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Study of Language 1 > Semantics > Flashcards

Semantics Flashcards

1
Q

What does the Linguistics Core consist of?

A

Sounds, Structures, Sense

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2
Q

A subfield of Linguistics is signs..what is another word for it?

A

phonology (phonomes)

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3
Q

A subfield of Linguistics is structures (within a word)… what is another word for it?

A

morphology (morpheme)

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4
Q

A subfield of Linguistics is structures (larger than words)… what is another word for it?

A

syntax (lexemes, phrases & clauses)

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5
Q

A subfield of Linguistics is sense & meaning… what is another word for it?

A

semantics

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6
Q

What are lexical semantics?

A

meaning of words

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7
Q

What are sentential semantics?

A

meaning of syntactic units larger than words (phrases & sentences)

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8
Q

What are discourse semantics?

A

meaning created in context (very close to pragmatics)

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9
Q

What is the difference between referential meaning and the associative/emotional meaning?

A

The referential meaning is the one which is widely accepted and mostly found in the dictionary. The associative/emotional meaning is the additional, subjective, or emotional associations a word carries.

also: denotation and connotation

Referential meaning “dog”: a domesticated carnivorous mammal
Associative meaning: man’s best friend, loyal

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10
Q

A sound image/form symbolises a ….? /

A

concept

Meaning is the relation between a linguistic expression and a mental category that is used to classify objects, i.e. a concept.

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11
Q

A concept refers to a ….? |

A

referent

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12
Q

A sound sequence/form stands for a …? _

A

referent

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13
Q

What is sense in terms of semiotic triangle?

A

How we present/describe these referents (definition) e.g. old-young

intra-linguistic side of meaning, close to mental concept

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14
Q

What is a reference?

A

the act of using an expression to allow the listener to identify an entity in the real world “pointing with language”

POTUS (=sense); Obama, Trump (=referent)

concept & form e.g. pronouns

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15
Q

what is a referent?

A

the entitity in the world picked out by specific words

object in reality

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16
Q

What is a denotation?

A

primary meaning, dictionary meaning; essential features

cow: a fully grown female animal of a domesticated breed of ox

conceptual meaning

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17
Q

What is a connotation?

A

all associations/ideas/emotions that come in mind; associated features

cow: cute, ice cream, Milka chocolate

associative meaning, experience

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18
Q

The linguistic sign consists of two parts … which ones?

A

signifier (sound sequence) & signified (concept)

these signs are symbols

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19
Q

What are Semiotics?

A

the study of signs

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20
Q

What is the diachronic study of language?

A

studies language over time, the changes over the course of the history of language

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21
Q

What is the synchronic study of language?

A

studies language at a certain point of time; abstraction, because language is always in transition

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22
Q

what does syntagmatic mean?

A

how to connect signs to form a sentence

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23
Q

What is the syntagmatic axis?

A

axis of combination e.g. “The man cried.”

also: syntagmatic relation

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24
Q

What does paradigmatic mean?

A

what signs can replace a sign within a sentence

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25
Q

What is the paradigmatic axis?

A

Axis of selection/substitution e.g. “The man cried.” -> instead of man: boy, baby or instead of cried, died, sang

also: paradigmatic relation

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26
Q

What does Langue mean?

de Saussure

A

language system shared by a speech community

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27
Q

What does Parole mean?

de Saussure

A

act of speaking by actual speakers

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28
Q

What are Homophones?

A

two or more different (written) forms have the same pronunciation

e.g meat/meet, to/two/too, flour/flower

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29
Q

What are Homonyms?

A

same form (written or spoken) has two or more unrelated meanings

e.g. bat (animal) and bat (used in sports), sole (foot) and sole (single)

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30
Q

What does Polysemy mean?

A

one form having multiple meanings

e.g. “head” can describe the head of a person, head of a school, top of a glass bottle

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31
Q

What is Synonymy?

A

Different contextual limitations indicate different semantic properties, there is no identical synonymy only near-synonyms

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32
Q

There are three famous approaches to categorization (cognitive), what are they?

A
  1. Semantic Feature Analysis (Aristotle)
  2. Family resemblance (Wittgenstein)
  3. Prototype Theory (Rosch)
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33
Q

What is the Semantic Feature Analysis about?

A

identifying components/elements that make up meaning (=atoms of meaning)

man: human, male, adult / boy: human, male, not adult

impossible for abstract words -> core attributes aren’t always given

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34
Q

What is the Family resemblance approach about?

A

it realized the problem with semantic features, he found partial similarities

his example was “Game” (tennis, cards, roulette)
-> done for entertainment, somebody wins, requires training or practice, involves more than one person
Problem: not all games share all those features

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35
Q

What is the Prototype Theory about?

A

Members of a category graded according to their typicality, central members share many features with the prototype

allows for peripheral members and fuzzy boundaries

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36
Q

What is Antonymy?

A

a pair of words that have opposite meanings

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37
Q

Antonymy has four categories…what are they + examples?

A
  • Gradable
  • Non-gradable
  • Reversives: (reversed action)
  • Converses: (mutual implication)

Gradable: big, bigger; Non-gradable: alive-dead; Reversives: reversed action (open-closed); Converses: buying and selling

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38
Q

Synonymy has four categories…what are they + examples?

A
  • Near synonymy
  • Regional
  • Stylistic
  • Emotional

near synonymy: start-begin; regional: truck-lorry; stylistic: car-automobile; emotional: mum-mommy

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39
Q

What is Euphemism?

A

substitution of an agreeable or less offensive expression e.g. die-pass away

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40
Q

What is Hyponymy?

A

meaning relations; words in a hierarchical relationship

superordinate = higher level, subordinate = lower level

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41
Q

What is a Hypernym?

A

word that represents a general or broader category under which more specific words fall

also called a superordinate

e.g. flower, animal, seasons

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42
Q

What is a Hyponym?

A

word that represents a more specific concept within a broader category (or class)

also: subordinate, multiple in one category are co-hyponyms

e.g. rose/tulip; lion/penguin; summer/winter

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43
Q

What is an adequate definition for meaning?

A

relation between a linguistics expression and a mental category that is used to classify objects i.e. a concept

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44
Q

What are Lexemes?

A

“Entries” into our mental lexicon, so that we can speak and comprehend words

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45
Q

What do Lexemes consist of?

A
  • Form (Pronunciation, Spelling, Word Class, Inflectional Class)
  • Meaning (Semantics)
46
Q

What does the term “lexical fields” mean?

A

words that are related in terms of meaning organize words into structures

47
Q

What is a deictic expression?

A

a word or phrase (such as this, that, these, those, now, then, here) that points to the time, place, or situation in which a speaker is speaking

“I show, I point” point to objects that are located in the situational context in which a sentence is uttered

48
Q

What do sense relations refer to?

A

the way words are related based on their meanings, like synonyms (words with similar meanings) or antonyms (words with opposite meanings)

49
Q

What are sense relations based on?

A

Cultural context

50
Q

What are non-gradable antonyms also called and what do they mean?

A

Complementaries, pairs where there is no in-between

51
Q

What are paradigmatic sense relations?

A
  • Synonymy
  • Antonymy
  • Hyponymy
  • Polysemy
  • Homonymy
52
Q

When we think of meaning, we have 2 types of relations… which ones are they?

A
  • Meaning as the relation between the word and the world -> what does a word denote in the real world? & material objects & abstract concepts
  • Meaning as the relation between a word and other words -> semantic network
53
Q

What is Metonymy?

A

Conventionalized establishment of a connection between two entities/concepts (the form of one concept is used for the other concept)

54
Q

There are three categories of Metonymy… what are they?

A
  • Connection between function & symbol
  • Connection between container & content
  • Connection between a part & the whole

related by association

Example each:
The White House recently announced …
We drank the most amazing bottle of Chianti
We’re in dire need of factory hands

55
Q

The quote “Metaphorical extension is part of everyday cognition, used to make sense of the world”, what does it do?

A

A(n) (abstract) concept is framed in terms of something more feasible and graspable -> conceptual metaphors

metaphors are related by similarity

56
Q

There are three types of ambiguity.. what are they + explain the difference between them?

A
  • Lexical
  • Referential
  • Structural

Lexical: words can mean multiple things
Referential: unclear who we refer to
Structural: structure makes it ambiguous

57
Q

What are idioms?

