Semantics: a coursebook, second edition

Feedback
(1) The chicken is ready to be eaten vs The chicken is ready to eat 
something (2) Smiling, he greeted the girl vs He greeted the smiling girl
(3) He changed direction over the 
field vs He turned the field over (where
he = a pilot or he = a ploughman or a farmer)
Comment On the relationship between sense and reference: the referent of an
expression is often a thing or a person in the world; whereas the sense of an
expression is not a thing at all. In fact, it is di
fficult to say what sort of entity
the sense of an expression is. Intuitively, it is sometimes useful to think of
sense as that part of the meaning of an expression that is left over when
reference is factored out. It is much easier to say whether or not two
expressions have the same sense. (Like being able to say that two people are
in the same place without being able to say where they are.) 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 expressions he hears.
Rule Every expression that has meaning has sense, but not every expression has
reference.
Practice Do the following words refer to things in the world?
(1) almost
Yes / No
(2) probable
Yes / No
(3) and
Yes / No
(4) if
Yes / No
(5) above
Yes / No
Feedback
None of the above words refers to a thing in the world. Nevertheless all 
these words, almost, probable, and, if, and above have some sense.
Practice (1) When you look up the meaning of a word in a dictionary, what do you
find there, its 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 
first words of English by having their typical referents 
pointed out to him?
Yes / No
(4) Could a foreigner learn the meanings of his very 
first words 
of English by looking them up in an English dictionary?
Yes / No
U N I T   3
Reference and sense
31

Feedback
(1) an expression with the same sense (2) full of words (3) Yes (4) No
Comment There is something essentially circular about the set of de
finitions in a
dictionary. Similarly, de
fining the senses of words and other expressions
often has something of this circular nature. This is not necessarily 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 with other words.
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.
Practice Are the senses of the following expressions propositions?
(1) Johnny has got a new teacher
Yes / No
(2) A new teacher (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 / No
Feedback
(1) Yes (2) No (3) No (4) Yes
Comment To the extent that perfect translation between languages is possible (and this
is a very debatable point, as mentioned earlier), essentially the same sense can
be said to belong to expressions in di
fferent languages.
Practice (1) Do M. Berger s’est rasé ce matin and M. Berger shaved 
himself this morning express the same proposition?
Yes / No
(2) Do the two sentences in (1) have the same sense?
Yes / No
(3) Do the expressions ce matin and this morning have the 
same sense?
Yes / No
(4) Do the expressions s’est rasé and shaved himself
have the same sense?
Yes / No
(5) Does ein unverheirateter Mann have the same sense 
as an unmarried man?
Yes / No
Feedback
(1) Yes, perhaps. One might well object, however, that s’est rasé in French 
is not a perfect translation of shaved, since it could also be rendered as has
shaved. (2) Yes, with the same reservations as for question (1). (3) Yes
(4) Perhaps (5) Yes, assuming that unverheiratet in German has essentially
the same meaning as unmarried in English.
PA RT   O N E
Basic ideas in semantics
32

U N I T   3
Reference and sense
33
Comment Just as one can talk of the same sense in di
fferent languages, so one can
talk of expressions in di
fferent dialects of one language as having the same
sense.
Practice (1) Do pavement in British English and sidewalk in 
American English have the same sense?
Yes / No
(2) Do pal and chum have the same sense?
Yes / No
(3) Can expressions with entirely di
fferent social connotations 
have the same sense? For example, can the following have 
the same sense?
People walking in close spatio-temporal proximity
People walking near each other
Yes / No
Feedback
(1) Yes (2) Yes (3) Yes
Comment The relationship between reference and utterance is 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

tải về 1.74 Mb.

Chia sẻ với bạn bè của bạn: