1.3 Levels of meaning: word, sentence, and discourse
4 min read•july 19, 2024
Language has layers of meaning, from individual words to entire conversations. Words carry both dictionary definitions and emotional associations, while sentences combine these meanings in complex ways. Understanding these levels helps us grasp how language works.
Context plays a huge role in how we interpret language. The same sentence can mean different things depending on the situation, speaker, and shared knowledge. This is why studying discourse and pragmatics is crucial for fully understanding communication.
Levels of Meaning in Language
Levels of linguistic meaning
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- Word level meaning
- Lexical semantics studies individual word meanings
- Words have denotative (literal) and connotative (associated) meanings
- Denotative meaning refers to the literal, dictionary definition (bird: a warm-blooded egg-laying vertebrate animal)
- Connotative meaning includes associated emotions, ideas, or qualities (bird: freedom, nature, beauty)
- Words can have multiple senses or meanings, known as polysemy (bank: financial institution, river edge)
- Words can have synonyms with similar meanings (happy, joyful) and antonyms with opposite meanings (hot, cold)
- Sentence level meaning
- Compositional semantics examines how word meanings combine to form sentence meaning
- Syntactic structure influences sentence meaning by determining the relationships between words
- can arise at the sentence level, known as structural ambiguity
- Prepositional phrase attachment ambiguity: "I saw the man with the telescope" (using the telescope or the man has the telescope)
- Verb phrase attachment ambiguity: "The chicken is ready to eat" (the chicken will eat or be eaten)
- Discourse level meaning
- Meaning extends beyond individual sentences and considers the larger context
- Context and pragmatics significantly shape interpretation at the discourse level
- (logical connections) and (linguistic devices) contribute to discourse meaning
- (implied meaning), (assumed background), and speech acts (actions performed by utterances) are analyzed at this level
Word meaning in sentences
- The principle of compositionality states that the meaning of a sentence is determined by the meanings of its constituent words and their combination
- Words serve as the building blocks for constructing sentence meaning
- Changing a single word can drastically alter the meaning of a sentence
- "The cat chased the mouse" vs. "The mouse chased the cat"
- "I love ice cream" vs. "I hate ice cream"
- Selectional restrictions impose constraints on the types of words that can meaningfully combine
- "The table ate the sandwich" violates selectional restrictions because tables cannot eat
- Thematic roles assigned to words, such as agent (doer), patient (affected), and theme (undergoes action), contribute to sentence meaning
- "John kicked the ball" - John (agent), ball (patient/theme)
Sentence meaning and structure
- Syntactic structure determines the relationships between words in a sentence
- Different syntactic structures can yield different meanings, even with the same words
- "The dog bit the man" vs. "The man bit the dog"
- Structural ambiguity arises when a sentence has multiple possible interpretations due to its structure
- Prepositional phrase attachment: "I saw the man with the telescope" (using the telescope or the man has the telescope)
- Verb phrase attachment: "The chicken is ready to eat" (the chicken will eat or be eaten)
- Scope ambiguity occurs when the interpretation depends on the scope of quantifiers or logical operators
- "Every boy loves some girl" can mean either:
- (for every boy, there is some girl he loves)
- (there is some girl that every boy loves)
- "Every boy loves some girl" can mean either:
- Compositionality allows for the creation of an infinite number of meaningful sentences from a finite set of words
Discourse context in interpretation
- Discourse context includes the surrounding text, situational context, and shared knowledge between speakers/listeners
- Context can disambiguate sentences with multiple possible interpretations
- "I went to the bank" - context clarifies whether it refers to a financial institution or a river edge
- Anaphora resolution involves identifying the referents of pronouns or other referring expressions based on context
- "John took his dog for a walk. He loves spending time outdoors." - "He" refers to John based on the context
- Implicature is additional meaning inferred from the context beyond what is explicitly stated
- Conversational implicature arises from the cooperative principle and maxims of conversation
- "Can you pass the salt?" implies a request rather than a question about ability
- Conventional implicature is meaning conventionally associated with certain words or expressions
- "He is a lawyer, but he is honest" implies that lawyers are generally not honest
- Conversational implicature arises from the cooperative principle and maxims of conversation
- Presupposition refers to background assumptions or beliefs that are taken for granted in a discourse
- "John stopped smoking" presupposes that John used to smoke
- Speech acts are the actions performed by utterances in a specific context
- "I promise to help you tomorrow" performs the act of making a promise
- "Could you close the window?" functions as a polite request rather than a simple question
Key Terms to Review (21)
Ambiguity: Ambiguity refers to the presence of multiple meanings or interpretations within a word, phrase, or sentence, which can lead to confusion or uncertainty in understanding. This concept highlights the complexity of language, where context plays a crucial role in determining meaning. Ambiguity can exist at different levels, including words that have more than one meaning, sentences that can be interpreted in various ways, and even larger discourse structures that can shift meanings depending on the surrounding context.
Coherence: Coherence refers to the logical and meaningful connection of ideas within a discourse, allowing it to be understood as a unified whole. This concept is essential in language as it helps listeners and readers grasp how different parts of a conversation or text relate to each other, ensuring clarity and continuity in communication.
