Word meaning

● One word means many things

– jack has 14 meanings

• fruit, garment, flag, tea, tired, steal . . .

Word meaning

● Word meaning changes over time

– retain meant take again• And now it came to pass that when Zerahemnah had heard these sayings he came

forth and delivered up his sword and his cimeter, and his bow into the hands of Moroni, and said unto him: Behold, here are our weapons of war; we will deliver them up unto you, but we will not suffer ourselves to take an oath unto you, which we know that we shall break, and also our children; but take our weapons of war, and suffer that we may depart into the wilderness; otherwise we will retain our swords, and we will perish or conquer.

• And now when Moroni had said these words, Zerahemnah retained his sword, and he was angry with Moroni, and he rushed forward that he might slay Moroni; but as he raised his sword, behold, one of Moroni's soldiers smote it even to the earth, and it broke by the hilt; and he also smote Zerahemnah that he took off his scalp and it fell to the earth.

Word meaning

● Word meaning changes over time

– Changes don't wipe out old meaning

– Meanings coexist as in retain (keep, retake)

Word meaning

● Word meaning changes over time

– In King James Bible by and by means immediately

Word meaning

● Word meaning changes over time

– In King James Bible by and by means immediately

– In King James Bible conversation meant behavior

• Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

Word meaning

● Word meaning changes over time

– Definition of random

• haphazard or aimless

Word meaning

● Word meaning changes over time

– Definition of random

• haphazard or aimless

– What is the new meaning?

Metaphor

● Words have central, prototypical meaning

– Metaphors are at the extreme edges

Metaphor

● Words have central, prototypical meaning

– Metaphors are at the extreme edges

• lettuce

Metaphor

● Words have central, prototypical meaning

– Metaphors are at the extreme edges

• lettuce

Metaphor

● Words have central, prototypical meaning

– Metaphors are at the extreme edges

• sharp

Metaphor

● Words have central, prototypical meaning

– Metaphors are at the extreme edges

• sharp

Metaphor

● Words have central, prototypical meaning

– Metaphors involve describing something in terms used to describe something else

• broken

• relationships are like fragile objects

Metaphor

● Words have central, prototypical meaning

– Metaphors involve describing something in terms used to describe something else

• in a rut, smooth sailing, moving ahead, bumpy road

• relationships are like traveling

Metaphor

● Words have central, prototypical meaning

– Metaphors involve describing something in terms used to describe something else

• shoot down, attack (enemy)

Metaphor

● Words have central, prototypical meaning

– Metaphors involve describing something in terms used to describe something else

• shoot down, attack (enemy)

• shoot down, attack (idea)

• debate is like war

Metaphor

● Words have central, prototypical meaning

– Metaphors involve describing something in terms used to describe something else

• strike out, score, second base (baseball)

Metaphor

● Words have central, prototypical meaning

– Metaphors involve describing something in terms used to describe something else

• strike out, score, second base (baseball)

• strike out, score, second base (sex)

• sex is like baseball

Metaphor

● Words have central, prototypical meaning

– Metaphors involve describing something in terms used to describe something else

• Emotions are like temperature

Metonymy

● When something appears in the context of something else and is referred to as that something else

Metonymy

● When something appears in the context of something else and is referred to as that something else

● have coffee means sit and talk

Metonymy

● When something appears in the context of something else and is referred to as that something else

● have coffee means sit and talk● hands or heads means entire thing

– all hand on deck

– head count

Metonymy

● When something appears in the context of something else and is referred to as that something else

– The crown cannot tolerate . . .

– The White House announced . . .

– Nice threads

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

● Sapir

– Are our own concepts of time, space, and matter given in substantially the same form by experience to all men, or are they in part conditioned by the structure of particular languages?

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

● Sapir

– Are our own concepts of time, space, and matter given in substantially the same form by experience to all men, or are they in part conditioned by the structure of particular languages?

– Are there traceable affinities between (a) cultural and behavioral norms and (b) large-scale linguistic patterns?

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

● Whorf– We dissect nature along lines laid down by our native languages.

The categories and types that we isolate from the world of phenomena we do not find there because they stare every observer in the face; on the contrary, the world is presented in a kaleidoscopic flux of impressions which has to be organized by our minds—and this means largely by the linguistic systems in our minds. We cut nature up, organize it into concepts, and ascribe significances as we do, largely because we are parties to an agreement to organize it in this way — an agreement that holds throughout our speech community and is codified in the patterns of our language... all observers are not led by the same physical evidence to the same picture of the universe, unless their linguistic backgrounds are similar, or can in some way be calibrated.

