Week 7/8: Semantics

semantics

 The core meaning, or sense, of a word (referential meaning), not the subjective or personal meaning

lexically ambiguous

more than one possible meaning (words or phrases

Types of intrinsic relationships: synonyms

words with similar meanings;

Types of intrinsic relationships: antonyms

Non-gradable/Complementary pairs (opposites); Gradable pairs (spectrum; big/small); Reversives (enter/exit); Reciprocal (give/recieve; teacher/student)

Semantic Feature Analysis

 is an approach for aphasic clients working on word retrieval; ask them questions relating to the word they are having a hard time thinking of

Word Retrieval Cuing Strategies

An approach that provides additional information, such as phonological cueing (providing the beginning sound of a word) or semantic cueing (providing contextual cues) to prompt word recall. For patients w/ Aphasia

­Associative relationship btw words

based on co-occurence

Taxonomic organization

 a sequence of progressively larger categories in which each category includes all the previous ones

 Owl bird animal

hyponymy

semantic relationship between a specific word (the hyponym) and a more general term (the hypernym), where the hyponym's meaning is a sub-category of the hypernym's meaning.

Taxonomic organization: Hierarchical structure

­Superordinate – the more general term

­Basic = the most “natural” term

­Subordinate – the more specific term

Coordinates – items on the same level

intrinsic relationships: part-whole

 Meronym = part

 Holonym = whole

associative relationships: collocation

Words that occur together in sentences

types of collocation

typical/incorrect; strong (only associated with a few words)/weak

Theory #1: Classical View

 Store a list of features; Must have features to be in the category; Every object is in or out of a category; All members of the category are equal

Problems with classical view

•DIFFICULT to identify features; Category membership can be “fuzzy”; Not all members are equally good

Theory #2: Prototype

 Abstract summary representation; Description of the category as a whole; A description of the prototype; Still use features but now weighted by importance; Membership determined by similarity to prototype; Have to have some features but not all; Similarity is continuous ­(Lot of features = typical/best)

Note on Theory #2: Prototype

 Frequency of encountering a member is likely not a factor

Theory #3: Exemplar

 Remember each exemplar/instance; New exemplars are compared to known exemplars; ­Similarity is continuous (similar to lots of old exemplars = typical/best)

Prototype verses exemplar

 In Exemplar theory, the standard can vary from time to time;  In Prototype theory, the standard can be something that doesn’t actually exist

Theory #4: Combined theory

•Exemplar + Prototype; Suggests that you store exemplars initially; Create a prototype from multiple exemplars

Evidence for Theory #4: Combined theory

 Evidence to suggest that exemplars and prototypes might be
created/stored in different brain areas (Hippocampus = exemplar; Cortex = prototype);  Evidence suggests that these develop at different rates (Exemplar matures early);  Evidence suggest that these decline at different rates (­Exemplar declines early in aging)

Theory #5: Knowledge view (Theory Theory)

 Prior experience and knowledge influences categories; Make inferences and add information that is not observed

 semantic roles

­Semantic roles describe the relation of the constituents of an utterance to their meaning; The semantic role is the underlying relationship

semantic role: agent

 the “doer”, the one that intentionally performs the action denoted by the verb

semantic role: force

 entity that causes an event without intention, volition, or consciousness (wind opens door)

patient

 the “undergoer” of the action, that which is affected by
the action, something happens to it, often a change of state

theme

 the entity that is moved by the action or perceived, not
affected by the action

­Patient and this are often collapsed

instrument

that which is used to perform an action

Experiencer

 (living) entity that experiences or endures the action denoted by the verb

­Not intentional, rather it is sensory, emotional, or psychological

Benefactive/beneficiary

 the entity that benefits or gains from the action

Goal

 the location or entity towards which the action is
directed; I sent Lisa the books. I’m traveling to Paris.

Source

 the location or entity from which something moves

  John received a letter from Mary.

Locative/location

the place in which the action or state denoted by the verb is situated, does not imply motion
  The book is in the library.