Lecture 5-7 - Semantics & Lexicon Flashcards
What is semantics?
- Semantics is the study of the nature and the structure of meaning.
- Linguists working in the field of semantics are interested in meaning in human language
–> the study of MEANING (of words, phrases and sentences)
Word meaning is conventional and arbitrary, describe!
Conventional:
• ‘agreement’ on a meaning
• we create the link and this meaning is set within our speech community (cf. different languages)
Arbitrary:
• no natural link between the form and the meaning of a word
Describe Lexical, Sentential and Discourse semantics
Lexical semantics:
- concerned with the meaning of words/morphemes
Sentential semantics (phrasal semantics): - concerned with the meaning of syntactic units larger than words (e.g. phrases, clauses, sentences)
Discourse semantics:
- meaning that is created in context (very close to pragmatics)
Describe the differences between semantics and pragmatics
Semantics:
objective, systematic study of the properties of meaning, focusing on what the words conventionally mean
Pragmatics:
study of the meaning intended by the speaker in context, on a particular occasion
Semiotic triangle:
What is meaning?
- Word meaning is coded and conventionalized
- Saussure’s concept of the linguistic sign: The relationship between the two aspects of the linguistic sign is arbitrary
- Meaning is the relation between a linguistic expression and a mental category that is used to classify objects, i.e. a concept. (Plag et al. 2015)
Describe the semiotic triangle
1) linguistic form/symbol (links u) –> symbolizes
2) thought/concept (oben) –> refers to
3) referent/object in reality (rechts u): linguistic form stands for referent
form –> hearing –> concept
concept –> speaking –> form
referent –> direct –> concept
concept –> indirect –> referent
Describe the 3 different definitions of meaning
1st definition
- “Meaning is the relation between a linguistic expression and the entity for which it can be used” (Plag et al. 2009, a ‘possible’ but problematic definition)
- we commonly use words to point to objects or events in the world, direct connection between
words and things in the real world
2nd definition:
- Meaning is the relation between a linguistic formal expression (e.g. a morph) and a mental category that is used to classify objects, i.e. a concept.
- This is a conceptual approach which includes the notion of mental concepts as a third player which is different from the referents in the outside world
3rd view:
- “The meaning of a word is its use in the language” (Ludwig Wittgenstein)
- quite radical; but remember the meaning of “coffee”!
Important aspect: meaning is a …
relation!
- -> A concept is in our head and is independent of language
- -> A meaning relates a linguistic form and a concept
Meaning is the relation between a linguistic expression (i.e. an arbitrary form, e.g. a morph) and a mental category that is used to classify objects (i.e. a concept)
(Plag et al. 150)
Dimensions of word meaning:
Name the 3 pairs of important terms
- sense vs reference
- denotation vs connotation
- intension vs extension
l: language-internal (or intra-linguistic) side of meaning
r: language-external (extra-linguistic) reality
Dimensions of word meaning:
Sense vs reference
Sense:
• Sense (1st definition): conditions that need to be met in order for the application of a particular word to be appropriate
• Sense (2nd definition): essentially defined by its relation to other expressions
e.g. old - young, medium - large- small
• sense is close to mental concept
Reference:
• Referent: object in the world picked out by a particular word or phrase
• Reference:
- the relationship of an expression (stored in the mind of a speaker/linguistic sign) and the referent
- it is an important function of words to pick out objects in the world
Dimensions of word meaning:
Sense vs reference - give an example
Sense:
- President of the United States: ‘the elected political leader of the United States of America’
Referent:
- > Different referents:
- In 1789: George Washington
- In 2000: Bill Clinton
- In 2010: Barack Obama
- Now: Joe Biden
Dimensions of word meaning:
Denotation vs Connotation
Denotation:
- primary meaning, dictionary meaning
- refers to the stable relationship between a linguistic expression and the concrete language external entities to which it refers
- Example: the denotation of “coffee” is simply all the coffee that can be potentially described by the word; is the same for you and me
Connotation:
- all associations/ideas/emotions that come to mind in relation to a linguistic expression
- Example: the connotations of “coffee” are all the associations we have that can be triggered by the word; are different for you and me – or even for you in the morning and in the evening!
Dimensions of word meaning:
Denotation vs Connotation - give an example
Tree:
Denotation: different trees
Connotation: Relaxation, Park, children climbing trees, woods, birds, countryside, shade, roots, bark, …
Dimensions of word meaning:
Intension vs Extension
Intension: - Set of semantic properties which are shared by all members e.g. bird: [+ animate] [- human] [+ wings] [+ feathers] - Semantic features, semantic properties, a word’s semantic components. (Componential analysis)
Extension:
- The actual entities in the real world that ”satisfy” the intension
- Extension of bird includes all birds: doves, parrots, penguins..
How is meaning (linguistic) related to categorization (cognitive)?
Words –> Meanings –> Mental concepts
=> to understand word use, we need to understand mental concepts/categories
What is a table?
- When answering this, we use our mental concept “table”.
- The structure of that mental concept affects how we use word table => affects our language!
