Part 2 – Practice:5-12And13-15
Semantic Unit 3
Thesenseof an expression is its place in the system of semantic relationships with other expressions in the language.Words, Phrases, and Sentences have senseSameness of Meaning:Ialmost / nearlyfell over. S/DIt islikely / probablethat Raymond will be here tomorrow. S/DYour gatepost doesn’t seem to be quitevertical / upright. S/DHe painted the fireplaceaquamarine / vermillion. S/DI’ll see you onWednesday / Thursday. S/D
Intuitively, do the following pairs mean the same thing?(1) Rupert took off his jacketRupert took his jacket off(2) Harriet wrote the answer downHarriet wrote down the answer(3) Bachelors prefer redheadsGirls with red hair are preferred by unmarried menIn some cases, the same word can have more than one sense!Does the wordbankhave the same meaning in the following sentence pairs?(1) 1 have an account at the Bank of ScotlandWe steered the raft to the other bank of the river Yes/No(2)The DC-10 banked sharply to avoid a crashI banked the furnace up with coke last night Yes/No
(1) Write down two sentences bringing out clearly the two differentmeanings ofThe chicken is ready to eat.(2) Write down two sentences 'bringing out clearly the two different senses ofHe greeted the girl with a smile.(3) Do likewise forHe turned over the field.On the relationship between sense and reference:Referentof an expression is often athing or a personin the world;Senseof an expression isnot a thing at all.In fact, it is difficult to say what sort of entity the sense of an expression is.It is much easier to say whether or not two expressions have the same sense.
.When a person understands fully what is said to him, it is reasonable to say that he grasps the sense of the expressions he hears
Every expressionthat hasmeaning has sense, butnotevery expression hasreference.Do these words refer to things in the world?1. Almost 2. Probable 3. And 4.If1. When you look up the meaning of a word in the dictionary, what do you find there, it’s referent, or an expression with the same sense?(2) Is a dictionary full of words or full of things, like a box or a sack?
(3) Could a foreigner learn the meanings of his very firstwords of English by having their typical referentspointed out to him?Yes / No(4) Could a foreigner learn the meanings of his very firstwords of English by looking them up in an Englishdictionary?Yes /NoComment:There is something essentially circular about the set of definitions in adictionary. Similarly, defining the senses of words and otherexpressions often has something of this circular nature. This is notnecessarily a bad thing, and in any case it is often unavoidable, since in" many cases (e.g. cases of expressions that have no referents:and,etc.)there is no way of indicating the meaning of an expression except withother words.
Circular Nature of Definitions
Are the senses of the following expressions propositions?(1) Johnny has got a new master Yes/No(2) A new master(not understood as an elliptical sentence-fragment)Yes/No(3) Johnny(not understood as an elliptical sentence-fragment)Yes/No(4) This is the house that Jack built Yes /NoTo the extent that perfect translation between languages is possible(and this is a very debatable point), the same sense can be said to belongto expressions in different languages.
(I) DoAI. Berger s 'estrasecemarinandAI. Berger shavedhimself this morningexpress the same proposition?Yes/No(2) Do the two sentences in (I) have the same sense?Yes/No(3) Do the expressionscemarinandthis morninghave theYes/Nosame sense?(4) Do the expressionss 'estraseandshavedhimselfhavethe same sense?Yes/No(5) DoeseinunverheirateterMannhave the same sense asan unmarried man? Yes/NoCommentJust as one can talk of thesame sense in differentLanguages, soone cantalk of expressions indifferent dialectsof one language as having thesame sense.
(l) Dopavementin British English andsidewalkin AmericanEnglish have the same sense?Yes/No(2) Dopalandchumhave the same sense?Yes/No(3) Can expressions with entirely different socialconno-tationshave the same sense? For example, can thefollowing have the same sense?Peoplewalking in closespatio-temporal proximityPeoplewalking near each otherYes/No
Both referring and uttering are acts performed, bypar-ticularspeakers on particular occasions.
Imagine that a friend of yours says to you, "John is putting on weightthese days", and imagine that a friend of ours (Le, the authors of thisbook) happens to utter the same sentence to us one day.(1) Would this be a case of one utterance or two?-----------------------------------(2) Would the John refereed to be the same John or two different Johns? '-----------------------------------In the two separate utterances above, there aretwo separate acts ofreferring.In fact, most utterances contain, or are accompanied by, oneor more acts of referring. Anact of referring is thepicking out of a .particular referent by a speakerin the course of a particular utterance.
What is intended by the wordmean, meaning,etc. in the followingexamples, reference(R)or sense (S)? .(I) When' Helen mentioned "the fruit cake", she meant thatrock-hard object in the middle of the table.R/S(2) When Albert talks about "his former friend" he means me. R/S(3) Daddy, what doesuniquemean?R/S(4) Purchasehas the same meaning asbuy.R/S(5) Look up the meaning ofapoplexyin your dictionary.R/S(6) If you look out of the window now, you'll see who I mean.R/S
Sense
Reference
Idealization of our understanding of meaningWe must act more certain than we are about expressions and if they have the same senseMore elusive than referenceMore abstract
More concreteEasier to be certain ofCan grasp the concept more readily
Unit 4 – Referring ExpressionsPractice: 1-6Mid. 1Wednesday, Oct. 17In Class
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