Semantics and Pragmatics

Question 1

semantics

Answer 1

scientific study of the meaning of linguistic expressions, includes words, phrases, sentences

Question 2

aspects of meaning

Answer 2

1. grammatical vs lexical
2. semasiology vs onomasiology
3. sense vs. reference

Question 3

grammatical semantics

Answer 3

grammatical meaning (function words, inflectional affixes, word order)

Question 4

lexical semantics

Answer 4

lexical meaning (content words, derivational affixes)

Question 5

semasiology

Answer 5

“What is the meaning of word X?”

Question 6

onomasiology

Answer 6

“Which linguistic forms express meaning Y?”

Question 7

sense (language internal)

Answer 7

descriptive meaning, independent of particular utterance or situational context

Question 8

reference (language external)

Answer 8

relation between entities/referent in the extra-linguistic world and lexemes which refer to them

Question 9

denotation

Answer 9

objective meaning of an expression

Question 10

connotation

Answer 10

“secondary meanings” - culture-dependent

Question 11

intention (language-internal)

Answer 11

set of semantic properties that define an expression

Question 12

extension (language-external)

Answer 12

class of objects to which a linguistic expression is applied, i.e. potential referents

Question 13

paradigmatic approach

Answer 13

words with similar meaning can be substitued

Question 14

syntagmatic approach

Answer 14

‘the company the word keeps’
meaning of words -> which other words can co-occur

Question 15

collocations

Answer 15

‘the company the word keeps’
e.g. blond hair, to fall ill

Question 16

selection restrictions

Answer 16

in extreme cases, certain lexemes can only be combined with certain other lexemes

Question 17

principle of compositionality

Answer 17

the meaning of a phrase/sentence is determined by the meaning of its component parts and the syntactic relations between these parts

Question 18

semantic feature theory

Answer 18

describing semantic similarities and differences between members of a lexical fiels as a bundle of semantic features
boy = +human, -female, -adult

Question 19

lexical field theory

Answer 19

-group of words which cover different or partly overlapping areas within the same extralinguistic domain
-structuring the information stored in our mental lexicon
-infinite number of lexical fields

Question 20

hyponymy

Answer 20

‘type-of’ relationship
apple - fruit

Question 21

meronymy

Answer 21

part-whole relationship
hand - finger

Question 22

synonymy

Answer 22

same meaning
brave - courageous

Question 23

antonymy

Answer 23

semantic opposites

Question 24

types of antonymy

Answer 24

1. complementary (male - female)
2. gradable/contrary (hot - cold)
3. relational opposites (teacher - pupil)
4. directional opposites (open - shut)

Question 25

polysemy

Answer 25

one lexeme, several historically/semantically related meanings
(river mouth, mouth as a part of a body)

Question 26

homonymy

Answer 26

two or more lexemes have the same form but unrelated meanings
(race as speed, race as human categorization)

Question 27

homophone

Answer 27

same sound, different spelling

Question 28

homograph

Answer 28

same spelling, different sound

Question 29

conceptual metonymy

Answer 29

1. producer for product (“Can I borrow your Shakespeare?”)
2. pars pro toto (“There is a new face in my class.”)
3. place for institution (“Berlin has announced an embargo.”)

Question 30

semantics

Answer 30

“What does X mean?”

Question 31

pragmatics

Answer 31

“What does the speaker mean/want to achieve?”

Question 32

deixis

Answer 32

deictic expression allow speakers to refer to aspects of immediate contexts

Question 33

deictic dimensions

Answer 33

1. place deixis
2. time deixis
3. social deixis
4. discourse deixis

Question 34

speech acts

Answer 34

1. locution - pure content
2. illocution - communicative intention of the speaker
3. perlocution - effect on the listener

Question 35

classification of illocutionary act

Answer 35

1. representatives/assertives - describe the world (true/false)
2. directives - ask the listener to perform an action
3. commissives - commit the speaker to an action
4. expressives - express emotional states
5. declarations - directly change the state of affairs in the real world

Question 36

maxims of conversation

Answer 36

1. quality
2. quantity
3. relation
4. manner