LexSem2

Question 1

Polysemy

Answer 1

• Based on lexemes with related meanings
  o E.g. Fox, football
• Sometimes, revealed by antonymy
  o Man vs woman, man vs boy, man vs animal – 3 different meanings of man (male, adult, human)
• Economic principle – one form – many meanings
• Single meaning-single form – semantic transparency - doesn’t contribute
• Communication process is difficult
• A special case of polysemy
  o When one sense is general and the other specific
   E.g. Cat as the beast of pre
• So that the term includes tiger, lion, panther
   Cat as the common cat
• A pet animal which includes various breed

Question 2

Antonymy

Answer 2

Antonymy
- Opposite meaning
- Contradictory – complementary, inversion
- Contrary – gradable, negation of one does not imply the other
Full antonyms/complementary
- Admit only 2 options
- Not gradable
- Negation of one implies the other
o Dead – alive
Graded antonyms/antonymy in narrow sense
- Scales of antonymy
- Gradable
- Negation of one doesn’t necessarily imply the other
- Degree/scale
o Cold – warm
 Several other degrees – lukewarm, icy, hot…all share a particular feature

Question 3

Minor WF processes

Answer 3

Minor word formation processes refer to the mechanisms by which new words are created in a language through relatively small-scale changes.

Clipping acronymisation blending gemination

Question 4

Bayeen productivity

Answer 4

Uses a large corpus, and calculates productivity in relation to parole, notably to frequency – number of occurrences (tokens) of a particular derived word (type)
P=n_1/N
N1 = hapax legomena – number of types (of words) with the evaluated affix occurring only once in the sample analysed
N = the total number of tokens of all words with that given affix
P = the potential application of a particular WFR – the rate at which new types are to be expected to appear when N tokens have been sampled
The lower the frequency of individual types, the higher their share of all different types

Question 5

Prototype theory

Answer 5

Eleonore Rosch
- Came up with a new theory – prototype theory
- If we cannot define the meaning in a traditional way (for the reasons mentioned above) let us try to define the word by its most typical/most characteristic representative
- Experiments – associative experiments – students were told a word and they were supposed to say the first representative that came to their mind
o Bird
 Most prototypical = robin
 After robin = sparrow, blue jay, bluebird, canary, blackbird, dove
 At the opposite end of the prototypicality scale = chicken, turkey, ostrich, penguin, peacock
* Why? They don’t meet one of the basic features that we associate with birds – they cannot fly

Prototype theory can be summarized in 4 points:
1. Degrees of typicality – not every member is equally typical
2. Family resemblance
3. Fuzzy edges
4. Rejection of the theory of the necessary and sufficient conditions

Question 6

WF SYntagma

Answer 6

• A crucial notion because WF can only be composed of composites analysable into determinans and determinatum. Each of these components is a sign on its own.
• Kastovsky’s identification-specification scheme - ties into this:
  o Determinatum identifies the object and determinans specifies it.
   Swimming pool = “pool” is the determinatum / head and identifies, while “swimming”, the determinans, specifies what kind of pool it is.

Question 7

Fixed meaning assumption

Answer 7

• There is a basic meaning of each word and this basic meaning can be captured by necessary and sufficient conditions
  o A list of definitions which are absolutely necessary for the definition of the meaning of a particular word and which together are sufficient for the definition of the meaning
  o The identification of these necessary and sufficient conditions is the key to defining the meaning of words
• Square
  o Closed, flat figure
  o Having four sides
  o All sides are equal in length
  o All interior angles are equal
   4 necessary conditions and as a combination they are sufficient for defining the meaning of the word square
• Nevertheless, this approach faces problems particularly in applicability to all words of a language
• It is impossible to identify the conditions for all words
  o Abstract words, words which are perceived differently by different people (e.g., democracy – defined differently in different parts of the world)
• It should be preferable to distinguish between basic hard core of the meaning and an external level
  o Basic hard core of the meaning – identical for all users and for all situations
  o Hard core is surrounded by various subjectively defined aspects of meaning depending on conceptualization, reflected in different imageries, etc.
• As a result, as this method worked for a limited number of words and it faced serious applicability problems – cognitivists – fuzzy meaning assumption

