Hệ thống semantics

1 ENGLISH SEMANTICS I INTRODUCTION: 1.1 DEFINITION: - SEMANTICS the study of meaning in language - - context free - SENTENCE Would you like a piece of cake? I’m on a diet The bag is so heavy (a man and a girl are going upstairs The girl is carrying the bag and she says:The bag is so heavy”.) It’s so hot Why don’t we go swimming? Would you like an ice-cream? Can you open the window? I’m cold PRAGMATICS The study of meaning in context (The study of the use of lan in communication, particularly the relationship between sentences and the contexts and situations in which they are used.) Context dependent SEMANTIC MEANING Lose weight PRAGMATIC MEANING No refuse the offer The bag is not light It’s heavy Can you please help me carry the bag? The weather is very hot Speaker wants SO to open the air condition I feel cold Doctor: “How you feel?” Patient: “I’m cold.” I’m sick or Speaker wants to borrow a coat Or A girl wants her boy friend to sit nearer She wants a hot, a heart CONTEXT: - That which occurs before and/or after a word, a phrase or even a longer utterance or a text The broader social situation in which a linguistic item is used Contextual meaning: the meaning a linguistic item has in context SENTENCE “Do you know the meaning of war?” I’ll have to be at the office at 8.00 this morning 2 Why don’t you send it by post? “You said it.” II II.1 SITUATION The language teacher said to his students An injured soldier says to a politician who favors war, “War produces death, injuries, and suffering.” Conversation between mother and son Mother: “What time will you have to be … morning?” Son: “I’ll have to be … morning.” Conversation between husband and wife Wife: “Can you take the children to the school now?” Husband: “I’ll have to be at the office at 8.00 this morning.” Conversation between T and Ss T asks Ss to read a sentence Ss read “Why don’t you send it by post?” Me: “I have to give a letter to my family.” John: “Why don’t you send it by post?” Rescue My friend has a secret and she told me not to tell everyone But later everyone knows about it I said to her that I didn’t tell it She rescued me: “You said it.” WORD MEANING SEMANTIC FEATURE [+…] Definition The smallest units of meaning in a word WORD father boy girl assassin teacher hen SEMANTIC FEATURE human, male, mature, parental, paternal [+male], young/-adult, human human, female/-male, young animate, bird, fowl, fully grown, female Characteristics Some semantic features need not be specifically mentioned [+human] is [+animate] Different words may share the same semantic feature WORD Doctor, engineer, teacher, physicist, chemist, tailor, hairdresser,… Mother, father, son, daughter, brother, sister, grandparent, aunt, uncle,… SEMANTIC FEATURE professional kinship Words of different parts of speech may share the same semantic feature PART OF SPEECH Mother (n) Breast-feed (v) Pregnant (a) School, teacher, textbook (n) Teach, educate, instruct (v) SEMANTIC FEATURE female educational The semantic properties of words determine what other words they can be combined with Grammatically correct and syntactically perfect but semantically anomalous My brother is an only child The bachelor is pregnant Colorless gree ideas sleep furiously Exercise For each group of words given below, state what semantic features are shared by the (a) words and the (b) words, and what SFs distinguish between the classes of (a) words and (b) words A Lobster, shrimp, crab, oyster, mussel B Trout, sole, herring, salmon, mackerel The (a) and (b) words are [+edible water animal] The (a) words are [+shelfish] The (b) words are [+fish] Widow, mother, sister, aunt, seamstress Widower, father, brother, uncle, tailor Book, letter, encyclopedia, novel, notebook, dictionary Typewriter, pencil, ballpoint, crayon, quill, charcoal, chalk Bachelor, son, paperboy, pope, chief Bull, rooster, drake, ram, stallion Walk, run, skip, jump, hop, swim Fly, skate, ski, ride, cycle, canoe, hang-glide Table, pencil, cup, house, ship, car Milk, tea, wine, beer, water, soft drink Ask, tell, say, talk, converse Shout, whisper, mutter, drawl, holler Book, temple, mountain, road, tractor Idea, love, charity, sincerity, bravery, fear Alive, asleep, awake, dead, half-dead, pregnant Depressed, bored, excited, upset, amazed, surprised Rose, lily, tulip, daisy, sunflower, violet Ash, oak, sycamore, willow, beech Pine, cedar, jew, spruce, cypress Exercise Identify the semantic features in each of the following words Child Aunt Hen Oak (tree) Flower Palm (hand) Palm (tree) Bachelor spinster Actress Plod Ewe Fly (v) Fly (insect) Stallion Police-officer Beauty Imagine Actress Plod Ewe Fly (v) Fly (insect) Stallion Police-officer Beauty Imagine Doe Drive Home Elm Chalk Rose Chick Pap Tiptoe Pine (tree) Owe Computer Honesty Maid Exercise How can you distinguish the words given in the following table from one another, considering their semantic features? Malay Sadara English Brother Vietnamese Anh Chinese Huynh Em Sister Chị II.2 Đệ Muội Tỷ Semantic field/lexical field /lexical set The organization of related words and expressions into a system which shows their relationship to one another WORD Kinship Adjectives describing human emotional states Drinking vessels SEMANTIC FIELD Father, mother, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, … Angry, sad, happy, exuberant, depressed, afraid,… Cup, mug, tumbler, wine glass, beer glass,… Ways of organizing semantically similar items into semantic fields WAY Items related by topics Items similar in meaning Terms describing people whose weight is below normal Items which form pairs of antonyms Types of fruit Apples, oranges, grapes, bananas, pears, plums,… Pieces of furniture Seats, tables, beds, storage,… Terms of color Blue, red, yellow, green, black, white,… Ways of cooking Stew, boil, fry, steam, roast, grill, smoke,… Ways of looking Gaze, glance, peer, squint, stare Ways in which a liquid escapes from its container Drip, leak, ooze, run, seep Thin, bony, skinny, scrawny, underweight, emaciated, slender, slim Long-short Light-heavy Alive-dead Love-hate Approve-disapprove Begin-end Inside-outside Upstairs-downstairs Smart-bright-intelligent Conserve-preserve-safeguard Fix-repair-mend Kind-sort-type-variety Happy-glad Items which form pairs or trios of synoyms Items grouped as an activity or a process Do the house work Clean the rooms, the washing, iron the clothes, get the food, prepare a meal, wash up Do research Make hypotheses, collect data, analyze data, get results, come to conclusions Sex Male-female: waiter-waitress, tiger- tigress, actor-actress, host-hostess, landlord-landlady, sir-madam Age Grown-ups, adults, elderly people, middle-aged people, teenagers, children, infants, babies Age and sex Horse: Stallion: [male, fully grown] Mare: [female, fully grown] Foal: [+-male, -fully grown] Dog: Dog: : [male, fully grown] Bitch: [female, fully grown] Puppy: [+-male, -fully grown] Items classified according to Exercise Organize the given words into three semantic fields Shirts, end, forward, new, hats, lend, coats, shorts, beginning, trousers, amble, out, limp, tiptoe, plod, socks, trudge, borrow, stomp, in, stump, old, backward, tramp II.3 Lexical gap The absence of a word in a particular place in a lexical field of a language WORD Horse Goat ? Dog MALE Stallion Billy-goat Bull Dog FEMALE Mare Nanny-goat Cow Bitch BABY Foal Kid Calf puppy Exercise Try to fill in each of the two blanks with an appropriate word to prove that there is no lexical gap in the given semantic fields Word Sheep Giraffe 2.3 Male Ram Male giraffe Female Ewe ? baby ? Baby giraffe Referent, reference, and sense Referent An object or an entity in the real world or in the world of your imagination that is talked about Reference Reference of a word or a linguistic expression is the relationship between that word/expression and the thing, the action, the event, the quality it refers to IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE REFERENCE IN THE REAL WORLD “Peter’s house” (English noun phrase) < -> The house belonging to Peter Sense The sense of a word or a linguistic expression shows the internal relationship between that word/expression and others in the vocabulary of language Words Teacher Student A dog is chasing a cat A dog is human The King of Vietnam is bald By the year 3000, our descendants will have left the Earth WORD Bachelor +sense the one who gives a lesson who has the lesson given by teacher x -sense +reference -reference x x x REFERENT x x REFERENCE The relationship between the word bachelor and a certain unmarried man SENSE Unmarried man The relationship between the name Bach Tuyet and the lovely princess “Tuyet Trang” A man who hasn’t ever been married Bach Tuyet The lovely princess in a fairy tale Variable reference, constant reference, and co-reference Language expression Referent >= reference Variable Explain “Your left ear” More example 6 billion people with left ear in the world “Please look at your book!”  