Introduction to Linguistics: Semantics, Speech Acts, and Pragmatics
Allomorphs
Allomorphs are different phonetic realizations of the same morpheme. They are in complementary distribution, meaning that each allomorph occurs in a specific phonetic environment and no two allomorphs occur in the same environment.
Consider the following example:
There are three allomorphs: [-an] ~ [-gan] ~ [-jan]. [-an] appears after consonants, [-gan] appears after [e], and [-jan] appears after all other vowels. The underlying form is [jan].
Rule 1: /j/ → ∅ / C__
Rule 2: /j/ → [g] / [e]__
Option 2: The underlying form is [gan].
Rule 1: /g/ → ∅ / C__
Rule 2: /g/ → [j] / V (other than [e])__
Word Order
In English, an SVO (Subject-Verb-Object) language, the basic word order is as follows:
- S → NP VP
- VP → TV NP
Other word orders include:
- SOV: S → NP VP, VP → NP TV
- VOS: S → VP NP, VP → TV NP
- OVS: S → VP NP, VP → NP TV
Presupposition and Assertion
Presupposition: That which is being assumed, taken for granted, part of the background or common ground.
Assertion: That which is being asserted, not being taken for granted, not part of the background/common ground.
Common ground: Information that is assumed to be shared knowledge of all conversational participants.
Factive Presupposition
Example: John discovered that Mary failed the exam.
Factive presuppositions are triggered by certain lexical items, such as:
- Verbs: regret, realize, discover, know
- Adjectives: It’s surprising/amazing/good that…
- Nouns: It’s a shame/miracle/good thing that…
Other triggers include:
- Temporal subordinate clauses (when/before/after/since)
- Change of state verbs (stop/continue/quit)
- Iteratives (again, return, another)
Presupposition Tests
Presuppositions survive under negation, uncertainty, and questioning tests.
Example: Kim talked to the gardener.
- Negation: Kim didn’t talk to the gardener.
- Uncertainty: Kim may have talked to the gardener.
- Question: Did Kim talk to the gardener?
Accommodation
Listeners tend to”accommodat” the presuppositions of their interlocutors as part of the common ground. If something is said that requires a presupposition p to be acceptable, and if p is not already presupposed, then (within certain limits), p comes into existence upon uttering t.
Example: All Fred’s children are asleep. Even if you did not previously know that Fred has children, we are able to accommodate this, and the presupposition”Fred has childre” will come into existence.
Grice’s Maxims
Grice’s maxims are principles of conversational cooperation that guide how people communicate effectively.
- Quality: Don’t say things you believe to be false. Don’t say things for which you lack sufficient evidence.
- Quantity: Say enough. Don’t say too much.
- Relation: The cooperative speaker says only what is relevant.
- Manner: Avoid obscurity and ambiguity. Be brief. Say things in the right order.
Examples of Grice’s Maxims
- Manner (and Relation): A: Did you get my homework? B: I got a sheet of paper covered in scribbles. (implicates: HW was not up to expectations)
- Relation: A: Want to see a movie? B: I have a midterm tomorrow. (implicates: B is declining the invitation)
- Quantity: A: What did you think of the cake? B: It was okay. (implicates: not excellent)
- Quantity: Colin has four children. (Implicates exactly four and no more).
- Relation: I might win the lottery / Yes, and pigs might fly. (Implicates winning the lottery is highly unlikely)
- Relation + Manner: Love is love (Slogan implicating support for gay marriage).
Speech Acts
A speech act is an utterance that has a performative function in communication.
Types of Infelicity
- Misfires: Infelicity prevents the act from being carried out.”I now pronounce you married” but the couple forgot to get a marriage license.”You are under arrest” but Miranda rights are not read.
- Abuses: Infelicity renders the act hollow or empty.”If he skips practice again I’m going to kill him”.”I bet you $10 I can run faster than you” but I have no intention of actually paying you.
Elements of a Speech Act
- Locutionary: Act of saying something; literal semantic meaning + phonetic and other linguistic features. Example: Stating the words”I apologize if you were offended”
- Illocutionary: Speaker’s intention underlying the locutionary act. Examples: Apologizing, threatening, ordering, questioning, marrying, requesting, bequeathing, promising, insulting, agreeing, etc. Involve felicity conditions.
