0:07 hello and welcome back everyone
0:11 in this lecture we introduced one level
0:12 of the three different levels of
0:15 semantic analysis so if we if you recall
0:18 we said that semantic analysis can be
0:20 done on three different levels the first
0:23 is the word level and so we call this
0:26 word semantics the second is the
0:29 sentence level and the third is the
0:31 utterance level now our main interest
0:34 here is within word semantics and this
0:36 is going to be the topic for the next
0:40 few lectures now in semantics the branch
0:42 of word semantics is given another name
0:45 sometimes it's called lexical semantics
0:47 so let's begin now with word semantics
0:50 or lexical semantics there are two main
0:52 things that we look at within the field
0:54 of lexical semantics and that is
0:58 reference and sense so let's take a look
1:00 at a quick example so we can get the
1:02 feel of what the difference is between
1:05 reference and cents so let's imagine a
1:08 scenario here where in front of us is
1:12 this dog one person might yell watch out
1:16 for the dog now the phrase the dog here
1:21 in this situation is used to refer to
1:24 this dog that they have in front of them
1:27 so when the speaker said the dog the
1:31 speaker intends to refer to this dog
1:34 right here and so the dog is the object
1:37 of this reference which we call the referent
1:38 referent
1:43 okay so then reference is a speaker act
1:46 it shows the intention of the speaker
1:48 what we mean by this is that when the
1:51 speaker yelled out watch out for the dog
1:54 that the speaker used the phrase the dog
1:58 to refer to that dog in front of him or
2:01 her now imagine you were listening to
2:03 the person speaking here and you hear
2:06 the phrase the dog before you actually
2:09 see the dog in the real world how would
2:12 you understand the sentence uttered by
2:13 speaker a
2:14 how would you understand the phrase the
2:18 dog before you have got a chance to look
2:22 at the actual dog in the world well you
2:24 would hear the phrase the dog and think
2:28 of a mental image that represents what
2:32 you think dog is so this mental image
2:35 that we have here is what we call a
2:38 concept it's a mental representation of
2:41 what you think a dog is this is what we
2:44 call sense now part of being able to
2:47 make reference or to refer to something
2:51 is partly based on our knowledge of the
2:53 sense of the thing so I know for example
2:56 just by knowing the sense of the word
3:01 dog that this is a dog and I also know
3:04 that this is not a dog just because I
3:08 know this sense of the phrase dog or the
3:12 word dog this would not be a dog so
3:15 really the sense of the of an expression
3:18 determines what can what cannot be a
3:22 representative or a reference of the
3:25 word dog so what we just drew was an
3:26 example of something called the semiotic
3:30 triangle first introduced by Ogden and
3:34 Richards the meaning of meaning 1923 the
3:36 same York Triangle explains to us how we
3:39 get to meaning out of a linguistic
3:42 expression so when we utter the phrase
3:45 the dog this is what we call a
3:48 linguistic expression this linguistic
3:53 expression itself denotes an object in
3:56 the real world what we mean by denotes
3:58 here is that the linguistic expression
4:03 stands as a signal test signifies the
4:06 actual object in the world so that is
4:08 the meaning of the word denote or I'm
4:10 sure you've heard of this imitation now
4:13 the imitation is a purely linguistic
4:17 phenomenon this is not part of what the
4:19 speaker does this is what the linguistic
4:22 expression does all by itself now in
4:24 uttering the phrase or the linguistic
4:25 expression the dog
4:28 like we said immediately what pops up
4:32 into mind is the sense of the expression
4:34 now the sense of the expression has one
4:37 function which is mainly to determine
4:40 which objects in the world may be
4:43 considered a dog and which may not be
4:46 now if you notice we did not depict
4:49 but reference in this triangle and
4:51 there's a good reason for that just take
4:54 a look there's a difference so since the
4:56 sense of an expression seems to be a
4:58 stable relationship every time we
5:01 mention dog we probably come up with the
5:03 same mental image in our brains
5:05 now this mental image will of course
5:08 always determine or limit the
5:11 possibilities of what could be dog in
5:13 the real world practically almost in the
5:16 same way every time the word dog as a
5:19 signal or as a linguistic expression
5:21 also has a stable relationship in that
5:25 it always denotes an object in the world
5:30 that qualifies as dog so the notation is
5:33 also a stable relationship reference on
5:36 the other hand just like we mentioned
5:38 before is a speaker act it has to do
5:41 with the speaker and their intentions
5:43 and the context it was used in so for
5:46 example instead of the dog I could have
5:50 easily referred to as that ugly thing
5:53 now that ugly thing probably wouldn't
5:56 immediately pick out the exact same
5:58 sense we're looking for here but imagine
6:01 we are in a park and the only ugly thing
6:04 in front of us is this dog and I utter
6:08 look at that ugly thing now in this case
6:12 I intended for the expression that ugly
6:16 thing to refer to the dog in front of us
