Semantics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Semantics - Essay ExampleFor instance, the declare Annie looked at people wearing glass can suppose that Annie was looking at people who were wearing glasses themselves, or it can mean that Annie was wearing glasses while looking at people. These two different inwardnesss have a very large impact on the effectiveness of the sentence. Related to ambiguity is the race between sentence meaning and utterance meaning. Put simply, sentence meaning is independent of background, and utterance meaning is dependent upon context (Lyons 38). However, the relationship between the two is hardly simple, and many cases of ambiguity are a result of the differences between the two Perceived discrepancies between sentence meaning and utterance meaning give rise to the frequently asked interrogatory What did s/he mean when s/he said that? (Allan 43). It would not be appropriate to tackle to determine whether one was to a greater extent important than the other because they are used for two dif ferent situations. wiz might as well ask whether having a context or not having a context was more important to the study of semantics.As stated, sentence meaning is independent of context, though there is more to the definition that needs to be considered. For instance, the sequence of words obviously has to be possible in a given language, and it has to be complete in a given sense. There would be no buck in attempting to examine the meaning of a sentence such as Chomskys example. The meaning of the sentence England is an island is easy to discern. England, as a country, is a familiar entity, and the c erstwhilept of an island being a land-mass completely environ by water is also well-known. Looking at any map, the fact that England is a land-mass that is completely surrounded by water is not a difficult thought to grasp.Utterance meaning is used by a speaking on a particular occasion and is dependent upon the context of the situation. John Lyons once stated that utterances ar e unique