Semantics Flashcards
Semantics
the study of the linguistic meaning of morphemes, words, phrases and sentences
Lexical semantics
meaning of words, meaning relationships between words
Phrasal semantics
meaning of syntactic units larger than the word
Pragmatics
how context affects meaning
Reference
the relationship between words and things in the world
Semantic features
aspects of meaning by binary features (child = young + human)
Taxonomic relationships
subject-based classification; allowas related terms to be grouped together
Divides into subordinate categories
Attributive relationships
properties associated with the category
Part-whole relationships
one concept is included within another regardless of context
Functional relationships
functions associated with the category
Gradable antonym
on a continuum (large, small)
Relational antonym
if not one, you are the other (student, teacher)
Complementary
discrete category (alive, dead)
Hyponymy
meaning of a word included in the meaning of a more general word; colour - red, blue
Polysemy
two or more related meanings to a morpheme; mole, letter
Homonymy
words that are the same with different meanings; bat, bank, saw
Homophomes
same sound, different spelling, different meaning
Homographs
same spelling, different sound, different meaning
Metaphor
a semantic anomaly - doesn’t make sense literally, carries meaning
Idiom
a metaphor that has become convention
Agent
subject of the sentence
Patient
the object of the sentence (recipient of the action)
Location
where the action is occuring
Goal
where the action is being directed; endpoint of change in location/possession
Source
where action originated
Instrument
object used to accomplish the action
Semantic feature theory
cluster/list of defining terms; some concepts don’t have defining features
Prototype theory
classification depends on degree of overalp with prototype; typicallity approach
Hierachial semantic model
concepts are represented as nodes; connections depict semantic relationships
Cognitive economy - hierachial semantic model
explanation of knowledge of relationship without storage of specific info
Problems with hierachial networks
typicality effect - not all nodes of same semantic distance are equal
Frequency of associate affects classification time
Spreading Activation Network Theory
Activation based retrieval mechanism; reduces over distance and time
Activation in semantic network spreads to logogens and speech lexical access
Levels of processing interact; top-down effect on lexical access
Spreading Activation Network Theory - evaluation
explains typicality effects
explains semantic context effects
doesn’t account for phonological, syntactic or morphological aspects of words
