Basic approaches to semantics. How to think about meaning?

1. • A furry animal with four legs that goes
“miaow”
• A cat
• The actual cat
• Your idea of a cat

2. • An animal with a foot but no legs
• A snail

3. Your idea of a snail
• ?????????????????????????????

4. It has a foot but no legs

5. This is a picture of a snail

6. Your idea of “snail” is not this picture

7. And this picture is NOT the actual snail

8. SNAIL
• The word “snail”
• Your idea of “snail”
• A picture of the snail
• The actual snail

9. Signs
• A word is a sign (Form: letters or sound)
• Meaning: your idea
• A picture is a sign (Form: lines, color etc)
• An actual, real thing in the world

10. How about this question?

11. What is at the end of a rainbow?
• ??????????????????

12. What is at the end of a rainbow?

13. A pot of gold

14. In children’s stories

15. There’s a pot of gold at the end of a
rainbow

16. “A rainbow”
• What is at the end of a rainbow?
• The letter w

17. Rainbow is a word
• When you read the word or hear the word …
• … you get an idea.
• That’s YOUR idea of rainbow
• Think about that

18. A picture of a rainbow

19. The picture is different from the real
rainbow

20. Are rainbows real?

21. Isn’t a rainbow an optical illusion?

22. Rainbow (?????)
• ??????????

23. Rainbow (the band)
• ??????????

24. Rainbow (the band)
• No idea?

25. Rainbow

26. Terrible British band from the 1970s

27. This is a picture of the band

28. But they were real

29. Unfortunately

30. The picture and the actual band is not
the same thing

31. Carrot
• ?????

32. Carrot
• The word carrot
• Your idea of carrot
• A picture of a carrot
• An actual carrot

33. Water
• The word water
• Your idea of water
• A picture of water
• Actual water

34. A sign
•WATER

35. Another sign

36. Another sign

37. Another sign

38. Another sign

39. Emotions

40. Emoticons

41. Emoji

42. Emoji

43. A sign

44. A sign has FORM (the picture)

45. And MEANING

46. The meaning is …?

47. The meaning is …?

48. Feeling puzzled

49. Feeling confused

50. Feeling unsure

51. Thinking carefully

53. The picture (the form)

54. Your idea of its meaning

55. The actual feeling

56. I think you’re so great

57. I think you’re so great

58. I think you’re so great

59. I think you’re so great

60. I think you’re so great

61. Strange animal
• ?????????????

62. Strange animal

63. Strange animal

64. Strange animal

65. Strange animal

66. Strange animal
• Funny beast
• Weird biological organisms

67. Unicorn
• The word unicorn (Form: writing or sound)
• Your idea of unicorn (meaning)
• A picture of a unicorn (Form: a picture)
• An actual unicorn (a real thing in the world)

68. An actual unicorn?

69. There are no actual unicorns

70. And unicorns don’t have wings

71. Who cares? There are no actual
unicorns

72. That’s just YOUR IDEA of a unicorn

73. Maybe MY idea has wings

74. What is the difference between a
unicorn and a carrot?

75. A unicorn is a funny beast

76. A carrot is a bunny feast

77. Bunny

78. Bunny eating a carrot

79. Bunny enjoying a feast

80. A carrot is a bunny feast

81. Other fields influenced by
Semantics

82. Semantics is important in other fields

83. Computer science

84. Model of a word: dog

85. Sound: dog
Grammar:
Noun; needs a determiner
Meaning: “an animal with four
legs that goes bow wow”
Model
of a
word

86. Grammar bit: a noun

87. Grammar: the word needs another
word

88. Meaning bit

89. Sound bit

90. Model of word she

91. Sound bit

92. PHON = phonology

93. Meaning-grammar bit

94. Grammar bit

95. Meaning bit

96. Form-meaning pair
Sound: dog
Grammar:
Noun; needs a determiner
Meaning: “an animal with four
legs that goes bow wow”

97. Phonological form-meaning pair
Sound: dog
Grammar:
Noun; needs a determiner
Meaning: “an animal with four
legs that goes bow wow”

98. Ferdinand de Saussure

99. de Saussure (Linguist from
Switzerland)

100. 1857 - 1913

101. Theory of signs

102. Language: sign system expressing
ideas

103. A sign expressing an idea
Sound: dog
Grammar:
Noun; needs a determiner
Meaning: “an animal with four
legs that goes bow wow”

104. Philosophy

105. Psychology

106. Cognitive science

107. Artificial intelligence

108. Semiotics

109. We communicate meaning to
machines via code

110. Does Pepper really think and feel?

111. How is meaning in Pepper’s brain
different from meaning in your brain?

112. Remember, we don’t know what
meaning is like in our own brains!

113. Is our brain like a computer?

114. Can we create consciousness?

115. Even though we don’t know what
consciousness is?

116. Linguists don’t worry about what
meaning is or where it came from.

117. Linguists just make MODELS of
meaning.

118. For example, like this

119. A female individual

120. NOT a very good model

121. But philosophers DO ask these
questions

122. • How is it possible…
• …for anything…
• …to mean anything?