A

expression whose meaning cannot be derived from the meaning of its component parts

push up the daisies -> Bro dies

58
Q

What is a Collocation?

A

a word or phrase that is often used with another word or phrase but we can’t use them like Colligations because they are mostly bound together

co-occurrence of lexical items in text

59
Q

What do syntagmatic sense relations consist of?

A
  • Colligations
  • Collocations
60
Q

What are Colligations?

A

refer to the likelihood of co-occur- rence of (two or more) lexical items and grammatical categories with more freedom in terms of sentence structure

61
Q

What are semantic roles?

A

we look at the roles they fulfill within a situation described by a sentence

also: Semantic roles are categories ascribed to individual participants (=arguments) within given utterances

62
Q

What’s the semantic role called, where the entity performs the action + example?

A

Agent

The boy kicked the ball -> Who does what?

63
Q

The entity that is involved in or affected by the action/movement or simply being described, what is the semantic role + example?

A

Theme/patient

The ball is red; the boy kicked the ball

64
Q

Entity used to carry out an action… what is the semantic role called + example?

A

Instrument

The boy cut the rope with an old razor

65
Q

Entity experiencing/undergoing the effect of an event/situation… what is the semantic role called?

A

Experiencer

feel, know, hear, enjoy is not an action, therefore no agent

66
Q

What’s the semantic role called, where the entity/action is located?

A

Location

67
Q

What is the semantic role called, where the entity moves from?

A

Source

68
Q

What is the semantic role called, where the entity goes to?

A

Goal

69
Q

What is inferencing?

A

use of world knowledge to discover the communicative purpose of a linguistic expression

70
Q

What is the difference between compositional and non-compositional meaning?

A

Compositional meaning = meaning derived from the sum of the parts.
Non-compositional meaning = meaning not directly tied to the literal meaning of the parts (often idiomatic or figurative).

The apple is red -> compositional; to kick the bucket -> non-composition

71
Q

What are syntactic elements?

A

the parts of a sentence that work together according to grammar rules to create structure and convey meaning. Each element has a specific function and contributes to the sentence’s overall syntactic structure.

e.g. subject, predicate

72
Q

There are two categories of meaning… what are they?

A
  • Sentence meaning
  • Pragmatic meaning
73
Q

What is a semantic scope?

A

Deals with how the meaning of words or phrases applies within a sentence based on syntax

In the sentence “Everyone didn’t go,” the scope can affect meaning:
Wide scope of “didn’t”: “Not everyone went” (some people stayed).
Narrow scope of “didn’t”: “No one went.”

74
Q

What is a compound in Linguistics?

A

Fixed combinations of words that form a new meaning, often not altered by syntactic elements.

Butterfly -> is not an insect made of butter -> non-compositional; bedroom -> compositional

75
Q

What does asterisk mean?

A

ill-formed sentence, semantic anomaly

“The table is reading the newspaper.”

76
Q

What are selectional restrictions?

A

sytax interacting with lexicon

Colourless green ideas sleep furiously

violates the selectional restrictions: meaning clashes & semantically ill-formed

77
Q

What are semantic roles?

A

role that a participant plays in an event

also: thematic role, Theta role

78
Q

What is the “event” regarding semantic roles?

A

Predication (=clause)

79
Q

What is the “participant” regarding semantic roles?

A

argument (e.g. Noun Phrase)

80
Q

What is a predicate?

A

verb in a sentence

81
Q

what is an argument in a sentence?

A

everything but the predicate

82
Q

What does the predication consist of?

A

Predicate + argument(s)

83
Q

What are arguments?

A

Agent & Theme

84
Q

What does the predicate determine in a sentence?

A
  1. number of arguments
  2. semantic roles of the arguments
85
Q

What are two “three place predicates” and what does that mean?

A

give, put -> they need three more arguments in that sentence

86
Q

What are two “two place predicates” + what does that mean?

A

steal, carry -> they need two more arguments in that sentence

87
Q

What are two “one place predicates” + what does that mean?

A

laugh, sleep -> they need one argument in that sentence

88
Q

What are “zero place predicates” + what does that mean?

A

rain, snow, hail -> you wouldn’t need an “it” in theory but no one does that

89
Q

What are the two problems with semantic roles?

