Meaning in Language An Introduction to Semantics and Pragmatics

Meaning in Language: An Introduction to Semantics and
Pragmatics (2011)
‹#›
ENG350: Introduction to Semantics and Pragmatics
LOGIC AND MEANING
Chapter 2
‹#›
Features some property to an entity or a relation between two or
more entities.
It is either true or false
Truth or falsehood shows at least one proposition made
The same proposition may be expressed by an indefinite and
large number of sentences.
PROPOSITIONS

‹#›
Sentences: type-level entity where definite referring
expressions have to be assigned referents
Statements: must be energized illocutionary force
Utterances: token-level entity where multiple utterances can be
produced from one sentence
How Propositions Relate
‹#›
Negative Operator:
Switches truth value
Implication:
"P and/or Q": PvQ is true as long as at least one of the two
propositions P and Q is true. The order of the propositions is
significant for this relation.
Logical Operators

‹#›
Conjunction:
P&Q is true only if both P and Q are true.
The order of the propositions is irrelevant.
Disjunction
"P and/or Q": PvQ is true as long as at least one of the two
propositions P and Q is true. T
Equivalence
P"Q is true only if both P and Q have the same truth value.
Logical Operators
‹#›
Entailment:
Relation which holds between the propositions listed under P
and the corresponding propositions under Q
Equivalence:
mutual entailment
Contrariety:
may not be simultaneously true
may be simultaneously false.
Contradiction:
must have opposite truth values in every circumstance

Natural Language Application
‹#›
truth values vary independently of one another
May be both true, both false, or one true and the other false
relations described have an important role in the analysis of
meaning relations between words
COMPATIBILITY
‹#›
Known as second-order logic
Predicate Calculus:
system of representing the structure of propositions
INNER STRUCTURE OF PROPOSITIONS
‹#›

closely linked pair of concepts
absolutely fundamental to both logic and semantics are
argument and predicate.
Argument: designates some entity or group of entities
Predicate: attributes some property to the entity denoted by the
argument
ARGUMENTS AND PREDICATES
‹#›
The number of arguments a predicate takes is known as its
valency
Logical Valency: determined by the number of arguments for it
to be logically complete
Valency
‹#›
Paradoxical:
Automatically express false propositions
Synthetic propositions:

Truth values made up by their correspondence or otherwise with
the facts
Analytic:
they automatically express true propositions
Paradoxical, analytic and Synthetic Propositions
‹#›
Quantification: requires a quantifier, a restriction, and a scope.
Existential Quantifier
Universal Quantifier
Quantifiers and Quantification
‹#›
Downward Entailing: the valid entailment goes from less
specific to more specific
Upward Entailing: the valid entailment goes from more specific
to less specific
Directional Entailingness

‹#›
Directional entailment properties correlate with negative
polarity items (negpols).
Only normal in certain types of environment
typically contains a negative element of some kind.
Negative Polarity
‹#›
Useful set of concepts drawn from logic of classes:
Identity
Inclusion
Disjunction
Intersection
Union
Class Relations
Mapping
Logic of Classes

‹#›
Truth is assumed to be common knowledge shared by speaker
and addressee.
Speaker presupposes knowledge about listener
Presuppositions
‹#›
Russell:
believed that the presupposition of a sentence should be
explicitly represented in a representation of the sentence's
meaning.
Strawson:
presupposition is a relation between propositions
Accounting for Presuppositions
‹#›
Reference: things in the world referred to by a particular

expression
Denotation: word denotes a specific point of reference
Sense: word is associated with some kind of mental
representation
Useful Distinctions to Remember
‹#›
Meaning in Language: An Introduction to Semantics and
Pragmatics (2011)
‹#›
CONCEPTS AND MEANING
Chapter 3
‹#›

A concept is “a mental construct that stands in a relation of
correspondence to a coherent category of things in some world,
prototypically the real world, but potentially also imaginary,
fictional, or virtual worlds.”
Conceptual Category:
encompasses the mental construct and the category of entities
What is a concept?
‹#›
a range of objectively different experiences treated as instances
of one and the same type of experience.
CAT: enables us to see these as all belonging to a single type.
important for intellectual and social activity.
Codification of Experience
‹#›
Concepts provide a locus for accumulating relevant information

for a class of individuals or events.
This gives efficient way of learning from past experience
New knowledge acquired on the basis of interaction with one or
more individuals can be easily generalized to other members of
a category.
Recognition of a particular category make a much wider range
of information about that individual available. If an individual
belongs to a particular category, then this can make wide range
of information about that individual.
Learning
‹#›
Communication
Linguistic message is coded in terms of conceptual categories.
CLASSICAL Approach:
goes back at least to Aristotle
defines a category’s membership in terms of a set of necessary
and sufficient criteria
Classical Approach
‹#›

Lack of plausible analysis
Fuzzy boundaries
Internal structure of categories
Problems of Classical Approach
‹#›
Has logical properties but is not error-free
It may identify correctly or incorrectly on any particular
occasion.
Responsible for the truth values of utterances
Designed to improve with experience
Governs important logical relations between a concept and other
concepts
Kind Detector
‹#›
Prototype: best example of something
Natural conceptual categories are structured around the
prototypes of the categories

Other items are assimilated to a category according to whether
they sufficiently resemble the prototype
Prototype Theory
‹#›
Subjects are asked to provide a numerical value as an estimate
of how good an example of something is
GOE ratings may be strongly culture-dependent.
Goodness-of-Exemplar Ratings
‹#›
Order of mention
Overall frequency
Order of acquisition
Vocabulary learning
Speed of verification
Priming
Prototypes Effects

‹#›
Most inclusive level where best categories are created or exist
Most inclusive level for visual representation
Part and whole information is relevant
Level of the most rapid categorization
Simplicity of naming
Basic Level Categories
‹#›
Score highly on distinctness
Have relatively low internal homogeneity
Names often differ from basic-level categories
Fewer defining attributes
Superordinate-level Categories

‹#›
The “Guppy Effect”
The basis of GoE ratings and their interpretation.
Interaction among features
Context sensibility
Category boundaries
Degree of membership
Fuzzy boundaries
Problems of Prototype Model
‹#›

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