INTRODUCTION

Semantics is the technical term used to refer to the study of meaning, and, since meaning is a

part of language, semantics is a part of linguistics. Semantics is the branch of linguistics that

deals with the study of meaning, changes in meaning, and the principles that govern the

relationship between sentences or words and their meanings. It is the study of the relationships

between signs and symbols and what they represent.

An understanding of semantics is essential to the study of language acquisition. The study of

semantics includes the study of how meaning is constructed, interpreted, clarified, obscured,

illustrated, simplified, negotiated, contradicted, and paraphrased

The noun semantics and the adjective semantic are derived from the Greek word semantikos

(“significant”).

In linguistics, semantics is the subfield that is devoted to the study of meaning, as borne on the

syntactic levels of words, phrases, sentences, and sometimes larger units of discourse, generically

referred to as texts.

•To understand language we need to know the meaning of words and the morphemes that

compose them. We also must know how the meanings of words combine into phrases and

sentence meanings. Finally, we must consider context when determining meaning.

• The study of the linguistic meaning of morphemes, words, phrases, and sentences is called

Semantics.

Some important areas of semantic theory or related subjects include these:

• Words and lexemes

• Denotation and connotation

• Synonym and antonym

• Homonym and Homophones

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• Hyponymy and homograph

• Collocation and Idiom

• Polysemy

• Lexicology and lexicography

Semantics is the study of meaning in language. Although it can be conceived as concerned

with meaning in general, it is often confined to those aspects which are relatively stable and

context-free, in contrast to pragmatics, which is concerned with meaning variation with context.

Semantics is sometimes described as concerned with the relation of linguistic forms to states of

the world; more sensibly, it may be seen as concerned with the relation of linguistic forms to non-

linguistic concepts and mental representations, as well as with relationship, of meaning between

linguistic forms, such as synonymy, antonymy and hyponymy. Semantic theories have influenced

approaches to describing word meaning, and are thus particularly relevant to Lexicography and

vocabulary teaching.

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UNIT I. THE MAIN AREAS OF SEMANTICS

Lesson 1. Linguistic Semantics

Linguistic Semantics is concerned with the relationship between form and meaning.

Lesson 2. General Semantics

General Semantics is concerned with how events translate to perceptions, how they are further

modified by the names and labels we apply to them and how we might gain a measure of control

over our own responses, emotional and behaviour.

Lesson 3. Cultural Semantics

Cultural Semantics is concerned with the way though people thinks, either outlooks attitudes,

values, moral and costumes by a society.

Lesson 4. Philosophical Semantics

Philosophical Semantics is concerned on development of that can be attributed to an interaction

of several trans and various discipline.

•What is the use of Semantics?

The use of semantics is to propose exact meaning of words and phrases and remove confusion

which might lead the reader to believe a word has many possible meanings.

•What are the major concerns in Semantics?

The field of Semantics has three basic concerns:

1. The relations of words to the objects denoted by them

2. The relations of words to the interpreters of them and in symbolic logic.

3. The formal relationship of signs to one another.

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Example of Semantics

1. Synonyms

2. Antonyms

3. Homonyms

4. Derivational

5. Inflectional

Activity

Differentiate the 4 main areas of semantics. ( 5 points each)

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UNIT II. TYPES OF SEMANTICS OR MEANINGS

Lesson 1. Conceptual Meaning

Conceptual meaning is concerned with the relationship between a word and the thing it

denotes or relates.

Ex. When you formulate an abstract philosophy to explain the world which cannot be

proven or seen.

Lesson 2. Connotative Meaning

Connotative meaning is a multitude of additional, non-criterial, including not only

physical characteristics but also psychological and social properties, as well as typical

features.

Lesson 3. Stylistics Meaning

Stylistics meaning is the meaning is created specifically by the use of language. When we

say the same thing in different ways the stylistic meaning is created.

Ex. He died and He expired--- the word died and expired may mean the same but in

different ways.

Lesson 4. Affective Meaning

Affective meaning is focus on emotion and feelings.

Ex. I feel very sorry.

Lesson 5. Reflective Meaning

Reflective meaning - sense of lexical relation.

Ex. The Beauty and The Beast

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Lesson 6. Collocative Meaning

Collocative meaning refers to association of a word because of its usual or habitual co-

occurrence with certain types of words.

Ex. blue is a color, but it is also a word used to describe a feeling of sadness, as in: “She's

feeling blue.”

Lesson 7. Thematic Meaning

Thematic meaning refers to what is communicated by the way in which a speaker or a

writer organize the message in terms of ordering focus and emphasis.

Ex. movies about super heroes.

Activity

Define the given words in your own opinion.

1. Affective meaning

2. Conceptual meaning

3. Stylistic meaning

4. Connotative meaning

5. Reflective meaning

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UNIT III. EXAMPLES OF SEMANTICS

Semantics - is the study of meaning in language .It can be applied to entire texts or to a

single word.

Ex. “destination and last stop” technically mean the same thing, but student of

semantics analyze their subtle shades of meaning.

Connotation - to the wide array of positive and negative associations that most words

naturally carry with them. It is created when you mean something else, something that

might be initially hidden. It is based on implication.

Ex. Maria is chicken.

Denotation – is when you mean what you say literally.

-literal definition of a word that might be found in dictionary.

Ex. The girl was blue. You mean the girl was quite literally the color

blue.

Simile - is a figure of speech that compares two different things in an interesting way.

-uses the word “like” and “as” to draw a comparison

Ex. She is an innocent as an angel.

Metaphor – is a figure of speech that describes an object or an action in a way that isn’t

literally true but helps to explain an idea or make a comparison.

Ex. She is an angel

Activity

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Give the meaning of denotation, simile, connotation and metaphor. Give an example of each.

UNIT IV. THEORIES OF SEMANTICS

SEMANTICS is derived from French word sémantique, applied by MICHEL BRÉAL

(1883) to the psychology of language, from Greek semantikos from

semainein"signify" from sema "sign.Semantics is the study of the meaning of words,

phrases and sentences. Every language has the source of expression of meaningful ideas.

This term refers to the study of meaning and the systematic ways those meanings are

expressed in language.

The structure of a language expresses the meaning which exists in one's mind. The idea

may be conveyed through the written and spoken forms of a language. As semantics is

the study of meaning in language and language is used to express meanings which can be

understood by others. So, semantics is that level of linguistics analysis where meaning is

analysed. It is the most abstract level of linguistics analysis since one cannot see or

observes meaning as one can observe and record sounds. Meaning is related very closely

to the human capacity to think logically and to understand. Longman Dictionary of

Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics by JACK C. RICHARDS and

RICHARD SCHMIDT defines Semantics as:

“The study of meaning. There are many different approaches to the way in which

meaning in language is studied.”

A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics by DAVID CRYSTAL defines it as:

 “A major branch of linguistics devoted to the study of meaning in language.”

According to A Dictionary of Literary Terms by MARTIN GRAY:

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"The study of the meaning of words: how words express their meanings, and how their

meanings have changed in time."

There are some explanation or theories of semantics based on the structuralist approach.

Some give an account of word meaning whereas others attempt to account sentence

meaning. There are four major theories of meaning as follows:

COMPONENTIAL ANALYSIS

Componential analysis means the study of meaning by analysing the different

parts of words. This theory is based on the structural approach gives an account of word

meaning. The total meaning of a word is broken up into its distinct component of

meaning is expressed by some feature symbol with a + or - mark indicating the presence

or absence of the certain feature. In the following,  we can consider some features as:

Human: + Human (human being)

-Human ( animal )

-Adult ( young )

+Male: -Male ( Female )

Subsequently, the meanings of some individual words can be expressed by the

combinations of these features.

It may be noted that componential analysis of this kind treats components in terms of

binary opposites,  I.e + or - feature. However, this works only where there is a dear

distinction that of male vs female, human vs animal, married vs unmarried.

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Componential analysis helps us to understand meaning relation such as synonymy and

antonymy. These are helpful in making conceptual distinctions and contrasts for the

understanding of the meaning.

TRUTH-COMPONENTIAL THEORY

It attempts to explain the logical meaning of sentences, treating a sentence as a logical

proposition which can be either true or false. It doesn't refer to the external world but to

the logical relations existing between propositions. One has to explain accounts for

certain semantic categories and relationships which apply to sentences. These categories

can be called Basic Statements. The basic statement is a logical proposition which is

either true or false. For example, we have a sentence 'John is in his office.' This statement

will be true if the statement 'John is at home' is false. The basic statement will be related

to other statements in terms of following:

i.  Synonymy:

Statement X is synonymous with statement Y when if X is true, Y is also true, if X is

false, Y is also false. Thus He is married is synonymous with He has a wife.

(ii) Entailment:

Statement X entails statement Y when if X is true, Y is true; if X is false, Y is false. He is

married entails He has a wife. ( Entailment and synonymy are similar).

(iii) Inconsistent:

Statement X is inconsistent with statement Y when if X is true, Y is false; if Y is true, X

is false. He is not married is inconsistent with He has a wife.

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(iv) Tautology:

(A statement in which you say the same thing twice in different words, when this is

unnecessary). Statement X is invariably true, for example, An orphan has no father.

(v) Contradiction:

Statement X is invariably false, for example, An orphan has a father.

(vi) Presupposition:

Statement X is presupposed statement Y when if X is true, Y is true; if the negation of X

is true, Y is true. It pleases John that the weather is hot presupposes the weather is hot.

(vii) Anomaly or Absurdity:

Statement X is absurd in that it presupposes a contradiction, for example, The orphan's

father is at home ' presupposes that The orphan has a father' which is a contradiction, and

is therefore absurd. Thus according to truth-conditional semantics, to know the meaning

of a sentence is to know the conditions under which it is true.

THE GENERATIVE THEORY

It deals with meaning as deep structure, where lexical items with particular features are

selected to combine with others to generate a meaningful sentence.

At the level of deep structure, lexical items are inserted into syntactic forms, with the

application of ' selection restrictions' and concepts such as subject and object are defined.

Selection restrictions are the rules regarding the acceptable combination of lexical items

in a language. These rules prevent the generation of unmeaningful sentences such as

'colourless green ideas sleep furiously' or combinations such as 'red hope'.

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 Similarly, frightened and scared are verbs both of which contain the meaning of fear, and

have the same selection restrictions, for example, The idea frightened the girl and The

idea scared the girl are both acceptable but neither The girl frightened the idea nor The

girl scared the idea is acceptable. Therefore, scared and frightened are synonyms.

THE CONTEXTUAL THEORY

Contextual theories deal with the context of the use of words and sentences by the

speaker of a language. When the meaning of a word or sentence is analysed, the set of

features from the external world or the context of the situation becomes relevant, I.e .who

is the speaker,  who is the hearer, what is the role of each and the relationship of the two,

what situation they are in. According to Firth ( 1957 ), language is only meaningful in the

context of the situation. For example, the sentence 'it is raining cats and dogs' is

grammatically, but will not be meaningful if ( a ) it is not actually raining and ( b ) if the

speaker is making a formal speech. The context of situation refers to the situation of

discourse, I.e, the context in which that particular is uttered.

To conclude, semantics is the study of meaning in language. There are some major

theories such as Componential ( analyzing the different parts of words) Truth-conditional

( explaining logical sentence as true or false) Generative ( dealing the meaning as deep

structure) and Contextual ( dealing with the context in use of words). Through these

theories, the semanticists try to know the reasons which sentence is meaningful and

which are not.

Activity

Identify the following.

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______1. It means the study of meaning by analysing the different parts of words

______2. It attempts to explain the logical meaning of sentences, treating a sentence as a

logical proposition which can be either true or false

______3. It deals with meaning as deep structure, where lexical items with particular

features are selected to combine with others to generate a meaningful sentence.

______4. It deals with the context of the use of words and sentences by the speaker of a

language.

______5. It is derived from French word sémantique

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UNIT V. DIFFERENTIATE FORMAL SEMANTICS, LEXICAL SEMANTICS AND

CONCEPTUAL SEMANTICS

FORMAL SEMANTICS 

- uses techniques from math, philosophy, and logic to analyze the broader

relationship between language and reality, truth and possibility. 

- Is about the meaning the meaning of syntactically complex expressions.

- Literally means “using formal methods for the study of meaning

Examples:

a. I do not have ace of hearts.

b. I have the ace of hearts.

(a)is true if (b) is false and vice versa

Formal semantics is not concerned with

1.diachronic semantics

2.stylistics

3.lexical semantics

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 Formal Semantics of Programming Languages - provides the basic mathematical

techniques necessary for those who are beginning a study of the semantics and logics

of programming languages.

LEXICAL SEMANTICS

- (also known as lexicosemantics), is a subfield of linguistic semantics. The units of

analysis in lexical semantics are lexical units which include not only words but also sub-

words or sub-units such as affixes and even compound words and phrases. Lexical units

make up the catalogue of words in a language, the lexicon. Lexical semantics looks at

how the meaning of the lexical units correlates with the structure of the language or

syntax. This is referred to as syntax-semantic interface.

Lexical units, also referred to as syntactic atoms, can stand alone such as in the case of

root words or parts of compound words or they necessarily attach to other units such as

prefixes and suffixes do. The former are called free morphemes and the latter bound

morphemes. They fall into a narrow range of meanings (semantic fields) and can combine

with each other to generate new meanings.

Lexical items contain information about category (lexical and syntactic), form and

meaning. The semantics related to these categories then relate to each lexical item in the

lexicon. Lexical items can also be semantically classified based on whether their

meanings are derived from single lexical units or from their surrounding environment.

Lexical items participate in regular patterns of association with each other. Some

relations between lexical items include synonymy, antonym, hyponymy,

metonymy/partonymy, holonymy, polysymy, and homophony.

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8 Types of Lexical Relationship

1. SYNONYMY

- Words that mean the same (or at least a similar) thing.

Ex. 1. Run and rush

2. Sleep and doze

2. ANTONYMY

- Words that have similar opposite meaning

- 3 subtypes:

-RELATIONAL: Opposite sides of a relationship.

Ex. 1. Child and parent

2.buyer and seller

3. HYPONYMY

- Words that a subset of another

Ex. Colours – white,green,blue,black

4. HYPERNYMY

- Words that are a superset of another.

- Opposite of hyponymy.

Ex. Animals – cat,fox,rabbit

5. MERONYMY/PARTONYMY

- A word that is a part of another.

- Hyponymy is when one items is part of a large set,

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 Meronymy is when one item is literally a part of another thing.

Ex. Thumb as part of hand

6. HOLONYMY

- A word that a whole made of parts.

- ‘X’ as having ‘Y’ as a component

- The opposite of meronymy.

Ex. Hand as having thumb

7. POLYSYMY

- Two words that are pronounces the same.

- The meaning of both words is clearly related.

Ex. Book(N) vs book(V)

8. HOMOPOHONY

- Two words that are pronounced the same.

- The meaning of both words are not clearly related.

Ex. Site vs sight

CONCEPTUAL SEMANTICS

- is a framework for semantic analysis developed mainly by Ray Jackendoff in 1976.

The aim of Conceptual Semantics:

• Is to provide a characterization of the conceptual elements by which a person

understands words and sentences, and thus to provide an explanatory semantic

representation (title of a Jackendoff 1976 paper).

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Explanatory in this sense refers to the ability of a given linguistic theory to describe

how a component of language is acquired by a child (as proposed by Noam Chomsky;

see Levels of adequacy).

Recently, conceptual semantics in particular, and lexical semantics in general,

have taken on increasing importance in linguistics and psycholinguistics. Many

contemporary theories of syntax (how sentences are constructed from individual words)

rely on elements that are idiosyncratic to words themselves. As a result, a sound theory

accounting for the properties of the meanings of words is required.

Meaning and Decomposition

Jackendoff has claimed that the goal of conceptual semantics is to investigate:

" how linguistic utterances are related to human cognition, where cognition is a

human capacity that is to a considerable degree independent of language,

interacting with the perceptual and action systems as well as language."

— (Jackendoff 2006:355)

Conceptual semantics distinguishes a single, universal meaning to a word. Instead of

having a lexical semantic meaning in addition to the conceptual representation of the

actual referent, here the two are combined into what Jackendoff calls "lexical concepts"

(Murphy 2010:59).

Just as one of the ways a physical scientist tries to understand matter is by breaking it

down into progressively smaller parts, so a scientific study of conceptualization proceeds

by breaking down, or decomposing, meanings into smaller parts. However, this

decomposition cannot go on forever, for at some point, meanings can no longer be broken

down

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Activity

Give the differences between formal, lexical and conceptual semantics on your own

understanding.

UNIT VI. COLLOCATION

Collocation -are words that naturally go together. It is where some words fit together and

some words don’t. It also helps you sound natural and help you structure the language

properly.

