Semantics midterm

antonyms

complimenaries

hypernym—hyponyms

meronymy

sign

physical things which could be images, sounds, smells which we have invested meaning in; peace sign, bear track, stop sign

there are different kinds of signs

index

relationship of contiguity or association, often causality between the sign and what it stands for in a given context

smoke is an index of fire, lightening is an index of thunder

icon

there is a physical resemblance between sign and what it stands for;

a keychain of the eiffel tower, a portrait, onomatopoeia

symbol (arbitrary sign)

conventionalized arbitrary rtelationship between a sign and what it stands for

language in general

what are some challenges in using definitions to describe meanings

how many meanings need to be specified?

circularity

variability in meaning

how much knowledge of our world and social context do we need to include in a definition?

the nature of meaning

cannot be percieved directly; it is inferred from context and usage. , many aspects of meaning are fluid and context dependent

compositionality

the meaning of complex expressions are built by combining the meanings of their lexical and grammatical parts based on the grammatical relations between them

three levels of meaning

expression meaning—> utterance meaning —> communicative meaning

expression meaning

the meaning associated with the grammatical and lexical content of an expression (decontextualized)— the meaning of words, phrases taken out of any particular context

utterance meaning

consists of expression meaning + information about what is being referred to based on the context of the utterance

communicative meaning

utterance meaning + the speakers communicative intention in uttering the expression as part of a social interaction

semantics

the study of meanings o flinguistic expressions, either simple or complex, taken in isolation

sense relations

the aspects of the meaning of an expression that relate to the meanings of other expressions in the language

descriptive meaning

the mental definition associated with a lexeme

the core meaning that all lexemes of different grammatical forms share, typically involving referring or predicating, is part of the

lexeme

the descriptive meaning/sense of pig is

omniverous domesticated mammal, bred for meat with a flat snout

denotation

the category of all entities which could potentially be labeled by that lexeme; the category of potential referents of a lexeme

reference

the speakers act of picking out a particular referent, or referents, when they produce an utterance in a particular context

sense of an expression

the way in which the reference is presented

connotation

emotional associations or attitudes that we associate with certain expressions

euphemism

a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant

dysphemism

a derogatory or unpleasant term used instead of a pleasant or neutral one

syntagmatic relations

the associations between words that occur together (not necessarily right next to each other) so that the meaning of each is affected by the others

paradigmatic relations

have to do with word choice; in the vertical dimension

words in paradigmatic relationships

belong to the same word class, fill the same slot in a given phrase or sentence and output and acceptable meaning, may be similar or different in meaning

lexical entries include

form, grammatical category, set of grammatical forms, lexical meaning/sense

criterion for lexemes to be different lexemes

either form, grammatical category or have unrelated meanings or historical origins, speaker intuiti

monosemy

is when a word has a single meaning

unrelated meanings

= homonymy

related meanings

associated with the same lexeme= polysemy

presupposition

something that the speaker takes to be the case prior to making the utterance

they survive negatoin, but are defeasible

triggered by certain expressions

properties of entailments

cancelled by negation