4. Semantics, Pragmatics and Discourse
An Introduction to Language
and Linguistics
A. Multiple Choice Questions.
1. Pragmatics may be defined as the study of.............
a.
conceptual meaning
b.
speaker meaning
c.
sentence meaning
d.
word meaning
2. The synonym such as 'autumn-fall' 'pavement-sidewalk', etc.
is.............
a.
cognitive synonymy
b.
inter-lingual synonymy
c.
dialectal synonymy
d.
stylistic synonymy
3. The sense relation that exists between the words such as
male-female, single-married is called...............
a)
Polysemy
b)
Hyponymy
c)
Synonymy
d)
antonymy
4. The word 'chair' is
a...............of furniture.
a)
hypernym
b)
hyponym
c)
co-hyponym
d)
synonym
5. Pragmatics may be described as...............
a)
conceptual meaning
b)
speaker meaning
c)
sentence meaning
d)
word meaning
6. The opposite relation that holds between such pairs as 'buy'
and 'sell' is known as.............
a.
complementarity
b.
converseness
c.
gradable antonym
d.
incompatiability
7. Which of the following is not true about 'pragmatics'?
a.
It is the study of contextual meaning.
b.
It is the study of dictionary meaning.
c.
It is the study of speakers and receivers' meaning.
d.
It is the study of meaning not captured in a semantic theory.
8.
……………refers to the syntactic or semantic connectivity of linguistic forms,
whereas coherence is a logical and functional connectedness of a text.
a) Polysemy
b) coherence
c) Synonymy
d) Cohesion
9.
…………………refers to the principle of organization that relates functional
connectedness or identity of a piece of spoken or written language.
a) Polysemy
b) coherence
c) Synonymy
d) Cohesion
10.
The term discourse analysis was first-employed in……………..by Zelling Harris as
the name for a method for the analysis of connected speech or writing.
a) 1950
b) 1951
c) 1952
d) 1953
11.
…………refers to the situation where we are speaking.
a) context
b) coherence
c) Synonymy
d) Cohesion
12.
…………..is the study of language from the point of view of the users, especially
of the choice they make, the constraints they encounter in using language in
social interaction, and the other participants in an act of communication.
a) context
b) coherence
c) pragmatics
d) cohesion
13.
……………is the relationship between two words in which the meaning of one of words
includes the meaning of the other word.
a) context
b) homonymy
c) pragmatics
d) cohesion
14. …………..refers to the set of words same but having same
pronunciation but differ in the meaning.
a) context
b) homonymy
c) pragmatics
d) homography
15. ………………….refers to one meaning (sense) with several lexical
items (words).
a) synonymy
b) homonymy
c) pragmatics
d) homography
16. ……………….refers to a sense relationship of oppositeness and a
word which is opposite in meaning to another word is called an antonym.
a) synonymy
b) homonymy
c) antonymy
d) homography
17. ………….meaning refers to the basic and essential meaning
directly attached to a word.
a) synonymy
b) denotative
c) antonymy
d) connotative
18. Connotative meaning refers to the meaning which is attached
to the basic meaning.
a) synonymy
b) denotative
c) antonymy
d) connotative
19.
………………….is the study of the relationships between linguistic forms and entities
in the real world that is how a word literally connects to things.
a) synonymy
b) denotative
c) semantics
d) connotative
B. Answer the following questions.
1. What is semantics? Explain.
Or,
What is semantics? Briefly mention its scope.
There are four
major levels of language. These levels are phonology, morphology and syntax, semantics,
and pragmatics. Phonology studies how sounds are made, and their relation and
role of supra-segmental features in language production. Morphology and syntax
deal with morphemes, words, phrases, clauses, and sentences. They describe the
relationship among the grammatical constituents. Likewise, semantics deals with
the study of the meaning of the words, phrases, and sentences in the respective
context.
Semantics is the
study of the relationships between linguistic forms and entities in the real world,
that is how a word literally connects to things. The word 'semantics 'is taken
from the Greek word, 'sema' which means the study of meaning. In semantic
analysis, there is always a focus on what a speaker might want the words. mean
rather than on what a speaker might want the words mean in a particular
situation. Here, the prime focus is to establish the relationships between
verbal descriptions and states of affairs.
