Ambiguity and Expressive meaning in semantics.
Ambiguity and
Expressive meaning in
semantics.
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A
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A
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E
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:
O
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Table of contents
:
A
m
b
i
g
u
i
t
y
:
W
h
a
t
i
s
“
A
m
b
i
g
u
i
t
y
”
?
*
a
W
o
r
d
,
a
p
h
r
a
s
e
o
r
a
s
e
n
t
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n
c
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i
s
a
m
b
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o
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f
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t
h
a
s
m
o
r
e
t
h
a
n
o
n
e
s
e
n
s
e
.
F
o
r
e
x
a
m
p
l
e
s
:
C
a
n
y
o
u
g
i
v
e
m
e
a
h
a
n
d
?
I
`
m
a
s
k
i
n
g
f
o
r
h
e
r
h
a
n
d
.
A
m
b
i
g
u
i
t
y
:
•
A deictic expression
will refer to
different individuals
when spoken by
different speakers
, but this does
not
make it ambiguous
.
•
A word
or
a
phrase
can have
different denotations
in
different
contexts
does
not
mean that it has
multiple senses
. but this does
not
make it
---
ambiguous
.
For examples:
The president of the United State
visits Iraq.
The 46th
president of the united state
is Joe Biden.
In 2008,
the president of the United State
is Barak Obama.
For example:
I
love
my father
.
K
i
n
d
s
o
f
a
m
b
i
g
u
i
t
y
:
1
-
L
e
x
i
c
a
l
a
m
b
i
g
u
i
t
y
:
If a
phrase
or a
sentence
contains an
ambiguous word
, a
phrase
or a
sentence
will
normally be
ambiguous
as well.
For example:
A boiled egg is
hard
to
beat
.
‘defeat’ ‘surpass’
‘difficult’ ‘not soft’
For example:
I
just
turned 80 years old and I have a happy family.
Only now
A
sentence
which has
only
a
single sense
may have
different truth of values
in
different
contexts
, but will always have
one consistent
truth value in any
specific
context.
For examples:
I`m looking for my
glasses
.
I`m looking for my
glasses
to read the newspaper.
I`m looking for my
glasses
to drink some water.
K
i
n
d
s
o
f
a
m
b
i
g
u
i
t
y
:
2
-
S
t
r
u
c
t
u
r
a
l
a
m
b
i
g
u
i
t
y
:
Structural ambiguity
shows us something important about meaning, namely
that
meanings
are
not
assigned to
strings of phonological material
but to
syntactic
objects
. The two readings for involve the
same string of words
but
not
the
same
syntactic object
.
An ambiguous sentence
have
two or more senses
(or readings) arise because the
grammar of the language can assign
two different structures
to the
same
string of
words
, even though none of those words is itself.
some sentences involve both
structural
and
lexical ambiguity
.
For example:
*Two cars were[
reported
[
stolen by the Groveton police
]] yesterday.
* One morning,
I
[
shot an elephant
] [
in my pajamas
].
* One morning, I
shot
[
an elephant in my pajamas
]
take a photo killed
K
i
n
d
s
o
f
a
m
b
i
g
u
i
t
y
:
3
-
R
e
f
e
r
e
n
t
i
a
l
a
m
b
i
g
u
i
t
y
:
It is common that people using
pronouns
in a way that permits
more than
one
possible
antecedent.
e.g.
Adams
wrote frequently to
Jefferson
while
he
was in
Paris
.
If I am teaching a class of 14 students, and I say to the school manager [
My student
]
has taken a full mark in the exam
, there are
multiple
possible referents
for the
subject
NP.
For example:
E
x
p
r
e
s
s
i
v
e
m
e
a
n
i
n
g
:
* words such as
Ouch
and
oops
convey a kind of meaning is called expressive
meaning, which
Lyons
(1995: 44)
defines it as “
the kind of meaning by virtue of which
speakers
express
,
rather than
describe
, their beliefs, attitudes and feelings
.”
“
Ouch
”
and “
oops
”
Expressive meaning
is
different
from
descriptive meaning
(also called
propositional meaning
or
truth-
conditional meaning
), the
“
normal
”
type of meaning which determines
reference
and
truth values
.
For example:
If I
hurt myself
when I am working
alone
, I will very likely say
“
ouch”
even though
there is no one present to hear me. they may
not necessary
to be attended
to
communicate
. Such expressions seem almost like
involuntary reactions.
