Chapter 6 Flashcards
semantics
the study of linguistic meaning
lexical
a subfield of semantics that studies meanings of lexical expressions
compositional
a subfield of semantics that studies the meanings of phrasal expressions, and how those meanings of phrasal expressions, and how those meanings arise given the meanings of the lexical expressions they contain and how they are syntactically combined
referents
an actual entity or an individual in the world to which some expression refers
sense
a mental representation of an expression’s meaning
reference
a component of linguistic meaning that relates the sense of some expression to entities in the outside world. The collection of all the referents of an expression.
dictionary style definition
when dictionaries themselves cannot be the true sources of word meaning
mental image (definition)
a conception of a word’s sense as a picture in the mind of the language user that represents its meaning
usage-based definitions
a characterization of a word’s sense based on the way that the word is used by speakers of a language
prototype
for any given set, a member that exhibits the typical qualities of the members of that set
hyponymy
a meaning relationship between words, where the reference of some word X is included in the reference of some other word Y. X is then said to be a hyponym of Y, and conversely
hyponym
a meaning relationship between words, where the reference of some word X is included in the reference of some other word Y. X is then said to be a hyponym of Y, and conversely
hypernym
sister terms; the meaning relationship between words
sister terms
words that, in terms of their reference, are at the same level in the hierarchy
synonymy
a meaning relationship between words where their reference is exactly the same
antonymy
a meaning relationship between words where their meanings are in some sense oppositve
complementary
pair of antonyms such that everything must be described by the first word, the second word, or neither; and such that saying of something that it is not a member of the set denoted by the first word implicates that it is in the set denoted by the second word.
gradable
words that are antonyms and denote opposite ends of a scale
proposition
the sense expressed by a sentence. Characteristically, propositions can be true or false.
truth value
either true or false. the reference of a sentence
entailment
a relationship between propositions where a proposition p is said to entail another proposition q just in case p is true, q has to be true as well
mutual entailment
the relationship between two propositions where they entail one another
incompatible
the relationship between two propositions where it is impossible for both of them to be true simultaneously
principle of compositionality
the notion that the meaning of a phrasal expression is predictable from the meanings of the expressions it contains and how they were syntactically combined
compositional
the meaning of a phrasal expression that is predictable from the meanings of smaller expressions it contains and how they are syntactically combined
intersective adjectives
an adjective whose reference is determined independently from the reference of the noun that it modifies
relative intersection
type of relationship between adjective and noun reference where the reference of the adjective is determined relative to the noun reference
subsective adjectives
adjectives whose reference is included in the set of things that the noun they modify refers to
anti-intersection adjectives
an adjective whose referents are not in the set referred to by the noun that it modifies
converses
antonyms in which the first word of the pair suggests a point of view opposite to that of the second word