Question 8

Fuzzy meaning assumption

Answer 8

• Sorts out all the problems connected with conceptualization and subjective perception of the meaning of words
• The meaning of word is elusive, the boundaries between the core meaning and the external/subjective layer are fuzzy/cannot be precisely defined
• The same is true about the boundaries between meaning of related words – they overlap
• 2 reasons:
  1. Fuzzy edge phenomenon
  o There are no clear-cut boundaries – there are no clear boundaries where one word ends, and the meaning of another word starts
  o Experiment with the pictures of shapes/drawings, asking students to name them (which is a bowl, a vase, a cup, etc.)
  o The meaning of words cannot be defined in absolute way/absolutely objectively – it depends on circumstances on its use – the boundaries are not sharp, the meanings overlap
  o Fuzzy edges – fundamental property of meaning

Question 9

Cognitive grammar

Answer 9

Cognitive grammar and cognitive semantics
-either one represent part of the communication scheme
-in the traditional approach there is a sender (speaker, writer) on one end and receiver(listener, reader) on the other
-communication scheme is based on encoding message- means that the content of the message is represented by a specific code (language used), then by means of its language it is transferred to listener who uses the same code (to understand each other) and decodes the message – basic principle of communication
-in the case of cognitive approach we start with resources – IMPORTANT- because resources affect the message with meaning, it is not only the matter of words, and therefore meaning of sentences in general, meaning of messages is not given by objective core but if it carries considerable amount of such activism of subjective processing of message communicated ??? expressed by resources—– dopísať od dakoho
-we use symbolic units – signs – must comply with the grammatical principles of particular language and message is influenced – the way of formulating the message – by knowledge, knowledge of context, experiences etc. – impose influence on the message to be sent to receiver = all of this is a part of coding process (the way how formulate the message, how we construct the sentences)
=resources we use in communication and this communication event is called usage event ( we simply use language and resources to construct our message)

Question 10

Subjectivist approach to meaning

Answer 10

• Semantic value of an expressions depends not only on the quealities of the thing or situation it represents, but also on how we perceive and mentally picture it
• Factors: different general knowledge, different experiences, education, talents, preferences, etc…
• This individual subjectivist perception of the world as such and as reflected in language = conceptualization – how we understand the world, how we approach it…
• Triangle/three-sided polygon
  o Triangle – emphasize 3 angles
  o Three-sided polygon – emphasize sides
  o One and the same object described in different ways
• The glass is half empty/The glass is half full
  o The same situation perceived in 2 different ways

Question 11

Imagery

Answer 11

Langacker
- One of the founders of cognitive linguistics
- American linguist
- Imagery – we produce an image of the situation in the world around us – this image results of our conceptualization of this situation/object - image is the result of the way how we perceive the world
- Langacker uses the term imagery to indicate our ability to mentally construe (analyze) a conceived situation in alternate ways
o All cats are playful/any cat is playful/every cat is playful/each cat is playful
 All sentences share a certain property/feature of cats – playfulness
 Sentences provide different imagery depending on how we mentally construe the situation
 All cats – class collectivity, cats as a whole
 Any cat/every cat/each cat – all refer to single cat, but any emphasizes arbitrariness/random selection, every and each are alike in emphasizing individualness, but each indicates that class members are examined sequentially/one at a time

Question 12

Symbolic units in cognitive linguistics

Answer 12

o Symbolic units = signs – lexical units
o Symbolic units must comply with grammatical principles of a particular language

Question 13

semantic co-occurence restrictions

Answer 13

verb die, cannot use with unanimate objects
- Every lexical unit has certain restrictions in its use
- Cannot say – table worked all day – table = inanimate
- To die: animate: human, animal, plant
- To kick the bucket – cannot be used with plants or animals, just humans – no logical reasons
- Selectional restrictions – have logical justification
- Collocational restrictions – restriction without logical justification
o E.g. Idioms

