FOUR ARTICLE’S REVIEW OF SEMANTICS

Hello Good Readers,how’s life??? Well, I would like to share you the greatest article about semantics that i get from my friends blog . But I am so interesting to review again and also develop their article review. All of these review from academia edu. check it out !!!!

(1).      DESI NORI SAHPUTRI (https://desinorisahputri.blogspot.co.id/)

A.      Demograph

Title          : Theories of Semantics: Merits and Limitations

Searcher 1: Saleh Mustafa Ramadan

From         : Al-Zaytoonah Private University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan.

Searcher 2: Taleb I. Ababneh

From         : Irbid National University- Jordan, Irbid, Jordan.

Pages        : 9

B.      Content

               This article explain about some theories.

These theories are: referential theory of meaning, the non– referential theory of meaning and generative grammarian theory of meaning.

C.      Result/Finding

               Meaning is so intangible that one group of linguists, the structuralists, preferred not to deal with it or rely on it at all. To illustrate what we mean by the intangible quality of “meaning”, think of such words as “beauty”, “goodness”, “love”; it would be hard to find two people who agree absolutely on what each of these words implies.

              

Meaning as the Relationship between Words and Objects

Greek philosophers say that there is a relationship between words and objects. In other words, the best way of indicating the meaning of a word is to refer to the object represented by that word.

Meaning as a Triangular Relationship

The symbol is the spoken or written word; the reference is the information that the spoken or written shape of the word conveys to the reader/ hearer; and the referent is the thing or the object we talk about.

Bloomfield’s View of Meaning

Bloomfield (1933) stated that the context of situation was an essential part of meaning. He defined the meaning of a linguistic form as the situation in which the speaker utters it and the response which it calls forth in the hearer.

The Non–Referential Theory of Meaning

The non–referential approach as suggested by its name doesn’t take into consideration the context of situations or the reference in determining what meaning is. There is a relationship between language and the outside world because language doesn’t exist in vacuum. Therefore, this may indicate a weakness in this theory.

The Generative Grammarian Theory

This approach was based on the assumption that syntactic rules operate independently of meaning. Chomsky and others believe that changing the active into passive structures does not change the meaning of the sentence.

D.     Strengthness and Weakness

Strength                : The author give many  theories of meaning ,it is clear for us to differentiate    of meaning.

Weakness            : The author just give theory but with little example

E.      Conclusion

The researcher has discussed the main of meaning ,their view about meaning is nearly the same as of the Greekphilosophers. The only new thing they added is that it is the human mind that links an object.

(2).      NABILA FIRDA ASY’ARI (http://byeolinab.blogspot.co.id/)

A.      Demograph

Title          : Semantics and Theories of Semantics

Author      : Abbas Bukhari

Pages        : 15

B.      Content

This article shared how is language organized in order to be meaningful, and how a

speaker of English ever learns to use the word correctly.

C.      Result/ Findings

Semantics is that level of linguistic analysis

where meaning is analyzed. It is the most abstract level of linguistic analysis, since we

cannot see or observe meaning as we can observe and record sounds. Meaning is related

very closely to the human capacity to think logically and to understand. So when we try

to analyze meaning, we are trying to analyse our own capacity to think and understand,

our own ability to create meaning.

Taking up some of the above definitions of meaning, we can discuss the different aspects

of meaning o a word as follows :

1.The logical or denotative meaning. This is the literal meaning of a word indicating the idea or concept to which it refers. concept is a minimal unit ofmeaning which could be called a ‘sememe’ in the same way as the unit ofsound is called a ‘phoneme’ and is like the ‘morpheme h Is structure andorganisation. Just as the phoneme /b/ may be defined as a bilatial + voiced +plosive, the word ‘man’ may be defined as a concept consisting of a structure of meaning ‘human + male + adult’ expressed through the basic morphological unit ‘m + æ + n’. All the three qualities are logical attributes of which the concept ‘man’ is made. 

2. The connotative meaning. This is the additional meaning that a concept carries. That is, apart from its logical or essential attributes, there is a furthermeaning attached to a word, which comes from its reference to other things in the real world.

3. The social meaning: This is the meaning that a word or a phrase conveys about the circumstances of its use. That is, the meaning of a word is understood according to the different style and situation in which the word is used, e.g. though the words ‘domicile’, ‘residence’, ‘abode’, ‘home’ all refer to the same thing (i.e. their denotative meaning is the same), each word belongs to a particular situation of use—’domicile’ is used in an official context, ‘residence’ in a formal context, ‘abode’ is a poetic use and ‘home’ is an ordinary use. Where one is used, the other is not seen as appropriate

4.The thematic meaning: This is the meaning which is communicated by the way in which a speaker or writer organises the message in terms of ordering, focus and emphasis. It is often felt, for example, that an active sentence has a different meaning from its passive equivalent although its conceptual meaning seems to be the same. In the sentences:

Mrs. Smith donated the first prize

The first prize was donated by Mrs. Smith

D.     Strengthness and Weakness

Strength : This article gives explanation based on daily activity and the author explanation of   meaning follow related semantic between phonology,i think it is easy to understand.

Weakness : This article make the readers to confused because the Author write his paper with carelessness

E.      Conclusion

Part of the difficulty in relating language to the external world may arise from the fact that the way in which we see the world is to some degree depends in the language we use. Since we categorize the objects of our experience with the aid of language, it may be the case that learning about the world and learning about language are activities that cannot be separated and that therefore our world is partly determined by our language.

