语言学第五章要点
2011-11-11 20:36阅读：
注：本章要点仍然参考了多本教材，其中语义研究流派，意义所指关系，近义词类别等为参考内容，其余部分要求所有学生都掌握。——Gunther
Chapter Five 语义学
1、Semantics定义 can be simply defined as the study of
meaning.
Some views concerning the study of meaning:
2、语义研究的主要流派有哪些？（四种）
1) The naming theory: 命名论. One of the oldest notions concerning
meaning, and also a very primitive one, It was proposed by the
ancient Greek scholar Plato. According to this theory, the
linguistic forms or symbols used in a language are taken to be
labels of the objects they stand for. So words are just names or
labels for things.
2) The conceptualist view: 意念论 It holds that there is no direct
link between a linguistic form and what it refers to. In the
interpretation of meaning, they are linked through the mediation of
concepts in the mind.
3) Contextualism: (语境论) It is based on the presumption(假定)
that one can derive推导) meaning from or reduce meaning to observabl
e可观测的) contexts. Two kinds of context are recognized:the
situational context and the linguistic context .For example, the
meaning of the word 'seal' in the sentence 'The seal could not be
found' can only be determined according to the context in which
the sentence occurs:
4) Behaviorism行为主义论
The contextualist view was further strengthened by
Bloomfield . He drew on behaviorist psychology when he tried to
define the meaning of linguistic forms. Behaviorists attempted to
define the meaning of a language form as ' the situation in which
the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the
hearer'. (Bloomfield,
This behaviorist theory is somewhat close to contextualism.
It is linked with psychological interest.
5、意义与所指有什么关系Sense and reference？
Sense and reference are two terms in the study of
meaning.
Sense is concerned with the inherent meaning of the
linguistic form. It is the collection of all the features of the
linguistic form; it is abstract and de-contextualized. It is the
aspect of meaning that dictionary compilers are interested in. it
is abstract and de-contextualized.
Reference means what a linguistic form refers to in
the real, physical world; it deals with the relationship between
the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of
experience.
(2)关系： Obviously, linguistic forms having the same
sense may have different references in different situations. On the
other hand, there are less frequent occasions when linguistic forms
with the same reference might differ in sense, e.g. “morning star”
and “evening star”.
6、 Major sense relations: 主要的意义关系
1.synonymy(同义): refers to the sameness or close similarity
of meaning. Words that are close in meaning are called
synonyms.
同义词可以分为哪些类别？
Synonymy can be divided into the following groups:
Dialectal synonyms (地域性同义词): Dialectal synonyms are
words which have more or less the same meaning and are used in
different regional dialects such as petroleum in British English
and gasoline in American English. Dialectal synonyms can also be
found within British, or American English itself. For example,
'girl' is called 'lass' or 'lassie' in Scottish dialect.
Stylistic synonyms（文体同义词):
Stylistic synonyms are words which have the same meaning but differ
in style, or degree of formality. Some of the stylistic synonyms
tend to be more formal , others tend to be casual , and still
others are neutral in style. For example:old man, daddy, dad,
father, male parent.
Synonyms that differ in their emotive or evaluative
meaning :感性或评价方面不同的同义词They are words that have the same
meaning but express different emotions of the user. The emotions of
the user indicate the attitude or bias of the user toward what he
is talking about, such as thrifty and miser.
Collocational
synonyms（搭配上的区别的同义词): Some synonyms
differ in their collocation. That is, they go together with
different words, for example: accuse. . . of, charge. . . with,
rebuke. .-for.
Semantically different
synonyms(语意上的差别): They refer to the
synonyms that differ slightly in what they mean. For example,
'amaze' and 'astound' are very close in meaning to the word
'surprise,' but they have very subtle differences in meaning. While
amaze suggests confusion and bewilderment, ' astound' imples
difficulty in believing.
2.polysemy(多义)：refers to different words may
have the same or similar meaning; the same one word may have more
than one meaning. For example: table 1 a piece of furniture 2 all
the people seated at a table 3 the food that is put on a table
….
3.homonymy(同音异意，同形异意)：homonymy refers
to the phenomenon(现象) that words having different meanings have the
same form, i.e. different words are identical (相同的)in sound or
spelling , or in both.
Homophones(同音异意):refer to two words are identical in sound,
e.g. rain/ reign
Homographs(同形异意):refer to two word are identical in
spelling, e.g. tear n./tear v.
4.hyponymy(上下关系):refers to the sense relating between a more
general, more inclusive word and a more specific word. The word
which is more general in meaning is called superordinate, and the
more specific words are called its hyponyms.
Antonys：Antonymy refers to the oppositeness of
meaning. Words that are opposite in meaning are called
antonyms.
