semantics

for exam

What is semantics?

The study of meaning in language.

What is lexical semantics?

The meaning of words and relationships between them.

What is phrasal/compositional semantics?

The meaning of phrases and larger syntactic units.

What is pragmatics?

The study of how context affects meaning.

What is lexical organisation?

How words are stored and structured in the brain (like a filing cabinet).

What is lexical retrieval?

Accessing and retrieving words from memory.

What is the lexicon?

A mental dictionary with meanings, spellings, relationships, and pronunciation.

How is vocabulary different from the lexicon?

Vocabulary is a list of words; the lexicon includes detailed linguistic info.

What is a semantic error?

Confusing words based on meaning (e.g. fridge for oven).

What is a phonological error?

Confusing words that sound similar (e.g. pepper for people).

What is reference?

The link between a word and the real-world thing it refers to.

What is sense?

Meaning derived from context and word relationships (e.g. "of", "may").

Why is word-meaning arbitrary?

Different languages have different words for the same concept.

What are the 5 types of associative relationships?

Taxonomic, attributive, part-whole, functional, and ‘-nyms’.

What is a taxonomic relationship?

Grouping by category (e.g. apple, banana = fruits).

What is an attributive relationship?

Based on description (e.g. red, soft).

What is part-whole (meronymy)?

A part of something (e.g. finger-hand).

What is functional relationship?

What something does (e.g. a pen is for writing).

What is a node?

A concept (e.g. bird) in the semantic network.

What are properties in a semantic network?

Features stored at the highest node (e.g. animals breathe).

What is cognitive economy?

Info is stored once at the highest relevant level in the network.

What are antonyms?

Opposites. Can be gradable (hot/cold), relational (buy/sell), or complementary (alive/dead).

What are synonyms?

Words with the same or similar meaning (e.g. pail/bucket)

What is a hyponym?

A word that is a specific instance of a broader term (e.g. red is a hyponym of colour).

What is a homonym?

Words that are spelled and sound the same but have different meanings (e.g. bat).

What is a polyseme?

A word with multiple related meanings (e.g. eye for seeing vs third eye).

What is the Spreading Activation Model?

A web of word connections; words activate related meanings.

What affects how fast we retrieve words?

Frequency, imageability, priming, and typicality.

What is semantic priming?

Faster access to a word when a related word is seen first (bread → butter).

What is phonological priming?

Faster access when words sound similar (cat → cap).

What is truth value?

Whether a sentence is true or false (e.g. “The sun is hot”).

What is entailment?

One sentence logically implies the truth of another (e.g. “She sings beautifully” → “She sings”).

What is contradiction?

Sentences that cannot both be true (e.g. “Jack is dead” ≠ “Jack is alive”).

What is the agent role?

The "doer" of an action (e.g. Bilbo held the ring).

What is the patient/object role?

The receiver of the action (e.g. the travellers were attacked).

What is the location role?

Where something is/stays (e.g. Frodo stayed in Rivendell).

What is the goal role?

Where something is headed (e.g. to Mordor).

What is the source role?

Where something originates from (e.g. from the Shire).

What is the instrument role?

What is used to perform the action (e.g. with a bow and arrow).

What is the 'location' relation?

Spatial relationships (e.g. the car is going down the hill).

What is 'possession'?

Ownership (e.g. That’s my book).

What is 'temporal'?

Relates to time (e.g. When does winter start?).

What is 'experience'?

Internal feelings or thoughts (e.g. I love ice-cream).

What is 'attribution'?

Describing something (e.g. the house is enormous).

What is 'function'?

What something does (e.g. this book is for school).

What is 'purpose'?

Why something exists (e.g. He’s drinking juice).

Why is semantics important in speech pathology?

It helps us understand word knowledge, retrieval, and meaning errors in children and adults.

What semantic issues might children have?

Slow vocab growth, poor fast mapping, word-finding issues, weak semantic networks.

What is anomic aphasia?

Difficulty finding the right words, especially nouns and verbs, despite fluent speech.

How do we assess semantics?

Vocabulary tests, verbal fluency, comprehension, naming tasks, semantic role and relation checks.