Lecture 2: Semantics 1 Flashcards
What is Phonetics?
Studies how speech sounds are produced (articulate) and (acoustically) perceived
What is Phonology?
Studies the behavior or patterning of speech sounds
What is Morphology?
Studies the patterning of morphemes into words (word formation)
What is Syntax?
The patterning of words into phrases (sentence formation)
What is Semantics?
Studies correspondences between form and meaning (interpretation of words and sentences)
What is the easy definition of Semantics?
It is the study of meaning
What are the two types of Ambiguity?
Lexical Ambiguity and Structural Ambiguity
What is Lexical Ambiguity?
When a word has more than one possible meaning
e.g., Bank
What is Structural Ambiguity?
When a sentence can have more than one possible meaning
e.g., Visiting relatives can be boring
What is Synonymy?
When the same meaning is expressed by different words
e.g. throw, hurl, toss
What is Paraphrase?
When the same meaning is expressed by different words or sentences
e.g., Jack built this house - This house was built by Jack
What are the 4 Logical Relations among sentences?
Entailment
Equivalence
Contradiction
Contrariety
What is Entailment?
When the truth of one sentence requires the truth of another
e.g., John killed the fly entails/requires the truth of The fly is dead
What is important to note about Entailment?
It is asymmetric
What does Asymmetric?
The truth of S2 does not entail the truth of S1
What is Equivalence or Paraphrase?
When the truth of S1 entails the truth of S2, and the truth of S2 entails the truth of S1
e.g., John gave sue a flower
John gave a flower to sue
What is Contradiction?
When two sentences have opposite truth values
e.g., Ben is married contradicts Ben is a Bachelor
What is a Contrariety?
When two sentences cannot be true at the same time (however, they can both be false)
What are the 6 Semantic relationships between words?
Synonymy Antonymy Homonymy Polysemy Hyponymy Partonymy
What is Synonymy?
Words which have roughly the same meanings
e.g., Little - Small; teacher - instructor
what is Antonymy?
Words with opposite meanings
e.g., Hot - Cold; Young - Old
What are the two types of Antonyms?
Gradable Antonyms and Absolute Antonyms
What are Gradable Antonyms?
When word may be placed on a scale
e.g., hot, warm, tepid, cool, cold
What are Absolute (non-graded) Antonyms?
When the difference between two words is absolute
e.g., Alive - Dead
What is Homonymy?
When words have the same form (sound and/or spelling) but unrelated meanings
What are the two types of Homonymy?
Homophones and Homographs
What are Homophones?
When two words have different spellings but sound the same
e.g., Bear - Bare
cite - site - sight
male - mail
What are Homographs?
When two words have different pronunciations but they are spelt the same
e.g., tear - tear
What is Polysemy?
A word with multiple related meanings
e.g., head (of a person, bed, department)
What is Hyponymy?
The relationship between a specific word and a general class e.g. table is a kind of furniture
What is Partonymy (Meronymy)?
Part whole relationship
e.g., Arm is a part of body
