Semantics Portfolio

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UFMG - Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais 
 
Name: Débora Soares 
Professor: Heliana Ribeiro 
Discipline: English Semantics 
 
 
Semantics Portfolio 
 
Chapter 1- The Study of Meaning 
 
➢ Summary 
 
KREIDLER, C. W. The Study of Meaning. In: KREIDLER, C. W. Introducing 
english semantics. Psychology Press, 1998, pp. 1-13. 
 
In the first chapter of the book Introducing English Semantics, Kreidler 
(1998) presents an overview of Semantics and some introductory concepts within 
it. The author begins by saying that in general, people are interested in meaning 
and to study it, there are three fields that have different focuses but contribute to 
each other: Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistics. In the book, the focus is on 
Linguistics, so, he says that linguists are interested in studying how language 
works. 
In the second section of the chapter, Kreidler (1998) shows the 
differences between human language and the communication system of animals. 
According to the author, all animals have forms of communication, such as bees 
and dolphins, but humans are the only ones to produce and understand each 
other without external stimulus. For this reason, he says that the first difference 
is that human language is stimulus-free, because human beings do not depend 
on the need for some stimulus to communicate. A second difference between 
humans and animals is the creativity, the human capacity to create new 
utterances and understand it produced by other people, while animals repeat the 
same signs. The arbitrariness is the third difference and the feature responsible 
for the productivity of the language. Productivity is the human ability to express 
the same sentence in different ways, with various words, being distinct from 
animals that have only fixed elements of communication. He concludes by saying 
that language is natural for humans, but the way that meaning is given through 
language is not natural. 
In the third section of the chapter, the author discusses about the 
language acquisition and explains that children learn to speak in childhood and it 
is noticeable that their utterances are not repetitions of other people's speech but 
are created by themselves. As children grow, they learn new skills such as writing 
and reading, which contribute to the creativity of the language. He points out that 
language is learned consciously and unconsciously by people and humans do 
not know how they know, they only use the language according to the occasion, 
having no restriction of topics. But despite these factors, the language has rules 
and restrictions; and it does not have an infinite number of words or the means 
to combine them and even if it did, we would not be able to learn. For this reason, 
the author says that a speaker has two vocabularies that constitute knowledge of 
the language, one to produce utterances and the other to understand people. 
This vocabulary grows in childhood and can change throughout life. 
Another important part addressed by this topic is about grammar and its 
parts. For the author, grammar means the internal knowledge of the speaker and 
the descriptions and explanations given by the linguist. The parts of grammar are 
phonology, which is the description of sounds in language through phonemes; 
syntax, which describes word classes and their organization in sentence or 
sentence formation; and morphology, which describes word formation, its 
derivations and flexions. 
In the last section, the author talks about the types of semantic 
knowledge that all speakers have and exemplifies them. According to him, every 
speaker knows what has meaning in their language to identify an anomalous 
sentence and if a sentence is equivalent, contradictory, ambiguous, or it has the 
same semantic feature. It is also possible to presuppose, paraphrase, establish 
synonyms or antonyms, know how to respond correctly according to the occasion 
or whether the sentences are entailed. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
➢ Exercise 
 
Practice 1.1 
 
Below are ten pairs of sentences. In each pair assume that the first sentence is 
true. Then decide what we know about the second sentence, which has the same 
topic(s). If the first is true, must the second also be true (T)? Or if the first is true, 
must the second be false (F)? Or does the truth of the first tell us nothing about 
the truth of the second (X)? 
1a Rose is married to Tom. 
1b Rose is Tom’s wife. 
True. If 1a is true, 1b entails the truth of the other sentence. If Rose in the first 
sentence is the same Rose of the second, we can presuppose that if she is 
married to Tom, she is his wife. 
 
2a David is an unmarried adult male. 
2b David is a bachelor. 
True. If 2a is true, the second sentence entails the truth of the first sentence and 
we can presuppose that David is a bachelor. 
 
3a This knife is too dull to cut the rope. 
3b This knife isn’t sharp enough to cut the rope. 
X. If the 3a is true, 3b can be true or false because the truth of the first sentence 
tell us nothing about the truth of the second. 
 
