Lecture 5. Sign And Meaning

Lecture 5. Sign and meaning • • • •

Sign and meaning Semantics, the study of meaning What is meaning (definitions) Theories of meaning

What is the meaning? • The meaning of meaning is a labyrinth both on theoretical and terminological grounds (Noeth). • Meaning is a word we use in our daily life in different senses. • Theoretically meaning is considered in: – – – –

Linguistic Philosophy Logic Semiotics

• Semiotics relates meaning to sign; meaning is basic idea in definition and analysis of signs. In a wide (pan semiotic) sense, all cases of meaning can be considered semiotically, though some authors speak about nonsemiotic meaning (Noeth, Pelc).

Sign and meaning • Definition of meaning depends upon the model of the sign. The role and definition of meaning is different.

Semantics, the study of meaning

Definition of semantics in Wikipedia • In the main, semantics (from the Greek and in greek letters "σημαντικός" or in latin letters semantikós, or "significant meaning," derived from sema, sign) is the study of meaning, in some sense of that term. It should not be confused with the general Semantics of Alfred Korzybski, a somewhat different discipline. Semantics is often opposed to syntax, in which case the former pertains to what something means while the latter pertains to the formal structure/patterns in which something is expressed (for example written or spoken). • Semantics is distinguished from ontology (study of existence) in being about the use of a word more than the nature of the entity referenced by the word. This is reflected in the argument, "That's only semantics," when someone tries to draw conclusions about what is true about the world based on what is true about a word.

Types of semantics • • • • •

A part of linguistics. Semantics of language. Linguistic semantics started with Breal’ publication on semantics (1897). Semasiology explores word meaning. One of the three chapters of semiotics, next to syntactics and pragmatics, according to Morris. Semantics studies relations of signs to objects. Structural semantics (Greimas), a structuralist linguistic and semiotic approach to semantics. It is a semantics of text. Logical semantics. According to Carnap, semantics studies expressions and their designata. “General semantics” a movement of ideological language criticism and practical rhetorical therapy which begin in 1933 with the publication of Science and Sanity of Alfred Korzybski. Not related to linguistics or semiotics.

Logical semantics (Enc. Britanica) • For the purpose of clarifying logical truth and hence the concept of logic itself, a tool that has turned out to be more important than the idea of logical form is logical semantics, sometimes also known as model theory. By this is meant a study of the relationships of linguistic expressions to those structures in which they may be interpreted

Definitions of meaning • Something that is conveyed or signified; sense or significance. • Something that one wishes to convey, especially by language: The writer's meaning was obscured by his convoluted prose. • An interpreted goal, intent, or end: “The central meaning of his pontificate is to restore papal authority” (Conor Cruise O'Brien). • Inner significance: “But who can comprehend the meaning of the voice of the city?” (O. Henry). • http://www.answers.com/topic/meaning

Definitions of meaning • the message that is intended or expressed or signified; "what is the meaning of this sentence"; "the significance of a red traffic light"; "the signification of Chinese characters"; "the import of his announcement was ambiguous" • the idea that is intended; "What is the meaning of this proverb?" • what an artist expresses in an art work; or what a viewer understands and interprets from an art work.

Meaning (non-linguistic) • • • •

Natural Somatic Pragmatic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meaning_%28non-

Quantity in meaning. Two dimensions: comprehension and extension • Aristotle: a term has comprehension and extension • Mill: denotation and connotation (comprehension) • Frege: intension and extension

Two dimensions in meaning • 1. Extension or extent (determining the specific classes or individual instances indicated by the construct) • 2. Intension (content or comprehension or definition) measuring all the implications (relationships and associations involved in a construct, its intrinsic, inherent, internal, built-in, and constitutional implicit meanings and relations)

Connotation: 1 and 2 • 1 - According to Mill: connotation = comprehension, intension • 2 - According to modern use: connotation = second meaning

Meaning, sense, reference • Reference usualy is the object sign refers to • Meaning is reference according to some theories • Example (Frege): Morning star vs Evening star. – One object (referent). Meaning (Bedeutung) is the referent (planet Venus). – Two senses (Sin): Morning star and Evening star.

Semantic differential

Semantic differential: a method of measuring connotations

• Osgood (1957) has attempted to develop a method of measuring connotations, known as the semantic differential, • The psychologist and communication scholar Charles E. Osgood developed work in the measurement of the last of those dimensions of meaning: connotation (see Osgood (1957)). His concern was with semantics and he devised a method to plot the differences between individuals' connotations for words and thus map the psychological 'distance' between words. Osgood's method is known as the 'semantic differential'. • http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/introductory/semdi

• Subjects were given a word, for example 'car' and presented with a variety of adjectives to describe it. The adjectives were presented at either end of a seven-point scale, ranging from, say, 'good' to 'bad' or from 'fast' to 'slow'. In this way, he was able to draw up a 'map' of people's connotations for a given word. In the window opposite, you can find Osgood's map of people's connotations for the word 'polite'. The graphic shows ten of the scales used by Osgood. The graphic maps the average responses of two groups of 20 people to the word 'polite'.

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Factors of judgement Osgood's method is a development of the Likert scale in that Osgood adds in three major factors or dimensions of judgement: – – –

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evaluative factor (good - bad) - that can be seen in the example as 'Good-Bad', 'Fresh Stale', 'Cold - Hot') potency factor (strong - weak) - seen in the example as 'Weak - Strong' activity factor (active - passive) - in the example as 'Active - Passive', 'Tense - Relaxed'

The intention is that this should differentiate between attitudes in a way that other methods don't and should shed more light on the links between attitudes and behaviour. Osgood gives the example of two subjects' connotations for the word 'negro': Subject 1: unfavourable, strong, active Subject 2: unfavourable, weak, passive Both views are unfavourable, but the actual behaviour of each subject towards negroes may well be different. Subject 1 might be inclined to treat negroes in a placatory manner, anxious to avoid conflict; subject 2 might be inclined to treat them exploitatively, being more likely to boss them around.

Theories of meaning • • • • • • •

There have been at least four different kinds of attempts at explaining what a linguistic "meaning" is: Idea theories of meaning, which emphasize that meanings are thoughts provoked by signs; Truth-conditional theories, which hold a meaning to be the conditions under which it may be true or false; Meaning as usage, which understands meaning to involve or be related to speech acts; Reference theories of meaning, which view meaning to be equivalent to those things in the world that are actually connected to signs. Other theories exist to discuss non-linguistic meaning (i.e., meaning as conveyed by body language, meanings as consequences, etc.) In: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_language

Views in theories of meaning Dichotomy View Early Plato Augustine John Stuart Mill Russell Donellan Kripke Evans Putnam

Trichotomy View Late Plato Aristotle Stoics Bolzano Frege Carnap Quine Davidson

http://www.csus.edu/indiv/n/nogalesp/PhilLanguageF05/Phil154Overheads/HistTh

Written assignment (hardcopy) • Topic: What is the meaning? • Compile a text from the internet search results, including full bibliographic descriptions of the entries. • Formulate your own opinion on the topic (aproximately 500 words) • Due: next week

Links • • • • • •

Non-linguistic meaning. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meaning_%28non-linguistic%29 Dichotomy and trichotomy views in theories of meaning. http://www.csus.edu/indiv/n/nogalesp/PhilLanguageF05/Phil154Overhead The Metaphysics of Meaning. http://www.friesian.com/katz.htm Sense, Reference, and Philosophy. http://www.friesian.com/katz2.htm Theories of meaning. http://www.hss.iitb.ac.in/bhat/699_4.meaning.ppt Semantic differential: a method of measuring connotations. http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/introductory/semdif.htm