THEORIES OF SEMANTICS
SEMANTICS is derived from French word sémantique, applied by MICHEL BRÉAL (1883) to the psychology of language, from Greek semantikos from semainein "signify" from sema "sign. Semantics is the study of the meaning of words, phrases and sentences. Every language has the source of expression of meaningful ideas. This term refers to the study of meaning and the systematic ways those meanings are expressed in language.
The structure of a language expresses the meaning which exists in one's mind. The idea may be conveyed through the written and spoken forms of a language. As semantics is the study of meaning in language and language is used to express meanings which can be understood by others. So, semantics is that level of linguistics analysis where meaning is analysed. It is the most abstract level of linguistics analysis since one cannot see or observes meaning as one can observe and record sounds. Meaning is related very closely to the human capacity to think logically and to understand. Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics by JACK C. RICHARDS and RICHARD SCHMIDT defines Semantics as:
“The study of meaning. There are many different approaches to the way in which meaning in language is studied.”
A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics by DAVID CRYSTAL defines it as:
“A major branch of linguistics devoted to the study of meaning in language.”
According to A Dictionary of Literary Terms by MARTIN GRAY:
"The study of the meaning of words: how words express their meanings, and how their meanings have changed in time."
There are some explanation or theories of semantics based on the structuralist approach. Some give an account of word meaning whereas others attempt to account sentence meaning. There are four major theories of meaning as follows:
Componential analysis
Componential analysis means the study of meaning by analysing the different parts of words. This theory is based on the structural approach gives an account of word meaning. The total meaning of a word is broken up into its distinct component of meaning is expressed by some feature symbol with a + or - mark indicating the presence or absence of the certain feature. In the following, we can consider some features as:
Human: + Human (human being)
-Human ( animal )
-Adult ( young )
+Male: -Male ( Female )
Subsequently, the meanings of some individual words can be expressed by the combinations of these features.
It may be noted that componential analysis of this kind treats components in terms of binary opposites, I.e + or - feature. However, this works only where there is a dear distinction that of male vs female, human vs animal, married vs unmarried.
Componential analysis helps us to understand meaning relation such as synonymy and antonymy. These are helpful in making conceptual distinctions and contrasts for the understanding of the meaning.
Truth-Componential Theory
It attempts to explain the logical meaning of sentences, treating a sentence as a logical proposition which can be either true or false. It doesn't refer to the external world but to the logical relations existing between propositions. One has to explain accounts for certain semantic categories and relationships which apply to sentences. These categories can be called Basic Statements. The basic statement is a logical proposition which is either true or false. For example, we have a sentence 'John is in his office.' This statement will be true if the statement 'John is at home' is false. The basic statement will be related to other statements in terms of following:
i. Synonymy:
Statement X is synonymous with statement Y when if X is true, Y is also true, if X is false, Y is also false. Thus He is married is synonymous with He has a wife.
(ii) Entailment:
Statement X entails statement Y when if X is true, Y is true; if X is false, Y is false. He is married entails He has a wife. ( Entailment and synonymy are similar).
(iii) Inconsistent:
Statement X is inconsistent with statement Y when if X is true, Y is false; if Y is true, X is false. He is not married is inconsistent with He has a wife.
( I) Tautology:
(A statement in which you say the same thing twice in different words, when this is unnecessary). Statement X is invariably true, for example, An orphan has no father.
( v) Contradiction:
Statement X is invariably false, for example, An orphan has a father.
VII Presupposition:
Statement X is presupposed statement Y when if X is true, Y is true; if the negation of X is true, Y is true. It pleases John that the weather is hot presupposes the weather is hot.
VII. Anomaly or Absurdity:
Statement X is absurd in that it presupposes a contradiction, for example, The orphan's father is at home ' presupposes that The orphan has a father' which is a contradiction, and is therefore absurd. Thus according to truth-conditional semantics, to know the meaning of a sentence is to know the conditions under which it is true.
The Generative Theory
It deals with meaning as deep structure, where lexical items with particular features are selected to combine with others to generate a meaningful sentence.
At the level of deep structure, lexical items are inserted into syntactic forms, with the application of ' selection restrictions' and concepts such as subject and object are defined. Selection restrictions are the rules regarding the acceptable combination of lexical items in a language. These rules prevent the generation of unmeaningful sentences such as 'colourless green ideas sleep furiously' or combinations such as 'red hope'.
Similarly, frightened and scared are verbs both of which contain the meaning of fear, and have the same selection restrictions, for example, The idea frightened the girl and The idea scared the girl are both acceptable but neither The girl frightened the idea nor The girl scared the idea is acceptable. Therefore, scared and frightened are synonyms.
The Contextual Theory
Contextual theories deal with the context of the use of words and sentences by the speaker of a language. When the meaning of a word or sentence is analysed, the set of features from the external world or the context of the situation becomes relevant, I.e .who is the speaker, who is the hearer, what is the role of each and the relationship of the two, what situation they are in. According to Firth ( 1957 ), language is only meaningful in the context of the situation. For example, the sentence 'it is raining cats and dogs' is grammatically, but will not be meaningful if ( a ) it is not actually raining and ( b ) if the speaker is making a formal speech. The context of situation refers to the situation of discourse, I.e, the context in which that particular is uttered.
To conclude, semantics is the study of meaning in language. There are some major theories such as Componential ( analyzing the different parts of words) Truth-conditional ( explaining logical sentence as true or false) Generative ( dealing the meaning as deep structure) and Contextual ( dealing with the context in use of words). Through these theories, the semanticists try to know the reasons which sentence is meaningful and which are not.
References
Textbook of 'PHILIP LARKIN Selected Poems', Latest Edition 2016, Published by 'New Kitab Mahal' < NKM >
A Dictionary of Literary Terms, Second Edition by MARTIN GRAY
Oxford Advanced Learner Dictionary, Eight Edition Published by Oxford University Press
Various Education Websites for Online Search
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