Language is the primary source of communication for humans and is used to convey thoughts, feelings, intentions, and desires to others (Bonvillain 2008:1). Many rules are taken into account when forming a language. According to Bolton, language is arbitrary and is unrepresentative of the objects they represent (Bolton 1996: 63). The study of Semantics allows us to identify the meaning of words and phrases in their literal sense, and helps us to make meaning out of arbitrary sounds and phrases. It has been contributed to by both linguists and philosophers. Linguists used lexical decomposition to understand the features that comprise words and the categories in which the words fit. Philosophers dealt more with the meanings of sentences and truth condition and reference (Parker and Riley 2010: 28).Semantics is still not a completely understood field, and as a result it is not easy to study (Parker and Riley 2010:26-27).Semantics is split into three different sections: sense, reference, and truth conditions.
Thanks to semantics, we gain an understanding of what words mean when they are said to us. Without semantics, we would not be able to understand each other. Semantics take into account cultural, situational and environmental constructs to develop meaning in different areas of the United States and throughout the world (Bonvillain 2008: 27). With that being said, there are several things that semantics brings to the English language that allows us to communicate on a deeper level and makes our language more complex. Sense is the study of the literal and intentional meaning of words and phrases. Part of this section is lexical ambiguity. This occurs when one word has more than one meaning. Parker and Riley use the example of the wo...
... middle of paper ...
...nd not in the other (Parker and Riley 2010: 40). Presuppositions are phrases that have to be considered true in order to evaluate the validity of another phrase. For example if I said “Judy Genshaft is the president of USF” and “Judy Genshaft is a good president,” you would have to accept the idea that she is the president in order to understand whether she was a good or bad president.
In conclusion, semantics is what we use to make sense of our language. It takes into account the cultural references, environmental sayings, and situation events. Maybe the reason that semantics is so hard to understand is because it tries to make sense of something that has no meaning and things that change from place to place. Without it, our language would be much more primitive than it is now, but because of it we can make sense of things, make references, and understand truth.
Words are like vessels—they are merely novel constructions of sounds empty of meaning until we fill them. They mean only what we discern in them, and nothing more. Words are only our impressions of them—imprecise, indefinite, unclear. A single word suggests infinite shades of intensity, quality, or connotation. They are variable, distinct in each era and dialect, even in each language.
Connotative language: Words that relate to deeper, symbolic levels of meaning. It includes social meanings acquired through use and emotional associations. It can also reflect social, racial, political, or religious stereotypes. For example, a writer who refers to liberals as “bleeding hearts” communicates not only her or his own bias, but an expectation that the audience shares this bias.
In the field of Modern Languages and Linguistics, words are of great importance. A language’s phonology (study of how sounds are organized and used), morphology (study of the form and structure of words), syntax (study of the rules that govern sentence structure), semantics (study of meaning of words, sentences, and expressions), pragmatics (study of aspects of meaning and language use and context), and phonetics (study of human speech sounds) all play an important part in everyday life. These have a major impact in understanding the intent of what is spoken or heard. Due to the importance of communication, literary elements such as metaphors (which are defined as a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea that is used in place of another to suggest a likeness between them), takes on greater cultural significance. This is especially true of the Spanish language.
From the most basic of functions like recognition and storage to the complexities of discourse and cultural expression, language functions are an integral and pervasive component of the human experience. In these pages I have sought to describe the operation of the six language functions through the analogy of a figure skater and a dancer. Each skill builds upon the next to weave the intricate set of skills and abilities that humans have uniquely developed to share information and each other’s experiences of the world.
...t the object is an actual constituent of that proposition. The proposition contains merely the constituents of those words contained in the denoting phrase.
The definition of presupposition is a belief that takes precedence over other beliefs. In the presuppositi...
One of the more interesting concepts is the "Chain of signifiers", in which the signifier itself points not to the signified, or concept, but rather points to another set of signifiers, which each point to another set of signifiers, ad infinitum. It is this idea that "the word...never reaches the point when it refers to a signified" (Tyson 252) that positions language as nonreferential, with no end-game where a signified is met and all the supplements provided by the signifiers are resolves. There is no point at which language "refer[s] to things in the world" (252) instead relying on how we, through our own structures of signification, view concepts. Each chain of signifiers is dependent upon the structure that acts upon the creation of meaning and experience, and no longer dependent on the signified itself. For instance, a text never reaches the point where it relays the disparate ideas that formulated the text in the mind of the author - it instead is formulated of supplements that point to poten...
The other part of computational linguistics is called applied computational linguistics which focuses on the practical outcome of modeling human language use. The methods, techniques, tools, and applications in this area are often subsumed under the term language engineering or (human language technology. The current computational linguistic systems are far from achieving human ability of communicating they have numerous applications. The goal for this is to eventually have a computer program that will have the same communication skills as a human being. Once this is achieved it will open doors never thought possible in computing. After all the major problem today with computing is communication with the computer. Today’s computers don’t really understand our language and it is very difficult to learn computer language, plus computer language doesn’t correspond to the structure of human thought.
The problem of substitutivity has always been a thorn in the side of the study of semantic logic. Why does it sometimes appear that terms that refer to identical objects cannot be replaced with each other in propositions without altering the truth value or meaning of said proposition? Leibniz's Law would seem to ensure that we could perform such an action without anything significant having changed, but this is clearly not so. I intend to look at the history, not only of this problem, but of the theories that have created an atmosphere in which these questions can be contemplated. Finally, I will offer some of my own insights and perceived problems.
Actual meaning comes from the thing itself, rather than our word for it. Jacques Lacan modified Saussure's original algorithm so that the signifier dominated the signified. We have many words for the same object. For example, the adjectives ugly, unattractive, hideous, revolting, and homely describe a less-than-desirable state of physical beauty. Why choose one word over another? The signification is roughly the same. Yet subtle differences exist between these signifiers - differences which relate as much to the speaker as to the object being described.
Semantics can be defined as the study of "meaning" of lexical words and expressions independently of context. Where pragmatics is the process of recognising the "invisible meaning" of lexical items and expressions; taking into account the speaker's/ addressee's intention, the status of hearer/ receiver and the actual situation.
Prarthana,S. & Prema, K. (2012). Role of Semantics in the Organization of Mental Lexicon. Language in India.259-277.
Language is an essential thing needed to communicate and to develop the skills one needs to be a complete, whole, intelligent individual. Language is what separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom. Here we shall define language and lexicon, evaluate the key features of language, describe the four levels of language structure and processing, and analyze the role of language processing in cognitive psychology.
Finegan, Edward,."Language :its structure and use" Edward Finegan, David Blair and Peter Collins. 2nd ed. N.S.W : Harcourt, Brace & Co., c1997
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus evolved as a continuation of and reaction to Bertrand Russell and G Frege’s conceptions of logic, which Russell has left unexplained. Wittgenstein developed a theory of language that was designed to explain the nature of logical necessity. For Wittgenstein, a factual proposition is true or false with no third alternative. He endorses a ‘picture’ theory of meaning: propositions are meaningful insofar as they ‘picture’ facts or states of affairs: if their structure mirrors the structure of the world. The book addresses the central problems of philosophy which deals with the world, language and thought, and proposes a solution to these problems which is grounded in logic and in the nature of representation. Language, thought and reality share a common logical structure, so understanding the structure of the language allows u...