Linguistics

SEMANTICS Week 9 – Session 1

What is Semantics?

• Semantics is the area of linguistics that studies the

meaning of words, phrases and sentences.

Warm-Up

• Have a look at the following words. Which

other words come to mind?

• Cat

• House

• Mother

• Sugar

• Chocolate

• Bed

• Teacher

Conceptual & associative meaning

• When we define words, we deal with the conceptual meaning rather than the associative meaning.

• Conceptual meaning: • Needle = thin, sharp, steel, instrument

• Low-calorie = producing a small amount of heat or energy

• Associative meaning: • Needle = pain, illness, blood, drugs, thread, knitting, hard to find.

• Low calorie = healthy

• Associative connotations related to a word.

• These associations differ from a person to another.

Semantic features

• Why are the following sentences odd? Does it

have to do with the syntactic structure?

• The hamburger ate the boy.

• The table listens to the radio.

• The horse is reading the newspaper.

Semantic features

The hamburger ate the boy.

NP V NP

• The sentence is syntactically well-formed but semantically

odd.

• The boy ate the hamburger

NP V NP

Semantic Features

• The kind of noun that can be the subject of the verb ate must

denote an entity that is capable of “eating”.

• The noun “hamburger” does not have this property and the

noun “boy” does .

• What is the primary property of the word “boy” that allows it to

be used with the verb “ate”?

Semantic features

• Semantic categories are conceptual categories that allow

us to analyze the meaning of words.

• We signal the semantic properties of words using plus

and minus signs.

• Feature = animate being

• boy: [+ ANIMATE] = has the feature

• hamburger: [- ANIMATE] = doesn't have the feature

Semantic features

table dog girl man boy woma

n

ANIMATE - + + + + +

HUMAN - - + + + +

FEMALE - - + - - +

ADULT - + - + - +

Semantic features

• Fill in the table:

door cat mare pencil docto

r child

ANIMAT

E

HUMAN

MALE

ADULT

door cat mare pencil docto

r child

ANIMAT

E -

HUMAN -

MALE -

ADULT -

door cat mare pencil docto

r child

ANIMAT

E - +

HUMAN - -

MALE - +/-

ADULT - +

door cat mare pencil docto

r child

ANIMAT

E - + +

HUMAN - - -

MALE - +/- -

ADULT - + +

door cat mare pencil docto

r child

ANIMAT

E - + + -

HUMAN - - - -

MALE - +/- - -

ADULT - + + -

door cat mare pencil docto

r child

ANIMAT

E - + + - +

HUMAN - - - - +

MALE - +/- - - +/-

ADULT - + + - +

door cat mare pencil docto

r child

ANIMAT

E - + + - + +

HUMAN - - - - + +

MALE - +/- - - +/- +/-

ADULT - + + - + -

Feature analysis of nouns

• We will analyze nouns with the following set of semantic

features:

• [±ANIMATE]

• [±COLLECTIVE]

• [±COUNT]

• [±HUMAN]

• [±CONCRETE]

• [±MALE]

Exercise

• Can you identify the semantic features that are

necessary for the following sentences to be well-

formed?

• The _____________ is reading the newspaper.

N[+human]

• This ___________ need to be ironed.

• My ____________ are coming for a visit.

• The ________________ will be installed tomorrow.

Disadvantages of Feature Analysis

• It is not refined enough.

• What was the difference between “woman” and “mother”?

• For many words in a language, it may not be as easy to

come up with neat components of meaning.

• “advice”, “threat”, “warning”

• Part of he problem seems to be that the approach

involves a view of words in a language as some sort of

“containers” that carry meaning components.

Agent and theme

• Agents and themes are the most common semantic roles.

• The boy ate the hamburger.

• Agent= “the entity that performs the action”

• “The boy”

• Theme (or Patient) = “the entity that is involved in or affected by the action” or “an entity that is simply being described (i.e. not performing an action).

• “The hamburger”

Agent and Theme

• Agents can be human, natural forces, a machines, or

creatures.

• The boy kicked the ball.

