between the terms the word represent.

IMPROBABILITY – The puppy finished off a whole bottle of whiskey. The throne was occupied by a gun-toting baboon.

Improbability is based on questional proposition of a sentence.

DESCRIPTIVE MEANING

• the meaning of a sentence (truth or falseness of a proposition)

• the reference of an expression

• the interposition of distance between speakers and what is said (gives sense of objectivity, the context doesn’t limit know…)

• conceptual in its character

• gives a possibility to neglect or question a proposition (evoke a certain reaction of a part of listener)

DIMENSIONS OF DESCRIPTIVE MEANING:

• QUALITY: It’s not here, it’s there.

based on anthological modes of conception such as: quantity, place, time, state, process, event, action. The idea is, we follow the pattern.

• INTENSITY – It wasn’t just large, it was huge.

within the same semantic area we choose the one which is more intense.

• SPECIFICITY – It’s a dog (entails it’s an animal)

about the level of specificity of a given term and what the term entails.

• VAGUENESS – a. ill-definedness (middle aged), b. laxness (circle, stand in circle)

• BASICNESS – how the cognitive…

• VIEWPOINT – The village is on the north side of the hill; The village is on the other side of the hill; The village is over the hill; The village is round the other side of hill.

it’s possible to present certain meaning from different points of view.

DIMENSIONS OF NON-DESCRIPTIVE MEANING:

• EXPRESSIVE MEANING – Gosh! I’m surprised!

Connected with the emotional state of the speaker

• EVOKED MEANING – a. dialect; b. register (field, mode, style)

dialects:

geographical, temporal (the age of the speaker), social (social class)

field – the area where a given language is used

mode – element of register, written form or spoken form of language

style – formal and informal

Your misfortune is better than mine – DISSONANCE

What happened tomorrow was a bad disaster – PLEONASM

Someone’s coming! Quickly, conceal in the wardrobe! – DISSONANCE; GRAMMATICAL ANOMALY

Dogs on average, are heavier … (hide) - ZEUGMA

Two of the mice in the front row weren’t in tune. – IMPROBABILITY

FRAME SEMANTICS (semantyka ram)

FRAMES AND WORDS

1. What is a semantic frame?

• Minsky (1975:212) A data-structure representing a stereotypical situation.

• Fillmore (1968,1985:115) Case grammar / case frames

Minsky – each phrase conceptual background of the system of concept and if the concepts are to be understood it is necessary to understand the entire system (represents the whole situation)

Fillmore – agentive, instrumental, dative…

CASE FRAMES – they characterize as scene or situation in such a way that to understand the semantic structure of a verb, it is necessary to understand the properties of such scenes or situations.

SCENE ---------------------------------------------- FRAME

Difference: scene/situation:

scene – is a cognitive conceptual or experimental entitle.

frame – is a structuring device parts of which are introduced by words associated with, by means of which we’re able to understand it.

Consist of number of words.

Commercial transactional frame

Situational roles, a buyer, a seller, goods, money, buy, sell, pay, spend, cost, charge

WORDS – linguistic material that evokes the frame (in the mind of a speaker (hearer), the interpreter(of an utterance or a text in which the words occur) invokes the frames:

e.g. Carla bought a computer from Sally for $100.

SYNTAX AND FRAME SEMANTICS

Semantic frame is used to account for syntactic phenomena which are determined by semantic and pragmatic reasons.

She gave him a tip. / She gave him his salary.

I’ll give you a reward./ Here’s your reward.

Frame semantics/prototypes:

BACHELOR

defined against a prototype context dependent definition

PROTOTYPE is the best representative of a given category . A representative that possesses the greatest number of attribute by means of which a given category is defined.

Bachelor – prototypical – unmarried man, who’s able to be married and wasn’t married before.

Frame semantics and prospective

Sally sold…. and Carla bought

A traveller spent a few hours on land. A traveller spent a few hours on the ground.

FRAME SEMANTICS AND FRAME SEMANTICS FIELD THEORY:

SEMANTICS FIELD THEORY – a word is defined in terms of relations so other words in the same field. Set of words that are used to describe the same conceptual domain.

FRAME SEMANTICS – a word is defined in terms of its background frame.

U – Semantics

T – Semantics

U-SEMANTICS - is the domain of semantics the purpose of which is to determine what it takes for a hearer to provide an interpretation of a sentence. So it means if hearer can hear a sentence he/she looks for a situation a sentence is.

T-SEMANTICS – truth conditional semantics where the interpretation of a sentence is connected with the fulfillment or violation of truth conditions for a given sentence.

U-SEMANTICS is compositional (its operation relies on the knowledge of words, phrases and grammatical construction) that serve as the basis for interpretation.

FRAME SEMANTICS AND TEXT SEMANTICS:

Fillmore: a text evokes a frame when a linguistic from or a pattern is conventionally associated with that particular frame.

Children played on the bus (moving)

Children played in the bus (no moving)

TEXT is a collection of sentences that organize according to certain pattern. Text is prototypically about one idea, written for a reason, possessed a title and it suggests what the text is about.

The SEMANTICS OF GRAMMAR (THE CONSTRUCTIONAL GRAMMAR)

AIM: views the description of grammatical patterns and the semantic and pragmatic purposes. They serve as equally important and necessary.

The voice of grammar is conditioned by semantic charge.

Each grammatical construction is responsible for meaning. Grammar and semantics are MUTUALLY DEPENDEND.

What does SEMANTICS do?

A complete and adequate semantic theory:

• characterizes the systematic meaning relation between words and sentences of a language

SEMANTICS studies, literal, context-depended meaning, the constant meaning that is associated with a linguistic expression in all of its occurrences.

PRAGMATICS is the study of situated uses of language, the study of language in relation to the users of a given language.

