SENSE AND REFERENCE IN FREGE
- for Frege there are two levels of semantic significance: sense and reference, and sense is primary;
- Frege makes a distinction between sense and reference;
- The concept of sense is essential for the concept of reference;
- Frege excludes from Semantics individual representations a certain word can provoke.
IDENTITY RELATIONS
a=a and a=b
Only when one states a=b one is acquiring KNOWLEDGE
A table is a table a=a
This piece of furniture is a table a=b
- How can we explain the difference between a=a and a=b (not a common sense explanation)?
- In order for each expression to have a reference, it must go through a sense.
- Mode of presentation: the mode of presentation of the reference a=b is differente from a=a
(1) The morning star is the morning star a=a
(2) The morning star is the evening star a=b
There are two different senses (meanings) to realize the same reference
Sense: mode through which an expression leads to a reference.
The morning star has a sense and the referent is Venus, the planet.
The evening star has a sense and the referent is also Venus, the planet.
- Two ways to arrive at the same reference.
- We learn that we can refer to the planet Venus in at least two different ways.
- In Frege sense is not simply the object in the world.
- Sense is related to the emaning of an expression and it is not the object (referent).
- Sense is the mode of presentations that language has on an object.
- The question of meaning is a question of language.
- An expression can have a sense without having a referent:
There is a unicorn running outside.- Sense does not guarantee reference.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
SECOND CLASS 11 Aug
Ten aspects of any speaker´s semantic knowledge:
1. Speakers know whether a sentence is meaningful.
Anomalous – anomality
2. Speakers know when two sentences have essentially the same meaning or not.
Paraphrase (sentences 2a and 2c; 2b and 2d are paraphrases of each other). Sentences make equivalent statements about the same entities.
3. Speakers know when two words have the same sense in a given context.
They are synonyms. They are instances of synonymy; they are synonymous with each other.
4. Speakers know when the meaning of one sentence contradicts another sentence.
Sentences that make opposite statements about the same subject are contradictory.
5. Words may have opposite meanings in a given context.
Two words that make opposite statements about the same subject are antonyms; they are antonymous; they are instances of antonomy.
6. In each of the groups of words, 6a and 6b, all but one of the words have something in common.
The common element of meaning shared by all but one item in 6a and 6b is a semantic feature.
7. Sentences may have double meaning.
A sentence that has two meanings is ambiguous- an example of ambiguity.
8. Speakers know how language is used when people interact.
When a question and an answer, or any two utterances, can go together in a conversation and the second is obviously related to the first, they constitute an adjacency pair.
9. Speakers are aware that two statements may be related in such a way that if one is true, the other must also be true.
These pairs of sentences are examples of entailment.
Assuming that 9a and 9b are about the same garden, the truth of 9a entails the truth ob 9b (if 9a is true, 9b must also be true).
10. Speakers know that the message conveyed in one sentence may presuppose other pieces of knowledge. If 10a is accepted as true, 10b-10-e must also be accepted as true. The meaning of sentence 10a presupposes what is expressed in 10b, c, d, and e. The latter are presuppositions of 10a.
Note that a presupposition does not establish the truth of anything.
Sentence 10a is meaningful as it is, but it is true only if there is a person named Andy Murfee, who works and owns a Datsun, etc. The sentence is presented as if there is a person named Andy Murfee.
These ten terms have been introduced to show the latent knowledge that people have about their language.
1. Speakers know whether a sentence is meaningful.
Anomalous – anomality
2. Speakers know when two sentences have essentially the same meaning or not.
Paraphrase (sentences 2a and 2c; 2b and 2d are paraphrases of each other). Sentences make equivalent statements about the same entities.
3. Speakers know when two words have the same sense in a given context.
They are synonyms. They are instances of synonymy; they are synonymous with each other.
4. Speakers know when the meaning of one sentence contradicts another sentence.
Sentences that make opposite statements about the same subject are contradictory.
5. Words may have opposite meanings in a given context.
Two words that make opposite statements about the same subject are antonyms; they are antonymous; they are instances of antonomy.
