SEMANTICS: The nature of words and their meanings
by HUGH WALPOLE
Committee on Communications, Harvard University

Contents	7
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS	9
INTRODUCTION by I. A. Richards	11
1 . WHAT IS SEMANTICS ?	20
2 . EMOTIVE LANGUAGE : THE LANGUAGE OF FEELING	38
3 . SIGNS : LEARNING WITHOUT WORDS	63
4 . SYMBOLS : A WORD IS A SIGN OF THOUGHT	78
5 . CONTEXTS : A SYMBOL HAS MEANING ONLY IN ITS CONTEXT	105
6 . DEFINITION : TWENTY-FIVE DEFINITIONS ROUTES	121
7 . METAPHOR : BORROWING THE NAME OF ANOTHER THING	141
8 . FICTIONS : THE STUFF THAT DREAMS ARE MADE ON	159
9 . APPLIED SEMANTICS : BASIC ENGLISH	179
10.INTENSIVE READING : THE VALUE OF PARAPHRASE	215
INDEX	261

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

    This book owes its existence to the works of C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards, to whom I am also deeply grateful for very generous help and encouragement in this and other ventures. They must not, however, be blamed for anything I have done to their subject.
    I am indebted to the Payne Fund for help in many ways ; to Charlotte Tyler Siepmann and the Orthological Committee for permission to use the materials in Chapter Nine ; and to the authors and publishers who have allowed men, in my last chapter and in its appendix, to use passages from the following books.
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INTRODUCTION

    Every book worth reading is a meeting place. Some would call it a battleground : are the writer's ideas or the reader's preconceptions to survive? Others more shrewdly will think of a marriage : which characteristics will prevail in whatever conceptions ensue? This book is about this meeting of minds through words. It sketches the conditions of communication ; and so has to put the theory of Metaphor very much in the forefront. And of all the metaphors with which man has tried to picture the transmission of ideas, by far the best is that which too often lies dormant in the word "conceive" itself. If we think it through for enough we may come to wonder if this "metaphor" is not rather a theory awaiting development -- a concept which has yet to be born, as important perhaps as its long gestation in the human intellect might suggest .
    *** (more) -- 7 pages ***

IVOR ARMSTRONG RICHARDS

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1 . WHAT IS SEMANTICS ?

Those obstinate questionings
Of sense. . . . . . . . . . .
    WORDSWORTH, Intimations of Immortality.

SEMANTICS, or semasiology, is the study of the meanings of words. ***
    *** 14 pages ***

Semanticians


A Better Definition of "Semantics"


The Usefulness of Semantics


Chief Points

    Semantics is interested in the senses of words, and is of general value because it gives a better knowledge of what one is doing every time one makes use of language. It may best be looked upon, not as a complete science, but as a body of questions touching upon the connections between language and thought. By guiding one through these question of theory, it gives a knowledge which may be put to use and which will have as its outcome clearer thought, better writing, and sharper reading.

Practice Exercises



    *** 3 pages ***

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2 . EMOTIVE LANGUAGE : THE LANGUAGE OF FEELING

We need a spell of purer science and purer poetry before the two can again be mixed, if indeed this will ever become once more desirable.
    I. A. RICHARDS, Principles of Literary Criticism.

SOME years ago a dog team set out from somewhere to carry diphtheria antitoxin to Nome, Alaska. ***
    *** 20 pages ***

Emotive Language and Propaganda


Three Aspects of Emotive Language


Echoes of Sound and Sentiment


Chief Points

    There are two different used of language, and it is necessary to keep them separate in our minds ; the Emotive use and the Referential use. this book is chiefly interested in the referential language of work, business, science, and discussion.
    Every example of language, in writing or in talk, may be viewed from four different angles, the reader or hearer looking in turn at its Sense, its Feeling, its Tone, and its Intention. Though to some degree all four are normally present in every statement, Feeling and Tone are specially important in poetry, and Intention in propaganda. Poetry is of great value in putting our feelings in order and giving us a healthy frame of mind.

Practice Exercises



    *** 4 pages ***

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3 . SIGNS : LEARNING WITHOUT WORDS

We an discern in the dog's mind the same essential processes that we use when we lean a language.
    WELLS, HUXLEY and WELLS, The Science of Life.