According to
Palmer, semantics focuses on syntactically representing the meaning of the single
words, show how the structure of the meaning of words and the syntactic
relationship interact to constitute the interpretations of sentences, and
indicate how these interactions are related to the things spoken about.
Meaning is taken
as the relationship between the words and the objects. In a broad sense,
semantics connects the words, meaning and communication. The major types of
meanings based on the curriculum are discussed in the following sections:
In formal semantics, the scope of a semantic operator is the
semantic object to which it applies. For instance, in the sentence "Paul
doesn't drink beer but he does drink wine," the proposition that
Paul drinks beer occurs within the scope of negation, but the proposition
that Paul drinks wine does not. Scope can be thought of as the semantic order
of operations.
One of the major
concerns of research in formal semantics is the relationship between
operators' syntactic positions and their semantic scope. This
relationship is not transparent since the scope of an operator need not
directly correspond to its surface position and a single surface form
can be semantically ambiguous between different scope construal. Some
theories of scope posit a level of syntactic structure called logical form,
in which an item's syntactic position corresponds to its semantic scope. Other
theories compute scope relations in the semantics itself, using formal tools
such as type shifters, monads, and continuations.
2. Explain with example the denotative and connotative meaning
of words.
Or,
Distinguish between denotative and connotative meaning.
Denotative meaning
refers to the basic and essential meaning directly attached to a word. For
example, the denotation of the English word, "bird' is two-legged, a winged,
egg-laying, warm-blooded creature with a beak. Therefore, denotative meaning
refers to the central or core meaning of the lexical item. It refers to the
basic or primary meaning directly attached to a word. Connotative meaning
refers to the meaning which is attached to the basic meaning. It can be called
as the additional meaning of a word. In other words, it refers to the
additional meaning that a word or phrase has; and is beyond the central
meaning. It is taken as the communicative value of what a word or phrase refers
to.
Yule, a linguist,
believes that denotative meaning remains the same from person to person, place
to place and culture to culture whereas connotative meaning changes. Poets,
novelists, advertisers, and lovers may be very interested in using words in
such a way that certain associative meanings are evoked, and literary critics
often write about these aspects of language. The example includes:
Boy →denotative
meaning (a young male, human being)
Boy → connotative
meaning (a young male human being who is playful, noisy, and lovable)
The denotation of
a word refers to its ‘definition as per dictionary’. There are some words that
share similar denotation, but they do not have the same tone, i.e., one can be
positive and the other can be negative. Despite two words having the same
denotation, they can have a varied tone or energy, i.e.,
their connotation can be different. It is the tone or energy
associated with the word that clicks our minds when we listen to the word.
While denotation is
the ideal definition of a term according to the dictionary, the connotation is
the implied or indirect meaning of the term. Connotation implies the broad
range of positive and negative associations that the words convey, whereas
denotation is the accurate explanation of the word, which can be found in the
dictionary.
|
Basis for
comparison |
Denotation |
Connotation |
|
Meaning |
Denotation
refers to the pure definition of the term, which one can find in the
dictionary. |
Connotation
implies the emotional suggestions of the word which are not exact. |
|
What is it? |
Literal meaning |
Suggestive
meaning |
|
Represents |
Explicit or
referential meaning. |
Social
overtones, cultural implications, or emotional meanings. |
|
Determines |
Extension |
Intension |
|
Use |
When you mean what
you say, word for word. |
When you mean
something else, which is initially hidden. |
3. What is synonymy and antonymy? Write with examples.
Synonymy refers to
one meaning (sense) with several lexical items (words). Synonyms are the two or
more forms with much closely related meaning. On the other hand, words which
have exactly or nearly the same meaning are called synonyms. If the lexical
items are interchangeable in a sentence, they are called synonymous words.
Let's observe the synonymy in the following examples.
What a nice
SELECTION of flowers!
What a nice RANGE
of flowers!
What a nice CHOICE
of flowers!
In these three sentences, the words selection, range and choice are synonyms.
I saw a MADMAN.
I saw a LUNATIC.
