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ENGLISH SEMANTICS
I. Introduction
1.1 Definition
Semantics Pragmatics
- the study of meaning in language
- context free
- The study of meaning in context (The study of the use of
lan in communication, particularly the relationship
between sentences and the contexts and situations in
which they are used.)
- Context dependent
Sentence Semantic meaning Pragmatic meaning
Would you like a piece of cake?
I’m on a diet.
Lose weight No. refuse the offer
The bag is so heavy.
(a man and a girl are going upstairs.
The girl is carrying the bag and she
says:The bag is so heavy”.)
The bag is not light. It’s heavy. Can you please help me carry the bag?
It’s so hot. The weather is very hot. Speaker wants SO to open the air condition.
Why don’t we go swimming?
Would you like an ice-cream?
Can you open the window?
I’m cold. I feel cold. Doctor: “How do you feel?”
Patient: “I’m cold.”
I’m sick. or
Speaker wants to borrow a coat. Or
A girl wants her boy friend to sit nearer.

She wants a hot, a heart.
Context
- That which occurs before and/or after a word, a phrase or even a longer utterance or a text.
- The broader social situation in which a linguistic item is used.
Contextual meaning: the meaning a linguistic item has in context.
Sentence Situation
“Do you know the meaning of war?” 1. The language teacher said to his Ss.
2. An injured soldier says to a politician who favors war, “War
produces death, injuries, and suffering.”
I’ll have to be at the office at 8.00 this morning. 1. Conversation between mother and son
Mother: “What time will you have to be … morning?”
Son: “I’ll have to be …. morning.”
2. Conversation between husband and wife
Wife: “Can you take the children to the school now?”
Husband: “I’ll have to be at the office at 8.00 this morning.”
Why don’t you send it by post? 1. Conversation between T and Ss
T asks Ss to read a sentence.
Ss read “Why don’t you send it by post?”
2. Me: “I have to give a letter to my family.”
3. John: “Why don’t you send it by post?”
“You said it.” 1. Rescue
My friend has a secret and she told me not to tell everyone.
But later everyone knows about it. I said to her that I didn’t
tell it. She rescued me: “You said it.”
II. WORD MEANING
II.1 Semantic feature [+…]
Definition
The smallest units of meaning in a word
Word Semantic feature
father human, male, mature, parental, paternal

boy [+male], young/-adult, human
girl human, female/-male, young
assassin
teacher
hen animate, bird, fowl, fully grown, female
Characteristics
1. Some semantic features need not be specifically mentioned.
[+human] is [+animate]
2. Different words may share the same semantic feature.
Word Semantic feature
Doctor, engineer, teacher, physicist, chemist, tailor, hairdresser,… professional
Mother, father, son, daughter, brother, sister, grandparent, aunt,
uncle,…
kinship
3. Words of different parts of speech may share the same semantic feature
Part of speech Semantic feature
Mother (n)
Breast-feed (v)
Pregnant (a)
female
School, teacher, textbook (n)
Teach, educate, instruct (v)
educational
4. The semantic properties of words determine what other words they can be combined with
Grammatically correct and syntactically perfect but semantically anomalous
My brother is an only child.
The bachelor is pregnant.
Colorless gree ideas sleep furiously.
Exercise 1. For each group of words given below, state what semantic features are shared by the (a) words and the (b)
words, and what SFs distinguish between the classes of (a) words and (b) words.

A. Lobster, shrimp, crab, oyster, mussel
B. Trout, sole, herring, salmon, mackerel
The (a) and (b) words are [+edible water animal].
The (a) words are [+shelfish].
The (b) words are [+fish].
Widow, mother, sister, aunt, seamstress
Widower, father, brother, uncle, tailor
Bachelor, son, paperboy, pope, chief
Bull, rooster, drake, ram, stallion
Table, pencil, cup, house, ship, car
Milk, tea, wine, beer, water, soft drink
Book, temple, mountain, road, tractor
Idea, love, charity, sincerity, bravery, fear
Rose, lily, tulip, daisy, sunflower, violet
Ash, oak, sycamore, willow, beech
Pine, cedar, jew, spruce, cypress
Book, letter, encyclopedia, novel, notebook, dictionary
Typewriter, pencil, ballpoint, crayon, quill, charcoal, chalk
Walk, run, skip, jump, hop, swim
Fly, skate, ski, ride, cycle, canoe, hang-glide
Ask, tell, say, talk, converse
Shout, whisper, mutter, drawl, holler
Alive, asleep, awake, dead, half-dead, pregnant
Depressed, bored, excited, upset, amazed, surprised
Exercise 2. Identify the semantic features in each of the following words.
Child
Aunt
Hen
Oak (tree)
Flower

