Www .cambndie org! 4729524 765Semantics 11cm The approach just outlined is a start on analyzing the conceptual components of word meaning, but itis not without problems. For many words in a language it may not be as easy to come up with neat components of meaning. If we try to think of the components or features we would use to differentiate the nouns advice, threat and warning, for example, we may not be very successful, Part of the problem seems to be that the approach involves a view of words in a language as some sort of “containers” that carry meaning components. There is clearly more to the meaning of words than these basic types of features. Semantic roles Instead of thinking of words as “containers” of meaning, we can look at the “roles” they fulfill within the situation described by a sentence. If the situation is a simple event, as in The boy kicked the ball, then the verb describes an action (kick). The noun phrases in the sentence describe the roles of entities, such as people and things, involved in the action. We can identify a small number of semantic roles (also called “thematic roles”) for these noun phrases. Agent and theme In our example sentence, one role is taken by the noun phrase The boy as “the entity that performs the action,” technically known as the agent. Another role is taken by the ball as “the entity that is involved in or affected by the action,” which is called the theme (or sometimes the “patient"). The theme can also be an entity (The ball) that is simply being described (i.e. not performing an action), as in The ball was red. Agenis and themes are the most common semantic roles. Although agents are typically human (The boy), they can also be non-human entities that cause actions, as in noun phrases denoting a natural force (The wind), a machine (A car), or a creature (The dog), all of which affect the bail as theme. The boy kicked the ball. The wind blew the ball away. Acar ran over the ball. The dog caughe the ball. The theme is typically non-human, but can be human (the boy), as in The dog chased the boy. In fact, the same physical entity can appear in two different semantic roles in a sentence, as in The boy cut himself. Here The boy is agent and hiriselfis theme. aThe Study of Language Instrument and experiencer [fan agent uses another entity in order to perform an action, that other entity fills the role of instrument. In the sentences The boy cut the rope with an ole razor the picture with a crayon, the noun phrases an old razor and a crayon the semantic role of instrament. When a noun phrase is used to designate perception or state, it fills the semai somet and He drew are being used in an entity as the person who has a feeling, mtic role of experiencer. If we see, know or enjoy thing, we're not really performing an action (hence we are not agents), We the role of experiencer. In the sentence The boy the only semantic role. In the question, Did you and the theme is that noise. arein feels sad. the experiencer (The boy) is hear that noise?, the experiencer is you Location, source and goal A number of other semantic roles designate where an entit event. Where an entity is (on the table, in the entity y is in the description of an room) fills the role of location. Where the moves fromisthe source (from Chicago) and where it maves to is the goal (to Ne Orleans), as in We drove from Chicago to New Orleans, When we t ‘money from savings to checking, the source is savings and the goal ig checking, All these semantic roles are illustrated in the following scenario. Note that a single entity (e.g. George) can appear in several different semantic roles. alk about transferring Mary — saw afly onthe wail. EXPERIENCER THEME Location: She borrowed a magazine — from George. AGENT Tee source She squashed the bug with the magazine, AceNT TWEME INSTRUMENT Ste handed the magazine back to George. AGENT THe Goat “Gee thanks,” said George. AGENT Lexical relations Not only can words be treated as “containers” of meaning, or as fulfilling “roles” in events, they can also have “relationships” with each other, In everyday talk, we ofteninquiring about your ability to carry out a set of actions. Here’s a third case: suppose that your younger sibling is pestering you while you are trying to have a conversation with a friend. Finally, in frustration, you turn to your sibling and say, “Don’t you have anything else to do? Can you take the trash out?” Here you might not care whether your sibling takes the trash out at all. Rather, you just want to be left alone! Suppose, on the other hand, that in the same context, instead of saying (2) to your sibling, you have instead turned to your friend and, while pointing at your sibling, asked whether your friend can take the trash out. Now you are suggesting that your sibling is the trash, and you want your friend to carry your sibling out of the room! The same simple sentence can thus have at least four very different meanings. With a little creativity, you could come up with many more. From both of these examples, it is plain to see that we cannot talk about what an utterance of a sentence means without knowing about the context in which it was uttered. Some people may argue that there are certain default or “out-of-the-blue” interpretations for many sentences. Of course they are correct. For example, for most speakers, the default out-of-the-blue interpretation of (2) is that it is a request. What is important to recognize, however, is that out-of-the-blue is one particular kind of context that affects the meaning of an utterance as much as would any other kind of context. 