The Meaning of the Sentence

Part 3SENTENCE MEANING

Chapter 1 The meaning of the sentence

1. Sentence

• “a string of words put together by the grammatical rules of a language, (…) expressing a complete thought’ (Hurford & B. Heasley, 2001:16,18)

2. Approaches to sentence meaning

• Denotational theory: reference and truth

• Conceptualist theory: concepts or ideas associated with the expression

• Pragmatic theory: meaning by participants in an interaction (meaning-is-use theory)

• Cognitive theory: a reflection of the way we conceptualize the world out there.

3. Grammaticality, acceptability, meaningfulness

• Grammatical sentences are not necessarily meaningful or acceptable

The farmer killed the house

• Acceptability: related to social etiquette, rationality and logical coherence

His father died last night

His father passed away last night

• Meaningfulness: conditioned by how well-formed that sentence is semantically

Colourless green ideas sleep furiously

-> meaningless, uninterpretable

4. Principle of compositionality

• The meaning of a sentence is determined by the meanings of its parts and by the way in which those parts are assembled

=> Compositionality: structural meaning, textual meaning, representational meaning and interpersonal meaning (modality)

• Structural meaning: results from a particular arrangement of the parts of the sentence

Ve dunno who tuk that yob.

• Representational meaning:

+ experiential function: to communicate

+ logical function: to relate ideas to each other on an equal or subordinate basis

• Interpersonal meaning: to establish and maintain social relations; to influence people’s behaviour and get things done; to express speaker’s feelings, attitudes and opinions

• Textual meaning: to create texts, give text coherence and cohesion

5. Representational meaning

She overslept in the semantics class

• Participant: she

• Process: overslept

• Circumstance: in the semantics class

5.1. process

• In terms of transitivity: transitive and ergative

- Transitive: I gave him a book (actor, goal)

- Ergative: I heard the noise (causer and the affected)

I grow the flowers in my garden/ the flower grow in my garden

He broke the window/ the window broke (window-doer and the affected)

• In terms of complement: intensive and extensive

- Intensive (with subject complement):

John is smart

- Extensive:

+ intransitive: He smokes

+ transitive: He drinks beer

• In terms of grammatical categories

- Material processes (actor and goal)

He has built a fortune along the way

- Mental processes (a senser and phenomenon)

Everyone likes the play

Subdivision:

- Perception (seeing, hearing, noticing, looking, smelling, tasting, etc)

- Affection (liking, fearing, hating, enjoying, etc)

- Cognition (thinking, knowing, understanding, realizing, etc)

- Relational processes

Attributive / Identifying
Intensive / Students are rich
(carrier and attribute) / That student is the talk machine
(the identified and the identifier)
Circumstantial / That student is in London now / Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day
Possessive / She has a wonderful boyfriend / This pen is Mary’s

- Behavioural processes (on the border line between material and mental)

+ Processes of consciousness in forms of behaviours

Look, watch, stare, worry, dream, etc

+ Physiological processes

Laugh, smile, sigh, whine, shout, cry. etc

+ Verbal processes as behaviour:

Chatter, grumble, talk, etc

+ Other physiological processes

Breathe, cough, faint, yawn, etc

+ Bodily postures and pastimes

Sing, dance, lie down, sit down, lean, sit cross-legged, etc

- Verbal processes (on the borderline of mental and relational, a sayer)

Tell, insult, praise, slander, accuse, scold, tc

- Existential processes (on the borderline between relational and material)

- There comes a huge man

- Once upon a time, there lived a king who had a beautiful daughter

- There exist many problems to be solved

5.2. Participants

• Agentive

• Instrumental

• Factitive

• Locative

• Owner and possession

• Benefactive

• Comitative

• Source

• Goal

• Undergoer

• The behaver

• The carrier and attribute

• The identifier and the identified

• The existent

• Dative

5.3. circumstances

• Time

• Place

• Condition: if

• Concession: although, despite, in spite of

• Result: so … that

• Manner: with a smile, on purpose, with a ruler, in English

• Attending circumstances: as everyone is here

• Cause: because

• Purpose: so as to, in order to, so that, for a rest, for dinner, for a drink…

6. Interpersonal meaning

6.1. Functions of speech: expressing the speaker’s attitude and opinion

6.2. Grammaticalization of modality:

6.2.1. Mood and modality

- Indicative:

I was absent yesterday -> report

Will she marry me? -> doubt

- Imperative: Be quiet!/ take a seat! -> request

- Subjunctive: I wish I could fly -> wish (epistemic)

It is necessary that he be here -> obligation

6.2.2. Modality in subordinate clause: I order that he must be here at once.

6.3. Lexicalization of modality:

6.3.1. Modal verbs

6.3.2. modal adjectives

6.3.3. modal adverbs

6.3.4. modal nouns

6.3.5. lexical verbs