3. I saw a MADDY.
Here, the words madman, lunatic and Maddy are synonyms.
Antonymy refers to
a sense relationship of oppositeness and a word which is opposite in meaning to
another word is called an antonym. In other words, two forms with opposite
meanings are called antonyms.
Some examples of these types of antonymy are as follows.
single -married
alive -dead
transitive -intransitive
in -out
land -sea
green -yellow, red, blue
Synonymy refers
to similar meanings, while antonymy refers to opposite meanings. In other
words, synonymy is the opposite of antonymy. Here are some side-by-side
comparisons of the two terms using the same words:
|
Synonymy |
Antonymy |
|
|
good (adjective) |
pleasant, useful, reliable |
bad, poor, inadequate |
|
always (adverb) |
constantly, regularly, repeatedly |
never, at no time |
|
question (noun) |
inquire, investigation |
answer, reply |
|
receive (verb) |
accept, collect, take in |
reject, deny, let go |
|
above (preposition) |
raised, over |
below, under |
4. What difference do you find between homonymy and homography?
Homonymy is the
relationship between two words in which the meaning of one of words includes
the meaning of the other word. For example, the word 'animal' includes the word
'dog! Here 'animal' is a general word which is called super ordinate or
hypernymy and 'dog' is a specific word which is called hyponym and the relation
of 'animal' and 'dog' is homonomy.
The word 'animal' refers to dog, cat, cow, tiger, etc. So, the latter words are
referred to as co-hyponyms. Below are the examples of hyponymy.
|
Hypernyms |
Hyponyms |
|
animal |
cat, cow, tiger,
dog |
|
plant |
flower, tree,
bush, climbers |
|
move |
walk, run, swim,
fly |
|
vehicle |
bus, car, lorry,
van |
|
furniture |
table, chair,
bench, |
|
colour |
green, blue,
yellow, white |
|
vegetable |
green, pulses,
roots, |
Homography refers to the set of words same but having same pronunciation but
differ in the meaning. omographs are words which are spelled the same, but with
more than one meaning. Homographs may be pronounced the same (homonyms), or
they may be pronounced differently.
A homograph
consists of a pair of words that are spelled in exactly the same way, but which
are in fact different words and have different pronunciations and origins. Logically
speaking, then, the homograph could be understood as a kind of coincidence.
There is no actual reason why the two words of the homograph have the same
spelling, and the meanings of the two words have no relation to each other. It
just so happens that the two words are spelled the same way.
When encountering
a homograph in a written passage, the reader can usually make out which one of
the words that constitute the homograph should be used on the basis of
context.
|
Word |
Example of first
meaning |
Example of
second meaning |
|
lead |
Gold is heavier
than lead /lɛd/. |
The mother duck
will lead /liːd/ her ducklings around. |
|
close |
"Will you
please close /kloʊz/ that door!" |
The tiger was
now so close /kloʊs/ that I could smell it... |
|
wind |
The wind /wɪnd/ howled
through the woodlands. |
Wind /waɪnd/ your
watch. |
|
minute |
I will be there
in a minute /ˈmɪnɪt/. |
That is a
very minute /maɪˈnjuːt/ amount. |
For example: Bear:
1. to give birth, 2. To control/to lerate oneself.
5. What is pragmatics? Explain.
Pragmatics is the
study of language from the point of view of the users, especially of the choice
they make, the constraints they encounter in using language in social
interaction, and the other participants in an act of communication. The term
"pragmatics' is originally taken from the Greek word 'pragma' which means
deed or action. It consists of the word pragma+istics where pragma refers to
action or use, and-istics refers to the study. Therefore, it is the study of
the relationships between the linguistic forms and users of these forms.
Furthermore, pragmatics is the study of the ability of language users to pair
sentences with the context in which they should be appropriate. A pragmatic
theory of language is concerned with those aspects of meaning as communicated
by a speaker or writer and interpreted by a listener or reader which semantic
theories cannot interpret. So, the end of semantics is the beginning of
pragmatics.
Pragmatics is the study of those relations between language and context that
are grammaticalized or encoded in the structure of a language. Pragmatics is
the study of the relation between language and context that are basic to an
account of language understanding.
