Week 3: semantics

Question 1

Mental lexicon

Answer 1

Stock of words and associated meanings stored in our brains.

Question 2

Semasiological approach to meaning

Answer 2

Starts with a languages individual lexemes and tries to specify meanings of each one.

Question 3

Onomasiological approach to meaning

Answer 3

Starts with a particular meaning and lists the various forms available for its expression.

Question 4

Semasiology and onomasiology - linking to dictionary of thesarus?

Answer 4

Semasiology = dictionary
Onomasiology = thesaurus

Question 5

Learning meanings by ostension

Answer 5

showing pointing to an object/event

Question 6

Learning meanings by typical context

Answer 6

giving an example of a situation where it would be appropriate to use the word in question

Question 7

Learning meaning by distribution

Answer 7

Using contexts

Question 8

Learning meanings by synonyms

Answer 8

Using lexemes with approximately the same meaning, in the same (thesaurus) or different (bilingual dictionary) languages

Question 9

Problem with ostentation

Answer 9

May not be sufficiently clear, e.g. the gavagai problem

Question 10

Problem with learning meaning by typical context

Answer 10

It can be hard to understand what is does or doesn’t apply to

Question 11

Problem with learning meaning by synonymns

Answer 11

There are rarely exact meaning equivalents; often synonymy is just partial

Question 12

_____ relationships
Options for blank word

Answer 12

Syntagmatic
Paradigmatic

Question 13

Syntagmatic relationships

Answer 13

holds between lexemes which can co-occur in some contexts.

Question 14

Paradigmatic relationships

Answer 14

holds between lexemes which can substitute for one another in some contexts

Question 15

Paradigmatic and syntagmatic relationships - which is “horizontal” and which is “vertical”?

Answer 15

Syntagmatic = “horizontal”
Paradigmatic = “vertical”

Question 16

Selectional restrictions

Answer 16

semantic components which constrain the choice of expressions which can meaningfully be combined with a given lexeme

Question 17

Paradigm

Answer 17

The term for the different inflectional forms (word forms) of the same lexeme.

Question 18

Hypernym

Answer 18

A superordinate word

Question 19

A is a hyponym of B if

Answer 19

a) A is a subtype of B
b) The meaning of A is included in the meaning of B
c) If X is A then X is B

Question 20

Entailment

Answer 20

If A entails B, then if X is A, X is also B.

Question 21

Taxonomy

Answer 21

Like hypernymy but restricted to natural terms (plants, animals, etc.)

Question 22

Co-hyponymns

Answer 22

other subordinate words/expressions

Question 23

Meronymy

Answer 23

a part-whole relation between the kind of things denoted by A and by B

Question 24

Meronym

Answer 24

Term for the parts (in meronymy)

Question 25

Holonym

Answer 25

Terms for the whole (in meronymy)

Question 26

Antonyms

Answer 26

Two items belonging to a single domain that cannot simultaneously apply

Question 27

Semantic knowledge

Answer 27

knowledge of the essential meaning of a word that all speakers must possess and which dictionaries must accurately represent in order to allow the meaning to be acquired for the first time

Question 28

Encyclopaedic knowledge

Answer 28

-not essential to the meaning of a word
-can vary from speaker to speaker
-not linguistic in nature

Question 29

Gradable pair of antonyms

Answer 29

names points on a scale which have a midpoint

Question 30

Non-gradable pair of antonyms

Answer 30

antonyms that do not contain a midpoint

assertion of one entails denial of the other

Question 31

Heteronyms

Answer 31

Expressions that express exclusive alternatives in some domain but there is more than one possibility.

Question 32

Synonymy, antonymy and meronomy are what kind of semantic relationship?

Answer 32

Paradigmatic relationship

Question 33

What types of antonyms are open to comparison?

Answer 33

Gradable

Question 34

What is the neutral member in a pair of antonyms?

Answer 34

In questions and comparative constructions, it serves to invoke the dimension of contrast as a whole.

Question 35

Equipollent gradable antonyms

Answer 35

symmetrical in their distribution and interpretation with neither member having an uncommitted use.

Question 36

autoantonymous

Answer 36

words that are their own opposite

Question 37

lexical synonymy

Answer 37

synonymy between individual lexemes

Question 38

phrasal synonymy

Answer 38

synonymy between expressions consisting of more than one lexeme

Question 39

sense-synonymy

Answer 39

the synonymy of some, but not all, the senses of a word

Question 40

polysemy

Answer 40

the possession of a single phonological form of several conceptually related meanings

Question 41

monosemous

Answer 41

a word containing a single meaning

Question 42

homonymy

Answer 42

where a single phonological form possesses multiple unrelated meanings