Formal Semantics

1. FORMAL SEMANTICS & SEMANTIC CHANGE BY: ROY S. CAPANGPANGAN

2. DEFINITION OF TERMS: SEMIOTICS (Charles Morris, 1938)the general science of signs. THREE BRANCHES OF INQUIRY SYNTAX —the study of “formal relation of signs to one another.” SEMANTICS —the study of “the formal relation of signs to the objects to which the signs are applicable.” PRAGMATICS —the study of “the relation of signs to the interpreter.”

3. ON THIS VIEW: Syntax concerns properties of expressions, such a as about well- formedness ; Semantics concerns relations between expressions and what they are “about”, such as reference and truth-conditions; and Pragmatics concerns relations between expressions, their meanings, and their uses in context, such as complicature .

4. INTRODUCTION: The OBJECTIVES of FORMAL SEMANTICS: 1. Sense Relations 2. Truth Conditions 3. Inference SEMANTICS is the scientific study of the meaning of signs . But what is “ meaning ”?

5. WHAT IS “MEANING”? Giving you these flowers means that I love you. Those mountains ahead mean trouble. He said that he would join us, be he didn’t mean it. When I say X, I mean Y. Gatte means spouse.

6. If your native language is not English, how would you translate these examples? Which ones are about semantics? Smoke means fire. Feuer means fire. LINGUISTIC MEANING relates linguistic signs to non-linguistics entities. is conventionalized. Is arbitrary.

7. FORMAL SEMANTICS is about the meaning of syntactically complex expressions. Literally means “using formal methods for the study of meaning.” [Nowadays there is also formal lexical semantics and discourse semantics, but the identification “formal semantics = formal sentence semantics.”]

8. FORMAL SEMANTICS IS NOT CONCERNED WITH: DIACHRONIC SEMANTICS : Examples: Why do English sober and German sauber different things even though they are apparently related? Why are so many synonyms in English (like deep and profound )? STYLISTICS : Example: 1. What is the difference in meaning between policeman , cop , and bobby ?

9. LEXICAL SEMANTICS: Examples: 1. What is the relation between the words good and bad , high and low etc, and what is the system behind it? 2. Is there a common meaning of in in the examples in this room and in good mood ?

10. LANGUAGE is infinite, and meaning is conventionalized How do these claims go together? Sense Relations Synonymy Entailment Contradiction Inconsistency Consistency Tautology 2. Truth Conditions

11. SENSE RELATION The question is not what meanings are, but how they behave. Formal Semantics studies systematic semantic relations between linguistic expressions, such as: SYNONYMY Intuitively : A and B are synonymous if the y have the same meaning. Vague , sometimes difficult to decide Formal Approach : A and B are synonymous if for each sentence(S), S is true if and only if S[B/A] is true. Ex. Bachelor and unmarried male adult .

12. SENSE REALTION 2. ENTAILMENT Intuitively : A entails B if we can infer from A and B. Formal Definition : A entails B if under all conceivable circumstances under which A is true, B must be true as well. Ex. John owns a bike entails John owns something .

13. SENSE RELATION 3. CONTRADICTION Intuitively : A and B are contradictory if they exclude each other. Formally : A and B are contradictory if there are no conceivable circumstances where they could be true at the same time. Ex. Mary knows every book in the library and There is a book in the library that Mary does not know are contradictory.

14. SENSE RELATION 4. INCONSISTENCY A is inconsistent if it is contradictory with itself. Ex. This square is round. 5. CONSISTENCY —the opposite of inconsistency. Ex. Tomorrow is Saturday.

15. SENSE RELATION 6. TAUTOLOGY Intuitively : True but countless. Formally : Always true. Ex. Every red apple is an apple. There is no largest prime number.

16. TRUTH CONDITION “ Truth of a sentence ” is central notion in definition of sense relations. Basic Methodological Principles of formal semantics: If A and b are sentences, and A is true and B false, then A and B do not have the same meaning. ( Cressewell’s “Most Certain Principle”) If a person knows the meaning of a sentence, then he or she also know the necessary and sufficient conditions for the truth and falsity of this sentence.

17. Basic Methodological Principle 3. Suppose a person knows the necessary and sufficient conditions for the truth and falsity of a sentence. Then this person knows the meaning of this sentence.

18. Guiding Principle (Useful Simplifications): The meaning of a sentence are its truth conditions. The meaning of an expression is its contribution to the truth conditions of the sentences it occurs in.

19. Speech Acts: Semantics vs. Pragmatics Semiotic Trichotomy : SYNTAX —study of the structure of signs. SEMANTICS —study of the meaning of signs. PRAGMATICS —study of the use of signs. It builds upon semantics, but cannot be reduced to it. “ Meaning = truth conditions ” suggests that primary purpose of language is descriptive. Blatantly false.

20. Examples: I hereby christen you Mary-Jane. I promise you to be there at three. I now pronounce you man and wife. Under appropriate conditions, these sentences are true by virtue of their being uttered. Technical term: Performative utterances

21. Speech Acts: Same effects can be achieved in a less explicit way. Examples: Your name be Mary-Jane. I’ll be there at three. You are now man and wife.

22. Three Components of Speech Act (Austin, 1962) LOCUTION —uttering a certain sentence of a given langunage with a given grammatical structure and a given meaning. ILLOCUTION —performing a certain action type (declaring, asking, promising, baptizing, …) PERLOCUTION —achieving a certain effect by a causal connection between the speech act and a change in the state of the world.

23. Performative Hypothesis: All speech acts are explicit performative . Usually the performative verb is not pronounced. Examples: Are you cold? I hereby ask you whether you are cold. [(a) means the same, in a technical sense, as (b)]

24. Performative Hypothesis: Problematic, because the locution of a performative speech act is always true. Would render all sentences into tautologies=> unintuitive. We have to live the tension between locution (semantics) on the one hand and illocution/ perlocution (pragmatics) on the other hand.

25. Basic Tools: Propositional Logic Principle of Compositionality (“ Frege’s Principle ”) –the meaning of a complex expression is determined by the meaning of its parts and the way they are combined. Meaning of a clause : Truth Conditions=determines Truth Value Bivalent Interpretation: Every sentence is either true or false (“ Tertium Non Datur ”), but not both.

26. Basic Tools: Meaning of a Clause: Truth Values : “True” and “False” (“T” and “F”, “1” and “0”) For certain syntactic combinations: Compositionality of Truth Values Examples: The power is on and the outside temperature is below freezing point.

27. Basic Tools: b. The power is on. c. The outside temperature is below freezing point [Example (a) is true if both (b) and (c) are true, otherwise false.]

28. Basic Tools: Examples: The grapes are too high or you are too short. The grapes are too high. You are too short. [Example ( a) is true if at least one of (b) and (c) are true, otherwise false.]

29. Basic Tools: Examples: I do not have the ace of hearts. I have the ace of hearts. [example (a) is true if (b) is false, and vice versa] Examples: If x is a prime number larger than 2, it is an odd number. X is a prime number. X is an odd number. [example (a) is false if (b) is true and (c) false, otherwise it is true.]

30. Basic Tools: Examples: The light is on if and only if the switch is up. The light is on. The switch is up. [Example (a) if both (b) and (c) are true or both (b) and (c) are false, otherwise it is false.]

31. Propositional Logic: Simple formal language Disregards internal structure of simple clauses Conjunction, disjunction, negation, implication and equilvalence are only syntactic operations Compositionality of truth values.

32. PRINCIPLES OF FORMAL SEMANTICS: PRINCIPLE OF COMPOSITIONALITY —the meaning of an expression is uniquely determined by the meanings of its parts and their mode of combination. [ Frege’s Principle ] SUBSTITUTION PRINCIPLE —synonymous parts may be substituted for each other without changing the meaning of the complex expression in which they occur.

33. Examples: Compositionality : Whenever Toms sees a lollipop he wants to eat it. Tom sees a lollipop. Tom sees a lollipop he wants to eat.

34. Examples: Compositionality : Tom is asleep. Everyone who is identical with Tom is asleep. [the synonymy of the noun phrases Tom and everyone who is identical with Tom we may, conclude that (a) and (b) must have the same meaning]

35. Examples: Compositionality: Allan erroneously believes that Tom is asleep. Allan erroneously believes that everyone who is identical with Tom is asleep. [since (a) is an immediate part of that Tom is asleep and (b) is an immediate part of that everyone who is identical with Tom is asleep, the two that- clauses must be synonymous]

36. Examples: Compositionality : My brother, who live in Athens, is an oculist. My brother, who dwells in Aix-la- Chappelle , is an eye-doctor. [the way the words are combined in these two sentences is obviously the same, the Principle of Compositionality immediately implies that (a) and (b) must have the same meaning. Clearly, this is a non-trivial claim.]

