Semantic Theories: Structuralist, Logical & Generative

 Semantic Theories

Semantic theories are based on three approaches:

  1. Structuralist (form)
  2. Logical
  3. Generative
Some linguists have named the logical approach as premise, that is, a statement or an idea that forms the basics for a reasonable line of argument.

The basic semantic theories are:

a) Analytical/ Referential Approach

Analytical or Referential Approach has been formulated by Saussure

b) Distributional Approach

Distributional Approach studies the structural treatment of linguistic meaning. 

We cannot find two words in any language sharing exactly the same lexical environment (distribution). So, this approach studies meaning as syntagmatic (collocations) and paradigmatic (sets) relations. Paradigmatic relations deals with the lexical meaning of the words of the same lexical set. Lexical meaning is the dictionary meaning.

c) Operation (Contextual/ Functional) Approach

In this approach, we study meaning or concept as a set of operations. The real meaning of a word is understood according to its function, that is, its use in the language, in the contexts they occur. 

In terms of contexts of situation, the meaning of an utterance includes both "references" (denotation) of individual words and that of the whole sentence. 

J.R. Firth has suggested a typical outline context to bring the utterance and its parts into relationship with the full categories:
  1. The relevant features of participants.
    a) The verbal action of the participants.
    b) The non-verbal action of the participants.

    2. The relevant objects
    3. The effect of the verbal action.

d) Field Theory of Meaning 

According to Saussure, a word in a language is surrounded by a network of associations which connect with still other terms. Words that are inter-related may belong to the same semantic field.
Eg: "tree", "branch", "root", "flower", "stem" and "fruit". 

The theory provides the situation of collocation. The items for collocation are selected from the lexicon of the same field. For example, "plant" collocates with "grow"; "flower" collocates with "bloom"; "letters" with "writing" etc.

e) Componential Analysis Approach

It deals with the structural approach of vocabulary in terms of a relatively small set of very general elements of meaning called "components", "markers" or "sememes" and their various possible combinations in different languages.

In this, the total meaning of a word is broken up into its basic distinct components. Each component is expressed by feature symbol with a + or − mark to indicate the presence/absence of a certain feature.

f) Generative Theory of Meaning

It studies the meaning as a subject of renewed interest with the development of T. G Grammar. This model sought to recite the meaning with syntax and sound through a set of transformations from deep structure to surface structure.

g) Truth Conditional Theory of Meaning

It studies the meaning by explaining all the entailment relations between sentences in a language on the basis of certain conditions.
For eg: "He is married" entails he has a wife.

The other example of the conditional theory may be a statement "Tiger is a hungry dog" can be true if tiger is a dog. 

A sentence is true if all the necessary conditions of truth are satisfied.

Prepared by
Dr. Susan Mathew

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