Palm (hand)
Palm (tree)
Bachelor
spinster
Actress
Plod
Ewe
Fly (v)
Fly (insect)
Stallion
Police-officer
Beauty
Imagine
Actress
Plod
Ewe
Fly (v)
Fly (insect)
Stallion
Police-officer
Beauty
Imagine
Doe
Drive
Home
Elm
Chalk
Rose
Chick
Pap

Tiptoe
Pine (tree)
Owe
Computer
Honesty
Maid
Exercise 3. How can you distinguish the words given in the following table from one another, considering their semantic
features?
Malay English Vietnamese Chinese
Sadara
Brother Anh Huynh
Em
Đệ
Sister Muội
Chị Tỷ
II.2 Semantic field/lexical field /lexical set
The organization of related words and expressions into a system which shows their relationship to one another
Word Semantic field
Kinship Father, mother, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, …
Adjectives describing human emotional states Angry, sad, happy, exuberant, depressed, afraid,…
Drinking vessels Cup, mug, tumbler, wine glass, beer glass,…
Ways of organizing semantically similar items into semantic fields
Way
Items related by topics
Types of fruit Apples, oranges, grapes, bananas, pears, plums,…
Pieces of furniture Seats, tables, beds, storage,…
Terms of color Blue, red, yellow, green, black, white,…
Items similar in
meaning
Ways of cooking Stew, boil, fry, steam, roast, grill, smoke,…

Ways of looking Gaze, glance, peer, squint, stare
Ways in which a liquid
escapes from its container
Drip, leak, ooze, run, seep
Terms describing
people whose weight is
below normal
Thin, bony, skinny, scrawny, underweight, emaciated, slender, slim
Items which form pairs
of antonyms
Long-short
Light-heavy
Alive-dead
Love-hate
Approve-disapprove
Begin-end
Inside-outside
Upstairs-downstairs
Items which form pairs
or trios of synoyms
Smart-bright-intelligent
Conserve-preserve-safeguard
Fix-repair-mend
Kind-sort-type-variety
Happy-glad
Items grouped as an
activity or a process
Do the house work Clean the rooms, do the washing, iron the clothes, get the food,
prepare a meal, wash up
Do research Make hypotheses, collect data, analyze data, get results, come to

conclusions
Items classified
according to
Sex Male-female:
waiter-waitress,
tiger- tigress,
actor-actress,
host-hostess,
landlord-landlady,
sir-madam
Age Grown-ups, adults, elderly people, middle-aged people, teenagers,
children, infants, babies
Age and sex Horse:
Stallion: [male, fully grown]
Mare: [female, fully grown]
Foal: [+-male, -fully grown]
Dog:
Dog: : [male, fully grown]
Bitch: [female, fully grown]
Puppy: [+-male, -fully grown]
Exercise 4. Organize the given words into three semantic fields.
Shirts, end, forward, new, hats, lend, coats, shorts, beginning, trousers, amble, out, limp, tiptoe, plod, socks, trudge,
borrow, stomp, in, stump, old, backward, tramp
II.3 Lexical gap
The absence of a word in a particular place in a lexical field of a language
Word Male Female baby
Horse Stallion Mare Foal
Goat Billy-goat Nanny-goat Kid
? Bull Cow Calf
Dog Dog Bitch puppy

