Bài giảng môn Ngữ nghĩa học (Semantics) - Unit 4: Referring expressions - Trương Văn Ánh

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1. Semantics Sai Gon University truongvananh@cvseas.edu.vn
2. Chapter two From reference . . . UNIT 4: REFERRING EXPRESSIONS A REFERRING EXPRESSION is any expression used in an utterance to refer to something or someone (or a clearly delimited collection of things or people), i.e. used with a particular referent in mind. Ex: The name Fred in an utterance such as ‘Fred hit me’, where the speaker has a particular person in mind when he says ‘Fred’, is a referring expression. Fred in ‘There’s no Fred at this address’ is not a referring expression, because in this case a speaker would not have a particular person in mind in uttering the word.
3. An OPAQUE CONTEXT is a part of a sentence which could be made into a complete sentence by the addition of a referring expression, but where the addition of different referring expressions, even though they refer to the same thing or person, in a given situation, will yield sentences with DIFFERENT meanings when uttered in a given situation.
4. Jack, an English boy, has just come to Vietnam. Lan tells him: “Chi Pheo lives in Vu Dai village”. Lan also tells him: “Ba Kien hates Thi No’s lover”. Jack thinks that Chi Pheo and Thi No’s lover are two different people. This is an opaque context in which Jack thinks that Chi Pheo is not Thi No’s lover or these two referents are different.
5. An EQUATIVE SENTENCE is one which is used to assert the identity of the referents of two referring expressions, i.e. to assert that two referring expressions have the same referent. The following are equative sentences: • That woman over there is my daughter’s teacher. • Quang Trung is Nguyen Hue. > The two referring expressions can replace each other.
6. Chi Pheo is Thi No’s lover. This is an equative sentence.  Chi Pheo = Thi No’s lover We, Vietnamese people, know this fact.
7. Summary Speaker meaning Sentence meaning Utterance Sentence Proposition Sense Reference Referent: Variable, constant, co-referent Referring expression Opaque context Equative sentence
8. GOOD LUCK!