Semantics

Question 1

What is Lexical semantics ?

Answer 1

Lexical semantics is the study of word meaning.

Question 2

What is compositional semantics ?

Answer 2

Compositional semantics is the study of how lexical meanings combine to form the meanings of sentences.

Question 3

What are synonyms ?

Answer 3

Synonyms are words with (nearly) the same meaning.

Question 4

What are antonyms ?

Answer 4

Antonyms are words with (nearly) opposite meanings in some relevant way.

Question 5

What are homophones ?

Answer 5

Homophones are words with different meanings that are pronounced the same.

Question 6

What are homographs ?

Answer 6

Homographs are words with different meanings that are written the same.

Question 7

Can some pairs of words be both homophones and homographs ?

Answer 7

Yes ! Some pairs of words can be both homophones and homographs.

Question 8

What is lexical ambiguity ?

Answer 8

Lexical ambiguity arises when a single sentence has two different interpretations due to the fact that one of the words in that sentence has multiple meanings.

Question 9

Are hyponyms subsets of their hypernyms ?

Answer 9

Yes ! Hyponyms are subsets of their hypernyms : Banana is a hyponym of fruit, which makes fruit a hypernym of banana.

Question 10

Why are hyponyms subsets of their hypernyms ?

Answer 10

This is related to the notion of entailment because the meaning of the sentence with a hyponym entails the meaning of the same sentence with its hypernym substituted for the hyponym.

Question 11

What is entailment ?

Answer 11

Entailment more generally is the relationship between two propositions p and q (sentence meanings) such that p entails q if and only if whenever p is true, q is also true. For example, the meaning of I ate a banana entails the meaning of I ate a fruit.

Question 12

Practice exercise :

For each set of words, select the right lexical relationship below.

A (synonym) B (antonym) C (homophone) D (homograph) E (hyponym/hypernym)

1. canary, parakeet, robin, cockatoo, pigeon, bird
2. tall/short ; fat/skinny ; bright/dull ; hard/soft
3. wry/rye ; quay/key ; there/their ; freeze/frieze
4. drunk, intoxicated, inebriated, plastered
5. male/female ; dead/alive
6. tear (v.) / tear (n.)

Answer 12

soon

Question 13

For each pair of sentences, decide whether the first entails the second, vice-versa, neither, or both.

1. Someone likes ice cream. Everyone likes ice cream .
2. Unicorns are cool. Narwhals are cool.
3. John wear boots. John wear shoes.
4. John wear shoes. John wear socks.
5. I read every book in the pile. I read each book in the pile.
6. Jen is going to the movies Tuesday. Jen is going to the movies this week.

Answer 13

Soon