6. In each of the groups of words, 6a and 6b, all but one of the words have something in common.
The common element of meaning shared by all but one item in 6a and 6b is a semantic feature.
7. Sentences may have double meaning.
A sentence that has two meanings is ambiguous- an example of ambiguity.
8. Speakers know how language is used when people interact.
When a question and an answer, or any two utterances, can go together in a conversation and the second is obviously related to the first, they constitute an adjacency pair.
9. Speakers are aware that two statements may be related in such a way that if one is true, the other must also be true.
These pairs of sentences are examples of entailment.
Assuming that 9a and 9b are about the same garden, the truth of 9a entails the truth ob 9b (if 9a is true, 9b must also be true).
10. Speakers know that the message conveyed in one sentence may presuppose other pieces of knowledge. If 10a is accepted as true, 10b-10-e must also be accepted as true. The meaning of sentence 10a presupposes what is expressed in 10b, c, d, and e. The latter are presuppositions of 10a.
Note that a presupposition does not establish the truth of anything.
Sentence 10a is meaningful as it is, but it is true only if there is a person named Andy Murfee, who works and owns a Datsun, etc. The sentence is presented as if there is a person named Andy Murfee.
These ten terms have been introduced to show the latent knowledge that people have about their language.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Reading for Aug 11
Reading assignment for Aug 11: Chapter 7 , "Reference"
From the book: KREIDLER, C. W. Introducing English Semantics. London: Routledge, 2004
A copy of the text can be found at Xerox - Dona Lúcia
From the book: KREIDLER, C. W. Introducing English Semantics. London: Routledge, 2004
A copy of the text can be found at Xerox - Dona Lúcia
FIRST CLASS Aug 04 2011
FIRST CLASS Aug 04 2011
STRUCTURAL SEMANTICS
a) Saussurean structuralism
b) F. de Saussure: generally regarded as the founder of modern structural linguistics
c) Movement initiated by his Cours de Linguistique Générale
What is the central idea of structuralism?
Every language is a unique relational structure, or system, and that the units which we identify in analysing the sentence of a particular language (sounds, words, meanings, etc.) derive both their essence and their existence from their relationship with other units in the same language-system.
We identify both the units and their interrelations.
a) Phonology, or sound-system of English.
b) The word “pit” consists of three segments in written and spoken English (letters and phonemes)
c) Continuous burst of sound, classified by the phonetician in units
d) Every pronunciation of the word-form “pit” is different from every other pronunciation of the same word-form by different speakers and by the same speaker in different occasions.
e) But there is a constancy which underlies this diversity of physical manifestation. The structuralist will say that it is an identity of patterns or structure.
f) Every acceptable pronunciation of pit is kept distinct from every acceptable pronunciation of bit, fit, kit
g) We say there is a p-phoneme, a b-phoneme, an f-phoneme in English because pit, bit, fit and cop, cob, cough, etc. operate as distinct forms in English, with different meanings.
h) A phoneme is an abstract construct, the locus of functional contrasts and equivalences holding among sets of forms. We say there is a p-phoneme and a b-phoneme because there is a relationship of functional contrast between pairs of forms.
The Saussurean dichotomies
i) Distinction of langue (language-system) and parole (language-behaviour)
LANGUE
a) a code
b) social
c) psychological, stored in the brain of every member of the language-community
d) changes slowly
PAROLE
a) coded message
b) individual
c) physical and psychological aspects
d) ephemeral
(ii) Substance and form(or structure)
Substance (“marble sculpture”). The marble, as substance, is potentially many things; it becomes one thing rather than another by the imposition of one structure. For Saussure, languages result from the imposition of structure on two kinds of substance: sound and thought.
a) Paradigmatic and syntagmatic relationships
Syntagmatic:
‘the old man’ (internal structure Article+Adjective+Noun)
Paradigmatic: (units are replaced in the syntagm)
the old man
young woman
tall boy
b) Synchronic and diachronic investigation of languages
Synchronic: investigation of the language as it is, or was, at a certain time
Diachronic: the study of changes in the language between two given points in time
Meaning in Saussure: external element, excluded, not part of the langue
Three exclusions:
a) Subject (individual, parole)
b) object (representation of the object, not the object itself, no reference)
c) history (relations inside the system only)
.................................................................................
