英語語言學概論第五章筆記

1、chapter 5 semantics 語義學1. what is semantics？什么是語義學？semantics can be simply defined as the study of meaning in language.語義學可定義為對語言意義的研究。2. some views concerning the study of meaning語義研究的幾種主要理論1) the naming theory 命名論it was proposed by the ancient greek scholar plato. according to this theory, the lin

2、guistic forms or symbols, in other words, the words used in a language are taken to be labels of the objects they stand for. so words are just names or labels for things.命名論是最原始的語義理論，是古希臘學者柏拉圖提出的。該理論把詞看作是該詞所指事物 的名稱或標記。2) the conceptualist view 意念論the conceptualist view holds that there is no direct

3、link between a linguistic form and what it refers to; rather, in the interpretation of meaning they are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind.意念論認為，語言形式及其所代表的對象之間（即語言與現(xiàn)實世界之間）沒有直接聯(lián)系；確 切地說，在理解語義時，是通過大腦中存在意念這一中介物來聯(lián)系的。3) contextualism 語境論contextualism is based on the presumption that one

4、can derive meaning from or reduce meaning to observable contexts. two kinds of context are recognized: the situational context and the linguistic context.語境論以這樣的假設為基礎：人們可以從顯而易見的語境中推知或歸納出語義。語境有兩種： 情景語境和語言語境。語境論認為語言的意義離不開使用語言的語境，語義不是抽象的，它存在于語境之中，它來 自語境，取決于語境。4) behaviorism 行為主義論behaviorists attempted

5、to define the meaning of a language form as the “situation in which thespeaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer.” this theory, somewhat close to contextualism, is linked with psychological interest.語義的行為主義論和語義的語境論有相似之處，它也把語義放到語境中去研究，但它更注重 人的心理活動，認為語言的意義存在于語言使用者在交際過程中對聽到話語的反應。3

6、. sense and reference 意義和所指they are two related but different aspects of meaning.它們是詞匯意義的既相互聯(lián)系又有所不同的兩個方面。1) sense is concerned with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form. it is the collection of all the features of the linguistic form; it is abstract and de-contextualized. it is the aspect of

7、meaning dictionary compliers are interested in.意義關心的是語言形式的內在意義。它是語言形式所有特征的總和，它是抽象且脫離語境的。它是詞典編寫者們所感興趣的語義方面。簡單地說，意義是詞匯內在的，抽象的，游離于語境之外的意義。2) reference means what a linguistic form refers to in the real, physical world; it deals with the relationship between the linguistic element and non-linguistic wor

8、ld of experience.所指是語言形式在現(xiàn)實世界中所指稱的東西；涉及語言成分和非語言的經(jīng)驗世界的關系。 簡單地說，所指是詞匯在特定的語境中所指稱的具體事物。4. major sense relations 主要意義關系1） synonymy 同義關系synonymy refers to the sameness or close similarity of meaning. words that are close in meaning are called synonyms.同義現(xiàn)象指的是語義的相同或相近。詞義相近的詞叫同義詞。according to the way they d

9、iffer, synonyms can be divided into the following groups:a) dialectal synonyms synonyms used in different regional dialects.british english and american english are the two major geographical varieties of the english language.方言同義詞 用在不同地域方言中的同義詞。英國英語和美國英語是英語的兩大地理變體。示例：英國英語美國英語autumn falllift elevato

10、rflat departmentwindscreen windshieldtorch flashlightb) stylistic synonyms synonyms differing in style.words having the same meaning may differ in style, or degree of formality. in other words, some words tend to be more formal, others casual, and still others neutral in style.文體同義詞 在文體上有差異的同義詞。有同樣意

11、義的詞可能在文體上，或者在正式程度上有所不同。也就是說，有些往往比較正式， 有些比較隨意，有些在問題上則是中性的。示例：old man, daddy, dad, father, male parentstart, begin, commencekid, child, offspringc) synonyms that differ in their emotive or evaluative meaningthere are words that bear the same meaning but express different emotions of the user, indicati

