Phonetics --> 10th Lecture, the Last, ( Semantics and Pragmatics )

Phonetics --> 10th Lecture, the Last, ( Semantics and Pragmatics )

Semantics and Pragmatics

Pragmatics*

 It is the study of the intended meaning of the speaker . Pragmatics concentrates on aspects like the relationship between the speaker and the hearer , the situation and intention of the speaker .        

                                             

*Semantics

      It concentrates on meaning of words and sentences .

The following examples are to judge whether the hearer understands the utterance meaning or the sentence meaning.

-Parent: where are your shoes, boy?

-Child: under my bed.

-Parent: When I asked where your shoes were I wanted you to put them on .(Pragmatics)

*A little boy comes in the front door.

Mother: Wipe your feet , please.

He removes his muddy shoes and socks and carefully wipes and  cleans his feet on the doormat. (Semantics)

The lexical relations between words

1) Synonyms

They are the close related meanings between two or more forms such as (broad, wide), (hide, conceal), (almost, nearly), (cab, taxi), (liberty, freedom), (answer, reply).

Notice

'sameness of meaning' is not necessarily 'total sameness'  as in this example : Karen had only one answer correct on the test. Its near-synonym reply ,would sound odd.

 2) Antonyms 

They are the contrasts between two forms in meaning such as  (quick, slow), (big, small), (long, short), (old, young), (above, below), (male, female), (alive, dead).

There are two types of antonyms : gradable and non-gradable.

With gradable antonyms, a comparative construction can be used and there are degrees as in (big , small) : bigger than and smaller than .With non-gradable antonyms or complementary pairs , comparative constructions are not normally used as in (dead , alive)

Exercises:

-Indicate the type of antonym involved in each pair:

1.False × true à complementary.

2.Asleep × awakeà complementary.

3.Poor × richà gradable.

4-Hot × Cold à gradable

5-Dark × light àgradable

3) Hyponymy

when the meaning of one form is included in the meaning of another . The concept of inclusion is the idea that if any object is for example a daffodil then it is necessarily a flower and thus the meaning of flower is included in the meaning of daffodil or daffodil is a hyponym of or a kind of flower .

Examples on hyponymy

(daffodil, flower), (dog, animal), (poodle, dog), (carrot, vegetable) ,(asp , snake),(cockroach , insect) , (ant , insect) , (banyan , tree) , (pine , tree), (horse, animal).

Note as sum-up

-Flower : Rose / Daisy / Tulip .

-Car : B.M.W / Opel / Audi .

Note-

The relation of hyponymy is the idea of  ''is a kind of ''.

For example , an asp is a kind of snake or an asp is a hyponymy of snake .

4)Homophony

when two or more different written forms have the same pronunciation but different in spelling and meaning .

Examples

(bare, bear), (meet, meat) ,(flour, flower), (pail, pale), (sew, so).

5)Homonymy

When one form written and spoken has two or more unrelated meanings. Homonyms are words which have separate meanings , but which have accidentally come to have exactly the same form .

Examples

-bank (of a river) / (a financial institution)

-pupil ( at school ) / (in the eye)

-mole (on skin) / (small animal)                                 

6) Polysemy

It is the relatedness of  meaning accompanying identical form (written or spoken) having multiple meanings which are all related by extension such as head, get, run, face, and foot

Context

The linguistic context or the co-text of a word is the set of other words used in the same phrase  or  sentence. For example , if  the word  bank is used in a  sentence together  with words like 'steep' or overgrown , there is no problem in deciding which type  of  bank  is meant. By the same token, when someone says that is he has to ''get to the bank to cash a check'' , the linguistic context refers to  which type of bank is intended. Moreover , there is the physical context in that if the word bank is seen on the wall of a building in a city, the 'physical location will affect the interpretation.

Deixis or deictic expressions

They are those which seem to be mysterious to those who do not know the text. Accordingly, they do not understand to what or to whom they refer.

Deictic expressions

There  are  some words in the language that cannot be interpreted unless the physical context , especially the physical context of the speaker , is known. These are words like here , there , this , him , her , then , yesterday , as well as most pronouns , such as I ,you , him , her, them .Some sentences of  English are impossible to understand if we don't  know who is speaking , about whom ,where and when .

-They'll have to do that tomorrow, because they aren't here  now .

-I like working here.

-In this part of town.

-In this country.

All the underlined words are deictic expressions.

Presupposition

It is what a speaker assumes to be true or known by the hearer.

Examples

-Your brother is waiting outside for you .

 You have a brother.

-Mr. Smith , where did you buy the cocaine?

 Mr. Smith did in fact buy the cocaine.

  -Last night I dreamt that the earth is flat.

  The earth is not flat.

Note

Negation does not affect presupposition.

     -M y car is a wreck. / My car is not a wreck.

      I have a car.

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