Semantics

Semantics

how the meaning of words combine to form the meaning of sentences

Lexical Semantics

The meanings of words and other lexical expressions, including the meaning relationships among them (ex: the words couch and sofa mean roughly the same things)

Compositional Semantics

Phrasal meanings and how they are assembled (ex: the phrase purple books describes a group of objects (books) that have a certain property (purple))

Compositionality

The meaning of a complex linguistic unit results from the individual meanings of its subparts, and how these subparts were combined.\

Proposition

the claim expressed by a sentence

Truth Value

The ability to be true or false

Truth Conditions

The conditions that would have to hold in the world in order for some proposition to be true (ex: The king of England is sleeping)

Dictionary-Style Definitions

Define words in terms of other words: can become a circular process

Mental-Image Definitions

can be different despite similar meanings (ex: asking two people their mental image of “food”)

Usage-Based Definitions

Knowing what a word mens and knowing under what conditions it is appropriate to use it

Hyponymy

A word is a hyponym of another word if the set for the first word is ALWAYS included in the set for the second word (poodle is a hyponym of dog because a poodle is ALWAYS a dog)

Sister Terms

two words if their reference is on the same level (dog and cow are sister terms because they are both mammals)

Synonyms

have exactly the same reference (ex: couch/sofa)

Antonyms

have meanings that are related yet contrast in significant ways

Complementary

one or the other (married/unmarried, alive/dead)

Gradable

represent points on a continuum (wet/dry {damp}, old/young {middle aged})

Reverses

suggest movement, one undoes the other (put together/take apart, expand/ contract)

Converses

Two opposite points of view, change in perspective (lend/borrow, send/receive, employer/employed)