ling midterm 2 (pt. 2)

Question 1

Semantics

Define semantics

Answer 1

• 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

Question 2

Semantics

Metaphor

Answer 2

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.

Question 3

Semantics

Metonymy

Answer 3

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

Question 4

Semantics

Synecdoche

Answer 4

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”

Question 5

Semantics

Connotations/denotation

Answer 5

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.

Question 6

Semantics

Lexemes; syntagmatic relations

Answer 6

the way lexemes are related in sentences

Question 7

semantics

Lexemes: paradigmatic relations

Answer 7

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)

Question 8

Semantics

Homonymy

Answer 8

two words are homonyms if they are (accidentally) pronounced the same (e.g. “too” and “two”)

Question 9

Semantics

Polysemy

Answer 9

a single word is polysemous if it has several meanings (e.g. “louse” the bug and “louse” the despicable person)

Question 10

Semantics

Reference (or extension) of a concept

Answer 10

what it corresponds to in the world

Question 11

Semantics

Sense (or intension) of a concept

Answer 11

what we know about its meaning, whether or not we know anything about its extension, and indeed whether or not it has an extension

Question 12

Pragmatics

Define pragmatics

Answer 12

• 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

Question 13

Pragmatics