Week 6

Question 1

Semantics and pragmatics

Answer 1

The study of referential meaning

The study of meaning in content

Question 2

Lexical entry of biscuit

Answer 2

1. Phonological specification: /biskit/
2. Syntactic specification: N [count]
3. Semantic specification: ‘flat thin dry cake’

Question 3

Dog biscuit isn’t listed in my dictionary. Does this mean that its meaning is predictable?

Answer 3

‘Biscuit made for dogs’ = the usual and expected meaning

‘Biscuit made of dogs’ = an unusual but possible meaning

Question 4

Who intrigued the concept of “The Arbitrariness of the Sign”? What is it?

Answer 4

Ferdinand de Saussure.

The relationship between a word’s form and its meaning is arbitrary, as seen in how different languages represent the word “rose”.

Question 5

What is referential meaning?

Answer 5

The basic, literal meaning of a word, agreed upon by societal consensus.

Question 6

Why can the meanings of complex words be unpredictable?

Answer 6

They can vary, especially when formed through derivational processes (“dog biscuit” could have multiple interpretations.

Question 7

What does “compositional” sentence interpretation mean?

Answer 7

Sentence meaning is derived from the meaning of individual words and their syntactic structure.

Question 8

What are semantic roles in sentences with transitive verbs? What are the additional roles?

Answer 8

Agent (subject) and theme (direct object), which may shift in passive sentences.

Location, source, goal and instrument.

Question 9

What is structural ambiguity?

Answer 9

Phrases or sentences that can have multiple interpretations depending on syntactic structure and context (“Susan saw children with binoculars”).

Question 10

Semantic Feature Theory

Answer 10

Meaning can be broken down into smaller units of features for a componential analysis of words.

Question 11

Prototype Theory

Answer 11

Categories have fuzzy borders, with certain members being more representative (prototypes) than others.

Question 12

Synonymy and antonyms

Answer 12

Words with similar meaning (answer/reply).

Words with opposite meaning (alive/dead).

Question 13

What is the Cooperative Principle in conversation?

Answer 13

The expectation that participants cooperate to ensure meaningful exchanges, though it can be violated, causing misunderstandings.

Question 14

What is componential analysis in semantics?

Answer 14

This analysis breaks down words into their basic semantic features to analyse their meaning.

Question 15

Instrument

Answer 15

How or by which an action is performed (He cut the bread with a knife).

Question 16

Experiencer

Answer 16

Mary heard the noise.

Question 17

Source and goal

Answer 17

The starting point of an action/movement (He came from the shore).

The end point of an action/movement (He ran to the house).

Question 18

Reversible antonym

Answer 18

They describe actions that undo each other (enter - exit).

Question 19

Hyponymy

Answer 19

One word is more specific than another (rose is a hyponym of flower).

Question 20

Prototype

Answer 20

The best or most typical example of a category (a sparrow as a prototype for the category bird).

Question 21

Homophones

Answer 21

Words that sound the same but have different meanings/spellings (pair and pear).

Question 22

Homonyms

Answer 22

Words that have the same spelling and pronunciation but different meanings (bat, the animal, and bat, used in sports).

Question 23

Polysemy

Answer 23

A single word having multiple related meanings (‘head’ as in head of company or ‘head’ of a person’).

Question 24

Metonymy

Answer 24

A figure of speech where one word is used to represent something closely related to it (the White House to mean the US government).

Question 25

Corpus linguistics

Answer 25

The study of language using large collections of real-word texts to analyse patterns and usage.

Question 26

What is concordance in corpus linguistics

Answer 26

A list of occurrences of a word in a text, typically used to study how that word is used in different contexts.

Question 27

Collocation in linguistics

Answer 27

The frequent occurrence of words together in a typical context.

1. Make a decision
2. To check in
3. To make up

Question 28

Anaphora

Answer 28

A word to refer back to something previously mentioned.

John lost his keys and he can’t find them.

Question 29

Deixis

Answer 29

Words/phrases like this, that, here, there, now which require information to understand their meaning because they point to people, places or times.

Question 30

Hedges

Answer 30

Words/phrases that can soften the force of a meaning; sort of, kind of, maybe.