Exercise 5. Try to fill in each of the two blanks with an appropriate word to prove that there is no lexical gap in the given
semantic fields.
Word Male Female baby
Sheep Ram Ewe ?
Giraffe Male giraffe ? Baby giraffe
2.3 Referent, reference, and sense
Referent
An object or an entity in the real world or in the world of your imagination that is talked about
Reference
Reference of a word or a linguistic expression is the relationship between that word/expression and the thing, the action,
the event, the quality it refers to.
In the English language Reference In the real world
“Peter’s house”
(English noun phrase)
< >
The house belonging to Peter
Sense
The sense of a word or a linguistic expression shows the internal relationship between that word/expression and others in
the vocabulary of language.
Words +sense -sense +reference -reference
Teacher the one who gives a lesson
Student who has the lesson given by teacher
A dog is chasing a cat x
A dog is human x
The King of Vietnam is bald x x
By the year 3000, our descendants
will have left the Earth.
x x
Word Referent Reference Sense
Bachelor

A man who hasn’t ever
been married
The relationship between the word
bachelor and a certain unmarried man
Unmarried man
Bach Tuyet The relationship between the name
Bach Tuyet and the lovely princess
“Tuyet Trang”
The lovely princess in a
fairy tale
Variable reference, constant reference, and co-reference
Language
expression
Referent -reference Explain More example
1 >= 2 Variable “Your left ear”
6 billion people with left ear
in the world.
“Please look at your book!”
 Student A looks at his book.
Student B looks at her book. …
Student N looks at his book.
1 1 Constant The sun: only one The moon, Halley’s comet, the People’s
Republic of China, Angola, the United
Nations, FIFA, UNESCO
>= 2 1 co “The leader of the Labor Party
in 1006”
“The Prime Minister of the UK
in 2006”
 Mr. Tony Blair
The morning star and the evening star

 the planet Venus
John wearing red shirt and singing a
song
The man who is my father.
The man who married my mother.
Exercise. 6 What is identified by the word mean or meaning in the following examples, i.e. reference or sense?
1. When Albert talks about “his former friend”, he means me.
2. Daddy, what does logic mean?
3. Purchase has the same meaning as buy.
4. Look up the meaning of democracy in your dictionary.
5. If you look out of the window now, you’ll see who I mean.

II.4 Denotation and connotation
Denotation of a word is the core, central or referential meaning of the word found in a dictionary.
Connotation: the additional meaning that the word has beyond its denotative meaning. It shows people’s
emotions and/or attitudes towards what the word refers to.
Word Denotation
Connotation
+ -
woman [+human], female, adult Long hair, beautiful, kind,
devoted, patient
Jealous, talkative, wicked,
man [+human], male, adult Strong, handsome Shellfish, violent, heart-tempered
Child Human, -mature, +-male Affectionate, innocent Noisy, irritating
Rose Plant, flower, colored Good smelling, simple of love,
romantic, beautiful
Expensive, có gai???
Dragon Lots of tails, can fly Simple of king (Eastern culture):
powerful, prosperous, royal,
Dangerous, destruction (Western

culture)
Owl Large round eyes, thump at night Bad omen
(Asian culture)
Wisdom
(European culture)
snake a reptile with a very long thin body
and no legs. There are many types
of snake, some of which are
Evil, dangerous
poisonous
Fox a wild animal of the dog family,
with reddish-brown fur, a pointed
face and a thick heavy tail
A person who is cunning, deceitful
(a person who is clever and able to get
what they want by influencing or tricking
other people)
Christm
as
Dec 25
th
Winter, cake, festival, funny,
cheerful
June The sixth of month of the year Summer, vacation, hot weather
Decemb
er
The twelfth month of the year,
next after Nov
holiday season, Christmas,
winter break,

Bad weather(usually rainy or snowy),
dark evening, grey sky, slippery streets,
loneliness, separation from the beloved
Bachelor Unmarried man - Still single after the usual age for marrying
- decided by himself to stay single
- enjoying freedom, friendship, life
- ready for his impending marriage
Spinster Unmarried woman Still single after the usual age for marrying
Not decided by herself to stay single
Left in an unfavorable state
A symbol for some failure in life
A red rose with green stem Symbol of passion and love
A brown cross Symbol of religion according to the media connotation. However, to be
more specific, this is a symbol of Christianity.
Representation of a cartoon heart Symbol of love and affection, not in the way of a rose, but a symbol of true
love and people making love together.
Connotation
+ Neutral -
Mother, mom Woman Witch
Father, dad Man The old man
plump Overweight fat
Slender, slim Thin Skinny
Firm Obstinate Pigheaded
Thrifty, frugal Tight Stingy
Aggressive pushy
There are over 2,000 homeless in the
city
There are over 2,000 people with no
fixed address in the city.
There are over 2,000 vagrants in the city