4a Victoria likes to sing. 
4b Victoria doesn’t sing. 
False. If 4a is true, the second sentence is contradictory, so it is false. 
 
5a Harold has been here for an hour. 
5b Harold is tired of waiting. 
X. If the 5a is true, 5b can be true or false because the truth of the first sentence 
tell us nothing about the truth of the second. Harold can be tired or not. 
 
6a Mr Bond has given up smoking. 
6b Mr Bond used to smoke. 
True. If 6a is true, the second sentence entails the truth of the other sentence. It 
is not possible that Mr Bond has given up smoking if he had never smoked before. 
 
7a Mr Bond still smokes. 
7b Mr Bond used to smoke. 
False. If 7a is true, the second sentence is contradictory. 
 
8a Oil paintings are more expensive than watercolors. 
8b Watercolors cost more than oil paintings. 
False. If 8a is true, the second sentence is contradictory, because it makes 
opposite statements. 
 
9a The Carlson Hotel is more than a century old. 
9b The Carlson Hotel has operated for more than a century. 
True. If 9a is true, the second sentence entails the truth of the other sentence. If 
the Carlson Hotel has more than a century old, we can presuppose that it has 
operated for more than a century. 
 
10a Alice invited some friends to lunch. 
10b Alice has friends. 
True. If 10a is true, we can presuppose the second sentence. To Alice to invite 
friends to lunch, she needs to have friends 
 
➢ Reflexion 
 
Reading this chapter was a bit difficult, even if the subject was familiar to me. I 
have already studied Semantics of Portuguese but in English it is a bit different, 
so I have to get used to the terms. I like Semantics a lot, it was a bit difficult to 
summarize, but the subject is quite interesting. 
The exercise was not so difficult. I had a bit of a doubt in the pair of sentences 
number 4. I do not know if I confused it with Pragmatics. The first time I read it, I 
had the impression that the truth of the first sentence said nothing about the 
second because of the meaning of the sentence “Victoria doesn't sing”. The 
meaning I understood of that sentence was that Victoria is not a good singer, but 
that would not be an obstacle for her to sing. So, she might like to sing but not be 
a good singer. Reading for the second time thinking that the first sentence is true, 
the second sentence seems contradictory. 
 
➢ Interesting quotes or concepts: 
 
 “Semantics is the systematic study of meaning, and linguistic semantics is the 
study of how languages organize and express meanings.” (p. 3) 
“We know the language but we do not fully know what we know.” (p. 6) 
“…speakers have two vocabularies, one that they use in producing utterances 
and a somewhat larger one that is needed for understanding a variety of people.” 
(p. 6) 
“We use the term grammarto mean two things: the implicit knowledge that a 
speaker has and the explicit description and explanation of it by the linguist.” (p. 
7) 
“Phonology is the knowledge, or the description, of how speech sounds are 
organized in a particular language—there are units called phonemes which 
combine in various possible ways (but not all possible ways) to express 
meaningful units such as words.” (p. 7) 
“Syntax is the knowledge, or the description, of the classes of words, sometimes 
called parts of speech, and of how members of these classes go together to form 
phrases and sentences.” (p. 8) 
“Another part of grammar is morphology, the description or the knowledge of word 
formation: the account of different forms of the ‘same’ word (cat, cats; connect, 
connecting, connected) and the derivation of different words which share a basic 
meaning (connect, disconnect, connection)” (p. 8) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Chapter 2- Language in Use 
 
➢ Summary 
 
KREIDLER, C. W. Language in Use. In: KREIDLER, C. W. Introducing english 
semantics. Psychology Press, 1998, pp. 17-38. 
 