Ex. Fast food – collocation

Quick food – not collocation

Super-fast train – collocation

Quick train – nit collocation

Example sentence. There was hard traffic on the way to the office.—collocation

There was bad traffic on the way to the office.--- not collocation

Different Types of Collocation

1. Adverb + adjective

2. Adjective + noun

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3. Noun + verb

4. Verb + noun

5. Noun + noun

6. Verb + adverb

7. Verb + expression with preposition

Examples

1.adverb + adjective

Ex. Totally different.

Sentence: Today, I’m going to do something totally different from the usual.

2.noun + verb

Ex. To roar, dog barking

Sentence: The lion started to roar when it heard the dog barking.

3.verb + noun

Ex. Do my work

Sentence: I always try to do my homework in the morning.

4.noun + noun

Ex. Round of applause

Sentence: Let’s give Mr. Jonas a round of applause.

5.verb + adverb

Ex. Listen carefully

Sentence: I listen carefully to my teacher.

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 6.verb + Expression with preposition

Ex. Run out of money

Sentence: We had to return home because we had run out of money.

7.adjective + noun

Ex. Nice wedding

Sentence: Last week, I went to a nice weeding.

Activity

Give the different types of collocation.

UNIT VII. CONNOTATION

Connotation-refers to a meaning suggested or implied by the use of particular word,

beyond its literal meaning.

•Connotation tends to be concerned with implicit meaning.

•Connotation impacts how readers perceive to overall meaning of what a writer or

speaker is trying to communicate.

Ex. This clothing is affordable!

This clothing is cheap!

Noted : Many words will share the same literal meaning but may connote different

feelings or ideas.

Types of Connotation

1. Positive connotation

2. Negative connotation

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 3. Neutral connotation

Activity

Identify the positive and negative connotation, each number contain a positive and

negative.

1. FUN vs. INTERESTING

2. EXTRAVAGANT vs. GENEROUS

3. EGOTISTICAL vs. CONFIDENT

. REDUCED vs. SLASHED

5.ANXIOUS vs. EXCITED

6. NOSY vs. CURIOUS

7. SIMPLE vs. DUMB

8. ENERGETIC vs. HYPERACTIVE

9. UNIQUE vs. WEIRD

10. RESERVED vs. TIMID

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UNIT VIII. COREFERENCE

Coreference

-occurs when two or more expressions in a text refers to the same person or thing; they

have the same referent.

Coreference is the main concept underlying binding phenomena in the field of syntax.

Distinction of Coreference

1.Anaphora – it is the use of an expression that depends specially upon the

antecedent expression.

Ex. The music was so loud that it couldn’t be enjoyed.

Shelly arrived but nobody saw her.

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 2.Cataphora – it is the use of an expression that depends upon the postcedent

expression.

Ex. Before her arrival, nobody saw Shelly.

3.Split antecedents – it is an anaphoric expression where the pronoun refers to

more than one antecedent.

Ex. Andrew convinced Jessy to move to Barcelona.Now,both enjoy living close

to the sea.

Jacob told Jayson to attend the party. They arrive together.

4. Coreferring noun phrase – it is an anaphoric example of a situation in which

the second noun phrase is a reference to an earlier descriptive form of an

expression.

Ex. The project leader is refusing to help. The guy thinks only of himself.

Many seniors are ailing. These kinds of people hardly get over the covid – 19.

5.Bound variable – they can look like coreference but actually is Not.

Ex. Every student has received his grade.

No student was upset with his grade.

Activity

1.What is an Anaphora?

2.What is Bound variable?

3.What is Coreferring noun phrase?

4.What is Split antecedents?

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5.What is Cataphora?

UNIT IX. IDIOMS

What are Idioms?

Idioms are used in communicating. It is useful when trying to convey a feeling or

emotion. Some of them are funny and light hearted.

Examples

1. As white as a sheet

What does it mean?

Meaning : Someone who is very white.

Sentence : Her legs are as white as a sheet.

2. He/she spilled the beans.

What does it mean?

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 Meaning : To tell a secret

Sentence : Melissa spilled the beans and told our secret.

3. Don’t have a cow

What does it mean?

Meaning : Don’t get upset or angry

Sentence : Don’t have a cow, it just a joke.

4. All ears

What does it mean?

Meaning : To listen to someone

Sentence : Talk to me, I’m all ears.

5. Blind date

What does it mean?

Meaning : To go on a date with someone you don’t know

Sentence : Tonight is my blind date with Joe.

6. Black out

What does it mean?

Meaning : To pass out

Sentence : Call a doctor, she blacked out.

7. Brow bag it

What does it mean?

Meaning : To bring your own lunch to class/work.

Sentence : To save money, I brown bag it.

8. To have the blues

What does it mean?

Meaning : To be sad or depressed

Sentence : Sometimes I feel so blue.

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 9. Deck out in (something)

What does it mean?

Meaning : To be dressed fancy

Sentence : She’s decked out in a nice blouse.

10. Have ants in your pants

What does it mean?

Meaning : To be restless or nervous

Sentence : Telma appears to have an ants in her pant

Activity

Give the meaning of idioms in your own words and give at least 10 examples.

UNIT X. COMPOUND WORDS

Compound words

-are words made of two smaller words.

Ex. Blue+bird=bluebird

Sentence : A bluebird is a bird with blue feathers.

•Knowing the words that compound words helps us to determine the meaning of a

compound word.

•However, there are some compound words that we cannot derive its meaning from the

two words that comprise it.

Ex. 1. butter + fly = butterfly

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 Noted : But it does not mean that a butterfly is a butter that flies.

2 .hot + dog = hotdog

Noted : But it does not mean that hotdog is a dog which is hot.

Different Kinds of Compound Words

1. Closed Compound Nouns -  simply push two words together to form a single word,

with no additional punctuation or spaces.

Ex. 1.football

2.flowerpot

2. Open Compound Nouns -  a compound whose word components are separated by a

space in printing or writing — compare solid compound.

Ex. 1.electric fan

2.ice cream

3. Hyphenated Compound Nouns - connect two or more words with one or more

hyphens between them.

Ex. 1.editor-in-chief

2.officer-in-chargel

Activity

Which of these words are compound words?

1. Camper

2. Doghouse

3. Sleeping

4. Butterfly

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 5. Lighthouse

6. Football

7. Flowerpot

Read the sentence. Find the compound word.

1. Sam will go inside the house.

2. I will eat cake on my birthday.

3. Dad put on a blue necktie.

UNIT XI. HOMONYMS

Definition of Homonyms

•Homonyms are words that are spelled the same and also sound the same, but they have

different meanings.

•The word “homonym” comes from the prefix “homo” which means the same and the

suffix “-nym” which means name.

Ex. 1.bark – to make the characteristic short loud cry of a dog

bark – the outside covering of the trunk, branches and roots of a tree.

Sentence : The just wants to bark at that tree bark.

2.bat – mammals

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 bat – wooden implement

Sentence : I am going to use a bat to hit that bat flying around.

3.bear – being able to withstand something

bear – an animal

Sentence : How can you bear being so close to that bear.

4.rose – a flower

rose – to get up

Sentence : He rose from his seat to give her a rose.

5.mouse – use in computer

mouse – a rodent with a long tail

Sentence : There is a mouse lurking near the mouse on the desk.

Activity.

Define homonyms in your own idea and give 5 examples.

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UNIT XII. DENOTATION

Denotation

- means the literary definition of a word.

Ex. 1.The girl was blue.

You mean the girl was quite literally the color blue.

2.You are a dog.

You mean that the animal is literally a carnivorous domesticated animal with fur and a

snout.

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 • Denotation is the literal meaning of the word. It can easily get confused

with connotation. Therefore, it is important to look at connotation vs. denotation.

Denotation vs. Connotation

While denotation is the literal meaning of the word, connotation is a feeling or indirect

meaning. For example:

 Denotation: blue (color blue)

 Connotation: blue (feeling sad)

• Depending on whether you are using connotation or denotation, the sentence “She was

blue” could mean she was literally blue or she was sad.

Here’s another example to really drive this home.

 Denotation: dog (animal)

 Connotation: dog (ugly)

Activity

1.What is Denotation?

2.What is Connotation?

3.Give example of denotation.

4.Give example of connotation.

5.Denotation means direct meaning while connotation means indirect meaning.

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UNIT XIII. INFLECTIONAL MORPHEME

What are inflectional morphemes?

Morphemes which do not have meaning by their own, but change grammatical functions

of other morphemes when are added, such as {s} or {es} for plural nouns.