Student A looks at his book Student B looks at her book … Student N looks at his book 1 Constant >= co The sun: only one “The leader of the Labor Party in 1006” “The Prime Minister of the UK in 2006”  Mr Tony Blair The moon, Halley’s comet, the People’s Republic of China, Angola, the United Nations, FIFA, UNESCO The morning star and the evening star  the planet Venus John wearing red shirt and singing a song The man who is my father The man who married my mother Exercise What is identified by the word mean or meaning in the following examples, i.e reference or sense? When Albert talks about “his former friend”, he means me Daddy, what does logic mean? Purchase has the same meaning as buy Look up the meaning of democracy in your dictionary If you look out of the window now, you’ll see who I mean II.4 Word Denotation and connotation Denotation of a word is the core, central or referential meaning of the word found in a dictionary Connotation: the additional meaning that the word has beyond its denotative meaning It shows people’s emotions and/or attitudes towards what the word refers to Denotation Connotation woman [+human], female, adult man [+human], male, adult + Long hair, beautiful, kind, devoted, patient Strong, handsome Child Human, -mature, +-male Affectionate, innocent Jealous, talkative, wicked, Shellfish, violent, heart-tempered Noisy, irritating 10 Rose Plant, flower, colored Dragon Lots of tails, can fly Owl Large round eyes, thump at night snake a reptile with a very long thin body and no legs There are many types of snake, some of which are poisonous Evil, dangerous Fox a wild animal of the dog family, with reddishbrown fur, a pointed face and a thick heavy tail A person who is cunning, deceitful (a person who is clever and able to get what they want by influencing or tricking other people) Christmas Dec 25th June The sixth of month of the year December The twelfth month of the year, next after Nov Bachelor Unmarried man Spinster Unmarried woman A red rose with green stem Good smelling, simple of love, romantic, beautiful Simple of king (Eastern culture): powerful, prosperous, royal, Bad omen (Asian culture) Expensive, có gai??? Dangerous, destruction (Western culture) Wisdom (European culture) Winter, cake, festival, funny, cheerful Summer, vacation, hot weather holiday season, Christmas, winter break, Bad weather(usually rainy or snowy), dark evening, grey sky, slippery streets, loneliness, separation from the beloved - Still single after the usual age for marrying - decided by himself to stay single - enjoying freedom, friendship, life - ready for his impending marriage Still single after the usual age for marrying Not decided by herself to stay single Left in an unfavorable state A symbol for some failure in life Symbol of passion and love 16 Ceiling Earth Drive Fork Tail A part of animal Top inner surface of a room Upper limit The planet where we are living The soil To force SO to go somewhere To provide power to make operate Tool with sharp points for lifting food Gardening tool with metal point A part of animal A part of a coat  Hyponymy A sense relation in which the referent of a word is totally included n the referent of another word In other words, hyponymy is the relationship between each of the hyponyms and it’s superordinate/hypernyms Hepernym/superodinate Animal Pig Virtue Emotion Color Blue Weapon Cook Fry Plant Hyponyms Cat, dog, cow, horse Boar, sow, piglet Carefulness, prudence, patience, generosity, kindness Happiness, anger, anxiety, sadness Yellow, grey, blue, green, red Turquoise, aquamarine, royal blue Airplane, rocket, tank, grenade, submarine, torpedo, missile, helicopter Grill, toast, boil, fry, roast, bake, smoke Stir-fry, sauté, deep-fry Tree, bush (shrub), flowering plant, moss, grass * Incompatibility Animal (hypernym) 17 Cat Dog Horse cow Cat-dog-horse-cow: co-hyponyms Sense relation between co-hyponyms that have the same hypernym (animal) is incompatibility  Homonymy, Homophony, Homography Homonymy is a relation in which various words have the same (written and sound) form but have different meanings Word (homonym) Pronounced Bank /…………/ Bear (n) Bear (v) Book (n) Book (v) Nail Meaning A financial institution The shore of a river A large heavy animal with thick fur Give birth to tolerate A book To book a ticket A part of a finger A thing Homophony is a relation in which various words have the same sound form but have different meanings and written forms Word (homophone) Hour Our Place Plaice Pronounced /…………/ /pleIs/ Meaning A twenty-fourth part of a day and night Belonging to us A particular area off position