HAVING distinguished in the previous chapter between referential and emotive language, and having noted the dangers of using this distinction too freely, our next task is to see how language becomes "referential" ; that is, how it comes to have Sense (Function 1). ***
    *** 13 pages ***

To Be Affected Is To Interpret


Content, Organism, Sign


Chief Points

    Seeing, hearing, and learning are complex processes. Science at the present time is able to give us knowledge in some detail of the different states by which outside things get in touch with our minds. What our brain sees is not the thing we are "looking at," but the changes in our eyes of which that thing is the cause. If we keep this order of events in mind, we are in less danger of error.
    Learning in an animal's (or a man's) reaction to Signs. A Sign is a part of an experience, that part which, coming back to the animal's attention, has the same effect as the complete experience had in the past.

Practice Exercises



    I . Describe in terms of signs and contexts how a child might learn these words : label , affect , merry .
    II. Describe in similar terms how a human being sees and recognizes a chair. What is the sign? Can such a sign be false?

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4 . SYMBOLS : A WORD IS A SIGN OF THOUGHT

Words are wise men's counter, -- they do but reckon by them ; but they are the money of fools.
    THOMAS HOBBES, Leviathan.

A SYMBOL is a word ***
    *** 26 pages ***

Referent, Thought, Symbol Word Magic How Referential Language Works Shifts and Changes of Meaning The Scale of Perception Process -- Product Agent--Action Symbolization

Archetypation Pregnancy Metaphor False Symbols and Complex Referents "Is It Good English ?"Agent--Action How We Abuse Words Process -- Product Agent--Action

Chief Points

    Words are Signs, and healthy words are Symbols. A symbol is an outstretched finger pointing to a Referent. Words have in great part been responsible for the increase in man's control over things about him. But man is frequently overcome by his words. This is because not one of us is completely free from the error of looking on words as if they had a separate existence, with strange powers of acting by themselves. We are in far less danger of making this error if we keep clearly before our minds the order of the three parts of this chain : Referent -- Thought -- Symbol.

Practice Exercises



    I . Draw a rough Triangle of Reference for the symbol chair. Compare it with the diagram on page 81--especially the base of your Triangle.
    II . Make a short list of words which in your experience are very frequently misused.
    III. Write down a few words which you yourself have trouble in using adequately.
    IV . Start a file or a notebook in which to collect examples from your reading of different uses of the words in the two lists mentioned above ; before long you will have examples of all their chief uses and be able to see which kinds of meaning-shift render them troublesome.

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5 . CONTEXT : A SYMBOL HAS MEANING ONLY IN ITS CONTEXT

Anything has a cause, and the cause of anything is everything.
    W. J. TURNER

A SYMBOL can have no meaning apart from its context. When we follow up this assertion we become ***
    *** 13 pages ***

Contexts at Work


Introduction


First Version


Second Version


Three Types of Contexts


The Receding Referent


Chief Points

    The Context of anything is the field in which it has its place. There are three different sorts of contexts ; of words, thoughts, and things ; but every context has connections with other sorts.
    When using language, we never give all the details of the things we are talking about. Our words are dependent for their full effect upon our hearer's knowledge of the context. So it is clear that there is no such thing as "the right word," of making a certain statement.

Practice Exercises



    *** 2 pages ***

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6 . DEFINITION : TWENTY-FIVE DEFINITION ROUTES

Mr. Jorrocks felt confident,"Look out of the vinder, James, and see wot'un a night it is," said he to Pigg. James staggered up, and after a momentary grope about the room--for they were sitting without candles--exclaimed, "Hellish dark and smells of cheese !" repeated Mr. Jorrocks, looking round in astonishment, "smells o' cheese ! -- vy, man, you've go your nob i' the cupboard--this be the vinder."
    SURTEES, Handley Cross or Mr. Jorrocks's Hunt.

LOGICIANS do not agree on the definition of "definitions." ***
    *** 17 pages ***

Analysis of a Journey


Twenty-five Definition Routes


Chief Points

    When you are talking to someone about the best way for him to get from one part of town to another, it is necessary first of all to get agreement on two points
(1) what place he is starting from
(2) which place he is going to
Then it is possible to give him a clear account of the road to take.
    "Definition" is nothing more or less than the use of a certain road to take your hearer from a common referent to one which is new to him. The number of such roads is limited -- in other words, our minds are able to make connections between one thought and another in only a limited number of ways. These ways may be listed ; and the knowledge and conscious use of them will be seen to be of great value for the exchange of ideas.

Practice Exercises



    *** 2 pages ***

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7 . METAPHOR : BORROWING THE NAME OF ANOTHER THING

Mr. Blotton had no hesitation in saying that he had used the word in its Pickwickian sense. (Hear, hear.) He was bound to acknowledge that, personally, he entertained the highest regard and esteem for the honorable gentleman ; he had merely considered him a humbug in the Pickwickian point of view. (Hear, hear.)
    DICKENS , The Pickwick Papers.

