This document provides an overview of semantics, which is the study of meaning in language. It discusses key concepts such as utterances, sentences, propositions, semantic roles including agent and patient. It also covers lexical relations like synonyms and antonyms, and how word meanings can change based on context. The document is intended as an introduction to linguistics concepts related to semantics.

1. An Introduction to Linguistics
Session 12: Semantics
Edi Brata
http://e-learning.edibrata.com
Mathla’ul Anwar University

2. What is
semantics?
Lexical Meaning
Relations Overview Dimensions
Semantic
Roles

3. Semantics? Semantics comes from the ancient
Greek word semantikos, an adjective
meaning ‘relating to signs’.
The study of the meaning of words,
phrases and sentences
The systematic study of meaning in
language

4. The Systematic Study of Meaning
Psychologist: how the human seeks meaning and
works with them.
Philosophers: how any particular fact that we
know as true is related to other possible facts.
Linguists: how language works.

5. UTTERANCE, SENTENCE
AND PROPOSITION

6. UTTERANCE
• An utterance is any stretch of talk, by
one person, before and after which there
is silence on the part of that person.
• It is used by a particular speaker, on a
particular occasion, of a piece of
language.

7. SENTENCE
• A sentence is a grammatically complete string of
words expressing a (partial) complete thought.
• A sentence can include words grouped
meaningfully to express a statement, question,
exclamation, request or command.
Example :
After cooking, mother speaks to father softly:
“I am tired”

8. SENTENCE
Study these sentences:
1. We walk in the park. (Complete sentence)
2. Our walk in the park.
3. For us walk in the park.
• The difference is grammatical.
• The first expression asserts something, makes a
statement.

9. PROPOSITION
Proposition is the semantic content shared by
the three expressions.
We walk in the park. (single proposition)
We don’t walk in the park. (negation proposition)
Do we walk in the park? (question)

10. PROPOSITION
Proposition Position:
a. Helen put on a sweater.
b. Helen put a sweater on.
These are different English sentences, but they convey the same
message, they express the same proposition.
a. Richard wrote the report.
b. Richard is the one who wrote the report.
c. The report was written by Richard.
d. The report is what Richard wrote.

11. The Dimension of Meaning
o Reference: the relation between a language expression
and whatever the expression pertains to in a particular
situation of language use.
o Denotation: the potential of a word to enter into such
language expressions.
o Connotation: the affective or emotional associations.
o Sense relations: the meaning of any expression varies
with context.
o Lexical meaning: with associations outside language.
o Grammatical meaning: refers to grammatical system.
o Lexical ambiguity: many meanings.

12. SEMANTIC ROLES

13. Definitions of Semantic Role
• Actor is the role of an argument that performs some
action without affecting any other entity.
e.g. Sylvia left.
• Affected is the role of an argument that undergoes a
change due to some event or is affected by some other
entity.
e.g. Music delighted Betty.
A window broke.

14. Definitions of Semantic Role
• Affecting is the role of an argument that, without any
action affects another entity.
e.g. Betty likes opera.
Opera delights Betty.
• Agent is the role of an argument that, by its action,
affects some other entity.
e.g. Tom broke the window.

15. Definitions of Semantic Role
• Associate is the role of an argument that tells the status
or identity of another argument.
e.g. Roger is a student.
• Effect is the role of an argument that comes into
existence through the action of the predicate.
e.g.Tillie baked a pie.

16. Definitions of Semantic Role
• Place is the role of an argument that names the location
in which the action of the predicate occurs.
e.g. The fireman climbed a ladder.
• Theme is the role of an argument that is the topic of a
predicate that does not express action – a stative
predicate.
e.g. Audrey is a computer expert.

17. Kinds of Semantic Roles:
• Valency Zero
• Valency One
• Valency Two

18. Valency
Valency refers to the capacity of a verb to
take a specific number and type of
arguments (noun phrase positions).

19. Valency Zero
• It is snowing.
• It was rainy.
• It has been thundering.
The subject (it) doesn’t name anything. The
sentence has a subject because English requires
a subject, but this subject doesn’t correspond to
anything in the underlying proposition.

20. Valency One
My brother snores.
The sentence has a subject my brother, verb snore
but no object. This sentence uses intransitive
verb or one-argument predicate.

21. VALENCY TWO

22. The cat killed a rat.

23. Syntactic Role
The cat killed a rat.
subject predicate object

24. Semantic Role
(Valency Two)
The cat killed a rat.
argument1 predicate argument2
agent action affected

25. Semantic Role
(Valency Two)
argument1 predicate argument2
agent action affected
cat kill rat
I break window
Ade hit Sudirman
Some action by one entity which affects another entity.

26. Semantic Role
(Valency Two)
Gian dug a hole.
argument1 predicate argument2
agent action effect

27. Semantic Role
(Valency Two)
argument1 predicate argument2
agent action effect
Gian dig hole
Yekti make omelet
Widodo create masterpiece
The argument2 is the result or effect of the action.

28. Semantic Role
(Valency Two)
Yudhie crossed the street.
argument1 predicate argument2
actor action place

29. Semantic Role
(Valency Two)
argument1 predicate argument2
actor action place
Yudhie cross street
Indra enter room
Gunawan climb tree
The action involves movement to with respect to a place.

30. Semantic Role
(Valency Two)
The decision surprised us all.
argument1 predicate argument2
affecting affect affected
• The sentence does not express any action.
• It tells how one entity affects another entity.

31. Semantic Role
(Valency Two)
argument1 predicate argument2
affecting affect affected
decision surprise us
you disturb everybody
comedian impress audience
The predicates expresses an affect, the argument1 names
entity that affects – that has affecting role – and
argument2 names the entity that is affected.

32. Semantic Role
(Valency Two)
Oliver was envious of his brother.
argument1 predicate argument2
affected affect affecting
• The sentence does not express any action.
• It tells how one entity affects another entity.

33. Semantic Role
(Valency Two)
argument1 predicate argument2
affected affect affecting
Oliver envy brother
If the Oliver envies, or loves, or hates, it is Oliver who is
affected by these emotions.

34. Semantic Role
(Valency Two)
Sheila is like her mother.
argument1 predicate argument2
theme link associate
The sentence are about neither action nor affecting.

35. Semantic Role
(Valency Two)
argument1 predicate argument2
theme link associate
Sheila like mother
Tom with Ann
book about semantics

36. Semantic Role
(Valency Two)
argument1 predicate argument2
theme link associate
Sheila is like her mother
Banten is west of Java island
The books are on the table
The bank is near our campus
The next game will be at three o’clock

37. SOME CHANGES IN VALENCY

38. Some Changes in Valency
Agnes wrote her mother a letter. (full sentence)
• Agnes wrote a letter.
• Agnes wrote her mother.
• Agnes wrote.
The sentence is less more informative when it has fewer
arguments, but it’s still a legitimate sentence and the
meaning of write does not change.

39. Four Different Groups of Two-
Argument Verbs
a) The car needs a new battery.
b) We ate lunch (in the kitchen).
c) We ate (in the kitchen).
d) Sisca bathed the baby (in the tub).
e) Sisca bathed (in the tub).
f) I rolled the ball (down the street).
g) The ball rolled (down the street).

40. Explanation
a) The car needs a new battery.
Predicates like need always have two arguments. (need, use,
want, etc)
b) We ate lunch ( in the kitchen)
c) We ate (in the kitchen)
b) contains more specific information than c), but the meaning
of eat is the same.the predicate eat inherently two arguments.

41. Explanation
d) Sisca bathed the baby (in the tub)
e) Sisca bathed (in the tub)
• e) does not simply have less information than d), it conveys
the information that Sisca bathed herself. Certain predicates,
like ‘bathe’ are reflexive, self directed, if they occur without
an object.
• d) has two obvious arguments: Sisca, the actor, and the
baby, the affected.
• e), the argument Sisca could be said to have two roles, actor
and affected. Since, it is sisca who bathes and Sisca who gets
bathed.

42. Explanation
f) I rolled the ball (down the street)
g) The ball rolled (down the street)
• The predicate ‘roll’ has two different, thought
related, meanings in the two sentences:
• G: Agent-Action-Affected;
• H: Affected-Action

43. LEXICAL RELATIONS

44. Lexical Relations
o Synonym: two or more words with very closely related
meanings  big/large, buy/purchase, car/automobile.
o Antonym: two forms with opposite meanings 
alive/dead, big/small, fast/slow, happy/sad.
o Hyponym: the meaning of one form is included in the
meaning of another  animal/dog, dog/poodle,
vegetable/carrot, flower/rose, tree/banyan.
o Prototypes: the idea of ‘the characteristic instance’ of a
category  canary, cormorant, dove, duck, flamingo,
parrot, pelican and robin are all equally co-hyponyms of
the superordinate bird.

45. Lexical Relations
o Homophones: two or more different (written) forms
have the same pronunciation  bare/bear, meat/meet,
flour/flower, pail/pale, right/write, sew/so and
to/too/two.
o Homonym: one form (written or spoken) has two or
more unrelated meanings  pupil (at school)/pupil (in
the eye).
o Polysemy: two or more words with the same form and
related meanings  foot (of person, of bed, of mountain)
or run (person does, water does, colors do).

46. Lexical Relations
o Metonymy: using one word to refer to the other  He
drank the whole bottle, although it sounds absurd literally
(i.e. he drank the liquid, not the glass object).
o Collocation: frequently occurring together  If you say
table, they’ll mostly say chair, and butter elicits bread,
needle elicits thread and salt elicits pepper.

47. References

• Hurford, James R, et. al. 2007. Semantics: A Course Book.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Kreidler. 1998. Introducing English Semantics. New York:
Routledge.
• O’ Grady et al. 2005. Contemporary Linguistics Fifth Edition.
New York: Bedford St. Martin’s.
• Riemer, Nick. 2010. Introducing Semantics. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
• Todd, Loreto. 1987. An Introduction to Linguistics. Singapore.
Longman: York Press.
• Yule, George. 2006. The Study of Language. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.