Well, I am going to review an article that I got from
ACADEMIA related to our course “Semantics”. This article is published by Dean
Pettit . Its title is ”The Semantics of
Good” which is talking about the word “GOOD”. I am interested to review this
article because the title. I think it is enough interesting to read and know
more about semantics ( the study of meaning) especially lexeme “good”. Actually
so many explaination about this subject but I just took some points of it that
enough important.
The word “GOOD” has many
meaning that is depended to the context. How the sentence that is contained by
word good. It can be said that good is still mysterious word that we do
not know the real meaning without know all words (the sentence) or even
situation that we get. Based on the article, the semantics of “good” involves
an operation over possible worlds. Word good
can be said as a distinctive kind of modal adjective, the semantics of
which compares near possible worlds, rather than merely quantifying over
worlds.
The semantics of “good” is
related to the syntax of the constructions in which it occurs.
The guiding idea is that the syntax is in service of the semantics.
Syntactically “good” occurs with specific kinds of syntactic constituents that
supply it with specific semantic inputs. To give an account of the semantics of
'good' is to give a systematic account of the kinds of semantic inputs it
requires and how they enter into its interpretation. The idea is not that the
semantics is straightforwardly reflected in the surface structure of a
particular construction by some isomorphism between the structure of the
sentence and the structure of the thought it expresses. Rather, the semantics
of 'good' is revealed by a study of the range of syntactic constituents “good”
can occur with, their semantic values, and how those semantic values
systematically enter into the semantics of “good”.
The important initial syntactic observation is that,
while “good‟ is an adjective, it belongs to a distinctive class of adjectives
that can occur in constructions characteristic of modal adjectives:
(1) It is good/necessary/possible (for Alice) to practice.
(2) It is
good/necessary/possible that Alice practices.
For examples
above, (1) and (2), the syntactic
paraller the word “good” has the same kind of semantic input as “necessary” and
“possible”, namely a set of worlds. It
said thay semantic “good” might be modal
-> modal adjective. It appears
to operate over sets of worlds in a very different way. Whereas modal
expressions are standardly understood to quantify over possible worlds. It can
be said that the semantics of “good” involves
a comparison of worlds according to what is at stake between them. The
suggestion will be that “good” systematically takes on different
interpretations according to exactly what is at stake and why it matters. Like
I said previously, just word good has
variation of interpretation, level of that meaning. Within an expletive
construction, then, there appear to be at least three sorts of things that
“good” can take as argument: acts, events, and states of affairs. When you are
talking with someone, and you are using word “good”, it is better if you
consider what you want to speak using good.
You should use that word naturally and will be understood to people you are
talking to.
Note* If uou want to know more about this insteresting topic, you can read this pdf or download it.
Source
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