guistic ic Se Semantics mantics:: A n I ntr od oduction uction . Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge John Lyons. L in guist University Press. 1995. Sir John Lyons's Linguistic Lyons's Linguistic Semantics: An Introduction (LSAI Introduction (LSAI from now on) is a tolerable addition to the list of half a dozen doz en or so impressive titles he has produced on linguistic subjects over the years. This book was initially planned to be a second edition of his Language, his Language, Meaning and Context (Lyons (Lyons 1981). However, in the end it turned out to be a successor and replacement. For it is, in the author's words, a very ver y different book compared to the 1981 19 81 volume: it is much longer, treats topics missing in the earlier volume, and is written in a different style. (Unfortunately, I am not familiar with (Lyons 1981) and the reader is asked to take these remarks with a grain of salt.) By `linguistic semantics' Lyons means the study of meaning s ystematically encoded in the vocabulary/grammar of natural language. Thus, linguistic semantics is a branch of linguistics; semantic issues which have more to do with philosophy belong, in Lyons's view, to the more proper branch of philosophical semantics. Accordingly and understandably, Lyons devotes limited space to philosophical problems while he cautions that nobody would be able to appreciate modern linguistic semantics without some acquaintance with its philosophical groundwork. According to Lyons, LSAI can be b e used as a textbook for introductory semantics courses in departments of linguistics. If one is familiar with various key issues in semantics, then this book is quite enjoyable because Lyons is raising some interesting points and asking stimulating questions. On the other hand, a beginner would be easily unsettled by the lack of exercises, light (at times skin-deep) treatment of some very significant topics of semantics, and the generally verbose writing style of Lyons. In fact, this last point needs some emphasis. To repeat the words of Wittgenstein vis-a-vis a well-known philosopher (Rhees 1984, page 88): ``He is too longwinded; he keeps on saying the same thing over and over again. When I read him I always wanted to say, Oh all right, I agree, I agree, but please get on with it.'' It should be added that since LSAI is not a formal a formal semantics semantics book, it is natural that the writing style suffers from a good deal repetition--probably thought of as a cure for ambiguity. In a formally written book, the mathematics would take care of the rest, and less prose would be needed. However, in LSAI there is onl y a minimal amount of mathematics. (This, by the wa y, reminds me of Daedalus of Daedalus,, an influential American journal which allows no formulas.) LSAI consists of the following parts (each part is followed by the chapters comprising it):
1. Lexical meaning It is the meaning of a word in isolations. This is the one usually given b y the dictionary. The term “Lexical meaning” is to be interpreted as the meaning of lexemes depends lexemes depends upon the meaning of the sentences in which they occur. Lexical meaning gives an explanation to the referential relations. The meaning of sequence of words is not always (wholly) predictable. Many words are difficult to predict in a clear analysis component such as advice, threat, and warning. The weakness is clear. Semantic feature reviews words of language as „a container‟
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containing „sense‟ component. component. In order to give the meaning meanin g of words, semantic feature is not used but is needs a deeper de eper analysis among words. This procedure also uses describe semantic called lexical relations. Lexical meaning deals with homonymy, polisemy, and synonymy.
2. Sentence meaning Sentence is a word from Latin. That is formed from the word centia means opinion. o pinion. Here, sentence is a group of related words containing a subject and predicate and expressing a complete and independence unit of thought. The common definition of the sentences as „a group of words containing a subject and predicate‟ sets up two of them: it requires that a sentence be of o f more than on word, and that it be a structure of predication.
3. Utterance Meaning We should draw a distinction between sentence meaning and utterance meaning, the sentence meaning being directly predictable predictable from…‟Sentence meaning from…‟Sentence meaning clearly fall within the scope of linguistics semantics while utterance meaning (fall outside the p rovince of linguistics semantics, the investigation of utterance meaning is part of pragmatics). At the term „utterance‟ is misleading. Utterances are usually taken to be unique speech event and no two utterances are the same. If someone says „it is a fine day‟, d ay‟, although although this may be a single utterance, it is interesting only an instance of the sentence „ it is a fine day‟. What Lyons What Lyons means by utterance meaning, then is a part of the meaning of a sentence that is not directly related to the grammatical and lexical features, but is obtained ei ther from associated prosodic and paralinguistic features or from the context, linguistics and non linguistics, linguistics, in which it occurs. So it can be said that utterance meaning is product of sentence meaning and context. In general, the meaning of an utterance will be richer than the meaning of the sentence from which it is derived.
4. Discourse Meaning Discourse typically consists of more than a single sentence. A language permits combining sentence together to express complete thoughts and idea. This makes language an excellent medium for communication. The analysis of discourse is necessarily the analysis of language in used. Generally, there are two kinds of language-spoken and written language. Spoken is differ from writing. The notion of „text‟ as printed record is familiar in the study of literature. While the problems the problems encountered with the notion of „text‟ as verbal record of a communication act become a good deal more complex when we consider what is meant by spoken „text‟. The „text‟. The simplest view to assume is that a tape recorder at a communicative act will preserve the „text‟.
