Ling intro + Semantics

Language

A system of knowledge used for human communication

Linguistics

The systemic study of language

Specialization

humans are specialized for speech

phonology

sound pattern production and organization

morphology

how words are structured and formed

semantics

how meaning is expressed and interpreted

syntax

how phrases and sentences are formed and structured

Creativity

we can develop new words, new sentences, and understand sentences we have never heard but it is constrained

neologisms

new words

descriptive

no rught or wrong, observe and explain

prescriptive

right and wrong, says something is proper

linguistic competence

native and fluent speakers of a language know what is and is not possible innately, we can understand an infinite amount of utterances

cross-linguisitcally

across all language

Generativity

All languages have a grammar

parity

all grammars are equal

Universality

All grammars are alike in certain ways

mutability

all grammars change over time

inaccessibility

grammar knowledge is subconcious

ambiguity

more than 1 possible meaning

Logical entailment

the truth of 1 sentence requires the truth of another

Logical Equivalence

“p" entails “q” and “q” entails “p"

logical contraditcion

“p" and “q" have opposite truth values

Logical Contrariety

“p" and “q" cannot both be true. Can both be false

Logical Subordination

the set of things denoted by word “b” is a subset of things denoted by word “a"

Logical Equivalence (words)

the words A and B have the same meaning

Logical Complimentarity

the meanings of word A and word B do not overlap and together exhaust the set of possibilities

Logical Incompatibilty

the meanings of A and B don't overlap but they don't exhaust the set of relevant possibilities

Scalar Adjectives

associated with a scale of degrees

Homonymy

words with diffferent meanings but the same look or sound

homophones

words with a different meaning that sound the same

homographs

words with different meanings that look the same

Polysemy

When a word has 2 or more related meanings

Hyponymy

Same as logical subordination

Hyponym

the subset, “below"

hypernym

the big set

Partonymy/meronymy

part-whole relationship

Partonym/meronym

the part

holonym

the whole