* words such as
Ouch
and
oops
often referred to expressive, present a challenge to the
“
denotation
” approach. They
neither
refer to thing in the world
,
nor
help to
determine
the condition under which the sentence to be true
.
E
x
p
r
e
s
s
i
v
e
m
e
a
n
i
n
g
:
many “normal” words carry both types of meaning at once.
for example
:
the word
garrulous
means essentially the same thing as
talkative
, but carries speaker’s
negative
attitude
.
Ouch
and
oops
There are many other pairs of words which convey the same
descriptive meaning
but differ in terms of
their
expressive meaning
such as:
father
vs.
dad
;
woman
vs.
broad
;
horse
vs.
nag
;
alcohol
vs.
booze
; etc.
In each case either member of the pair could be used to
refer to the
same
kinds of things in the world
;
the speaker’s choice of which term to use indicates
varying degrees of
intimacy
,
respect
,
appreciation
or
approval
,
formality
, etc.
T
h
e
p
r
o
p
e
r
t
i
e
s
w
h
i
c
h
d
i
s
t
i
n
g
u
i
s
h
E
x
p
r
e
s
s
i
v
e
m
e
a
n
i
n
g
f
r
o
m
d
e
s
c
r
i
p
t
i
v
e
m
e
a
n
i
n
g
:
1- Independence:
Expressive meaning
is
i
ndependent
of
descriptive meaning
in the sense that
expressive meaning
does
not affect
the denotation of a noun phrase
or
the truth value of a sentence
.
For example
, the addressee
might
agree
with the descriptive meaning
of
without
sharing the speaker’s negative attitude
indicated
by the expressive term `
jerk`
.
That
Jerk
Peterson work in the company with us
2 Nondisplaceability:
Hockett (1958; 1960)
used the term
Displacement
to refer to the fact that
speakers can use human
languages to describe
events
and
situations
which are
separated in space and time from the speech
event itself
.
Hockett
listed this ability as one of the
distinctive properties
of
human language
which
distinguishes than
animal communication
.
Cruse (1986: 272)
notes that this capacity for displacement holds only for
descriptive meaning
, and
not
for
expressive meaning
. A person can describe his own feelings in the
past
or
future
.
e.g.
Last month
I
felt
a sharp pain in my chest
.
e.g.
I
will
probably
feel a lot of pain
when the dentist drills my tooth
tomorrow
.
or
the feelings of other people
,
e.g.
She
was in a lot of pain
.
But when a person says
Ouch!
, it must
normally express pain
that is felt by
the speaker
at the moment
of speaking.
T
h
e
p
r
o
p
e
r
t
i
e
s
w
h
i
c
h
d
i
s
t
i
n
g
u
i
s
h
E
x
p
r
e
s
s
i
v
e
m
e
a
n
i
n
g
f
r
o
m
d
e
s
c
r
i
p
t
i
v
e
m
e
a
n
i
n
g
:
3- Immunity:
Descriptive meaning
can be
negated
,
questioned
, or
challenged
.
Expressive meaning
is “
immune
” to all of these things. The fact that
expressive meaning
cannot be
negated
,
questioned
, or
challenged
shows that it is
not
part of the
truth-conditional meaning
of the
sentence.
a.
I am
not
feeling any pain .
b.
b.
Are you
feeling any pain?
c.
c. patient: I just felt a sudden sharp pain.
dentist: That’s a lie — I gave you a double dose of Novocain
.(Cruse 1986: 271)
.
a. *
Not ouch
.
b. *
Ouch?
(can only be interpreted as an elliptical form of the question:
Did you say “Ouch”?
)
c. patient:
Ouch!
dentist: #That’s a lie.
T
h
e
p
r
o
p
e
r
t
i
e
s
w
h
i
c
h
d
i
s
t
i
n
g
u
i
s
h
E
x
p
r
e
s
s
i
v
e
m
e
a
n
i
n
g
f
r
o
m
d
e
s
c
r
i
p
t
i
v
e
m
e
a
n
i
n
g
:
4 -Scalability and repeatability
Expressive meaning
can be intensified through
repetition
or by the use of
intonational features
such as
pitch
,
length
or
loudness
.
Descriptive meaning
is generally expressible in discrete units which
correspond to the
lexical semantic content
of
individual words
.
Repetition
of
descriptive meaning
tends
to produce
redundancy
, though we should note that a number of languages do use
reduplication
to
encode
plural number
,
repeated actions
, etc.
T
h
e
p
r
o
p
e
r
t
i
e
s
w
h
i
c
h
d
i
s
t
i
n
g
u
i
s
h
E
x
p
r
e
s
s
i
v
e
m
e
a
n
i
n
g
f
r
o
m
d
e
s
c
r
i
p
t
i
v
e
m
e
a
n
i
n
g
:
5-Descriptive ineffability:
“
Effability
” means ‘
expressibility
’. The effability hypotheses claims that “
Each proposition can be
expressed by
some sentence
in any
natural language
” or “
Whatever can be meant can be said
. Uses
the phrase “
descriptive ineffability
” to
indicate
that
expressive meaning
often
cannot
be
adequately
of
descriptive meaning
.
A paraphrase
based on
descriptive meaning
(e.g.
young dog
for
puppy
) is often
interchangeable
with
the original expression
,
Referring
,
denoting
, and
expressing
is true, must be true as well, and vice versa.
This
substitution
is
equally possible
in
questions
,
commands
,
negated sentences
, etc. This is
not
the
case with
expressive
, even where a
descriptive paraphrase
is possible,
e.g.:
a. Yesterday my son brought home
a
puppy
.
b. Yesterday my son brought home
a young dog
.
T
h
e
p
r
o
p
e
r
t
i
e
s
w
h
i
c
h
d
i
s
t
i
n
g
u
i
s
h
E
x
p
r
e
s
s
i
v
e
m
e
a
n
i
n
g
f
r
o
m
d
e
s
c
r
i
p
t
i
v
e
m
e
a
n
i
n
g
:
For many
expressives
there is no
descriptive paraphrase available
, and speakers often find it
difficult to
explain
the
meaning of the expressive
form in
descriptive terms
.
For example,
most dictionaries do
not
attempt to paraphrase the meaning of “
oops”
, but rather
“
define
” it by describing the contexts in which it is normally used:
a. “used typically to express
mild apology, surprise,
or
dismay
”
b. “an
exclamation of surprise
or
of apology
as
when someone drops something
or
makes a mistake
”
This
limited expressibility
correlates with limited
translatability
.
well known example is the ancient Aramaic term of contempt”
raka”
, which appears in the Greek text
of
Matthew 5:22
(and in many English translations), because there is no
adequate translation equivalent
in Greek.
(Some of the English equivalents which have been suggested include:
good-for nothing
,
rascal
,
empty head
,
stupid
,
ignorant
.) In
393 AD, St. Augustine
offered the following explanation: the
word
does not mean anything
, but merely
expresses the emotion of an angry mind.
Grammarians call those particles of speech which
express an affection
of an
agitated mind
Interjections, ; as when it is
said by one who is grieved
. ‘
Alas
,’ or
by one who is angry
,
‘Hah.’
And these
words in all languages are
proper name.
T
h
e
p
r
o
p
e
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t
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s
w
h
i
c
h
d
i
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t
i
n
g
u
i
s
h
E
x
p
r
e
s
s
i
v
e
m
e
a
n
i
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f
r
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m
d
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s
c
r
i
p
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i
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m
e
a
n
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n
g
:
6- Case study expressive use Diminutives:
Expressive
uses of
diminutives
,
Diminutives
are
grammatical markers
whose
primary
or
literal meaning
is to indicate
small size
; but diminutives often have secondary uses as well, and often these involve
expressive content
.
Anna Wierzbicka (1985)
describes one common use of diminutives as follows :
Warm hospitality
is expressed as much by the use of diminutives as it is by
the style of offers
and
suggestions
. Characteristically,
the food
items offered to the guest are often referred to by the host by
their
diminutive names
.
‘Take some more dear-little-herring (dim).
You must
! ’The
diminutive praises
the
quality
of the food
and
minimizes the quantity
pushed onto the guest’s plate.
The speaker insinuates
:
“Don’t resist!
References
:
Paul R. Kroeger((2019,p23-30):analyzing meaning)
Lyons (1995: 44)
Hockett (1958; 1960)
Cruse (1986: 272) 393 AD, St. Augustine
393 AD, St. Augustine
Matthew 5:22
Anna Wierzbicka (1985)
Groucho Marx(1890-1977)
Presenting the concept of ambiguity and expressive meaning in semantics, discussing types of ambiguity such as lexical and structural ambiguity, alongside examples and insights on differentiation from descriptive meaning. Explore the nuances of language through deictic expressions, multiple senses in phrases, and the properties that distinguish expressive meaning. Dive into case studies and illustrations to grasp the complexities of linguistic interpretation further.