37. Explanation: Moreover, the complex verb erroneously believes is clearly synonymous with itself and, once more, combining it with either that Tom is asleep or the synonymous that everyone who is identical with Tom is asleep must result in two synonymous verb phrases.

38. SEMANTIC CHANGE also known as  SEMANTIC SHIFT  or  SEMANTIC PROGRESSION  describes the evolution of  word  usage — usually to the point that the modern meaning is radically different from the original usage. (Diachronic/Historical Linguistics) is a change in one of the meanings of a  word .

39. SEMANTIC CHANGE Every word has a variety of senses and  connotations  which can be added, removed, or altered over time, often to the extent that  cognates  across space and time have very different meanings. The study of semantic change can be seen as part of  etymology ,  onomasiology ,  semasiology , and  semantics .

40. SEMANTIC CHANGE There are different types of change which will be discussed presently. The most neutral way of referring to change is simply to speak of  semantic   shift  which is to talk of change without stating what type it is. To begin with a series of shifts are presented to familiarize by the students with what is possible in the realm of semantic change. 

41. EXAMPLES: Awful - Originally meant "inspiring wonder (or fear)". It is a  portmanteau  of the words "awe" and "full", used originally as a shortening for "full of awe". In contemporary usage the word usually has negative meaning. Demagogue - Originally meant "a popular leader". It is from the  Greek   demagogos  (leader of the people), from  demos  (people) +  agogos  (leader). Now the word has strong connotations of a  politician who panders to emotions and  prejudice .

42. EXAMPLES: English  fæger  ‘fit, suitable’, Modern English  fair  came to mean ‘pleasant, enjoyable’ then ‘beautiful’ and ‘pleasant in conduct’, from which the second modern meaning ‘just, impartial’ derives. The first meaning continued to develop in the sense of ‘of light complexion’ and a third one arose from ‘pleasant’ in a somewhat pejorative sense, meaning ‘average, mediocre’, Ex.  He only got a fair result in his exam . 

43. EXAMPLES: Gentle  was borrowed in Middle English in the sense of ‘born of a good-family, with a higher social standing’. Later the sense ‘courteous’ and then ‘kind, mild in manners’ developed because these qualities were regarded as qualities of the upper classes. 

44. EXAMPLES: Lewd  (Old English  læwede ) originally meant ‘non-ecclesiastical, lay’, then came to mean ‘uneducated, unlearned’ from which it developed into ‘vulgar, lower-class’ and then through ‘bad-mannered, ignorant’, to ‘sexually insinuating’. 

45. EXAMPLES: Sophisticated  meant ‘unnatural, contaminated’ but now has the sense of ‘urbane, discriminating’. The word  sophistry  (from Old French  sophistrie ) still has its original meaning of ‘specious, fallacious reasoning’. 

46. EXAMPLES: Artificial  originally meant ‘man-made, artful, skillfully constructed’, compare  artifice  ‘man-made construction’. But by comparison with ‘natural’ the word came to acquire a negative meaning because everything which is natural is regarded positively. 

47. EXAMPLES: Nice  (Latin  nescius  ‘not knowing') is recorded from the 13th century in the sense of ‘foolish’, then it shifted to ‘coy, shy’ and by the 16th century had the meaning ‘fastidious, dainty, subtle’ from which by the 18th century the sense ‘agreeable, delightful’ developed. 

48. EXAMPLES: Silly  (Old English  sēlig  ‘happy, fortuitous') had by the 15th century the sense of ‘deserving of pity’ and then developed to ‘ignorant, feeble-minded’ and later ‘foolish’.  Fast  (OE  fæste  ‘firm') later developed the meaning ‘quick’. The original sense is still seen in  steadfast  ‘firm in position’.

49. EXAMPLES: Egregious - Originally described something that was remarkably good. The word is from the  Latin   egregius  (outstanding) which is from e-, ex- (out of) + greg - or grex (flock). Now it means something that is remarkably bad or flagrant. Gay - Originally meant feelings of being "carefree", "happy", or "bright and showy"; it had also come to acquire some connotations of "immorality" as early as 1637. The term later began to be used in reference to homosexuality , in particular, from the early 20th century, a usage that may have dated prior to the 19th century.

