Com3011C Communication and Human Relations

1. Linguistics
The Study of Language

2. Overview of semantics in
linguistics
SEMANTIC THEORY MAKES A BIG
CONTRIBUTION TO
UNDERSTANDING HOW
LANGUAGES WORK AND ALSO
FEEDS INTO OTHER DISCIPLINES,
LIKE COMPUTER SCIENCE FOR
EXAMPLE.

3. In spite of big limitations, the study of
semantics has made an important
contribution to our
understanding of
how languages
work.
Originally, the word “semantics” was used to refer to what we call “historical semantics”
today. It was about how words changed their meaning over time.

4. People started to take semantics seriously
after the publication of this book in the 1920s.
▪The word semantics did not really catch on until the 1920s when
Richards and Ogden published their famous book,
The Meaning of Meaning.
▪Today, semantics is one of the central areas of the
study in Linguistics.
▪After all, the whole purpose of language
is to communicate meaning.

5. Today, we assume
that communication is
the key to language
learning.
Do you agree with
that?

6. Meaning is of central importance to
language learners and teachers because it
is assumed that languages are learned in
the process of communication.
Semantics plays an important part in most
branches of Linguistics.

7. Meaning and language are inseparable. Meaning is deeply influenced
by the sound system of a language, its grammatical structure, and the
way we use language in actual conversations.
Just about everything
connected with
language is related
to meaning in some
way or other.

8. Phonology
Study of the sound
system of language.
Sounds (phonemes)
can distinguish
meanings:
“pin” does not mean
the same as “bin”
“ship” means
something completely
different than “sheep.”

9. Stress can change the meaning of
words and sentences in big ways:
• The word “contrast” has a
different meaning depending on
whether you stress the first of the
second syllable
• A simple sentence like “I didn’t eat
the apple” has a different
interpretation if certain words are
strongly stressed.
• Tone can indicate a question
sentence vs. a declarative
sentence.

10. Morphology
The internal structure
of words, influences
meaning in big ways.
Here, the suffixes
“-ate” and “-tion”
transform the base
noun “motive” from a
noun to a verb and
then back into a
different kind of noun.

11. Syntax
investigates how
words combine to
form larger
structures.

12. Syntax deals with
the way words
combine to form
larger phrases and
sentences.
Semantics is
concerned with how
those phrases and
sentences are
interpreted — their
meaning.
For a very simple example, take a sentence like
“The rat ate the cockroach.”
Then swap around the words so you get
“The cockroach ate the rat.”

13. These pictures show how meaning can be influenced by
grammatical (syntactic) structure.

15. Noam Chomsky
MIT linguist, philosopher,
cognitive scientist
1957 Syntactic Structures
grammatically correct,
but semantically
nonsensical

16. Pragmatics
▪ The Philosopher Paul Grice
made the most important
contribution to the study of
Pragmatics.
▪ We take meanings and then
combine these meanings with
other things we know about the
world to create different
meanings.
▪ The meaning of language is
always context dependent.

17. Pragmatics
• concerned with the transmission of meaning through
language.
• investigates the meanings that expressions have in
particular situations (contexts).
• Example: “It’s hot in here.”
= The temperature is high.
= Open the window or
= Turn the heater off.

18. Semiotics
the study of signs
and symbols and
their use or
interpretation
● visual aspect of
semantics
● signs
● symbols
● writing
● gestures
● iconography