Vocabulary: Semantics key terms and phrases Flashcards
Semantics
The study of meaning in language, how it is constructed, interpreted, and negotiated by speakers of a language.
Historical Semantics
The study of the change of meanings of expressions through time, in particular the change of meaning of words.
Tonal effects
How difference in tone changes the meaning of the same phrase.
Stress effects
How the difference of how you stress words in a sentence changes the meaning of the same phrase.
Inflection
A change that signals the the grammatical function of words.
Derivation
The formation of a word from another word or base to change the meaning (ex: happy vs unhappy)
Pragmatics
Studies how the meaning of language changes in different contexts and how those contexts develop meaning. This is similar to Semantics, but is a different field.
Signifier
A sign’s physical form (such as a sound, printed word, or image) as distinct from its meaning.
Signified
The meaning or idea expressed by a sign, as distinct from the physical form in which it is expressed.
Speaker-reference
What the speaker is referring to by using some linguistic expression
Linguistic-reference
The symbolic relationship that a linguistic expression has with the concrete object or abstraction it represents.
Referent
The entity identified by the use of a referring expression like a noun or noun phrase. So when someone refers to a bird, the referent is the specific bird they are discussing.
Extension
Refers to the set of all potential referents for a referring expression. The extension of a noun includes all other referents.
Prototype
A typical member of the extension of a referring expression is a prototype of that expression. So if you refer to a bird, bluebirds and robins are prototypes of bird.
Stereotype
A general list of characteristics describing a prototype.
Coreference
Two linguistic expressions that refer to the same entity. Coreferential expressions are not necessarily synonymous, they just can refer to the same entity.
Anaphora
A linguistic expression that refers to another entity through a linguistic expression that is not coreferent. For example, “Sarah would marry whoever would have her”
Deixis
A deictic expression has a set meaning in context but can refer to different entities depending on the speaker and their immediate context.
Semantic meaning
The literal answer of a direct question outside of its immediate context.
Morphological Structure
The internal structure of words
Syntactic Structure
The structure of words and phrases in a sentence
Principle of Compositionality
The semantic meaning of any unit of language is determined by the semantic meanings of its parts along with the way they are put together.
Compositional/Formal Semantics
Studies the variety of grammatical patterns that occur in individual languages and across other world languages.
Lexical Semantics
Studies the meanings of words and relations among words’ meanings.
Denotative meaning
The logical meaning, which indicates the essential qualities of a concept outside of context.
Connotative meaning
The additional or associated meaning which is attached to the denotative, conceptual meaning of a concept.
Social meaning
The meaning that a word/phrase possesses by virtue of its use in particular social situations
Thematic meaning
Belonging to, relating to, or denoting the theme of a sentence.
The Conceptual Theory of Meaning
The theory that the meaning of signifier and signified are related through the mediation of concepts in the mind rather than their inherent qualities.
The Behavioristic Theory of Meaning
The theory that meaning cannot be derived from language without some reference to the context in which the language is operated.
