Chapter 9: Semantics

Question 1

semantics

Answer 1

the study of the meaning of words, phrases, and sentences

Question 2

semantic analysis

Answer 2

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.

Question 3

referential meaning

Answer 3

the basic components of meaning conveyed by the literal use of words also described as “objective” or “conceptual” meaning

Question 4

associative meaning

Answer 4

the type of meaning that people might connect with the use of words (e.g. needle=” painful”) that is not of referential meaning

Question 5

semantic features

Answer 5

basic elements such as “human” included as plus (+human) or minus(-human). used in an analysis of the components of word meaning

Question 6

meaning of the word “girl” involving the elements human, female, adult

Answer 6

+human, +female, -adult

Question 7

meaning of the word “animate” involving the elements table, horse, boy, woman

Answer 7

-table, -horse, +boy, +woman

Question 8

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.

Answer 8

words as containers of meanings

Question 9

semantic roles (also called “thematic roles” or “case roles”)

Answer 9

the part played by a noun phrase, such as agent, in the event described by the sentence

Question 10

The boy kicked the ball.

“The boy” as the entity that performs the action is known as the

Answer 10

agent- the semantic role of the noun phrase identifying the one who performs the action of the verb in an event

Question 11

The boy kicked the ball.

“the ball” as the entity that is involved in or affected by the action is known as the

Answer 11

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

Question 12

instrument

Answer 12

the semantic role of the noun phrase identifying the entity that is used to perform the action of the verb

Question 13

examples of semantic role of instrument

Answer 13

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

Question 14

experiencer

Answer 14

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”

Question 15

where an entity is (on the table, in the room) fills the role of

Answer 15

location

Question 16

where the entity moves from is the ___ (from Chicago)

Answer 16

source

Question 17

where it moves to is the ____ (to New Orleans)

Answer 17

goal

Question 18

lexical relations

Answer 18

the relationship of meaning, such as synonymy (conceal/hide), antonymy(shallow/deep), and hyponymy (pine/tree)

Question 19

synonyms

Answer 19

two or more words with very closely related meanings
broad/wide
cab/taxi
doctor/physician

Question 20

antonyms

Answer 20

two forms with opposite meanings
big/small
rich/poor
true/false

Question 21

gradable antonyms

Answer 21

words with opposite meanings along with a scale (e.g. small-big)

Question 22

non-gradable antonyms

Answer 22

words that are direct opposites (e.g. alive-dead)

Question 23

reversives

Answer 23

antonyms in which the meaning of one is the reverse action of the other (e.g. dress-undress, raise-lower, enter-exit)

Question 24

hyponymy

Answer 24

when the meaning of one form is included in the meaning of another (e.g. animal-horse, insect-ant, flower-rose)

Question 25

prototype

Answer 25

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.

Question 26

homophones

Answer 26

when two or more different (written) forms have the same pronunciation (e.g. sew-so, to-too-two, pail-pale)

Question 27

homonyms

Answer 27

when one form (written or spoken) has two or more unrelated meanings (e.g. bat-bat, mole(on skin)-mole(small animal))

Question 28

polysemy

Answer 28

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))

Question 29

metonymy

Answer 29

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))

Question 30

collocation

Answer 30

a relationship between words that frequently occur together (e.g. salt and pepper)

Question 31

corpus linguistics

Answer 31

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