Semantics
Semantics
Semantics
(10202241047)
the study of the linguistic meaning of morphemes, words, phrases, and sentences.
Word Meaning
the attribution of a meaning, a feeling or significance to a word.
-principally nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs- may be described in terms of the three general types of meaning. All content words have a descriptive meaning, and they may in addition be marked by social and affective meaning.
Principally determiners, prepositions and coordinators and subordinatorsexpress meanings that are better handled in a description of sentence meaning.
Reference is the connection between words and things (or beings) in the real world. Example: That woman is the one I love.
That woman refers to a particular woman, is said to be referent of the expression. The one I love is also referring an expression. That woman and the one I love are the same woman in the real world. In other words, both expressions have the same referent.
Sense is a concept that applies only between words or group of words. Example: Almost ready nearly ready almost and nearly are said to have the same sense.
1. Descriptive meaning is that which derives from the function of language to communicate factual information, to describe events, objects and states of affairs. Example: John is sleeping on the longue communicates the proposition that a male by the name of John is currently lying down (or sitting) on an elongated piece of furniture generally meant to be sat upon.
2.Social meaning is that which we rely upon when we identify certain social characteristics of speakers and situations from the character of the lannguaged used . Example: Then I says to her shes no better than what i am social class I adore your lavender shawl, its absolutely gorgeous! gender social factors Are you comin to the footie this arvo? informal context
3. Affective meaning is that which conveys the language users feelings, attitudes and opinions about a particular piece of information or about the ongoing context Example: Jack, who always boasts about his PhD, lectured me the entire evening on Aboriginal art. Jack, who has a PhD, gave me a fascinating overview of Aboriginal art last night. *LANGUAGE, Finegan page 160
A set of words (or lexemes) related in meaning. Linguist Adrienne Lehrer has defined semantic field more specifically as "a set of lexemes which cover a certain conceptual domain and which bear certain specifiable relations to one another" (1985). For example: noise will appear in semantic fields for acoustics, pain or discomfort (noise = interference)
Words that have similar meaning and share the same semantic properties. These are words that sounds different but mean the same. They can be interchanged without altering the meaning of utterance. Eg: woman = lady movie=film=flick Snap = break
Words that are opposite in one of their semantic properties Three main kinds of antonyms: 1. Complementary pairs Antonym that negate each other . Eg. Female >< male , present >< absent, asleep >< awake 2. Gradable pairs Antonym that are part of a larger set of related words and express the concept that one of them is more whereas the other is less. It depends on the context of the utterance and the point of view of speaker. Eg. Old><young -> less young/ less old (relative) small >< large 3. Relational opposites Antonyms that express a symmetrical relationship between two words Eg. Parent >< child student >< teacher
Polysemy words have more than one meaning. Eg: *school can be an institution for leaning or a grouping fish * Plain can be easy, clear or a level area of land. Homonymy are words that sound the same but have different meanings. Eg: to-too-two /tu:/ tale-tail /teIl/ but-butt /bt/
Hyponymy are more specific words that constitute a subclass of a more general word.
Two sentences are paraphrases if they have same truth conditions. This means whenever one is true, the other is true, and when one is false, the other one is false, without exception. For example: The horse threw the rider. The rider was thrown by the horse.
Relation between a set of sentences and a sentence Eg. The cobra killed a rat. kill = cause die, so the conclusion is The rat died Cobra = snake, so we also said A snake caused the rat to die.
Contradiction is negative entailment ; that is, the truth of one sentence necessarily implies the falseness of another s For example : 1. I love you and I dont love you 2. Butch is married to Barb but Barb is not married to Butch.
Connotation is the emotional implications and associations that a word may carry, in contrast to its denotation meaning For example : Happy: So why do they call him "The Joker"? Dopey: I heard he wears make-up. Happy: Make-up? Dopey: Yeah, to scare people. You know, war paint. (William Smillie and Michael Stoyanov in The
Denotation is the core or central meaning of a word or lexeme, as far as it can be described in dictionary. For example : sheep species of animal in the outside world, such as : animal, lamb, ram.
Intension and extension, in logic, correlative words that indicate the reference of a term or concept: intension indicates the internal content of a term or concept that constitutes its formal definition; and extension indicates its range of applicability by naming the particular objects that it denotes. For instance, the intension of ship as a substantive is vehicle for conveyance on water, whereas its extension embraces such things as cargo ships, passenger ships, battle ships, and sailing ships. The distinction between intension and extension is not the same as that between connotation and denotation.
Inference is the act or process of deriving logical conclusions from premises known or assumed to be true.
Example :
In the following story Mandi's family throws a surprise birthday party for her. As you read the story, look for clues . Mandi thought everyone had forgotten her birthday. This morning at the breakfast table, no one had even wished her a "Happy Birthday!" No one mentioned it all day long--not even her mother, and Mom never forgot anything. She had noticed her sisters whispering at lunch. She thought that was kind of rude! Her mom sent her to the store for a loaf of bread in the middle of the afternoon. Mandi didn't know why she had to go. Why couldn't her sister Sarah go? Sarah was older. And since when was bread such an emergency? She grumbled to herself all the way to the store and back. It was bad enough everyone had forgotten her birthday, she also had to run everyone's errands! As she dragged herself into the kitchen, she was startled to hear, "SURPRISE!" They hadn't forgotten after all.
Metaphor is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between two unlike things that actually have something in common. For example : You are my sunshine. Tennis star Steffi Graf breezed through yesterdays semifinal. The dollar is falling sharply.
Componential analysis also called feature analysis or contrast analysis, refers to the description of the meaning of words through structured sets of semantic features which are given as present, absent or indifferent with reference to feature. For example : man = [+ male], [+ mature] or woman = [ male], [+ mature] or boy = [+ male], [ mature] or girl [ male] [ mature] or child [+/ male] [ mature]. In other words, the word girl can have three basic factors (or semantic properties): human, young, and female. Another example, being edible is an important factor by which plants may be distinguished from one another (Ottenheimer, 2006, p. 20). To summarize, one word can have basic underlying meanings that are well established depending on the cultural context. It is crucial to understand these underlying meanings in order to fully understand any language and culture.