7.1.4 Types of Context An utterance’s context can be broken up into several components. Linguistic context has to do with what preceded a particular utterance in a discourse. It refers to what others have said earlier in the conversation. So, for example, the answer “Yes” means something entirelydifferent when it is an answer to “Do you like green beans?” than when it is an answer to “Is there a computer available in the computer lab?” or “Will you marry me?” The linguistic context of an utterance tells what speakers are talking about: green beans, a platypus, Santa Claus, or whatever. The linguistic context is made up of all of the sentences that have been uttered in a discourse leading up to the utterance in question. A second aspect of context is si surprisingly, an utterance’s situational information about the situation in which Situational context allows us t around us even if they have not been mentioned before in the discourse. If a goat suddenly walked into your Classroom, you could Say, “It smells,” and everyone there would know that you were talking about the goat. No one would wonder whether you meant the fish you had for dinner or your grandmother's perfume. This is true even though no one had mentioned the goat’s presence already in the discourse. Likewise, if a friend tells you, “The governor was on TV last night,” your friend most likely means the governor of Rhode Island if you are in Rhode on ~ Not context gives it is uttered, © refer to things in the world sO on. We apply our situational knowledge to what we hear all the time. As a third example, a sentence such as Rachael is very tall has a different meaning if the Rachael in question is a Preschooler, a ten-year-old, or a Professional basketball Player. In the first case, the speaker might mean that Rachael is three and a half feet tall; in the second or third case, the speaker could Not possibly mean this, Why? Because people know that preschoolers tend to be around three feet tall but that basketball players tend to be much taller. Consider a situation in which you are describing your three-year-old niece. If you say to your sister, who has not seen your niece since she was an infant, “Rachael is verytall," your sister will know that Rachael is seven feet tall— height! This information do Previously mentioned in th you do not mean that ‘or anything resembling that es mot need to have been discourse in order for the Speakers to use it to understand what others mean. (Refer to File 6.4 for more information about subsective adjectives like tall.) Finally, social context context to figure out whether the Person who says to us “Can you take out the trash?” means “You must do so right now’ or whether she means ‘You don't have to, but I’d appreci late it if you did.’ (Fora more in-depth discussion of the way social contex! t affects language use, refer to Files 10.1 and 11.1.) Together, these three aspects of context—along with several others—provide critical information about what utterances mean, 7.1.5 Felicity: Appropriateness Relative to a Context In addition to using context to also use context to fi appropriate in any discussing syntax and refer to sentences as example, in the senten (4) is ungrammatical, figure out Meaning, speakers gure out whether an utterance is given setting. Recall that when other elements of grammar, we may grammatical or ungrammatical. For ces below, (3) is grammatical while(3) There is a platypus in the bathtub. (4) *There is platypus a in bathtub the. In the same way, when we discuss pragmatics, we refer to utterances as being felicitous or infelicitous. An utterance that is felicitous is one that is situationally appropriate, one that is appropriate relative to the context in which it is uttered. An utterance that is infelicitous is inappropriate in some way. For example, speaker B’s answer in (5) is felicitous, but her responses in (6) and (7) are infelicitous, (Notice that a pound sign # is used to indicate infelicity, just as an asterisk is used to indicate ungrammaticality.) (5) A: What do you do for a living? B: I'ma linguistics professor at Ohio State. (6)A: — What do you do for a living? B: #1 have a job. (7) A: What do you do for a living? B: ## My favorite color is purple, too! Look more carefully at (6) and (7). What seems to be wrong with these two conversations? In (6), the person answering the question isn’t Providing enough detail. In (7), she doesn’t seem to give an answer that is at all related to the question, There are many different reasons why it might be infelicitous to utter a particular sentence in a particular context; the examples above show only two of these reasons.