Question 14

Semantic traits and statuses

Answer 14

Theories to explain the nature of meaning are various
Theory based on semantic traits (features) and their status
The meaning of a LU can be defined by means of semantic traits, they have different value or significance for a definition of meaning they differ in their contribution to the meaning of a LU
Degree of significance of a lexical trait regarding the definition of the meaning of a LU is called it´s status.
What is the semantic trait is a particular feature (of an object) represented by Lexical unit
Scale of 5 degrees – most significant semantic traits are called:
* Criterial - without them it is not possible to define the meaning of a lexical unit they represent the core meaning of a LU.
* Expected semantic traits they are not indispensable for the object
* Possible semantic traits they can occur but these don’t have to
* Unexpected we don’t expect them to be a feature of an object but under certain circumstances they can
* Excluded semantic traits feature which cannot be a part of the definition of an object represented by a LU they cover an immense space which resist inclusion of a LU

Question 15

Idioms

Answer 15

• An expression whose meaning cannot be inferred from the meanings of its parts
• Idioms function as a single semantic unit
• Idiom as a whole is a single semantic constituent
• Idiom is a lexical complex which is semantically simplex
  o Lexical complex = consists of several lexical elements
  o Semantically simplex = carries single meaning
• Idioms – idiomaticity – a matter of a degree
• Scale of idiomaticity – scale for transparency based on principle of compositionality

Question 16

collocations

Answer 16

Collocation
- Can be analysed as location and co (co = coexistence, cooccurrence)
- 2 constituents that frequently/typically cooccur
- Strong bond between the constituents due to frequent cooccurrence
Light drizzle, fine weather, high winds…

• Principle of compositionality can be applied to this type of lexical units
• Collocational ranges
  o Peculiar to each word,
  o E.g. Disease and illness are very close in meaning, and yet catch a disease is acceptable and *catch an illness is not
   No two words share exactly the same range and frequency of occurrences within a range
• Habitual collocations
  o Clichés – languages may differ, e.g. ‘smiling sun’ is much more frequent in czech than in english
• Semantic cohesion
  o Sometimes the bond can be strengthened – semantic cohesion – the link is very strong between the constituents – two situations
   One situation: one of the words is not used in its core meaning
• Heavy drinker (heavy not in its core meaning, rather meaning of high consumption)
   If one constituent can only be used with one word, the bond is very strong
• To foot the bill – to pay the bill…only used in this context, cannot use i will foot it

Question 17

Principle of compo

Answer 17

The principle of compositionality in lexical semantics states that the meaning of a complex expression is derived from the meanings of its individual parts and the way those parts are combined. In other words, the meaning of a phrase or sentence can be understood by understanding the meanings of its constituent words and how they are syntactically arranged.

According to this principle, the meaning of a whole is not simply the sum of the meanings of its parts but is determined by the way those parts interact and combine. The combination of words follows certain grammatical rules and syntactic structures, and these rules contribute to the interpretation of the expression.

For example, let’s consider the phrase “big red ball.” The meanings of the individual words “big,” “red,” and “ball” contribute to the overall meaning of the phrase. The compositionality principle tells us that the phrase refers to a ball that is both big and red. The meaning is not arbitrary but is determined by the meanings of the individual words and their arrangement within the phrase.

Question 18

Cognitive synonymy

Answer 18

• Refers to lexical units which share the basic denotative meaning, but they differ in connotation
• Connotation – may refer to opposition between formal and informal language, differ in register, literal language vs slang
  o Father – daddy
  o Rich vs wealthy
  o Go on – continue

Question 19

Cognitive theory of metaphor

Answer 19

1. Metaphor is a cognitive phenomenon (not exclusively lexical)
   - It comes in patterns
   o Love is a journey – look how far we have come, our love is at crossroads, we have to go our separate ways, this relationship is a dead-end street, our love has been a long bumpy road, we have gone off the tracks..
   o Theories and arguments are buildings – foundations of the theory, the theory needs more support, the argument is shaky, we need to construct a strong argument, the argument collapsed…
   - Used creatively
   o Not fixed once and forever, but can be used creatively by every user
   o Do you follow my argument?
   - Metaphoric patterns occur outside language: the ‘thumb up’ gesture
   o Things are looking up, we hit peak last week but it’s been looking downhill ever since
2. Metaphor – based on mapping between two domains
   - Source and target – journey and evolution of relationship
3. Metaphor – based on experiences

Question 20

Cognitive theory of metonymy

Answer 20

• Based on metonymic patterns
  Part for the whole – we don’t hire longhairs
  Producer for product – we brought a new ford, we bought a picasso
  Object used for user – the guitar has flu today
  Controller for controlled – napoleon lost at waterloo

