Semantics Flashcards
(30 cards)
Semantic Theories
Assigns semantic contents to expressions of a language.
Compositional Sematics
Deals with how individual meanings combine to form more complex phrasal meanings.
Lexical 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 Relations
Are the connections established between one word and another.
Semantic Role
Is the underlying relationship that a participant has with the main verb in a clause.
Semantic Features
Represent the basic conceptual components of meaning for any lexical item.
Lexical
Known as the dictionary definition. Is the meaning of the term in common usage.
Semantics
The study of meaning in language.
Speaker’s Meaning
To understand speaker’s meaning, we need to bring together two components. First, the semantic meaning is certainly part of the picture. There is some kind of connection between what the speaker is saying and the listener. There has to be assumption as well.
Semantic Meaning
The context in which a sentence is used, the meanings of the words in the sentence, and its morphological and syntactic structure.
-Depends on the grammatical structure of the sentence.
Principle of Compositionally
a) the meanings of the individual morphemes that make it up. (b) the morphological and syntactic structures of the sentence.
- It also implies that the meaning of the verb phrase.
Denotative Meaning
The logical meaning, which indicates the essential qualities of a concept which distinguish it from other concepts.
Connotative Meaning
The additional or associated meaning, which is attached to the denotative, conceptual meaning. It consists of associations made with a concept whenever that concept is referred to.
Social Meaning
It is the meaning that a word possesses by virtue of its use in particular social situations and circumstances.
Thematic Meaning
It lies in the manner in which a message is organized for emphasis.
Theory of Naming
Language is a communication system which works with two elements; the signifier, and the signified.
The Conceptual Theory of Meaning
Words and things are related through the mediation of concepts of the mind.
The Behavioristic Theory of Meaning
Description of a language is not complete without some reference to the context of situation in which the language operated.
The Study of Truth
The study of different types of truth embodied in individual sentences (analytic, contradictory, and synthetic) and the study of different types of truth relations that hold between sentences (entailment and presupposition).
Presupposition
Is a proposition that must be assumed to be true in order to judge the truth or falsity of another sentence.
Entailment
Is a proposition that follows necessarily from another sentence.
-The test for entailment is as follows; sentence (a) entails sentence (b) if the truth of sentence (a) ensures the truth of sentence (b) and if the falsity of sentence (b) ensures the falsity of sentence (a).
Antonymy
Two forms with opposite meanings are called antonyms. Antonyms are usually of two main kinds.
- Gradable: They can be used in comparative constructions.
- Non-Gradable (complementary pairs): They are not normally used in comparative constructions and the negative of one member does imply the other.
Hyponymy
Looking at the meaning of words in some type of hierarchical relationship.
Prototype
It explains the meaning of certain words like bird not in terms of component feature.
