Section 3 | Semantics

🌐 Semantics – Clean Notes

1. Definition & Significance of Semantics

• Semantics is the study of meaning in language.

• It focuses on how words, phrases, and sentences convey concepts and ideas.

🔑 Key Areas in Semantics:

• Lexical Semantics: Meaning of individual words.

• Compositional Semantics: How meanings of words combine to form sentence meanings.

• Contextual Semantics: How meaning is influenced by surrounding context.

🔁 Compared to Other Fields:

2. Word Meanings & Lexical Ambiguity

• Lexical Semantics examines how words mean what they mean.

• Lexical Ambiguity: When a word has multiple possible meanings (e.g., “bank” = riverbank or financial institution).

💡 Context is key in resolving ambiguity.

3. Sentence Meaning & Compositionality

• Compositionality: The principle that the meaning of a sentence is determined by:

  • The meanings of the individual words

  • The order in which they appear

🔍 Example:
"The dog chased the cat"
→ Dog = subject (agent), Chased = action, Cat = object (patient)
→ Word arrangement clarifies meaning.

4. Semantic Relations & Logical Structures

📘 Semantic Relations:

🔐 Logical Structures:

5. Semantic Roles & Argument Structures

🎭 Semantic Roles:

These explain who is doing what to whom in a sentence.

🧱 Argument Structure:

• Arrangement of semantic roles in a sentence (e.g., Agent → Action → Patient)

6. Context & Disambiguation

🔍 Types of Context:

📌 Understanding context helps us pick the correct meaning in cases of ambiguity.

7. Semantic Theories & Models

🌐 Semantic Networks:

• Visual graphs connecting concepts via relationship links.

• Organize language knowledge using hierarchies and connections.

🔗 Link Types in Semantic Networks: