ling midterm 2 (pt. 2) Flashcards
Semantics
Define semantics
- the study of the meaning of morphemes, words, phrases and sentences
- how sentences are connected with things in the world outside of language
- What words means and what people mean is fundamentally different
Semantics
Metaphor
a figure of speech in which a term is transferred from the object it ordinarily designates to an object it may designate only by implicit comparison or analogy.
Semantics
Metonymy
a figure of speech in which an attribute or commonly associated feature is used to name or designate something
White house refers to the president
Semantics
Synecdoche
a figure of speech by which a more inclusive term is used for a less inclusive one, or vice versa
Cleveland won by six runs (meaning “Cleveland’s baseball team”
Semantics
Connotations/denotation
A word’s denotation is its plain and direct meaning—its explicit meaning. A word’s connotation is what the word implies—that is, the nuances and shades of meaning that the word carries with it.
Semantics
Lexemes; syntagmatic relations
the way lexemes are related in sentences
semantics
Lexemes: paradigmatic relations
the way words can substitute for each other in the same sentence context
1. synonymy - “sameness of meaning” (pavement is a synonym of sidewalk)
2. hyponymy - “inclusion of meaning” (cat is a hyponym of animal)
3. antonymy - “oppositeness of meaning” (big is an antonym of small)
4. incompatibility - “mutual exclusiveness within the same superordinate category” (e.g. red and green)
Semantics
Homonymy
two words are homonyms if they are (accidentally) pronounced the same (e.g. “too” and “two”)
Semantics
Polysemy
a single word is polysemous if it has several meanings (e.g. “louse” the bug and “louse” the despicable person)
Semantics
Reference (or extension) of a concept
what it corresponds to in the world
Semantics
Sense (or intension) of a concept
what we know about its meaning, whether or not we know anything about its extension, and indeed whether or not it has an extension
Pragmatics
Define pragmatics
- the study of “how to do things with words” (the name of a well known book by the philosopher J.L. Austin), or perhaps “how people do things with words” (to be more descriptive about
- how people use all the levels of language to communicate
Pragmatics