Semantics Flashcards
What is Semantics?
The study of (literal) meaning
What’s a syntagmatic relation?
Words that combine with each other to form meaningful sentences
What’s a paradigmatic relation?
Words that can be substituted for each other in the same position in a sentence
Explain the term “denotative meaning”
Literal/core meaning of a word
Universal/neutral for everyone
Explain the term “connotative meaning”
Reflects attitudes, emotions, values - associations attached to a word
Context-dependent, varies by culture/emotion/perspective
What’s a metonomy?
Subsituting a word with something closely related
e.g. Queen > The Crown
What’s a polysemy?
One word with multiple related meanings
e.g. head
What’s a homograph?
Same spelling, different pronunciation
e.g. (to) lead, lead
What’s a homophone?
Same sound, different spelling
e.g. sea, see
What’s a homonym?
Same word, different unrelated meaning
e.g. bat (animal), bat (baseball)
What’s an antonym?
Word with opposite meaning
e.g. hot >< cold
What’s a synonym?
Word with the same meaning
e.g. big - large
What’s a hypernym?
A more general word
e.g. bird > animal
What’s a hyponym?
A more specific word
e.g. bird > parrot
What’s a collocation?
Words that naturally go together
e.g. heavy rain
What’s an idiom?
Fixed expression with figurative meaning
e.g. “Breaking the ice”
