英语语言学概论笔记(2)

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1、Chapter 5 Semantics 语义学 1. What is semantics？什么是语义学？ Semantics can be simply defined as the study of meaning in language. 语义学可定义为对语言意义的研究。 2. Some views concerning the study of meaning 语义研究的几种重要理论 1) The naming theory 命名论 It was proposed by the ancient Greek scholar Plato. According

2、 to this theory, the linguistic 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. 命名论是最原始的语义理论，是古希腊学者柏拉图提出的。该理论把词看作是该词所指事物的名称或标记。 2) The conceptualist view 意念论 The conceptualist vi

3、ew holds that there is no direct 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. 意念论觉得，语言形式及其所代表的对象之间（即语言与现实世界之间）没有直接联系；确切地说，在理解语义时，是通过大脑中存在乎念这一中介物来联系的。 3) Contextualism 语境论 Contextua

4、lism is based on the presumption that one can derive meaning from or reduce meaning to observable contexts. Two kinds of context are recognized: the situational context and the linguistic context. 语境论以这样的假设为基本：人们可以从显而易见的语境中推知或归纳出语义。语境有两种：情景语境和语言语境。 语境论觉得语言的意义离不开使用语言的语境，语义不是抽象的，它存在于语境之中，它来自语境，取决于语境

5、。 4) Behaviorism 行为主义论 Behaviorists attempted to define the meaning of a language form as the “situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer.” This theory, somewhat close to contextualism, is linked with psychological interest. 语义的行为主义论和语义的语境论有相似之处，它也把

6、语义放到语境中去研究，但它更注重人的心理活动，觉得语言的意义存在于语言使用者在交际过程中对听到话语的反映。 3. Sense and reference 意义和所指 They are two related but different aspects of meaning. 它们是词汇意义的既互相联系又有所不同的两个方面。 1) Sense is concerned with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form. It is the collection of all the features of the lingui

7、stic form; it is abstract and de-contextualized. It is the aspect of meaning dictionary compliers are interested in. 意义关怀的是语言形式的内在乎义。它是语言形式所有特性的总和，它是抽象且脱离语境的。它是词典编写者们所感爱好的语义方面。 简朴地说，意义是词汇内在的，抽象的，游离于语境之外的意义。 2) Reference means what a linguistic form refers to in the real, physical world; it deal

8、s with the relationship between the linguistic element and non-linguistic world of experience. 所指是语言形式在现实世界中所指称的东西；波及语言成分和非语言的经验世界的关系。 简朴地说，所指是词汇在特定的语境中所指称的具体事物。 4. Major sense relations 重要意义关系 1） Synonymy 同义关系 Synonymy refers to the sameness or close similarity of meaning. Words that are

9、 close in meaning are called synonyms. 同义现象指的是语义的相似或相近。词义相近的词叫同义词。 According to the way they differ, 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 v

10、arieties of the English language. 方言同义词 － 用在不同地区方言中的同义词。 英国英语和美国英语是英语的两大地理变体。 示例： 英国英语 美国英语 Autumn fall Lift elevator Flat department Windscreen windshield Torch

11、 flashlight b) 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. 文体同义词 － 在文体上有差别的同义词。 有同样意义的词也许在文体上，或者在

12、正式限度上有所不同。也就是说，有些往往比较正式，有些比较随意，有些在问题上则是中性的。 示例： Old man, daddy, dad, father, male parent Start, begin, commence Kid, child, offspring c) Synonyms that differ in their emotive or evaluative meaning There are words that bear the same meaning but express different emotions of the user, indicati

13、ng the attitude or bias of the user toward what he is talking about. 情感意义或评价意义有所不同的同义词。 有着相似的意义却体现了使用者的不同情感的词语，这些词暗示使用者对她所谈论的事情的态度或倾向。 示例： Collaborator 合伙者/ Accomplice 同谋者，帮凶 Like, love, admire, adore, worship Economical, frugal, thrifty, mean, miserly, stingy d) Collocational synonyms – sy

14、nonyms differing in their collocation. Some synonyms differ in their collocation, i.e., in the words they go together with. This is a matter of usage. 搭配同义词 － 同义词在其搭配上各不相似，即能和这些不同的同义词相配的词各不相似。 示例： Accuse…of charge…with rebuke…for e) Semantically different synonyms –synonyms that differ

15、slightly in what they mean. 语义上不同的同义词 － 同义词的意义非常接近，但却有细微差别。 示例： Amaze 暗示困惑和困惑 astound 暗示难以置信 Escape 意味逃离不快乐或者危险的事 flee 意味匆匆离开 2） Polysemy 多义关系 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

16、 more commonly used a word is, the more likely it has acquired more than one meaning. 同一种单词也许有一种以上的意义，这就是我们所说的一词多义，这样的词叫多义词。一种词越常用，它就越也许获得一种以上的意义。 示例： Table 一词最初只有一种意义，很也许指一块石板或木板，这叫做其原始意义。后来它逐渐获得了它目前所指称的其他意义。 3） Homonymy 同音/同形异义关系 Homonymy refers to the phenomenon that word having differen

17、t meaning have the same form, i.e., different words are identical in sound or 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 complet

18、e homonyms. 同形异义是指意义不同的词有着相似的语言形式的现象，即不同的词发音上或拼写上，或者两个方面都相似。 两个单词在发音上相似时，叫同音异义词。 两个单词在拼写上相似时，叫同形异义词。 两个单词在发音和拼写上都相似时，叫完全同形异义词。 示例： 同音异义词： rain/ reign; night/ knight; piece/ peace 同形异义词： bow v./ bow n.; tear v./ tear n.; lead v./ lead n. 完全同形异义词：fast adj./ fast v.; scale n./ scale v. 4） Hy