Kinds of inflectional morphemes

1. For nouns

a. plural

b. Possessive

2. For verbs

a.. Present

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 b. Past

c. Ing

d. Participle

3. For adjectives

a. Comparative

b. superlative

Nouns

Plural: {-s} such as in (the birds)

Possessive: {-s} such as in (the bird’s song}

Pronunciation of such noun’s morphemes

1. When nouns end with voiceless sounds like /k/, the plural or possessive

morpheme is pronounced as /s/, such as in /Turks/ and /Turk’s/.

2. when nouns end with voiced sounds like /l/, the plural or possessive

morpheme is pronounces as /z/, such as in /girls/ and /girl’s/.

3. when nouns end with one of the /ch/, /sh/, /s/, /z/, /j/ the final s, es, ‘s or s’ are

pronounced as /Iz/ such as in in /roses/,/kisses/, /judges’/.

Verbs

1. Present: {-s} such as in (He works) and {-es} such as in (She cries).

2. Past: {-d} such as in (liked) and {-ed} such (worked)

3. Progressive: {-ing} such as in (speaking).

4. Participle: {-en} such as in (eaten)

Adjectives

1. Comparative: {-er} such as in (prettier).

2. superlative: {-est} such as in (prettiest).

Activity

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Define inflectional morphemes in your own understanding.

UNIT XIV. SUFFIXES

A suffix is a word part added to the end of a base word.

Example:

The lead mare had power in the band of mustangs, but the stallion was more powerful.

• Each suffix has its own meaning. The suffix –ful means full of.

• It is possible for a base word to have both a prefix and a suffix.

Example

She is really unlikeable.

• The prefix un- means not and suffix –able means able to be; therefore, the word

unlikeable means not being able to be liked.

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 • Spelling note: Adding a prefix to a base word will not change the spelling of the base

word. Adding a suffix to a base word certainly can change the spelling of the base word.

What are suffixes used for?

• A suffix is a string of letters that go at the end of a root word, changing or adding to its

meaning.

•  Suffixes can show if a word is a noun, an adjective, an adverb or a verb.

• The suffixes -er and -est are also used to form the comparative and superlative forms of

adjectives and some adverbs.

Suffix Chart

Suffixes Meaning Example Meaning

-able Able to be Wearable Able to be worn
-er One who does Walker One who walks
-ish Like; somewhat Greenish Somewhat green
-less Without Fearless Without fear
-ness Quality of being Kindness Quality of being kind
-ful Full of Powerful Full of power

Activity

Identify the word with a suffix.

1. His meal wasn’t good, but it was enable.

2. He is the distance runner on the track team.

3 The fingernail polish was a pinkish color.

4. That cat is worthless to hunt mice.

5. His smartness impressed everyone who met him.

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UNIT XV. HOMOPHONES

Homophones

-words that the same sound but mean different things and have different spelling.

Ex. 1.are(v) – a form of a verb “to be”, indicating a state of being.

our(possessive pronoun) – belonging to us.

Sentence : Are you going to join our dance?

2.hear(v) – to perceive a sound with the ear

here(adverb) – in this place ;in this spot or locality

Sentence : Come over here so I can hear what you are saying better!

3.hole(n) – small opening in something

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 whole(adj.) – undivided, in one piece, complete

Sentence : That whole car fit through a little hole in my baseboard

4.patience(n) – the quality of being patient

patients (plural noun) – one who is under the care of a doctor

Sentence : I know a handsome gentleman who’s a doctor and he has a lot of

patience for the complaints of his patients.

5.peace(n) – a state of harmony between people or groups

Piece(n) – separate portion of something.

Sentence : All I want was some peace and quit, but what I got was this piece of

cheese!

6.plain vs plane

Sentence : What are all these knobs and levers? I thought this plane was going to

the plain, simple craft.

7.theirs vs there’s

Sentence : There’s Chip and Dale with that strange friend of theirs!

8.wait vs weight

Sentence : Let’s wait until we’re outside the Earth’s orbit when we won’t have

weight.

9.weather vs whether

Sentence : Let’s check to see whether the weather is nice enough to go outside.

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 10.whose vs who’s

Sentence : Who’s going to tell me whose plunger this is?!

Activity

Define Homophones and give 5 examples.

UNIT XVI. DERIVATIONAL MORPHEMES

In grammar, a derivational morpheme is an affix- a group of letters added before

the beginning (prefix) or after the end (suffix) of a root or base word to create a new form

of existing word.

Ex. 1.keep – verb

Keep + er = keeper – noun

Sentence : An old poacher makes the best keeper.

2.teach – verb

Teach + er = teacher - noun

Sentence : My mother is teacher.

3.slow – verb

Slow + ly = slowly – adverb

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 Sentence : She walked slowly back to the kitchen

4.assign – verb

Assign + ment = assignment – noun

Sentence : I already sent my assignment yesterday.

• One of the most common ways that English derives new words is by affixing a

derivational morpheme to a base. For example, if we start with a verb that describes an

action, like teach and we add the morpheme -er,we derive a morphologically complex

noun, that refer to the person who does the action of teaching. That same -er morpheme

does the same job in singer, dancer, baker and writer.

Examples:

Verbs Suffixes Nouns

Teach -er teacher
Sing -er singer
Dance -er dancer

• Adding the suffix -ful to a noun derives an adjective, like hopeful.

Examples:

Nouns Suffixes Adjectives

Hope -ful hopeful
Joy -ful joyful
Care -ful careful

• Adding suffix -ize to an adjective like final derives a verb like finalize.

Examples:

Adjectives Suffixes Verbs

Final -ize finalize
Social -ize socialoze

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Modern -ize modernize

• Derivational morphemes are bound morphemes or affixes which derive (create) a new

words by either changing the meaning or part of speech or both English has prefixes and

suffixes. The other prefix which do not change the part of speech are -un, -dis, -re, -mis,

-pre and -a.

Ex. 1.connect – verb

Dis + connect = disconnect – verb

Do not change the part of speech.

2.understand – verb

Mis + understand = misunderstand – verb

Do not change the part of speech

Derivational morphemes vs. Inflectional morphemes

• Derivational morphemes change the part of speech.

Ex. Kick -verb

Kick + er = kicker -noun

Sentence : He is the best kicker in the game of soccer.

• Inflectional morphemes never change the grammatical category ( part of speech of a

word).

Ex. Tall – adjective

Tall + er = taller – adjective

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 The part of speech never change

Activity

Differentiate derivational and inflectional morphemes.

UNIT XV11. SYNONYMS

Synonym

-is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another

word, morpheme, or phrase in the same language. 

Ex. begin, start, commence, and initiate are all synonyms of one another; they are

synonymous

Uses of synonyms

•Synonyms often express a nuance of meaning or are used in different registers of speech

or writing.

•Different technical fields may appropriate synonyms for specific technical meanings.

•Some writers avoid repeating the same word in close proximity, and prefer to use

synonyms: this is called elegant variation. Many modern style guides criticize this.

Examples

Synonyms can be any part of speech, as long as both words belong to the same part of

speech.

Examples:

 noun: drink and beverage

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  verb: buy and purchase

 adjective: big and large

 adverb: quickly and speedily

 preposition: on and upon

Some of the benefits of using synonyms are that they can:

Make text much more captivating.

Help avoid dull text.

Improve communication between you and others.

Help provide an image in the mind of the reader.

Help avoid boring and repetitive text.

Activity

Give the 5 examples of synonyms.

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UNIT XVIII. ANALYTIC SENTENCE

Analytic sentence

-is relating to analysis or analytics especially: separating something into components

parts or constituents elements; being a proposition (such as “no bachelor is married”)

whose truth is evident from the meaning of the words it contains.

Analytic sentence are generally self explanation.

What is analytical sentence in simple term?

Analytical sentences tell us about logic and about language use. They do not give

meaningful information about the world.

Examples of Analytical sentences:

1. Frozen water is ice.

2. Bachelors are unmarried men.

3. Two halves make up a whole.

Noted: These three sentences shows truth.

Explanation:

1. Frozen water is ice.

Logic: ice is made up of frozen water.

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 2. Two halves make up a whole.

Logic: a whole is divided into two halves.

Noted: In analytical sentences, logic is needed.

Analytic is based on logic and truth.

Another examples:

1. Elephants are animals.

a. Cats are not fish.

2. My brother is male.

Activity

Define analytic sentence in your own understanding and give examples.

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UNIT XIX. PREFIXES

What are prefixes?