In this chapter, Kreidler (1998) presents the differences between 
Semantics and Pragmatics. According to him, these two fields of Linguistics deal 
with meaning, but under different aspects. While the first studies the ability of 
speakers to use language and understand what is spoken by others, the latter 
studies the ability of the speaker to imply meaning in situations and the language 
used in context. Nevertheless, Semantics and Pragmatics are very close, so the 
boundary between them is vague. Throughout the chapter, the author also 
discusses prosody, intonation and non-verbal communication. 
In the second section of the chapter, the author explains that language is 
a group of symbols, whether written or spoken, used by people to communicate. 
When a group of people use the same language, they are part of a language 
community. Dialects are part of these communities because even though there 
are differences, there is an understanding of the language. After that, the author 
says that there are two types of signs: the natural and the conventional and that 
human beings are used to interpreting these signs. According to him, this 
interpretation of the information occurs through a process that consists of three 
parts. 
The first part is perception, when the observer perceives the signal in 
some context; the second part is identification, when the observer connects the 
signal with some previous occurrence in his/her memory after recognition and the 
last part is interpretation, when the observer interprets the signal according to the 
context. The author emphasizes that the same sign can have different 
interpretations in different situations. 
In the third section of the chapter, the author discusses about linguistics 
signs in sequence to what was said in the previous section. Although he has 
started talking about words as linguistic signs, the author focuses on the process 
of getting information and the concepts of perception, identification and 
interpretation in the language in use. The first step is the perception of the 
utterance, whether written or spoken, and for identification, both the speaker and 
the hearer need to share a common-ground. If there is understanding, the hearer 
interprets the statement correctly and the communication is completed. After this 
process, the hearer retains only the important part of the message not 
considering pauses and repetitions said by the speaker. However, the speaker 
must have a sense of the background information of the hearer so that he can 
infer and understand for the speech to be complete. 
The fourth section of the chapter begins with the distinction between 
sentence and utterance. By means of examples, the author shows that within a 
sentence can contain different utterances, and can be used in many speeches in 
different contexts. The author emphasizes that the main difference is that the 
utterance is an event, an act of speech or writing that happens only once, while 
the sentence is only a construction of words in sequence that has meaning in 
some language. According to Kreidler, the meaning of a sentence is “the 
meanings of the individual words and the meaning of the syntactic construction 
in which they occur” (1998, p.27), while the meaning of the utterance is “the 
meaning of the sentence plus the meanings of the circumstances” (1998, p.27). 
The name given for these circumstances by the author is physical-social context. 
Thus, an utterance is part of a larger discourse, as said by the author, because it 
depends not only on the meaning, like the sentence, but also on the context. In 
addition, the chapter explains the concept of implicature, which are parts of 
information inserted in the context unconsciously, acting as connections between 
utterances. 
In the fifth section of the chapter, the author discusses prosody, which 
can be understood as the way words are said in a speech. The prosody is formed 
by intonation and accent, and every utterance has an intonation, either in a rising 
or a falling pitch. The meaning of some utterance may be changed because of 
prosody, through the emphasis placed on a particular word or syllable. Finally, 
the author presents the types of intonation of sentences that distinguish 
utterances: statement and question (fall vs rise), representing an answer or a 
statement; information sought and repetition requested (fall vs rise), representing 
a request for repetition or information; parallel structure and antithesis (fall vs fall 
and rise) indicating correlation or not; open question and alternative question (rise 
vs rise, fall), indicating a polar or non-polar question; and full statement and 
reservation (fall vs fall-rise), representing agreement or partial agreement. 
In the last section of the chapter, the author addresses about non-verbal 
communication. Although they are not considered parts of language, gestures 
are visual signals that have a standard and can have different meanings 
according to the culture of each country. Some vocal sounds such as laughter 
and whistling, even though they are part of speech, are not considered part of 
language being part of the paralanguage, which combined with gestures can 
express the emotions of the speaker. In conclusion, according to the author, a 
face to face communication must have some linguistics and non-linguistics 
features such as words forming utterances, prosody, paralanguage, gestures, 
among others. 
 
 
 
➢ Exercises 
 
Practice 2.1 
 
Sometimes we can interpret what the speaker intends from clues in the physical 
context even though we don’t understand completely what he or she has said 
(interpretation without identification) and even without having heard everything 
said (interpretation without perception). Can you recall an instance in which you 
did not fully understand what someone said but figured out from the context what 
he or she meant—what the speaker was trying to do, what the circumstances 
seemed to require, etc.? If you can’t remember such an event, perhaps you can 
imagine one. 
I do not remember any specific event. But one situation where a person can 
understand the context even without having heard is when we have a person with 
hearing loss at home. My father has a hearing impairment and often does not 
understand what we are talking about, but through the context he is able to 
deduce the subject of the conversation or what he should do. 
 