12、ng the attitude or bias of the user toward what he is talking about.情感意義或評價意義有所不同的同義詞。有著相同的意義卻表達了使用者的不同情感的詞語，這些詞暗示使用者對他所談論的事情的 態(tài)度或傾向。示例：collaborator 合作者/ accomplice 同謀者，幫兇like, love, admire, adore, worshipeconomical, frugal, thrifty, mean, miserly, stingyd) collocational synonyms synonyms differing

13、in their collocation.some synonyms differ in their collocation, i.e., in the words they go together with. this is a matter of usage.搭配同義詞 同義詞在其搭配上各不相同，即能和這些不同的同義詞相配的詞各不相同。 示例：accuseof chargewith rebukefore) semantically different synonyms synonyms that differ slightly in what they mean.語義上不同的同義詞 同義詞

14、的意義非常接近，但卻有細微差別。示例：amaze 暗示困惑和迷惑 astound 暗示難以置信escape 意味逃離不愉快或者危險的事 flee 意味匆匆離開2） polysemy 多義關系the same one word may have more than one meaning. this is what we call polysemy, and such a word is called a polysemic word. the fact is the more commonly used a word is, the more likely it has acquired mo

15、re than one meaning.同一個單詞可能有一個以上的意義，這就是我們所說的一詞多義，這樣的詞叫多義詞。一個 詞越常用，它就越可能獲得一個以上的意義。示例：table 一詞最初只有一個意義，很可能指一塊石板或木板，這叫做其原始意義。后來它逐漸 獲得了它現(xiàn)在所指稱的其它意義。3） homonymy 同音/同形異義關系homonymy refers to the phenomenon that word having different meaning have the same form, i.e., different words are identical in sound or

16、 spelling, or in both.when two words are identical in sound, they are homophones.when two words are identical in spelling, they are homographs.when two words are identical in both sound and spelling, they are complete homonyms.同形異義是指意義不同的詞有著相同的語言形式的現(xiàn)象，即不同的詞發(fā)音上或拼寫上，或者 兩個方面都相同。兩個單詞在發(fā)音上相同時，叫同音異義詞。兩個單詞在

17、拼寫上相同時，叫同形異義詞。兩個單詞在發(fā)音和拼寫上都相同時，叫完全同形異義詞。示例：同音異義詞： rain/ reign; night/ knight; piece/ peace同形異義詞： bow v./ bow n.; tear v./ tear n.; lead v./ lead n.完全同形異義詞：fast adj./ fast v.; scale n./ scale v.4） hyponymy 上下義關系hyponymy refers to the sense relation between a more general more inclusive word and a more

18、 specific word. the word which is more general in meaning is called the super-ordinate, and the more specific words are called its hyponyms. hyponyms of the same super-ordinate are co-hyponyms to each other.上下義關系是指一個具有一般性、包容性的詞與一個更為具體的詞之間的意義關系。 意義更具有一般性的詞叫上義詞，意義更為具體的詞叫下義詞。同一個上義詞的多個下義詞 叫并列下義詞。示例：上義詞：

19、 flower下義詞： rose（玫瑰花）, tulip（郁金香）, carnation（康乃馨）, lily（百合花）, morning glory （牽?；ǎ┥狭x詞： animal下義詞： dog, cat, tiger, lion, wolf, elephant, fax, bear5） antonymy 反義關系the term antonymy is used for oppositeness of meaning, words that are opposite in meaning are antonyms.反義關系用以指意義的相反。意義上相反的詞叫反義詞。a) gradable

20、 antonyms 分級反義詞some antonyms are gradable because there are often intermediate forms between the two members of a pair. so it is a matter of degree.一些反義詞是級別上的對立，因為一對這樣的反義詞中間常有其它表示程度的詞。意義相反 實際上只是程度問題。示例：old 和 young 是反義詞，但它們代表兩個極端，中間還存在著代表年老和年輕的不同程度 的其它語言形式，如 middle-aged, mature, elderly.b) complement

