Semantics

Compositional and Lexical Semantics differ in its varied approach and principles associated with each idea. These will be discussed in this presentation along with ambiguity, anomaly, tautologies, contradictions, entailment, etc.

1. SEMANTICS The Meaning of Language Surely all this is not without meaning. Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, 1851 Prepared by: Sarah Mae Faith Zamora Based on the book An Introduction to Language by Victoria Fromkin , Robert Rodman, Nina Hyams

2. What speakers know about sentence meaning Linguistic knowledge permits us to determine: Whether a sentence is true or false When one sentence implies the truth or falseness of another Whether a sentence has multiple meanings

3. Truth-conditional Semantics > by formulating semantic rules that build the meaning of a sentence from the meanings of its words and the way the words combine syntactically Truth Value >judging sentences as either true or false Compositional Semantics > calculates the truth value of a sentence by composing, or putting together, the meanings of smaller units

4. Compositional Semantics looks at the meanings of sentences and longer utterances TRUTH Ex. Jack swims. * You do not need to actually know whether a sentence is true or false to know its meaning. Knowing the meaning tells you how to determine the truth value.

5. A restricted number of sentences are indeed always true regardless of the circumstances. They are called TAUTOLOGIES . Some sentences are always false. These are called CONTRADICTIONS . ENTAILMENT – when one sentence entails another if whenever the first sentence is true the second is also true in all conceivable circumstances. Two sentences are SYNONYMOUS if they entail each other. Two sentences are CONTRADICTORY if one entails the negation of the other

6. AMBIGUITY Our semantic knowledge tells us when words or phrases (including sentences) have more than one meaning: that is, when they are ambiguous. Ex. The boy saw the man with the telescope. * The sentence is structurally ambiguous because it is associated with two different phrase structures, each corresponding to a different meaning.

7. LEXICAL AMBIGUITY arises when at least one word in a phrase has more than one meaning Ex. This will make you smart * The sentence is ambiguous because of the two meanings of the word smart: ‘clever’ and ‘feel a burning sensation.’.

8. PRINCIPLE OF COMPOSITIONALITY notion that the meaning of an expression is composed of the meanings of its parts and how they are combined structurally

9. COMPOSITIONAL SEMANTICS To manage a system effectively, you might focus on the interactions of the parts rather than their behavior taken separately. (RUSSELL L. ACKOFF) * Grammar contains semantic rules that combine the meanings of words into meaningful phrases and sentences

10. SEMANTIC RULES Jack (proper name) swims (its referent) *Semanticists think that the best way to define predicates s (verbs, adjectives and common nouns) is in terms of the individuals that those predicates successfully describe Word Meanings Jack refers to (or means) the individual Jack swims refers to (or means) the set of individuals that swim

11. When Compositionality Goes Awry The meaning of an expression is not always obvious , even to a native speaker of the language. Meanings may be obscured in many ways, or at least may require some imagination or special knowledge to be apprehended. ANOMALY METAPHORS IDIOMS

12. ANOMALY Ex. Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. (semantically anomalous) Dark green leaves rustle furiously. * Other English “ sentences ” make no sense at all because they include “ words ” that have no meaning; they are interpretable. They can be interpreted only if some meaning for each nonsense word can be dreamt up.

13. Lewis Carroll’s “ Jabberwocky ” is probably the most famous poem in which most of the content words have no meaning—they do not exist in the lexicon of the language (semantically anomalous) He took his vorpal sword in hand: Long time the manxome foe he sought— So rested he by the Tumtum tree, And stood awhile in thought

14. Breaking the rules creates the desired imagery. Ex. A grief ago ( a phrase by Dylan Thomas) Ago is ordinarily used with words specified by some temporal semantic feature: a week ago *a table ago an hour ago but not *a dream ago a month ago *a mother ago

15. The fact that we are able to understand , or at least interpret , anomalous expressions , and at the same time recognize their anomalous nature , demonstrates our knowledge of the semantic system and semantic properties of the language

16. METAPHORS Our doubts are traitors. (William Shakespeare) Walls have ears. (from Don Quixote) The night has a thousand eyes and the day but one. ( Bourdillon’s Light )

17. METAPHORS When what appears to be an anomaly is nevertheless understood in terms of a meaningful concept, the expression becomes a metaphor Technically, metaphors are anomalous , but the nature of the anomaly creates the salient meanings that metaphors usually have.

18. METAPHORS may have a literal meaning as well as their metaphorical meaning , so in some sense they are ambiguous * Metaphorical use of language is language creativity at its highest.