in space A type of fish Homography is a relation in which various words have the same written form but have different meanings and sound forms 18 Word (homograph) Lead (v) Lead (n) Read (v) Pronounced /li:d/ /led/ /ri:/ /red/ Meaning Does this road lead to town? Lead is a heavy metal V1 V3  Lexical ambiguity Structural ambiguity: a sentence is considered as structurally ambiguous when its structure permits more than one interpretation Lexical ambiguity: any ambiguity resulting from the ambiguity of word Both polysemy and homonymy contribute to lexical ambiguity She cannot bear children He waited at the bank Is he really that kind? The long drill was boring It takes a good ruler to make a straight line That robot is bright He gave me a ring last night He greeted the girl with a smile Don’t seat on those glasses 2 2 2 2 Tolerate Give birth to Financial institution Shore of a river That kind of peron so kind The long tool for drilling Long exercise (a way of learning sth by means of repeated exercises) Instrument Governor/person who has power Shining intelligent a phone call gift to a lover The boy was smiling The girl was smiling Eye-glasses Glasses for drinking 19 Exercise 20 Explain the lexical ambiguity in each of the following sentences by providing two sentences that paraphrase its two different meanings He waited by the bank Meaning 1: He waited by the financial institution Meaning 2: He waited by the shore of a river When he got the clear title to the land, it was a good deed The proprietor of the fish store was the sole owner We like the ball They passed the port at night The captain corrected the list He was knocked over by the punch The camel swallowed the chocolate and then ate it Exercise 21 Does polysemy or homonymy contribute to the lexical ambiguity in each of the two given sentences? She cannot bear children The cat sat on the mat Exercise 22 In what way are homonyms related to lexical ambiguity? 20 Exercise 23 In what way is a polysemous word related to lexical ambiguity? III SENTENCE MEANING 3.1 Paraphrase - Paraphrase is the relationship between a word and a combination of other words with the same meaning - A paraphrase is provided by another sentence that has virtually the same meaning - A sentence which expresses the same proposition as another sentence is a paraphrase of that sentence - Sentences are paraphrases if they have the same meaning (except possibly for minor differ ences in emphases) Ways to paraphrase Change individual words, using synonyms using relational antonyms Change sentence structure Change both individual words and sentence structure Original sent Cats drink cream I’ll be happy to come I lent that book to Jim Cats drink cream Paraphrase Domestic felines consume the liquid fat of milk I’ll be glad to come Jim borrowed that book from me Cream is drunk by cats The liquid fat of milk is consumed by domestic felines Exercise 31 The following pairs are paraphrases of each other Identify the way employed to paraphrase them The house was concealed by the tree The house was hidden by the tree I saw Ted at the party It was Ted that I saw at the party The needle is too short The needle is not long enough The nearest service station is 50 miles away It is 50 miles to the nearest service station 21 Some countries have no coastline Not all countries have a coastline Jenny and Kevin are twins Kevin and Jenny are twins Watching TV is not a waste of time Watching TV is a good way to spend one’s time They had a wonderful holiday even though the weather was bad Despite/in spite of the bad weather, they had a wonderful holiday They had a wonderful despite/in spite of the bad weather My friend loathes string beans My pal hates pole beans I’ll look for that book right now I’ll seek for that book at once/immediately Steve hugged Jane Steve gave Jane a hug John is the parent of James James is the child of John My father owns this car This car belongs to my father John sol the book to David David bought the book from John Steve hugged Jane Jane was hugged by Steve We had hardly begun our work when it rained Hardly had we begun our work when it rained Sitting in one place for so long is very uncomfortable It is very uncomfortable to sit in one place for so long Although Grants Pass, Oregon, is a fairly small town, it offers much Bachelors prefer red-haired girls Girls with red hair are preferred by unmarried men Sam sliced the salami with a knife Sam used a knife to slice the salami Considering your condition, we won’t press charges Under the circumstances, we