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Presentation Transcript
Ambiguity and Expressive meaning in semantics. Presented by: Manar Thabit Salih Coures Touter: Prof. Ahmed Q. Abed
Table of contents: Ambiguity. Expressive meaning: Ouch and oops. The properties which distinguish Expressive meaning from descriptive meaning: Independence Nondisplaceability. Immunity. Scalability and repeatability. Descriptive ineffability. Case study: Expressive uses of diminutives.
Ambiguity: What is Ambiguity ? * a Word, a phrase or a sentence is ambiguous if it has more than one sense . For examples: Can you give me a hand? The body part I`m asking for her hand. The group of cards held by a player A bunch of a banana Hand a pointer of a clock A hired worker Asking to marry
Ambiguity: A deictic expression will refer to different individuals when spoken by different speakers, but this does not make it ambiguous. For example: I love my father. A word or a phrase can have different denotations in differentcontexts does not mean that it has multiple senses. but this does not make it ---ambiguous. For examples: The president of the United State visits Iraq. The 46th president of the united state is Joe Biden. In 2008, the president of the United State is Barak Obama.
Kinds of ambiguity: 1- Lexical ambiguity: If a phrase or a sentence contains an ambiguous word, a phrase or a sentence will normally be ambiguous as well. For example: A boiled egg is hard to beat. defeat surpass difficult not soft For example: I just turned 80 years old and I have a happy family. Only now A sentence which has only a single sense may have different truth of values in different contexts, but will always have one consistent truth value in any specific context. For examples: I`m looking for my glasses. I`m looking for my glasses to read the newspaper. I`m looking for my glasses to drink some water.
Kinds of ambiguity: 2- Structural ambiguity: An ambiguous sentence have two or more senses (or readings) arise because the grammar of the language can assign two different structures to the same string of words, even though none of those words is itself. some sentences involve both structural and lexical ambiguity. For example: *Two cars were[ reported [stolen by the Groveton police]] yesterday. * One morning, I [shot an elephant] [in my pajamas]. * One morning, I shot [an elephant in my pajamas] take a photo killed Structural ambiguity shows us something important about meaning, namely that meanings are not assigned to strings of phonological material but to syntactic objects. The two readings for involve the same string of words but not the same syntactic object.
Kinds of ambiguity: 3- Referential ambiguity: It is common that people using pronouns in a way that permits more than one possible antecedent. e.g. Adams wrote frequently to Jefferson while he was inParis. For example: If I am teaching a class of 14 students, and I say to the school manager [My student] has taken a full mark in the exam, there are multiple possible referents for the subject NP.
Expressive meaning: Ouch and oops * words such as Ouch and oops convey a kind of meaning is called expressive meaning, which Lyons (1995: 44) defines it as the kind of meaning by virtue of which speakers express, rather than describe, their beliefs, attitudes and feelings. Expressive meaning is different from descriptive meaning (also called propositional meaning or truth- conditional meaning), the normal type of meaning which determines reference and truth values. * words such as Ouch and oops often referred to expressive, present a challenge to the denotation approach. They neither refer to thing in the world, nor help to determine the condition under which the sentence to be true. For example: If I hurt myself when I am working alone, I will very likely say ouch even though there is no one present to hear me. they may not necessary to be attended to communicate. Such expressions seem almost like involuntary reactions.
Expressive meaning: Ouch and oops many normal words carry both types of meaning at once. for example: the word garrulous means essentially the same thing as talkative, but carries speaker s negative attitude. There are many other pairs of words which convey the same descriptive meaning but differ in terms of their expressive meaning such as: father vs. dad; woman vs. broad; horse vs. nag; alcohol vs. booze; etc. In each case either member of the pair could be used to refer to the same kinds of things in the world; the speaker s choice of which term to use indicates varying degrees of intimacy, respect, appreciation or approval, formality, etc.