50. EXAMPLE: Guy -  Guido (Guy) Fawkes  was the alleged leader of a  plot  to blow up the  English   Houses of Parliament  on 5 November 1605. The burning on 5 November of a grotesque  effigy  of Fawkes, known as a "guy," led to the use of the word " guy " as a term for any "person of grotesque appearance" and then to a general reference for a man, as in "some guy called for you." In the 20th century, under the influence of  American popular culture , " guy " has been gradually replacing "fellow," "bloke," "chap" and other such words throughout the  English-speaking world , and, in the plural, can refer to a mixture of genders (e.g., "Come on, you guys!" could be directed to a group of men and women).

51. SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIATION: The above cases are all cases of shift, the original meaning is not available anymore, or only in an opaque compound (see last example). The process whereby two meanings arise from a single original one is termed  Semantic Differentiation .

52. SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIATION: In English there has been considerable fluctuation in the preterite and past participle ending after sonorants for weak verbs: either a voiced /-d/ or a voiceless /-t/. This has resulted in the exploitation of the two options for semantic purposes. The situation for most varieties of English today is that the ending  - ed  stresses the process of the verb and the ending  -t   emphasises the result as seen in the following examples

53. DIFFERENTIATION:

54. DIFFERENTIATION:

55. TYPES OF SEMANTIC CHANGE: A number of classification schemes have been suggested for semantic change. The most widely accepted scheme in the English-speaking Academic World is from  Bloomfield (1933 ): NARROWING METAPHOR METONYMY SYNECDOCHE MEIOSIS HYPERBOLE DEGENERATION ELEVATION

56. TYPES OF SEMANTIC CHANGE: Narrowing — Change from superordinate level to subordinate level. For example,  skyline  used to refer to any horizon, but now it has narrowed to a horizon decorated by skyscrapers. Widening —Change from subordinate level to superordinate level. There are many examples of specific brand names being used for the general product, such as with  Kleenex .

57. TYPES OF SEMANTIC CHANGE: 3. Metaphor —Change based on similarity of thing. For example,  broadcast  originally meant "to cast seeds out"; with the advent of radio and television, the word was extended to indicate the transmission of audio and video signals. Outside of agricultural circles, very few people use  broadcast  in the earlier sense.

58. TYPES OF SEMANTIC CHANGE: 5. Metonymy — Change based on nearness in space or time, Ex.  J aw-->  "cheek" → "mandible". 6. Synecdoche —Change based on whole-part relation. The convention of using capital cities to represent countries or their governments is an example of this.

59. TYPES OF SEMANTIC CHANGE: 7. Meiosis — Change from weaker to stronger meaning, e.g.,  kill  "torment" → "slaughter“ 8. Hyperbole — Change from stronger to weaker meaning, e.g.,  astound  "strike with thunder" → "surprise strongly".

60. TYPES OF SEMANTIC CHANGE: 9. Degeneration — Ex. knave  "boy" → "servant" → "deceitful or despicable man". 10. Elevation — Ex. knight  "boy" → "nobleman".

61. CATEGORIES OF SEMANTIC CHANGE (BLANK, 1998): Metaphor : Change based on similarity between concepts, e.g.,  mouse  "rodent" → "computer device". Metonymy : Change based on contiguity between concepts, e.g.,  horn  "animal horn" → "musical instrument". Synecdoche : Same as above. Specialization of meaning : Downward shift in a taxonomy, e.g.,  corn  "grain" → "wheat" (UK), → "maize" (US).

62. CATEGORIES OF SEMANTIC CHANGE (BLANK, 1998): 5. Generalization of Meaning: Upward shift in a taxonomy, e.g.,  hoover  "Hoover vacuum cleaner" → "any type of vacuum cleaner". 6. Cohyponymic Transfer : Horizontal shift in a taxonomy, e.g., the confusion of  mouse  and  rat  in some dialects. 7. Antiphrasis : Change based on a contrastive aspect of the concepts, e.g.,  perfect lady  in the sense of "prostitute".

63. CATEGORIES OF SEMANTIC CHANGE (BLANK, 1998): 8. Auto- antonymy : Change of a word's sense and concept to the complementary opposite, e.g.,  bad  in the slang sense of "good". 9. Auto-converse : Lexical expression of a relationship by the two extremes of the respective relationship, e.g.,  take  in the dialectal use as "give".