won’t press charges The laser has a wide variety of applications As we have seen, the use of the laser is numerous In order to make a good impression at a job interview, you should prepare well for the interview As you can see, it is necessary to be well prepared for the job interview Synonyms, word that have the same basic meaning, not always have the same emotional meaning Many so-called synonyms are not really synonyms at all The composition proficiency requirements as now stated should not apply I would propose that the standard used to judge international student papers be relaxed or done away with 22 to amuse summer visitors If you want to give your family a nice, wholesome vacation, try visiting GP, Oregon IV UTTERANCE MEANING IV.1 Deixis PERFORMATIVES & CONSTATIVES DEFINITION A performative is “one that actually describes the act that it performs, i.e it performs some act and simultaneously describes that act.” (Hurford & Heasley, 1984: 235) Ex: + “I promise to see you tomorrow.” (the speaker actually does what the utterance describes The utterance both describes and is a promise.) + “I call you Belle.”(The speaker performs what the utterance describes) A constative asserts something that is either true or false Ex: “John promised to see me tomorrow.” (The utterance describes a promise but is not a promise.) Note: The test for performative is to insert the word hereby between subject & verb Ex: ‘I hereby pronounce you husband and wife.’ Exercise 31 Are the following utterances performative (P) or constative (C) ? ‘I name this ship Monster.’ ‘I believe in the dictatorship of the Proletariat.’ ‘I admit I was hasty.’ ‘I think I was wrong.’ P/C P/C P/C P/C 23 ‘I hereby inform you that you are sacked.’ ‘I give you supper every night.’ ‘I warn you not to come any closer.’ ‘I try to get this box open with a screwdriver.’ ‘I pronounce you man and wife.’ 10 ‘I sentence you to be hanged by the neck.’ Exercise 32 Insert hereby in the following utterances if possible ‘I … give notice that I will lock these doors in 60 seconds.’ ‘I … promised him that I would be at the station at o’clock pm.’ ‘It ….gives me great pleasure to open this building.’ ‘I ….warn you not to talk to my sister again.’ ‘I ….warn you that you will fail.’ ‘They….warn her that she will fail.’ ‘I ….command you to teach first-year Semantics.’ ‘Tokyo ….is the captain of Japan.’ ‘I ….ask you to mind your head.’ 10 ‘I ….believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven & Earth.’ P/C P/C P/C P/C P/C P/C Y/N Y/N Y/N Y/N Y/N Y/N Y/N Y/N Y/N Y/N CHARACTERISTICS  Performative utterances contain a performative verb  Have 1st person singular / plural subject  In the present tense  Sometimes in passive form with 2nd or 3rd person subject Ex: + ‘I (hereby) inform you that you are dismissed.’ + ‘You are (hereby) forbidden to leave this room.’ + ‘Spiting is (hereby) forbidden.’ + ‘Passengers on flight 301 are requested to proceed to gate 10.’ Sometimes, the 1st person singular can be replaced by the 1st person plural or the 3rd person Ex: + ‘We (hereby) thank you for cooperation.’ 24 + ‘My wife and I (hereby) thank you for your compliments.’ + ‘The management (hereby) warn customers that mistakes in change cannot be rectified once the customer has left the counter.’ IMPLICIT & EXPLICIT PERFORMATIVE Explicit performative utterances are those that contain a performative verb while implicit performative ones are those that not contain a performative verb A performative verb is one which, when used in a simple positive present tense sentence, with a 1st person singular subject, can make the utterance of that sentence performative (Hurford & Heasley, 1983: 237) Some common performative verbs: sentence, name, admit, warn, promise, swear, inform, pronounce, apologize, authorize, condemn, declare, object, plead, thank… Ex: + ‘I warn you that you will fail.’ (explicit warning) ‘If you don’t try your best, you’ll fail (implicit warning) + ‘I promise to help you when you need.) (explicit promise) ‘Whenever you need my help, just call.’ (implicit promise) VII FELICITY CONDITIONS “Felicity conditions are the conditions which must be fulfilled for a speech act to be satisfactorily performed or realized The felicity conditions necessary for a promise are: A sentence is used which states a future act of the speaker The speaker has the ability to the act The hearer prefers the speaker to the act rather than not to it The speaker would not otherwise usually the act The speaker intends to the act.” (Richards et al, 1987: 104) Ex 1: The Queen to servant: “Open the window” Speech act: ordering Felicity condition: the speaker must be superior to, or in authority over, the hearer 25 Ex : Judge to accused : “You are accused of theft” Speech act: accusing Felicity condition: the accused has taken illegally some property Exercise 36 For the following illocutionary acts, indicate the correct felicity conditions promising a The speaker must intend to carry out the thing promised b The speaker must be inferior in status to the hearer c The thing promised must be something that the hearer wants to happen d The thing promised must be morally wrong apologizing a The speaker must be responsible for the thing apologized for b The thing apologized for must be (or must have been) unavoidable c The thing apologized for must be morally wrong d The hearer must not want the thing apologized for to happen greeting a The speaker & the hearer must be of different sex b The speaker & the hearer must not be in the middle of a conversation c The speaker must believe the hearer to have recently suffered a loss d The speaker feels some respect and/or sense of community with the hearer naming a The thing or person named must not already have a recognized name known to the speaker b The speaker must be recognized by his community as having authority to name c The thing or person named must belong to the speaker d The thing or person named must be held in considerable respect by the community VIII POLITENESS The principle of politeness Leech (1983) proposes maxims concerning the principle of politeness: 26 The approbation maxim: Minimize dispraise of the other; maximize praise of the other The tact maxim: Minimize the cost to the other; maximize the benefit to the other Some utterances seem more polite than others Ex: a ‘Set the table’ (the least polite) b ‘Can you set the table?’ (less polite) c ‘Could you set the table, please?’ (more polite) d ‘Could I possibly ask you to set the table?’ (the most polite) Politeness and indirectness are closely related to each other, so indirect negative responses are more polite than direct ones Ex 1: Jenny: ‘Well, I’ve done this I’ve dyed my hair blond.’ Ed: a/ ‘You look awful!’ (direct, negative: not polite) b/ ‘You look amazing’ (indirect, negative: more polite) (amazing is ambiguous : amazing for its beauty or amazing for its awfulness) Ex 2: Jean: ‘What did the students say about my teaching?’ Kate: a/ ‘Pretty bad’ (direct, negative: less polite) b/ ‘Some students are positive’ (indirect, negative: more polite) X DEIXIS Definition “Deixis is a technical term (Greek) for one of the most basic things we with utterances It means ‘pointing’ via language Any linguistic form used to accomplish this ‘pointing’ is called a deictic expression When you notice a strange object and ask, ‘What’s that?’, you are using a deictic expression (that) to indicate something in the immediate context Deictic expressions are also sometimes called indexicals.” (Yule, 1996:9) “A deictic word is one which takes some element of its meaning from the situation (the speaker, the addressee, the time, the place) of the utterance in which it is used.” (Hurford & Heasley, 1983: 63) Ex: When John says, “I’ve my keys.”, the word ‘I’ here refers to John When Peter says, “I’ve found your keys.”, the word ‘I’ here refers to Peter Classification a Personal deixis “can mark a number of overlapping distinction: person, gender, number, and social relations.” (Finegan, 1994: 178) Personal pronouns and their alternative forms are usually markers of personal deixis 27 Ex: ‘In this family, we rarely smoke or drink.’ ‘Do you like the tea I’ve offered you?’ b Spatial deixis is “the marking in language of the orientation or position in space of the referent of a linguistic expression.” (Finegan, 1994: 179) Common special deixis: this, that, (demonstrative); here, there, … (adverbs of place) Some verbs have a deictic ingredient: (direction verbs) Ex: Come, bring …contain the notion ‘toward the speaker’ Go, take… contain the notion ‘away from the speaker’ c Temporal deixis is “the orientation or position of the reference of actions and events in time.” (Finegan, 1994: 180) Common temporal deixis: adverbs of time (now, then, last time …); tenses Ex: I met her personal temporal pers yesterday at this place(deictic words) temp spatial Exercise 38 Identify the deictic words in the following utterances This town isn’t big enough for both of us That villa was completely destroyed by the storm yesterday Last Monday wasn’t her birthday There