19、ponymy 上下义关系 Hyponymy refers to the sense relation between a more general more inclusive word and a more 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

20、to each other. 上下义关系是指一种具有一般性、包容性的词与一种更为具体的词之间的意义关系。 意义更具有一般性的词叫上义词，意义更为具体的词叫下义词。同一种上义词的多种下义词叫并列下义词。 示例： 上义词： flower 下义词： rose（玫瑰花）, tulip（郁金香）, carnation（康乃馨）, lily（百合花）, morning glory （牵牛花） 上义词： animal 下义词： dog, cat, tiger, lion, wolf, elephant, fax, bear 5） Antonymy 反义关系 The term ant

21、onymy is used for oppositeness of meaning, words that are opposite in meaning are antonyms. 反义关系用以指意义的相反。意义上相反的词叫反义词。 a) Gradable antonyms 分级反义词 Some antonyms are gradable because there are often intermediate forms between the two members of a pair. So it is a matter of degree. 某些反义词是级别上的对立，

22、由于一对这样的反义词中间常有其他表达限度的词。意义相反事实上只是限度问题。 示例： Old 和 young 是反义词，但它们代表两个极端，中间还存在着代表年老和年轻的不同限度的其他语言形式，如 middle-aged, mature, elderly. b) Complementary antonyms 互补反义词 A pair of complementary antonyms is characterized by the feature that the denial of one member of the pair implies the assertion of t

23、he other. 互补反义词具有这样的特性，否认其中一种就意味着肯定另一种。也就是说，是一种非此即彼、非彼即此的问题。 示例： Male/ female alive/dead c) Relational opposites 关系反义词 Pairs of words that exhibit the reversal of a relationship between the two items are called relational opposites. 在乎义上现实出逆向关系的一对词语叫关系反义词。 示例： Wife/ husband father/ s

24、on teacher/ pupil doctor/ patient buy/ sell above/ below 5. Sense relations between sentences 句子间的意义关系 1) X is synonymous with Y. X和Y 是同义关系 示例： X: He is a bachelor all his life. 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

25、关系 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蕴涵Y (Y是X的蕴涵) 示例： X: John married a blond heiress (女继承人). Y: John married a blond. 蕴涵是一种涉及关系。如果X蕴涵Y，X的意义就为Y所涉及。 4) X presupposes Y. (Y is a prerequisite of X) X预示Y (Y

26、是X的先决条件) 示例： X: John’s bike needs repairing. Y: John has a bike. 5) X is a contradiction. X是个矛盾句 示例： X: My unmarried sister is married to bachelor. X句子自身自相矛盾，它永远是假的。 6) X is semantically anomalous. 句子X在语义上反常 示例： X: The table has bad intentions. X 在语义上反常，它就是荒唐的。 6. Analysis of me

27、aning 1) Componential analysis – a way to analyze lexical meaning 语义成分分析法 － 一种词义分析法 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 signs are used to indicate whether a certain semantic feature

28、 is present or absent in the meaning of a word, and these feature symbols are usually written in capitalized letters. 一种单词的意义可以分析为被称作语义特性的意义成分。用加减号来表达某一语义特性在一种词义中是存在还是省缺，这些特性符号一般用大写字母来表达。 One advantage of componential analysis is that by specifying the semantic features of certain words, it wil

29、l be possible to show how these words are related in meaning. 成分分析的一种好处是，通过列出某些单词的语义特性，就也许显示这些单词在乎义上有什么联系。 示例： Man 和 woman 这两个单词有 ＋HUMAN, + ADULT, + ANIMATE这些共同的特性，但在MALE这一特性上不同。 Man 和 boy这两个单词有 ＋HUMAN, +ANIMATE, +MALE这些共同的特性，但在ADULT这一特性上不同。 2) Predication analysis – a way to analyze sentence

30、 meaning 述谓构造分析 － 一种句义分析法 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 the predication analysis proposed by the

31、linguist G Leech. 语言学家们提出了不同的分析句子意义的措施。她们的分析基准体系也许有所不同，但她们的目的都是使句子意义抽象化。我们目前要简介的是英国语言学家G里奇提出的述谓构造分析法。 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. 对句子进行语法分析时，句子被视为基本单位，它被分析谓诸如主谓语和定语

32、这样的语法成分。 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. 对句子进行意义分析时，基本单位称为述谓，这是对句子意义的抽象化。这一措施合用于所有句式，涉及陈述句、祈使句和疑问句。

33、 A predication consists of argument(s) and predicate. An argument is a logical participant in a predication, largely identical with the nominal element(s) in a sentence. A predicate is something said about an argument or it states the logical relation linking the arguments n a sentence. 一种述谓由一种

34、或数个论元和一种谓词构成。 一种论元是一种述谓的一种逻辑参与者，与一种句子中的一种或数个名词性成分大体一致。 一种谓词是有关论元的陈述，或者阐明一种句子的论元间的逻辑关系。 句子的语法形式不影响其语义述谓，下列所有句子具有同样的述谓： Tom smokes. Tom is smoking. Tom has been smoking. Tom, smoke! Does Tom smoke? 这是同一语义述谓TOM(SMOKE)在语法上的多种体现。 According to the number of arguments contained in a predicati

35、on, we classify the predications into two-place predication (containing two arguments), one-place predication (containing one argument), and no-place predication (containing no argument). 根据一种述谓中所涉及的论元的数目，我们把述谓构造分为两位述谓构造（涉及两个论元）、单位述谓构造（涉及一种论元）和零位述谓构造（没有论元） 示例： The building is next to the library. (Two-place predication) He is snoring. (One-place predication) It is late. (No-place predication)