B1. Semantics features, roles

Semantics (Ngữ nghĩa học)

• It is the study of the meaning of words, phrases, sentences,…

• It focuses on what the words conventionally mean, not what an individual speaker might want them to mean on a particular occasion

Which meaning does semantics focus on?

Semantics focuses on what the words conventionally mean - its objective, general meaning; avoid trying to account for subjective or local meaning

Denotative/Conceptual meaning (nghĩa khái niệm)

• It covers those basic, essential components of meaning that are conveyed by the literal use of a word.

• It is the type of meaning that dictionaries are designed to describe

• Eg: Some of the basic components of a word like needle in English might include “thin, sharp, steel instrument.” These components would be part of the conceptual meaning of needle

Associative / Connotative meaning

(Nghĩa chuyển/nghĩa liên tưởng)

• Associations or connotations attached to a word. The associations can differ from one person to another

• Eg: “needle” - They might associate it with “pain,” or “illness,” or “blood,” or
  “drugs,” or “thread,” or “knitting,” or “hard to find” (especially in a haystack)
  

A semantic feature

• It is a component of the concept associated with a lexical item

• It can be treated as the basic elements involved in differentiating the meaning of each word in a language from every other word.

the meaning of the word “girl” in English involves the elements [+human, +female, -adult]

Semantic roles

They are roles that words (typically NPs) fulfill within the situation described by a sentence

entity

(thực thể) ​sth that exists separately from other things and has its own identity

How many semantic role are there?

7: Agent, theme, experiencer, instrument, location, source, goal

(SR) What is an agent?

• is the entity that performs the action

• agents are typically human, but they can also be non-human entities that cause actions

• Eg:

  • The boy kicked the ball.

    The wind blew the ball away.

    A car ran over the ball.

    The dog caught the ball.

(SR) What is a theme / patient ?

• is the entity that is involved in or affected by the action, or an entity that is imply being described

• the theme is typically non-human, but can be human

• Eg:

  • The boy kicked the ball

  • The ball is red

What is an instrument?

• the entity used by the agent to perform an action

• Eg:

  • The boy cut the rope with an old razor

  • He drew the picture with a crayon

What is an experiencer?

• usually a person, has a feeling, perception, or state

• If we see, know or enjoy sth, we’re not really performing an action. We are in the role of experiencer

• Eg:

  • The boy saw a cow

  • Did you hear that noise?

What is a location?

• it is where the entity is

• Eg: on the table, in the room

What is a source?

• it is where the entity moves from

• Eg: from Vietnam

What is a goal?

• it is where the entity moves to

• Eg: We drove from Chicago to Texas

A single entity can appear in several ……… semantic roles.

different

The same physical entity can appear in two different semantic roles in a
sentence . True or False

True. As in The boy cut himself. The boy is agent and himself is theme.

What are the most common semantic roles?

agents and themes

Semantic roles are also called…?

thematic roles

List all semantic roles in this sentence: Mary saw a fly on the wall.

1. Mary: experiencer

2. a fly: theme

3. on the wall: location

List all semantic roles in this sentence: She borrowed a magazine from George

• She: agent

• a magazine: theme

• from George: source

List all semantic roles in this sentence: She squashed the bug with the magazine

• She: agent

• the bug: theme

• with the magazine: instrument

List all semantic roles in this sentence: She handed the magazine back to George.

• She: agent

• the magazine: theme

• back to George: goal

List all semantic roles in this sentence: “Gee thanks,” said George

• George: agent