Question 21

Family resemblance syndrom

Answer 21

o One of the first to come up with this – ludwig wittgenstein (philosopher)
 Compared the situation in the meaning of words with the situation of appearances of members of family
 Photo of a family – we are able to identify some similarities, but members are not totally identical – the same situation occurs in words and their meanings
 Game – football, boxing, chess, etc.
* There is something that connects these – competition, but they are all different – but they still all belong under game
* Define the meaning of game?
 Abcd bcde cdef defg efgh…
 Neighbouring meanings of a word are somehow related but not fully coincide and that we at some point arrive where the two meanings have nothing in common
 As a result – it is very difficult to define the meaning

Question 22

Right hand rule

Answer 22

Williams – Righthand Head Rule (RHR)
- In morphology, we define the head of a morphologically complex word to be the righthand member of the word.

Question 23

Elsewhere condition

Answer 23

Kiparsky (1982) – Elsewhere Condition principle
- A blocking principle which ensures that the more specific rule applies first whereas the general rule applies by default in all other cases
o Judge as a noun is formed by conversion of verb judge
 Conversion is a more specific rule of forming agent nouns derived from
verbs than suffixation with -er, so the formation of the noun *judger is blocked
 If there is a new meaning, blocking no longer applies (cook, cooker)
 The failure of blocking results in doublets like dreamt/dreamed

Question 24

Compounding

Answer 24

• difficult to distinguish between a compound and a phrase
• compounds don’t have to be spelled together (flowerpot or flower-pot)
• compound stress rule has too many exceptions (blue-eyed, easy-going)
• integrity of compounds (a word cannot be inserted between constituents)
• recursiveness – (n+n) = n (shop lamp) + production = (shop lamp production) …
• classification – primary (root) – many potential meanings, not semantically transparent
  - (shop lamp)
  - synthetic (verbal) – contain verbal element (language teacher)

     - endocentric – consist of determinant and determinatum
            - shop lamp is a kind of lamp, blackboard a kind of board
     - exocentric – determinatum is not expressed
                  - redskin is not a kind of skin, but a person

Question 25

Clasii 1 2 differences

Answer 25

Class 1- are combined with word and stems, may cause stress shift, admit phonological changes and cause a rightward shift of the main stress
Class 2-Only combine with words, stress is neutral and there are no phonological changes

Question 26

Zero morpheme

Answer 26

• a morpheme that has a meaning but zero form
• sheep sheep singular vs. plural form, has no form but changes meaning

Question 27

Empty morphs

Answer 27

• belongs to the no morpheme; doesn’t have a meaning
• Plural form children: it contains /r/- which is absent in the SG and therefore referred to as an empty morph.
• Czechoslovakia – O in the word connects two units together but has not meaning on its own

Question 28

Halles model a role of filter

Answer 28

• His model consists of a few components
• List of morphemes
  o Morpheme= unit that can exist without meaning
  o Unilateral and bilateral morphemes
   Broth-er= pure form without meaning
• Word formation rules
  o 1st type unilateral
   Stem + suffix (broth-er)
  o 2nd type bilateral
   Verb + suffix (decide- decision)
• Filter
  o Filters out irregularities
  o Three different types
   Structural idiosyncrasies
  o Morris distinguishes between protentional and real words; the fact that they doesn’t exist now, doesn’t mean they cant be used in the future; over generative capacity of word formation rules; every word has to be marked
  o Arriv-al, *arriva-ion
  o *deriv-al, derivate-ion
  o Potention-al, potent-ion
   Phonological idiosyncrasies
  o Trisyllabic shortening rule= if there is long vowel or diphthong the vowel is shorten if suffix is added to this word
  o Entire- entirety
  o Obese- obesity
   Semantic idiosyncrasies
  o Predictable meaning of new word form
• Dictionary of words
  o Stores new words that were produced by the word formation rules
• Product
  o It’s the morpheme
• Phonological component
  o Adjective + en = can only occur when it ends with an obstruent
   Soft+en= soften (t is silent)
  o Necessity of the phonological component

o Halle – proposes two types of wf rules, one of which is based on a combination of a meaningless stem with a suffix:
 [stem+ant]a: vac+ant, pregn+ant, ambul+ant
[stem+ity]n: pauc+ity, prob+ity