2.5 Figure of speech
…………………
2.6 Sense relations
 Synonymy
A sense relation in which various words have different (written and sound) forms but have the same or nearly the
same meaning
Synonym Meaning
Hide-conceal Keep STO from being seen or known about
Kind-type-sort-variety A group of having similar characteristics
Stubborn-obstinate
Brigand-bandit
Mercury-quicksilver
Exercise/102. In the following sentences, do the capitalized pairs of words have the same sense?
1. The thief tried to CONCEAL/HIDE the evidence.
2. I’m going to PURCHASE/BUY a new coat.
3. These tomatoes are LARGE/RIPE.
4. This is a very LOOSE/SHORT definition.
5. You have my PROFOUUND/DEEP sympathy.
6. It is a very WIDE/BROAD street.
7. How many KIDS/CHILDREN have you got?
8. He comes to see us every FALL/AUTUM.
9. Nothing is more precious to us than our FREEDOM/LIBERTY.
10. The body was found in the BOOT/TRUNK of the car.
11. We’ve just bought a new HOUSE/APARTMENT.
12. John got a bullet wound in his HEAD/GUTS.
13. A BLOKE/CHAP I know has pickled onions for breakfast.
 Antonymy
A sense relation in which two words have different (written and sound) forms and are opposite in meaning
Antonym
Pass-failure Thinner-fatter Big-small

Hot-cold True-false Buy-sell
Classification
Characteristic
Antonymy
Binary/complementary Gradable Relational
Exclusive X
Not alive = dead
Not dead = alive
Gradable
(intermediate
terms)
X
Hot <– warm –
tepid/lukewarm – cool-
chilly- > cold
used in comparison
and how question
(degree)
Can not can
“if … then …” X
If Mr. A is Jack’s employer, then jack is
Mr. A’s employee.
Example
Alive-dead
Married-single
Present-absent
Awake-sleep
Wide-narrow
difficult-easy
Verb:

Buy-sell
Give-receive
Lend-borrow
Import-export
Own-belong to
Short<-quite tall->tall Noun:
Old-young
Happy-sad
Employer-employee
Grandparent-grandchild
Father/mother-son/daughter
Fiancé-fiancée
Parent-child/offspring
Professor-student
Teacher-pupil
Doctor-patient
Debtor-creditor
Landlord/landlady-tenant
Husband-wife
Uncle/aunt-nephew/niece
Comparative adj:
Thinner-fatter
Cheaper-more expensive
Greater than-less than
Comparative adv:
More efficiently-less efficiently
Faster-more slowly
Prep:
Above-below
In front of-behind

Over-under
Before-after
North of-south of
West of-east of
Antonymy and (unmarkedness) Remark
1-2 ( -) (occur in How?)
High (1)-low (2)
Tall-short 1 I worry about my son. He is 18
years old, but he’s very short.
We can ask: How short is he?
He’s 1.5ms.
Heavy-light 1
Far-near
Expensive-cheap 1
Hot-cold
Long-short
Wide-narrow
Deep-shallow 1
Difficult-easy
Married-single 1
Well-badly 1
Old-young 1 Her mother is 45 years old, but
she looks very young.
 We can ask :How young is
she?
She looks like just about 40 years
old.
Exercise 13. Are the following pairs of words binary antonyms?
Chalk-cheese Dead-alive
Same-different Married-unmarried

