Week 6 Flashcards
(30 cards)
Semantics and pragmatics
The study of referential meaning
The study of meaning in content
Lexical entry of biscuit
- Phonological specification: /biskit/
- Syntactic specification: N [count]
- Semantic specification: ‘flat thin dry cake’
Dog biscuit isn’t listed in my dictionary. Does this mean that its meaning is predictable?
‘Biscuit made for dogs’ = the usual and expected meaning
‘Biscuit made of dogs’ = an unusual but possible meaning
Who intrigued the concept of “The Arbitrariness of the Sign”? What is it?
Ferdinand de Saussure.
The relationship between a word’s form and its meaning is arbitrary, as seen in how different languages represent the word “rose”.
What is referential meaning?
The basic, literal meaning of a word, agreed upon by societal consensus.
Why can the meanings of complex words be unpredictable?
They can vary, especially when formed through derivational processes (“dog biscuit” could have multiple interpretations.
What does “compositional” sentence interpretation mean?
Sentence meaning is derived from the meaning of individual words and their syntactic structure.
What are semantic roles in sentences with transitive verbs? What are the additional roles?
Agent (subject) and theme (direct object), which may shift in passive sentences.
Location, source, goal and instrument.
What is structural ambiguity?
Phrases or sentences that can have multiple interpretations depending on syntactic structure and context (“Susan saw children with binoculars”).
Semantic Feature Theory
Meaning can be broken down into smaller units of features for a componential analysis of words.
Prototype Theory
Categories have fuzzy borders, with certain members being more representative (prototypes) than others.
Synonymy and antonyms
Words with similar meaning (answer/reply).
Words with opposite meaning (alive/dead).
What is the Cooperative Principle in conversation?
The expectation that participants cooperate to ensure meaningful exchanges, though it can be violated, causing misunderstandings.
What is componential analysis in semantics?
This analysis breaks down words into their basic semantic features to analyse their meaning.
Instrument
How or by which an action is performed (He cut the bread with a knife).
Experiencer
Mary heard the noise.
Source and goal
The starting point of an action/movement (He came from the shore).
The end point of an action/movement (He ran to the house).
Reversible antonym
They describe actions that undo each other (enter - exit).
Hyponymy
One word is more specific than another (rose is a hyponym of flower).
Prototype
The best or most typical example of a category (a sparrow as a prototype for the category bird).
Homophones
Words that sound the same but have different meanings/spellings (pair and pear).
Homonyms
Words that have the same spelling and pronunciation but different meanings (bat, the animal, and bat, used in sports).
Polysemy
A single word having multiple related meanings (‘head’ as in head of company or ‘head’ of a person’).
Metonymy
A figure of speech where one word is used to represent something closely related to it (the White House to mean the US government).
