THE SCOPE OF SEMANTICS

This Assignment Requirements Submitted One Of Subject Semantics

Fifth Semester English Departement Programme First Grup Of IAIN Bone

By:

Group I

Nurdiana (02.17.4008)

Rahmawati (02.17.4025)

TARBIYAH FACULTY

INSTITUTE AGAMA ISLAM NEGERI (IAIN)

BONE

2019
 PART I
BACKGROUND

Semantics is derived from the Greek semanticos, meaning the study of

meaning. Lehrer in Pateda (2010: 6) says that semantics is the study of meaning.
Semantics focuses on the relationship between markers such as words, phrases,
signs and symbols. In the general sense of semantics is a discipline that examines
the meaning of the lingual unit, both the lexical meaning and the grammatical
meaning. The lexical meaning is the meaning of the smallest semantic unit called
lexeme, while the grammatical meaning is the meaning formed from the merging
of linguistic units. Based on these opinions it can be concluded that semantics is
the study of the meaning contained in words or groups of words.

The semantic word is then agreed upon as a term used for the field of
linguistics which studies the relationship between linguistic signs and the things
they mark. Or in other words, that semantics is a field of study in linguistics that
studies meaning or inner meaning language. The object of semantic study is the
meaning of language. More precisely, the meaning of language units such as
words, phrases, clauses, sentences, and discourse.

There are several types of semantics, which are distinguished based on the
level or part of the language of inquiry is the lexicon of that language, so the type
of semantics is called lexical semantics. This lexical semantics investigates the
meaning that exists in the lexemes of the language. Therefore, the meaning is exist
in the leksem called lexical meaning. Leksem is a term commonly used in
semantic studies to refer to meaningful language-units. The term lexeme can more
or less be paired with terms that are commonly used in morphological and
cystactic studies, and which are commonly defined as the smallest free
grammatical unit (Chaer, 1990: 7-8)
 PART II
DISCUSSION

A. Naming

Naming is a communication system which with on the one hand the

signifier, on the other the signified. One of the oldest views found in Plato is that
the signifier is a word in the language and signified is the object in the real world.
Naming In an earlier section it was suggested that language might be thought of as
a communication system with on the one hand the signifier, on the other the
signified. But a basic problem is to establish the nature and relationship of these
two. Signifier is a word in the language and the signified is the object in the world
that it "stand for", "refers to", or "denotes". Words, that is to say are "names" or
"label" for things. The theory of naming to include these other parts of speech,
such as adjectives, noun, verb, etc. Naming theory for sentences is no more
satisfactory than one for words. We cannot directly relate the meaning of a
sentence to things and events in the world. The strongest view which relates
sentences to actual things and events,
There are many difficulties with this naming view because:
1. Some nouns do not exist in the world like, unicorn, fairy, and goblin; these
are some names of creatures which do not exist in the real world.
2. Abstract nouns don’t have any objects in the real world, like love, nice,
hate…etc.
3. There are lots of visible objects in the world while they have one single
word. Like Chair.
B. Concept

Ogden and Richard introduce the triangle theory of meaning. They divide into
three elements namely symbols, concepts and referents. These three elements are
interconnected with each other. Symbols and concepts have a direct relationship,
concepts and referents also have a direct relationship, while symbols and referents
have an indirect relationship marked by a dashed line.
 The symbol is the form of the word. The concept is what is in the brain /
mind that can produce meaning can be different denotations and connotations that
each person has about the object indicated by the form of the word. The reference
is an object or reference outside the language associated with human experience.
Example: Car Symbol: M - O - B - I - L Concept: the shape of the car that is
pictured in our minds is a 4-wheeled vehicle / land transportation has 4 doors.
Referent: The car (object) as a reference of the concept earlier. this reference may
vary between Indonesia or other countries. because cars come in different shapes
and every country or person has a different shape of car. The references are based
on agreements and different experiences of the people so that they are arbitrary.

C. Sense And Reference

Reference deals with the relationship between the linguistic elements, word,
sentences, and the non linguistic world of experience. Sense relates to the
complex system of the relationship that holds between the linguistics elements
themselves (mostly the words); it is concerned only with intra-linguistic relation.
Based on the Palmer’s concept it can be said that the reference of the word is the
object designated by the word. For example, the reference of the word chair is the
object designated by the word which can be ‘upside down number four’. The
other example is bed has a certain meaning as ‘a piece of furniture with a mattress
and covering’. Bed refers to ‘a thing that functions to sleep or to rest on’. There
are some words that have meaning but they don’t have reference. They don’t refer
physical object at all, for example: love, had, inspiration and sad. The words are
common called as abstract thing. There are also some words that have meaning
but they are kinds of world of fairy story. In other words, they do not denote
objects in the world. For example: unicorn and goblin relate to creatures that do
not exist. When people are speaking of the meaning of a word, they are usually
speaking about one of its senses which are usually believed as the primary sense.
Some words, perhaps, have more than one sense.

For example, the sense of sole in the following example is different:

(1) This shoes need new sole and heel.

(2) Have you ever seen a grilled sole.

(3) He is the sole survivor of the crash.

Sole in expression (1) means ‘button part of the shoes’; in (2) sole means ‘an
edible flat fish that lives in the sea’ while in the expression (3) sole means ‘one or
only’.

A word, phrase, or sentence that has sense would be able to understand

although they don’t have reference. For example:

(4) Indonesia is led by a queen.