64. CATEGORIES OF SEMANTIC CHANGE (BLANK, 1998): 10. Ellipsis : Semantic change based on the contiguity of names, e.g.,  car  "cart" → "automobile", due to the invention of the  (motor) car . 11. Folk-etymology : Semantic change based on the similarity of names, e.g., French  contredanse , orig. English  country dance .

65. TYPES OF SEMANTIC CHANGE 1. Widening/Extension range of meanings of a word increases so that the word can be used in more contexts than were appropriate before the change EXAMPLES: - dog  => specific powerful breed of dog => all breeds or races of dog - cupboard   =>table upon which cups or vessels were placed, a piece of furniture to display plates  => closet or cabin with shelves for the keeping cups and dishes =>AE: small storage cabinet

66. TYPES OF SEMANTIC CHANGE 2. Narrowing (Specialisation, Restriction) => range of meaning is decreased so that a word can be used appropriately only in fewer contexts than before the change meat   => 'food' in general ; hound  => OE  hund  'dog in general' => species of dog (long eared hunting dog) ; wife   => OE 'woman' =>'woman of humble rank  or low employment' => 'married woman,  spouse'      girl   => ME 'child or young person of either sex' =>'female child, young woman'

67. TYPES OF SEMANTIC CHANGE 3 . Metaphor =>involves relationship of perceived similarity root   (of plant) => > root of plant, root of word, root in algebra, source stud  =>  'good-looking sexy man '(of slang origin) derived from  stud  'a male animal used for breeding chill  => "relax, calm down' of slang origin, original 'to cool'

68. TYPES OF SEMANTIC CHANGE 4 .   Metonymy =>inclusion of additional senses which were originally not present but which are closely associated with word's original meaning tea   => 'drink' => 'evening meal accompanied by drinking tea’. cheek  'fleshy side of the face below the eye' < OE: cēace ' jaw, jawbone‘.

69. TYPES OF SEMANTIC CHANGE 5. Synecdoche =>kind of metonymy, involves part-to-whole relationship. EXAMPLES: hand  -- 'hired hand, employed worker'; Tongue -- 'language'

70. TYPES OF SEMANTIC CHANGE 6. Degeneration / Pejoration =>sense of a word takes on a less positive, more negative evaluation in the minds of the users knave  'a rogue'  < OE:  cnafa  ' a youth, a child' > 'servant' ; spinster   'unmarried woman' < 'one who spins' ; silly   'foolish, stupid'  < ME  sely  'happy, innocent' < OE  sælig   ''blessed, blissful' disease   'illness' < 'discomfort' (cf.  dis+ease )

71. TYPES OF SEMANTIC CHANGE 7. Elevation /Amelioration =>shifts in the sense of a word in the direction towards a more positive value in the minds of the users Pretty-- OE: prættig 'crafty, sly‘ Knight--   'mounted warrior serving a king' 'lesser nobility' < OE  cniht   'boy, servant' >'servant' > 'military servant'; Dude-- 'guy, person' < in 1883 a word of ridicule for 'man who affects an exaggerated fastidiousness in dress, speech and deportment', a dandy'

72. TYPES OF SEMANTIC CHANGE 8. Taboo Replacement and Avoidance of Obscenity Ass--  'long-eared animal related to a horse' =>  donkey ; Cock--   'adult male chicken' =>  rooster , bloody nose  =>  blood nose/bleeding nose Toilet-- bathroom, lavatory, restroom, loo, john

73. TYPES OF SEMANTIC CHANGE 9. Hyperbole =>shift in meaning due to exaggeration by overstatement. terribly, horribly, awfully--   'very' 10. Litotes =>exaggeration by understatement.

74. FORCES TRIGGERING SEMANTIC CHANGE Blank has tried to create a complete list of motivations for semantic change. They can be summarized as: Linguistic forces Psychological forces Socio-cultural forces Cultural/encyclopedic forces

75. FORCES TRIGGERING SEMANTIC CHANGE This list has been revised and slightly enlarged by  Grzega (2004 ): Fuzziness (i.e., difficulties in classifying the referent or attributing the right word to the referent, thus mixing up designations) Dominance of the Prototype (i.e., fuzzy difference between superordinate and subordinate term due to the monopoly of the prototypical member of a category in the real world) Social Reasons (i.e., contact situation with " undemarcation " effects)