Pragmatics is the
study of the ability of language users to pair sentences with the contexts in
which they would be appropriate.
The major concepts to be discussed in pragmatics are context, discourse,
cohesion and coherence:
Context refers to the situation where we are speaking. The context might be
different based on the topic, place or person. In communication, only knowing
the meaning of individual words in isolation is not enough to understand the
discourse. A word can have more than one meaning. Out of them, the speaker's
meaning is understood with the help of the situation. This situation is called
context.
Discourse is
a generalization of the notion of a conversation to any form of communication.
In linguistics, discourse refers to a unit of language longer
than a single sentence. The word discourse is derived from the Latin
prefix dis- meaning "away" and the root
word currere meaning "to run". Discourse, therefore,
translates to "run-away" and refers to the way that conversations
flow. To study discourse is to analyze the use of spoken or written language in
a social context.
In discourse
analysis, the term coherence refers to the principle of organization that
relates functional connectedness or identity of a piece of spoken or written
language. It involves the study of such factors as the language users'
knowledge of the world, the inferences they make, and the assumption they hold,
and the way in which coherent communication is mediated using speech acts.
Cohesion refers to
the syntactic or semantic connectivity of linguistic forms, whereas coherence
is a logical and functional connectedness of a text. Coherence does not exist
in words or structures, but something that exists in people.
6. Define deixis and write different types of deixis with
example.
Or,
What is deixis? Discuss the three types of deixis.
The deixis is
a concept that refers to the linguistic phenomenon by means of which some words
or phrases receive part of their meaning via context and the orientation of the
speaker. Those words are called deictics. The word deixis comes from the
Greek deicis and it is a noun of the same verb family what it means to
show, point, point out, among others.
Deictic
expressions occur in all known human languages. They are usually used to
identify objects in the immediate context in which they are pronounced, by
pointing them to direct attention towards them.
The object stands
out as a focus. Then, a successful act of deictic reference is one in which the
interlocutors attend to the same referential object. In this way, the term
deixis is applied to the use of expressions in which the meaning depends on the
characteristics of the communicative act. This includes when and where this act
takes place, and who is involved as a speaker and as a recipient.
In summary, the
deictic expressions make reference to the context. Therefore, contextual
information is required to complete its meaning. These expressions are usually
focused from the perspective of the speaker. Therefore it is said that deixis
is egocentric.
Types of deixis
and examples
a. Personal deixis
b. Space Deixis
c. Temporal Deixis
d. Deixis of
speech
e. Social deixis
f. Affective or
empathic deixis
Personal deixis
Personal deixis is
carried out using personal pronouns. The speaker as first person (me), directs
a statement to the listener as the second person (you), and could be talking
about a third person, him or her. Personal deictic expressions include personal
pronouns (me, you, him), possessive (me, you, your, mine, yours, yours)
reflective (me, you, se) and reciprocal (we, se), in singular and plural .
Space Deixis
The spatial deixis
is the specification of the relative location of the participants at the time
of communication. This is coded through the demonstratives (this, that, that)
and the adverbs of place (here, there, above, below, above).
Temporal Deixis
The temporal
deixis places the perspective of the speaker with respect to the past, the
present and the future. This type of deixis is grammaticalized in the adverbs
of time (now, tomorrow, then) and in the verb tense.
Deixis of speech
The deixis of
speech or textual deixis refers to the use of a linguistic expression within a
statement to indicate preceding or following expressions in the same spoken or
written discourse. If the deictic element refers to a previous portion of the
text it is known as anaphora, otherwise it is a cataphora. It should be noted
that there are no specific grammatical categories for this class of deixis.
Social deixis
The social deixis
deals with the coding of the social status of the speaker, the addressee or a
third person to whom reference is made. This also refers to the social
relationships that exist between them.
Affective or
empathic deixis
This type of
deixis refers to the metaphorical use of deictic forms to indicate distance or
emotional or psychological proximity between a speaker and a referent.
