Semiotics study of signs and sign systems

Semantics the science of meaning in language; words would be examples of verbal symbols.
Semantics- the study of the meanings of linguistic expressions, either simple or complex, taken in isolation.
It further accounts for the way utterance meaning, i.e. the meaning of an expression used in a concrete
context of utterance, is related to expression meaning.
Relationship between a signifier (a sign) and its signified (the object it represents):
Icon a similarity between a sign and what it represents (e.g., a portrait and its real-life subject);
Index the sign is in a causal relation with its signified (e.g., smoke is an index of fire)
Symbol there is only a conventional link between the sign and its signified (e.g. mourning symbolized by
wearing black or white clothes)

Different levels of linguistic analysis:

Phonology is the study of what sounds a language has and how these sounds combine to form words.
Syntax is the study of how words can be combined into sentences.
Semantics is the study of the meanings of words and sentences.
Meaning is the central notion of linguistic semantics.
As a branch of linguistics, semantics includes word meaning (in some cases morpheme meaning),
sentence meaning, even text and discourse meaning.
Reference the technical term for using an expression for something. When people use I, they refer to
themselves. Referent the entity referred to by an expression.
Expression meaning the meanings of words, phrases and sentences, taken as such, i.e. out of any
particular context, in their general sense, constitute the level of meaning. Expression- just a general term for
words, phrases and sentences. The term expression meaning covers, in particular, word meaning and
sentence meaning. The level of expression meaning constitutes the central subject of linguistic semantics.
It studies the material, or equipment, as it were, that languages provide for communication.
Utterance meaning comes about when a sentence with its meaning is actually used in a concrete context.
First of all, utterance meaning involves reference. In addition to reference, another central notion comes
into play, the notion of truth.
The context of utterance (CoU) the sum of circumstances that bear on reference and truth. The most
important aspects are: the speaker (or producer) of the utterance; the addressee(s) (or recipients) of the
utterance; the time at which the utterance is produced and/or received; the place where the utterance is
produced and/or received; the facts given when the utterance is produced and/or received.
Communicative meaning the speech act level. Unlike expression meaning and utterance meaning,
communicative meaning lies outside the range of semantics. It is of central concern for pragmatics.
Expression meaning the meaning of a simple or complex expression taken in isolation.
Utterance meaning the meaning of an expression when used in a given context of utterance; fixed
reference and truth value (for declarative sentences).
Communicative meaning the meaning of an utterance as a communicative act in a given social setting.

The meanings of words and sentences differ in one important point. Meanings of words must simply be
known and therefore learned. Lexical meanings- meanings stored in our minds. We do not, however, have
ready-made, learned meanings of complete sentences stored in our minds.
Composition- although we usually understand sentences without conscious effort, their meanings must be
derived from our stored linguistic knowledge. Complex expressions whose meanings are not stored in the
lexicon are therefore said to have compositional meaning. The words occur here in particular grammatical
forms. The forms of the words matter directly for their meaning, and consequently for the meaning of the
whole sentence. There are rules for deriving the plural meaning of a noun, the comparative meaning of an
adjective or the simple past tense meaning of a verb, respectively. These rules are part of the apparatus we
use in composition.
The syntactic rules of a language allow the formation of complex expressions from what will be called basic
expressions. (Basic expressions- expressions with a lexical meaning.) The meaning of complex
expressions is determined by semantic mechanism. This mechanism draws on three sources: the lexical
meanings of the basic expressions; the grammatical forms of the basic expressions; the syntactic structure
of the complex expression.
Semantic composition is thought of a so-called bottom-up process. It proceeds from the smallest units to
the larger ones.
The principle of compositionality: the meaning(u) of a complex expression is determined by the lexical
meanings of its components, their grammatical meanings and the syntactic structure of the whole.
Lexical semantics: the investigation of expression meanings stored in the mental lexicon (mouse, sock);
Compositional word semantics: the investigation of the meaning of words that are formed by the rules of
word formation (mousify, mouse food);
Semantics of grammatical forms: the investigation of the meaning contribution of grammatical forms that
can be freely chosen, often understood as including the semantic analysis of function words such as
articles, prepositions and conjunctions;
Sentence semantics: the investigation of the rules that determine how the meanings of the components of a
complex expression interact and combine.
Utterance semantics: the investigation of the mechanisms (e.g., meaning shifts) that determine, on the
basis of the compositionally derived expression meaning, the range of possible utterance meanings.
SEMANTICS the study of MEANING in LANGUAGE.
SPEAKER MEANING what a speaker means (i.e. intends to convey) when he uses a piece of language.
SENTENCE MEANING (or WORD MEANING) what a sentence (or word) means, i.e. what it counts as
the equivalent of in the language concerned.
Meanings are concepts.
Concept an idea or a principle that is connected with something abstract
The meaning of a sentence a concept that provides a mental description of a certain kind of situation.
Descriptive meaning/ propositional meaning the part of meaning related to truth and reference.
It makes sense to talk of the potential referents of content words (referent of the noun, referent of the
verb). Adjectives never have a referent of their own, but they always describe the referent of some NP.
The descriptive meaning of a content word a concept of its potential referents