(4).      ANNISA SEPTIANI (http://annisaseptiani4.blogspot.co.id/)

A.      Demograph

Title          : Modern Linguistics Semantics

Author      : Kate Kearns,Senior Lecturer, Department of Linguistics.

From         : University of Canterbury New Zealand.

Upload      : Pooja Saikia

B.      Content

This article mainly concentrate on literal meaning in the content of words and expressions which is fairly constant from one occasion of use to another. The study of linguistic meaning is generally divided in practice into two main fields,semantics and pragmatics. Semantics deals with the literal meaning of words and the meaning of the way they are combined, which taken together form the core of meaning, or the starting point from which the whole meaning of a particular utterance is constructed. Pragmatics This division can be roughly illustrated deals with all the ways in which literal meaning must be refined, enriched or extended to arrive at an understanding of what a speaker meant in uttering a particular expression.

C.      Result/Findings

This article present the kinds of meaning:

1.      Denotation and sense

The general point is that linguistic expressions are linked in virtue of their meaning to parts of the world around us, which is the basis of our use of language to convey information about reality. The denotation of an expression is the part of reality the expression is linked to.

The second way of giving the meaning of a word, commonly used in dictionaries, is to paraphrase it,

The most widely discussed form of the sense/denotation distinction is the means‘the blue train’ is to say that the French expression and the English expression have the same sense.sense/reference distinction. An expression which denotes just one individual is said to refer to that individual. Titles and proper names are common referring expressions

2.      Lexical and Structural Meaning

lexical meaning, which is the meaning of the individual words.

Structural meaning mainly comprises the meaning derived from the syntactic structure of an expression, for example: , which is the meaning of the way the words are combined.

3.      Categorematic expressions, which include the vast majority of words, are the descriptive words such as nouns, adjectives and verbs.

D.     Strengthness and Weakness

Strength : You can know more about modern linguistic especially semantics by read this. And the example is enough to make us understands. And there are some tips that have given by authors.

Weakness : this article too long and very tedious to read.

E.      Conclusion

From this article we know Current research suggests that the generalization expressed in any version of thematic roles theory is basically correct – arguments of verbs do fall into broad semantic classes, although the relevant classes are not always those identified by the traditional thematic relations introduced here.

(4).      Ratna Sari (http://myblog-ratnasari.blogspot.co.id/)

A.      Demograph

Title          : Theories of Semantics: Merits and Limitations

Searcher 1: Saleh Mustafa Ramadan

From         : Al-Zaytoonah Private University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan.

Searcher 2: Taleb I. Ababneh

From         : Irbid National University- Jordan, Irbid, Jordan.

Pages        : 9

B.      Content

This paper discussed semantic field, semantic relation and semantic components. It characterised the semantic field of ‘motor vehicles’ in terms of semantic component and discussed the advantages and disadvantages in the use of field relations and components to describe the meaning of words.

C.      Result/Findings

He solve of these question of the paper. The Question is:

a.       What do you understand by semantic field, semantic relation and semantic component?

b.      Characterize the semantic field of ‘motor vehicles’ in terms of semantic component.

c.       What advantages and disadvantages can you see in the use of field relations and components to describe the meaning of words?

Question 1: What do you understand by semantic field, semantic relation and semantic  component?

Semantic Field

Semantic field is a set of words or lexemes related in meaning; also called lexical field, field, or field of meaning. Most often, fields are defined by subject matter, such as body parts, landforms, diseases, colours, foods, or kinship relations.

The semantic field of 'water' could be divided into a number of subfields; in addition, there would appear to be a great deal of overlap between terms such as cove/harbour/bay.

There are lexical groups or components that made up semantic field :

1. Meronymy

A meronym is a word that denotes a constituent part or a member of something. For

example, apple is a meronym of apple tree; Finger is a meronym of hand.

2.      Sememe

A sememe is the name for the smallest unit of meaning recognized in semantics,

a single sememe (for example [go] or [move]) can be conceived as the abstract representation of such as verbs as skate, roll, jump, slide, skip or turn.  

Semantic Relations

Semantic relations or meaning relations are words that are semantically related to other words.

There are lexical groups or components that made up semantic relation :

1. Synonym

2.     Antonyms

3.     Polysemy

4.     Antagonymy

5.     Homonymy

6.     Hyponymy/hypernymy

D.     Stregth and Weakness

Strengthness: This paper is full of explanation and so many examples. The author had completed answer of that three question. You can get new understanding of semantics in here.

Weakness: So many difficult vocabularies so you must open your dictionary. But it will help you to improve your English.

E.      Conclusion

Semantic field can give us advantages and disadvantages,the advantages such as 1) Field relations and componential analysis can account for selectional restrictions imposed upon the occurrence of lexemes more explicitly  2)Field relations and components provide a wide spectrum of meaning of a lexeme thereby providing the linguistic contextual opportunity for hedging in communication. Disadvantages like Finding a specific meaning of a lexeme becomes difficult except on pragmatic ground where context of usage could help to deduce the meaning of a lexeme. For example, the lexeme ‘van’, how can we know what the speaker refers to; a pickup van, a caravan, wagon, army wing, or camper? Therefore meaning of a lexical item is inconsistent and might be misleading.