The properties which distinguish Expressive meaning from descriptive meaning: 1- Independence: Expressive meaning is independent of descriptive meaning in the sense that expressive meaning does not affect the denotation of a noun phrase or the truth value of a sentence. For example, the addressee might agree with the descriptive meaning of without sharing the speaker s negative attitude indicated by the expressive term `jerk`. That Jerk Peterson work in the company with us 2 Nondisplaceability: Hockett (1958; 1960) used the term Displacement to refer to the fact that speakers can use human languages to describe events and situations which are separated in space and time from the speech event itself. Hockett listed this ability as one of the distinctive properties of human language which distinguishes than animal communication. Cruse (1986: 272) notes that this capacity for displacement holds only for descriptive meaning, and not for expressive meaning. A person can describe his own feelings in the past or future. e.g. Last month I felt a sharp pain in my chest. e.g. I will probably feel a lot of pain when the dentist drills my tooth tomorrow. or the feelings of other people, e.g. She was in a lot of pain. But when a person says Ouch!, it must normally express pain that is felt by the speaker at the moment of speaking.
The properties which distinguish Expressive meaning from descriptive meaning: 3- Immunity: Descriptive meaning can be negated, questioned, or challenged. Expressive meaning is immune to all of these things. The fact that expressive meaning cannot be negated, questioned, or challenged shows that it is not part of the truth-conditional meaning of the sentence. a. I am not feeling any pain . b. b. Are you feeling any pain? c. c. patient: I just felt a sudden sharp pain. dentist: That s a lie I gave you a double dose of Novocain.(Cruse 1986: 271) . a. *Not ouch. b. *Ouch? (can only be interpreted as an elliptical form of the question: Did you say Ouch ?) c. patient: Ouch! dentist: #That s a lie.
The properties which distinguish Expressive meaning from descriptive meaning: 4 -Scalability and repeatability Expressive meaning can be intensified through repetition or by the use of intonational features such as pitch, length or loudness. Descriptive meaning is generally expressible in discrete units which correspond to the lexical semantic content of individual words. Repetition of descriptive meaning tends to produce redundancy, though we should note that a number of languages do use reduplication to encode plural number, repeated actions, etc.
The properties which distinguish Expressive meaning fromdescriptive meaning: 5-Descriptive ineffability: Effability means expressibility . The effability hypotheses claims that Each proposition can be expressed by some sentence in any natural language or Whatever can be meant can be said. Uses the phrase descriptive ineffability to indicate that expressive meaning often cannot be adequately of descriptive meaning. A paraphrase based on descriptive meaning (e.g. young dog for puppy) is often interchangeable with the original expression, Referring, denoting, and expressing is true, must be true as well, and vice versa. This substitution is equally possible in questions, commands, negated sentences, etc. This is not the case with expressive, even where a descriptive paraphrase is possible, e.g.: a. Yesterday my son brought home a puppy. b. Yesterday my son brought home a young dog.
The properties which distinguish Expressive meaning fromdescriptive meaning: For many expressives there is no descriptive paraphrase available, and speakers often find it difficult to explain the meaning of the expressive form in descriptive terms. For example, most dictionaries do not attempt to paraphrase the meaning of oops , but rather define it by describing the contexts in which it is normally used: a. used typically to express mild apology, surprise, or dismay b. an exclamation of surprise or of apology as when someone drops something or makes a mistake This limited expressibility correlates with limited translatability. well known example is the ancient Aramaic term of contempt raka , which appears in the Greek text of Matthew 5:22 (and in many English translations), because there is no adequate translation equivalent in Greek. (Some of the English equivalents which have been suggested include: good-for nothing, rascal, empty head, stupid, ignorant.) In 393 AD, St. Augustine offered the following explanation: the word does not mean anything, but merely expresses the emotion of an angry mind. Grammarians call those particles of speech which express an affection of an agitated mind Interjections, ; as when it is said by one who is grieved. Alas, or by one who is angry, Hah. And these words in all languages are proper name.
The properties which distinguish Expressive meaning fromdescriptive meaning: 6- Case study expressive use Diminutives: Expressive uses of diminutives,Diminutives are grammatical markers whose primary or literal meaning is to indicate small size; but diminutives often have secondary uses as well, and often these involve expressive content. Anna Wierzbicka (1985) describes one common use of diminutives as follows : Warm hospitality is expressed as much by the use of diminutives as it is by the style of offers and suggestions. Characteristically, the food items offered to the guest are often referred to by the host by their diminutive names. Take some more dear-little-herring (dim). You must ! The diminutive praises the quality of the food and minimizes the quantity pushed onto the guest s plate. The speaker insinuates: Don t resist!
References: Paul R. Kroeger((2019,p23-30):analyzing meaning) Lyons (1995: 44) Hockett (1958; 1960) Cruse (1986: 272) 393 AD, St. Augustine 393 AD, St. Augustine Matthew 5:22 Anna Wierzbicka (1985) Groucho Marx(1890-1977)
