2. (September 6th, 2013)
Semantics as part of grammar:
Why should semantics be considered as part of grammar?
Everything we say has to have an intention; probably this intention is to be heard. If
there is not grammar, cohesion and syntax it is almost impossible to make
understandable what we are saying.
Semantic shows the meaning, and the meaning depends on how ideas are
expressed.
Grammar gives the structure, the vocabulary and the right way to use language.
Everything is based on the way you express. So, I think semantic should be part of
grammar because they both are a complement to establish a well done
conversation.
3. September 11th, 2013)
The denotational theory of meaning:
1. Explain what the denotational theory of meaning is.
2. On the denotational theory of meaning, if an expression has a denotation, it
has a meaning. Give at least one example of an expression for which this is
false.
Andrea is talking to her friend Ana
Andrea: I work really hard to keep my favorite luxuries
Ana: Why? If it is your husband who works really hard, and he gives you
everything
. There are two girls in a shopping mall, they are trying on some dresses, and
watching themselves in mirrors, so one says:
A: you look very beautiful
B: Do I? But if I haven't tried on any dress
A: Not you. I mean, Me!
You look very beautiful is referring to myself
4. (September 11th, 2013)
The mentalist theories of meaning
1.
What are the major weaknesses of the mentalist theory of meaning?
When speaking, the idea must be given in a clear way, because the
intention can be lost if there is not right use of the grammatical and semantic
components, besides the listener can confuse the meaning if the topic is not
clear. Listener must hear clear details of what has been descripted to don’t
misunderstand the idea.
Any word can refers to two or more things.
Listeners don’t have the same ideas, so, the image can be different.
Many words don’t have mental image.
2.
According to the mentalist theory of meaning, ideas are mental images.
Based on this definition, how do you explain the difference between these two
sentences?
a.
She speaks French and Spanish
b.
She speaks French or Spanish
When we use words to express utterances we have to pay attention to the words
used. It is not the same use “and” that “or”. Semantically the intention is different.
When you say “and” is because you are adding some information and “or” is
because there is an option, one of those is right, no both.
5. September 13th, 2013)
Meaning properties and relations
Ambiguity is the property of having two or more distinct meanings or interpretations
(cf. Cipollone et al., 1998). A word or sentence is ambiguous if it can be interpreted
in more than one way. Ambiguity can be caused by factors such as homonymy,
polysemy, lack of sufficient context, etc.
Structural Ambiguity (phrases or sentences): To how many interpretations can the
following sentences lead?
We need more intelligent leaders:
The leaders that are working, are not enough: Quantity
The leaders that are working are not efficient: quality
Visiting strangers can be dangerous.
To visit some strangers can be dangerous, maybe the road, climate.
To visit strangers can be dangerous because they are unknown people.
Moving sidewalks can be useful.
To remove the sidewalks can be useful
Sliding sidewalks can be useful.
Lexical Ambiguity: It is the ambiguity that some sentences exhibit when they
contain words that can be interpreted in more than one way (those words are either
homonymous or polysemous words).
What interpretations can you identify in the underlined words? What type of lexical
relations do you find?
We can fish.
Homonymy
Can= verb, auxiliary, object
Look at the spring.
Homonymy
Spring= Season, object, place
6. John met his wife near a bank. Homonymy
Bank= Financial place, river, chair
Consider the following dialogue:
A: What chances do I have for a raise?
B: Two. Slim and fat.
Does fat mean the same thing as slim in the language, or is one of these words
being used nonliterally? Defend your answer.
The meaning is not literal because it is a word used to describe physical and
corporal shapes, not size. The right word would be big.
7. September 18th, 2013)
Truth properties and truth relations
1.
Based on the theories of truth properties and truth relations, explain the
relation between these two statements:
a.
If John killed the bear, then the bear died
b.
John killed the bear, and the bear is still alive
The first statement is semantically true because the second part of the statement
confirm the first idea.
The second statement is significantly false, because there is a contradiction. The
second part of the sentence is saying something totally different to what was said
at the beginning.
2.
What do these statements entail?
a.
The car is red
There is a car
The car is colorful
b.