The situation referred to can be defined as the set of the referents of all referring elements of the sentence
and how they are linked. The notion of the situation referred to only makes sense if the sentence is true.
The situations potentially referred to are all those situations that fit the mental description provided by the
meaning of the sentence, i.e. all the situations for which the sentence is true.
The descriptive meaning of a sentence, its proposition, is a concept that provides a mental description of
the kind of situations it potentially refers to.
Denotation the category determined by the meaning of a content word. The denotation of a content word
is the category, or set, of all its potential referents. The denotation of a word is more than the set of all
existing entities of that kind. It includes real referents as well as fictitious ones, usual exemplars and
unusual ones, maybe even exemplars we cannot imagine because they are yet to be invented
The truth conditions of a sentence a the conditions under which it is true. The descriptive meaning of the
sentence is its proposition, and the proposition determines the truth conditions of the sentence.
The grammatical type of the sentence also contributes to its meaning, and this contribution is nondescriptive.
(1) The dog has ruined my blue skirt. (3) Has the dog ruined my blue skirt?

The question describes exactly the same sort of situation. Hence it is considered to have the same
proposition. Yet the total meaning is different: (3) renders a question while (1) renders an assertion.
The semantic contribution of the grammatical sentence type is not part of the proposition.
The meaning contribution of grammatical sentence type is a first example of non-descriptive meaning.
The term social meaning is not to be confused with the communicative meaning of a verbal act. Most
expressions and grammatical forms do not have social meaning, but some do.
(4) a. Ihre Fahrkarte, bitte! Danke.
c. Your ticket, please! Thank you.
An expression or grammatical form has social meaning if and only if its use is governed by the social rules
of conduct or, more generally, rules for handling social interactions.
All languages have phrases with a clear-cut social meaning: phrases of greeting (Hi) or saying good-bye,
phrases of apologizing (sorry), acknowledging (thank you) or answering the phone.
For each such phrase in each language there is a social rule that defines the circumstances under which it
is properly used and what it means.
Expressive meaning - part of the lexical meaning of certain expressions, a semantic quality of words and
phrases independent of the CoU and of the way they are being spoken. Since all expressives serve to
express personal feelings, attitudes or sensations, which are perceptible only to the holder, their correct use
is just a matter of personal judgement.
descriptive meaning

description of referents and situations

agreement with facts

social meaning

indication of social relations and performance of social acts

social rules of conduct

expressive meaning

immediate expression of personal sensations, feelings,

attitudes or evaluations

subjective choice

Connotations considered to be something like a secondary meaning in addition to the primary lexical
meaning, e.g., dirty for pigs.
Euphemisms good or indirect terms for bad or tabooed things, e.g., pass away for die.
Politically correct language, e.g., disabled being replaced by handicapped being replaced by challenged.
A sentence neither a physical event nor a physical object. It is a string of words put together by the
grammatical rules of a language. A sentence can be thought as the ideal string of words behind various
realizations in utterances and inscriptions. It expresses a complete thought. A sentence has a subject
(=the topic) and a predicate (=what is being said about the topic). A combination of words that conform to
the grammatical rules of a language BUT grammatical rules differ from one language to another.
SENTENCE: Notional definition expresses a complete thought;
Logical definition a sentence has a subject (=the topic) and a predicate (=what is being
said about the topic);
Formal definition a string of words;
Grammatical definition a combination of words that conform to the grammatical rules of a
language, BUT grammatical rules differ from one language to another.
An utterance any stretch of talk, by one person, before and after which there is silence on the part of that
person. It is the use by a particular speaker, on a particular occasion, of a piece of language, such as a
sequence of sentences, or a single phrase, or even a single word. Utterances physical events, they die
on the wind.
Utterance meaning the totality of what the speaker intends to convey by making an utterance. Utterances
of non-sentences, e.g. short phrases, or single words, are used by people in communication all the time.
People do not converse wholly in (tokens of) well-formed sentences. But the abstract idea of a sentence is
the basis for understanding even those expressions which are not sentences. In the overwhelming majority
of cases, the meanings of non-sentences can best be analysed by considering them to be abbreviations, or
incomplete versions, of whole sentences.
Sentence constituency a given sentence always consists of the same words, and in the same order. Any
change in the words, or in their order, makes a dierent sentence.
Utterance vs sentence: a string of words put together by the grammatical rules to express a complete
thought. They can be realized in utterances. VS Any stretch of talk/piece of speech by one person. It is used
by one person of a piece of language/some sounds. They are physical events.
A proposition that part of the meaning of the utterance of a declarative sentence which describes some
state of affairs; the notion of a proposition is central to semantics. An abstract notion used to denote:
events, states, actions, processes, persons, etc., i.e. things referred to by expressions in the sentence.
The meanings of whole sentences involve propositions; the notion of a proposition is central to semantics.
The notion of truth can be used to decide whether two sentences express dierent propositions.
Thus if there is any conceivable set of circumstances in which one sentence is true, while the other is false,
we can be sure that they express dierent propositions. Propositions are clearly involved in the meanings of
other types of sentences, such as interrogatives and imperatives. Normally, when a speaker utters a simple
declarative sentence, he commits himself to the truth of the corresponding proposition: i.e. he asserts the
proposition. By uttering a simple interrogative or imperative, a speaker can mention a particular
proposition, without asserting its truth. Propositions, unlike sentences, cannot be said to belong to any
particular language.