Semantics: generally defined as the study of meaningWhat is the meaning of ‘meaning’ ?
(i) What is the meaning of ‘sesquipedalian’?
(ii) I did not mean to hurt you.
(iii) He never says what he means.
(iv) She rarely means what she says.
(v) Life without faith has no meaning.
(vi) What do you mean by the word ‘concept’ ?
(vii) He means well, but he´s rather clumsy.
(viii) Fame and riches mean nothing to the true scholar.
(ix) Dark clouds mean rain.
(x) It was John I meant not Harry.
• The meaning of words and sentences depends on the use to which language is put in communicative situations.
• Natural languages: capacity for referring to, or describing, themselves (reflexivity)
...................................................................................
UTTERANCE- Énonciation/énoncé
- Enunciação/enunciado
UTTERANCE-ACT ( enunciação)
UTTERANCE-SIGNAL (enunciado)
An utterance may consist of a single word, a single phrase, a single sentence, a sequence of sentences, one or more grammatically incomplete sentence-fragments.
SENTENCE
- convention of punctuation and capitals
- system-sentence: a sequence of words, grammatically complete
TEXT
Any connected passage of discourse, whether it is spoken or written and whether it is a conversation or a monologue.
PROPOSITION
Propositions are expressed by sentences and may be either true or false.
A proposition is what is expressed by a declarative sentence when that sentence is uttered to make a statement. The function of a declarative sentence is to make a statement.
STRUCTURAL SEMANTICS
a) Saussurean structuralism
b) F. de Saussure: generally regarded as the founder of modern structural linguistics
c) Movement initiated by his Cours de Linguistique Générale
What is the central idea of structuralism?
Every language is a unique relational structure, or system, and that the units which we identify in analysing the sentence of a particular language (sounds, words, meanings, etc.) derive both their essence and their existence from their relationship with other units in the same language-system.
We identify both the units and their interrelations.
a) Phonology, or sound-system of English.
b) The word “pit” consists of three segments in written and spoken English (letters and phonemes)
c) Continuous burst of sound, classified by the phonetician in units
d) Every pronunciation of the word-form “pit” is different from every other pronunciation of the same word-form by different speakers and by the same speaker in different occasions.
e) But there is a constancy which underlies this diversity of physical manifestation. The structuralist will say that it is an identity of patterns or structure.
f) Every acceptable pronunciation of pit is kept distinct from every acceptable pronunciation of bit, fit, kit
g) We say there is a p-phoneme, a b-phoneme, an f-phoneme in English because pit, bit, fit and cop, cob, cough, etc. operate as distinct forms in English, with different meanings.
h) A phoneme is an abstract construct, the locus of functional contrasts and equivalences holding among sets of forms. We say there is a p-phoneme and a b-phoneme because there is a relationship of functional contrast between pairs of forms.
The Saussurean dichotomies
i) Distinction of langue (language-system) and parole (language-behaviour)
LANGUE
a) a code
b) social
c) psychological, stored in the brain of every member of the language-community
d) changes slowly
PAROLE
a) coded message
b) individual
c) physical and psychological aspects
d) ephemeral
(ii) Substance and form(or structure)
Substance (“marble sculpture”). The marble, as substance, is potentially many things; it becomes one thing rather than another by the imposition of one structure. For Saussure, languages result from the imposition of structure on two kinds of substance: sound and thought.
a) Paradigmatic and syntagmatic relationships
Syntagmatic:
‘the old man’ (internal structure Article+Adjective+Noun)
Paradigmatic: (units are replaced in the syntagm)
the old man
young woman
tall boy
b) Synchronic and diachronic investigation of languages
Synchronic: investigation of the language as it is, or was, at a certain time
Diachronic: the study of changes in the language between two given points in time
Meaning in Saussure: external element, excluded, not part of the langue
Three exclusions:
a) Subject (individual, parole)
b) object (representation of the object, not the object itself, no reference)
c) history (relations inside the system only)
.................................................................................