The needle is too short
The needle is not long enough
3.
Are these two sentences true or false? Explain why.
a.
All people that are sick are people
This sentence is semantically true because the second part confirm the first.
b.
Every person is sick, but some person is not.
8. This statement is false, because the second part does not have relation with the
first. If it was said that every person is sick, it means everybody in the world or in
the context.
9. (September 20th, 2013)
Denotation and reference
(Activity taken from: Study English IELTs preparation Episode 5.)
Activity 1: Identify referents and the noun phrases to which they refer in the
following paragraph:
The shark is a carnivorous (meat-eating) sea animal. It is one of the most feared
fish in the ocean, having the reputation of attacking humans. There are many
species that roam the great oceans of the world. They vary in size and habit.
Though the whale shark is considered the largest, it is relatively harmless, and
mainly eats small fish and plankton. Other sharks include the hammerhead, mako
and bull. These are fast, powerful sea animals that feed on larger fish such as
mackerel, tuna and herring. The white shark, on the other hand, is the most
frightening and dangerous. It gets this reputation because of its size and keen
sense, which enables it to prey successfully. Since early 1960’s, scientist have
been studying sharks because of their potential to provide the medical world with
defenses such as cancer and arthritis. That would be welcomed by all.
Activity 2: Read the passage, choose the correct referring expression and
identify its referent:
A planet is a large, round object that travels around the sun. There are nine
planets, which together comprise a part of the solar system. (This, these, that)
include Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.
Much like stars in appearance, planets differ from (they, them(stars)}, their) in that
(they(planets) , them, their) shine steadily, while stars twinkle. (this (Appearance),
these, those) may be the result of the light and heat that stars produce on (its, they,
their) own, (this(Light), these, that) which the planets emit is reflected light from the
sun.
Though the planets differ substantially in size and vary widely in terms of (their
(surface), its, they) surface conditions, (them, they (Planets), these) are similar
insofar as orbital movement is concerned. All of (them (planets), they, these) move
in a westward direction across the sky.
Astronomers have been fascinated by planets for thousands of years, but more
recently have become interested in the feasibility of sustainable life on planets.
Answers to (these, that (the feasibility of sustainable life on planets), they) may
give scientist and insight into our long-term future.
BOOK: Yule, G. (1996) Pragmatics. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
10. (September 25th, 2013)
Reference and inference
1. What is the difference between semantic and pragmatic reference?
When we refer to something semantically it is something that is on the world, even
these referents can be imaginaries, because for example with Unicorns, these do
not exist, but we have a referent if somebody mention them.
Pragmatically, the meaning is given by the context, so, referents can just be these
things that we can perceive with our senses.
11. (September 25th, 2013)
Anaphoric reference
1. Anaphora involves two kinds of linking, what are they?
Reflexive
Principle A: An anaphor must be bound in its minimal
domain;
Principle B: A pronoun must be free in its minimal domain;
Principle C: A referring expression must be free.
Reciprocal pronouns
We use reciprocal pronouns when each of two or more subjects is acting in the
same way towards the other. For example, A is talking to B, and B is talking to A.
So we say:
A and B are talking to each other.
13. Truth Properties
18th September
Everything we say have an intention and a way to be said. Some things are not
totally true and some others actually are. It depends if the meaning is semantic or
pragmatic. In truth properties class what we did was basically to clarify the
differences between a statement which is true or false.
True property is the way that semantically what you have said have a real
meaning, for example when you say that “it is raining” actually it is raining but if you
say “it is raining here” is depends on the point of view. Actually, everything
depends on the point of view that listener has. Sometimes it is necessary to trust
on what the speaker is saying, so, it could be semantically true or false.
Syntax, semantic and grammar are part of the interpretation of the meaning. So it
is not the same saying that you like someone, that someone likes you. Even, if
grammatically it is correct, semantically it could not be.
Also this topic is related to entailment. It is the related meanings that we can have
in a sentence. Entailment depends on sentence meaning, not the context in which
the sentence is used, because for example when you say that the car is red, you
are not specifying which car, however what this statement entails is that there is a
car and this car has a color.
