Semantic Theories (Fach) / Structural Semantics (Lektion)
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Franz Boas
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- Franz Boas.. strong proponent of structuralism each language must have its own system and its own structure
- Systematic relations can be identified.. ..on different leves of language! (in different components) -on a phonological level - on a morphological level - on a syntactic level
- Central assumptions of structuralism in general are that: - each language has its own system and its own structure - the units identified or the theoretical constructs related to them (sounds, words, meanings, etc.) get their values in relations to the other units within the system - linguistic units are nothing but positions in a system, in a network of relations
- European Structuralism semantics Coseriu, Greimas and Pottier published several works Coseriu had a very theoretical background on his analyses on field theory he transferred methods of analysis from other areas of linguistics to the theory of fields. He referred to the phonology of the Prague School: - here the phoneme is defined as the smallest meaning distinguishing unit - the morpheme is defined as the smallest meaning bearing unit -> a phoneme is characterised by a bundle of distinctive features and that distinctive features are related by functional contrast
- Example that demonstrates the difference between distinctive (functional) and non-functional features bit - pit = are features that distinguish two words->related by functional contrast, consequently distinctive; features that distinguish the /p/ sound in spit are NOT functional -> not distinctive the method was used in semantics to analyse word meanings into features (distinctive features). In line with the theory of fields it is assumed that the vocabulary of a language is hierarchically structured.
- According to Coseriu, word fields.. only comprise lexemes of the primary vocabulary, no secondary structures are derived on the basis of word-formation, and the lexemes of a word field are in a paradigmatic relation, e.g. old - new - young; boy - girl - man -relevant concepts: lexeme (a unit of lexical context which is expressed in the linguistic system and occupies a position in the word field); archilexeme (the total content of a word field which may be realised by a lexeme as, e.g. animal, thing... but which need not have a lexical representative (hot-cold-warm-cool-cold-icy have no lexeme as archilexeme)
- How are word fields described? - have to be analysed into features which constitute lexemes in the same way that (phonological) features consitute phonemes. Features in word fields may be called semes. - semes are identified on the basis of minimal oppositions within a word field, e.g. man - woman: male - lexemes consist of a set of semes - archilexeme is the name of the whole field and it represents the semes which are shared by all the lexemes of a field
- Lexical structures are.. either in a paradigmatic or in a syntagmatic relationship. Paradigmatic relationships can be further subdivided into primary and secondary structures. Primary structures comprise word fields