What does it mean to know a language?

• knowledge of the sound system

• knowledge of words arbitrary relation between form and meaning

• the creativity of linguistic knowledge

Language creativity is limited number of rules by means of which we can produce unlimited number of well-formed structures.

• linguistic competence/ knowledge and linguistic performance/ usage.

THE PRINCIPLE OF COMPOSITIONALITY (Frege’s Principle)

The meaning of a complex expression is determined by its structure and the meanings of its constituents (i.e. the meaning of constituent parts as well as the way they are combined)

There are certain aspects of structure (syntax, morphology) that may be faithfully studied without inference to meaning (semantics).

Ann likes books.

Log: like (Ann, books)

Lin: [like] Ann, books

Parents love children.

Log: love (parents, children)

Lin: [love] parents, children

John is married to Mary.

married to (John, Mary)

[married to] John, Mary

Bill is Harry’s father.

[parent] Bill, Harry, [male] Bill

Fred thinks that John loves Mary.

[think] Fred, ([love] John, Mary)

OPERATORS

Def (‘definite’)

Spec (‘specific’)

Ind (‘indefinite’)

the dog (Def x) ([dog]x)

a dog (Spec x) ([dog]x)

a/any dog (Ind x) ([dog]x)

the brave men (Def x) ([men]x . [brave]x)

The brave men ran away. [ran away] (Def x) ([Man] x . [brave]x)

The young boy loves the beautiful girl. [love] (Def x) ([boy]x . [young]x, (Def y) ([girl]y [beautiful]y)

1. The pretty girl loves the handsome boy.

[love] (Def x) ([girl]x . [pretty]x, (Def y) ([boy]y . [handsome]y)

1. Kevin thinks that Julia likes books.

[think] Kevin, ([like] Julia, books)

1. The brave men arrived.

[arrived] (Def x) ([man]x . [brave]x)

1. Mary is John’s sister.

[siblings] Mary, John . [female] Mary

1. The small boy likes the small bike.

[like] (Def x) ([boy]x . [small]x), (Def y) ([bike]y . [small]y)

1. Barbara thinks that George hates music.

[think] Barbara, ([hate] George, music)

1. Julia is Ken’s mother.

[parent] Julia, Ken . [female] Julia

1. The old woman likes the interesting books.

[like] (Def x) ([woman]x . [old]x, (Def y) ([books]y . [interesting]y)

1. The tired children left.

[left] (Def x) [children]

1. John thinks that the neighbors like the wild cats.

[think] John, (Def x) ([like]x . [neighbors]x), (Def y) ([cats]y . [wild]y)

1. John is Bob’s brother.

[siblings] John, Bob . [male] John

Communicative intensions:

1. knowledge – is present when we exchange or ask for any kind of information

2. volition – when we impose obligation on ourselves or on others

Speech acts:

actual words we utter to realize a communicative intension

Austin (1962) – division of speech acts:

LOCUTIONARY – they focus on the context information, they must be meaningful for users of language (can be part of domains of phonology or syntax)

PERLOCUTIONARY – treated as ‘side effect’ of a speech acts

ILLOCUTIONARY – used to communicate one’s intensions (which are to be realized in the speaker’s intention)

TAXONOMY OF SPEECH ACTS by John Searle

1. assertive – Sam smokes a lot.

2. directive – Get out! I want you to leave!

3. commisive – I promise to come towards.

4. expressive – Congratulations on …

5. declaration – I pronounce you …

ad.a. when you want to provide certain information

ad.b. when you want to oblige your interlocutor to do something

ad.c. when you want to oblige yourself to do something

ad.d. when we express emotions or attitudes

ad.e. when you change the reality on the basis of certain words

Informative speech act:

1. assertive acts : assert, state, describe, assume

2. information question : ask

Obligative speech act:

1. directive acts : request, order, propose, advise

2. commisive : promise, offer

Constitutive speech act:

1. expressive acts : thank, praise, apologize

2. declarative acts : name, marry, sentence, pronounce

FELICITY CONDITIONS (warunki prawdziwości)

• informative speech act : the speaker must have the correct information must be authorized to pass on the information to the person who asks

• obligative speech act : must be in a position to give commands to others

• constitutive speech act : all conditions must be fulfilled to institutionalize an act

PRESUPPOSITIONS (sądy logiczne)

1. conversional : the knowledge of things that we assume from the very conversation

2. conventional : formal means of expression, which is language; participants follow the same grammatical and linguistic rules. It’s need as a convention that must be shared by participants of a given conversation.

3. cultural : assumes cultural norms that are shared by a given community

THE COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLE AND MAXIMS OF CONVERSATION:

Maxims:

1. maxim of quality : do not like, do not make unsupported claims

2. maxim of quantity : say neither more nor less than is required

3. maxim of relevance : be relevant, speak up to the topic

4. maxim of manner : be ordered, do not be chaotic

The cooperative principle assumes, that if people want to communicate they have to cooperate.

Implicatures – implicatury : implications that follow from the maxims.

Implicatures refers to what is suggested in an utterance, even though neither expressed nor strictly implied (that is, entailed) by the utterance.

1. conversional : the information inferred but not literally expressed in the speech act

2. conventional : is connected with linguistic expressions – the use of language

e.g. The flag is red, but not completely red. (It’s other shade of red.)

Semantic primes or semantic primitives are semantic concepts that are innately understood, but cannot be expressed in simpler terms. They represent words or phrases that are learned through practice, but cannot be defined concretely.

For example, although the meaning of "touching" is readily understood, a dictionary might define "touch" as "to make contact" and "contact" as "touching", providing no information if neither of these words are understood.

The concept of innate semantic primes was largely introduced by Anna Wierzbicka's book, Semantics: Primes and Universals.