1.Where do you think meaning comes from?During the first half of the twentieth century,philosophy of language was concerned less with language use than with meanings of linguistic expressions.Indeed, meanings were abstracted from the linguistic items that have them,and(indicative) sentences were often equated with statements, which in turn were equated with proposition.From the point of semantics and pragmatics,there are two types of meanings--literal meaning and speaker’s meaning.What a sentence literally m eans is determined by the rules of the language--those rules that the semanticist attempts to capture.But speaker’s meaning is a matter of intentions:what someone means is what he overtly intends to get across through his utterances.Meaning comes in many varieties. Some of these varieties are said to belong to the field of semantics,others to the field of pragmatics.2.What are the similarities and differences between semantics and pragmatics? How are the two related to each other?Similarities:1.They are two aspects of linguistics.2.Both Semantics and Pragmatics are closely related to meaning.Semantics refers to the meaning of words and sentences.While, Pragmatics deals with the meaning of utterances.3.They two are successional process of interpretation:pragmatic interpretation (such as the working out of Gricean implicatures )is claimed to commence only after the semantic interpretation of a given sentence has been worked out.4.Both Semantics and Pragmatics are related to signs. They have differentfocuses:Semantics is concerned with the relation between signs and objects.Pragmatics takes the relation between signs and their interpreters as its subject matter. Differences:There are different approaches to find out how semantics and pragmatics can be distinguished.According to Bach these are the three most decisive ones:A.Truth-conditional vs. non-truth-conditional meaningThis approach, named Carnapian approach by Recanati, distinguishes semantics and pragmatics in the following way. Semantics is said to be concerned with truth-conditional meaning (/words-world relations (Recanati)), pragmatics with non-truth-conditional meaning. In short: pragmatics= meaning– truth conditionsB. Conversational vs. non-conversational meaningAt this approach, semantics studies the conventional aspects of meaning and pragmatics those of non-conventional meaning. Therefore a semantic interpretation cannot be cancelled, but a pragmatic interpretation can .C. Context independence vs. context dependenceAt this approach, semantics is concerned with linguistic phenomena that are insensitive to context and pragmatics with those that are. But according to Bach content also varies with context in semantics. (e.g. deictics, demonstratives). He distinguishes between two types of context:Narrow context: contextual information relevant to the determination of the content ofvariables (e.g. those concerning who, whom, when, where)-> semantic in natureBroad context: contextual information relevant to the working out of what the speaker overtly intends to mean-> pragmatic in natureD.In terms of Signs:Semantics is concerned with the relation between signs and objects.Pragmatics takes the relation between signs and their interpreters as its subject matter.E. In terms of PresuppositionA semantic presupposition is a precondition for truth or falsity,and pragmatic presuppositions come to nothing more than preconditions for performing a speech act successfully and felicitously,together with mutual contextual beliefs taken into account by speakers in forming communicative intentions and by hearers in recognizing them.F. In terms of other aspects:Semantics studies words and sentences,while pragmatics studies utterances.Semantics studies rules, while pragmatics studies context.Semantics studies the formal language(logic),while pragmatics natural language use.The similarities and differences above also demonstrates how they two related to each other closely.3.Why is it claimed that semantics and pragmatics are philosophically based?Philosophy intersects all disciplines, besides semantics and pragmatics. It is the basis of all other disciplines. It is common in the philosophy of language to contrast two different approaches to questions concerning language, meaning and interpretation. Around the middle of 20th century,there were two opposing camps within the analytic philosophy of language.The first camp--Ideal language philosophy, put emphasis on “language” in general.It is a very active discipline developed jointly by logicians, philosophers and grammarians. The other camp--Ordinary language philosophers, advocated a more descriptive approach and emphasized the pragmatic nature of natural language.Philosophy are closely related to these two branches of linguistics. Contemporary philosophers of language believe that the object of study for philosophy should be language rather than the world and that the central topic for philosophy of language should be meaning.。