76. FORCES TRIGGERING SEMANTIC CHANGE Institutional and non-institutional linguistic pre- and proscriptivism (i.e., legal and peer-group linguistic pre- and proscriptivism , aiming at "demarcation") Flattery Insult Disguising Language (i.e., " mis-nomers ") Taboo (i.e., taboo concepts)

77. FORCES TRIGGERING SEMANTIC CHANGE Aesthetic-Formal Reasons (i.e., avoidance of words that are phonetically similar or identical to negatively associated words) Communicative-Formal Reasons (i.e., abolition of the ambiguity of forms in context, keyword: "homonymic conflict and polysemic conflict") Word Play/Punning Excessive Length of Words

78. FORCES TRIGGERING SEMANTIC CHANGE Morphological Misinterpretation (keyword: "folk-etymology", creation of transparency by changes within a word) Logical-Formal Reasons (keyword: "lexical regularization", creation of consociation) Desire for Plasticity (creation of a salient motivation of a name) Anthropological Salience of a Concept (i.e., anthropologically given emotionality of a concept, "natural salience")

79. FORCES TRIGGERING SEMANTIC CHANGE Culture-Induced Salience of a Concept ("cultural importance") Changes in the Referents (i.e., changes in the world) World View Change (i.e., changes in the categorization of the world) Prestige/Fashion (based on the prestige of another language or variety, of certain word-formation patterns, or of certain semasiological centers of expansion)

80. SEMANTIC CHANGE Changes in meaning are as common as changes in form. Like the latter they can be internally or externally motivated. The equivalent to the paradigm in morphology is, in semantics, the word field in which words and their meanings stand in a network of relationships.

81. SEMANTIC CHANGE The alteration of meaning occurs because words are constantly used and what is intended by speakers is not exactly the same each time. If a different intention for a word is shared by the speech community and becomes established in usage then a semantic change has occurred. 

82. END OF REPORT SOURCES: 1. www.wikipedia.org/semanticchange 2. Webster Encyclopedia, 2 nd Edition 3. Lecture of B. H. Partee on Formal Semantics, April 25, 2005 p.1-6 4. Handouts of Gerhard Jager : [email protected] Thank you for listening 

83. SHORT QUIZ: TEST I: Listen attentively and answer the following questions. Write 1 if the statement corresponds to Formal Semantics, and 0 if the statement says otherwise. I hereby affixed my signature on January 30, 2012. You are now man and wife. I will be there at 5:00 pm. Your name is Maria Salve. I promise to give her a birthday present.

84. SHORT QUIZ: TEST II: Supply the correct Semantic Change. The Modern English of  fair  came to mean _______________. _______ was borrowed in Middle English originally means ‘born of a good-family with a higher social standing’.  Lewd  (Old English  læwede ) originally meant ___________then came to mean ‘uneducated, unlearned’. Fast  (Old Eng  fæste  ‘firm') later developed the meaning ________. Silly   come from Old English _____which means happy and fortuitous.

85. SHORT QUIZ: 6. ______ comes from Latin  nescius  which means ‘not knowing‘ and later became agreeable and delightful. 7. Artificial  originally meant ______________. 8. Sophisticated  originally means ‘unnatural, contaminated’ but now has the sense of _________. 9. The process whereby two meanings arise from a single original one is termed_____________. 10.Semantic change, also known as __________that describes the evolution of  word  usage.

86. SHORT QUIZ: TEST III. ENUMERATION. 1-5 Give at least five words that undergone Semantic Change. 6-10 Cite at least 5 types of Semantic Change according to Bloomfield 1933. TEST IV. ESSAY. Discuss briefly. Formal Semantics Semantic Change

87. KEY TO CORRECTION: TEST I: 1 0 0 0 1 TEST II: Pleasant, enjoyable Gentle Non-ecclesiastical, lay Quick Sēlig Nice Man-made, artful, skillfully constructed Urbane, discriminating Semantic Differentiation Semantic Shift or Semantic Progression

88. KEY TO CORRECTION: TEST III: 1-5 Awful, demagogue, egregious, guy, gay, fit, gentle, lewd, sophisticated, artificial, Nice, Silly, Fast 6-10  Narrowing, Metaphor, Metonymy, Synecdoche, Meiosis, Hyperbole, Degeneration, Elevation. TEST IV: 1. is about the meaning of syntactically complex expressions. Literally means “using formal methods for the study of meaning.” 2. Semantic change, also known as semantic shift or semantic progression) that describes the evolution of  word  usage.