The semantics of NP understanding talk about things

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The semantics of NP - understanding talk about
things

• English Grammar
• BA - 2nd semester
• Lecture 7

Torben Thrane
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Lectures - DatesAll lectures Monday 855 - 940
in U1
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The organization of meaning ...
Meanings in con- nected discourse
Mood, emotion and attitude
Information, reality and belief
Concepts
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related to communicative functions .
Action with social con- sequences
Production of text with relevance
Reference and predication with truthfunctional
values
Mapping of situations, i.e. establishment
of relations between entities
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and to units of language and language use
Speech act
Utterance
Sentence, clause and phrase
Words and morphemes
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An example
Are you coming? Were eating!
Here Im producing a text, consisting of an
utterance of two sentences, Are you coming? and
Were eating!
Each sentence contains two phrases Arecoming,
you and are eating, we.
These in turn are made up of words and morphemes,
some of which are lexical you, we, come, eat,
some gram- matical are, -ing.
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example (continued)
The lexical words come and eat specify
what type of situation the sentences relate to

The lexical words we and you specify who is
involved in these situations.
The grammatical morphemes are and -ing
speci- fy when the situations occur in time.
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example (continued)
At another level, I have also performed a speech
act - in fact two Ive asked a question, and
Ive made a statement
Speech acts are actions that have social
consequences. By my question I impose a
requirement on you to respond either verbally or
not. And I impose the requirement on myself to
be serious and honest relative to the facts.
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Summary
Speech Act
Utterance
Social consequences
Sentence
Situations
Who, what, where
Phrase
Word, morpheme
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Division of labour
The study of sentences, phrases, words, and
morphemes is the province of Grammar The
structure of language
The study of utterances and speech acts is the
province of Pragmatics The use of language
The study of the relationship between sentences
and situations is the province of Semantics The
meaning of language
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Talk about things ..
René Magritte, The Treachery of Images. 1929
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The Correspondence Theory of Truth and Reference
Reality
Language
The cat is on the mat
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So - The sentence the cat is on the mat is
TRUE if and only if this is a situation in
which the cat is on the mat!
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- and Ceci nest pas une pipe is TRUE if and
only if this is a situation
in which the thing referred to by Ceci is not
a pipe
It isnt. It is a PICTURE of a pipe. So, the
sentence is TRUE.
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The Functional Theory of Truth and Reference
Mental Model
- may or may not fit
creates
Language
Reality
The cat is on the mat
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According to the functional theory of truth and
reference -
Linguistic utterances convey information that
creates
mental models of situations that may or may not
fit
real world situations in virtue of their meaning
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The information our minds need for constructing
mental models of THINGS - both CONCRETE things
like people, cats, water and screwdrivers, and
ABSTRACT things like structures, rules, love
and drinks parties - is provided by the
structural properties of Noun Phrases.
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NP structures
NP
NP
NP

N
Spec
D
Num
AP
N
Proper Name
Pronoun
Adv
Adv
A
N
Helen
She
upstairs
the
two
very
pretty
girls
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Information types in NP structures
Referring (for speakers)
NP

Spec N
Individuating mass v. count Enumerating one,
two many
Classifying Kind Properties
D Num AP N
Adv A N Adv
the two very pretty girls upstairs
Identifying (for listeners)
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the two pretty girls smiled
Classification GIRL
Property Assignment PRETTY
Individuation yes Enumeration 2
Guideline for identification KNOWN
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Speakers use NPs to refer to things ---
Listeners use information conveyed by NPs to
identify things
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Identifying things

• in terms of their kind
• hand me a spanner, please

• in terms of their properties
• hand me a larger one, please

• in terms of their location
• hand me that one, please

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The information needed for identifying things in
terms of their kind stems from the lexical Head
Noun in NP.
The information needed for identifying things in
terms of their properties stems from
Premodifiers and Postmodifiers.
The information needed for identifying things in
terms of their location stems primarily from the
secondary nominal categories.
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Kinds of things lexical organization
artefact
Technical Vocabulary
tool
General Vocabulary
hammer
spanner
tongs
screwdriver
.
wrench
Technical Vocabulary
sledgehammer
clawhammer
pickhammer
Hyponymy meaning hierarchy
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The Secondary Nominal Categories

• Definiteness definite, indefinite

• Gender masculine, feminine, neuter

• Countability countable, uncountable (mass)

• Number singular, plural

• Person first, second, third

• Case common, accusative, genitive

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Standard problem areas

• article usage

• number (concord)

• pronominal usage (gender case)

• propositional usage

• comparison

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Differences in use of the indefinite article
Danish English
han er dykker he is a diver han er klovn he
is a clown han er en klovn he is a clown han har
radio i bilen he has a radio in the car han har
bil he has a car han holder hest he keeps a
horse han kører bil som om ... he drives a car as
if the Devil were .. han læser til ingeniør he
is studying to become an engineer han spiller
overlæge he plays a chief surgeon han leger
overlæge he is playing the chief surgeon han tog
frakke på he put on a coat
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Incorporation
- a syntactic process by which a verb plus its
central complement (Subject Complement or Direct
Object) together form a complex predicator of
fixed meaning. Cf. han tog frakke på med
han tog en frakke på han spiste bøf
han spiste en bøf
Danish incorporates Subject Complements and
Direct Objects by changing them from referring to
classifying expressions, and by stress
reduction. English does not have any formal
means of incorporation.
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Differences in use of the definite article
Danish
English
(Incorporation)
(No incorporation)
han spiller trombone
he plays the trombone
han har mæslinger
he has the measles
(Generic of abstract N -en)
(Generic of abstract N -ART)
Kærligheden besejrer alt
Love conquers everything
Livet er en karrusel
Life is a merrygoround
til døden skiller jer
...till death you doth part