(5) There are many people living in Mars.

The two expressions above are understandable although they don’t have
reference. As we know Indonesia is not led by a queen, but a president and it has
been found that there is no man lives in Mars. Some scientists, even, have done
some research in Mars and they still find no one there. The notion of sense and
reference are central to the study of meaning. Reference is not only meant the
words which refers to something but also to the words which can not be brought
forward for the existence of something but have lexical items referring to it, while
the sense is a relation which occur between two lexical items
 D. Types Of Meaning

There are at least seven types of meaning (many linguists state their different
categories of meaning) in semantic according Geoffrey Leech (1974), those are:

1. Conceptual meaning (logical, cognitive, or denotative content)

It refers to the dictionary meaning which indicates the concepts. In reading we can
find many different words have the same conceptual meanings. Take the word
walk as an example, the conceptual meaning or the primary dictionary meaning is
to move forward by placing one foot in front of the other. There are also a few
other words that, according to the dictionary, mean to move forward on foot, etc.
2. Connotative meaning (what is communicated by virtue of what language
refers to) connotative meaning is the communicative value an expression has by
virtue of what it refers to, over and above its purely conceptual content. It refers to
the associations that are connected to a certain word or the emotional suggestions
related to that word. The connotative meanings of a word exist together with the
denotative meanings. The connotations for the word snake could include evil or
danger.
3. Social meaning (what is communicated of the social circumstances of
language use). It refers to the usage of language in and by society which has big
proportions in determining the meaning that certain speaker has to use and wants
to convey, those factors include social class of the speaker and hearer and the
degree of formality. including variations like dialect, time, topic, style.
4. Affective meaning (what is communicated of the feeling and attitudes of
the speaker/writer) Affective meaning is the feelings and attitudes of the
speaker/writer towards the listener and/or what is talking about. It refers to the
speaker’s feeling / attitude towards the content or the ongoing context.It is
important to remember that each individual will have a different affective
meaning for a word. As such, only the person using a word will be aware of the
particular affective meaning that they hold with the word. For example, we can
discuss the word winter further. The word winter denotatively refers to a time
period during which either the northern or southern hemisphere is furthest away
from the sun. Different use of stress and intonation also provides a striking
contrast in the feelings and attitudes communicated through an utterance.
5. Reflected meaning (what is communicated through association with
another sense of the same expression). In a case of reflected meaning, it can be
explained as the one appearing in situations of multiple conceptual meanings,
when one sense of a word influences our response to another sense, eg 1. Light of
my life (people may react differently when “light” and “life” re used separately. In
this example, the word “life” rubs off on the sense of “light”) 2. Beauty and the
beast.
6. Collocative Meaning - consists of the associations a word acquires on
account of the meanings of words which tend to occur in its environment/
collocate with it. Example :
a. Blue collocates with “sky” and “water”
b. Bright collocates with “ideas” “light” and “colors”
c. Colorful collocates with “flowers” “butterfly” and “life”
7. Thematic Meaning - means what is communicated by the way in which a
speaker/ writer organizes the message in terms of ordering, focus or emphasis.
Emphasis can be illustrated by word- order:

1. The pair of shoes belongs to her. She owns the pair of shoes

2. The mayor donated the goods. The goods were donated by the Mayor.

E. The word as a semantics unit

It is normally assumed that dictionaries are concerned with words and that
therefore the word is, in some sense at least, one of the basic units of semantics.
Yet there are some difficulties. Firstly, not all words seem to have the same kind
of meaning. secondly, there are many words in English that are called
phonaesthetic, in which ene part, often the initial cluster of consonants, gives an
indication of meaning of a rather special kind. Thirdly, semantics division seems
to 'override' word division.
 PART III
CONCLUTION

The semantic word is then agreed upon as a term used for the field of
linguistics which studies the relationship between linguistic signs and the things
they mark. Or in other words, that semantics is a field of study in linguistics that
studies meaning or inner meaning language. The object of semantic study is the
meaning of language. More precisely, the meaning of language units such as
words, phrases, clauses, sentences, and discourse. Naming is a communication
system which with on the one hand the signifier, on the other the signified.

The symbol is the form of the word. The concept is what is in the brain /
mind that can produce meaning can be different denotations and connotations that
each person has about the object indicated by the form of the word. The reference
is an object or reference outside the language associated with human experience.
Reference deals with the relationship between the linguistic elements, word,
sentences, and the non linguistic world of experience. Sense relates to the
complex system of the relationship that holds between the linguistics elements
themselves (mostly the words); it is concerned only with intra-linguistic relation.

Meaning is an idea or concept that can be transferred from the thoughts of

the speaker to the thought of the speech partner, and manifests it into the form of a
language or other language. According to Leech (1983: 10) the meaning is divided
into 7 types namely; conceptual meaning, connotative meaning, social meaning
affective meaning, reflected meaning, collocative meaning, and thematic meaning.
 REFERENCE

Palmer, F.R. 1976. semantics. Cambridge: the university press.

http://awinlanguage.blogspot.com/2013/04/types-of-meaning.html

http://repository.usu.ac.id/bitstream/handle/123456789/41837/Chapter%20II.pdf?
sequence=4&isAllowed=y

https://www.academia.edu/10093913/SEMANTICS

https://www.academia.edu/35682045/segitiga_makna_semantik

https://www.scribd.com/doc/51285452/Seven-Types-of-Meaning