Semantics Flashcards
Define Semantics…
The study of the meaning of linguistic expressions including morphemes, words, phrases, clauses and sentences.
Denotative
The essential meaning of the word in its literal use.
Dictionary meaning.
What you see in your head when you think of the word.
Connotative
The individual or societal interpretations of the meanings and their personal, emotional, psychological, societal or cultural significance.
Lexical Semantics
The meaning of words
Fly: an insect, the verb
Structural semantics
The meaning of utterances larger than just words
a Canadian history teacher
Componential Analysis/Semantic Features Analysis
The establishment of systems of meaning using a small set of components.
Grouping words into natural classes using semes.
Define Lexical Relations and list the 18 types
Words in relationship with other words.
Synonymy
Antonymy: Gradable, Binary pairs, Reversives
Polysemy
Homonyms: Homophones, Homographs
Hyponymy, Hypernyms, Co-hyponyms
Prototypes
Meronyms, Holonyms
Metonymy
Collocations
Retronymy
Synonymy
Synonyms
A common meaning between two or more words.
Sameness of words does not equal total sameness
Take context and formal/informal into account
E.x. Senior citizen vs an old coot.
Antonymy
Words or phrases that are opposites with respect to some component of their meaning.
The opposite words and phrases share all but one semantic property
E.x. Alive [+ ALIVE) vs Dead (- ALIVE)
Gradable Antonyms
There is room to interpret amongst these antonyms.
E.x. Big/small, old/young, hot/cold, easy/hard are all relative antonyms.
The antonyms lie on a continuous spectrum. You can “grade” how old or how young someone is.
These antonyms can be qualified by adverbs (quite, extremely, very).
What are Binary pairs of Antonyms?
These antonyms are polar opposites (non-Gradable).
E.x. Alive/dead, true/false, married/unmarried
A word that is [+ ALIVE] is [- DEAD].
There is no contrast, no room to interpret, no middle ground (unlike Gradable pairs)
If one is true, the other is not.
What are Reversives/Relational opposite antonyms?
Antonyms in which the opposite of a word is the reverse of itself.
E.x. Husband/wife, employer/employee, enter/exit, tie/untie
There is interdependence amongst the antonyms: one member presupposes the other.
Polysemy
When two or more words have the same form (bright, bright) and have two or more related meanings (bright = a shining bright light, bright = intellectual).
Words are pronounced and written the same way.
E.x. Head of a body or of a firm.
E.x. Bear: I cannot bear you, to bear a child, scary bear, to bear luggage
Homonyms
One single form of a word (bank) has two or more entirely distinct meanings (money bank, fish bank).
Words are pronounced and written the same way.
E.x. Bat (baseball vs animal), club (object vs party place), stalk (to follow someone, the stem of a plant), pen (the writing utensil, animal structure)
Homophones
Words with the same pronunciation but different written forms and meanings
E.x. Bear/bare, meet/meat, flower/flour, prey/pray
Type of homonym
Homographs
Words with the same written form but different pronunciations and meanings
E.x. Minute, lead, dove, bass, bow, wind
Hyponymy and Hypernymy, and Co-hyponyms
“X” (hyponym) is a kind of “Y” (hypernym)
E.x. Caterpillar (hyponym) vs insect (hypernym)
E.x. Blue/colour, broccoli/vegetable, car/vehicle
For nouns, A is a hypernym of B if B is an A and if A is a classifier of B
For verbs, A is a hypernym of B if B is a way of doing A
…
Co-hyponyms have the same hypernym
Schnauzer + Labrador + German Shepherd = dogs
Prototypes
The default setting/the mental image associated with a word which tends to be a typical or ideal example of the kind of thing the word represents
E.x. A robin or sparrow is a prototype of a bird in N.A. (A penguin is not)
Meronyms and Holonyms
A meronym is a word (finger) that signifies a part of Y or a member of Y (hand).
Meronyms are a part of something else (holonyms)
A finger is a meronym of a hand (holonym)
Bark (meronym) on a tree (holonym)
Metonymy
Words used to represent something, used in place of another word to convey identical meanings.
Understood associations
E.x. Ottawa announces a new law (OTT in place of members of parliament)
E.x. The Press (print media), I drank the whole bottle/can (instead of the liquid), The bench (judicial processes), Keep your nose out of my business (instead of keep your curiosity out)
Collocations
Words that tend to occur with other words
E.x. Salt and pepper, mac and cheese, set a date
Retronymy
A term created to distinguish a new invention from the original form
E.g. guitars used to all be acoustic, but now we have acoustic guitars to distinguish from electric and bass guitars.