• The wind blew the ball away.

• A car ran over the ball.

• The dog caught the ball.

Agent and Theme

• The theme can be either non-human or human:

• The dog chased the boy.

• The same physical entity can appear in 2 different

semantic roles in a sentence.

• The boy cut himself

• the boy = agent

• himself = theme

Instrument and Experiencer

• Instrument= If an agent uses another entity in order to perform an action, that other entity fills the role of the instrument.

• The boy cut the rope with an old razor.

• He drew the picture with a crayon.

• Experiencer= If a noun phrase is used to designate an entity as the person who has a feeling, perception or state, it fills the semantic role of.

• The boy feels sad.

• Do you hear that noise?

• Some verbs closely associated with the role of experiencer are: “feel”, “hear”, “see”, “understand”, “love”, “watch”, etc.

Location, source and goal

• A number of other semantic roles designate where an entity is

in the description of an event.

• Location= Where an entity is (on the table, in the room)

• Source = Where the entity moves from is the (from Chicago).

• Goal= Where it moves to (to New Orleans)

• We will drive from Chicago to New Orleans. Now, we are in

Milwaukee.

• We are transferring money from savings to checking.

Semantic roles

• Mary saw a fly on the wall.

• EXPERIENCER THEME LOCATION

• She borrowed a magazine from George

• AGENT THEME SOURCE

• She hit the bug with the magazine.

• AGENT THEME INSTRUMENT

• She handed the magazine back to George

• AGENT THEME GOAL

Let’s Practice!

• Identify the agent, theme, experiencer, instrument, source, goal, and location in the following sentences:

1) He loves cats and dogs.

2) Mr. Powell visited his neighbor in the hospital and then went to a community meeting.

3) I accidently hit my sister with a ball.

4) They could hear the noise from the room above them.

5) When is Mary coming back home?

6) The doctor gave the patient strong medication.

7) They felt too upset to talk to the police

8) I locked the door with the key, but I must have lost it.

Lexical relations

• We have already discussed how words can be seen as

“containers” of meaning or as fulfilling “roles” in events.

• There is also another approach that allows us to discuss

words in terms of their relationship to other words.

• Conceal

• The same as “hide”

• Shallow

• The opposite of “deep”

• Daffodil

• kind of flower

Lexical relations – Synonymy

• Synonyms are two or more words with very closely related meanings. They can often, though not always, be substituted for each other in sentences.

• What was his answer?

• What was his reply?

• Other examples: • almost/nearly,

• big/large,

• broad/wide,

• buy/purchase,

• cab/taxi

Lexical relations -- Synonymy

• The idea of “sameness” of meaning used in discussing

synonymy is not necessarily “total sameness.” There are

many occasions when one word is appropriate in a

sentence, but its synonym would be odd.

• Compare:

• Sandy had only one correct answer on the test.

• Sandy had only one correct reply on the test.

• My dad bought a big car.

• My father purchased a large automobile.

• Formality level

Let’s Practice!

• Rewrite the following sentence using synonymous words.

• Come up with as many rewritings as possible and discuss the

possible changes in meaning:

• She didn’t know where the anxiety stemmed from.

Lexical relations – Antonymy

• Two forms with opposite meanings are called antonyms.

• Some common examples are the pairs: • alive/dead,

• big/small,

• fast/slow,

• happy/sad,

• hot/cold,

• male/ female,

• married/single

• Antonyms are usually divided into two main types, “gradable” (opposites along a scale) and “non-gradable” (direct opposites).

Lexical relations – Antonymy

• Gradable antonyms are antonyms that can be used in

comparisons:

• I’m bigger than you.

• A pony is smaller than a horse.

• The negative of one member of a gradable pair does not

necessarily imply the other.

• My car isn’t old.

• My car is new.

Lexical relations – Antonymy

• Non-gradable antonyms cannot be used in comparative

constructions. Also, the negative of one member of a non-

gradable pair does imply the other member.

• My grandparents aren’t alive.

• My grandparents are dead.

• Other non-gradable antonyms in the earlier list are the

pairs:

• male/female, married/single, true/false.

