Semantics Flashcards
verifies the logical connectivity among the given premises and the conclusion. It does not focus on the truthfulness of the premises and the conclusion; verifies the logical connectivity between the premises and the conclusion without focusing on their truthfulness
Logical condition
verifies the actual truth or falsity of the given premise and the conclusion; verifies the actual truth or falsity of the given premises and the conclusion
Truth condition
Any true inference from a true preposition.
Logical relationship between two propositions such that the truth of the first proposition p guarantees the truth of the second preposition q also The falsity of q, guarantees the falsity of p
Entailment
is a semantic relationship between two propositions such that if and only if p is true then q is true too.
Entailment
It occurs when words have more than one meaning as commonly defined and understood. In simple words, keywords in the sentence may be read to mean different things.
Lexical Ambiguity
– It is a grammatical construct that results from difficulty of applying universal grammatical laws to sentence structure. To simply put, words are arranged in ways that produce different meanings
Syntactical Ambiguity
It is a composite ambiguity containing elements of both lexical and syntactical ambiguity. It occurs when words or phrases are used multiple times in a sentence but with different meanings each time it is used.
Inflective Ambiguity
mutual entailment of two propositions which can logically be expressed by a conjunction. P entails q and q entails p.
Synonym
If one proposition asserts the opposite of another in terms of entailment, p entails not q.
Contradiction
A standard entailment; a relationship between two propositions. P could entail q but q does not entail p. This entailment involves propositions that are in a hyponymy relationship. This hyponymy could include hierarchies such as color hierarchies.
inclusion
If the meaning of NP is a member of the meaning of VP, then S is TRUE, otherwise, it is FALSE
Example: Jack swims
Semantic rule 1
The meaning of [VP V NP] is the set of individuals X such that X is the first member of any pair in the meaning of V whose second member is the meaning of NP
Example: Jack kissed Laura
Semantic rule 2
refers to speaker’s feeling towards ongoing context
Example: You’re ridiculous!
Affective meaning
common grouping of words that appear together frequently and convey meaning through association
Example: Emma is pretty – pretty is often used for women
Collocative meaning
to give a semantic representation of a statement that is suitable.
Example: Johnny is a child – meaning Johnny is literally a kid
Conceptual meaning
when a term has a multiple meanings depending on the audience
Example: Johnny is a child – might mean Johnny is an adult who acts like a child.
Connotative meaning
a single word is associated with several senses or meanings
Example: “gay” could mean happy or gay as in men who like men
reflective meaning
meaning of words based on societal factors
Example: in Europe, they call coke as pop and soda in australia
Social meaning
how speaker conveys the message to the audience through word choice, word order, and emphasis
Thematic meaning
a word or phrase with two or more meaning that can be misunderstood
Equivocation
words that gain meaning by comparison
relative language
– a general or vague language that represents ideas or concepts that have no physical references
Abstraction language
a mistaken assumption that people or things are unchanging and consistent
Static evaluation
abnormality profile of the linguistic items in terms of combination and interaction of elements of language in different context that may create ambiguity and connotative meaning.
Example: my toothbrush is pregnant
Anomaly
– directly refers to one thing by mentioning another.
Example: Laughter is the best medicine
Types of metaphor
one that compares two unlike things using the basic construction X is Y. ( All the world’s a stage )
Standard metaphor
– compares two things that are not alike without actually mentioning one of those things. ( a woman barked a warning at her child – comparing a woman to a dog without mentioning a dog )
implied metaphor
Often seen within advertisements ( a hydroflask advertisement shows a plastic water bottle image implying that their product is the same )
Visual metaphor
an author’s use of a single metaphor or analogy at length through multiple linked tenors ( the flames of the fire shot up faster that a trio of lightning bolts – meaning a fire broke out ).
Extended metaphor
phrase that was once a lively figure of speech but no longer carries its original meaning (aftermath meant after the mowing before)
Dead metaphor
linking of two or more disparate element which can result in an unintentionally comic effect. ( If we want to get ahead we’ll have to iron out the remaining bottlenecks
Mixed metaphor
unique collection of a language’s sayings and phrases
Example: You can’t judge a book by its cover
Idioms
idioms whose original meaning is lost to the extent that there is no possible way to analyze phrase logically
Example: It’s raining cats and dogs (It’s raining heavily)
Pure Idioms
involve two parts that work together in contrast
Example: night and day, black and white
Binomia;l Idioms
partial idiom containing a literal and non-literal part
Example: Storm brewing in his eyes
partial idiom
idioms that contain prepositional verbs plus an adverb or a preposition to create non-literal meaning.
