Chapter 6 - Semantics

Question 1

Semantics

Answer 1

The study of linguistic meaning

Question 2

Lexical Semantics

Answer 2

A subfield of semantics that studies meanings of lexical expressions

Question 3

Compositional semantics

Answer 3

The meaning of a phrasal expression that is predictable from the meanings of smaller expressions it contains

Question 4

Sense

Answer 4

A mental representation of an expression’s meaning

Question 5

Referents

Answer 5

An actual entity or an individual in the world to which some expression refers

Question 6

Mental Image Definitions

Answer 6

A conception of a word’s sense as a picture in the mind of the language used that represents its meaning

Question 7

Usage-Based Definitions

Answer 7

A characterization of a word’s sense based on the way that the word is used by speakers of a language

Question 8

Hyponymy

Answer 8

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

Question 9

Sister terms

Answer 9

Words that, in terms of their reference, are at the same level in the hierarchy

Question 10

Synonymy

Answer 10

A meaning relationship between words where their reference is exactly the same

Question 11

Antonymy

Answer 11

A meaning relationship between words where their meanings are in some sense opposite

Question 12

Complementary

Answer 12

Pair of antonyms such that everything must be described by the first word, the second word, or neither

Question 13

Gradable

Answer 13

Words that are antonyms and denote opposite ends of a scale

Question 14

Converses

Answer 14

Antonyms in which the first word of the pair suggest a point of view opposite to that of the second word

Question 15

Proposition

Answer 15

The sense expressed by a sentence

Question 16

Truth Value

Answer 16

Either true or false, reference of a sentence

Question 17

Truth Conditions

Answer 17

The set of conditions that would have to hold in the world in order for the proposition expressed by some sentence to be true

Question 18

Entailment

Answer 18

A relationship between propositions where a proposition p is said to entail another proposition q just in case if p is true then so is q

Question 19

Mutual entailment

Answer 19

The relationship between two propositions where they entail one another

Question 20

Principle of Compositionality

Answer 20

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

Question 21

Compositional Semantics

Answer 21

A subfield of semantics that studies the meanings of phrasal expressions

Question 22

Intersective Adjectives

Answer 22

An adjective whose reference is determined independently from the reference of the noun that it modifies

Question 23

Relative Intersection

Answer 23

Type of relationship between adjective and noun reference where the reference of the adjectives is determined relative to the non-intersection adjective

Question 24

Non-Intersection

Answer 24

An adjective whose reference is a subset of the set that the noun it modifies refers to, but that does not, in and of itself, refer to any particular set of things

Question 25

Subsection Adjectives

Answer 25

An adjective whose reference is included in the set of things that the noun it modifies refers to

Question 26

Anti-intersection adjectives

Answer 26

An adjective whose referents are not in the set referred to by the noun that it modifies

Question 27

Pure intersection

Answer 27

The relationship between the reference of an adjective and a noun it modifies such that each picks out a particular group of things

Question 28

Reference

Answer 28

A component of linguistic meaning that relates the sense of some expression to entities in the outside world

Question 29

Reverses

Answer 29

Antonyms in which one word is the pair suggests movement that “undoes” the movement suggested by the other

Question 30

Incompatible

Answer 30

The relationship between two propositions where it is impossible for both of them to be true simultaneously