Semantics: a coursebook, second edition

PA RT   O N E
Basic ideas in semantics
6
Comment The same sentences are used by di
fferent speakers on different occasions
to mean (speaker meaning) di
fferent things. Once a person has mastered the
stable meanings of words and sentences as de
fined by the language system,
he can quickly grasp the di
fferent conversational and social uses that they can
be put to. Sentence meaning and speaker meaning are both important, but
systematic study proceeds more easily if one carefully distinguishes the two,
and, for the most part, gives prior consideration to sentence meaning and
those aspects of meaning generally which are determined by the language
system, rather than those which re
flect the will of individual speakers and the
circumstances of use on particular occasions.
The gap between speaker meaning and sentence meaning is such that it is
even possible for a speaker to convey a quite intelligible intention by using a
sentence whose literal meaning is contradictory or nonsensical.
Practice Look at the following utterances and state whether they are intended to be
taken literally (Yes) or not (No).
(1) Tired traveller: ‘This suitcase is killing me’
Yes / No
(2) Assistant in a shop: ‘We regularly do the impossible;
miracles take a little longer’
Yes / No
(3) During a business meeting: ‘It’s a dog-eat-dog situation’
Yes / No
(4) During a heated argument: ‘Don’t bite my head o
ff!’
Yes / No
(5) Hungry person at the dinner table: ‘I could eat a horse!’
Yes / No
Feedback
(1) No (2) No (3) No (4) No (5) No
Comment Examples such as these show that speakers can convey meaning quite
vividly by using sentences whose meanings are in some sense problematical.
To account for this, it is necessary to analyse at two levels:
firstly, to show
what is ‘wrong’ with such sentences, i.e. why they can’t be literally true,
and secondly, how speakers nevertheless manage to communicate
something by means of them. Sections of this book are devoted to both
kinds of meaning, but rather more attention is given to sentence and word
meaning.
We will now leave this topic and give some attention to the question of
how one studies meaning – to the methods of semantics.
Practice (1) Can two people hold an ordinary conversation without 
knowing the meanings of the words they are using?
Yes / No
(2) Is it reasonable to say, if I use such English words as table and 
chair in the normal way in my conversation, communicating 
the usual messages that one does with these and other words,
that I know the meanings of the words table and chair?

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