Singapore University of Social Sciences

ELG356 looks at the study of meaning in human languages, namely in terms of grammatical semantics and pragmatics. In grammatical semantics, students will be introduced to the approach of studying meaning by focussing on literal meaning and how patterns of meaning are organized within a language in terms of sound structure, grammatical structure and meaning structure. Another approach to the study of meaning is to ask how language allows us to communicate: how do we use linguistic expressions to communicate our understanding of the world? Students will be introduced to the speech act theory in learning about linguistic expressions and how they convey meaning in utterances and in particular contexts.