she is coming in that brand new car You cannot take my daughter to that place They shouldn’t bring food into the classroom IV.2 Conversational implicature The co-operative principle make your contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged Four basic maxims: 28 The maxim of Quality Quantity Relevance Manner What we say must be True Brief Relevant Clear Sorry love I saw you were home There’s a cat stuck under the gate Context Did you buy salt? I tried to Have you brushed your teeth and tidied the room? I’ve brushed my teeth Is Betsy in? Her light is on Do you love me? I’m quite fond of you Was there a fiddler at the bar last night? There was a man scrapping a bow across a violin Do you like my new carpet? The wallpaper’s not bad Do you like the hamburger you are eating? A ham is a ham I hope you brought the bread and the cheese Ah, I brought the bread Coffee? It would keep me awake all night Have you finished the student’s evaluation form and reading list? I’ve done the reading list Are you going to Mark’s barbecue? Well, Mark’s got those dogs now 4.3 Speech acts Speech acts is an utterance as a functional unit in communication Characteristic Implicature B wanted to say No, I didn’t buy salt B hasn’t tidied his room The light is a signal for us to know that whether she is in the room or not B doesn’t love A The man wasn’t a good fiddler B doesn’t like the carpet B didn’t bring the cheese B would rather not drink coffee B has not done the evaluation form She’s not going to Mark’s barbecue 29 Definition A: I’m thirsty B: I’ll bring you a glass of water Can you shut the window? Certainly Locutionary/propositional meaning Its basic literal meaning conveyed by its particular words and structures I’m thirsty is I am suffering from my thirst Illocutionary meaning/illocutionary force The effect the utterance might have on the hearer A indirectly requests B to give him sth to drink I wonder whether you are able to shut the window A indirectly requests B to shut the window Classification Declarations Speech act type Change the world by bringing about or altering the state of affairs it names: Dismissing, sentencing, naming, announcing marriage Representatives Describe a state of affairs in the world: Stating, claiming, describing, predicting, reporting Expressive Indicates the speaker’s psychological state of deeling/attitude about sth: Greeting, apologizing, thanking Example I now pronounce you man and wife Explain The vicar is directly announcing the legal and permanent union between a man and a woman as husband and wife, simultaneously changing their marital status I resign You’ll be free from tomorrow (I dismiss you from your current position.) Where are you from? I’m from Canada A directly declares to give up his current position B declares to dismiss A from his current position T: There are only two seasons in the south: the dry season and the rainy season S1: Then, each season is exactly six month long? S: Is there any transitional period between them? I beg your pardon I’ll be right back No problem T directly informs Ss of what the weather is like in the south B directly gives a piece of information concerning where he was born and grew up The desk clerk directly apologizes to the client for his absence for a while A directly shows that he extremely dislikes the beer 30 Directive Commissive Intends to get the listener to carry out an action: Commanding, requesting, begging, warning Commits the speaker to a course of action: Promising, vowing, threatening, offering This beer is disgusting Why don’t you learn to take the bad with the good? The garage is a mess Clean it up B directly orders A to make the garage tidy B indirectly asks A to leave her alone, writing her essay How about a dinner out? My essay is due tomorrow morning (Leave me alone to write my essay.) If you don’t stop fighting, I’ll call A directly threatens to call the police if B and her brother the police don’t stop fighting Call them at once to turn your brother in When will I receive my reimbursement? Authors always pay their debts (I’ll pay you back later.) B indirectly promises to pay A back later Locution, illocution, and perlocution act A locutionary act is the saying of sth which is meaning ful and can be understood I’ll see you later What kinds of function can we perform? A promise A kind of warning ... that you will fail.’ ‘They….warn her that she will fail.’ ‘I ….command you to teach first-year Semantics. ’ ‘Tokyo ….is the captain of Japan.’ ‘I ….ask you to mind your head.’ 10 ‘I ….believe