Semantics: generally defined as the study of meaningWhat is the meaning of ‘meaning’ ?
(i) What is the meaning of ‘sesquipedalian’?
(ii) I did not mean to hurt you.
(iii) He never says what he means.
(iv) She rarely means what she says.
(v) Life without faith has no meaning.
(vi) What do you mean by the word ‘concept’ ?
(vii) He means well, but he´s rather clumsy.
(viii) Fame and riches mean nothing to the true scholar.
(ix) Dark clouds mean rain.
(x) It was John I meant not Harry.
• The meaning of words and sentences depends on the use to which language is put in communicative situations.
• Natural languages: capacity for referring to, or describing, themselves (reflexivity)
...................................................................................
UTTERANCE- Énonciation/énoncé
- Enunciação/enunciado
UTTERANCE-ACT ( enunciação)
UTTERANCE-SIGNAL (enunciado)
An utterance may consist of a single word, a single phrase, a single sentence, a sequence of sentences, one or more grammatically incomplete sentence-fragments.
SENTENCE
- convention of punctuation and capitals
- system-sentence: a sequence of words, grammatically complete
TEXT
Any connected passage of discourse, whether it is spoken or written and whether it is a conversation or a monologue.
PROPOSITION
Propositions are expressed by sentences and may be either true or false.
A proposition is what is expressed by a declarative sentence when that sentence is uttered to make a statement. The function of a declarative sentence is to make a statement.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
TÓPICOS DE SEMÂNTICA - COURSE DESCRIPTION
UNIVERSIDADE DE SÃO PAULO
FACULDADE DE FILOSOFIA, LETRAS E CIÊNCIAS HUMANAS
Departamento de Letras Modernas
Estudos Lingüísticos e Literários em Inglês
Disciplina: Tópicos de Semântica
Semestre: 2o. / 2011
Turma: Matutino e noturno
Professora Dra Deusa Maria de Souza Pinheiro Passos
Email: deusa@usp.br, deusasouza@gmail.com
TÓPICOS DE SEMÃNTICA
CONTENT
The following topics will be covered during the course:
(i) Meaning of meaning: sentence, utterance, text
(ii) Structural semantics
(iii) Reference, sense and denotation
(iv) Meaning and truth
(v) Meaning and intentionality
(vi) Speech acts
METHODOLOGY
Lectures, discussion of theoretical assumptions, workshops.
ASSESSMENT
Students will be assessed on the following basis:
(i) Students are expected to complete reading and writing assignments. Completion of the assignments includes the ability to discuss the reading in class and write about the reading in and out of class.
(ii) Students´ knowledge and interpretation of the readings and lectures will be assessed by written tests and written activities.
(iii) Oral assignment (optional);
Bibliography
AUSTIN, J.L. How to Do Things with Words. Oxford: Claredon Press, 1962.
BENVENISTE, E. Problemas de Lingüística Geral I. (Tradução de Maria da Glória e Maria Luiza Neri. Título Original: Problèmes de Linguistique Générale). Campinas, SP: Pontes: Editora da Universidade Estadual de Campinas
COOLIN, F. & GULDMANN, F. Meaning, use and truth – introducing the Philosophy of Language. GB: Ashgate, 2005.
COOK, G. Discourse. Oxford University Press, 1989.
FREGE, Gottlob. (1978) “Sobre o sentido e a referência”. In: Lógica e Filosofia da Linguagem. São Paulo: Cultrix. P.59-86(1892a) “Sobre o Conceito e o Objeto” Lógica e Filosofia da Linguagem. (Tradução de Paulo Alcoforado) São Paulo: Cultrix, Ed. Da Universidade de São Paulo, 1978.
GRICE, H. P. (1957) “Meaning”. In: Philosophical Review, 67.
______________ “Lógica e conversação”. In: Dascal (org.) (1982) vol 4.
GRICE, H. P. (1957) “Meaning”. In: Steingberg, E. & L. Jakobovits. Semantics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974.
GUIMARÂES, E. Os Limites do Sentido - Um Estudo Histórico e Enunciativo da Linguagem. Campinas, SP: Pontes, 1995.
