Semantics by Don L F Nilsen and Alleen

Semantics by Don L. F. Nilsen and Alleen Pace Nilsen 1

AMBIGUITIES I saw him walking by the bank. We laughed at the colorful ball. The police were urged to stop drinking by the fifth. I said I would file it on Thursday. 2

I cannot recommend visiting professors too highly. The license fee for pets owned by senior citizens who have not been altered is $1. 50. What looks better on a handsome man than a tux? Nothing! (Attributed to Mae West) 3

COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLE H. P. Grice said that we should be communicative, relevant, brief, and truthful. QUANTITY: Say neither more nor less than the discourse requires. 4

RELEVANCE: Be relevant. MANNER: Be brief and orderly; avoid ambiguity and obscurity. QUALITY: Do not lie; do not make unsupported claims. NOTE: The characters we remember both from literature and from real life are the ones who violate these principles. 5

DEIXIS Deictic words get their meanings from the time, the place, or the persons in the context: TIME: after, before, last week, next April, now, seven days ago, then, that time, this time, tomorrow, two weeks from now… 6

PLACE: back, before, behind, front, here, left, right, that place, there, these parks, this city, those towers over there, yonder mountains… PERSON: he, hers, him, his, I, it, me, mine, ours, she, their, they, them, us, we, your, yours… 7

FRAME SEMANTICS Using Predicate Calculus as a model, Charles Fillmore devised Case Grammar, in which verbs are classified in terms of their arguments. Here, the environment becomes the “case frame. ” Each case frame is thought of as a small abstract scene or situation. To understand the semantic structure of the verb, it is necessary to understand the properties of such schematized scenes. 8

A verb can be intransitive, linking, transitive or ditransitive. Although this is a syntactic notion, it has important semantic consequences. Syntactic transitivity involves Subjects, Subject Complements, Direct Objects, Indirect Objects and Object Complements. 9

Fillmore says that If we change from a syntactic to a semantic bias, we can say that the “case frame” of a verb involves the following “Deep Cases”: Agent, Instrument, Experiencer, Object, Source, Path, Goal, Time, Place, Manner, Extent, Reason, etc. 10

If we do this, we can say that the different types of verbs have different case frames, so that the following classifications are not only semantic, but syntactic as well: CHANGE VERBS: brighten, demolish CONTACT VERBS: hit, touch EXPERIENCE VERBS: see, enjoy LOCATION VERBS: bottle, button MOTION VERBS: walk, throw SYMMETRICAL PREDICATES: resemble The verbs in each of these categories tend to have the same “Case Frames” as do the other verbs in the same category. 11

Lakoff seems to be cementing terminology that has previously been unstable. In 1985, Fillmore developed his frame semantics. Since that time various terms have been proposed— ”Frame” by Minsky, Winograd and Charniak, “Schema” by Bartlett and Rulmelhart, “Scripts” by Schank and Abelson, “Global Pattern by de Beaugrande and Dressler, “Pseudo-text” by Wilks, “Cognitive Model” by Lakoff, “Experiential Gestalt” by Lakoff and Johnson, “Base” by Langacker, “Scenes” by Fillmore, etc. 12

Gamson & Lasch Frames 1. Metaphors 2. Exemplars such as Historical Examples 3. Catch Phrases 4. Depictions 5. Visual Images or Icons 13

HOMONOMY VS. POLYSEMY Two different words that sound or look alike are called “homonyms. ” Two different senses of a single word are called “polysemes. ” A “wedding ring, ” a “boxing ring, ” and a “bathtub ring” are polysemes, but what about a ring on a telephone? 14

HUMPTY DUMPTY LANGUAGE “There’s glory for you!” “I don’t know what you mean by ‘glory. ’” Alice said. Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. “Of course you don’t—till I tell you. I meant ‘there’s a nice knock-down argument for you!’” 15

“But ‘glory’ doesn’t mean ‘a nice knock-down argument, ” Alice objected. “When I use a word, ” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less. ” “The question is, ” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things. ” (from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass) 16

IDIOMS bite your tongue cut it out eat my hat get a piece of my mind hit the ceiling hit it off kick the bucket let your hair down put your foot in your mouth rake someone over the coals raining cats and dogs sell someone down the river snap out of it throw your weight around 17

IRONY I’m not kidding. Literally… Some of my best friends are…black, gay, Mexican, women…. To make a long story short. 18

LEGAL LANGUAGE Because it has to account for all possibilities, legal language must be precise and sometimes a bit redundant. That’s why lawyers use such terms as “cease and desist, ” or “give and bequeath. ” A sign in the San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park, however, takes this type of language a bit further: 19