• Prefixes are first syllables like “non-“ and “re-“ that have their own meaning.

• Prefixes combine with words to create new meanings.

Ex. 1. Pre + view = preview (first view)

2.Super + star = superstar (top player)

Why do we have to learn about prefixes?

• Prefixes add meaning to thousands of words.

• Learn a few prefixes, and you open up the meaning of a thousands of words.

• The four most frequent prefixes are 97% of prefixed words!

Most Common Prefixes

Prefixes Meaning Example

Anti Against Anti-war
De Opposite Destroy
Dis not, opposite of Disagree
en(m) cause to encode, embrace
Fore Before Forecast
in(m) In intake, implant
Inter Between Interact

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Activity

A. Try to match them.

1.anti a. between

2.de b. cause to

3.dis c. against

4.en (m) d. in

5.fore e. before

6.in (m) f. not

7.inter g. opposite

More Common prefixes

Prefixes Meaning Example

Mid Middle Midway
Mis Wrongly Mistake
Non Not Nonsense
Over Over Overlook
Pre Before Preview
Re Again Return
Semi Half Semicircle

B. Try to match them.

1.mid a. wrong

2.mis b. center

3.non c. not

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4.over d. half

5.pre e. again

6.re f. above

7.semi g. before

UNIT XX. OXYMORON

Oxymoron

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 - is a figure of speech containing words that seem to contradict each other. It's often

referred to as a contradiction in terms.

Ex. Pretty ugly

When to use Oxymoron?

Oxymoron is a literary device which may serve to provoke thought, gain a few laughs,

or dramatize a situation. Oxymora may be used in everyday speech, poems, plays, prose,

speeches, movies, television shows, and songs for comedic or dramatic effects.

What is oxymoron in simple words?

It is a contradictory words.

Ex. Definitely maybe

Common oxymoron used in daily conversations

1. Act naturally.

2. Alone together.

3. Amazingly awful.

4. Bittersweet.

5. Clearly confused.

6. Dark light.

7. Deafening silence.

Each words has opposite meaning.

"clearly confused"

these phrase is an oxymoron as their meaning contradicts

What is the purpose of Oxymoron?

49
 Oxymoron functions as a means of getting the reader's attention through the pairing of

opposing or contradictory words. Reading these words together will often cause a reader

to pause and think about what the writer is trying to convey.

Activity

1.What is Oxymoron?

2..Give the seven common oxymoron used in daily conversation.

UNIT XX1. METONYMY

Definition of Metonymy

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• a figure of speech in which a thing or concept is not called by its own name, but by the

name of something intimately associated with that thing or concept.

• a figure of speech in which a part represents a whole or a whole represents a part.

• The words "metonymy" and "metonym" come from the Greek: μετωνυμία, metōnymía,

"a change of name

• Metonymy may be contrasted with metaphor. Both figures involve the substitution of

one term for another. In metaphor, this substitution is based on some specific similarity,

whereas, in metonymy, the substitution is based on some understood association.

The bottle for alcoholic drink.

The press for journalism.

A skirt for a woman.

Mozart for Mozart's music.

The Oval Office for the US Presidency.

Some Examples

• “Money just walked in” - A rich person has entered the room.

• "He writes a fine hand" - good handwriting.

• "The pen is mightier than the sword"

- literary power is superior to military force.

• “He is a man of the cloth” - a man of the church.

•The term White House actually refers to the authorities who work in the building called

the White House.

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 People might say they are going to the capitol when they are actually talking about going

to the city of Washington, D.C.

“Hollywood” is used as a metonymy for American because the fame and "Hollywood" is

cinema, used as a metonym (anof instance of metonymy) for American cinema, because

of the historical fame and cultural identity of Hollywood, as the cultural identity of

Hollywood, a district of Los Angeles, center of as movie studios movie stars.

Naughty Metonymy Poem

Today I saw a sexy skirt

Strolling down the street.

She had a lovely pair of twins

Bouncing to the beat.

(“Skirt” is a metonymy for “girl” or “woman” “Twins” is a metonymy for

“boobs”)

Activity

Give the 5 examples of metonymy.

UNIT XXII. PARADOX

Driving Question

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The Driving Question for my project is “Can paradoxes be solved, and if so, what are

there solutions?”

What is a paradox?

Paradox is a statement that, despite apparently being logical and reasonable,

contradicts its self, without necessarily being untrue.

Examples and possible solutions

1. The Barber Paradox: The Barber shaves everyone in town that does not shave

himself. Who shaves the barber? • Depending on how the paradox is phrased,

there could be more than one barber.

2. The Epimenides Paradox: Epimenides the Cretan says “All Cretans are liars.” •

Not all Cretans are liars, but Epimenides is.

3. The Liar Paradox: This Sentence is false. • The sentence “ This sentence is

false,” is either both true and false at the same time, or neither at all.

4. Irresistible Force Paradox: What would happen if an unstoppable force hit an

immovable object? • Irresistible Force: If an unstoppable force hit an immovable

object, they would pass through each other.

5. Ship of Theseus: You can replace any part of a ship and it will still be the same

ship, but if you replace all of them and then use the original parts to make

another ship you will have two of the same ship. Which one is the ship of

theseus? • There are many proposed solutions, but one is that is that the ship of

Theseus is any ship that shares a relevant history with the original ship.

6. Sorites Paradox: If you remove a grain of sand from a heap, you will still have a

heap. If you keep removing sand you will no longer have a heap. At what point

does it cease to be a heap? • The word “heap” is too vague to have a definite

point where it ceases to be a heap. If a definite number of sand grains defined it

as a heap, then there would be no paradox.

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 7. Grelling-Nelson Paradox: Is the word heterological, meaning not applicable to its

self, heterological? • No, a collection of all collection is not a member of its self.

•Paradoxes are interesting because they are seemingly logical questions with no clear

answer. They can have philosophical implications, and change the way people think.

Activity

Give 5 examples of paradox.

UNIT XXIII. ANTONYM

54
Antonym is a word that is the opposite meaning of another. It comes from the Greek

words “anti” for opposite and “onym” for name. Since language is complex, people may

at times, disagree on what words are truly opposite in meaning to other words.

There are three categories of antonyms:

1. Graded antonyms

2. Complementary antonyms

3. Rational antonyms

• Graded antonyms deal with levels of the meaning of the words, like if something is

not “good”, is may still not be “bad.” There is a scale involved with some words, and

besides good and bad there can be average, fair, excellent, terrible, poor, or satisfactory.

Ex. 1.big and small

2.hit and cold

Complementary antonyms have a relationship where there is no middle ground. There

are only two possibilities, either one or the other.

Ex. 1.yes and no

2.true and false

Relational antonyms are sometimes considered a subcategory of complementary

antonyms. With these pairs, for there to be a relationship, both must exist.

Ex. 1.buy and sell

2.win and lose

Adding a prefix

Sometimes, an antonym can be easily made by adding a prefix.

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 Examples of antonyms that were made by adding the prefix “un” are:

Likely and unlikely

Lastly, adding the prefix “in” can make the following pairs:

Tolerant and intolerant

Activity

Match the Antonyms of the given words

Man Sad

Happy Woman

Old Young

Dark true

False light

UNIT XXIV. HOMOGRAPH

56
 What is a HOMOGRAPH?

Homograph – from the word “homo” means same and “graph” means writing.

-Same Spelling

-Different Meanings

- Same or Different Pronunciation

-Meaning depends on Where and How it is used in a sentence

Ex. 1.Tear-to pull into pieces

Tear-liquid from the eyes

Sentence : The baby tear the paper into pieces.

The girl felt sad and a tear rolled on her cheek

20 Examples of Homograph

1) Bear - To endure ; Bear - Animal 

2) Close - Connected ; Close - Lock 

3) Lean - Thin ; Lean - Rest against

4) Bow - Bend forward ; Bow - Front of a ship 

5) Lead - Metal ; Lead - Start off in front 

6) Skip - Jump ; Skip - Miss out

7) Fair - Appearance ; Fair - Reasonable 

8) Quail - Cower ; Quail - Bird 

9) Plain - Ordinary ; Plain - Flat

10) Lap - Drink with town ; Lap - A circuit 

11) Train - Transportation ; Train - Teach 

12) Plane - A tool ; Plane - A tree 

13) Lie - Horizontal position ; Lie - Untrue 

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14) Type - Sort ; Type - To write via keyboard 

15) Miss - Unmarried women ; Miss - Overlook 

16) Pluck - Remove feathers ; Pluck - Bravery 

17) Blue - Colour ; Blue - Sadness 

18) May - Unsure ; May - Month 

19) Object - Disagree ; Object - Item 

20) Tear - Cry ; Tear - Rip

UNIT XXV. BLENDING

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Blending is the process of forming a word by combining parts of words. In blending you

sound out a sound or phoneme and combine it with the next sound or phonemes of a

word form the word itself.