JUST before the World War a German scholar published a book called The Philosophy of As If. The German in the street, if he heard of the book at all, was probably just tickled by the title. But it angered many philosophers, for its main argument took the line that most of the things we talk and think about do not really exist and in our hearts we know they have no existence ; they are used as metaphors.
    *** 16 pages ***

We Speak and Think in Metaphors


Obvious Shifts of Meaning


The Mechanics of Metaphor


Tenor and Vehicle


Chief Points

    A metaphor is the comparison, in one word, of two things from different fields of experience. In the statement "That girl is a cat," the word "cat" is a metaphor. In this, as in every metaphor, there are two parts : the Tenor and the Vehicle. The Tenor in this example is a cruel, ill-humored young woman ; the Vehicle, a cruel, ill-humored animal (though this is a false thing to say about cats). It is very important to see the connection between the way in which we make use of a metaphor and the way we make use of any general name.

Practice Exercises



    *** 1 page ***

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8 . FICTIONS : THE STUFF THAT DREAMS ARE MADE ON

My proposals were all accepted by the sub-committee. Only I was obliged to insert two phrases about "duty" and "right" into the Preamble to the Statutes, ditto "truth," "morality," and "justice," but these are placed in such a way that they can do no harm.
    KARL MARX , in a letter to Friedrich Engels, September 7, 1864.

THE man on the street corner who says there "ain't no justice" speaks more truly than he knows. There has never been any such thing. Justice is a Fiction, along with its fellow -- Friendship, Discipline, Democracy, Liberty, Socialism, Isolationism, and Appeasement. You cannot point to their referents. It is hard even to describe what is meant by them, unless one takes the course of substituting one Fiction for another. Should all such words be "sent to the doghouse"?
    *** 19 pages ***

Headaches for Semanticians


Generations


The Bogeys of Bentham


Gyps, Guesses, and Ghosts


Chief Points

   The earlier parts of this book have made it clear how necessary it is to take into account the Context of a word. Looking at a Symbol by itself is frequently the cause of serious error.
    However, in the English language there is an increasing tendency for every word to be pinned onto some separate bit of experience, and to get some sort of general sense which may be looked at independently.
    Among the different sorts of Symbols, those which seem to have the strongest separate existence are our "nouns"--the names of things. Men and women and cats and pigs and houses are units in themselves. but a great number of our "names of things" are false names, because they have no things at the back of them. Truth, Goodness, Beauty, Attention, Control are examples of such words. They are the names of Fictions.
    There are two rules which make us able to put Fictions to work without letting them get out of control.
(1) Be ready to put any statement which is full of fictions into simpler language, using symbols representative of more solid things.
(2) Taking a Fiction separately, get into the way of looking upon it as a metaphor which has no Vehicle ; and be ready to give it a Vehicle.

Practice Exercises



    I . Write down twenty abstract nouns expressing what you take to be the root sense of the following prepositions : about, across, after, against, among, at, before, between, by, down, from, in of, on, over, through, to, under, up, with.
    II . Draw archetypes for the twenty abstract nouns of I.
    III. Collect different uses of each of the following adjectives : beautiful, democratic, equal, free, good, just, reasonable, true.
    IV . Translate the eight adjectives of III into nouns, and describe in words simple concrete situations which would illustrate the root senses of your eight nouns. < texts     contents     next >

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9 . APPLIED SEMANTICS : BASIC ENGLISH
More Detail

The Purposes of Basic English A Definition Vocabulary Sixteen Verbs in Basic Why Learn Basic ?

Chief Points How To Write Basic English A Summary of Points to Remember Alphabetic List of the Words of Basic English

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10 . INTENSIVE READING : THE VALUE OF PARAPHRASE

No, Socrates, the limit of such a discussion, for a wise man, is all his days.
    Glaucon, in PLATO'S Republic, Book 5.

LISTS of best books mean nothing vital to the average reader, and there are no rules of thumb or charts of instructions on what to do with "a book" in general that cannot be improved upon by the average reader himself, individually. To read a book well is to ask the right questions about it ; and it seems obvious that the same prescribed questions will not do every time. The right questions are those which arise from the special nature of the particular book or which grow out of the one reader's own mind.
    *** 4 pages ***

The Delayed Response

Questions

    *** 27 pages ***

Practice Exercises

    *** 13 pages ***
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