19. IDIOMS typically start out as metaphors that catch on and are repeated so often that they become fixtures in the language. Such expressions are called idioms, or idiomatic phrases, as in these English examples : sell down the river rake over the coals snap out of it give a piece of your mind

20. IDIOMS Like metaphors, idioms can break the rules on combining semantic properties. Example He ate his hat. Eat your heart out. * Idioms, grammatically as well as semantically, have special characteristics. They must be entered into the lexicon or mental dictionary as single items with their meanings specified, and speakers must learn the special restrictions on their use in sentences

21. LEXICAL SEMANTICS > studies the meanings and relations of words * The meaning of words is part of linguistic knowledge. Our mental storehouse of information about words and morphemes is what we have been calling the LEXICON

22. Theories of Word Meaning Reference The meaning of a word or expression is its reference ; its association with the object it refers to.

23. Theories of Word Meaning ... Reference

24. Theories of Word Meaning ... Reference Ex. Lois Lane is in love with Superman.

25. Sense This suggests the fact that speakers know the meanings of many words that have no real-world referents. Ex. hobbits, unicorns and Harry Potter * These additional elements of meaning are often termed sense.

26. Lexical Relations Words are semantically related to one another in a variety of ways . * Please do not annoy, torment, pester, plague, molest, worry, badger, harry, harass, heckle, persecute, irk, bullyrag, vex, disquiet, grate, beset, bother, tease, nettle, tantalize, or ruffle the animals Ex. A sign in the San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park states : SYNONYMS are words or expressions that have the same meaning in some or all contexts.

27. Lexical Relations Complementary Pairs ex. alive/dead present/absent awake or asleep Kinds of Antonyms ANTONYMS are words that are opposite in meaning Gradable Pairs ex. big/small hot/cold fast/slow Relational Opposites ex. give/receive buy/sell teacher/pupil

28. In English there are several ways to form antonyms by adding: Un – likely/unlikely able/unable fortunate/unfortunate Non – entity/nonentity conformist/nonconformist In – tolerant/intolerant discreet/indiscreet decent/indecent Antonyms ..

29. HOMONYMS - words that have different meanings but are pronounced the same and may or may not be spelled the same, homographs when spelled the same. Ex. Bear and Bare POLYSEMY word that has multiple meanings that are related conceptually or historically Ex. Diamond (referring to a jewel and also to a baseball field) Other lexical relations ..

30. HYPONYMY - the relationship between the more general term and the more specific instances of it Ex. color – red feline – lion SEMANTIC FEATURES If it is true that words have meanings, why don’t we throw away words and keep just the meanings? LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN Other lexical relations ..

31. Decomposing the meanings of words into semantic features can clarify how certain words relate to other words. Semantic features are among the conceptual elements that are part of the meanings of words and sentences. Consider, for example, the sentence: The assassin killed Thwacklehurst . SEMANTIC FEATURES

32. One source of such evidence is the speech errors, or “ slips of the tongue,” that we all produce. Semantic features are among the conceptual elements that are part of the meanings of words and sentences. Evidence for SEMANTIC FEATURES Intended Utterance bridge of the nose when my gums bled he came too late Actual Utterance (Error) bridge of the neck when my tongues bled he came too early

33. Semantic Features and Grammar

34. “Female” is a semantic feature, sometimes indicated by the suffix - ess , that makes up part of the meaning of nouns, such as: SEMANTIC FEATURES of Nouns tigress hen aunt maiden doe mare debutante widow ewe vixen girl woman

35. “ Cause ” is a feature of verbs such as darken , kill , uglify , and so on darken cause to become dark kill cause to die uglify cause to become ugly SEMANTIC FEATURES of Verbs SEMANTIC FEATURES of Nouns Count nouns can be enumerated and pluralized— one potato , two potatoes . Mass nouns cannot be enumerated or pluralized such as rice , water , and milk

36. “ Go ” is a feature of verbs that mean a change in location or possession, such as swim , crawl , throw The baby crawled under the table. The boy threw the ball over the fence . Eventives Ex. Mary was kissed by John. ---- Oysters were eaten by John. Statives Ex. ?Mary is known by John. ------ ?Oysters are liked by John. SEMANTIC FEATURES of Verbs

37. Negation a particularly interesting component of the meaning of some verbs. Expressions such as ever , anymore , have a red cent , and many more are ungrammatical in certain simple affirmative sentences, but grammatical in corresponding negative ones. *Mary will ever smile ---- Mary will not ever smile Negative polarity items are expressions that require a negative element such as “not” elsewhere in the sentence Ex. John thinks that he’ll ever fly a plane again. John doubts that he’ll ever fly a plane again.

38. Argument Structure Intransitive verbs have one argument: the subject; transitive verbs have two arguments: the subject and direct object; ditransitive verbs have three arguments: the subject, THEMATIC ROLES 1. The boy rolled a red ball. agent theme Thematic roles express the kind of relation that holds between the arguments of the verb and the type of situation that the verb describes.

39. THEMATIC ROLES Professor Snape awakened Harry Potter with his wand . source experiencer instrument source - where the action originates instrument - the means used to accomplish the action; and experiencer - one receiving sensory input:

40. SEMANTICS Language without meaning is meaningless (Roman Jakobson ) Prepared by: Sarah Mae Faith Zamora & Helen Rhose Go