21、ary antonyms 互補反義詞a pair of complementary antonyms is characterized by the feature that the denial of one member of the pair implies the assertion of the other.互補反義詞具有這樣的特征，否定其中一個就意味著肯定另一個。也就是說，是一個非此即 彼、非彼即此的問題。示例：male/ female alive/deadc) relational opposites 關系反義詞pairs of words that exhibit the re

22、versal of a relationship between the two items are called relational opposites.在意義上現(xiàn)實出逆向關系的一對詞語叫關系反義詞。示例：wife/ husband father/ son teacher/ pupil doctor/ patient buy/ sell above/ below5. sense relations between sentences句子間的意義關系1) x is synonymous with y.x 和 y 是同義關系示例：x : he is a bachelor all his lif

23、e.y : he never married all his life.如果 x 是真的，y 也是真的，如果 x 是假的，y 也是假的。2) x is inconsistent with y.x 和 y 是前后矛盾關系示例：x : john is married.y : john is a bachelor.如果 x 是真的，y 就是假的，如果 x 是假的，y 就是真的。3) x entails y (y is an entailment of x)x 蘊涵 y (y 是 x 的蘊涵)示例：x : john married a blond heiress (女繼承人).y : john mar

24、ried a blond.蘊涵是一種包含關系。如果 x 蘊涵 y，x 的意義就為 y 所包含。4) x presupposes y. (y is a prerequisite of x)x 預示 y (y 是 x 的先決條件)示例：x : johns bike needs repairing.x : john has a bike.5) x is a contradiction.x 是個矛盾句示例：x: my unmarried sister is married to bachelor.x 句子本身自相矛盾，它永遠是假的。6) x is semantically anomalous.句子 x

25、 在語義上反常示例：x: the table has bad intentions.x 在語義上反常，它就是荒唐的。6. analysis of meaning1) componential analysis a way to analyze lexical meaning語義成分分析法 一種詞義分析法the approach is based upon the belief that the meaning of a word can be dissected into meaning components, called semantic features. plus and minus

26、signs are used to indicate whether a certain semantic feature is present or absent in the meaning of a word, and these feature symbols are usually written in capitalized letters.一個單詞的意義可以分析為被稱作語義特征的意義成分。用加減號來表示某一語義特征在一 個詞義中是存在還是省缺，這些特征符號通常用大寫字母來表示。one advantage of componential analysis is that by sp

27、ecifying the semantic features of certain words, it will be possible to show how these words are related in meaning.成分分析的一個好處是，通過列出某些單詞的語義特征，就可能顯示這些單詞在意義上有什 么聯(lián)系。示例：man 和 woman 這兩個單詞有 human, + adult, + animate 這些共同的特征，但在 male 這一特征上不同。man 和 boy 這兩個單詞有 human, +animate, +male 這些共同的特征，但在 adult 這一特征上不同。2)

28、 predication analysis a way to analyze sentence meaning述謂結構分析 一種句義分析法linguists have proposed different ways to analyze the meaning of sentences. they might differ in their framework of analysis, but they share the aim to abstract the meaning of sentences. what we are going to introduce briefly is th

29、e predication analysis proposed by the linguist g leech.語言學家們提出了不同的分析句子意義的方法。他們的分析基準體系可能有所不同，但他們 的目標都是使句子意義抽象化。我們現(xiàn)在要介紹的是英國語言學家 g 里奇提出的述謂結構分析法。in grammatical analysis, the sentence is taken to be the basic unit, and it is analyzed into such grammatical components as subject, predicate, and attribute.對句子進行語法分析時，句子被視為基本單位，它被分析謂諸如主謂語和定語這樣的語法成 分。in semantic analysis of a sentence, the basic unit is called predication, which is the abstraction of the meaning of a sentence. this applies to all forms of sentence, including statements, imperative and interrogative forms.對句子進行意義分析時，基本單位稱為述謂，這是對