Copper-tin Cheap-expensive
Exercise 14. Are the following pairs of words relational antonyms?
Below-above Grandparent-grandchild
Love-hate Greater than-less than
Conceal-reveal Own-belong to
Exercise 15. Identify the continuous scale of values between the two given words.
Love-hate
Hot-cold
Big-small
Rich-poor
None-all
Possibly-certainly
Never-always
Exercise 16. State whether the following pairs of antonyms are binary, gradable or relational.
Good-bad Parent-offspring Import-export Legal-illegal
Pass-fail Beautiful-ugly Better than-worse than Asleep-awake
Deciduous-evergreen False-true Easy-difficult Rude-polite
Expensive-cheap Lessor-lessee Hot-cold Husband-wife
 Polysemy
A sense relation in which a single word has two or more slightly different but closely related meanings
Polysemous
word
Semantic
feature
Meaning Example
Chip
[+small
piece]
A small piece of some hard substance broken off from
sth larger

A chip of glass
A small cut piece of potato fried for eating Can I try one of your chips?
A small but vital piece of a computer This computer has got a
faster chip than the old one.
Break
[+can no
longer be
Separate into two or more parts as a result of force or
strain (but not cutting)
He broke that cup.
Become unusable by being damaged; make sth unusable
by damaging
My watch is broken.
Head
A top part of a body
A head of a company
Mouth
A part of human body
A gate of a river which water goes through before out to
the sea
A part of animal
Ceiling Top inner surface of a room
Upper limit
Earth The planet where we are living
The soil
Drive
To force SO to go somewhere
To provide power to make operate
Fork
Tool with sharp points for lifting food

Gardening tool with metal point
Tail
A part of animal
A part of a coat
 Hyponymy
A sense relation in which the referent of a word is totally included n the referent of another word. In other words,
hyponymy is the relationship between each of the hyponyms and it’s superordinate/hypernyms.
Hepernym/superodinate Hyponyms
Animal Cat, dog, cow, horse
Pig Boar, sow, piglet
Virtue Carefulness, prudence, patience, generosity, kindness
Emotion Happiness, anger, anxiety, sadness
Color Yellow, grey, blue, green, red
Blue Turquoise, aquamarine, royal blue
Weapon Airplane, rocket, tank, grenade, submarine, torpedo, missile, helicopter
Cook Grill, toast, boil, fry, roast, bake, smoke
Fry Stir-fry, sauté, deep-fry
Plant Tree, bush (shrub), flowering plant, moss, grass
Incompatibility
Animal (hypernym)
Cat Dog Horse cow
Cat-dog-horse-cow: co-hyponyms
Sense relation between co-hyponyms that have the same hypernym (animal) is incompatibility
 Homonymy, Homophony, Homography
Homonymy is a relation in which various words have the same (written and sound) form but have different meanings.
Word (homonym) Pronounced Meaning
Bank /…………/
A financial institution
The shore of a river
Bear (n) A large heavy animal with thick fur

Bear (v)
Give birth to
tolerate
Book (n) A book
Book (v) To book a ticket
Nail
A part of a finger
A thing
Homophony is a relation in which various words have the same sound form but have different meanings and written forms.
Word (homophone) Pronounced Meaning
Hour
/…………/
A twenty-fourth part of a day and night
Our Belonging to us
Place
/pleIs/
A particular area off position in space
Plaice A type of fish
Homography is a relation in which various words have the same written form but have different meanings and sound
forms.
Word (homograph) Pronounced Meaning
Lead (v) /li:d/ Does this road lead to town?
Lead (n) /led/ Lead is a heavy metal.
Read (v) /ri:/ V1
/red/ V3
 Lexical ambiguity
Structural ambiguity: a sentence is considered as structurally ambiguous when its structure permits more than one
interpretation.
Lexical ambiguity: any ambiguity resulting from the ambiguity of word. Both polysemy and homonymy contribute to lexical
ambiguity.

She cannot bear children.
1. Tolerate
2. Give birth to
He waited at the bank.
1. Financial institution
2. Shore of a river.
Is he really that kind?
1. That kind of peron
2. so kind
The long drill was boring.
1. The long tool for drilling
2. Long exercise (a way of learning sth by means of repeated
exercises)
It takes a good ruler to make a straight line.
1. Instrument
2. Governor/person who has power
That robot is bright.
1. Shining
2. intelligent
He gave me a ring last night.
1. a phone call
2. gift to a lover
He greeted the girl with a smile.
1. The boy was smiling
2. The girl was smiling
Don’t seat on those glasses.
1. Eye-glasses
2. Glasses for drinking
Exercise 20. Explain the lexical ambiguity in each of the following sentences by providing two sentences that paraphrase its
two different meanings.