Approaches to word meaning and categorization
3 famous approaches to categorization (cognitive):
- Semantic Feature Analysis (Aristotle)
- Family resemblance (Wittgenstein)
- Prototype Theory/ Fuzziness of Meaning (Rosch)
Approaches to word meaning and categorization
Semantic feature analysis - example man/woman + pros and cons
man: \+ human \+ male \+ adult boy: \+ human \+ male - adult
woman: \+ human - male \+ adult girl: \+ human - male - adult
Pros:
easy to understand, easy to apply; naturally defines relations
Cons:
- features are themselves concepts!
- some objects are somehow better examples for a category (is penguin a bird?..)
- some features are not atomic
- componential analyses do not grasp all there is to word meaning
(spinster/bachelorette).
- which features should be listed (which are essential / necessary?)
- sometimes impossible to find core attributes at all (advice, threat)
Approaches to word meaning and categorization
Semantic feature analysis - critique of Ludwig Wittgenstein
- one of the first to realize the problem with semantic features
- his famous example is the category GAME (tennis, cards, roulette, Solitaire, soccer, chess, …)
Game:
- done for entertainment
- somebody wins
- requires training or practice
- involves more than one person…
- > Problem: not all games share all those features
- > Wittgenstein’s suggestion was to speak about family resemblance (finding partial similarities)
Approaches to word meaning and categorization
Prototype Theory by Eleanor Rosch
- Members graded according to their typicality
- Central members share many features with the prototype
Advantages of prototype theory:
- Allows for non-typical/ peripheral members
- Allows for gradience/ fuzzy boundaries
- Includes associative meaning (e.g. bachelor)
- Explains linguistic expressions that distinguish different grades of belonging to a category:
- typically
- strictly speaking, loosely speaking, technically speaking
- as such
- sort of, kind of, -ish
Approaches to word meaning and categorization
Family resemblance theory vs. prototype theory:
- Similarity:
- Both allow gradience/fuzziness
- Both allow for incorporation of associative meaning
Difference:
- family resemblance does not declare some category members as most typical
Lexicon:
How many full entries of words does the 2nd edition of the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary contain?
171,476 words in current use
Lexicon:
How many words does an educated adult speaker know?
Between 20,000 and 80,000
Lexicon:
How fast can natives recognize a word?
200 milliseconds after its onset
well before it has been completely pronounced
Lexicon:
How many words (on average) do a 2, 3 and 5 year old use actively?
two-year-old around 500 words
three-year-old over 1000
five-year-old up to 3000
Where are words stored mentally?
huge mental storage device called the mental lexicon
Lexicon:
Give a short definition
the vocabulary of a person, language, or branch of knowledge
Lexicon:
Give a definition from a linguistic POV
In linguistics, a lexicon is a language’s inventory of lexemes.
Lexicon:
Of what parts do Linguistic theories generally regard human languages as consisting of?
1) a lexicon, essentially a catalogue of a language’s words (its wordstock)
2) a grammar, a system of rules which allow for the combination of those words into meaningful sentences
lexicon is thought to include:
- bound morphemes which cannot stand alone as words (such as most affixes)
- compound words and certain classes of idiomatic expressions and other collocations
What do Dictionaries represent?
Attempts to list the lexicon of a language in alphabetical order
-> in the mind the lexicon is organized as a network (mental lexicon)
Are words/lexemes isolated from each other?
No, they are connected to each other -> word association test
- Strong psychological evidence for links among words in our minds
- The meaning of words is greatly influenced by their connections to other words
- There are different kinds of connections
Name problematic and interesting cases in connection with word meanings:
Synonyms:
word1 => meaning1
word2 => meaning1
eg.: I’ve just seen a bat flying around. He hit the ball with his bat.
Multiple meanings:
word1 => > meaning1, meaning2, meaning3
eg.: She hit the nail on the head. The rock hit him on the head.
–> the words have different meanings (lexical ambiguity)
If one compares the relation between different meanings, one can distinguish which forms of meaning variation?
polysemy and homonymy
Words and their senses:
Describe Polysemy
Polysemy:
One form has related meanings
head
- Head of a person
- Head of a nail
- Head of an institution
mouse
- animal
- PC device
Words and their senses:
Describe Homonymy
Homonymy:
One form has multiple unrelated meanings
bat
- small flying animal
- piece of wood for hitting a ball
bark
- a dog is barking
- the bark of a tree
Name the rwo special cases of (partial) homonymy:
1) Homophony:
- same sound
- two or more different forms have the same pronunciation
- eight, ate
- flower, flour
- knight, night
- die, dye
- be, bee
- bear, bare
- sent, cent
- chilly, chili
2) Homography:
- same written form
- same spelling, different pronunciation
- dove (sitting on a branch), dove (into the lake)
- tear (in my eye), tear (apart)
Homographs which are not pronounced identically are sometimes called heteronyms. All heteronyms are homographs, but not all homographs are heteronyms.
The network: Name different semantic relations among words
i) Synonymy: Synonyms
ii) Antonymy: Antonyms
iii) Hyponymy: Hyponyms (more specific) & hyperonyms (umbrella terms)
iv) Meronymy: Part-whole relations