HURFORD, J. & Heasley, B. Semantis, a coursebook. Cambridge: C.U.P, 1983
KREIDLER, C. W. Introducing English Semantics. London: Routledge, 2004.
LYONS, J. Semantics. Vol. 1 & 2. Cambridge University Press, 1979.
LYONS, J. Introdução à Lingüística Teórica.(Trad. De Rosa V. Mattos e Silva e Hélio Pimentel. Tít. Original: Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics). Sào Paulo: Ed. Nacional; Ed. Universidade de São Paulo, 1979.
SAUSSURRE, F. Curso de Lingüística Geral. São Paulo: Cultrix, 1969
SEARLE, J.R. Speech Acts. London & New York: Cambridge University Press, 1969.
FACULDADE DE FILOSOFIA, LETRAS E CIÊNCIAS HUMANAS
Departamento de Letras Modernas
Estudos Lingüísticos e Literários em Inglês
Disciplina: Tópicos de Semântica
Semestre: 2o. / 2011
Turma: Matutino e noturno
Professora Dra Deusa Maria de Souza Pinheiro Passos
Email: deusa@usp.br, deusasouza@gmail.com
TÓPICOS DE SEMÃNTICA
CONTENT
The following topics will be covered during the course:
(i) Meaning of meaning: sentence, utterance, text
(ii) Structural semantics
(iii) Reference, sense and denotation
(iv) Meaning and truth
(v) Meaning and intentionality
(vi) Speech acts
METHODOLOGY
Lectures, discussion of theoretical assumptions, workshops.
ASSESSMENT
Students will be assessed on the following basis:
(i) Students are expected to complete reading and writing assignments. Completion of the assignments includes the ability to discuss the reading in class and write about the reading in and out of class.
(ii) Students´ knowledge and interpretation of the readings and lectures will be assessed by written tests and written activities.
(iii) Oral assignment (optional);
Bibliography
AUSTIN, J.L. How to Do Things with Words. Oxford: Claredon Press, 1962.
BENVENISTE, E. Problemas de Lingüística Geral I. (Tradução de Maria da Glória e Maria Luiza Neri. Título Original: Problèmes de Linguistique Générale). Campinas, SP: Pontes: Editora da Universidade Estadual de Campinas
COOLIN, F. & GULDMANN, F. Meaning, use and truth – introducing the Philosophy of Language. GB: Ashgate, 2005.
COOK, G. Discourse. Oxford University Press, 1989.
FREGE, Gottlob. (1978) “Sobre o sentido e a referência”. In: Lógica e Filosofia da Linguagem. São Paulo: Cultrix. P.59-86(1892a) “Sobre o Conceito e o Objeto” Lógica e Filosofia da Linguagem. (Tradução de Paulo Alcoforado) São Paulo: Cultrix, Ed. Da Universidade de São Paulo, 1978.
GRICE, H. P. (1957) “Meaning”. In: Philosophical Review, 67.
______________ “Lógica e conversação”. In: Dascal (org.) (1982) vol 4.
GRICE, H. P. (1957) “Meaning”. In: Steingberg, E. & L. Jakobovits. Semantics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974.
GUIMARÂES, E. Os Limites do Sentido - Um Estudo Histórico e Enunciativo da Linguagem. Campinas, SP: Pontes, 1995.
HURFORD, J. & Heasley, B. Semantis, a coursebook. Cambridge: C.U.P, 1983
KREIDLER, C. W. Introducing English Semantics. London: Routledge, 2004.
LYONS, J. Semantics. Vol. 1 & 2. Cambridge University Press, 1979.
LYONS, J. Introdução à Lingüística Teórica.(Trad. De Rosa V. Mattos e Silva e Hélio Pimentel. Tít. Original: Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics). Sào Paulo: Ed. Nacional; Ed. Universidade de São Paulo, 1979.
SAUSSURRE, F. Curso de Lingüística Geral. São Paulo: Cultrix, 1969
SEARLE, J.R. Speech Acts. London & New York: Cambridge University Press, 1969.
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