7. What is discourse? Explain with an example.
Discourse is
a generalization of the notion of a conversation to any form
of communication. In linguistics, discourse refers to a
unit of language longer than a single sentence. The word discourse is
derived from the Latin prefix dis- meaning "away" and the
root word currere meaning "to run". Discourse, therefore,
translates to "run-away" and refers to the way that conversations
flow. To study discourse is to analyze the use of spoken or written language in
a social context.
Discourse studies
look at the form and function of language in conversation beyond its small
grammatical pieces such as phonemes and morphemes. This field of study, which
Dutch linguist Teun van Dijk is largely responsible for developing, is
interested in how larger units of language-including lexemes, syntax, and
context-contribute meaning to conversations.
Discourse in
context may consist of only one or two words as in stop or no
smoking. Alternatively, a piece of discourse can be hundreds of thousands of
words in length, as some novels are. A typical piece of discourse is somewhere
between these two extremes. Discourse is the way in which language is used
socially to convey broad historical meanings. It is language identified by the
social conditions of its use, by who is using it and under what conditions.
Language can never be 'neutral' because it bridges our personal and social
worlds.
The study of
discourse is entirely context-dependent because conversation involves
situational knowledge beyond just the words spoken. Often, meaning cannot be
extrapolated from an exchange merely from its verbal utterances because there
are many semantic factors involved in authentic communication. The study of
discourse...can involve matters like context, background information or
knowledge shared between a speaker and hearer.
Discourse can...be
used to refer to particular contexts of language use, and in this
sense, it becomes similar to concepts like genre or text type. For
example, we can conceptualize political discourse (the sort of language used in
political contexts) or media discourse (language used in the media).
Discourse is a
joint activity requiring active participation from two or more people, and as
such is dependent on the lives and knowledge of two or more people as well as
the situation of the communication itself. Herbert Clark applied the concept of common
ground to his discourse studies as a way of accounting for the various
agreements that take place in successful communication.
Discourse is more
than a message between sender and receiver. In fact,
sender and receiver are metaphors that disguise what is really going on in
communication. Specific illocutions have to be linked to the message
depending on the situation in which discourse takes place.
8. Write short notes on:
a. Synonymy and Antonym
Synonymy refers to
one meaning (sense) with several lexical items (words). Synonyms are the two or
more forms with much closely related meaning. On the other hand, words which
have exactly or nearly the same meaning are called synonyms. If the lexical items
are interchangeable in a sentence, they are called synonymous words.
Antonymy refers to a sense relationship of oppositeness and a word which is
opposite in meaning to another word is called an antonym. In other words, two
forms with opposite meanings are called antonyms.
Synonymy refers to similar meanings, while antonymy refers to opposite
meanings. In other words, synonymy is the opposite of antonymy. Here are
some side-by-side comparisons of the two terms using the same words:
|
Synonymy |
Antonymy |
|
|
good (adjective) |
pleasant, useful, reliable |
bad, poor, inadequate |
|
always (adverb) |
constantly, regularly, repeatedly |
never, at no time |
|
question (noun) |
inquire, investigation |
answer, reply |
|
receive (verb) |
accept, collect, take in |
reject, deny, let go |
|
above (preposition) |
raised, over |
below, under |
b. Hyponymy and Homonymy
In linguistics, a
specific term is used to designate a member of a class. For instance, oak is a
hyponym of tree, and dog is a hyponym of animal. Then scarlet,
vermilion, carmine, and crimson are all hyponyms of red (their hypernym), which
is, in turn, a hyponym of colour. The opposite of a hyponym is a hypernym. It
is the state or quality of a given word’s having the same spelling and the same
sound or pronunciation as another word, but with a different meaning, as ‘race’
(tribe) and ‘race’ (running contest).
In other words, in
linguistics, a homonym is, in the strict sense, one of a group of words
that share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different
meanings. Examples of homonyms are the pair ‘stalk’ (part of a plant) and
‘stalk’ (follow/harass a person), and the pair ‘left’ (past tense of leave) and
‘left’ (opposite of right), the verb ‘bear’ (to carry or endure) and the noun
‘bear’ (the name of an animal). Homonymy may be classified as Homography: a
phenomenon of two or more words having the same spelling but different meanings
or pronunciation. e.g., ‘lead’ /led/ means metal (n); and ‘lead’ /li:d/ means
to guide (v). Homophony: a phenomenon of two or more words having the same
pronunciation but different meaning or spelling. e.g. sea : see, knew : new,
some : sum, sun : son etc.
c.