Can you recall an instance in which you understood quite well what somebody 
said but still could not interpret it, because you did not have background 
information, didn’t grasp what the message was about? If not, maybe you can 
invent a possible situation. 
One event I remember was when I entered the undergraduate research project 
on Semanticsand in the meetings, although I understood about the subject 
(Semantics), I could not understand what they were talking about, because I was 
not yet aware of the complete research. 
 
Practice 2.2 
 
The meaning of any language symbol depends to an extent on the context in 
which it occurs. Here are two ‘narratives’ that are rather vague because a lot of 
details are missing, but in each group the mere collocation of the words that are 
here tells a sort of story. 
 (a)… pain… clinic… doctor… examine… surgery… hospital… nurses… 
preparation… surgeon… successful operation… quick recovery 
(b)… rocket… preparation… countdown… blastoff… orbit… splashdown… quick 
recovery… successful operation 
The term successful operation occurs in both stories. Does it seem to have the 
same meaning in both of them? 
The term ‘successful operation’ does not have the same meaning in both stories. 
In the first case, the term represents in the context of a hospital, when a surgery 
has occurred and the results were successful. The words “operation” and 
“surgery” are synonymous. In the second case, the term is used when launching 
a rocket, at the time when the launch operation was completed and everything 
went well. The word operation is related to the set of actions performed by 
professionals in launching the rocket. 
The phrase quick recovery also occurs in both stories. Does it have the same 
meaning in both? 
The term ‘quick recovery’ in the same contexts has totally different meanings. In 
the hospital, it means that after some procedure, the patient's recovery is being 
satisfactory and at the launch of a rocket, means that it was possible to maintain 
control of the spacecraft quickly after landing in the water. 
 
Practice 2.3 
 
In the following short discourses what is the implicature that connects the second 
utterance to the first? 
(a) Is there a garage near here? Our engine is making strange noises. 
The implicature can be that the owner of the car needs a nearby location to repair 
it. 
 
(b) Barbara: How did you do on the examination? 
Barry: I think I’ll just drop this course. 
The implicature can be: “I did not do well”. 
 
(c) Jim: Would you like to go dancing tomorrow night? 
Laura: We have guests coming from out of town. 
The implicature can be: I cannot go dancing tomorrow night. 
Has Laura answered Jim’s question? If so, what is her answer? Has she 
answered a question that he didn’t ask? If so, what is the question? 
Laura answered Jim’s question and answered a question that he didn’t ask. She 
presupposes that he will implicate and understand that she can’t go dancing 
based on her answer about the guests she will receive. 
 
Practice 2.4 
 
The utterance “Alex phoned Louise last SUNday” may not have any special 
emphasis, or it may emphasize Sunday as opposed to any other day. Each of the 
following utterances has an emphasis that makes a contrast. What is the contrast, 
in each case? 
a) Alex phoned Edna LAST Sunday. 
In this utterance, the emphasis is on ‘last’ because Alex did not phone Edna on 
any other Sunday, but on the last Sunday. 
 
b) Alex phoned EDna last Sunday. 
In this utterance, the emphasis is on ‘Edna’ because Alex did not phone someone 
else, he phoned to Edna. 
 
c) Alex PHONED Edna last Sunday. 
In this utterance, the emphasis is on ‘phoned’ because he did not visit, did not 
send a message or anything, he specifically phoned to Edna. 
 
d) ALex phoned Edna last Sunday. 
In this utterance, the emphasis is on ‘Alex’ because he was the one who phoned 
Edna and not someone else. 
 
 
 
Practice 2.5 
 
How would you say “Yes, it is” in these two discourses? 
(a) Is this your pen? Yes, it is. (answering the question) 
↓Yes, it is. 
 
(b) This isn’t your pen. Yes, it is. (contradicting) 
↑Yes, ↓it is. 
 
