Semantics Flashcards
Semantics
The study of linguistic meaning, encompassing the meaning of words, phrases, and sentences
Lexical Semantics
Deals with the meaning of individual words and other lexical expressions
Compositional Semantics
Deals with the meaning of phrases and how those meanings are assembled from their component parts
Lexical Ambiguity
Occurs when a word has more than one possible meaning. EX: fly (insect or action of flying)
Structural Ambiguity
Occurs when a sentence or phrase has 2 or more meanings bc of the different ways words can be combined. e.g “ Flying kites can be dangerous.”
Referential meaning
The literal use of a word, usually the dictionary meaning
Associative (emotive) meaning
Deals with the feelings or reactions associated with words that may be found among some individuals or groups.
e.g. skydiving = might associate with fear, excitement, experience with certain people, etc.
Semantic features
Similar to phonology, using +/- to describe basic elements of words such as +/- animate /-human /-female /-adult.
e.g. +animate for dog and -human for rock
Semantic (Thematic) Roles
The function or role a word plays in a sentence
Agent
the entity that PERFORMS the action
e.g. “John kicked the ball”
Agent - John
Theme (Patient)
The entity involved in or affected BY the action
instrument
the entity used to perform an action
Experiencer
The entity having a feeling, perception or state
e.g. “Mary see the car”
Experiencer “Mary”
Location
Where an entity is LOCATED
Source
Where an entity moves from
Goal
where an entity moves to
*usually “to” refers to the goal
Hypernym
A broader category
Hyponym
A more specific example of that category
Co-hyponym
words under the same hypernym
Prototype
A typical example that represents the larger category. It’s the first thing that comes to mind.
Synonym
Words with overlapping meaning but are NOT identical
Register
Changes in the words we use or way we speak depending on who we are talking to
Antonym
2 words that are alike in most ways but contrast in one aspect of their meaning
Complementary Antonym
you are either one or the other, never both at the same time
Gradable Antonym
you CAN be both at the same time. These are words at the opposite ends of a continuous dimension (hot/cold; near/far; old/young)
Reversive Antonym
When one word means the negation of the other. If you do the opposite, it creates the other one
Homonym
General term for anything that has different meanings but are pronounced the same
Homophones
A type of homonym that is a pair that is written differently, pronounced the same, and have non-connected meanings
e.g. to/two/too
Polysemy
Terms that are pronounced the same, written the same, but meanings of the word is connected
ex. foot (foot of the bed, body part, mountain.) here it means the bottom of something
Metonym
A figure of speech where something is referred to by the name of something closely associated with it.
