Semantics Lecture Notes

Flashcards based on lecture notes about semantics, word meaning, sense relations, lexical ambiguity, and lexicology.

Semantics

Studies the meaning or meaning potential of words, phrases, and sentences.

Lexical meaning

Word meanings that are typically concrete.

Example:

• Word: "Snake"

• Lexical meaning: A long, legless reptile.

• Figurative meaning: A dishonest or sneaky person (not lexical).

Grammatical meaning

Abstract meanings related to grammar, such as tense, plural, and voice.

• Word: "cats"

  • Lexical meaning: the animal "cat"

  • Grammatical meaning: plural (more than one cat)

• Word: "running"

  • Lexical meaning: the action of running

  • Grammatical meaning: present participle/verb form used in continuous tense

Sense

All elements contained in our conventional understanding of a concept associated with a word.

dog is “a domesticated carnivorous mammal, which typically has a long snout, an acute sense of smell, non-retractile claws, and a barking, howling, or whining voice” Oxford English Dictionary Online, s

Semantic Core

a set of keywords that describe the main topic of a website or page.

Structuralism

the idea that we understand things by looking at the structure behind them

Words get meaning not just by themselves, but by how they relate to other words in the language

Intension

Equals the 'sense' of a word; contains all semantic features that make up a dictionary definition; a word's abstract/systematic meaning.

Cow = [+bovine] [+ adult] [+ female]

Denotation

Core meaning, intensional + extensional meaning, sense (what it means) + reference(what it points to).. The dictionary defenition.
link between a word and the world

Extension

All the things a word can point to in real life—some words refer to just a few items, others to many.

e.g Word: “Fruit”

• Extension: All individual fruits in the world: apples, bananas, cherries, mangoes, etc.

Reference

The use of a word in its conventional sense to refer to an object in the real world or a possible world of fiction.

Referent

Entity (or entities) referred to (or “picked out”) by an expression in a particular context

Ranging Reference

• Variable(indexcal) reference

• identical reference and yet different sense

• no referent

Variable (indexical) reference

Referent changes depending on context.

example: the pope; here; tomorrow

Identical reference and yet different sense (Reference)

different forms are used to pick out one and the same real-world entity

example: Morning Star and Evening Star (planet “Venus”

No referent

Some expressions that have no referent in the real world, but have sense and denotation.

example: dragon (sense and denotation)

Connotation

Peripheral/additional meanings (i.e., contextual, emotional, evaluative, stylistic meanings. The deeper meaning- what we associate with the word. e.g The rose - love, beauty, or passion.

Types of Connotation: Stylistic

 Stylistic connotations

 neutral style → default

 “low” style

high” style

Stylistic connotations

expressive meaning a word adds because of the tone it brings, not just its basic meaning.

Example:

• "Childlike" vs "Childish"

  • Both mean “like a child” (similar lexical meaning).

  • But:

    • Childlike = positive (innocent, pure) → positive stylistic connotation

    • Childish = negative (immature) → negative stylistic connotation

“low” style(Types of Connotation: Stylistic)

 colloquial, e.g., buddy, pal “friend”

 slang, e.g., trippin’ “losing control”

 vulgar, e.g., c*nt

high” style(Types of Connotation: Stylistic)

 formal, e.g., capacity, (to) contemplate, (to) elicit

 Literary or poetic, e.g., (to) breathe “live”

 archaic, e.g., spouse “husband or wife”

 foreign, e.g., zeitgeist, (to) encore “repeat”

Expressive Connotations + Subtypes

Express a speaker’s emotional attitudes towards a concept.

 derogatory, e.g., chick “woman”, benchwarmer

 taboo, e.g., c*nt, arse, f*ck, sh*t

 euphemistic, e.g., restroom “toilet,” gosh “god”

 jocular, e.g., bugrake “comb”, (to) go belly-up “die”

 appreciative, e.g., lady, elegant

Contextualization

Word meanings that alter somewhat in context.

hot day (literal day that is elevated in temperature)

hot iron (brand name for type of weightlifting activity)

hot chocolate (drink)

disambiguation

Single: “unmarried” or “one only”  Single book cannot mean “unmarried book”

Synonymy

Two different phonological words with the same or very similar meanings.

Antonyms types

Complementary antonymy

Gradable antonymy

Converseness

Directional opposition

Complementary antonymy

Either/or relationship between two terms of a pair of semantic opposites.

Examples

 Dead and alive

 Live and die

 Asleep and awake

male and female

Gradable antonymy

show opposite meanings but can vary in degree

Opposite of one word not necessarily synonymous with the other →  not large is not necessarily smalHot and cold → hot–warm –tepid–cool –cold, etc.(lukewarm, scalding hot, freezing cold, etc.)

Converseness ( Antonymy)

Senses that represent different ways of looking at the same action or relationship

 Parent and child: parent can’t be without a child

 Teacher and pupil

 Buy and sell

Directional Antonymy

Pairs of senses express a change of direction, especially motion into different directions

examples

 Come and go

 Fall and rise

 Push and pull

Hyponymy

Word relationship of super-/subordinated meanings

“animal” is a hypernym of “dog.” - hyponym

Co-hyponyms

hyponyms of same superordinate sense

Meronymy

Word relationship of part/whole meanings.

Example: “wheel” - meronym of “car holonym.

 e.g. nose is a part of face → obligatory

 collar is a part of shirt → not obligatory, but common

 cellar is a part of a house → optional

Exhaustive Options

all choices are included — nothing is missing.

What’s your favorite fruit?
And you list:

• Apple

• Banana

• Orange

• Something else

Homonymy

Two words that overlap in form, but differ in meaning.

Polysemy

Multiple senses of the same phonological word that is judged to be etymologically related.

a sole (“a kind of fish”)

a sole (“part of a shoe”)

Synchronic perspective

Studying something at one point in time, ignoring its history or changes over time.

Diachronic perspective

Studying something over time, looking at how it changes and develops through history.

i.e., traceable, although shared origin dates back considerably (polysemy)

Lexicology

Mental Lexicon and Representative Vocabularies.

Personal vocabulary

• active

• pasive

vocabulary of a language

• size hard to assess

Active Vocabulary

Personal vocabulary that is active.

Passive Vocabulary

Personal vocabulary that is passive.

semantic change-denotation (Gradual Lexical Change)

 semantic widening, e.g. barn (barley house > general farm storage)

 semantic narrowing, e.g. starve (to die > to die from lack of nourishment)

semantic change–connotation (Gradual Lexical Change)

 pejoration (worsening of connotation), e.g. lewd (orig., meant of the people)

 amelioration (improving of connotation), e.g. knight (orig., boy)

Folk Etymology

Coming to wrong conclusions about origins and meanings of words.