Semantics Midterm

contradiction

when the truth table column is completely false

tautology

when the truth table column is completely true

contingency

when the truth table column is both true and false

compositionality

the meaning of a sentence is a product of the meanings of its parts and the way they are put together

denotation/referent

the thing in the world that an expression picks out

sense

the “recipe” for finding the denotation

lexical ambiguity

the bank can have multipule meanings

scope ambiguity

in a sentence with multiple logical elements like quantifiers, negation, connectives

structural ambiguity

the sentence can be assigned multiple syntactic structures

inferential

the meaning of a sentence affects the inference that we draw from it

inferential entailment

sentence one entails sentence 2

inferential contradiction

sentence one contradicts sentence two

inferential implicature due to negation

sentence one can still entail sentence two just the meaning is affected by negation not cancelled

inferential presuppositions

information that is encoded as shared knowledge are not cancellable

inferential implicatures

inferences based on reasoning about language users intentions are cancellable

polysemy

multiple related senses, shared meaning

homonymy

multiple unrelated senses, accidental ambiguity

indeterminacy

when you fail to make a distinction

vagueness

some words make distinctions that are context dependent

what are the two types of word play

puns and zeugma

synonyms

when words have the same sense

antonymy

when words have opposite sense

simple antonyms

complimentary pairs

ex. dead/alive

gradable antonyms

involves a scalar property, with the antonyms picking out different ends of the scale

ex. tall/short

converse antonyms

involves relation between individuals (asymmetric)

ex. doctor/patient

reverse antonyms

involves motion or change in a opposite direction

ex. come/go

hyponymy/hypernymy

when words are in a general specific relationship

general word= hypernym

specific word=hyponym

ex. gold is a hyponym of metal

taxonomy

a from of hyponymy involving classification

ex. animal tree of evolution

meronymy/holomny

when words are in a part whole relationship

the word of the whole =holonmy (hand)

the word of the part = meronymy (finger)