The Semantic Structure of the Sentence 1

The Semantic Structure of the Sentence • 1. Semantic Roles and the Structural properties of the Sentence • 2. Minimizing of Semantic Roles • 3. The Indirect Meaning of the Sentence • 3. 1 Presupposition and its types • 3. 2 Reference. The Expressed and Implied Meaning of the Sentence • 3. 3 Other Types of the Indirect meaning of the Sentence

Look at these examples: • 1. A murmur of voices awakened him. – He was awakened by a murmur of voices. • 2. The carpenter struck the nail with a hammer. • In the first pair of sentences there are 2 members in the situation – a murmur of voices and he/him • In the second example there are 3 of them carpenter, nail and hammer. • So some invariant semantic configuration lies in the basis of sentences which vary in structure and quantity of elements.

Semantic Roles • Semantic relations were introduced in generative grammar during the mid-1960 s and early 1970 s as a way of classifying the arguments of natural language predicates into a closed set of participant types which were thought to have a special status in grammar. Semantic roles are said to exist in every language

• A set of semantic roles and an action expressed by a verb is a semantic model of a non-linguistic situation. A set of semantic roles which lets reflect the situation adequately forms a role structure of a verb. The role structures reflect the character of relations between the objects in reality.

How to arrange a role structure in writing? • They showed the jewels. • Show [agent patience]

Let’s analyze these two examples • They showed him the jewels. [agent benefactive patient] • They showed the jewels. [agent patient] • The semantic configuration of these sentences is different • Semantic configuration depends not only on the role structure of a verb but on a structure and semantics of the sentence as well

At least ten semantic roles are distinguished • • Agent Doer, actor Patient Entity affected by deed of agent or cause Location of deed/event Instrument Entity employed by an agent in a deed Time of deed/event Recipient Receiver of result of deed of agent Experiencer Perceiver of a stimulus Stimulus Entity perceived/experienced by an experiencer • Cause not an agent (non-volitional / nonintentioanal) • Goal Targeted location (also 'purpose' or 'finality')

Agent Animate object performing an action which is expressed by a verb I read the note. A note was read by me. • Causative • Makes another object perform an action • Includes the instrumental role • John threw a stone with a sling • Permissive • Just gives an opportunity for action to take place • Excludes the instrumental role • John threw a stone with N.

Nominative It’s the object that produces an action. But doesn’t do it on purpose. He hesitated. My head ached. His eyes twinkled. The wind was freshing. The ground was covered with snow.

Difference between • Agent • Nominative • 1. Can be imperative • Hit the ball! • 2. Can have a continuous form • He was hitting the ball continuously. • 1. Cannot be imperative • 2. Cannot have a continuous form

Patience • Denotes the object of an action • Can be animate or inanimate • The yard was not overlooked • Factitive (resultative) • The boy dug a hole in a sand-box. • The stone broke the window.

Instrument • Goes with agent (only causative) • The key opened the door. • A stone broke the window. • Means (способ) • Goes with both kinds of agent. John threw the stone with a quick movement. John dropped the stone by ungrasping it.

Locative Mind the prepositions: in, at, from, to, under, over, through. He passed from the hall into the corridor. • Starting: An apple fell from the tree. • Transitive: An apple fell from the tree to the ground. • Final: An apple fell to the ground. An apple fell.

Minimizing of Semantic Roles • To silver: there are two ideas presupposed – the idea of action itself and the one of material. • So we can observe a transfer of semantic role of the sentence on the level of a component of the word semantic structure.

Impossible: • They gilded the spire with gold. • It’s impossible to use the same semantic role in a sentence several times. • The semantic structure of the sentence is a unity of maxi-roles (temporary characteristics) and mini-roles (permanent characteristic of a word in a language)

The examples of minimizing • • • 1. instrument To chisel – “to cut with a chisel” To hammer – “to strike with a hammer” 2. temporative To summer – “to stay during the summer” 3. locative To corner – “to force into a corner” 4. factitive To colonize – “to establish a colony in” 5. patience • To arm – “to supply weapons and armour’

presupposition • He failed. • Even he failed. It is unexpected. • The relation of the sentence to the world. • Fillmore says that presupposition is the set of conditions which are necessary to satisfy to fulfill a speech act

Presupposition and its types • Presupposition is what the speaker assumes to be the case prior to making an utterance • The concept of presupposition is often treated as the relationship between two propositions. In the case below, we have a sentence that contains a proposition (p) and another proposition (q), which is easily presupposed by any listener. However, the speaker can produce a sentence by denying the proposition (p), obtaining as a result the same presupposition (q). • Debora’s cat is cute. (p) • Debora has a cat. (q)

Presupposition and its types • In the analysis of how speakers’ assumptions are typically expressed, presupposition has been associated with the use of a large number of words, phrases and structures. These linguistic forms are considered here as indicators of potential presupposition, which can only become actual presupposition in contexts with speakers.

Presupposition and its types • • • Existential presupposition Factive presupposition Lexical presupposition Structural presupposition Non - factive presupposition Counterfactual presupposition

Existential presupposition • It is the assumption of the existence of the entities named by the speaker. • For example, when a speaker says "Tom’s car is new", we can presuppose that Tom exists and that he has a car

Factive presupposition • It is the assumption that something is true due to the presence of some verbs such as "know" and "realize" and of phrases involving glad, for example. Thus, when a speaker says that she didn’t realize someone was ill, we can presuppose that someone is ill. Also, when she says "I’m glad it’s over”, we can presuppose that it’s over.

Lexical presupposition • it is the assumption that, in using one word, the speaker can act as if another meaning (word) will be understood. For instance: • Andrew stopped running. (>>He used to run. ) • You are late again. (>> You were late before. ) • In this case, the use of the expressions "stop" and "again" are taken to presuppose another (unstated) concept.

Structural presupposition • It is the assumption associated with the use of certain words and phrases. For example, whquestion in English are conventionally interpreted with the presupposition that the information after the wh-form (e. g. when and where) is already known to be the case. • When did she travel to the USA? ( >> she traveled) Where did you buy the book? (>> you bought the book) • The listener perceives that the information presented is necessarily true rather than just the presupposition of the person asking the question.

Reference • The relation of names to the objects which they name. • Definite description • Real and unique • Popov, the Earth Indefinite description Unreal and indefinite Satan, an angel

Non - factive presupposition • It is an assumption that something is not true. For example, verbs like "dream", "imagine" and "pretend" are used with the presupposition that what follows is not true. • I dreamed that I was rich. (>> I am not rich) We imagined that we were in London. (>> We are not in London)

Counterfactual presupposition • It is the assumption that what is presupposed is not only untrue, but is the opposite of what is true, or contrary to facts. For instance, some conditional structures, generally called counterfactual conditionals, presuppose that the information, in the if- clauses, is not true at the time of utterance. • If you were my daughter, I would not allow you to do this. ( > you are not my daughter)

Reference. The Expressed and Implied Meaning of the Sentence • One of the amazing qualities of a human language is its ability to call an enormous (uncountable) quantity of subjects with limited stock of words. (Gegel) • E. g. house – by this word people mean not a definite house but any house. But at the same time we can understand a definite building with the help of this word

Other Types of the Indirect meaning of the Sentence • Implication (импликация) • She managed to conceal her distress from her friend. • Inference (инференция) • She tried to conceal her distress from her friend. • The action of the verb to conceal could have happened or not.

The End Thank you for your Attention !