- Perlocutionary: The effect that the performance of an illocutionary act has on the hearer. Examples: Hearer may be shocked, surprised, upset, bored, pleased, frightened, etc.
Types of Speech Acts
- Highly Conventionalized: Subject to highly regulated rituals and procedures: Marriage, Baptism, Dubbing, Declaring war, Inauguration, Meeting rules of order (adjourning/voting). Rigid in both felicity conditions (who can do them, who they can be done to, etc.) and form: [Do you take this man…?]/”I d” vs. “Why not””I solemnly swear to uphold the office..” vs. “No worries”
- Explicitly Performative: Speech acts with a performative verb (a verb that wears its illocutionary force on its sleeve). Examples: Promise, thank, insist, predict, dare, command, declare, apologize, bet.
- Indirect: Utterances in which one illocutionary act is performed by way of another utterance. Example: Student A:”Let’s go to the movies tonight” Student B:”I have to study”
Semantics
Semantics is the study of meaning in language.
Sense and Reference
Sense: Mental representation of meaning. Not a dictionary definition because of circularity (e.g., divine vs. deity). Not a mental image because of abstract concepts (e.g., penguin = bird, but we don’t think of a penguin when”bir” is uttered). The sense of an expression must be some kind of mental concept, not necessarily an image.
Reference: Relationship between sense and the real world.
Referents: Nameable things.
Reference: Thing that a referent points to.
Examples:
- Happy (Adj.) = set of real-life things that are happy.
- Spelunk (V.) = set of real-life things that explore caves.
- Under a bridge (PP): set of real-life things that are situated beneath a bridge.
Problems with this definition:
- Affection (N): set of real-life things that… are warm feelings?
- Freedom (N): set of real-life things that… are free? That are the state of being free?
Example:
- Dog
- Sense: Barks, 4 legs, fur, etc.
- Referents: Breeds of dogs.
- Unicorn
- Sense: Mythical creature, single horn, horse-like, etc.
- Referents: ??? We can talk about fictional entities, but we clarify that we are talking about something within some possible world – Within the world of Peter S. Beagle’s ‘The Last Unicorn’.
Hyponymy
A word X is a hyponym of word Y if the referents of X are always also referents of Y.
Example: Pigeon is a hyponym of bird.
Metonymy
Metonymy is a relationship based on a close connection in everyday experience, where one lexical item can be used to refer to the other.
Examples:
- Container-content: bottle/water, can/soda.
- Whole-part relation: car/wheels, house/roof.
- Representative-symbol: king/commoner, president/White House.
Homophony
Homophony occurs when a single string of phonemes is associated with two clearly distinct senses.
Examples: River bank vs. money bank, piece vs. peace, air/heir.
Vagueness
A linguistic expression is vague if its meaning is somehow underspecified.
Example: Sorites paradox (paradox of the heap): A $100 hamburger is expensive, taking 1 cent off doesn’t change that. Therefore, free hamburgers are expensive?
Compositionality
– “The meaning of a whole is a function of the meanings of the parts and of the way they are syntactically combined.”
Semanticists can use sets to refer to the referents of a word. Through set theory, we can use logical inference to discuss
relationships between the referents of different words or combinations of word. E.g., the reference of an intersective adjective is the intersection of the set of referents of the adjective and the set of referents of the noun it. Semanticists use logic to describe inference patterns like the relationship between “dog” and “animal”. Specifically, they represent the reference of nouns like dog and animal as sets of (actual or possible) objects: [[dog]] = {x: x is a dog} (‘the set of all x such that x is a dog’)[[animal]] = {y: y is an animal} (‘the set of all y such that y is an animal’).
Truth conditions: the set of facts that would have to hold for a given proposition to be true. Scientists will discover a unicorn skeleton buried under the front green.Truth conditions: Unicorns existed at some point in the past A unicorn died nearby, or its skeleton was moved there Scientists will discover something Scientists exist, as does a unique front green.
Entailment is a relationship between propositions, such that the truth of one guarantees the truth of the other
P → Q. Mutual entailment P -> Q, Q -> P. Contradictory P -> not Q. Q -> not P