Tikrit University
College of Arts
Translation Department
M.A 1st semester
Semantic
Theories of Meaning
Prepared by:
Mahmood Shafeeq Ghafore
Ahmed Natik Dawood
submitted to:
Prof. Dr. Samer Mohammed Ahmed
1. Introduction
The meaning is the essence of Semantics. The study of meaning has a
long history in some branches of scientific study, such as philosophy; the
linguistic study of meaning took place at the end of the 19th century.
The earlier studies concerning meaning was limited because the core of
semantics was unreachable. In dictionaries, the meaning of the word 'meaning'
indicates "sense, message, or significance... etc.", whereas, meaning is defined
by the German philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein's as: "the meaning of a word
is its use in the language that is to say; the word function in the language”.
There are many different ways that interpret the word meaning, but the one
that most relevant to linguistics and agrees to semantics is "the function of
signs in language". As stated, the subject of meaning followed the invention
of semantics, where, the former has been taken into consideration by
philosophers over a thousand years of the latter invention. As the Greek
philosophers were the first who discussed the nature of meaning' they
presented two conflicting views on this subject. The fact is that the main
concern of early contemporary philosophy of language focused on the
structural features of sentences meaning rather than nowadays concerning
with word meaning and all related issues.
This paper is an attempt to shed the light upon the meaning and its most
important theories as an overview to be presented as a classroom lecture.
2. Theory of Meaning
Generally speaking, in science, a theory is centered on a single idea,
which the theoretician wishes to provide an answer. Usually, there is only one
component to the theory being generated, that being the single idea that is in
question or needs to be explained.
Semantics theories made to explain: How we communicate? Why we choose
the methods we do?
I.A. Richards analyzed human communication and co-formulated a theory
known as the "Theory of Meaning” (Ogden and Richards, 1927). Ogden and
Richards' theory attempts to not only describe the approaches humans take
when communicating, but also to understand how communication is "lost"
when it is not done correctly.
Unlike traditional scientists, Ogden and Richards take a completely different
approach in developing their theory. Rather than focus on a single idea upon
which to base the theory, they deconstruct the idea into many parts, thus
creating a multi-faceted theory to explain communication behaviors.
The aspects explored by Ogden and Richards include:
1. "Meaning Theory," which states that there is not a single "correct"
meaning associated with each and every word because each word means
something different to each person, or more simply, meanings don't reside in
words, they reside in people (Erickstad, 1998).
For example: What the word cold means?
He or she would probably get a response related to a condition in
temperature. However, think of the word in slang and ask someone again,
what the word “cold” means and one could receive a response in term of
attitude expressed toward other people or objects.
Now, consider the example above spread throughout the languages and one
could encounter the problem of meaning and how there can be no single
"correct" meaning for any word. In order to correct the problems associated
with “Meaning Theory,”, Ogden and Richards developed “Definition
Theory."
2. "Definition Theory," which states the “ambiguity” problem that there can
be no single “correct” meaning for any word is to be solved by providing a
definition of different terms or concepts (Erickstad, 1998).
2.1. The Denotational Theory of Meanings
Saeed (2009) stated that this is the simplest theory of meaning which
claims that Semantic is reference (that to give the meaning of a word one
Shows what it denotes). In its simplest form this theory would claim that
reference picks out elements from the real world.
There are number of problems with this simple theory of Semantics:
(a) Many words have no meaning so it is very, difficult to find a real-world
referent for words so, not, but.
(b) Many nominal expressions used by speakers do not have a referent that
exists or has never existed such as father, Christmas.
(c) Moreover, abstract nouns cannot have a specific reference such as, love,
happiness.
(d) we can refer to the same individual in different ways, for example:
- Then in 1981 Anwar E1 Sadat was assassinated. - Then in 1981 the
President of Egypt was assassinated.
2.2. The mentalist theory
The theory states if meanings are not actual objects, perhaps they are
mental objects, even if there is no real flying horse for Pegasus to denote,
there is surely such an idea and is may be the meaning of Pegasus. This sort of
theory has number of problems, the most serious one can be put in the form of
dilemma, either the notion of the idea is unclear to predict or explain anything
specific, and thus the theory is not testable or if the notion of an idea is
enough to test the theory turns out to make false prediction (Akmajian, 2001).
Lyons (1995) states that the meaning an expression is the idea of the Concept
associated with it in the mind of anyone who knows and understand it.
The meaning of a word goes in term of images in the speaker or hearers mind.
The problem here is to know what form the images take? The most obvious
point is that these images cannot be visual (Kempson 1977).
2.3. The Use Theory of meaning
The meaning of an expression determined by its use in the language.
(Lyons, 1977, p 40). This theory is related to pragmatics has not intended by
Austin to. Provide an analysis of sentences or words but of utterance
(Kempson, 1977).
The subject-matter of this theory is to expect the explanation of how that
speaker of any language to send a message that do not bear any necessary
relation to the linguistic content of the sentence used (Akmajian, 2001)
It also explains the relation between the use of a sentence and the linguistic
act (Illocutionary act) which that sentence is used to perform (ibid).
The main problem with this theory is that the relevant conception of the use
must be made precise and the theory explain how exactly meaning is
connected to use. (Akmajian, 2001).
2.4. Contextual Theory
It states that has been used by Firth and that is “Firthian Theory of
meaning”. Firth was suspicious of what supposed to be systematic and well-
articulated theories of structure of language (Lyons, 1977).
According to Firth, the social function of language is regarded the most
important thing, as he refers to "pattern of life in society in which the speaker
lives and the role of the speaker's personality within society. For Firth,
semantics connects utterance to their context of situation (ibid).
2.5. Behavioral Theory of Meaning
Bloomfield suggested that the meaning of a linguistic form has to be
analyzed in term of the important elements of the situation in which the
speaker utters. He analyzed the situation into three constituent parts:
a- Speaker stimulus.
b- Utterance (speaker response and the hearer’s stimulus).
c- Hearer’s response (Kempson, 1977).
Lyons (1995) defines the behaviourist theory as follows “the meaning of an
expression is either stimulus that evokes it or the response that it evokes or a
combination of both on particular occasions of utterance.
Bibliography
• Arian Akmajian, R. A. (2001). Linguistics. Massachusetts Institute of
Technology: London.
• Francis P. Deneen, J. (1967). A Introduction to General Linguistics.
New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
• Kempson, R. M. (1977). Semantic Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
• Lyons, J. (1977). Semantics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Lyons, J. (1995). Linguistic Semantics: An Introduction. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
• Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (Eighth ed.). (2010). New York:
Oxford University Press.
• Richards, C. K. (1923). The Meaning Of Meaning. New York: A
Harvest Book.
• Saeed, J. I. (2009). Semantics. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
