Overlap between Semantics and Pragmatics

Overlap between Semantics and Pragmatics

1. Different units of analysis: words, utterances, sentences, prepositions, texts.

   • Words
     • A word can defined as a minimal permutable element. We can identify words as dictionary entries.
   • Utterances
     • It is created by speaking or writing a piece of language.
   • Sentences
     • Sentences are abstract grammatical elements obteined from utterances. They are abstracted or generalizad from actual language use.
   • Preposition
     • The part of the meaning of the utterance of a declarative sentence which describes some state of affairs.

2. Meaning and the world. Diferent dimensions of meaning.

   • Reference, denotation and sense
     • Reeference
       • It points to the concept which mediates between the word or expression and the referent.
     • Denotation
       • It is part of the meaning which the expression has in the language-system.
     • Sense
       • It is defined as the set or network of sense relations that hold between it and other expressions of the same language.

3. Contextual meaning.

   • Sense, homonyny, polsemy and ambiguity.
     • Ambiguity has become more and more relevant because of all kinds of computational devices where natural language is involved.

4. Extensions of meaning: metaphor and metonymy.

   • Metaphor is the use of a word or phrase to mean something different from the literal meaning.
     • Words are individuated by their form, wheter phonological or graphic.
     • There must be a relation of dependency between elements of meaning

5. Defining Words and Lexems.

   • There are a number of difficulties in trying to define the concept of word. Identifying word meaning is not an easy task.
     • Bloomfield (1984) defined the word as a minimum free form of the smallest unit of speech.

6. The concept of Lexical Field

   • It is a group of lexemes that belong to a particular area of knowledge or activity.
     • Lexical Relations
       • Homonymy
         • When the same phonological unit has two or more unrelated senses.
       • Polysemy
         • Lexical relations that deal with multiple senses of the same phonological unit.
       • Synonymy
         • Different phonological words that have the same or very similar meanings.