Question 29

Computing productivity in aronoff’s approach

Answer 29

• Examines productivity of an affix with regard to a particular WF base
  o E.g. Reveals that #ness is more productive than the synonymous suffix +ity when attached to adjectives of the form Xive (perceptive), while +ity is more productive than #ness when attached to adjectives of the form Xile (servile)
  o Semantic coherence (relates the notion of productivity to this) →
   Depends on the predictability of the meanings of words derived by a specific WF rule (the word with less meanings is semantically more coherent – language user will prefer the rule that creates a new word, the meaning of which is more transparent)
   E.g. The rule which derives abstract nouns from the WF base Xous by adding #ness is semantically more coherent because all the nouns of the form Xousness may have only one of three possible meanings (the Fact, the Extent, and the Quality/State of Action), while the number of possible interpretations of words of the form Xousity is much higher
  o There is a direct correlation between semantic coherence and productivity

Question 30

Arbitrariness

Answer 30

• Arbitrariness is an idea that, there is no casual relation between the concept and acoustic image. Their relation is arbitrary. Existence of the same item e.x kniha in Slovak and kniga in Russian. Their use in controversial (based on general agreement in the speech community).

Question 31

Level ordering theories

Answer 31

LEVEL ORDERING THEORY (keby nahodou)

Siegel
- Two classes of affixes differ in their phonological and morphological characteristics → based on these differences she formulated the Level-Ordering Hypothesis
Allen
- Extended Ordering Hypothesis: there are 3 levels in morphology at which rules of WF operate
o Level I rules are ordered before Level II rules, and both Level I and Level II rules are ordered before Level III rules
o Level I – all rules of +boundary affixation
o Level II – all rules of #boundary affixation
o Level III – rules of compounding, non-prefixation, and some other rules
o There should be no affixation after compounding
Selkirk (1982)
- Derivational affixes may appear outside compounds, e.g. Un-self-sufficient, non¬-weather-related, painstaking-ly
o Conclusion → Class II affixes may appear inside or outside compounds, while Class I affixes appear only inside compounds = principle of Compound-Affix Ordering Generalization
Strauss (1982)
- Class I suffixes can attach after Class I prefixes, and Class I prefixes can be attached outside Class II suffixes
o E.g. In ungrammaticality, the Class II prefix -un attaches to grammatical, not to the noun grammaticality
Kiparsky: Lexical Phonology and Morphology
- There are several levels (strata, layers), each of them characterised by certain WF rules followed by phonological rules
o Phonological rules of lexical phonology = lexical rules are cyclic → they are applied after each step of word-formation, and admit exceptions
o Postlexical phonological rules = rules that apply to syntax, to combinations of words in sentences → they are exceptionless and automatic, they apply whenever the conditions for their application are met → they are non-cyclic, can apply only once
o The output of lexical phonology may be used as an input for a WF process at a higher level
o Important feature of Kiparsky’s model – affixation and compounding are interspersed
 He places irregular inflection at level 1 – separates it from regular inflection at level 3
 The result of every layer of derivation is a lexical item

Question 32

Bayens productivity

Answer 32

Uses a large corpus, and calculates productivity in relation to parole, notably to frequency – number of occurrences (tokens) of a particular derived word (type)
P=n_1/N
N1 = hapax legomena – number of types (of words) with the evaluated affix occurring only once in the sample analysed
N = the total number of tokens of all words with that given affix
P = the potential application of a particular WFR – the rate at which new types are to be expected to appear when N tokens have been sampled
The lower the frequency of individual types, the higher their share of all different types

Question 33

transaction rules

Answer 33

Transaction rules
- Based on deletion and substitution of affix

Question 34

Seassures sign

Answer 34

Linguistic sign is a bilateral unit: link between a concept and sound image
- A concept is a general idea, a mental representation of something
- Sound image is an abstract mental representation of sound
- For the term concept he also introduced term signified (signifié) and for sound image term signifier (signifiant)