Example: Put up with
Prepositional idioms
idioms that provide universal truths or sage advice
Example: An apple a day keeps the doctor away
Proverbs
– used to soften a message that might otherwise be too harsh or politically incorrect
Example: Big-boned (fat), Correctional facility (prison)
Euphemisms
term that has been so overused that it is considered intellectually lazy, not funny, unoriginal, or stereotyping when used.
Example: Don’t judge a book by its cover
cliches
is defined as its relations to other expressions in the language system. Thus, there are words that have a sense, but no referents in the real word.
Example:
Every house has got a main bedroom
The president of the United States
sense
is the relation between the linguistic expression and the entity in the real word to which it refers. Example: He is my brother Tom is in the class The bird is beautiful
reference
Ogden and Richards) – things mean what they stand for (the cat is in a mat)
referential Theory of Meaning
John Locke) – meaning attached to the words can be separated from the word themselves. (grass = warm weather)
Ideational theory of meaning
B.F. Skinner) – The meaning of an expression, as uttered, is either (1) the behavioral stimulus, (2) the behavioral response, or (3) a combination of both. (the meaning of FIRE! Could vary depending on the situation)
Behavioristic theory of meaning
describes the meanings of words and sentence in a particular symbol system
Semantic theory of word meaning
attempts to define the fact that cause natural language utterances to have semantic qualities.
a. Mentalist Theories
b. The Gricean Program
c. Meaning, Belief Convention
Foundational theory of word meaning
Relations between item in the lexicon
lexical relations
a list of the words in a language along with salient information about each lexical item, also called a lexeme.
lexicon
– the association of one word with two or more distinct meanings, a word or phrase with multiple meanings.
polysemy
the first meaning is the primary meaning and the latter meanings are called derived meaning. (the front of the head; primary meaning, the surface of a thing; derived meaning)
diachronic approach
coexistence of several meaning of the same word in a particular period of time (gay: homosexual – central meaning & happy – secondary meaning)
synchronic approach
two or more words having the same spelling but have different meanings
homonymy
words having the same meaning and spelling but different meaning (lie: means untrue lie: means to lie down to rest)
perfect homonyms
words identical only in spelling but different in sound and meaning (bow: bow down bow: device used for shooting arrows)
homographs
words identical only in sound but different in spelling in meaning. (son-sun right-write)
Homophones
have the same spelling but different pronunciation and meaning
homography
words that have opposing meanings
antonymy
words having different sound but has the same meaning
synonymy
denotes a constituent part or a member of something (finger, hand)
meronymy
defines the relationship between a term denoting the whole and a term denoting a part of the whole (tree is a holonym of bark, trunk, and limb), the opposite of meronymy
holonymy
– inclusion between a hyponym and a hypernym or superordinate (red is a color: red is a hyponym and color is a hypernym)
hyponymy
the member or a set of members of a category that best represents the category as a whole (sparrow is a good example of birds, penguins are not)
prototype
new name given for an object or concept to differentiate the original version of it to a more recent version (pen pal-friend irl landline-phone)
retronymy
the study of individual words and their relationships to each other. Binary feature (+,-) are used to signify word meaning.
lexical semantics
smallest units of meaning in a word
semantic features
the meaning that dictionaries are designed to describe
conceptual meaning
connection that specific word brings to use (illness, pain)
associative meaning
used to refer to the lexical representation of argument-taking lexical items
argument structure
any expression that serves to complete the meaning of a verb. Participants in an event or situation.
Ex: (John) kicked (the ball)
John and the ball are the subject and object (semantic participants) of the verb kicked.
argument
expresses something about the participants, usually actions (kick from example above)
Ex: (John) kicked (the ball)
John and the ball are the subject and object (semantic participants) of the verb kicked.
predicate
θ-theory) – each argument receives a semantic role or incorporates a set of participant roles called theta roles.
Theta theory
any small class of words used as substitutes for nouns.
pronoun
– short word used as substitute for a person’s proper name.
personal pronoun
used to point to something specific (THOSE students)
demonstrative pronoun
used to ask questions (I wonder WHO will reach the top?)
Interrogative pronouns
a term that exposes and connects a relying clause (who, whom, what, which, and that) to an independent clause to answer specific questions. (The person who phoned me last night was my love of my life).
relative pronouns
does not specify to whom or what it refers. (Someone ate the last slice of pizza)
Indefinite pronouns
– accompanied by the adverb, adjective, pronoun or a noun to which it refers, as long as that antecedent is within the same clause (You’re going to have to drive yourself today)
Reflexive pronouns
used to emphasize the sentence’s subject or antecedent (I myself will lead the community.
