Unit 2 Flashcards
referents
words mean because they refer
referring expressions
names, noun/NPs, deictic expressions
generic referent
type/class of something
definite referent
specific object or item
indefinite referent
not specific, anything satisfying the condition
names
labels for people, places and objects. unique as the audience can identify referent
origins of names
description theory - label for knowledge of referent
causal theory - socially inherited, speaker doesn’t necessarily have knowledge of referent
nouns / NPs
pick out objects, substances and ideas. definite, indefinite or no referent at all
deictic expressions
refer without meaning, referent dependent on context
spatial deixis
refer to places relevant to speech
proximal - ‘this’
distal - ‘that’
personal deixis
refer to people relevant to speech e.g. me/you/her
temporal deixis
reference depending on time of discourse e.g. now, today
discourse deixis
refer to points in the discourse
anaphoric - already said
cataphoric - about to be said
sense
meaning beyond the referent, the mind’s idea. depends on the relation between words and speaker’s knowledge. not subjective and doesn’t differ between speakers.
denotation
objective, doesn’t differ among individuals, primary meaning
connotation
subjective, personal to individuals
concepts
meaning of words are concepts that form in the mind
mentalese
basic constituents of thought
conceptual theory of meaning
logical entry - the mind’s idea (sense)
lexical entry - information about words to verbalise a concept
encyclopedic entry - subjective, personal information
assigning lexical category
morphological, semantic, distributional
morphological criteria
certain word types can take on certain morphemes (inflection is rare in PDE)
semantic criteria
commonalities in meaning
distributional criteria
patterning of words, only certain word types can go in spaces
procedural items
cannot refer, don’t have concepts, encode procedures / instructions
types of procedural items
determiners, conjunctions, proforms, prepositions
determiners
specify reference of nouns
possessives (relationship between interlocutors + noun)
article (definite / indefinite)
demonstratives (proximity to speaker/hearer)
proforms
deictic expressions that replace linguistic elements
conjunctions
sequential, oppositional, cause/effect
prepositions
spatial, temporal
interjections
halfway between procedural and conceptual items, involve involuntary/instinctive expression, lack referent but express
primary interjections
don’t follow english phonology, monosyllabic, not homophonous
secondary interjections
lexical items taken from English but with different meaning
meaning of interjections
emotive / expressive (wow, yay, shit)
conative / violate (speaker’s intention/desire - shh, psst)
nouns
parts of speech that can refer but need not do so
types of nouns
count nouns, mass nouns, collective/distributive nouns
properties of nouns
living or lifeless, time-stability or fleeting, property or characteristic
adjectives
denotes a property or characteristic
types of adjective
relative descriptors (relative to standard, restricts applicability), ambiguous, whole/part entity, negational
relationship between adjectives and nouns
restrictive, endocentric (noun remains a noun), heightening or lowering
verbs
predicate, fundamental part to a sentence
tense
marks the temporal location of an event. deictic as an utterance is anchored deictically in moment of time.
choice of tense has implicature on how the event is understood
aspect
time within the event itself - close up or at a distance
choice has no reflection on the event itself.
aktionsart
states, achievements, accomplishments, activities
parameters of aktionsart
static, telic (bounded), punctual
states
static, unchanging situations
[+static] [-telic] [-punctual]
achievements
punctual, instantaneous events
[-static] [+telic] [+punctual]
accomplishments
durative events bounded by an end point
[-static] [+telic] [-punctual]
activities
ongoing event with no end point
[-static] [-telic] [-punctual]
semelfactives
single instance events, often repeated
[-static] [-telic] [+punctual]
exception of achievements
central point with an onset and coda phase.
inceptive type coding - process leading up to event
resultative type coding - result after event
meaning relations
semantic - meaning features
associative - co-occurrence in discourse
thematic - reference to elements co-occurring in events
monosemy
single phonological form with a single meaning. e.g. technical terms
polysemy
single phonological form with different meanings that share a sense
types of polysemy
regular - meaning extended systematically
irregular - no underlying rule to the shared concept
tests for polysemy
definitional - number of senses based on number of meanings
logistic - can be true/false of the same referent
linguistic - predicates the same information without sounding bizarre
homonymy
single phonological form with different unrelated meanings
synonymy
same meaning on all dimensions, words can be substituted