•There are many types of blends, based on how they are formed. Alegeo, a linguist,

proposed dividing blends into three groups:

1.Phonemic overlap – a syllable or a part of syllable is shared between two words.

2.Clipping – the shortening of two words and then compounding them.

3.Phonemic overlap and Clipping – shortening of two words to shared syllable and then

compounding

Here are some examples of blending

• Glimmer = gleam + shimmer

• Moped= motor + pedal

• Sitcom= situation + comedy

• Chexting= cheating + texting

• Textpectation = texting + expectation

• Flirtationship = Flirting + relationship

• newscast = news + broadcast

Formation

Most blends are formed by one of the following methods

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 1. The beginning of one word is added to the end of the other (see portmanteau). For

example, brunch is a blend of breakfast and lunch.

■ simultaneous + broadcast→simulcast (3, exception)

■ smoke + fog →smog

■ spoon + fork →spork

2. The beginning of two words are combined. For example,cyborg is a blend of

cybernetic and organism.

3. Two words are blended around a common sequence of sounds. For examples, the word

californication, from a song by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, is a blend of California and

fornication, and the word motel is a blend of motor and hotel

4. Multiple sounds from two component words are blended, while mostly preserving the

sounds’ order. Poet Lewis Carroll was well known for these kinds of blends.

An example of this is the word slithy, a blend of lithe and slimy.This method is difficult

to achieve and is considered a sign of Carroll’s verbal. A recent example is stagflation, a

blend of stagnation and inflation.

When two words are combined in their entirety, the result is considered a

compound word rather than a blend. For example, bagpipe is a compound, not a blend, of

bag and pipe.

Activity

1. It is the process of forming a word by combining parts of words.

2. A syllable or a part of syllable is shared between two words.

60
3. The shortening of two words and then compounding them.

4. Shortening of two words to shared syllable and then compounding

5.Define blending.

61
UNIT XXVI. PARAPHRASE

Paraphrase is used for presenting an author's ideas in your own words.

Examples:

1.Original: Her life spanned years of incredible change for women as they gained

more rights than ever before. 

Paraphrase: She lived through the exciting era of women's liberation.

2.Original: “AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Police have arrested a 28-year-old man

who they say broke into an Austin business, stole a couple of sausages and fell

asleep.”

Paraphrase:  A 28 year old man in Austin, Texas didn’t break into a business and

run, like most criminals. Instead, he took several sausages then simply fell asleep

inside the business (“Police: Man breaks into Austin meat business, sleeps”).

When should a Paraphrase be used?

• Paraphrase if you are trying to give the reader an accurate and comprehensive

account of the ideas you have gathered from the source you are working with, especially

if you tend to explain, interpret or disagree with the source in the essay.

• Use paraphrase when you are working with small amounts of information.

How to paraphrase?

1.Begin by identifying the author and title of the text.

2.Now turn the text over, or cover it up and write down your interpretation of the text in

your own words without looking to the original text. Now, go back and make sure that

the paraphrase is rephrasing the author’s position as stated in the text.

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3.A word that cut on : don’t just substitute words- this could be consider plagiarism.

Characteristics of Effective Paraphrases:

1.Accurately relays the information from the original text in your own words.

2.Provides the reader with the source of the information

3.Paraphrases, unlike summaries, should be as long as the original document.

How to Recognize Acceptable & Unacceptable Paraphrase

•“If parliament is to maintain its status as the most important institution in Canadian

political life, it has to amend its internal procedures and its external relations with other

political actors.”

To maintain its status as a central institution in Canadian politics, Parliament must amend

its internal procedures and external relations with politicians.

Unacceptable Paraphrasing

1.only moves certain words and phrases around in the sentence

2. simply replaces a few words with synonyms

3. uses the same sentence structure as the original

4.doesn’t cite the source.

To paraphrase without plagiarizing, writers must

1.Use your own words to convey the information

2.Use your own sentence structure

3. Cite the source and page number.

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 Acceptable Paraphrase

According to Robert and Doreen Jackson, to retain its preeminence in Canadian

politics parliament must change how it functions, inside and out.

Activity

Give the 2 steps in when should a Paraphrase be used.

Give the 3 steps in how to paraphrase.

64
UNIT XXVII. HETERONYMS

Heteronyms - two or more words with the same spelling but different pronunciations

and meanings." (Nordquist)

Examples of Heteronyms

Desert

escort

address

attribute

bow

1.desert [dez-ert] (n.) - any area in which few forms of life can exist because of lack of

water, permanent frost, or absence of soil

desert [dih-zurt] (v.) - to leave without intending to return, to abandon

2.escort [es-cort] (n.) - a group of persons, or a single person, accompanying another or

others for protection, guidance, or courtesy

escort [es-cort] (v.) - to accompany or attend as an escort

Two-syllable Word Stress Patterns for Heteronyms

first syllable - noun

second syllable - verb

65
3..address - [ad-ress] (n.) I need her address because I will send her an invitation.

address - [ad-ress] (v.) The council needs to address the issues surrounding the recent

fiasco at the town hall.

Concepts to Remember Heteronyms

Two-syllable word stress patterns (noun, verb)

Other examples

Affect – touch someone’s feelings/emotion or desire

Alternate – occur in turn repeatedly/different choice or option

Attribute – regard something as being caused by/trait, quality, or characteristic

Axes – plural of ax/plural of axis

Bass – stringed instrument/type of fish

Bow – instrument used to shoot an arrow/bend the upper part of the body as a

greeting or sign of respect

Bowed – past tense of bow (see above)/twisted or warped

Buffet – to strike repeatedly, as wind or waves/meal of several dishes where

diners help themselves

Close – to move to cover an opening/nearby

Conduct – to lead or guide/how a person behaves

66
 Conflict – to be incompatible or at a variance/a serious disagreement or

argument

Console – to comfort/an electronic panel or unit with a set of controls

Tear – to rip or pull apart in pieces/a drop of liquid secreted by the eyes

Wind – to twist or coil something around a core/the natural movement of air

Activity

Give 10 examples of heteronyms.

67
UNIT XXVIII. POLYSEMY

Polysemy (/pəˈlɪsɪmi/ or /ˈpɒlɪsiːmi/;[1][2] from Greek: πολύ-, polý-, "many"

and σῆμα, sêma, "sign") is the capacity for a word or phrase to have multiple meanings,

usually related by contiguity of meaning within a semantic field. 

Examples

Mole

1. a small burrowing mammal

2. a spot of pigmentation on the skin.

Bank

1. a financial institution

2. the building where a financial institution offers services

3. a synonym for 'rely upon' (e.g. "I'm your friend, you can bank on me"). It is

different, but related, as it derives from the theme of security initiated by 1.

Book

1. a bound collection of pages

2. a text reproduced and distributed (thus, someone who has read the same text on a

computer has read the same book as someone who had the actual paper volume)

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3. to make an action or event a matter of record (e.g. "Unable to book a hotel room,

a man sneaked into a nearby private residence where police arrested him and

later booked him for unlawful entry.")

Newspaper

1. a company that publishes written news.

2. a single physical item published by the company.

3. the newspaper as an edited work in a specific format (e.g. "They changed the

layout of the newspaper's front page").

Wood

1. the material made from trees

2. a geographical area with many trees

Crane

1. a bird with a long neck

2. a type of construction equipment which looks like it has a long neck

3. to strain out one's neck

Mouse

1. a small rodent characteristically having a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a

body-length scaly tail and a high breeding rate.

2. a hand-held pointing device that detects two-dimensional motion relative to a

surface, which moves the cursor in accordance with its move.

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Activity

Define polysemy in your own understanding and give 10 examples.

UNIT XXIX. PRESUPPOSITION

“Presuppositions are implications that are often felt to be in the background- to be

assumed by the speaker to be already known to the addressee.”

Examples:

 The King of France is bald.

 The King of France is not bald.

 Is the King of France bald?

 If the King of France is bald, he should wear a hat in the winter

 There is a King of France.

• Mary’s brother bought three horses.

 Mary exists, Mary has a brother, Mary has only on brother, Mary’s brother is

rich

• Speaker’s subjective presupposition, all can be wrong.

