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1、ChapterFiveMeaningSectionOnetheReferentialTheoryQ1.Whatissemantics?Q2.Whatisthereferentialtheory?SemanticsThesubjectconcerningthestudyofmeaningiscalledSEMANTICS.Morespecifically,semanticsisthestudyofthemeaningoflinguisticunits,wordsandsentencesinpart
2、icular.Meaninghasalwaysbeenacentraltopicinhumanscholarship,thoughtheterm“semantics”hasonlyahistoryofalittleoverahundredyears.TherewerediscussionsofmeaningintheworksoftheGreekphilosopherPlatoasearlyasinthefifthcenturybeforeChrist.InChina,LaoZihaddiscu
3、ssedsimilarquestionsevenearlier.Thefactthatovertheyearsnumerousdictionarieshavebeenproducedwithaviewtoexplainingthemeaningofwordsalsobearswitnesstoitslongtradition.Nevertheless,semanticsremainstheleastknownareainlinguistics,comparedwithphonetics,phon
4、ology,morphologyandsyntax.Meaningsof“meaning”Onedifficultyinthestudyofmeaningisthattheword“meaning”itselfhasdifferentmeanings.IntheirbookTheMeaningofMeaningwrittenin1923,C.K.OgdenandI.A.Richardspresenteda“representativelistofthemaindefinitionswhichre
5、putablestudentsofmeaninghavefavored”(p.186).Thereare16majorcategoriesofthem,withsub-categoriesalltogether,numbering22.Thereferentialtheory9Thetheoryofmeaning,whichrelatesthemeaningofawordtothething,itrefersto,orstandsfor,isknownasthereferentialtheory
6、.Thisisaverypopulartheory.Itisgenerallypossible,aswehaveshownintheprevioussection,toexplainthemeaningofawordbypointingtothethingitrefersto.Inthecaseofpropernounsanddefinitenounphrases,thissespeciallytrues.Whenwesay“ThemostinfluentiallinguistNoamChoms
7、kyteachesatMIT”,wedouse“themostinfluentiallinguist”and“NoamChomsky”tomeanaparticularperson,and“MIT”aparticularinstitutionofhigherlearning.Wordsareindifferentsenserelationswitheachother.Somewordshavemoresimilarsensesthanothers.Forexample,thesenseofdes
8、kismorecloselyrelatedtothatoftablethantochair.Converselywecansaythesenseofdeskismoredifferentfromthatofchairthanfromtable.Andthesenseofdeskisincludedinthesenseoffurniture,orthesenseoffurnitureincludesthatofdesk.Asaresultthesenseofawordmaybeseenasthen