6:18 it was my intention so that's a speaker
6:21 intention and I had in mind that the
6:24 listener would be able to understand
6:27 what my intention was therefore it makes
6:29 sense now to distinguish the
6:32 characteristics of reference denotation
6:33 and sense
6:36 so both denotation and sense
6:40 our stable relationships denotation is
6:44 purely linguistic and so it is a stable
6:47 relationship between bond twisting
6:50 expression or the word and the actual
6:55 object or thing in the real world so say
6:58 for example you walk into a classroom
7:01 and there is a teacher but the teacher
7:04 is very young and looks just like any
7:07 other student now you might want to talk
7:10 about this person and might use the
7:13 linguistic expression or the word the
7:16 student to talk about the teacher now
7:20 the student will always mean student it
7:24 will always pick out the same object in
7:26 the real world regardless of what I
7:30 meant it to pick up that is why we call
7:32 a stable relationship now going back to
7:36 reference when I said the students my
7:39 intention was to pick out the teacher
7:42 okay so in this case this is not a
7:46 stable relationship because student here
7:50 obviously was used to refer to something
7:51 that's not a student
7:54 now what specified what the student here
7:57 referred to in this case well it was the
7:59 speaker and the intention that the
8:02 speaker had under that particular
8:05 context why under that particular
8:08 context because in another situation I
8:11 might use student to refer to a person
8:13 that works at the university by mistake
8:17 so this is not a stable relationship at
8:20 all so now that we talked about the
8:21 basic differences between reference
8:25 sense and annotation it makes sense to
8:27 look at a few different cases or various
8:31 cases of reference now sometimes in some
8:35 cases reference can be constant constant
8:36 does not mean that it's a stable
8:39 relationship but rather that in every
8:42 single time a person utters a linguistic
8:45 expression that person should in my
8:48 I mean exactly the same thing so take
8:50 for example moon that will be very
8:52 difficult to imagine a situation where
8:55 one says the moon that actually means
8:58 the table so the moon constantly or
9:01 always refers to the actual moon we see
9:02 in the sky
9:05 likewise Sun would always refer to the
9:09 Sun another case of reference is where
9:13 you have no physical reference example
9:20 function words like or the or in or is
9:22 so these words of course have no
9:26 physical referent also abstract notions
9:30 take for example love hate idea also
9:34 myth creatures or people take for
9:37 example popular example which is unicorn
9:39 now the unicorn does not exist in the
9:41 real world or we can still talk about
9:44 something called the unicorn in this
9:47 case the linguistic expression unicorn
9:49 has no physical referent in the real
9:51 world meaning that it does not take out
9:53 a physical object in the real world a
9:57 third case of reference is where one
10:01 expression picks out multiple reference
10:04 in the real world so for example imagine
10:07 you walk into the classroom and there
10:10 are ten female students and you utter
10:13 the expression the girl now what does
10:15 the girl pick out here well it might
10:18 pick out Mary and might pick out Sally
10:23 might pick out Sarah right so the same
10:25 expression has several different
10:28 reference a fourth type is when you have
10:32 multiple expressions all picking out the
10:36 same exact thing so one object or one
10:38 reference for example take the
10:41 expression Donald Trump take the
10:46 expression the president of the USA take
10:50 the expression star of The Apprentice
10:53 show all three of these are three
10:55 different expressions that all refer to
10:58 the same person in the real
11:02 world who is Donald Trump right so let's
11:03 quickly summarize what we've been doing
11:06 here so far in today's class we talked
11:09 about reference talked about sense
11:13 limitation semiotic triangle talk about
11:16 linguistic expressions and let's make a
11:17 quick difference now between a
11:19 linguistic expression something we call
11:22 a referring expression what's the
11:25 difference well anything could be a
11:27 linguistic expression that could be dog
11:31 could be at could be the but not each
11:35 and every one of these is used to refer
11:38 to something in the real world so out of
11:41 these linguistic expressions only dog is
11:43 a referring expression because it can be
11:46 used to refer so if a linguistic
11:48 expression can be used to refer then it
11:51 would be called a referring expression
11:53 as well so are we referring the
11:55 expression is a linguistic but not vice versa
11:56 versa
11:59 we also talked about different cases of
12:01 reference one where you have constant
12:03 reference other where there is no
12:06 physical reference and then one where
12:09 there's one expression of multiple
12:11 reference and then multiple expressions
12:14 picking out the same referent the end
12:16 please be sure to watch our next videos
12:19 where we go into more detail about sense
12:23 and more details about reference and the
12:25 like have a good day you
12:27 you [Music]
