Semantics

Semantics

1. Meaning of words

2. Symbols

   • Signification

3. Three challenges

   • Circularity
     • Solution
       • metalanguage
   • Linguistic knowledge vs. General knowledge
     • Solution
       • the modelling of conceptual knowledge
   • Contribution of context to meaning
     • Solution
       • literal meaning

4. Sentence meaning

   • compositional

5. Word meaning

   • lexicon

6. Reference and Sense

   • Reference
     • the relationship by which language hooks onto the world.
   • Sense
     • semantic links between elements

7. Levels of language

   • Three terms
     • Utterance
       • real pieces of speech
     • Sentence
       • abstract gramatical elements
     • Proposition
       • descriptions of affairs

8. Literal and non-literal meaning

   • Literal meaning
     • real
   • Non-literal meaning
     • figurative
       • Rhetorical terms
         • metaphor
         • irony
         • metonymy
         • synecdohe
         • hyperbole
         • litotes

9. Semantics and Pragmatics

   • Semantics
     • meaning abstracted away from users
       • sentence meaning
   • Pragmatics
     • meaning described in relation to speakers
       • speaker meaning