Uddrag fra Semantics. Scope, Definitions, Methods, [Nice1951] 046-0610

4. fa fymt: SEMANTICS SCOPE, DEFINITIONS, METHODS. If this conference is going to he a conference on SEMANTICS the first question to be answered will be what we understand by "semantics*'. I understand that we have to deal exclusively, or primarily with vocal speech and language, and more especially with the problem of MEANINGS, The study of meanings has two, and only these two aspects : (1) meanings in language, i.e. the study of the meanings of significants of a given language (or more than one language), the significants being : words, parts or elements of words, combinations of words (a black swan, a white crow), sontenco intonations, and parts or elements of sentence intonations fYes, but does he know ?). (2)' meanings in the use of a language, i.e, speech; this os the study of the use made of meanings of significants in actual speech, or, better, the use made of significants as far as this use is determined by their meanings. 2, In order to study meanings we don't need a perfectly satisfactory defi- nit ion of "meaning” any more than e,g. mathematicians need a definition of a point and a line to build up the science of geometry. At least at the first stage, maybe in all following stages, the only thing wo need is a more or less provisional agreement on what we mean by "the meaning of a word" or any other significant. So we need a kind of ostensive definition^ Cp.my Structurele Syntaxis. 1949, 161; W.E.Johnson, Logic I, ans L.Susan 3tabbing, A Modern Introduction to Logic. 2nd ed., 1933, p,423. We may start from the assumption (hypothesis) that a word (the term word is here used loosely to denote any or several types of significants) has a meaning, and that this meaning is something different from "things" or "some things" in the so-oalled practical world around us (supposed, or denied, or fictional reality). By moans of the use of a word in a given situation a speaker may refer to one or more of such "things". This assumption may be based - among other things - on the following observations, a. The same "something in reality" may be referred to by different words having different meanings ; a girl may be referred to by the use of the words Jane, she, girl. president. darling, cat. beauty, perfection, angel, etc, b, The same word (in language), i.e. words having the same form (marks) and the same meaning (in speech) may be used to refer to different "somethings in reality". This can cause ambiguities. Using the word cat the speaker may leave his audience in doubt which cat ho is referring to ; a cat in the room, or on the roof, his own cat, his neighbour's; or oven whether ho rofors to an animal - or a woman. The word used by the speaker, or its moaning, is a clue to the some- ^ o thing he is referring to. This clue has to be used by the hearer in order to cr identify the something referred to, r— =3 T” 3. The study of meanings is one of the most essential parts of the study of c~ a language, consequently of linguistics. Linguistics is here used to denote the study of speech and languages, A significant is - to use a term of Roman Jakob- ^5 son's - bipartite. This does not mean, of course, that it has two parts, but it w t* means that a significant is :m indivisablo unit of form and moaning. The form is a collection or combination of marks • Form and meaning of a significant are O correlative. A form (of a significant) is a form of, or for a definite meaning, vsj ^ A moaning is a moaning of a definite form. To study forms of significants ^ "V without taking into account their meanings as such, is a theoretical contradic- tion, and practically impossible. Cp.f.i. Kennoth L.Pike, Grammatical prerequi- .sites to phonemic analysis. Word 3.155-72 (1947),