Sentences in different languages can correspond to the same proposition, if the two sentences are perfect
translations of each other. I am cold and Jai froid.
The same proposition accessible to different persons: different individuals can grasp the same
proposition
The relationship between: abstract semantic entities (e.g. propositions);,linguistic entities (e.g. sentences);
actions (e.g. utterances).
State of affairs: An abstract notion used to denote: events, states, actions, processes, persons, etc. ; i.e.
things referred to by expressions in the sentence.

The SENSE of an expression its place in a system of semantic relationships with other expressions in
the language. The first of these semantic relationships that we will mention is the sameness of meaning, an
intuitive concept which we will illustrate by example. The sense of an expression is an abstraction, but it is
helpful to note that it is an abstraction that can be entertained in the mind of a language user. When a
person understands fully what is said to him, it is reasonable to say that he grasps the sense of the
expression he hears.
! Every expression that has meaning has sense, but not every expression has reference.
Just as there is something grammatically complete about a whole sentence, as opposed to a smaller
expression such as a phrase or a single word, there is something semantically complete about a
proposition, as opposed to the sense of a phrase or single word. One might say, roughly, that a proposition
corresponds to a complete independent thought.
To the extent that perfect translation between languages is possible (and this is a very debatable point), the
same sense can be said to belong to expressions in different languages.
The relationship between reference and utterance not so direct as that between sense and proposition,
but there is a similarity worth pointing out. Both referring and uttering are acts performed by particular
speakers on particular occasions. An act of referring is the picking out of a particular referent by a speaker
in the course of a particular utterance.
Constant reference there are cases of expressions which in normal everyday conversation never refer to
different things, i.e. in most everyday situations that one can envisage, have constant reference. In fact,
there is very little constancy of reference in language. In everyday discourse almost all of the fixing of
reference comes from the context in which expressions are used. Two different expressions can have the
same referent. The classic example is the Morning Star and the Evening Star, both of which normally refer
to the planet Venus.
A referring expression any expression used in an utterance to refer to something or someone (or a
clearly delimited collection of things or people), i.e. used with a particular referent in mind: Bill Clinton is to
visit Ireland in May.
Referring expressions Some expressions can be used as: referring expressions only; non-referring
expressions; both depending on the kind of sentence they occur in.
Generics collective reading: smth is predicated of the whole class referred to.
Distributed reading smth is predicated of each member of the class
Using an indefinite article a/ an or a number without a definite determiner is an indication that the addressee
need not find a referent in the world.

Indefinite reference The identity of the referent is not germane to the message: that is, nothing hinges on
the individual features of the referent, only the class features indicated are presented as relevant. <....>This
has nothing to do with whether or not either speaker or hearer is in fact able to effect a unique identification
of the referent.
Resolving ambiguities can be resolved by the use of the word certain immediately following the indefinite
article a, as in, for example: Nancy wants to marry a certain Norwegian.
An opaque context a part of a sentence which could be made into a complete sentence by the addition of
a referring expression, but where the addition of different referring expressions, even though they refer to
the same thing/person, in a given situation, will yield sentences with different meanings when uttered in a
given situation.
Opaque contexts involve a certain kind of verbs: want, believe, think, wonder about, etc.; Are the reason
for the ambiguity of indefinite NPs (referring or non-referring):
Nancy wants to marry a Norwegian.
An equative sentence one which is used to assert the identity of the referents of two referring
expressions, i.e. to assert that two referring expressions have the same referent; e.g.: Tony Blair is the
Prime Minister.
The reversal test the order of the two referring expressions can be reversed without loss of acceptability.
E.g.: The largest city in Africa is Cairo vs Cairo is the largest city in Africa.