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11 Semantics "'If" '.u' $. Semantics 115 ~' used to describe a product, with 'good for you', but we would not want to ., mclude this association within the basic conceptual meaning of the expres­ sion. Poets and advertisers are, of course, very interested in using terms in such a way that their associative meanings are evoked, and some linguists do lfivestigate this aspect of language use. However, in this chapter we shall be more interested in characterizing what constitutes the conceptual meaning vi terms. Semantic features , So, how would a semantic approach help us to understand something about 11 Semantics Ihe nature of language? One way it might be helpful would be as a means of accounting for the 'oddness' we experience when we read English sentences such as the following: I once referred to a character in one of my cartoons as a "dork" (a popular j The hamburgerate the man insult when I was growing up), but myeditor called me up and said that "dork" My cat studiedlinguistics couldn't be used because it meant "penis." I couldn't believe it. I ran to my A table was listening to some music New Dictionary ofAmerican Slang and, sure enough, he was right. Allthose years of saying or being called a "dork" and I had never really known what it ~otice that the oddness of these sentences does not derive from their syn­ meant. What a nerd. Gary Larson (1989) tactic structure. According to some basic syntactic rules for forming English sentences (such as those presented in Chapter 10), we have well-structured Semantics is the study of the meaning of words, phrases and sentences. In sentences: semantic analysis, there is always an attempt to focus on what the words conventionally mean, rather than on what a speaker might want the words The hamburger ate the man to mean on a particular occasion. This technical approach to meaning NP V NP emphasizes the objective and the general. It avoids the subjective and the This sentence is syntactically good, but semantically odd. Since the sentence local. Linguistic semantics deals with the conventional meaning conveyed The man ate the hamburger is perfectly acceptable, what is the source of the by the use of words and sentences of a language. uddness we experience? One answer may relate to the components of the .:onceptual meaning of the noun hamburger which differ significantly from Conceptual versus associative meaning \hose of the noun man, especially when those nouns are used as subjects of When linguists investigate the meaning of words in a language, they are [he verb ate. The kinds of nouns which can be subjects of the verb ate must normally interested in characterizing the conceptual meaning and less con­ denote entities which are capable of'eating'.The noun hamburger does not cerned with the associative or stylistic meaning of words. Conceptual mean­ have this property (and man does), hence the oddness of the first sentence ing covers those basic, essential components of meaning which are above. conveyed by the literal use of a word. Some of the basic components of a We can, in fact, make this observation more generally applicable by try­ word like needle in English might include 'thin, sharp, steel, instrument'. Ing to determine the crucial component ofmeaning which a noun must have These components would be part of the conceptual meaning of needle. in order to be used as the subject of the verb ate. Such a component may be However, you may have 'associations', or 'connotations', attached to a word as general as 'animate being'. We can then take this component and use it to like needle which lead you to think of 'painful' whenever you encounter the I describe part of the meaning of words as either plus (+) or minus (-) the word. This 'association' is not treated as part of the conceptual meaning of feature. So, the feature becomes +animate (= denotes an animate being) or needle. In a similar way, you may associate the expression low-calorie, when I -animate (= does not denote an animate being). II4 1 Semantics 117 116 The study of language Agent, theme, instrument This procedure is a way of analyzing meaning in terms of semantic fea­ in the sentence above, one role is taken by the boy as 'the entity that per­ tures. Features such as +animate, -animate; +human, -human; + male. wrms the action', techically known as the agent.Another role is taken by the -male, for example, can be treated as the basic features involved in differen­ "all, as 'the entity that is involved in or affected by the action', technically tiating the meanings of each word in the language from every other word. It l.ll0Wn as the theme.The theme can also be an entity (the ball) that is simply you were asked to give the crucial distinguishing features of the meanings of tieing described, as in The ball was red. Identifying entities denoted by noun this set ofEnglish words (table, cow, girl, woman, boy, man), you could do so phrases as the agent or the theme is a way of recognizing the semantic roles by means of the following diagram: Ji those noun phrases in a sentence. table cow girl woman boy man Although agents are typically human, they can also be non-human forces animate - + + +, + + !,the wind blew the ball away), machines (the car ran over the ball), or crea­ human - - + + + + lUres (the dog caught the ball). Ifan agent uses another entity in performing male - - - - + + an action, that other entity fills the role of instrument. In writing with a pen + adult - + - + - ,1r eating with a spoon , the noun phrases apen anda spoon have the seman­ From a feature analysis like this, you can say that at least part of the basic tic role of instrument. meaning of the word boy in English involves the components (+human. The theme can also be human. Indeed, the same physical entity can +male, -adult). You can also characterize that feature which is crucially .appear in two different semantic roles, as in The boy kicked himself. Here required in a noun in order for it to appear as the subject of a verb, supple­ ;he boy is agent and himselfis theme. menting the syntactic analysis with semantic features: Experiencer, location, source, goal The is reading a book. When a noun phrase designates an entity as the person who has a feeling, a N( +human) perception or a state,it fills the role of experiencer.1f you see, know or enjoy This approach then gives us the ability to predict what nouns would make something, you do not really have to perform any action (hence you are not the above sentence semantically odd. Examples would be table, or tree, or an agent). You are in the role of experiencer.1f someone asks, Did you hear dog, because they all have the feature ( -human). :hat noise?, the experiencer is you and the theme is that noise. The approach which has just been outlined is not without problems. For A number of other semantic roles designate where an entity is in the many words in a language it may not be so easy to come up with neat compo­ description of the event.Where an entity is (on the table, in the room) fills the nents of meaning. If you try to think of which components or features you role of location. Where an entity moves from is the source and where it would use to distinguish the nouns advice, threat and warning, for example, moves to is the goal. When we talk about transferring money from savings to you will have some idea of the scope of the problem. Part of the problem checking, the source is savings and the goal is checking. All these semantic seems to be that the approach involves a view of words in a language as roles are illustrated in the following scenario. some sort of'containers', carrying meaning-components. Mary saw amosquito on the wall. EXPERIENCER THEME LOCATION Semantic roles She borrowed amagazine from George Instead of thinking of the words as 'containers' of meaning, we can look at AGENT THEME SOURCE the 'roles' they fulfill within the situation described by a sentence. If the situ­ and she hit the bug with the magazine. ation is a simple event, such as The boy kicked the ball, then the verb AGENT THEME INSTRUMENT describes an action (kick). The noun phrases describe the roles of entitie~ such as people and things, involved in the action. We can identify a small She handed the magazine back to George. number of semantic roles for these noun phrases. AGENT THEME GOAL "Gee thanks," saidGeorge. AGENT 118 The study of language Semantics II9 Lexical relations called 'complementary pairs', comparative constructions are not normally Not only can words be treated as 'containers' or as fulfilling 'roles', they can used (the expressions deader or more dead sound strange), and the negative also have 'relationships'. In everyday talk, we frequently give the meanings of one member does imply the other. For example, that person is not dead of words in terms of their relationships. Ifyou were asked to give the mean­ does indeed mean that person is alive. So, the pairs male - female and true­ ing of the word conceal, for example, you might simply reply "it's the same false must also be non-gradable antonyms, whereas the others in the list as hide", or give the meaning of shallow as "the opposite of deep", or the above are gradable. meaning of daffodil as "it's a kind offlower". In doing so, you are character­ Although it works for the small number of non-gradable antonyms in a izing the meaning of a word not in terms of its component features, but in language, it is important to avoid describing most antonym pairs as one terms of its relationship to other words.This procedure has also been used in word meaning the negative of another.
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