Question 35

Mark Aronoff

Answer 35

• Founder of modern american generative word formation
• Introduced number of topics
• Known as a representative of word based word formation
• Main focus of research: affixation
• Certain word formation rules can act backwards
  o Receive, deceive, perceive, conceive
  o Retain, detain, pertain, contain
  o We can only combine existing morphemes
• Phonological rules - another focus
• He maintains that the analysis of re+ceive, con+tain, re+duce etc. Indicates that meaning is not an indispensable (necessary) part of morpheme
• He believes that wf rules must be based on bilateral units (signs)
  o Since not all morphemes meet this condition, his wf rules are based on units which always carry some meaning - on words → word-based theory of word-formation

Question 36

Relativised approach to productivity

Answer 36

• P= actual number of words produced
• Potential number of words according to thic rule
• Compare productivity of rules
  o Ness/ ity= comparing when combined with adjective
  o Is more productive, semantically more coherent

Question 37

Proportional series

Answer 37

• Special kind of lexical relation – proportional series – picture
  o Relations between elements must be such that from any three elements the fourth one can be determined
  o Male and stallion – same relation as ewe and ram – relation based on gender
  o If such a relation can be extended = extendable proportional series
  o Extend it horizontally by adding the young
  o Extended vertically by adding other animals with the same relation

Question 38

overgenerating capacity

Answer 38

● the capacity of WF rules to generate potential words

Question 39

Metonymy

Answer 39

● a figure of speech in which the name of an attribute of a thing is used instead of the thing itself
● e.g. crown as ‘monarchy’

Question 40

Relational components

Answer 40

• Many words can be only described by certain relations, they employ logical relations between predicate and argument
  o 6<7 argument 1x predicate argument 2y
  o Father: x parent of y and male x
  o Son: x child of y and male x
  o Brother: x child of parent of y
• Express object substances, but also actions
  o John has a book. X predicate y
   Generalized predicate x have y
  o John received a book. John´s situation changed, now he has a book.
   X change to x have y
  o John gave a book to peter. John caused peter´s situation to change.
   X cause y change to y have z
  o John died. John changed his own situation.
   X change to x not alive
  o John killed peter.
   X cause y not alive
  They didn’t escape the strong limits of chomsky and his mathematical approach
  str 13

Question 41

Lexical field

Answer 41

• John trier – founder of the theory of lexical field
  o Lexical field = system which is internally structured, and the individual units of this structure are interrelated

Question 42

Lexical unit

Answer 42

• Lexical unit – basic unit of lexical semantics
  o Single form, single meaning
  o Each lexical unit must be a semantic constituent – must have a meaning
  o Each lexical unit must be at least one word (no suffix nor prefix can be a lu)
   Er = linguistic sign, but not a lexical unit, no word, just a morpheme
   Kick a bucket – in this expression, bucket is not a lexical unit either – the idiom functions as a single unit, cannot be separated

Question 43

Pierce sign

Answer 43

Peirce also distinguishes 3 types of signs:
- Icons, they are based on resemblance with the designed object (e.x picture of a book)
o Images – direct similarity between signifier and signified
o Diagrams – analogy between the relations of signifier and signified
o Metaphors (metasigns) - similarity is based on similarity with other properties
- Indexes, point to the objects (e.x smoke indicates fire) or point to spatial and temporal relations of the utterance. (e.x here, there, yesterday)
- Symbols are based on conventions and unlike icons they do not resemble the objects and do not have a direct relation to the object like indexes. Symbols are connected with its object by virtue of the idea of the symbol using mind (e.x book, chair, table etc.)

Question 44

Conventionalization

Answer 44

each onomatopea undergoes conventionalization which means that sound is adjusted to the phonological system of a particular language

Question 45

Homonyms rozdelenie

Answer 45

o Homographs lead vs lead
o Homophones sun vs son
o Full homonyms bat vs bat

Question 46

Lexeme

Answer 46

conceived as a combination of all the related meanings attached to a particular form
o Polysemous unit – single form representing all the related meanings

Question 47

Major WF processes

Answer 47

Major word formation processes refer to the linguistic mechanisms or strategies through which new words are created in a language. These processes involve modifying existing words or combining linguistic elements to form new lexical units. Here are definitions of the major word formation processes:

Question 48

Major vs minor WF processes

Answer 48

Major WF-compounding, suffixation, prefixation, zero-derivation, back-formation, reduplication
MINOR WF-clipping, acronymization, blending, gemination