Lecturer: Asst Prof Razzaq Nayif Mukheef
Level: B. A. 4th year class
Subject: General Linguistics 2
Lecture title: The scope of Semantics
Aims: 1. Defining the domain of semantics.
2. Familiarizing the students with the scope of semantics
Summary of the lecture
Why do we study semantics? And how?
Semantics is the study of the meaning of words, phrases, and sentences.
We derive the meaning of a sentences from the meaning of words in those sentences.
Linguists normally deal with the conceptual meaning of the word rather than with the associative meaning of words.
The conceptual meaning of words is the central factor in communication in general while associative meaning is a supplementary one.
The conceptual meaning is stable and unchanging while the associative meaning is changing and unstable.
The question which is usually asked: What is meaning? This question seems unanswerable; however, we can commit ourselves to two presuppositions:
The presupposition of existence.
The presupposition of homogeneity.
The semantic features of words enable us to identify the odd sentences.
The semantic features include:
+ human + adult
– human - adult
+ animate + human
- animate - human
+ male
– male
The semantic relations enable us to identify the relation between words.
The semantic roles enable us to identify the semantic roles of noun phrases. These roles include:
Agent
Theme
Instrument
Experience
Source
Location
Example:
Ali hit the ball.
(Ali) is the agent
(ball) is the theme