Week 5- semantics and pragmatics Flashcards
Define semantic features
-conceptual elements by which a person understands the meanings of words or sentences.
E.g. ‘female’ is a semantic feature of the nouns ‘girl’ and ‘filly’
Define count nouns
-Can be enumerated and pluralised – one potato, two potatoes.
-Preceded by ‘a’ and by the quantifier ‘many’ but not ‘much’
-Must occur with a determiner.
Define mass nouns
-Nouns which cannot be enumerated or pluralised.
-Can occur with the quantifier ‘much’
Do not need a determiner
Define negation
negative polarity expressions that only make sense with a negative element in the sentence, e.g., “I can’t visit you anymore” or “John doubts he’ll ever fly again.”
Describe the three types of verbs
-Transitive – take a direct object (find, hit, chase) versus intransitive (arrive, sleep)
-Distransitive verbs – give, throw – take two objects
-Intransitive – take no object
Define thematic roles. List and describe them.
semantic relationship bwn verb and the noun phrases of a sentence
-Agent - one who performs an action
-Theme - the one or thing that undergoes an action
-Location - the place where an action happens
-Goal - the place to which an action is directed
-Source - the place from which an action originates
-Causative - a natural force that causes a change
-Possessor - the one who has something
Define truth-conditioned semantics (semantic concept)
Truth derived from prior knowledge and context
Define entailment. Additional synonymous sentences and contradiction definitions.(semantic concept)
truth of one sentence ensures truth of another. If the first sentence is true, the second must also be true.
e.g.”Corday assassinated Marat” entails “Marat is dead.”
Synonymous Sentences: both true or both false in the same context.
e.g “Jack put off meeting” and “Jack postponed meeting”
Contradiction: when one sentence true, the other is false.
e.g. “Jack is alive” and “Jack is dead” are contradictory.
Define ambiguity (semantic concept). What are its types.
when words or phrases have multiple meanings/meaning is unclear. E.g.
-words lack clear meaning in context.
-Words have meaning but don’t combine logically according to syntax and semantics.
-intended meaning is either ambiguous or non-literal.
-Structural Ambiguity: due to sentence structure e.g. “boy saw man with a telescope,”-could mean either boy saw man using a telescope, or he used a telescope to see the man.
-Lexical Ambiguity: words with multiple meanings, such as “This will make you smart,” where “smart” could mean intelligence or a burning sensation.
Describe the lexical relation of metonymy
Metonyms: substitutes name of attribute/concept with object, for the actual object that is meant.
-E.g. The use of ‘the crown’ for the king, the use of ‘brass’ for military leaders.
Describe the lexical relation of polysemy
Polysemous words: Words with multiple but related meanings
e.g.
Newspaper
company that publishes written news.
single physical item published by the company.
the newspaper as an edited work in a specific format
Music:
Sound produced by means of instruments
Particular style of an art form (e.g. baroque music)
describe the lexical relation of synonymy
Synonyms - words that sound different but have same/similar meaning.
-Semantic similarity= number of shared semantic properties
Differ between homonyms, homophones and homographs. Lexical relation of similar words
Homonyms: Different words pronounced the same and spelled the same. Create lexical ambiguity.
Homophones: Only pronunciation same. To pick a flower/to bake with flour.
Homographs: Only spelling same. Bow is a ribbon, to bow to the queen.
Define Grice’s maxim of quality, quantity, relation, and manner
quality: truthful/based on sufficient evidence
quantity: Make contribution as informative as necessary for current exchange, without adding unnecessary detail.
relation: relevant to topic/discussion
manner: clear, brief, orderly as possible/avoid obscurity and ambiguity
What are deictic terms? Give brief summary of the types
Point to particular reference in surroundings to a listener
-Personal (who)
-Spatial or local (where)
-Temporal (when)
-On own words have no meaning (meaning given by context i.e. Speaker, listener, place, topic)
-meaning shifts (makes difficult for learning)