He waited by the bank.
Meaning 1: He waited by the financial institution.
Meaning 2: He waited by the shore of a river.
1. When he got the clear title to the land, it was a good deed.
2. The proprietor of the fish store was the sole owner.
3. We like the ball.
4. They passed the port at night.
5. The captain corrected the list.
6. He was knocked over by the punch.
7. The camel swallowed the chocolate and then ate it.
Exercise 21. Does polysemy or homonymy contribute to the lexical ambiguity in each of the two given sentences?
1. She cannot bear children.
2. The cat sat on the mat.
Exer 22. In what way are homonyms related to lexical ambiguity?
Exer 23. In what way is a polysemous word related to lexical ambiguity?
III. SENTENCE MEANING
3.1 Paraphrase
- Paraphrase is the relationship between a word and a combination of other words with the same meaning.
- A paraphrase is provided by another sentence that has virtually the same meaning.
- A sentence which expresses the same proposition as another sentence is a paraphrase of that sentence.
- Sentences are paraphrases if they have the same meaning (except possibly for minor differences in emphases).
Ways to paraphrase Original sent. Paraphrase
1. Change individual words,
using synonyms
using relational
antonyms
Cats drink cream.
I’ll be happy to come.
I lent that book to Jim
Domestic felines consume the liquid fat of

milk.
I’ll be glad to come.
Jim borrowed that book from me.
2. Change sentence structure Cats drink cream. Cream is drunk by cats.
3. Change both individual
words and sentence
structure
The liquid fat of milk is consumed by domestic
felines.
Exer 31. The following pairs are paraphrases of each other. Identify the way employed to paraphrase them.
The house was concealed by the tree.
The house was hidden by the tree.
The needle is too short.
The needle is not long enough.
Some countries have no coastline.
Not all countries have a coastline.
Watching TV is not a waste of time.
Watching TV is a good way to spend one’s
time.
My friend loathes string beans.
My pal hates pole beans.
I’ll look for that book right now.
I’ll seek for that book at once/immediately.
Steve hugged Jane.
Steve gave Jane a hug.
John is the parent of James.
James is the child of John.
I saw Ted at the party.
It was Ted that I saw at the party.
The nearest service station is 50 miles away.

It is 50 miles to the nearest service station.
Jenny and Kevin are twins.
Kevin and Jenny are twins.
They had a wonderful holiday even though the
weather was bad.
Despite/in spite of the bad weather, they had a
wonderful holiday.
They had a wonderful despite/in spite of the bad
weather.
Bachelors prefer red-haired girls.
Girls with red hair are preferred by unmarried
men.
Sam sliced the salami with a knife.
Sam used a knife to slice the salami.
Considering your condition, we won’t press
charges.
My father owns this car.
This car belongs to my father.
John sol the book to David.
David bought the book from John.
Steve hugged Jane.
Jane was hugged by Steve.
We had hardly begun our work when it rained.
Hardly had we begun our work when it rained.
Sitting in one place for so long is very
uncomfortable.
It is very uncomfortable to sit in one place for
so long.
Although Grants Pass, Oregon, is a fairly small
town, it offers much to amuse summer

visitors.
If you want to give your family a nice,
wholesome vacation, try visiting GP, Oregon.
Under the circumstances, we won’t press charges.
The laser has a wide variety of applications.
As we have seen, the use of the laser is numerous.
In order to make a good impression at a job
interview, you should prepare well for the
interview.
As you can see, it is necessary to be well prepared
for the job interview.
Synonyms, word that have the same basic
meaning, do not always have the same emotional
meaning.
Many so-called synonyms are not really synonyms
at all.
The composition proficiency requirements as now
stated should not apply.
I would propose that the standard used to judge
international student papers be relaxed or done
away with.
3.2Entailment
……………….
IV. UTTERANCE MEANING
IV.1 Deixis
IV.2 Conversational implicature
The co-operative principle make your contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by
the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged.
Four basic maxims:
The maxim of What we say must be