Types

1. Existential

2. Factive

3. Lexical

4. Structural

5. Non-factive

6. Counterfactual

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1. Existential Presupposition

Speaker is committed to the existence of the entities name.

The King of France

The cat

The girl next door

Your car

2.Factive Presupposition

Certain verbs/construction indicate that something is a fact.

Examples

1.We regret telling him- we told him

2. She didn’t realize he was ill.- he was ill

3. I am glad it’s over. – it’s over

These certain verbs are telling us about some facts.

3.Lexical Presupposition

It is the assumption that, in using one word, the speaker can act as if another meaning

(word) will be understood

. Examples

1.Andrew stopped running.

- He used to run

2. You are late again.

- You were late before.

4.Structural presupposition

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 It is the assumption associated with the use of certain words and phrases.

Examples

•Wh-question in English are conventionally interpreted with the presupposition that the

information after the wh-form (e.g. when and where) is already known to be the case.

Examples

1.When did she travel to the USA?

> she traveled

2. Where did you buy the book?

> you bought the book

5.Non – factive Presupposition

It is one that is assumed not to be true.

Examples

1.She pretended that he had understood what she meant.

- He did not understand what she meant.

2.I imagined that Kelly was ill.

- Kelly was not ill.

6.Counter – factual Presupposition

Meaning that what is presupposed is not only not true, but is the opposite of what is true,

or “ contrary to facts.”

Counterfactual conditional

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 An If clause → a complete statement

Ex : 1.If I had enough money, I would buy that house.

→ I do not have enough money.

2.If he hadn’t made such a terrible mistake, we would be very happy now.

→ He did make/made a terrible mistake.

An embedded clause after wish ⇒ a complete statement

Ex : 1. They wish they could go on vacation now.

→ They cannot go on vacation now.

2. I wish I had studied medicine.

→ I did not study medicine.

Some common Presupposition triggers

Presupposition triggers Examples

Definite descriptions my son, the boss, Mike

Factive predicates count, make sense, matter,

know, regret, realise, resent, find

out, discover, see, notice, be

aware that, be proud that,…

Counter-factual conditionals If, unless, without,…

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 Change of state verbs begin, start, stop, finish, cease,

continue, carry on, cease, take,

leave, enter, come, go, arrive

Temporal clauses before, while, since, after,

during, whenever.
Cleft sentences It is/was …
Questions Who, what, when

Activity

Give the six types of presupposition.

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UNIT XXX. SYNTHETIC SENTENCE

Synthetic sentence is one which is not analytic or contradictory, but which may be true or

false depending on the way the world is. 

Synthetic

something resulting from synthesis rather than occurring naturally especially : a product

(such as a drug or plastic) of chemical synthesis. 

Ex. 1.My oldest cousin is female.  

2.My brother is tall. 

3. Some cats eat wool.

How do you use synthetic in a sentence?

•Synthetic in a sentence

Examples of Synthetic in a sentence

1. April bought a pair of synthetic leather pants that looked nothing like real

leather.

2. Because the model’s smile seemed synthetic, consumers did not believe she

really liked the product she was advertising.

3. The synthetic sugar is easily recognized because it does not taste like the

genuine product.

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 4. Since my husband cannot afford to buy authentic pearls, he got me a synthetic

chain that resembles the real necklace.

5. Several religious groups believe science is going too far with the development

of synthetic genes.

Other Examples

1.Erick steals Emma:s wallet.

There is nothing in the senses of Erick or steal or Emma’s wallet which makes

this necessarily true or false.

2.Ella is beautiful.

There is nothing in the senses of Ella or beautiful which makes this necessarily

true or false.

3.Lions live for about 30 years.

4.Alice is Ken’s sister.

5.Ana is the one who bought that bag.

Activity

Define synthetic sentence in your own understanding.

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 SUMMARY

• Linguistic Semantics concerned with the relationship between form and meaning.

• General Semantics concerned with how events translate to perceptions, how they are further

modified by the names and labels we apply to them and how we might gain a measure of control

over our own responses, emotional and behaviour.

• Cultural Semantics concerned with the way though people thinks, either

outlooks,attitudes,values,moral and costumes by a society.

• Philosophical Semantics concerned on development of that can be attributed to an interaction of

several trans and various discipline.

• Conceptual meaning concerned with the relationship between a word and the thing it denotes or

relates

• Connotative meaning is a multitude of additional,non-criterial,including nit only physical

characteristics but also psychological and social properties, as well as typical features.

• Stylistics meaning is the meaning is created specifically by the use of language .When we say

the same thing in different ways the stylistic meaning is created.

• Affective meaning focus on emotion and feelings.

• Reflective meaning sense of lexical relation.

• Collocative meaning refers to association of a word because of its usual or habitual co-

occurrence with certain types of words.

• Thematic meaning refers to what is communicated by the way in which a speaker or a writer

organize the message in terms of ordering focus and emphasis.

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• Connotation to the wide array of positive and negative associations that most words naturally

carry with them.

• Denotation is when you mean what you say literally.

• Simile is a figure of speech that compares two different things in an interesting way.

• Metaphor is a figure of speech that describes an object or an action in a way that isn’t literally

true but helps to explain an idea or make a comparison.

• Componential analysis means the study of meaning by analysing the different parts of words.

This theory is based on the structural approach gives an account of word meaning.

• Truth-componential theory attempts to explain the logical meaning of sentences, treating a

sentence as a logical proposition which can be either true or false.

• Generative theory deals with meaning as deep structure, where lexical items with particular

features are selected to combine with others to generate a meaningful sentence.

• Contextual theories deal with the context of the use of words and sentences by the speaker of a

language.

• Formal Semantics uses techniques from math, philosophy, and logic to analyze the broader

relationship between language and reality, truth and possibility. 

• Lexical semantics (also known as lexico semantics), is a subfield of linguistic semantics. The

units of analysis in lexical semantics are lexical units which include not only words but also sub-

words or sub-units such as affixes and even compound words and phrases.

• Conceptual semantics is a framework for semantic analysis developed mainly by Ray

Jackendoff in 1976.

• Collocations are words that naturally go together.

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• Connotation refers to a meaning suggested or implied by the use of particular word, beyond its

literal meaning.

• Coreference occurs when two or more expressions in a text refers to the same person or thing;

they have the same referent.

• Idioms are used in communicating. It is useful when trying to convey a feeling or emotion.

Some of them are funny and light hearted.

• Compound words are words made of two smaller words.

• Homonyms are words that are spelled the same and also sound the same, but they have different

meanings.

• Denotation means the literary definition of a word.

• Homophones are words that the same sound but mean different things and have different

spelling.

• Synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another

word, morpheme, or phrase in the same language.

• Analytic sentence is relating to analysis or analytics especially: separating something into

components parts or constituents elements; being a proposition (such as “no bachelor is

married”) whose truth is evident from the meaning of the words it contains.

• Prefixes are first syllables like “non-“ and “re-“ that have their own meaning.

• Oxymoron is a figure of speech containing words that seem to contradict each other. It's often

referred to as a contradiction in terms.

• Metonymy is a figure of speech in which a thing or concept is not called by its own name, but

by the name of something intimately associated with that thing or concept.

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• Paradox is a statement that, despite apparently being logical and reasonable, contradicts its self,

without necessarily being untrue.

• Antonym is a word that is the opposite meaning of another. It comes from the Greek words

“anti” for opposite and “onym” for name.

• Homograph – from the word “homo” means same and “graph” means writing.

• Blending is the process of forming a word by combining parts of words. In blending you sound

out a sound or phoneme and combine it with the next sound or phonemes of a word form the

word itself.

• Paraphrase is used for presenting an author's ideas in your own words.

• Heteronyms -“Two or more words with the same spelling but different pronunciations and

meanings." (Nordquist)

• Polysemy is thus distinct from homonymy—or homophony—which is an accidental similarity

between two words; while homonymy is a mere linguistic coincidence, polysemy is not.

• “Presuppositions are implications that are often felt to be in the background- to be assumed by

the speaker to be already known to the addressee.”

• Synthetic sentence is one which is not analytic or contradictory, but which may be true or false

depending on the way the world is.

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 CONCLUSION

Linguistics is the scientific study of the language and semantics is a branch of linguistics that deals

with meanings, meaning of words alone and words in phrases. It focuses on the relation between

signifiers, like words, phrases, signs, and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotation. The

word semantics came from the Greek word Semantikos which means to show or give sign.

