ENG508 Assignment 1 Solution and Discussion

MA ELT
Semantics and Pragmatics (ENG 508)

Fall 2019
Assignment No. 1
Total Marks: 20
Lectures: 1-12

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Q1. Semantics is the study of meaning, but what we mean by ‘meaning’ is disputed among the linguists. Read about the different theories of ‘meaning’ (given in the handouts) and then answer the following questions:
a) Which of the given theories of meaning is best suited to the linguistic facts?
b) How can the words fail to mean what they mean?
(5+5= 10 Marks)

Q2. “Idea Theory” explains the pattern show languages express meaning in terms of concepts, thoughts or ideas. Read about the Idea Theory and then discuss the major challenges faced by the “Idea Theory”. (10 Marks)

@zareen said in ENG508 Assignment 1 Solution and Discussion:

How can the words fail to mean what they mean?

I am too happy, sad, amazed, etc, to express my thoughts
See full dictionary entry for words

The linguistic facts required for artificial intelligence to be able to distinguish between text and metatext include expressions referring to “text about text” insertions. Such data can be provided by discourse linguistics. The present paper offers a list of expressions used to identify text about text in the current conversation and outlines other semantic and pragmatic phenomena which may constitute the individual profile of the system designed to process the other’s comment containing those expressions.

@zareen said in ENG508 Assignment 1 Solution and Discussion:

a) Which of the given theories of meaning is best suited to the linguistic facts?

• So we’re restricting ourselves to linguistically-determined meaning
• But what is it to know that some piece of linguistic structure affects meaning?
• We need a theory of what it means to say that a sentence ‘means something