Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM

Browse over 1 million classes created by top students, professors, publishers, and experts.


See full index

S6 Semantics > General Overview > Flashcards

General Overview Flashcards

1
Q

Linguistics def

A

The study of any aspect of NATURAL HUMAN LANGUAGE.

It is sometimes associated with other academic fields (sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, etc).

Linguistics can be considered as sub discipline of Semiotics which is the study of how “signs” are used to create meaning

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

Semantics : first time this term is used

A

By Michel Bréal in Essai de Semantique 1897

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

Semantics def

A

Studies how human language is used to create meaning
Subdiscipline of linguistics

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

Lexical Semantics

A

the study of meaning of individual words (in and out context).

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

Semiotics

A

study of all signs (body language, sheets music..). Seem to be sth ++ human = need to create signs that represent something. Humans tell story and tell story by using signs

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

Semantics / Semiotics / linguistic

A

→ Linguistic a part of semiotics
→ → Semantic = a part of linguistic

Semiotics → Linguistic → Semantic

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

Lexicology is about

A

Lexicology is about definitions :

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

People who make dictionnaries

A

lexicographers

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

Polysemy example

A

POLYSEMY (play & key)
a play = like a movie but in a theater (- used)
verb that indicate an action : often related to sport or games

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

THE particularity

A

THE because it doesn’t have a real meaning ! Some words have more meaning than others “key” has more meaning than “the”

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

Collocation

A

when 2 words go together. Ex: play football, play music..

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

Meaning

A

Signification,
= idea that a word conveys

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

How to explain the meaning of something ? 2 solutions :

A

you can show it (ex : this is a table) = most satisfying answer
you can use other words to explain what you think is the meaning

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

Structuralism

A

meaning is created through a combination of conceptually independant pieces (double articulation)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

3 types of phonetics

A

articulatory
acoustic
auditory

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

articulatory phonetic

A

sound production in the mouth : voiced / unvoiced stops / fricative

→ the sounds we make with our mouths, throat, nose.. when we are speaking. Speech production in the human body

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

acoustic phonetics

A

how sound travels through the air

→ how the sounds wave, travel once they leave my mouth until they get to you

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

auditory phonetics

A

how the human ear receives sounds of human language

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

Phonetics def

A

study of sounds as they are made by human beings

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

Difference Phonetics and Phonology

A

Phonetics = physics & biology : how human being physically make sounds. Rules don’t change from one place to another : SSss has the same wave length etc.

VS Phonology = How each language is going to chose certain sounds to pay attention to and other sounds to ignore. (permet d’eviter too much cognitive charge). → Ex : English speaker cannot do the french “r” because it didn’t existed in English ! A french speaker = extra effort to make the “th” sound !

→ Cultural = very first level of Grammar = rule 0 that a language uses to construct itself.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
21
Q

Phonology

A

How sounds are used to create meaning

22
Q

Phoneme def + exemple

A

unit of sound used to produce meaning. A phoneme doesn’t mean anything.

Phonemes [b] a unit of sound used to produce meaning (building block)
→ the phoneme /b/ doesn’t have any meaning. It’s only in connection to other sounds that we will get meaning in contrast.

23
Q

double articulation def + example

A

fundamental language phenomenon consisting of the use of combinations of a small number of meaningless elements (sounds, that is, phonemes) to produce a large number of meaningful elements (words, actually morphemes)

⇒ double articulation = phonemes of a language working to create contrast that themselves can create meaning.

⇒ /b/ /a/ /t/ has no meaning alone but when put together ⇒ BAT

2 levels to language
→ phonetic building bloc
→ phonemic building bloc

24
Q

minimal pairs

A

2 words in which there is only one phonological difference.

→ If you take phoneme /b/ /a/ /t/ it creates the word BAT
/k/ /a/ t/ ⇒ CAT
The meaning comes in contrasting them !

Hair / bear
Hair / Her = vowel changes

25
Q

Phoneme & someone that doesn’t speak your language

A

Sbdy that doesn’t speak your language might not hear the diff btw 2 phonemes and assume that they are the same.
Ex : english speaker Amor et Amour

26
Q

Morphemes

A

smallest piece of language that has meaning

morpheme /s/ : /Kat/ VS /Kats/ ⇒ indicates plural.
ou /s/ pour 3PS in ENglish

27
Q

2 kind of morphemes

A

free morphemes
bound morphemes

28
Q

2 types of free morphemes

A

lexical morphemes
Functional morphemes

29
Q

2 types of bound morphemes

A

Derivational morphemes
Inflectional morphemes

30
Q

free morphemes def

A

can exist by themselves, don’t need any help to have meaning

31
Q

lexical morphemes + catgory

A

A lexical morpheme is one that can actually stand on its own without the aid of other morphemes to imply meaning. In order to do so, a lexical morpheme must be a full word.

words easiest to define : have meaning and use them everyday

→ we often say this class of lexical morpheme is OPEN : you can add more word to this category (50 years ago there was not “radar” “internet” = open set to which we can add more words as we discover more things or we decide to create new words because it’s cool.

ex : bat, school..