Semantics refers to the meaning and interpretation of words, signs in language without context, it

may refer to the whole text or one single word. For example, “residence” and “house” “destination”

and last stop basically mean the same things, but the study of semantics distinguishes the refined

difference between the two.

Semantics is what we use to make sense of our language. It takes into account the cultural

references, environmental sayings, and situation events. Without it, our language would be much

more primitive than it is now, but because of it we can make sense of things, make references,

and understand truth.

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 REFERENCES

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/semantics

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00335635709382228?journalCode=rqjs20

https://www.scribd.com/doc/51285452/Seven-Types-of-Meaning

https://www.scribd.com/doc/51285452/Seven-Types-of-Meaning

https://www.expert.ai/blog/examples-of-semantics-human-brain/

https://www.britannica.com/science/semantics

https://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/collocations.htm

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/connotation

https://www.thefreedictionary.com/coreference

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/idiom

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/open-and-closed-compound-words/

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/homonym

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/denotation

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflection

https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/incometz/suffixes-38976433

https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/taralockhart33/homophones-52723871

https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/Lightpity/derivational-morphology-26958456

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/synonym

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/analytic

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https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/Ainhoka/prefixes-52944132

https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/BVSS_VIE/oxymoron-38582403

https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/mehwishjameel33/metonymy-in-stylistics

https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/dabambic/paradox-2098807

https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/aurelastana/antonyms-8262090

https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/chinpkuan/homographs

https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/zehradurgun/blending-and-backformation

https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/Davis_1304/paraphrasing-45527718

https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/decorusdea/heteronyms-31237203

https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/ANIISTIANA/polysemi

https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/Esurient/presupposition-16188664

83
 KEY ANSWERS

Activity

Differentiate the 4 main areas of semantics. ( 5 points each)

1.Linguistic Semantics - concerned with the relationship between form and meaning.

2.General Semantics - concerned with how events translate to perceptions, how they are further

modified by the names and labels we apply to them and how we might gain a measure of control

over our own responses, emotional and behaviour.

3.Cultural Semantics - concerned with the way though people thinks, either

outlooks,attitudes,values,moral and costumes by a society.

4.Philosophical Semantics - concerned on development of that can be attributed to an

interaction of several trans and various discipline.

Activity

Define the given word in your own opinion.

1. Affective meaning

2. Conceptual meaning

3. Stylistic meaning

4. Connotative meaning

5. Reflective meaning

Activity

Give the meaning of denotation, simile, connotation and metaphor. Give an example of each.

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Connotation - to the wide array of positive and negative associations that most words naturally

carry with them.

Ex. Maria is chicken.

Denotation – is when you mean what you say literally.

Ex. The girl was blue. You mean the girl was quite literally the color blue.

Simile - is a figure of speech that compares two different things in an interesting way.

-uses the word “like” and “as” to draw a comparison

Ex. She is an innocent as an angel.

Metaphor – is a figure of speech that describes an object or an action in a way that isn’t literally

true but helps to explain an idea or make a comparison.

Ex. She is an angel

1.Componential theory

2.Truth – componential theory

3.Generative theory

4.Conceptual theory

5.Semantic

Activity

Give the differences between formal, lexical and conceptual semantics.(own understanding)

85
Activity

Give the different types of collocation

1. Adverb + adjective

2. Adjective + noun

3. Noun + verb

4. Verb + noun

5. Noun + noun

6. Verb + adverb

7. Verb + expression with preposition

Activity

Identify the positive and negative connotation, each number contain a positive and negative.

1. FUN vs. INTERESTING = Fun-positive

Interesting-negative

2. EXTRAVAGANT vs. GENEROUS = Extravagant-negative

Generous-positive

3. EGOTISTICAL vs. CONFIDENT = Egotistical-negative

Confident-positive

4. REDUCED vs. SLASHED = Reduced-positive

Slashed-negative

5.ANXIOUS vs. EXCITED = Anxious-negative

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Excited-positive

6. NOSY vs. CURIOUS = Nosy-negative

Curious-positive

7. SIMPLE vs. DUMB = Simple-positive

Dumb-negative

8. ENERGETIC vs. HYPERACTIVE = Energetic-positive

Hyperactive-negative

9. UNIQUE vs. WEIRD = Unique-positive

Weird-negative

10. RESERVED vs. TIMID = Reserved-positive

Timid-negative

Activity

1.Anaphora occurs when two or more expressions in a text refers to the same person or thing;

they have the same referent.

2. .Bound variable they can look like coreference but actually is Not.

3. Coreferring noun phrase – it is an anaphoric example of a situation in which the second noun

phrase is a reference to an earlier descriptive form of an expression.

4. .Split antecedents – it is an anaphoric expression where the pronoun refers to more than one

antecedent.

87
5. Cataphora – it is the use of an expression that depends upon the postcedent expression.

Activity

Give the meaning of idioms in your own words and give at least 10 examples.(own

understanding)

Activity

Which of these words are compound words?

Doghouse

Butterfly

Lighthouse

Football

Flowerpot

Read the sentence. Find the compound word.

1.inside

2.birthday

3.necktie

Activity.

Define homonyms in your own idea and give 5 examples.

(Own Answer)

88
Activity

1.literal meaning

2.indirect meaning

3.blue ( color blue)

4.blue ( sad)

5.Differentiate denotation and connotation.

Denotation means direct meaning while connotation means indirect meanin

Activity

Define inflectional morphemes in your own understanding.

Activity

1.enable

2.runner

3.pinkish

4.worthless

5.smartness

Activity

Define homophones and give 5 examples.

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Homophones -words that the same sound but mean different things and have different spelling.

(own examples)

Activity

Differentiate derivational and inflectional morphemes. (own answer)

Activity

Give the 5 examples of synonyms.

1.noun: drink and beverage

2verb: buy and purchase

3.adjective: big and large

4.adverb: quickly and speedily

5.preposition: on and upon

Analytic sentence.

Activity

Define analytic sentence in your own understanding and give examples.(own understanding and

own examples)

Activity

Try to match them.

1.anti a. between

2.de b. cause to

90
3.dis c. against

4.en (m) d. in

5.fore e. before

6.in (m) f. not

7.inter g. opposite

Activity

1.Oxymoron -  is a figure of speech containing words that seem to contradict each other. It's

often referred to as a contradiction in terms.

2..

1. Act naturally.

2. Alone together.

3. Amazingly awful.

4. Bittersweet.

5. Clearly confused.

6. Dark light.

7. Deafening silence.

Activity

Give the 5 examples of metonymy.

• “Money just walked in” - A rich person has entered the room.

• "He writes a fine hand" - good handwriting.

• "The pen is mightier than the sword"

91
- literary power is superior to military force.

• “He is a man of the cloth” - a man of the church.

Activity

Give 5 examples of paradox.(own answer)

Activity

Match the Antonyms of the given words

Man-woman

Happy-sad

Old-young

Dark-light

False-true

. Activity

1.Blending

2.Phonemic overlap

3.Clipping

4.Phonemic overlap and Clipping

5.own explanation

92
Activity

When should a Paraphrase be used?

• Paraphrase if you are trying to give the reader an accurate and comprehensive account of the

ideas you have gathered from the source you are working with, especially if you tend to explain,

interpret or disagree with the source in the essay.

• Use paraphrase when you are working with small amounts of information.

How to paraphrase?

1.Begin by identifying the author and title of the text.

2.Now turn the text over, or cover it up and write down your interpretation of the text in your

own words without looking to the original text. Now, go back and make sure that the paraphrase

is rephrasing the author’s position as stated in the text.

3.A word that cut on : don’t just substitute words- this could be consider plagiarism

Activity

Give 10 examples of heteronyms.(own examples)

Activity

Define polysemy in your own understanding and give 10 examples. (Own understamding and

own examples)

93
Activity

Give the sex types of presupposition.

1. Existential

2. Factive

3. Lexical

4. Structural

5. Non-factive

6. Counterfactual

Activity

Define synthetic sentence in your own understanding.(own answer, 10 pts.)

94
 CURRICULUM VITAE

Name: Ramil Carolino Neypes

Address: Dacap Sur ,Bani, Pangasinan

Birthday: April 10, 1996

Mother's name: Lucila Neypes

Father’s name: Teody Neypes

School Elem.: Dacap Sur Elementary School

High School: Dacap Norte National High School

College: Asbury College Incorporated

Favorite color: Red

Motto: “Everything happens for a purpose but sometimes it happen because of

a wrong decision.”

Age: 25

Work Experience: Security Guard

95