Lexical relations – Antonymy

• Reversives: Antonyms in which the meaning of one is the

reverse action of the other.

• Dress / undress

• Bring / take

• Come / go

• Enter / exit

Lexical relations – Antonymy

Which of the following opposites are gradable, non-

gradable, or reversive?

absent/present

fill it/empty it

appear/disappear

 fair/unfair

 high/low

Lexical relations – Hyponymy

• When the meaning of one form is included in the meaning

of another, the relationship is described as hyponymy.

• animal/dog,

• dog/poodle,

• vegetable/carrot,

• flower/rose

• tree/ oak.

• The concept of “inclusion” involved in this relationship is

the idea that if an object is a rose, then it is necessarily a

flower, so the meaning of flower is included in the meaning

of rose.

Lexical relations – Hyponymy

• Hyponymy reflects the hierarchical nature of some areas

of the vocabulary.

Lexical relations – Hyponymy

• Higher-level words are known as superordinates, and

the more specific word is its hyponym.

• The relation of hyponymy captures the concept of “is a

kind of”.

• An asp is a kind of snake.

• The relationship between two or more hyponyms of the

same superordinate is ‘cohyponymy’.

• asp-cobra-python

Lexical relations – Hyponymy

Let’s Practice!

• Can you draw a hierarchical diagram for the word “car”?

• Try to come up with co-hyponyms, hyponyms, and superordinates.

• Share your diagram with other groups and discuss the

differences and similarities. What do the diagrams tell

you about lexical relations?

Lexical relations – Prototypes

• “The characteristic instance” of a category is known as

the prototype.

• If I say “bird”, which bird comes to mind?

Lexical relations – Prototypes

Lexical relations – Prototypes

• The concept of a prototype helps explain the meaning of

certain words not in terms of component features but in

terms of resemblance to the clearest example.

Lexical relations – Homophones

• When two or more different (written) forms have the

same pronunciation, they are described as

homophones.

• bare/bear,

• meat/meet,

• flour/ flower,

• right/write.

Lexical relations – Homonyms

• We use the term homonyms when one form (written or

spoken) has two or more unrelated meanings, as in these

examples:

• bank (of a river) – bank (financial institution)

• bat(flying creature) – bat(used in sports)

• mole (on skin) – mole (small animal)

• pupil(at school) – pupil(in the eye)

• race (contest of speed) – race (ethnic group)

• Homonyms are words that have separate histories and

meanings, but have accidentally come to have exactly the

same form.

Lexical relations – Polysemy

• Polysemy can be defined as one form (written or

spoken) having multiple meanings that are all related by

extension.

• Head = the object on top of your body

• Head = the person at the top of a company or department.

• Foot = of person/ of bed/ of mountain

• Run= person does/ water does/ colors does.

• How to distinguish between homonymy and polysemy?

• Dictionary

Lexical relations – Word Play

• Humorous effects due to polysemy, homonymy, and

homophony.

• Why is 6 afraid of 7?

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_HD2MMNv_c

Lexical relations – Metonymy

• Metonymy = A word used in place of another with which it is closely connected in everyday experience.

• a container–contents relation • bottle/water, e.g. He drank the whole bottle.

• can/juice

• a whole–part relation • car/wheels, e.g. I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go

round.

• house/roof

• a representative–symbol relationship • king/crown,

• the President/the White House The White House has announced that…

Lexical relations – Metonymy

• Many examples of metonymy are highly conventionalized

and easy to interpret.

• Lend me your ear.

• However, other examples depend on an ability to infer

what the speaker has in mind.

• I prefer cable if you have a choice in how you receive television

programs.

• Making sense of such expressions often depends on

context, background knowledge, and inference

Lexical relations – Collocations

• Write down one word/ phrase that comes to mind when

you read the following words. Then compare your list to

your partners’.

• Milk

• Mess

• Amusement

• Indoor

• Go

• Collocation refers to the relationship between words that

frequently occur together (e.g. salt and pepper).

• Naked eye

• Make a mistake