semantics

Semantics

The Study of Meaning

  • Semantics is defined as the study of the meaning of morphemes, words, phrases, and sentences.

Components of Semantics

  • Form + Function = Meaning

Types of Meaning

Lexical Meaning

  • Lexical meaning pertains to the meanings of words and the relationships among them.

Phrasal or Sentential Meaning

  • Phrasal meaning refers to the meanings of phrases and their syntactic structures.

Constructing Meaning

  • Understanding meaning involves various cognitive competences:

    • Comprehension of Meaningfulness: Ability to determine if a word, phrase, or sentence is meaningful or meaningless (sense or nonsense).

    • Understanding Ambiguity: Recognizing a word, phrase, or sentence can have more than one meaning.

    • Critical Thinking: Identifying if two expressions have the same or different meanings.

    • Reference to Reality vs Imagination: Understanding if expressions refer to actual facts or imaginative narratives (fact or fancy).

    • Truth Value Assessment: Determining if a sentence is true or false (fake news).

Different Types of Meaning

Semantic Meaning

  • Refers to the literal (compositional) meanings of sentences or phrases.

Linguistic Meaning

  • Covers the meaning of individual words (lexical).

Pragmatic Meaning

  • Focuses on the intention behind the speaker's message.

Lexical Semantics

Referents

  • Referents are words that denote actual items or actions.

    • Words can also convey ideas, mental images, or concepts.

Types of Lexical Relationships

  • Synonyms: Words with similar meanings (e.g., "Couch" and "Sofa").

  • Antonyms: Words with opposite meanings (e.g., "Tall" and "Short").

  • Homophones: Words that sound alike but have different meanings (e.g., "Read" and "Red").

  • Homonyms: Words that share the same spelling and pronunciation but have different meanings (e.g., "Left" relates to direction and past tense of leave).

Lexical Semantics – Semantic Fields

Definition of Semantic Fields

  • Groups of words that share similar relationships, which aid in memory storage and comprehension.

Types of Relationships in Semantic Fields

  • Category Relationships: e.g., Primary (Animals) and Secondary (Animals with fur).

  • Part-whole Relationships: e.g., "Arm" is part of the "Body"; "Seat" is part of a "Chair."

  • Attribute Relationships: e.g., Color, Size, Texture, Smell (e.g., "Blue shirts," "Stinky shirts").

  • Functional Relationships: Focus on use or action, e.g., utensils such as knives, forks, spoons.

Semantic Fields in Education

  • Importance of identifying semantic fields in various educational settings, such as preschool or high school.

Semantics – Taxonomic Levels

Concept of Taxonomic Levels

  • Example of hierarchy in taxonomic levels in language:

    • Poodle (subordinate) is a type of Dog (basic level), which in turn is a type of Animal (superordinate).

  • Children typically learn basic words (e.g., "apple") before more specific or general terms (subordinate or superordinate).

Semantics – Phrasal or Sentential

Phrasal/Sentential Semantics

  • Refers to the meaning of linguistic units larger than individual words.

Examples of Phrasal/Sentential Concepts

  • Tautologies: Statements that are redundant (e.g., "A beginner who has just started").

  • Contradictions: Inherently impossible or illogical statements (e.g., "A round square").

  • Entailments: Where truth of one sentence necessitates the truth of another (e.g., "Jack swims beautifully" entails "Jack swims").

  • Synonymous Phrases/Sentences: Phrases that convey the same meaning (e.g., "Jackie postponed the meeting" is synonymous with "Jackie put off the meeting").

  • Ambiguous Sentences: Phrases that may have multiple interpretations (e.g., "I saw the boy with the telescope on the hill").

  • Anomalies: Sentences that violate semantic rules (e.g., "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously").

  • Metaphors: Ideas that rely on contextual understanding to convey meaning (e.g., "Her voice is like fingernails on a chalkboard").

  • Idioms: Phrases with meanings that are not literally interpretable; require cultural knowledge (e.g., “Kick the bucket”).

Semantics – Tautologies & Contradictions

Truth Conditions

  • Some sentences are contextually determined to be true or false, whereas others are always true (e.g., "Two is an even number") or always false (e.g., "Two is not an even number").

Further Concepts

Entailment

  • Definition: One sentence entails another if the truth of the first guarantees the truth of the second (e.g., "Jack swims beautifully" entails "Jack swims").

Synonyms

  • Definition of synonyms: Two sentences having the same meaning (e.g., "Jackie postponed the meeting" is synonymous with "Jackie put off the meeting").

Contradictions

  • Definition of contradictions: One sentence negates another (e.g., "Jack is alive" contradicts "Jack is dead").

Ambiguity

  • Definition: Ambiguous phrases/sentences have more than one interpretation (e.g., “Juana gave Emily her hat while she was standing at the door").

Anomalies

  • Definition: A sentence is syntactically correct but semantically incorrect (e.g., "The sheep calculated the fulminous red leap").

Metaphors & Idioms

  • Metaphors: Anomalous sentences understood with meaningful context (e.g., "Time is money").

  • Idioms: Phrases with culturally specific meanings (cannot be translated literally).

Semantics – Speech Language Pathology

  • Importance of semantics, similar to phonetics, phonology, and syntax, in assessing language use.

  • Fundamental for understanding how clients/patients use language and learn new vocabulary across the lifespan.

Final Thoughts

Questions Addressed by Semantic Understanding

  • How do children learn words, and what types of words do they learn first?

  • Best practices for teaching new vocabulary to children.

  • Understanding the challenges faced by adults experiencing language retrieval issues (e.g., difficulty finding words).