Semantics

Question 1

What is “meaning”?

Answer 1

Meaning is the heart of language, is what language is for: there is no language without meaning.

Question 2

Are words like the, not, of and ouch! considered to have meanings?

Answer 2

Yes, they are considered to have meanings in their own right.

Question 3

The study of signs in general is known as :

Answer 3

Semiotics or semiology.

Question 4

What are the two boarder categories of significance?

Answer 4

• The significance of human behavior in general.
• The meaningfulness of communication specifically.

Question 5

How can we express meaning without involving language?

Answer 5

There are many meaningful ways of behaving which do not involve language: structured sets of conventional, accepted symbols like the left indicator lights on cars, the use of flags at sea, and even symbols involving body parts (bowing, shaking the head, thumbs up/down…).

Question 6

If someone is standing at the bus station, is he/she intending to communicate something to us?

Answer 6

No, there is any communicative intention. These types of behavior do not involve any structured set of symbols (non-semiotic).
The person is standing at the bus station waiting perhaps for the bus: he/she is not wishing to communicate anything to anyone.

Question 7

What are the figures that make up the semiotic triangle?

Answer 7

Thought, Symbol and Referent.

Question 8

Spoken language, written language and sign languages are types of…

Answer 8

Symbol, which is the token chosen to express the speaker’s intended meaning.

Question 9

What is the relationship of thought to both referent and symbol?

Answer 9

Thought and symbol; our minds create language by choosing and constructing the particular linguistic expressions, and though and referent in using language we intend our words to have a certain referent. But there is no causal relation between symbol and referent

Question 10

Which other terms can we use for thought and symbol?

Answer 10

Thought —– Psychology
Symbol —– Language

Question 11

If we say that there is no causal relation between symbol and referent, are therefore onomatopoeic words identical or different from one language to another?

Answer 11

Onomatopoeic words are entirely different from one language to another.
In English: cuckoo, moo and meow.
In Spanish: mu, cuack and miau.

Question 12

How do speakers use referents?

Answer 12

They apply them differently depending on the situation that takes place, as each referent is used in a specific occasion of use.

Question 13

What is the general meaning or the concept underlying the word and is also contained in a dictionary entry for the word in question?

Answer 13

Sense

Question 14

What is the object which it stands for on a specific occasion of use, and it changes each time the word is applied to a different object or situation in the world?

Answer 14

Reference (referent)

Question 15

What does the term “denotation” represent?

Answer 15

It has to do with all the group of referents that a word may have when we choose to use it.

Question 16

What term names aspects of meanings which do not affect a word’s sense, reference, or denotation, but have to do with secondary factors (emotional force, level of formality, character as a euphemism…?

Answer 16

Connotation

Question 17

What connotations do the words slim and skinny carry?

Answer 17

The word “slim” connotes a healthy and positive connotation that suggests a fit physique. On the other hand, the word “skinny” has a negative connotation which could mean a lack of proper nutrition.

Question 18

What is the difference between saying “red big balloon” and “big red balloon” and how changing word order affects the meaning?

Answer 18

In “big red balloon,” the balloon is both big and red, with “big” describing its size and “red” its color. In “red big balloon,” the emphasis shifts to color, suggesting that the balloon is primarily red and secondarily big. Changing the word order alters which characteristic is highlighted: size or color.

Question 19

Define the property of productivity.

Answer 19

The property of productivity is the capacity all human languages have to construct an infinite number of sentences by using a vocabulary given.

Question 20

What is the property of linguistic meaning? What does it mean?

Answer 20

Compositionality. Meaning is compositional: the meaning of sentences are made up, or composed of the meanings of their constituents lexemes. We cannot understand a novel sentence if it contains a word which we do not know.

Question 21

Are all combinations of words necessarily compositional?

Answer 21

No. Idioms, for example, can have both compositional and not compositional meanings.

Question 22

What does the idiom “raining cats and dogs” mean?

Answer 22

It means heavy rain.