Semantics Flashcards
What are ‘Semantics’?
Refers to the meanings of words
What is meant by ‘Denotative meaning’?
The dictionary definition of a word
What are the aspects of ‘Associative Meaning’?
Associative Meanings Include:
- Connotative Meaning
- Reflected Meaning
- Social Meaning
- Collocative Meaning
- Affective Meaning
What is ‘Connotative Meaning’?
Emotional meanings associated with a word
What is ‘Reflected Meaning’?
Invokes additional meanings from other occurrences of the same or similar words in certain contexts, e.g. chronic means recurring, but has reflected meaning of bad
What is ‘Social Meaning’?
Associated beliefs about social groups and markers, e.g. craic has social meaning of northernness and Irishness
What is ‘Collocative Meaning’?
Meaning derived from words that frequently appear together, e.g handsome has collocations of men, since handsome women are uncommon
What is ‘Affective Meaning’?
Personal or emotional expression of the speaker/writer
What are ‘Synonyms’?
Words that share similar or identical meaning
What are ‘Antonyms’?
Words that have the opposite meanings
What is meant by a ‘Semantic Field’?
Words and phrases that connect to a specific topic, theme, or genre are used across a text to create a cohesive, connotative bubble
What are the aspects of ‘Figurative Language’?
Aspects of Figurative Language Include:
- Metaphor
- Metonymy
- Synecdoche
- Simile
- Personification
- Hyperbole
- Idiom
What are ‘Metaphors’?
Allows us to explore a concept in terms of another. They’re split into 2 parts: the target domain and the source domain. The former is the concept we’re describing and the latter is the concept we are drawing a similarity from
What is ‘Metonymy’?
A concept is referred to by an element associated with the concept, e.g. using suits to refer to businessmen
What is ‘Synecdoches’?
A part is used to describe the whole or the whole is used to describe a part, e.g. Downing Street to refer to the government