32
Q

Functional morphemes

A

A functional morpheme (as opposed to a content morpheme) is a morpheme which simply modifies the meaning of a word, rather than supplying the root meaning.

No diff btw grammatical morphemes and functional morphemes

example (such as -s for plurals or -ing to imply the act of doing something),

in articles, prepositions, demonstrative pronouns…we cannot discover or invent a new preposition. Pronouns (= they’re grammatical, they change according to who speaks : example if I say I diff than if tracy says I)

33
Q

bound morphemes

A

they cannot be used by themselves
“re” in “reconstruct”, the “ing” in “walking” : “ing” alone doesn’t have any meaning except when attached to free morpheme.
They are always going to be added to a free morpheme.

34
Q

→ Derivational morphemes

A

meaningful units that can be added to another word and allow to create a new word. : adjective like “quick→ quickly” “harsh→harshly” = deriving a new word from an existing word. They’re usually going to change morpheme category and create sth that can be recognised as a new word.

35
Q

Inflectional morphemes

A

==> Their function is grammatical : always almost added to a noun, a adjective, to a verb. Ex : S to noun = plural, to a verb = 3Ps singular
⇒ All the inflectional morphemes that exist in English : they look like a closed class.

36
Q

grammar (syntax) def

A

Systematic rules governing language structure (specifically the structure of sentences)

SVO = Subject, Verb, Object
Tense present / past I walk /ed
Aspect

→ Rule for putting words together in a sentence

37
Q

All of these are rule driven: meaning

A

they are predictable, and when someone doesn’t respect it ⇒ you can identify as ungrammatical sentence.

38
Q

The rule stops right where semantics starts

A

We don’t have rules for semantics : no rule to explain you when to use the word “key” or it would be long & complicated, long and complicated rules are inefficient.

39
Q

unhappily analysis

A

un = bound morpheme = not
ly = sth turns adjective into adverb
⇒ some of the meaning of the word unhappily cannot be described by these rules

40
Q

Lexicology

A

the study of words, their history, definition, derivations and use

41
Q

Lexicography

A

study / science of making dictionaries

42
Q

Semantic

A

meaning (signification, denotation) in language (words, phrases, sentences, discourse / text)
→ about what the word means.

“what does X means” VS “what X is”
⇒ Semantic : describe & try to explain how

43
Q

Pragmatics

A

In opposition to structuralism
the role of context and “speaker meaning”

→ how we do things with language that cannot always be explained by the meaning of language.
→ it shows that what words mean depend at least as much as what we want them to mean as some inherent qualities.

→ takes a step away from the idea that “words have some content” ⇒ Words have meaning : but meaning is highly subjective and submitted to context

44
Q

2 examples pragmatics

A

we’re sitting in a room and I say “it’s cold in here”,
meaning : it’s cold = litteral
meaning : someone has to do sth according to what I said
⇒ most of the time : person next to the window “maybe I should close the window”

or

ex : How are you ? don’t want to have answer
=> real answer : maintain social relation

45
Q

The cooperative principle, Grice :

A

Under normal circumstances : you can assume that the person you’re talking to makes an effort to understand you and being understood

4 maxims
quality = telling the truth
quantity = right amount of information
relevance = the window : if you are next to the window go close it
manner = adapt the way you speak, speak clearly

46
Q

4 maxims

A

quality = telling the truth
quantity = not saying too much or too little
relevance =why are telling me this ?
manner = communicating clearly

47
Q

Discourse analysis : def + ex

A

what makes a “text” : cohesion, coherence in written text, turn taking
ex : political discourse can be analysed.

→ if grammar agree on what order to put words in BUT possible to finish with perfectly grammatical sentences but with an incoherent text

48
Q

diachronic

A

across times.

49
Q

synchronic

A

we’re comparing diff language forms that exist at the same time

50
Q

Sociolinguistics + example

A

language in a social context, William Labov “fourth floor”
→ post-vocalic r in N-York is socially stratified : the “r” in “fourth floor” turns out : the higher you’re socially the higher you’ll pronounce the r and the lower you are the less you will say r
⇒ It is not randomly distributed & depends on socio-economics styles

51
Q

Psycholinguistic

A

It is about how the brain manages to learn & use human languages.

→ language as a cognitive function, language in the brain Charles Osgood, Oliver Sacks

52
Q

De Saussure

A

: the words we use have an arbitrary relationship with the meaning they have. Relation btw signifer and signified is arbitrary.

Sign : significant + signifier

S6 Semantics (5 decks)

Brainscape helps you reach your goals faster, through stronger study habits.
© 2024 Bold Learning Solutions. Terms and Conditions