A
  • to remember all of them
  • certain constructions could have more than one role

e.g. The chimney smoked. -> chimney: agent/theme/source?

90
Q

What are the two solutions to the semantic role problem?

A
  • Modes of Action (=Aktionsarten)
  • Prototypes
91
Q

What are the different Modes of Action (=Aktionsarten) ?

A
  • Action
  • Process
  • Position
  • State

These modes emerge as a combo out of these four semantic features of verbs: +/- control, +/- dynamic, +/- telic, +/- experience

92
Q

What is the idea behind the Prototype solution regarding semantic roles?

A

It examines the agents and themes of sentences to identify the most typical agent, analyzing them on a gradient of more or less typicality.

93
Q

The Prototype solution categorizes semantic roles as abstract functions, what are they called?

A

Proto-roles

94
Q

What are the characteristics of a Proto-agent?

A
  • Volitional (control)
  • Causing a state of change in another participant
  • Experience (perception)
  • More

“John resembles his father” -> John: non-prototypical Agent, his father: non-prototypical theme

95
Q

What are the characteristics of a Proto-patient?

A
  • undergoes change of state
  • causally affected by another participant
  • Direction/endpoint

“John built this house” -> John: prototypical Agent, this house: prototypical theme

96
Q

We could potentially create an infinite number of sentences, what does this mean?

A

An infinite number of meanings, which we just couldn’t list

97
Q

A lexicon is large but finite, meaning?

A

We could list (core) meanings

98
Q

What is proposition in Linguistics?

A

That what’s stated/asserted in a sentence

Representing sentence meaning

99
Q

What is the truth value in Linguistics?

A

Is the propositional content true or false?

Representing sentence meaning

100
Q

We can categorize the meaning relations between sentences… what are they?

A
  • Paraphrase ( ~synonymy)
  • Contradiction (~antonymy)
  • Entailment (~hyponymy)
  • Presupposition
101
Q

What does Paraphrase mean in the context of semantic relations between sentences?

A

Sentences A and B express the same proposition → they share the same truth value

e.g. The police chased the burglar. The burglar was chased by the police.

102
Q

What does Contradiction mean in the context of semantic relations between sentences?

A

Sentences A and B express the opposite proposition → they share the opposite truth value

e.g. Charles is a bachelor. Charles is married.

103
Q

What does Entailment mean in the context of semantic relations between sentences?

A

If sentence A is true, sentence B must also be true

e.g. Mr. Sellers killed his wife. Mrs. Sellers is dead. But negation doesn’t work e.g. He didn’t kill his wife, but his wife might still be dead yk

104
Q

What does Presupposition mean in the context of semantic relations between sentences?

A

If sentence A is true, sentence B is implied to be true

e.g. She cried before she finished her thesis.
-> She finished her thesis.

105
Q

Entailment can only occur in …?

A

declarative sentences (statements)

106
Q

Presuppositions can be …?

A

cancelled

She died before she finished her thesis.

107
Q

Presuppositions remain intact even when the sentence is …?

A

negated

I do not regret leaving London (presupposition remains because he still left London)

108
Q

Entailments can be canceled by …?

A

negation but not always!

Entailments are tied to the truth of the sentence

Mr. Sellers did not kill his wife (entailment disappears because she could still be alive)

109
Q

What is a Corpus?

A

a large, balanced collection of natural texts (written and/or spoken)

Typically based on a specific type of text, from a particular period, aimed at being representative of the type under examination. Can also be multilingual.

110
Q

Name three well-known corpora.

A
  • BNC
  • COCA
  • VOICE
111
Q

How do Corpora give insights into semantics?

A
  • Frequency of a word
  • Systematic collocations with other words
  • Charting language change
  • Systematic association with particular registers/genres/dialects/age groups
112
Q

What are the five linguistic dichotomies and whom are they by?

A
  • synchronic - diachronic
  • syntagmatic - paradigmatic
  • langue - parole
  • signifier - signified
  • performance - competence (Chomsky)

rest is by de Saussure

langue refers to the structure of language as a social institution. Parole is the performance or expression of language by speakers. e.g. A person speaking or writing a sentence is an instance of parole, while the grammar that underlies the sentence is langue.

Study of Language 1 (6 decks)

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