What I learnt about truth properties and entailment is that everything we say can be
interpreted in several ways. Basically it is important to know if the way that we are
speaking is the appropriate to make understandable our ideas. Also, it is important
to notice how necessary is to say the truth while speaking, because the listener’s
perception and assumption depend on that.
14. 21st august 2013
Semantics and pragmatics
This presentation is related to the differences and similarities that we can find when
we talk about these two topics.
Semantics is related to the different definition that we can give to words, phrases,
sentences and utterances even if these do not exist in the real world. Meaning is
not specifically applied to a determined context, different to the pragmatics, where
everything that has been said makes sense when it is related to human daily
experiences. That is the reason why it is too important to understand how people
can perceive what we are saying. It is not the same to say “Santa Claus has given
me a gift” and “my father has given me a gift”. Older people can think that you are
crazy if you refer to Santa Claus as the person who gives you some gifts, but
children do not.
If we refer to a kid, who can imagine a lot, the pragmatic is not involved because
actually kids don not understand the pragmatic meaning of something. They just
see the world as a fantasy world. So, they set everything to their mind, their ideas,
and their wishes. Different to the rest of people, although in Christmas we can see
that some people still believe little tiny lies. Meaning and pragmatic are different,
even if both refer to the same: Meaning and the way in which it is interpreted.
When this topic was explained in class, I realized that sometimes I just speak
semantically, because I talk about things that do not exist. Even I love Unicorns
and they are not real. This was an interesting topic because help us to know when
we are speaking semantically or pragmatically.
15. 11th September
What is meaning?
It is the definition or concept that we can have about something. But meaning is not
just what appears in a dictionary, meaning depends on different phenomena which
give the value to the word.
Mental Images: it is the image that appear in your mind when you hear any word,
for example “chair”, that is something that you have already known, but if for
example you hear the word “forget” it is difficult to have a mental idea of it.
Meaning and Reference: it depends on the relation that you have with the world,
so when you are referred to something, you will have your own meaning. Even
some fantastic thing can have their referent, because although these don’t exist,
we already got information about them.
Meaning and Truth: Talking about something does not mean that it really exists.
Fantasy does not have referents, even if we know that people are talking about
unicorns or Santa Claus, in the real life they do not exist.
Meaning and language use: The way you express, you think, you act have a
meaning and if it is true or false depends just in you, in the way you use the
language.
This presentation was really interesting because I could understand how important
is to know what and how we are saying something. Even it shows how careful we
must be with our gestures because sometimes we can hurt somebody else just
doing some movements or body expressions which can communicate even more
than words.
16. 13th September
Pragmatics as a part of form
This presentation was interesting, although it was about something that in our
native language we have already done. It is the process of identifying the meaning
relationships that are given in a language. In primary school, this topic was
something normal to be asked about it, so if teacher asked you about the
synonyms of a word and you said an antonym, you got a bad mark but teacher did
not explain which the difference was. This topic has had a controversial point of
view because due to education, some students do not have a big idea of some
other relationships like entailment. Actually, I confess that I did not know about this
topic before the explanation.
I would like to explain a little bit about the different meaning relationships that you
can find.
Synonyms: Different writing, different sound but same meaning
Homonyms: Same spelling, same sound, different meaning.
Antonyms: Opposite meaning.
Entailment: The relation that words have between them.
I felt comfortable with this explanation because I learnt something new. Even I
remembered some topics that I had seen in my native language. But I have to take
into consideration that although are similar, meaning relationships in English can
be a little bit more complex.
17. 25th September
Reference and inference
If we say something, there must be a listener. This listener just can understand us
if he knows what about we are talking. Sometimes thing are not said directly and
the listener can feel confused about the speaking. So, to facilitate the
understanding, it is necessary to infer what is being said. Just one word can refers
to several, but it is up to you the meaning that you are going to give it. The main
idea of inference is to know the origin and the purpose of something.