123. • If X means Y …
• …what is the connection …
• … between X and Y

124. Deep philosophical stuff

125. • Can we really talk about a Language of
Thought …
• …if we never think about the nature of
meaning?

126. How do we know thought is in a
Language?
• Maybe our brains are not like computers.

127. Psychology/psycholinguistics

128. Strongly connected with language-
learning
• What is meaning in the mind?
• What happens when we communicate?
• What happens in our brains when we say a
sentence?
• What happens in our brains when we
understand a sentence?
• How do children acquire meaning?

129. Semiotics

130. Semiotics: the study of signs

131. Language is just one kind of sign

132. • What is the relationship between …
• … a sign …
• … and the thing itself?

133. Cognitive Science

134. Knowledge in the human mind

135. Mind as computer

136. What are our goals?
• Describe words and sentences in isolation and
in context.
• Explain why these meanings are different in
different situations.
• Give a clear explanation of complex meanings.

137. Frames
• Words connect with ideas

138. Frames
• Take an example:
• How about the word “hospital”
• 病院
• What ideas do you get when you hear or read
that word?

139. Just a picture?

140. If you are from Fujiyoshida, maybe this
image

141. Hospital frame
• Other ideas come with the word
• You go to hospital when you’re sick
• Or you have an accident
• You have to be admitted
• You probably have to give the hospital workers
your insurance card
• The doctor examines you and gives you
information
• You probably have to pay money when you finish

142. Breaking the frame
• The doctor gives YOU his medical insurance
card!
• You examine a nurse!

143. Restaurant frame (for a customer)
• Wait to get seated
• Waiter shows you to your seat
• You look at the menu
• You order food and drink
• You wait for it to arrive
• You eat it
• You pay for it

144. Meaning of Restaurant
Restaurant-frame
Thing x

145. Breaking the frame
• You go into kitchen and make the food!
• The waiter pays you!

146. Textbook
• Bookshop
• Use in school
• Related to classes
• Usually not interesting

147. Unicorn frame
• Single horn on head
• Looks like a white horse
• Not real
• Appears in stories

148. Breaking the frame
• A unicorn comes into class!
• A unicorn eats your textbook!

149. Banana
• Breakfast food
• Convenient
• Snack food
• Thick skin
• Can’t eat the skin
• Yellow
• If it’s black, it’s not good

150. Personal computer
• On your desk
• Or maybe you carry it around
• Expensive purchase
• Use it for the internet
• Communication
• Old people usually can’t use it well

151. Pokemon Go
• People walking around looking at their mobile
phones
• Mentioned on the news
• Some kind of game, or something

152. Volcano
• Can be dangerous
• Eruptions
• Be careful
• Maybe tourist attractions

153. Cinema
• Seeing a movie
• In a building
• Pay money to enter
• Dark
• Big screen
• Popcorn

154. Lick
• Action involving tongue
• Ice cream
• Candy
• Dogs do it a lot
• Stamps?

155. Do people still do this?

156. Do we still send letters?

157. Thermometer

159. • Measuring temperature
• Of your body
• Or a room
• In mouth?
• Under your arm?

160. Word Semantics

161. Words, Objects, Concepts

162. Referential Semantics

163. Symbol – thought -- thing

164. Lexical Semantics

165. Referential Semantics:
Relates words and objects

166. Lexical Semantics
Relates words and words

167. How does the word “elephant” relate
to real-world elephants?

168. Plato: words are names for objects

169. Direct relationship between words and
objects?

170. Onomatopoeia

171. Applying Theories of Word
Meaning

172. How do words get meaning?

173. How about the Yamura Mushi?

174. Semantic Fields

175. What is in the Semantic Field for
insect?
• Fly
• Bee
• Wasp
• Mosquito
• Gnat
• etc

176. What is in the Semantic Field for
motor vehicle?
• Car
• Automobile
• Truck
• Van
• Bus
• etc

177. What is in the Semantic Field for food?
• Bread
• Rice
• Cheese
• Sausage
• etc

178. Roget’s Thesaurus

179. Componential Analysis

180. Like this
• Man [+noun] [+concrete] [+animate]
[+human] [+male] [+old]
• Woman [+noun] [+concrete] [+animate]
[+human] [-male] [+old]

181. Chemical elements

182. Meaning elements?
• Man [+concrete] [+animate] [+human]
[+male] [+old]
• Woman [+concrete] [+animate] [+human] [-
male] [+old]

183. Meaning elements
• Semantic primitives
• Semantic features

184. What kind of things can be Semantic
Primitives?
• Must be binary
• What does that mean?
• It means on or off
• It means yes or no
• It means + or -

185. What is a bad Semantic Feature?
• Number of fingers
• Yes or no
• What?

186. What kind of things can be Semantic
Primitives?
• Must apply to ALL the world’s cultures

187. What is a bad Semantic Feature?
• Tatami
• Why is it bad?
• Because it does not apply to ALL the world’s
cultures

188. What about a definition for tatami?

189. Tatami
• [+floor covering]
• [+made of straw]
• [+native to Japan]
• [+rectangular]