Staff Site Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta

A. Naming
Language might be t hought of as a
communicat ion syst em wit h on t he one hand
“ t he signif ier” , and on t he ot her “ t he
signif ied” .
Signif ier

----------- Signif ied

a word
in t he language

t he obj ect in
t he world t hat it
st ands f or/ ref ers t o/
denot es

Problems wit h t his view:
Words, t hen, are ‘ names’ or ‘ label s’ f or
t hings.
It seems t o apply onl y t o nouns; t heref ore,

it seems impossible t o ext end t he t heory of
naming t o incl ude t he ot her part s of speech.

•

adj ect ives : beaut if ul , handsome,
dif f icult , et c

• verbs : run, t hink, swim, et c
• ot hers: preposit ions, conj unct ions,
pronouns

• Abst ract

Nouns ???

e. g. love, hat e, inspirat ion, nonsense
That is t o say:
Words are not j ust names of t hings
Words are not simply names of t he

obj ect s of our experience.
Even where t here are ident if iable physical
obj ect s, t he meaning is not necessarily t he
same as it s denot at ion.

e. g. The evening st ar and t he morning st ar
They bot h denot e t he same obj ect , t he
planet Venus. The meaning ???
Also, words of t en seem t o denot e a whole set
of rat her dif f erent obj ect s.
e. g. Chairs

Ot her t hings t o consider:

v

Experience

obj ect s cannot be clearly grouped and
label led by a singl e word.

Somet imes no precise equivalent s in ot her
languages.

v

Cul t ure

The words of a language of t en ref lect not so
much t he realit y of t he world, but t he
int erest s of t he people who speak it .

v

Scient if ic vs Common knowl edge

e. g. t omat o vs apple?
One possible way working out t he problem:
Some words act uall y denot e obj ect s
That children learn some of t hem as
label s.

The reminder are used in some way
derived f rom t he more basic use.

Bert rand Russel l :
obj ect word
Learned ost ensibly, by point ing at obj ect s
dict ionary word
To be def ined in t erms of t he obj ect words.
Discussed so f ar

words.

Sent ence ???
We cannot direct ly rel at e t he meaning of a
sent ence t o t hings and event s in t he world.

B. Concept
Rel at es words and t hings direct ly?
Rel at es t hem t hrough t he mediat ion
of concept s of t he mind.

Ferdinand de Saussure
Richards and Ogden

‘ sign’ t heory
‘ semiot ic t riangl e’

Thought or
Ref erence

Symbol

Ref erent

Symbol :
t he linguist ic element , e. g. word,
sent ence, et c
Ref erent :
t he obj ect , in t he world of experience
Thought or Ref erence :
concept

What is de Saussure’ s ‘ associat ive bond’
and t he Ogden and Richards’ link
bet ween symbol and concept ?
psychol ogical one
our abilit y and pract ice of associat ing one
wit h t he ot her, remembering t hat chai r
ref ers t o t he concept of ‘ chair’ .
some kind of permanent associat ion
st ored in t he mind or in t he brain

C. Sense and Ref erence
Ref erence :
The way speakers and hearers use an
expression successf ull y.
Sense :
The sense of an expression is it s pl ace in a
syst em of semant ic rel at ionships wit h
ot her expressions in t he l anguage.

Sameness of meaning
I almost f el l over.
nearly
Int uit ive Concept
John walked.

An hour el apsed.

John el apsed.

An hour walked.

v

Ref erring Expressions, Predicat es,
and Universe of Discourse

Ref erring Expressions:
any expression used in an ut t erance t o
ref er t o somet hing or someone (or a

clearly delimit ed coll ect ion of t hings and
people), i. e. used wit h a part icul ar
ref erent in mind.
an apple
may and may not be ref erring
expression

Predicat or of a simple decl arat ive sent ence is
t he word (somet imes a group of words) which
does not belong t o any of t he ref erring
expressions and which, of t he remainder, makes
t he most specif ic cont ribut ion t o t he meaning of
t he sent ence.
Predicat e is any word (or sequence of words)
which (in a given singl e sense) can f unct ion as
t he predicat or of a sent ence.

Generic Sent ence :
A sent ence in which some st at ement is
made about a whole unrest rict ed class

of individuals, as opposed t o any
part icul ar individual.
Universe of Discourse :
Any ut t erance as t he part icul ar world,
real or imaginary (or part real, part
imaginary), t hat t he speaker assumes he
is t alking about at t he t ime.

v

Deixis and Def init eness

A deict ic word :
a word which t akes some el ement of it s
meaning f rom t he cont ext or sit uat ion
(i. e. t he speaker, t he addressee, t he t ime
and t he place) of t he ut t erance in which
it is used.
e. g. t wo years ago, here, t his, t hat

Def init eness :
A f eat ure of a noun phrase select ed by a
speaker t o convey his assumpt ion t hat t he
hearer will be able t o ident if y t he
ref erent of t he noun phrase, usually
because it is t he onl y t hing of it s kind in
t he cont ext of t he ut t erance, or because
it is unique in t he universe of discourse.

D. Kinds of Meaning
Semant ics is concerned wit h:
f act ual inf ormat ion ??
proposit ions ??
Language is not only t o provide
inf ormat ion, inf orm hearers or readers of
‘ f act s’ t hat t hey do not already know.
A great deal of our meaning is not
‘ ideat ional’ at all, but is ‘ int er-personal’
or ‘ social’ , rel at ing oursel ves t o ot hers.

What do we do wit h a language?
We do not merely make st at ement .
quest ion, imperat ives
Speech act s, e. g. inf luencing, warning.
A variet y of social relat ions.
polit e – less polit e – impol it e
social l anguage : greet ing
We need not ‘ mean what we say’

E. The Word as a Semant ic Unit
Not all words seem t o have t he same kind
of meaning.
f ull words - f orm words
f orm words

grammat ical meaning

It is not all clear t hat t he word is a clearly
def ined unit .
morpheme ??

lexeme ??

Transparent and Opaque Words
e. g. chopper, doorman vs axe, port er

Many words in Engl ish are call ed
‘ Phonaest het ic’ .
e. g. –ump ref ers t o some kind of rounding
mass
plump, chump, rump, hump, st ump
not t o be generalised
Semant ic division seems t o ‘ override’
word division.
e. g. heavy smoker, good singer,
art if icial f lorist , criminal lawyer