在语义上，反义关系可以分为哪几个类别？各有什么特征？
1) gradable antonyms渐进性关系反义: Some antonyms are gradable because
there are often intermediate forms between the two members of a
pair such as old/young, hot/cold.
2) Complementary antonyms互补反义: a pair of complementary antonyms is
characterized by the feature that the denial of one member of the
pair implies the assertion of the other.
3) Relational opposites相关对立反义: pairs of words that exhibit the
reversal of a relationship between the two items.
7、Sense relation between
sentences句子间的关系：
X is synonymous with Y (if
X is true, Y is true, and if X is false, Y is false)
X is inconsistent with Y (if X is true, Y is false, and if X is
false, Y is true)
X entails Y (Y is an entailment of X)
Entailment is a relation of inclusion. If X entails Y, the meaning
of X is included in Y):
If X is true, Y is necessarily true.
If X is false, Y maybe true and false
If Y is false, X is false
e.g. X: He has been to France Y: He has been to Europe.
X presupposes Y. (Y is a presupposition of X) (预设)
If X is true, Y must be true
If X is false, Y is still true.
If Y is true, X is either true or false.
If Y is false, non truth value can be said about X
e.g. X: John’s bike need repairing; Y: John has a bike.
X is a contradiction (invariably false) e.g. My unmarried sister is
married to a bachelor.
X is semantically anomalous (语义变异)(absurd as it presupposes a
contradiction): e.g. The table has bad intentions.
Analysis of meaning意义分析
Componential
analysis(成分分析法):（词汇分析） is a way propose by the
structural semanticists(语义学者) to analyze word meaning. This
approach is based upon the belief that meaning of a word can be
dissected into meaning components, called semantic features.
句子的意义是构成句子的每个单词意义的总和吗？
The meaning of a sentence is not the sum total of the
meanings of all its components. It cannot be worked out by adding
up all the meanings of its constituent words. For example;
The dog bit the man.
The man bit the dog.
The two sentences consist of exactly the same words, but they arc
widely different in their meanings.
Predication analysis(述谓分析法)（语义分析）: is a
new approach for sentential meaning analysis. Predication is
usually considered an important common category shared by
propositions, questions, commands ect. Predication is to break down
the sentence into their smaller constituents: argument (logical
participant) and predicate(relation element). The predicate is the
major or pivotal element governing the argument.
什么是述谓结构？它有那些类型？
The predication is the abstraction of the meaning of a sentence.
This applies to all forms of sentence, including statements,
imperative and interrogative forms. A predication consists of
argument(s)论元 and predicate谓语. An argument is a
logical participant in a predication. It is generally identical
with the nominal element (s) in a sentence. A predicate is
something that is said about an argument or it states the logical
relation linking the arguments in a sentence.
According to the number of arguments contained in a
predication, the predications may be classified into two-place
predication (containing two arguments), one-place argument
(containing one argument), and no-place predication ( containing no
argument). For example:
His car is next to my car. (Two-place predication)
He is singing. (One-place predication)
It is raining. (No-place predication)
What is grammaticality? What might make a grammatically
meaningful sentence semantically
meaningless(无意义的)?
Grammaticality—the
grammatical well-formedness of a sentence. A sentence may be
well-formed grammatically, i.e. it conforms to the grammatical
rules of the language, but it is not necessarily semantically
well-formed, i.e. it may not make sense at all.
Presupposition(先设前提): is a semantic relationship or logical
connection. A presupposes B. e.g. A: John’ watch needs repairing.
B: John has a watch. If A is true, B must be true.
Entailment(蕴涵):can be illustrated by the following two
sentences in which sentence A entails sentence B. e.g. A : Mark
married a blonde (金发碧眼的)heiress（女性继承人）. B: Mark married a blonde. A
isT then B is T, B is false, A is false; A is false, B is not
false.
8、语义变化的主要类型有哪些？
Semantic change refers to the change of meaning of a word.
The major types of semantic change are as follows: (1) Semantic
broadening refers to the process in which the meaning of a word
becomes more general or inclusive than its historically earlier
denotation. For example, the word “holiday” was originally used to
mean a day of religious significance because it was a “holy day”.
Today everyone enjoys a holiday, whether he or she is religious or
not. (2) Semantic narrowing is the reverse process in which the
meaning of a word becomes less general or inclusive than its
historically earlier meaning. For example, the word “liquor” in
contemporary English is an alcoholic drink, but it was once
synonymous with “liquid”, be it alcoholic or not. (3) Semantic
shift refers to the process in which a word loses its former
meaning and acquires a new, sometimes related meaning, e.g. the
word “silly”. Quite surprisingly, a “silly” person was a happy
person in Old English, and a naive person in Middle English, but a
foolish person in Modern English.