Cohesion: Cohesion refers to the way different parts of a text connect with each other, making it a unified whole. It involves the use of linguistic devices such as pronouns, conjunctions, and lexical ties to link sentences and paragraphs, ensuring that the meaning flows smoothly from one part to another. This concept is crucial in understanding how meaning operates at the levels of word, sentence, and discourse.
Compositional meaning: Compositional meaning refers to the way in which the meanings of individual words combine to form the meaning of larger expressions, such as phrases and sentences. This concept emphasizes that the meaning of a sentence is not just a sum of its parts but also involves how those parts are structured and interact with each other, influencing the overall interpretation of discourse.
Connotation: Connotation refers to the emotional or cultural associations that a word carries beyond its literal meaning. It plays a significant role in how language conveys subtle meanings and shapes our understanding of words in different contexts.
Contextual Meaning: Contextual meaning refers to the interpretation of a word, phrase, or sentence that is influenced by the surrounding context in which it is used. It emphasizes how meaning can shift based on situational factors, speaker intentions, and the relationship between participants in a conversation.
Corpus Analysis: Corpus analysis is the study of language as expressed in large collections of real-world texts, known as corpora. It involves examining the frequency, distribution, and patterns of words and phrases within these texts to gain insights into their meanings and uses. By analyzing a corpus, researchers can explore various levels of meaning, such as how words function in sentences or how discourse shapes communication.
Denotation: Denotation refers to the literal or primary meaning of a word, phrase, or expression, as opposed to the meanings that can be derived from context or connotation. It is the explicit definition that you would find in a dictionary, serving as a foundational element in understanding language and communication.
Discourse markers: Discourse markers are words or phrases that help organize spoken or written communication, indicating relationships between ideas and managing the flow of conversation. They serve various functions such as signaling contrast, addition, or emphasis, and are crucial for coherence in discourse, connecting different levels of meaning within language.
Entailment: Entailment is a semantic relationship where the truth of one statement guarantees the truth of another. It plays a crucial role in understanding meaning across different levels of language, as it helps clarify how words, sentences, and larger discourse units relate to one another logically.
Experimental Methods: Experimental methods are systematic approaches used to investigate and understand how different variables influence outcomes in language comprehension and production. These methods allow researchers to test hypotheses about meaning at various levels, such as words, sentences, and larger discourses, by manipulating certain conditions while observing the effects on participants’ responses.
Implicature: Implicature refers to the meaning that is suggested or implied in communication, rather than explicitly stated. It plays a crucial role in understanding how language functions in context, revealing how speakers convey additional information beyond the literal interpretation of their words.
Lexical Meaning: Lexical meaning refers to the inherent meaning of a word as found in the dictionary, distinct from other levels of meaning such as grammatical or contextual meanings. It captures the specific concept or idea that a word represents and can be influenced by a word's sense, reference, and usage in different contexts. Understanding lexical meaning is essential for interpreting words at the level of individual words, sentences, and larger discourse.
Noam Chomsky: Noam Chomsky is a renowned linguist, philosopher, and cognitive scientist, often regarded as the father of modern linguistics. His theories on the nature of language and its innate structures have significantly influenced the fields of semantics and pragmatics, particularly through his concepts of generative grammar and the distinction between competence and performance.
Paul Grice: Paul Grice was a British philosopher and linguist known for his work on the philosophy of language and his development of the Cooperative Principle, which explains how people understand meaning in conversation. His ideas are crucial for understanding how language conveys not just information but also intentions, implicatures, and the subtleties of communication.
Pragmatic Meaning: Pragmatic meaning refers to the interpretation of language in context, focusing on how meaning is derived from the use of words and sentences in specific situations. It emphasizes that meaning is not just about the literal definition of words but also how those words are understood based on social, cultural, and situational factors. This concept connects to levels of meaning, as it reveals how word meanings can shift when used in different sentences or larger discourse.
Presupposition: Presupposition refers to the implicit assumptions or background knowledge that must be accepted as true for a statement to make sense or be meaningful in a given context. This concept bridges the gap between semantics and pragmatics by illustrating how meaning can depend on context and shared knowledge, highlighting the interaction of language with social norms and expectations.
Reference: Reference is the relationship between language and the world, specifically how words and phrases relate to the entities they denote. It connects directly to the way we understand meaning at different levels, including how words point to objects, how sentences express propositions about those objects, and how discourse involves larger constructs of meaning. Reference is crucial for understanding context, as it helps clarify what specific entities are being talked about in various communicative situations.
Sense: Sense refers to the inherent meaning or conceptual content associated with a word or expression, distinguishing it from its reference, which is the actual object or entity it points to. Understanding sense involves analyzing how meaning is constructed at different levels: within individual words, sentences, and larger discourses. It plays a crucial role in semantics by shaping our interpretation of language and its use in communication.
Speech Act Theory: Speech act theory is the study of how people use language to perform various actions rather than merely convey information. It connects to the broader understanding of meaning and context in communication, highlighting that utterances can not only represent states of affairs but also execute actions like promising, commanding, or questioning.
Truth-conditional semantics: Truth-conditional semantics is a theory in which the meaning of a sentence is understood in terms of the conditions under which it would be true or false. This approach connects closely with how we analyze the meanings of words, sentences, and larger discourse structures, considering what must be the case for statements to hold true. It emphasizes the relationship between linguistic expressions and the world, providing a framework to understand how meaning is constructed and interpreted in communication.