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• Course: MD ENA124 Linguistics 1 Lexical semantics 1

• Instructor: Elisabeth Wulff Sahlén

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• Agenda:

  • Course information recap

  • Introduction to linguistics & lexical semantics

  • Words and lexemes

  • Lexical relations

  • Other relations

  • Extended (non-literal) meanings

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• Lexical semantics is the study of word meaning and relations between words

• Lexeme: abstract lexical unit

• Different words are related to each other through hyponymy and synonymy

• Polysemy refers to multiple meanings within a lexeme

• Homonymy, homophony, and homography refer to relations in form between separate lexemes

• Metaphor and metonymy are figurative meanings extended from the literal sense of a lexeme

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• Linguistics: the study of human language

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• Linguistics is the scientific study of human language

• Concerned with how languages work and how people use language

• Linguistic rules are patterns discernible at all levels of language and are descriptive, not prescriptive

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• Example sentence: "You don't owe me nothing!"

• Option A: There's nothing wrong with it

• Option B: Using double negatives is illogical

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• Linguistic rules are not based on logic

• Examples of illogical linguistic rules: parkway vs. driveway, maternity dress vs. paternity suit, etc.

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• Descriptive linguistics is not the same as saying that everything goes

• Linguistics 1 studies rules and patterns in lexical semantics, phonetics, and syntax

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• Lexical semantics: the study of word meaning and relations between words

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• Lexical semantics is the study of word meaning

• Goal is to show how the meanings of words in a language are interrelated

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• Examples of words: piece, furniture, shallow, live, carrot, table, day, month, high, cell, hand, body, vegetable, etc.

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• Words and lexemes: word forms and units of meaning

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• Word meanings are defined in part by their relations to other words

• Example: cat - a four-legged animal with soft fur, a long thin tail, and whiskers that people keep as a pet or for catching mice

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• What is a word?

• Examples of sentences with different numbers of words

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• Lexeme: a lexical unit with abstract meaning

• Different forms of a word belong to the same lexeme

• Examples: [BANANA] = banana, bananas; [BE] = be, was, been, am, is, are; kick, put off, kick the bucket

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• Q2 on the handout: How many lexemes are there in this list? duck, run, saw, ran, go, running, ducks, went, see

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• Idiom vs. collocation

• Idiom: frozen combination of words with lost independent meanings

• Collocation: group of words that tend to occur together repeatedly

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• Idioms are stored as units in the mental lexicon

• Collocations may or may not be stored as units in the mental lexicon

• Some semantic modification occurs in collocations

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• Review of lexical semantics

• Lexical semantics studies word meaning and relations between words

• Lexeme is an abstract representation of a word

• Focuses on relations between words, not the number of objects

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• Synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, meronymy

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• Synonyms: words with very similar senses

• Examples: subway/underground, police officer/cop, big/large house

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• Absolute synonyms are very rare

• Example: big sister vs. large sister

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• Antonymy: relation of opposition

• Examples: fast-slow, hit-miss, push-pull, above-below

• Includes different kinds of the same general category

• Co-Hyponyms/taxonic sisters

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• Different types of antonymy: gradable antonyms, complementary pairs, reverses, taxonomic sisters, converses

• All referred to as antonymy

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• Hyponymy: hierarchical relation between a general word and a more specific word of the same kind

• Example: red is a kind of color

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• Meronymy: part-whole relation

• Example: a nose is a part of a face

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• Review of relations: synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, meronymy

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• Other relations: polysemy, homonymy, homophony, homography

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• Examples of the word "bank"

  • Grissom has lots of money in the bank.

  • Last time Warrick played Black Jack, he didn’t win one game against the bank.

  • Sara and Grissom had a picnic on the river bank.

  • Nick wants to donate one of his kidneys to an organ bank.

• Identify the odd one out and explain why.

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• Polysemy

  • A lexeme that has two or more distinct but related meanings.

  • Example: "head" has multiple meanings such as "body part," "mind," and "top part."

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• Homonymy

  • Homonyms are separate lexemes with unrelated meanings but identical sound and spelling.

  • Example: "lap" can mean the last lap of a race or a person's lap where a cat settles.

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• Determine if the examples are polysemy or homonymy.

  • Grissom has lots of money in the bank. P

  • Last time Warrick played Black Jack, he didn’t win one game against the bank. P

  • Sara and Grissom had a picnic on the river bank. H with the others

  • Nick wants to donate one of his kidneys to an organ bank. P

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• Homonymy, homophony & homography

• Full homonymy: same pronunciation and spelling.

• Partial homonymy:

  • Homophony: same pronunciation, different spelling.

  • Homography: same spelling, different pronunciation.

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• Homophony

• Homophones are separate lexemes that sound the same but are spelled differently.

• Examples: "mailed" and "males," "weather" and "whether."

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• Homography

• Homographs are separate lexemes that have the same spelling but different pronunciations.

• Examples: "dove" (past tense of dive) and "dove" (a kind of bird).

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• Distinguishing between homonymy, homophony, and homography.

• For words to be homonyms, both spelling and pronunciation must be the same.

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• Review of relations:

  • Polysemy

  • Homonymy/homonyms

  • Homophony/homophones

  • Homography/homographs

• Work with a neighbor to find examples of each relation.

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• Polysemy and homonymy relations may cause ambiguity.

• They can be exploited in punning (word play).

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• Explaining puns using lexical semantics terminology.

• Examples of puns:

  • Why is 6 afraid of 7? – Because 789.

  • An hourglass is a waist of time.

  • What did the grape say when it got stepped on? Nothing - but it let out a little whine.

  • A prisoner’s favorite punctuation mark is the period because it marks the end of his sentence.

  • Shop for Star Wars paraphernalia at the Darth Mall.

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• Extended meanings: Metaphor and Metonymy.

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• Extended meanings

• Non-literal uses of language.

• Figurative meanings: metaphor and metonymy.

• Examples of literal and metaphorical meanings.

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• Metaphor

• Perceived similarity between literal and metaphorical meaning.

• Examples of metaphorical statements.

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• Metonymy

• Based on association rather than similarity.

• Examples of metonymy.

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• Determine if the examples are metaphor or metonymy and provide reasons.

• Examples:

  • FBI caught a mole.

  • The thieves stole our silver.

  • Her silver hair is beautiful.

  • I need a new mouse for my PC.

  • The ham sandwich at table 3 is waiting for his check.

  • It’s nice to see some new faces around here.

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• Summary of lexical semantics:

  • Study of word meaning and relations between words.

  • Lexeme: abstract lexical unit.

  • Various ways words are related: hyponymy, synonymy.

  • Polysemy: multiple meaning relations within a lexeme.

  • Homonymy, homophony, and homography: relations in form between separate lexemes.

  • Metaphor and metonymy: figurative meanings extended from literal sense of a lexeme.

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• Instructions for Lexical semantics 2:

  • Read course information on Canvas.

  • Prepare according to instructions.

  • Complete lexical semantics worksheet A.

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• Last pun before ending the lecture.

• Pun involving the IRS and a Jedi master.

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• Thank you!