Semantics
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Semantics is the study of meaning in language. This definition includes "meaning" in several senses, such as dictionary definitions (i.e., what, in the world, a word refers to). But, more importantly, semantics "is the study of the way in which words and sentences convey meaning in everyday situations of speech or writing" (Crystal 100). The study of how words mean is important because language has an extraordinary influence on the manner in which people think. A discussion of types of words and expressions (equivocal words, euphemisms, language used in particular subject areas, language that obscures meaning) demonstrates how language can shape our world and influence the way we think about it. A brief look at the idea of E-Prime shows how careful attention to the influence of language can help people to think more clearly by making them refer to experience first and then describe experience using language, rather than allowing language to shape our perceptions of experience. In the early part of this century a linguist and anthropologist named Edward Sapir and his student Benjamin Lee Whorf developed a hypothesis about the relationship between language and thought. They believed that language determined thought and that the distinctions of meaning inherent in one language did not occur in any other language. In its strongest form this hypothesis is no longer considered likely to be valid. But a weaker version, which is quite widely accepted, says that "language m
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re the informative intent behind some communications.. They give the excellent example of the early days of the HIV epidemic in which newspaper and television reporters employed so many euphemisms that they left a significant part of the public bewildered as to how the disease could be contracted (Hayakawa and Hayakawa 46-7).
There are also many uses of euphemism that do not relate to taboos but to personal vanities (using "rinse" to mean hair "dye") or other selling techniques, such as using "crafted" for "manufactured" in order to imply that hand-work was involved in the production of particular goods (Bolinger, Language 116). There is even "a history of how not to say that anything is less than very good," as with grades of beef which range through "prime, choice, good, standard, and canner's" (Bolinger, Language 116). But these euphemisms are more often means for deliberately obscuring the truth about the object being denoted.
In cases where the semantic distortion is deliberate, both affective and judgmental terms are important. Affective connotations are supplied in everyday conversation with a regularity that would surprise many people. Hayakawa and Hayakawa provide the excellent example of the phrases "Finest qual
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Approximate Word count = 4512
Approximate Pages = 18 (250 words per page)
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