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Summary
Core Theme
This lecture introduces the foundational concepts of lexical semantics, distinguishing between "sense" (the mental concept or meaning of a word) and "reference" (the act of a speaker using a word to denote a specific object or entity in the real world).
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hello and welcome back everyone
in this lecture we introduced one level
of the three different levels of
semantic analysis so if we if you recall
we said that semantic analysis can be
done on three different levels the first
is the word level and so we call this
word semantics the second is the
sentence level and the third is the
utterance level now our main interest
here is within word semantics and this
is going to be the topic for the next
few lectures now in semantics the branch
of word semantics is given another name
sometimes it's called lexical semantics
so let's begin now with word semantics
or lexical semantics there are two main
things that we look at within the field
of lexical semantics and that is
reference and sense so let's take a look
at a quick example so we can get the
feel of what the difference is between
reference and cents so let's imagine a
scenario here where in front of us is
this dog one person might yell watch out
for the dog now the phrase the dog here
in this situation is used to refer to
this dog that they have in front of them
so when the speaker said the dog the
speaker intends to refer to this dog
right here and so the dog is the object
of this reference which we call the referent
referent
okay so then reference is a speaker act
it shows the intention of the speaker
what we mean by this is that when the
speaker yelled out watch out for the dog
that the speaker used the phrase the dog
to refer to that dog in front of him or
her now imagine you were listening to
the person speaking here and you hear
the phrase the dog before you actually
see the dog in the real world how would
you understand the sentence uttered by
speaker a
how would you understand the phrase the
dog before you have got a chance to look
at the actual dog in the world well you
would hear the phrase the dog and think
of a mental image that represents what
you think dog is so this mental image
that we have here is what we call a
concept it's a mental representation of
what you think a dog is this is what we
call sense now part of being able to
make reference or to refer to something
is partly based on our knowledge of the
sense of the thing so I know for example
just by knowing the sense of the word
dog that this is a dog and I also know
that this is not a dog just because I
know this sense of the phrase dog or the
word dog this would not be a dog so
really the sense of the of an expression
determines what can what cannot be a
representative or a reference of the
word dog so what we just drew was an
example of something called the semiotic
triangle first introduced by Ogden and
Richards the meaning of meaning 1923 the
same York Triangle explains to us how we
get to meaning out of a linguistic
expression so when we utter the phrase
the dog this is what we call a
linguistic expression this linguistic
expression itself denotes an object in
the real world what we mean by denotes
here is that the linguistic expression
stands as a signal test signifies the
actual object in the world so that is
the meaning of the word denote or I'm
sure you've heard of this imitation now
the imitation is a purely linguistic
phenomenon this is not part of what the
speaker does this is what the linguistic
expression does all by itself now in
uttering the phrase or the linguistic
expression the dog
like we said immediately what pops up
into mind is the sense of the expression
now the sense of the expression has one
function which is mainly to determine
which objects in the world may be
considered a dog and which may not be
now if you notice we did not depict
but reference in this triangle and
there's a good reason for that just take
a look there's a difference so since the
sense of an expression seems to be a
stable relationship every time we
mention dog we probably come up with the
same mental image in our brains
now this mental image will of course
always determine or limit the
possibilities of what could be dog in
the real world practically almost in the
same way every time the word dog as a
signal or as a linguistic expression
also has a stable relationship in that
it always denotes an object in the world
that qualifies as dog so the notation is
also a stable relationship reference on
the other hand just like we mentioned
before is a speaker act it has to do
with the speaker and their intentions
and the context it was used in so for
example instead of the dog I could have
easily referred to as that ugly thing
now that ugly thing probably wouldn't
immediately pick out the exact same
sense we're looking for here but imagine
we are in a park and the only ugly thing
in front of us is this dog and I utter
look at that ugly thing now in this case
I intended for the expression that ugly
thing to refer to the dog in front of us
it was my intention so that's a speaker
intention and I had in mind that the
listener would be able to understand
what my intention was therefore it makes
sense now to distinguish the
characteristics of reference denotation
and sense
so both denotation and sense
our stable relationships denotation is
purely linguistic and so it is a stable
relationship between bond twisting
expression or the word and the actual
object or thing in the real world so say
for example you walk into a classroom
and there is a teacher but the teacher
is very young and looks just like any
other student now you might want to talk
about this person and might use the
linguistic expression or the word the
student to talk about the teacher now
the student will always mean student it
will always pick out the same object in
the real world regardless of what I
meant it to pick up that is why we call
a stable relationship now going back to
reference when I said the students my
intention was to pick out the teacher
okay so in this case this is not a
stable relationship because student here
obviously was used to refer to something
that's not a student
now what specified what the student here
referred to in this case well it was the
speaker and the intention that the
speaker had under that particular
context why under that particular
context because in another situation I
might use student to refer to a person
that works at the university by mistake
so this is not a stable relationship at
all so now that we talked about the
basic differences between reference
sense and annotation it makes sense to
look at a few different cases or various
cases of reference now sometimes in some
cases reference can be constant constant
does not mean that it's a stable
relationship but rather that in every
single time a person utters a linguistic
expression that person should in my
I mean exactly the same thing so take
for example moon that will be very
difficult to imagine a situation where
one says the moon that actually means
the table so the moon constantly or
always refers to the actual moon we see
in the sky
likewise Sun would always refer to the
Sun another case of reference is where
you have no physical reference example
function words like or the or in or is
so these words of course have no
physical referent also abstract notions
take for example love hate idea also
myth creatures or people take for
example popular example which is unicorn
now the unicorn does not exist in the
real world or we can still talk about
something called the unicorn in this
case the linguistic expression unicorn
has no physical referent in the real
world meaning that it does not take out
a physical object in the real world a
third case of reference is where one
expression picks out multiple reference
in the real world so for example imagine
you walk into the classroom and there
are ten female students and you utter
the expression the girl now what does
the girl pick out here well it might
pick out Mary and might pick out Sally
might pick out Sarah right so the same
expression has several different
reference a fourth type is when you have
multiple expressions all picking out the
same exact thing so one object or one
reference for example take the
expression Donald Trump take the
expression the president of the USA take
the expression star of The Apprentice
show all three of these are three
different expressions that all refer to
the same person in the real
world who is Donald Trump right so let's
quickly summarize what we've been doing
here so far in today's class we talked
about reference talked about sense
limitation semiotic triangle talk about
linguistic expressions and let's make a
quick difference now between a
linguistic expression something we call
a referring expression what's the
difference well anything could be a
linguistic expression that could be dog
could be at could be the but not each
and every one of these is used to refer
to something in the real world so out of
these linguistic expressions only dog is
a referring expression because it can be
used to refer so if a linguistic
expression can be used to refer then it
would be called a referring expression
as well so are we referring the
expression is a linguistic but not vice versa
versa
we also talked about different cases of
reference one where you have constant
reference other where there is no
physical reference and then one where
there's one expression of multiple
reference and then multiple expressions
picking out the same referent the end
please be sure to watch our next videos
where we go into more detail about sense
and more details about reference and the
like have a good day you
you [Music]
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