A discussion of what you have personally learned, -your weaknesses and your strengths. Also, discuss your plans for improving your learning experience “of some aspects in the chapters”".

1. Overview

· Chapter two discussed the relationship between logic and meaning. The chapter introduced some logic tools that we can use to study the meaning of language (e.g., presupposition).

· Chapter three talked about concepts and meaning, and the concept of prototype. Prototype in semantics is generally the "ideal example". The chapter also discussed the effects of prototype and some problems related to it.

· Chapter four highlighted word and the concepts associated with it such as word forms, lexemes. The chapter also compared words and lexical units.

· Chapter five mainly talked about how words can be represented in different scenarios or contexts and thus they might have different meaning depending on the context. 

2. Notes & Description

· A concept is a “general notion or a way to classify a word or idea in your mind”. There are some types of concepts. The first one is superordinate. Superordinate concept follows the general way of classifying. Some of the characteristics of superordinate level category includes the fact that its name differs from the basic level, and the fact that there are fewer attributes. An example of superordinate level category would be speaking about furniture. Furniture can be a chair, table, bed. Therefore, furniture is a general idea. Basic level category is the second type of concepts. It is less general than superordinate. Sometimes there is a feature associated with that concept. For example, a table is less general than a furniture. Moving to the last type of concept, which is subordinate. It is the least degree of generality. This level shows more details and specifications. For instance, a dining table. All of the three types of concepts represent some level of categorization.

· Sinclair proposed two ways to construct utterances in natural language use, open-choice principle and idiom principle. For open-choice principles, speakers analyze each the speech or utterance as word by word. Words in this principle are treated independently. However, idiom principle shows that the idiom or the phrase is constituted to choices. The words in each idiom are sequenced.

· Homonyms are words that have similar pronunciation or spelling and different meaning. There are some common properties among the words, but they are actually different somehow. For example, the words chance and chants have almost the same pronunciations, but their meanings are different. If we look at these two examples, we will see the difference between them. A. I hope you got a chance to do your makeup exam. B. I will listen to chants today. The first word shows a meaning of an opportunity, while the second word shows a meaning of listening to a short music.

· The idea of polysemous goes around the idea that some words can have different meanings and can be used in different ways. The word “get” has multiple meanings and it can be used in different situations. For instance,

A. I went to the library to get a book (to buy).

B. I got a phone call from my sister (to receive).

C. I will get a water (to bring).

D. I will get home around 5:00 pm (to arrive).

3. Learning discussion

After learning the categories of concepts, I reach to a point where I think of other examples as well. It also got me thinking about how the language and words we chose affect the level of categorization. If I heard someone speaking about home, it can be any home. It can be a house for someone, and it can be an apartment for someone else. This level of generality is associated with superordinate. I learned that depending on how specific or general I use features, a level of category can describe that. Although I think that I grasped the idea of categorization level, I still need to go deep and understand more about it. I also think I’m pretty good when it comes to collocation. There is no general way of being good at collocation since it is about the input we receive as a language learner. Collocation is manly the common words that always come together. Being good with collocation is a result of the practice I did before. In addition, I can strongly use certain words to indicate different meanings. I can use the word play to indicate the act of playing or I can use the word play to indicate the act of opening some music.

One of my weaknesses areas is related to word forms. Word forms sound complicated to me. I’m planning to read in details about it and see some sources that explain semantic lessons. Another weakness area is related to the concept of homonyms. It is difficult for me as a second language learner to differentiate between two or more similar words. I think there is no certain rule for that to improve myself. I think what I can do to assist myself is listening or reading a lot. The more I listen and read, I will encounter words that might be alike but with different meaning. Finally, I will always use the internet to further develop my knowledge in addition to Google Scholar source.