Intensive pronouns
– can be explored from three aspects: deictic, co-text, and collocation
Linguistic context
a word or a phrase (this, that, those, now, yesterday, then, here) that refers to the time, place, or a situation in which the speaker is speaking
deictic
– language that surrounds the item in question and tells us what it means (I wish that dog stops barking, the tree has silver bark)
co-text
two or more words that are commonly used together (make tea, do homework)
collocation
influences what is socially acceptable and how the message is received.
situational contexts
– refers to what is happening, the nature of social action that is taking place
field
refers to who is taking part, to their status and roles
tenor
refers to the role the participants are expecting the language to do for them
mode
determined by the context of the sentence utilized. It is something the speaker suggests with an utterance even though it is not precisely expressed.
Implicatures
– indirect or implicit act that is meant by a speaker’s utterance that is not part of what is explicitly said.
Example:
A: Is that Scotch over there?
B: Help yourself
Conversational implicature
– inferences which are worked out while drawing totally in the specific context of the utterance.
Example:
Leila: Has your boss gone crazy?
Mary: Let’s go get some coffee
Mary noticed that her boss was at the back of Leila, indicating that they must change the topic
particularized conversational implicature
no special background knowledge of the context of utterance is required in order to make the necessary inferences.
Example:
A: Did you invite Bela and Cath?
B: I invited Bella
generalized conversational implicature
given rise by the use of certain scales of value (all, most, few, some, not all, possible)
scalar implicatures
can trigger generalized conversational implicatures concerning the possessor of the indefinite noun phrase.
Example:
“I walked into a house”
Implicature: The house was not my house.
Indefinite implicatures
associated with specific words and result in additional conveyed meanings when those words are used.
Example:
“Even Ken knows it’s unethical”
Entails: Ken knows it’s unethical
Conventionally implicates: Ken was the least likely to know it was unethical
Convesntional implicatures
when one tries to be as informative as one possibly can, not more not less.
maxim of quantity
one tries to be truthful and does not give information that is false or that is not supported by evidence
maxim of quality
requires the speaker and listener to be always relevant on the topic
maxim of relation
requires speaker to avoid obscurities of expression and ambiguity, brief and orderly.
maxim of manner
when speaker openly decides to violate the maxim expecting that the receiver will understand an implied message.
flouting
occurs when speaker fails to observe the maxim, although she/he has no intention of generating an implicature (missing information that suggests meaning. Occurs because of nervousness, drunkenness, excitement, and disability.
Infringing
happens when the person is indicating unwillingness to cooperate in the way the maxim requires.
opting out
– no expectation on the part of any participant that one or several maxims should be observed
suspending
an utterance that serves a function in communication.
speech acts
the actual act of uttering (it is so dark in this room, the box is heavy) (by Austin)
locutionary
performed via the communicative force of an utterance such a promising, apologizing, and offering (Yule, 1996). The act of doing something in saying something
illocutionary
(Hufford and Heasley) – the act that is carried out by a speaker when making an utterance causes in certain effect on the hearer and the others.
perlocutionary
speech acts that change the world via their utterance (Priest: I now pronounce you husband and wife)
declaration
– what speaker believes to be the case or not (the earth is flat)
representatives
what speaker feels (I’m so sorry)
expressive
speech acts that speaker uses to get someone else to do something
directive
speech acts that speaker uses to commit themselves to some future action (I’ll be back)
commissive
a direct relationship between a structure and a function (Will you go to the prom with me? Declarative, statement)
Direct speech act
an indirect relationship between a structure and a function (Do you really have to stand in front of the TV? Interrogative, command)
indirect speech
a set of utterance produced in a social situation involving participants who necessarily have a social relationship and have particular goals.
speech event
a relationship between sentences or statements that can be defined, a belief that a speaker assumes when making an assertion
Presupposition
a lexical item that generates presuppositions
Presupposition trigger
assumption of the existence of the entities named by the speaker (the cat. Presupposition: cat exists)
existential presupposition
something is true due to the presence of some as “know”, “realize”, “be glad”, “be sorry”, “regret”, “aware”, “odd”, and etc. (kim is aware that she cheats. presupposition: she cheats)
factive presupposition
speaker can act as if another meaning will be understood (he managed to escape presupposition: he tried to escape)
lexical presuppositions
associated with the use of certain structures (where did she buy the balloons? Presupposition: she bought the balloons)
structural presupposition
– referred to something that is not true (I pretended to be happy presupposition: I am not happy)
Non-factive presupposition
what is presupposed is not only untrue but is the opposite of what is true, or contrary to facts (if I weren’t sad I would be happy presupposition: I am sad)
counter factual presupposition