Quality True
Quantity Brief
Relevance Relevant
Manner Clear
Sorry love. I saw you were home. There’s a cat stuck under the gate.
Context Implicature
Did you buy salt?
I tried to.
B wanted to say No, I didn’t buy salt.
Have you brushed your teeth and tidied the room?
I’ve brushed my teeth.
B hasn’t tidied his room.
Is Betsy in?
Her light is on.
The light is a signal for us to know that whether she is in the
room or not.
Do you love me?
I’m quite fond of you.
B doesn’t love A.
Was there a fiddler at the bar last night?
There was a man scrapping a bow across a violin.
The man wasn’t a good fiddler.
Do you like my new carpet?
The wallpaper’s not bad.
B doesn’t like the carpet.
Do you like the hamburger you are eating?
A ham is a ham.
I hope you brought the bread and the cheese.
Ah, I brought the bread.
B didn’t bring the cheese.

Coffee?
It would keep me awake all night.
B would rather not drink coffee.
Have you finished the student’s evaluation form and
reading list?
I’ve done the reading list.
B has not done the evaluation form.
Are you going to Mark’s barbecue?
Well, Mark’s got those dogs now.
She’s not going to Mark’s barbecue.
4.3 Speech acts
Speech acts is an utterance as a functional unit in communication.
Characteristic
Locutionary/propositional meaning Illocutionary meaning/illocutionary force
Definition Its basic literal meaning conveyed by its
particular words and structures
The effect the utterance might have on
the hearer
A: I’m thirsty.
B: I’ll bring you a glass of water.
I’m thirsty is I am suffering from my thirst. A indirectly requests B to give him sth to
drink
Can you shut the window?
Certainly.
I wonder whether you are able to shut the
window.
A indirectly requests B to shut the
window.
Classification
Speech act type Example Explain

Declarations Change the
world by
bringing about
or altering the
state of affairs it
names:
Dismissing,
sentencing,
naming,
announcing
marriage
I now pronounce you man and wife.
I resign.
You’ll be free from tomorrow. (I
dismiss you from your current
position.)
The vicar is directly announcing the legal and
permanent union between a man and a
woman as husband and wife, simultaneously
changing their marital status
A directly declares to give up his current
position.
B declares to dismiss A from his current
position.
Representatives Describe a state
of affairs in the
world:
Stating,
claiming,
describing,

predicting,
reporting
Where are you from?
I’m from Canada.
T: There are only two seasons in the
south: the dry season and the rainy
season.
S1: Then, each season is exactly six
month long?
B directly gives a piece of information
concerning where he was born and grew up.
T directly informs Ss of what the weather is
like in the south.
S: Is there any transitional period
between them?
Expressive Indicates the
speaker’s
psychological
state of
deeling/attitude
about sth:
Greeting,
apologizing,
thanking
I beg your pardon. I’ll be right back.
No problem.
This beer is disgusting.
Why don’t you learn to take the bad
with the good?
The desk clerk directly apologizes to the client

for his absence for a while.
A directly shows that he extremely dislikes
the beer.
Directive Intends to get
the listener to
carry out an
action:
Commanding,
requesting,
begging,
warning
The garage is a mess.
Clean it up.
How about a dinner out?
My essay is due tomorrow morning.
(Leave me alone to write my essay.)
B directly orders A to make the garage tidy
B indirectly asks A to leave her alone, writing
her essay
Commissive Commits the
speaker to a
course of action:
Promising,
vowing,
threatening,
offering
If you don’t stop fighting, I’ll call the
police.
Call them at once to turn your
brother in.

When will I receive my
reimbursement?
Authors always pay their debts. (I’ll
pay you back later.)
A directly threatens to call the police if B and
her brother don’t stop fighting.
B indirectly promises to pay A back later
Locution, illocution, and perlocution act
A locutionary act is the saying of sth which is meaning ful and can be understood.
I’ll see you later. What kinds of function can we perform?
1. A promise
2. A kind of warning