semantics Flashcards
pragmatics
the study of how context contributes to meaning
metaphor
a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another
Metonymy
a figure of speech in which an attribute or commonly associated feature is used to name or designate something
Synecdoche
a figure of speech by which a more inclusive term is used for a less inclusive one, or vice versa
connotation
the use of a word to suggest a different association than its literal meaning
denotation
the objective meaning of a word
syntagmatic
pertaining to a relationship among linguistic elements that occur sequentially in the chain of speech or writing
synonymy
a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language.
hyponymy
semantic relations between a term belonging in a set that is defined by another term and the latter
antonymy
a word that means the opposite of another word
incompatibility
the most general type of semantic relation between lexical items, the meaning of which entails exclusion
homonym
words which are either homographs – words that have the same spelling (regardless of pronunciation) – or homophones – words that have the same pronunciation (regardless of spelling) –, or both.
polysemy
the ambiguity of an individual word or phrase that can be used (in different contexts) to express two or more different meanings
Lexical Semantics
as a subfield of linguistic semantics, is the study of word meanings
Compositional Semantics
The meaning of a phrase is determined by combining the meanings of its subphrases, using rules which are driven by the syntactic structure.
Sense
one of the meanings of a word
Reference
the relationship between language and the world. In other words, that is the relationship between words and the things, actions, events, and qualities they stand for
possible worlds semantics
a complete and consistent way the world is or could have been
speaker reference
the reference that a noun phrase has in virtue of what the speaker chooses it to be
Linguistic-reference
the systematic denotation of some linguistic expression as part of a language
Prototype
A typical member of the extension of a referring expression is a prototype of that expression.
Stereotype
A list of characteristics describing a prototype is said to be a stereotype
Coreference
Two linguistic expressions that refer to the same real-world entity
Anaphora
A linguistic expression that refers to another linguistic expression i
Deixis
the use of general words and phrases to refer to a specific time, place, or person in context,
The Principle of Compositionality
The semantic meaning of any unit of language is determined by the semantic
meanings of its parts along with the way they are put together.
Denotative meaning
The logical meaning, which indicates the essential qualities of a concept which distinguish it
from other concepts
connotative meaning.
he additional or associated meaning, which is attached to the denotative, conceptual
meaning
social meaning
the meaning that a word possesses by virtue of its use in particular social situations and
circumstances
thematic meaning
It lies in the manner in which a message is organized for emphasis.
