Semantics: Meaning, Reference, Predicates, and Sense Relations

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering semantic properties, reference, sense, referring expressions, predicates, lexical sense relations, metaphors, and metonymy from Sessions 1 through 4.

Semantics

The study of meaning in language, specifically focusing on the linguistic meaning of morphemes, words, phrases, and sentences (derived from "sem" meaning "meaning").

Sentence Meaning

What a sentence or word literally means; the literal linguistic content independent of speaker intention.

Speaker Meaning

What a speaker intends to convey, which can be non-literal and vary when different speakers use the same sentence on different occasions.

Semantic Property

A component of the meaning of a word (for example, "young" is a semantic property shared by "baby", "puppy", and "kitten").

Semantic Feature

A formal or notational device that indicates the presence ($+$) or absence ($-$) of semantic properties; recognized as the smallest unit of meaning in a word.

Semantic Field

The organization of related words and expressions into a system that demonstrates their relationship to one another, grouping words with identifiable semantic affinities (e.g., kinship terms).

Denotative Meaning

The dictionary meaning of a word described in terms of a set of semantic properties that serves to identify the particular concept associated with the word.

Connotative Meaning

The additional extra meaning a word has beyond its denotative meaning, reflecting people's emotions and/or attitudes toward what the word refers to.

Reference

The relationship between parts of a language and things outside the language in the world, by which a speaker indicates which real-world entities are being talked about.

Referent

The real-world thing, person, or entity outside of language identified by a referring expression.

Variable Reference

A property of expressions where the same expression can refer to different entities depending on the circumstances (such as time and place) or conversational topic.

Constant Reference

A property of expressions that in normal everyday conversation never refer to different things, but always pick out the same entity (e.g., "the sun", "the moon").

Co-reference

A relationship occurring when two or more distinct linguistic expressions share the exact same referent in a given context.

Sense

An expression's place in a system of semantic relationships with other expressions in the language (e.g., sameness of meaning).

Referring Expression

Any expression used in an utterance to refer to something or someone (or a clearly delimited collection of things or people) with a particular referent in mind.

Opaque Context

A part of a sentence that could be completed by a referring expression, but where substituting different referring expressions that refer to the same entity can yield sentences with different truth values or meanings.

Equative Sentence

A sentence used to assert the identity of the referents of two referring expressions (asserting that both expressions have the same referent), typically using the copula "be".

Predicator

The word or group of words in a sentence that does not belong to any referring expression and makes the greatest contribution to the meaning of the sentence.

Predicate

A word or sequence of words that can function as the predicator in a given sentence; unlike words, each predicate possesses only one distinct sense.

Degree of a Predicate

A number indicating how many arguments (referring expressions) a predicate is normally understood to require in a simple sentence.

One-Place Predicate

A predicate of degree one, meaning it takes exactly one argument in a simple sentence (e.g., "asleep", "handsome", "returned").

Two-Place Predicate

A predicate of degree two, meaning it takes two arguments in a simple sentence (e.g., "love", "hit", "under").

Three-Place Predicate

A predicate of degree three, meaning it takes three arguments in a simple sentence (e.g., "give", "between").

Synonymy

The semantic relationship between two predicates that have the same sense.

Perfect Synonymy

A rare semantic relation where two predicates mean exactly the same thing across all contexts, which dialects generally have little need for.

Partial Synonymy

A relationship between predicates that share a similar core meaning but do not share all of their senses.

Euphemism

The application of synonymy to soften language (e.g., using "visually impaired" instead of "blind").

Hyponymy

A sense relation in which the meaning of one predicate is included in the meaning of another, characterized by the formula "$X$ is a kind/type of $Y$".

Superordinate Term (Hypernym)

A term that is more abstract, general, or schematic than its hyponyms, whose meaning encompasses the hyponym's sense.

Symmetrical Hyponymy

A special case of hyponymy where two predicates include each other's sense (if $X$ is a hyponym of $Y$ and $Y$ is a hyponym of $X$), resulting in synonymy.

Binary Antonyms

Predicates that come in pairs and between them exhaust all relevant possibilities, such that if one is applicable, the other cannot be (e.g., "true" vs. "false").

Relational Antonyms (Converses)

Predicates that describe the same relationship from opposite perspectives or orders, such that if $A$ is $X$ of $B$, then $B$ is $Y$ of $A$ (e.g., "buy" vs. "sell").

Gradable Antonyms

Antonyms positioned at opposite ends of a continuous scale that varies according to context and can combine with grading words like "very" or "how" (e.g., "fast" vs. "slow").

Multiple Incompatibility

A system where all member terms are mutually incompatible and together cover all relevant areas of the domain, either in a closed system (traffic lights) or an open-ended system (emotions).

Ambiguity

A linguistic situation in which an expression has more than one distinct sense.

Homonymy

A relation where the exact same word-form has different, completely unrelated senses (e.g., "bat" as an animal vs. "bat" as sports equipment).

Polysemy

A relation where one word-form has several distinct senses that are closely related or share a conceptual core (e.g., "branch" of a tree vs. "branch" of an organization).

Lexical Ambiguity

Ambiguity resulting specifically from the presence of an ambiguous word (caused by either homonymy or polysemy).

Literal Meaning

Meaning that is independent of context or occasion of use, functioning directly as a compositional function of the literal meanings of its components.

Non-literal Meaning

Meaning that depends on the context or occasion of use and is non-compositional, extending beyond the literal senses of individual words.

Idiomatic Expressions (Idioms)

Multi-word phrases whose overall meanings are idiosyncratic and largely unpredictable, reflecting speaker meanings not derivable by combining the literal senses of individual words via standard semantic rules.

Metaphor

A figure of speech and conceptual operation that understands or describes one thing in terms of another based on similarity or analogy, mapping a familiar source domain onto an abstract target domain.

Structural Metaphor

An abstract conceptual system where an entire complex, abstract target concept is structured in terms of a more concrete source concept (e.g., LOVE IS A JOURNEY, THEORIES ARE BUILDINGS).

Orientational Metaphor

Metaphors that organize a whole system of concepts relative to spatial orientation (such as UP vs. DOWN, IN vs. OUT), grounded in physical bodily experience (e.g., VIRTUE IS UP).

Ontological Metaphor

Metaphors that treat abstract experiences or events as physical objects or bounded containers so they can be quantified, categorized, or acted upon.

Container Metaphor

A form of ontological metaphor in which states, emotions, land areas, or abstractions are conceptualized as physical containers with boundaries (e.g., "in a field", "trapped in a cycle of debt").

Personification

A special subtype of ontological metaphor where non-human entities are specified as people with human motivations or actions (e.g., "My alarm clock screams at me").

Metonymy

A figure of speech in which one entity is used to refer to another associated entity based on association or contiguity, rather than similarity.

Metonymy - The part for the whole

The new IT firm hired new brains for the projects.

Metonymy - The place for the event

My Dinh was completely sold out in just 10 minutes.

Saigon Ward just announced new guidelines for tourism.

Metonymy - Object for the user

The camera in the front row asked the CEO a question.

Metonymy - The place for the institution

Silicon Valley is investing in AI.

Metonymy - Producer for product

She always applies a little Chanel before leaving.

Metonymy - Controller for controlled

Napoleon lost at Waterloo.

Metonymy - Institution for people responsible

The faculty updated the translation curriculum.

Metonymy - The face for the person

We need some fresh faces for our upcoming event.