Semantics I acknowledgements
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| 2.5 Is Semantics Scientific? Now what is the answer to the question above It is not difficult, just say yes or no. one who is not a linguist will say that semantics is not scientific because he considers semantics as an aspect of language. As an aspect of language semantics is not science, therefore it is not scientific. But one who is from a linguist or interested in linguistics find difficulties in answering the question. He will manage to study the area and theories, in order that he can prove it. So here we will study theories which are so called contextualism and behaviorism before determining whether semantics is scientific or not. Contextualism The term contextualism is meant here context of situation which was proposed by Malinowski and JR. Firth. These two scholars expressed meaning in term of the context in which language is used. Let’s just examine the conversation below A : Could we have a table for two, please? B : Certainly, Sir. There is one over therein the corner. The situation in which this conversation took place is in restaurant. If we do not know the situation, it is of course difficult to state its meaning. The conversation above might take place in other situation like in a shop which sells furniture. The speaker in this case wted a table, a dining table for two person only. The similar case is also found in this conversation A : Have a nice time. B : Thank you, I’m sure I will. SEMANTICS Page We have seen that context of situation is important in determining the meaning of an utterance, but according to Bloomfield it is not. As speech may take place in the absence of objects being talked about. Behaviorism It is figured by Leonard Bloomfield, a well known American linguist through his book Language (1933). He defined the meaning of a linguistic form as the situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer : (p. 20). Malnowski and Firth stated meaning in terms of situation. But Bloomfield defined it as the situation. As an example, he made an account of Jack and Jill. Jill is hungry, sees an apple, with the use of language he get Jack to fetch the apple. If Jack was absent, Jill herself would move and got the apple. Before getting he apple, what made Jill hungry is called Response (R. Since Jack was with her, (R) would be placed by a linguistic reaction, Jill would say something. The sound waves resulting from this in turn created a stimulus for Jack. The linguistic reaction is symbolized by (r) and the stimulus produced is symbolized by (s. The stimulus (s) would result in non linguistic reaction (R) of getting the apple. We can make the diagram of those events as SR (if Jill alone) S r…………s R (if Jill accompanied by Jack) So according to Bloomfield, meaning is the relation between speech (rs) and the practical events that precede and follow it. What is important here is that the stimulus and response are physical events. Now based on the two approaches we can determine or at least prepare an answer to the previous question, but we should deal with conditions that make something to be scientific. SEMANTICS Page Something is called scientific, at least it must treat such as consistency, systematic, objective, logic, etc. two of these conditions cane fulfilled. To get semantic data in analysis meaning in the context of situation, we can collect various context, that makes it objectives. But meaning in the context of situation is not consistence and logic because it varies from context to context. In behaviorism, meaning is defined in term of physical events, therefore physical events are scientifically explainable. But what was defined by Bloomfield, s…….r is the only physical entities which can be brought to laboratory. The relation of rs with the others is actually the meaning which is kept in mind. Then Bloomfield stated that it can be explained scientifically if it has to do with mater of scientific knowledge, like the meaning of salt ; natrium chloride (NaCl). But how to define the meaning of love and hate? In fact, love and hate can be analyzed in term of contrastive features to which languages have in common/universal. The problem of scientific is also dealing with the problem of universality. Unfortunately, his is only applied to conceptual meaning, the other types of meaning cannot e treated in similar way. The two theories, contextualism and behaviorism maybe said to be frail in treating semantics and scientific. Nevertheless, we dare to say that semantics is scientific by means of its conceptual meaning or logical meaning.. |