Practice 2.6 
 
Here are ten stylized gestures that are used by speakers of English. Write down 
what each one ‘means’—that is, how you would interpret it in one or more speech 
situations. Then compare your interpretations with those made by other members 
of your class. 
(a) The index finger of one hand points at someone and the hand is moved up 
and down three or four times with deliberate motion (‘shaking a finger at 
someone’). 
When someone is angry and scolds another person. 
(b) The fist, with knuckles down, moves up and down in short movements 
knocking on something or as if knocking on something (‘knocking on wood’). 
It is a superstition, when the person is trying to avoid bad luck for something that 
someone else said. 
 (c) Shoulders are moved upward and down again, possibly repeated (‘shrugging 
shoulders’). 
It is a sign that the person does not care. 
(d) Hands are clasped across each other, palm against palm, and forearms move 
back and forth; this gesture can be executed in front of oneself or over one’s head 
(‘shaking hands with oneself’). 
It is a sign of victory on some occasion, generally used by politicians. 
(e) Hand is held on the stomach, palm inward, and the hand makes a circular 
movement. 
Is is used when the person is hungry or in pain. 
(f) The tongue moves back and forth over the lips (‘licking one’s lips’). 
It is a sign of the body language used in flirting. 
(g) The palm of one hand is brought up and slaps smartly against the forehead. 
It is a gesture used when someone forgets something 
(h) The hand, slightly cupped, is pulled across the forehead as if wiping 
something away, 
It is a gesture symbolizing relief or fatigue. 
(i) The index finger is pulled across the throat; the gesture may be accompanied 
by a noise that is made with movement of air (and saliva) on one side of the 
mouth while the lips are slightly open on that side. 
It is a gesture used to say that someone is in trouble. 
(j) The fingers of the two hands are interlocked and the thumbs move in circles 
around each other (‘twiddling one’s thumbs’). 
It is a gesture used by bored or anxious people in some situation. 
 
Practice 2.7 
 
In a class composed of students from different countries it will be interesting to 
compare the signals made in the following situations: 
(a) Two people who are acquainted see each other at some distance and greet 
each other with a gesture. 
To greet, we wave our hands in the air. 
 
(b) Two people who have been together move apart and give each other a 
farewell signal. 
To greet, we wave our hands in the air. 
 
(c) One person signals to another one to come forward. 
To signal to another person to come forward we shake our hands 
 
(d) One hand is used to indicate the height of a child or of some object. 
 To indicate the height of some object, we place our hand horizontally at the 
desired height. 
(e) The gesture-maker wants to indicate himself/herself. 
To indicate himself, the gesture-maker uses the index finger pointed at himself. 
 
(f) A movement to signal agreement or an affirmative answer. 
To signal agreement or an affirmative answer, we shake our heads up and down. 
 
(g) A movement to signal a negative answer, 
To signal a negative answer, we shake our heads from side to side. 
 
(h) A way of indicating one’s opinion that some other person is ‘crazy.’ 
To indicate that some other person is crazy, we move the index finger in circles 
close to the ear. 
 
➢ Reflexion 
 
Reading this chapter was easier than the first, because I really like Pragmatics. I 
find it extremely interesting because I like to study gestures, non-verbal 
communication, body language, and Prosody. Summarizing is not so easy 
because all the content seems important, but it worked. I had no problems with 
most of the exercises, they were easy to understand and solve. The practices 2.6 
and 2.7 were more difficult because I didn't understand some of the gestures 
described, so I searched Google and I didn't know the meaning of some of them. 
 
➢ Interestingquotes or concepts: 
 
“Pragmatics and semantics can be viewed as different parts, or different aspects, 
of the same general study” (p.18) 
“A language is a system of symbols through which people communicate.” (p.19) 
“All sorts of sights, sounds and smells can be natural signs; they communicate to 
someone who observes and can interpret but their messages are unintentional, 
the by-products of various events.” (p.20) 
“…linguistic meaning, what is communicated by particular pieces of language, 
and utterance meaning, what a certain individual meant by saying such-and-such 
in a particular place, at a particular time, and to certain other individuals.” (p.27) 
“An implicature is a bridge constructed by the hearer (or reader) to relate one 
utterance to some previous utterance, and often the hearer or reader makes this 
connection unconsciously.” (p.29)