Chapter 9: Semantics Flashcards
semantics
the study of the meaning of words, phrases, and sentences
semantic analysis
attempt to focus on what the words conventionally mean, rather than on what an individual speaker might think they mean, or want them to mean, on a particular occasion.
referential meaning
the basic components of meaning conveyed by the literal use of words also described as “objective” or “conceptual” meaning
associative meaning
the type of meaning that people might connect with the use of words (e.g. needle=” painful”) that is not of referential meaning
semantic features
basic elements such as “human” included as plus (+human) or minus(-human). used in an analysis of the components of word meaning
meaning of the word “girl” involving the elements human, female, adult
+human, +female, -adult
meaning of the word “animate” involving the elements table, horse, boy, woman
-table, -horse, +boy, +woman
If we try to think of the component or features we would use to differentiate the nouns advice, threat, and warning, for example, we may not be very successful. There is more to the meaning of words than these basic types of features.
words as containers of meanings
semantic roles (also called “thematic roles” or “case roles”)
the part played by a noun phrase, such as agent, in the event described by the sentence
The boy kicked the ball.
“The boy” as the entity that performs the action is known as the
agent- the semantic role of the noun phrase identifying the one who performs the action of the verb in an event
The boy kicked the ball.
“the ball” as the entity that is involved in or affected by the action is known as the
theme- the semantic role of the noun phrase used to identify the entity involved in or affected by the action of the verb in the event
instrument
the semantic role of the noun phrase identifying the entity that is used to perform the action of the verb
examples of semantic role of instrument
The boy cut the rope with an old razor.
He drew the picture with a crayon.
“an old razor” and “a crayon” are being used in the semantic role of instrument
experiencer
when a noun phrase is used to designate an entity as the person who has a feeling perception or state.
“feel”, “hear”, “know”, and “enjoy”
where an entity is (on the table, in the room) fills the role of
location
where the entity moves from is the ___ (from Chicago)
source
where it moves to is the ____ (to New Orleans)
goal
lexical relations
the relationship of meaning, such as synonymy (conceal/hide), antonymy(shallow/deep), and hyponymy (pine/tree)
synonyms
two or more words with very closely related meanings
broad/wide
cab/taxi
doctor/physician
antonyms
two forms with opposite meanings
big/small
rich/poor
true/false
gradable antonyms
words with opposite meanings along with a scale (e.g. small-big)
non-gradable antonyms
words that are direct opposites (e.g. alive-dead)
reversives
antonyms in which the meaning of one is the reverse action of the other (e.g. dress-undress, raise-lower, enter-exit)
hyponymy
when the meaning of one form is included in the meaning of another (e.g. animal-horse, insect-ant, flower-rose)
prototype
the idea of “the characteristic instance” of a category; helops to explain the meanings of certain words (e.g. birds; “has feathers”, “has wings”) in terms of resemblance to the clearest example.
homophones
when two or more different (written) forms have the same pronunciation (e.g. sew-so, to-too-two, pail-pale)
homonyms
when one form (written or spoken) has two or more unrelated meanings (e.g. bat-bat, mole(on skin)-mole(small animal))
polysemy
two or more words with the same form and related meanings; can be defined as one form (written or spoken) having multiple meanings that are all related by extension. (e.g. foot (of a person, of a bed, of a mountain), mouth (part of a face, a cave, a river))
metonymy
a word used in place of another with which it is closely connected in everyday experience (e.g. He drake the whole bottle (=the liquid))
collocation
a relationship between words that frequently occur together (e.g. salt and pepper)
corpus linguistics
the study of language in use by analyzing the occurrence and frequency of forms in a large collection of texts typically stored in a computer