Cohesion and coherence
The grammatical
and logical relationship between the different elements of a text may be
referred to as cohesion. It functions as a connection between succession
sentences in a paragraph, a poem, a connection, etc. and it can be described in
terms of specific synthetic units. For example, A says, 'Peter came.' and B
replies, 'But he was very late. In this interchange, the role of but as a
conjunction and the time between the pronoun, she and its antecedent Peter are
both aspects of cohesion.
A text may be
spoken or written, prose or verse, dialogue, or monologue. It may be anything
from a single proverb to a whole play, from a momentary cry to help to an
all-day discussion on a committee. It is a unit of language in use. It is not a
grammatical unit like a clause or a sentence, but it is not defined by size. A
text is not only a sequence of words and sentences, but they are mutually
interdependent. The way the textual elements depend on each other is called
cohesion or cohesiveness.
In discourse analysis,
the term coherence refers to the principle of organization that relates
functional connectedness or identity of a piece of spoken or written language.
It involves the study of such factors as the language users' knowledge of the
world, the inferences they make, and the assumption they hold, and of the way
in which coherent communication is mediated through the use of speech acts.
Cohesion refers to
the syntactic or semantic connectivity of linguistic forms, whereas coherence
is a logical and functional connectedness of a text. Coherence does not exist
in words or structures, but something that exists in people. Here is a good
example that shows how a text bears coherence:
HER : That's the telephone.
HIM : I'm in the bath.
HER : OK.
The example above doesn't have any cohesive devices, yet the participants in
the conversation understand each other. The first participant requests him to
perform an action. The second one states the reason why he cannot comply with
the request. Then she performs the action. Therefore, cohesion and coherence
play a significant contribution in students to shape the way they write
English.
9. Pragmatics is the study of speaker meaning. Elucidate.
Speaker
meaning is generally defined in pragmatics in
terms of the speaker's intentions. The received view is that a speaker means
something by intending that the hearer recognize what is meant as intended by
the speaker, thereby grounding speaker meaning in a presumed cognitive reality.
Speaker
meaning in this sense encompasses moral or ethical concerns such as rights,
obligations, responsibilities, permissibility, and thus is a real-world,
consequential concept for participants in interaction. One result of this
real-world consequentiality is that the degree of accountability for speaker
meanings can be observed to be disputed by participants in both institutional
and everyday talk. A second consequence is that the degree of accountability
for speaker meanings can be modulated through various meaning-actions that
either increase or decrease a speaker's level of accountability for particular
meanings.
The
practice of not-saying is argued to be one relatively neglected meaning-action
through which speakers may decrease their level of accountability in
interaction. It is concluded that work remains to investigate whether a deontic
conceptualization of speaker meaning can be reconciled with the received view.
Pragmatics is the
study of language from the point of view of the users, especially of the choice
they make, the constraints they encounter in using language in social
interaction, and the other participants in an act of communication. The term
"pragmatics' is originally taken from the Greek word 'pragma' which means
deed or action. It consists of the word pragma+istics where pragma refers to
action or use, and-istics refers to the study.
Therefore, it is
the study of the relationships between the linguistic forms and users of these
forms. Furthermore, pragmatics is the study of the ability of language users to
pair sentences with the context in which they should be appropriate. A
pragmatic theory of language is concerned with those aspects of meaning as communicated
by a speaker or writer and interpreted by a listener or reader which semantic
theories cannot interpret. So, the end of semantics is the beginning of
pragmatics.
Pragmatics is the study of those relations between language and context that are
grammaticalized or encoded in the structure of a language. Pragmatics is the
study of the relation between language and context that are basic to an account
of language understanding.
Pragmatics is the
study of the ability of language users to pair sentences with the contexts in
which they would be appropriate.
The major concepts to be discussed in pragmatics are context, discourse,
cohesion and coherence:
Best of
Luck
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