Grammar and Meaning : Introduction (15-Jan-2004)

Semantics is the study of meaning in language.

Pragmatics is the study of the speaker's/writer's intended meaning

Grammar is the study of word and sentence forms. It is a "device of some sort for producing the sentences of the language under analysis" (Chomsky). This course is interested in descriptive grammar, i.e. understanding and describing how the language is used, rather than prescriptive grammar, where rules are given to guide users of the language in producing "correct" forms.

Morphology is the study of the structure of words, and how they can be broken down or combined to form new words. E.g. "aggressivity" is not a word found in the dictionary, but any native English speaker would probably be able to understand its meaning.

Syntax is "the way in which words are arranged to show relationships of meaning within (and sometimes between) sentences" (Crystal p94). A sentence may be syntactically valid without making semantic sense ("colorless green ideas sleep furiously")

Human language uses words, which are typically arbitrary representations of concepts, which can be fiddled about with using morphological rules, and then combined in many different ways according to rules of syntax. One criticism of "chimp language" is that the way that chimps use sign language is much more limited than this: they do not combine word parts to form new words, and do not appear to have much in the way of syntactical structure (they use "words" in arbitrary order). Also, with human language, the same meaning can be conveyed using multiple sentences, e.g. "The dog followed the farmer"/"The farmer was followed by the dog". This technique transformation is not simply a case of using the same words in a different order, since the verb forms change: something else not present in chimp communication.

Different types of ambiguity are apparent in language:

Exercise: correct the following text, based on what you feel would make it sound right, rather than using prescriptive rules:

Useful book readings for this lecture:


Sounds, Grammar and Meaning page