English Semantics

Because it is important to recognize what meanings are communicated to us in language and which meanings we derive from the contexts in which language is used. Because it is important to distinguish between linguistic meaning, what is communicated by particular pieces of language, and utterance meaning, what a certain individual meant by saying such-and-such in a particular place, at a particular time, and to certain other individuals. The utterance “Our visit to the factory was a wonderful experience” may be spoken as a joke, or sarcastically, or as a straightforward report, among other possibilities. The sentence Our visit to the factory was a wonderful experience has none of these meanings in itself—or, to put it differently, it has potentially any of these meanings. An utterance is often part of a larger discourse—a conversation, a formal lecture, a poem, a short story, a business letter, or a love letter, among other possibilities. A spoken discourse is any act of speech that occurs in a given place and during a given period of time. A written discourse may be the record of something that has been spoken, or it may originate for the purpose of being performed aloud, like a play or speech, or it may exist without ever having been spoken or intended to be spoken, like most articles and books. The linguistic context of an utterance can make a difference of meaning, as well as the social context.