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

● The structure of one’s language influences the manner in which one perceives and understands the world, therefore, speakers of different languages will perceive the world differently.

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

● Strong version

– Language determines certain non-linguistic cognitive processes, that is, language determines our perception of the world.

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

● Strong version

– Language determines certain non-linguistic cognitive processes, that is, language determines our perception of the world.

● Weak version

– Language biases our view of the world.

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

● Strong version

– Reality is imposed by one's language so you can alter someone's thoughts by altering his/her language

• Is that even possible?

• Do totalitarian governments ban words?

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

● Strong version

– Reality is imposed by one's language so you can alter someone's thoughts by altering his/her language

• Is that even possible?

• Do totalitarian governments ban words?

– Linguistic categories create cognitive categories

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

● I am hot● I have heat

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

● I am hot● I have heat

● I have two daisies● There are two daisies to me

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

● I am hot● I have heat

● I have two daisies● There are two daisies to me

● We went (past tense) to the store● We go (past meaning, no past tense) to the store

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

● I am leaving (marked with iterative aspect)● I am leaving (marked with future aspect)

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

● Does language affect how we perceive colors?● How would you divide the spectrum up?

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

● English

● Berimno

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

● People who don't have different words for blue and green can't distinguish them

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

● Strong version

– Reality is imposed by one's language so you can alter someone's thoughts by altering his/her language

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

● Chinese numbers for eleven and twelve = 10+1, 10+2, etc.

● English numbers = separate words (eleven, twelve, etc)

● Chinese-speaking children learn to count and understand numbers in the teen range better than English-speaking children

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

● Verbs can contain information about movement

– path

– manner

– ground

– figure

• The ball rolled down the road

– manner=roll– path=down the road– ground=road– figure=ball

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

● Verbs can contain information about movement

– path

– manner

– ground

– figure

• The ball rolled down the road

– manner=roll– path=down the road– ground=road– figure=ball

• English verbs contain manner, not path

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

English

figure manner path ground

She cycled over the bridge

The bird flew out of its cage

figure path ground manner

Elle a traverse la Manche a velo

she crossed the Channel by plane

English verbs encode manner not pathFrench verbs encode path, not manner

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

● Other examples

– Drudge = marcher péniblement (walk tediously)

– March = marcher au pas (walk stepping)

– Plod = marcher d’un pas lent (walk with a slow step)

– Saunter = marcher d’un pas nonchalant (walk with a nonchalant step)

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

● In some experiment

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

● Languages with gender

– all objects animate and inanimate have gender

• English and Spanish kids asked to group objects into two

– 33% of Spanish kids did it by gender

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

● Languages with gender

– all objects animate and inanimate have gender

• English and Spanish kids asked to group objects into two

– 33% of Spanish kids did it by gender

• Should this have a man's or woman's voice

– Spanish did it by gender– English had no pattern

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

● Languages with gender

– all objects animate and inanimate have gender

• English and Spanish kids asked to group objects into two

– 33% of Spanish kids did it by gender

• Should this have a man's or woman's voice

– Spanish did it by gender– English had no pattern

• Kids with gender language recognize gender of other kids faster than kids with no gender in language

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

● German English bilinguals● Spanish English bilinguals

– Key is feminine in Spanish and masculine in German

– Bridge is masculine in Spanish and feminine in German

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

● German English bilinguals● Spanish English bilinguals

– Key is feminine in Spanish and masculine in German

– Bridge is masculine in Spanish and feminine in German

• Describe key

– German: hard, heavy, jagged– Spanish: light, shiny, little

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

● German English bilinguals● Spanish English bilinguals

– Key is feminine in Spanish and masculine in German

– Bridge is masculine in Spanish and feminine in German

• Describe bridge

– German: beautiful, elegant, peaceful, slender

– Spanish: big, dangerous, strong, sturdy

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

● English: put on versus put in● Korean: interlock things versus put loosely in

container

– They asked kids to describe what was being done (buttoning, joining, separating, inserting, attaching, hanging, dressing things)

– Korean kids classified things as interlocking and tightly fitting by using same words to describe them. Same words not used for “in and on”

– English kids the opposite