SemanticsAdapted in part from

http://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/Spring_2001/ling001/meaning_relations.html

1st class

Chapter 5

Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913)

Every linguistic sign has two Every linguistic sign has two components:components:

signifiersignifier (French (French signifiantsignifiant): ): the "sound image" or form, i.e. the "sound image" or form, i.e. pronunciationpronunciation

signifiedsignified (French (French signifiésignifié): ): the concept represented, i.e. the concept represented, i.e. meaning meaning

Cognitive Linguistics

Signifier (pronunciation) Signified (“the world out there”) Intermediate level conceptualization

Language provides prompts for the construction of much richer realizations (language is much more limited than thought)

Signs are arbitrary: English dog French chien Spanish perro Portuguese cachorro German Hund Russian sobaka Hebrew kelev Japanese inu Mandarin gou

Lexical semantics

Lexical semantics deals with the complex meanings of words and their interrelationships.

Semantic properties

The idea: we can break down words into their component meanings:• Semantic property is a notational device

used to express the presence or absence of semantic properties (usually indicated by plus and minus signs).

• woman [+human, +adult, +female]

• girl [+human, -adult, +female]

• cow [+bovine, +adult, + female]

Semantic Properties

Ex.: What semantic property differentiates the following sets of words:

1. table, chair, pencil vs. love, thought, idea2. table, chair, pencil vs. water, dirt, air3. run, fly, swim vs. sleep, read, listen

Keys: 1. [-/+abstract]; 2. [-/+natural]; 3. [+/-movement]

The advantage:

We can see how some words relate to each other • e.g., “look (at)” & listen (to)” both have the

feature [+volition] compared to their [-volition] counterparts “see” and “hear”

Problems with semantic property analysis

The problem: some words can’t be broken down into binary distinctions (e.g. color terms)

Another problem: componential analysis does not capture prototypicality: certain objects are more or less typical examples of their category (robin, sparrow, penguin, ostrich, hawk)

Ex. 1 (textbook, p. 222-223): Questions A-G

Semantic relationships

Why are the following sentences strange?• I like bananas, but even more than that I like

fruit.

• I like all kinds of fruit except for bacon.

• I enjoy playing with dogs and other cats.

Words are related to each other in a variety of ways (in terms of morphology and syntax; in terms of form; in terms of meaning)

Synonymy & Antonymy

There are no true synonymscan you think of sentences where you

can/can’t use the words to mean the same thing?

small,littleannoy, irritateinexpensive, cheap

•Words are not absolutely the same in meaning as perfect synonyms.

•begin/ start cannot always be used interchangeably.

•start an engine; *begin an engine

•big/ large: a big brother; *a large brother

Denotation vs. connotation

denotation: The most specific or direct meaning of a word, in contrast to its figurative or associated meanings.

connotation: The set of associations implied by a word in addition to its literal meaning.

Near synonyms frequently have the same denotation but different connotations.(example: “woman” and “chick”)

Examples

She’s skinny/she’s thin. Pass the salt (at the dinner table)/pass

the sodium chloride (in the lab). He passed away/died/kicked the bucket.

Antonyms: types

(1) Complementary pairs: pairs that exhaust all possibilities along some dimension. There are only two values in this semantic feature as represented by the members of the pair. (alive/dead)

• There is a either/or relationship: There is no third possibility.

• A person is either alive or dead.

• Examples: natural/man-made, concrete/ abstract, native/nonnative, grammatical/ungrammatical

• Alive/dead, married/single

Antonyms: types

(2) Gradable antonyms• Scale from X to Y

• Fast/slow, hot/cold, happy/unhappy

Test for gradability: can you use “very? • Very large/very small

• *Very first/very last • One member of gradable antonyms is unmarked

and the other marked. “old/young”

Polar opposites Unmarked (privileged) vs. marked:

• old/young, long/short, heavy/lightfast/slow, deep/shallow

When you want to ask a question, it’s normal to use the first word (unmarked): • How old/long/heavy/fast/deep is it?

Using the marked form makes a presupposition: • How shallow is it? (it’s definitely shallow)• How young is she? (maybe too young for you) • ?How young is your great-grandmother?

Relational antonyms

Relational antonyms have symmetrical meaning; you can’t have one without the other: • Prepositions

• over / under, before / after, in front of / behind

• Verbs• follow / precede, buy / sell. borrow / lend, bequeath

/ inherit

• Nouns• wife / husband, ancestor / descendant, guest / host

Antonyms

•The three types of antonyms can be illustrated in the following figures:

Complementary alive dead

Gradable cold cool warm hot

Relational

above

below

Homonymy vs. polysemy

two words are homonyms if they are (coincidentally) pronounced the same: • Too, to and two

• lead (the metal) and led (the past tense)

• pool table and swimming pool

a single word is polysemous if it has several meanings: • louse the bug and louse the despicable person

• pool of water on the ground and swimming pool

Generally, homonyms are separate entries in a dictionary, while polysemous words list several definitions under the same entry

Homonymous or polysemous? • Bad news/bad boy

• Bear arms/grizzly bear/bare arms

• Turn into an alley/turn into a frog

• Beech tree/beach

• Sole (fish)/sole (of foot)/sole (only)

• Mean (humble)/mean (nasty)

Hyponymy

Hyponymy ("under-name") is the relation between a more general and more specific word, a relation of inclusion.

If you can say: all X's are also Y's then this means: X is a hyponym of Y

• For example, oak contains all the meanings of tree. thus, oak is a hyponym of tree and tree is the superordinate.

Hyponym SuperordinateNouns mouse rodent

car vehicle thief criminal

Verbs punch hitlook see

Adj. scarlet red alert awake

Other relationships

Metonym: Substituting the name of an attribute or related idea for the actual name (e.g., A Mercedes rear-ended me; The White House has a lot of power; I like to listen to Mozart)

Retronym: word combinations that used to be redundant but no longer are (e.g., surface mail, whole milk)

Part/whole: toe/foot, hand/body

Metaphors

Metaphorical extension: an icy stare/the cold shoulder/a heated argument

Phrase meaning

Verb phrases and thematic roles• Noun phrases may have different semantic

relationships with the verbs they are used together with. The relationship depends on the verb that is used.

• In the sentence “the boy found a book”, • the boy is the one who performs an action, or the doer

of the action (of finding). The boy is called the agent:

• the NP ‘a book’ is the one or thing that undergoes an action. “A book” is called the theme:

• Agent and theme are the semantic relationships between the verb and the noun phrases, which is called the thematic roles of the verb.

Phrase Meaning• Besides agent and theme, there are some other thematic roles. • He stays in the hotel.

• Location: the place where an action takes place.

• Put the book on the desk• Goal: the place to which an action is directed.

• Walk from the school• Source: the place from which an action originates.

• Write with a pen• Instrument: the means by which an action is performed.

• The wind damaged the roof.• Causative: a natural force that causes a change.

• Helen heard Robert playing the piano.• Experiencer: one who perceives something.

• The tail of the dog wagged furiously. • Possessor: one who has something