Week 3 Flashcards
Why do SP need to understand ‘meaning’ of words?
- To generate and convey meaning is the central task of communication
- The ability to understand how meaning works is essential for SP
- Support clients who experience difficulties with conveying or understanding meaning
- For people with dysphagia/stroke
What is the correlation with dictionaries and meaning?
- Dictionaries document the meaning of languages and reflect the ways meaning in language evolves
- Dictionaries reflect a history; but words can have multiple meanings and be used in different ways to mean different things
The first English dictionary was created in 1604
- Oxford dictionary aimed to include all words: Spellings, meanings, uses Teaches us points to think about semantic: Words are always changing
What is Semantics?
Semantics: The study of meaning
Meaning and the meaning of words is a central concept of communication
What is the timeline of words?
- Babble: a developmental stage in which infants begin to use meaningless sequences of sounds such as ‘doo’
First (real words): When the child uses a sound sequence consistently to refer to a particular entity (an object, person, concept etc.)
What is meaning as a reference?
What is meaning as a sense?
- Meaning as a reference: Meaning is generated from a consistent reference to particular objects/entities (a referent is the entirety which the sound sequence consistently refers to)
Meaning as sense: An alternative interpretation of what meaning is. Meaning, in this sense, relates to a more than abstract reference, but rather to the properties associated with the object/entity e.g. the meaning as a sense definition of an orange would be round, sweet.
What is a referent?
A sound or symbol sequence that is consistently associated with a particular object or entity
What is a word?
A single distinct meaningful unit speech or writing used to name an entity
What is a lexeme?
A single item in the lexicon (or dictionary). A lexeme comprises of all the inflected forms of a word e.g. hablo habla, hablas
What is a lexical word?
Words which refer to a particular entity and convey the meaning of the entity (hot, book, snow)
What is a function word?
Words the serve a linguistic function rather than convey meaning e.g. the, of ,a
What are denotations?
- A words explicit or literal meaning
- Similar to our understand of meaning as reference
- However the what a word denotes may vary between language users
People interpret the meaning of words differently which suggests that there is more to how words convey meaning than its literal meaning
What is a connotation?
- An alternative way meaning is produced
- A connotation is commonly understood association that a word or phrase carries (e.g. naked vs nude)
- Associations of words are referred to as semantic fields
Associations of words differ between speakers based on the background experiences
Can words carry both connotations and denotations?
Yes
What are Hypernyms and Hyponyms?
- Hypernym: Refers to a word that names a broad category that includes other words (e.g. tree)
- Hyponym: Refers to a sub-category of a more general word (e.g. oak)
- Words exist in semantic sets, and share relationships with other words
- E.g. we drove from downtown Adelaide to the Adelaide Hills in a van
16 hyponyms for the hypernym cooking: cheffing, making, creating
What are synonyms and antonyms?
- Synonyms: Refer to words with the same meaning (e.g. seem/appear, hard/difficult)
- Antonyms: Refers to words that are opposite in meaning (e.g. buy/sell, under/over)
- Gradable antonyms: degrees of oppositions (e.g. fast/average/slow)
Converse/complementary antonyms: When only 2 alternatives (e.g. buy/sell)
What is lexical ambiguity: Homonyms, Homographs, Homophones
- English adopts words from other languages, which can lead to one word having different meanings e.g. bare vs bear, lead vs lead
- Homonyms: Refers to homophones and homographs
- Homophones: Refers to words that sound the same yet have different meanings (bare and bear)
- Homographs: Words that are spelt the same yet have different meanings (lead and lead)
Ambiguity of language is the basis of puns and jokes
Words and culture
- Languages evolve to suit the ideas and needs of their speakers
- Languages encodes the world view of its speakers which is not always the same world view of all its speakers
- The worldview of speakers undergo change, which In turn means that languages change
- e.g. aqilokoq= softly falling snow
Piefnartoq = the snow that’s good for driving sled
What is language determinism?
- How much does language determine the way we think?
The background linguistic system (in other words, the grammar) of each language is not merely a reproducing instrument for voicing ideas, but rather itself the shaper of ideas, the program and guide for the individuals mental activity for his analysis of impressions for his synthesis of his mental stock in trade. The world is presented in a kaleidoscopic flux of impressions which has to be organized by our minds and this means largely by the linguistic systems in our minds. We cut nature up organize it into concepts and ascribe significances as we do, largely because we are parties to an agreement to organize it in this way
What is a Semantic Network?
A knowledge base that shows semantic relations between concepts in a network
What is a Semantic relation?
Groups of associated words based on what they mean e.g. Animal Hyponym = dog, cat, horse
What is meaning as a sense?
Meaning as sense refers to the way meaning is generated via the relationships between words – that is, a word’s meaning in relation to other words. For example, dog and collie; fruit and apple; tree and oak- these words all share sense relationships; and these relationships allows us to construct meaning.
Particular sense relationships include :
* the degree of generality (hypernyms vs hyponyms)
* the degree of similarity (synonyms vs antonyms)
What is meaning as a reference?
In addition to sense, word meaning is also derived from reference. Meaning as reference refers to the meaning generated from a consistent reference to particular objects/entities. In other words, meaning is created by reference.
For instance, the meaning of ‘oak tree’ is also learnt and generated from a consistent reference to this specific type of tree.
What are decompositions?
Idea that word meanings are complex entities that can be analyzed into more basic meaning components
