chapter 3 Flashcards
lexical semantics
the study of word meaning
aims to represent the meaning of every word in a particular language and show how these meanings are interrelated
morpheme
the minimal unit of syntax that conveys meaning
free morphemes/roots
convey basic meaning of a word and can stand alone
bound morphemes
attach to free morphemes to form stems
they cannot stand alone and convey minimal meaning
lexicon
a list of all words in a language
lexeme
each word in a lexicon
what are the challenges when creating a lexicon (10)
phrasal verbs collocations idioms homonyms polysemous words synonyms and antonyms hyponyms and hypernyms meronyms
phrasal verbs
typically consist of a verb plus a preoposition which together form a single semantic word
meanings of phrasal verbs are unique to the person and cannot be derived from meanings of words by themselves
preoposition
a word governing and usually preceding a noun or pronoun and expressing a relation to the word
introduces a word or phrase called its object and links the object to other words in the sentence
example of a preposition
up, down, before, after,
collocation
combination of words that often occur together and the meaning becomes fixed through repeated usage but can still be derived from the meaning of individual words
what may happen to collocations over time?
the might become idioms
what are some collocations
strong tea, bright future, keep a secret
idioms
group of words that has acquired an idiosyncratic (unique) meaning over time
straightforward meanings easily derived from the meaning of each constituent word but they no longer do
example of an idiom
spilled the beans
cat out of the bag
keep an eye
kicked the bucket
homonyms
words which are phonologically the same but have different unrelated meanings
what are the 4 types of homonyms
words spelled the same and of the same grammatical category (lap)
words spelled differently and of diff grammatical cat (knot, not)
words spelled the same and of diff gram cat (fly, fly bug)
polysemous words
phonologically the same and have different meanings that can be understood by looking at etomology
example of polysemous words
bank, lap
synonyms
words which have the same or similar meanings
usually come from different dialects
anyonyms
words which have opposite meaning
hyponyms and hypernym
words that stand in a rigid part-whole relationship
can be expressed by tree diagrams
hypernym
a superordinate category ex color
hyponym
members of a superordinate (yellow, green)
meronyms
words that stand in a part-whole relationship
relationship is more flexible that that existing between
hypernyms and hyponyms
example of meronyms
car –> engine door window
trees–> branches, leaves
derivation
many words are derived by other words ex happy, happiness
inchoactive aspect
indicates the process of beginning or changing state indicated by adding the suffix “n”
ex: darken
agentive nouns
adding suffix “er”
changes a verb into a noun
an entity who performs and action indicated by the verb
how many colors do that dani have
2
light and dark
what did berlin and kay find with different cultures
cultures divide up and name the color spectrum into 2-12 basic colours in a predictable pattern
how many colors did tiv know
3
pupu: black, green, and blue
ii: yellow
nyian: white
when a culture knows 3 colors what do they usually differentiate between
black white red
when a culture knows 4 colors what do they usually differentiate between
black white red yellow
when a culture knows 5 colors what do they usually differentiate between
black white red yellow green
when a culture knows 6 colors what do they usually differentiate between
black white red yellow green blue
when a culture knows 7 colors what do they usually differentiate between
black white red yellow green blue
then either purple pink orange grey
how many colors did the hanunoo know
4
how many colors did the swampy cree know
5
how many colors does mandarin indicate
6
how many colors does the javanese indicate
7
how many colors did the urdu know
8
how many colors did the catalan know
9
how many colors did the malay know
10
how many basic colors are there in english
11
semantic primes
represent basic innate concepts akin to the words on a swadesh list
they are combined through an innate system of syntax to form a metalanguage that underlies the structure of all natural languages