Reference is about the object, noun, noun phrases definite or indefinite and
pronouns. When you talk, most of the times you refer to something. For example if
you are talking about your mom to your best friend, she is going to know who your
mom is, even if she has not met her. The listener has a referent because she also
has or had mother, so she knows about it. That is something similar when you talk
to somebody about something is a little bit difficult to think about, for example, if
somebody asks you something like: “Do you remember the guy with the blue jacket
that we saw last week in the park?” if you have a good memory, you will remember
this guy and you will identify who is she talking about, but if you don’t, it will be
difficult to know who is the person, however you have a referent and it is the blue
jacket and that he was seen in the park.
Referents allow us to know what is being said; also, allow us to infer what is going
to happen in the conversation, which sequence it is having.
This presentation I liked too much, because it was something good to understand
the role of our brain in scrambling things to make sense of these.
18. 27th September
Presupposition and Entailment
Presupposition is given when we talk and we express an idea which allows us to
infer something, it is also related to entailment because what has been said can
also contain another meanings.
For example when you say:
“Carlos’ motorbike is beautiful”
It means that it does not matter if the motorcycle is beautiful or not, what actually
matter is that Carlos has a motorbike.
It is the same when we say:
There was a party and a lot of people went.
There was a party and nobody went.
Although the two utterances express something different, both are related to
something, “a party”. So, what matters is not what happened to the object, but the
object itself. If a lot of people went to the party, or actually nobody, it does not
matter, because what it presupposed is that there was a party.
When we hear somebody saying something like that, we can infer some
information related to previous experiences, but also, we can entail these to some
extra information.
In our country, people do not notice about the importance of know what is being
said. Sometimes they just talk and that is all. I think people must understand the
whole form of language, for example I am totally sure that most of the people do
not understand why we speak in certain way or how our language is structured. I
think it is an interesting topic that helps us to know the reasons why languages are
sometimes too difficult of understand. Languages have their own manner to be
interpreted.
19. 2nd October
Cooperation and implicature
An implicature is when a speaker is trying to say something that is more than
words. One expression means something else. So, sometimes the listener must
assume or infer the rest of the information.
There are some kinds of implicatures that help us to develop a good conversation.
Conversational Implicature: It takes into account the cooperation of the speaker
and the inference of the listener.
i.e.
Katherine: Did you visit my mom and carried her the cake I prepared?
Carlos: I visited your mom.
Generalized Conversational Implicature: It is when there is not specific information,
so the meaning of something depends on how it is said.
i.e
I’m looking for the dog. He was here just one second ago.
Scarlar Implicature: it is when the listener can infer some information depending on
the prepositions or words used. It sometimes shows that the speaker wants to omit
some information. It is based on the degree of some expressions.
i.e.
I often have lunch… It means that not always this person has lunch.
Particularized Conversational Implicatures: It means that the conversation must be
given in a very specific context.
i.e.
A:Tell me why Carlos and Edna broke up?
B: How is your mom?
It means that somebody could be near and could hear the conversation and that is
not the right moment to have that conversation.
Cooperation is the way that you collaborate to make understandable a
conversation, saying the truth and allowing listener to infer what she wants to
know.
This presentation was something good because I could understand how important
is to collaborate to the speaker when I am listening and vice versa.
20. 16th October
Politeness and interaction
When we want to communicate something it is necessary to do a social interaction.
In society, values are something really important because give us the clue to act
without having problems. In communication the same situation happens.
When we talk it is necessary to make that the listener can understand what we are
saying, overall if we are saying is something polite. Sometimes we are a little bit
rude while talking and we are not respectful with the different opinions that we
have, but the idea if having a good interaction is basically to be polite.
When we are polite we can find a lot of nice things, because we are going to be
respect, too.
I liked this topic so much because mention something that in our country is being
lost. We can be very rude while talking. Obviously it depends on the perception
that people have because for example, Americans feel threatened if you don’t
answer as was expecting, or if you do some gestures that they think these are
rude and you don’t.
To be polite, you need to know different cultures, but overall, you need to have
cleared your values and the importance of these in the interaction with the society.
Nowadays, values are being lost because of culture, technology and influence of
other countries. It is a shame because we have lost our identity and now we are
coping different cultures, however, education can change this situation.