“Please do not annoy, torment, pester, plague, molest, worry, badger, harry, harass, heckle, persecute, irk, bullyrag, vex, disquiet, grate, beset, bother, tease, nettle, tantalize, or ruffle the animals. ” 20

PRESUPPOSITION “Fats regretted that he had to pay alimony to Bessie” presupposes that “Fats had to pay alimony to Bessie. ” “Fats did not regret that he had to pay alimony to Bessie” also presupposes that “Fats had to pay alimony to Bessie. ” 21

SPEECH ACTS Commissives (Affect Speaker, Subjective) TYPES: Oath, Offer, Promise Declaratives (Change the Macrocosmic Social World) TYPES: Baptism, Marriage Directives (Change the Microcosmic Social World) TYPES: Command, Request Expressives (Feelings of Speaker) TYPES: Apology, Thanks 22

Interrogatives (Hearer Knows Best) TYPES: Closed (yes-no), Loaded, Open Imperatives (Directives) (Affect Hearer) TYPES: Request, Requirement, Threat, Warning Performatives (Affect world) TYPES: Agreement, Appointment, Baptism, Declaration of Independence, Dedication, Marriage Representatives (Objective Descriptive Statements) TYPES: Statement that is either True or False 23

SYNTAX VS. SEMANTICS Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. Chomsky points out that from a syntactic perspective, this sentence is perfect. But he says it is “meaningless” because “colorless” cancels out “green” etc. Chomsky, therefore, wants to exclude such sentences from discussion. “Haj Ross and George Lakoff were the first to protest against this syntactic straitjacket. ” 24

THEMATIC ROLES Subject, Direct Object and Indirect Object are syntactically determined. Deep Cases like Actor, Experiencer, Instrument, and Object (or Patient) are semantically determined. Actor = Experiencer = Instrument = Object = Animate Inanimate Inaminate Cause Effect 25

Normally, the most active deep case is selected as the subject of the sentence: The Actor if there is one If not, the Instrument if there is one If there is no Actor or Instrument, the Object becomes eligible. Therefore we have the following: 26

The boy opened the door with the key. The key opened the door. The door opened. 27

Non Actors as Subjects The cake smelled good. The cake tasted good. The painting looked great. The bell sounded loud. The fur felt soft. 28

MORE TYPICAL SENTENCES Someone smelled the cake. Someone tasted the cake. Someone looked at the painting. Someone heard the bell. Someone felt the fur. 29

In an Active Sentence the most active Deep Case is eligible to become the Subject and the least active is eligible to become the Direct Object. In a Passive Sentence the least active Deep Case is eligible to become the Subject and the most active case becomes an Object of the Preposition “by. ” 30

But what about converses like “buy” and “sell, ” or “rent to” and “rent from”? “John bought the car from Mary” is true if and only if “Mary sold the car to John” is true. “John rented the house to Mary” is true if and only if “Mary rented the house from John. ” 31

TRUTH It’s cold outside. (empirical) A king is a ruler. (linguistic) Life is a box of chocolates (general metaphorical) Saphire Lake (specific metaphorical) Happy Birthday! (speech act: wish) 32

John Saw Mary. = Mary was seen by John broke the window with a hammer. = The window broke. John bought a car from Mary. = Mary sold a car to John rented the house from Mary. = Mary rented the house to John. Half of the students in the class are boys. = Half of the students in the class are not boys. 33

John and Mary had a child = Mary and John had a child. Getting married and having a child is better than having a child and getting married. =/= Having a child and getting married is better than getting married and having a child. 34

I got drunk and crashed my car =/= I crashed my car and got drunk. Mary is a nice girl and she takes swimming lessons. ct. Mary is a nice girl but she is poor at tennis. 35

Jacob Mey says that communication is not a matter of logic or truth, but of cooperation. 36

SNIGLETS Rich Hall invented the term “sniglet” for a word that should be in the dictionary, but isn’t. Elbonics (el bon’ iks) n. The actions of two people maneuvering for one armrest in a movie theater 37

• Esso Asso (eso a’so): The person behind you in a right-hand turn lane who cuts through the Esso Station • Pupkus (pup’kus) n. The moist residue left on a window after a dog presses its nose to it • Phonesia (fo nee’ zhuh) n. The affliction of dialing a phone number and forgetting whom you were calling just as they answer 38

Web Site on Semantics: The Turbo Encabulator: http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=r. LDg. Qg 6 bq 7 o 39