Semantics Basics

Study Notes

Semantics focuses on the literal meaning of words, phrases, and sentences, as well as their integration.
The rest of the meaning is left to pragmatics, which deals with the use and user's interpretation of meaning.

Philosophy: focuses on the general human linguistic knowledge and how language works
Linguistics: focuses on the structure of language
Psychology: focuses on the cognitive processes involved in language understanding

Linguistic philosophers: examine the use of certain terms in language to solve philosophical problems
Philosophers of language: study the connection between language and the world
Questions about meaning, reference, and truth were first addressed by ancient Greek, Roman, and Indian philosophers

Ideational theory (John Locke): words are signs of ideas
Primitive reference theory (Bertrand Russell): words have meaning in that they stand for something other than themselves
Gottlob Frege: meaning = sense + reference
Ogden and Richards: reference, referent, and symbol

Study of words and their meanings
Word meaning is a result of interconnections with other words
Ferdinand de Saussure: linguistic sign has two components - signifier (form) and signified (concept)

Study of language in relation to the human mind
Meaning is constructed and based on experience
Language is seen as an instrument for organizing, processing, and conveying information

Construal: no direct mapping between the external world and conceptualization
Dynamic: meaning is a process
Perspective: the operation that results in construal
Frame: multidimensional mental space of related concepts
Image schema: embodied prelinguistic structure
Metaphor: comparing one concept with another
Metonymy: substituting one word or phrase for another
Category and prototype: graded degree of belonging to a conceptual category### Relativistic Approach to Language and Thought
The relativistic approach proposes a mutual interrelationship between language and thought, suggesting that they influence each other.
This approach is divided into two main areas: linguistic relativism and natural semantic metalanguage (NSM).

Franz Boas, a German psychologist, believed that language expresses the spirit of a nation, following Humboldt's idea.
Edward Sapir, an anthropologist and linguist, studied the relationship between language and culture, focusing on how linguistic differences influence cultural worldviews.
Benjamin Lee Whorf, Sapir's student, developed the idea that linguistic differences in grammar and usage affect how speakers conceptualize the world.

The hypothesis proposes that the structure of a language influences its speakers' cognitive processes, with two versions: strong deterministic and weak influences.
The strong deterministic version suggests that language determines thought, while the weak influences version suggests that language influences thought.

NSM is a theory developed by Wierzbicka, which aims to identify primitive concepts that are universally expressed across languages.
The main criteria guiding NSM are:
Defining power: the role of a concept in defining other concepts
Universality: the range of languages in which a concept has been lexicalized
NSM semantic primitives (atoms) include:
I, you, body (substantives)
When, now, after (time)
Where, below, far (space)
Big, small (descriptors)

Lakoff and Johnson proposed that conceptual metaphors interact with each other, forming complex metaphor systems.
The event structure metaphor is a series of metaphors that interact in the interpretation of utterances, such as "Life is a journey."
This metaphor applies to "Life is a journey" by mapping states to locations, change to motion, causes to forces, purposes to destinations, means to paths, and difficulties to impediments to motion.