Transcript hum hum

Distributional analysis
Distributional analysis in its various forms is
commonly used nowadays.
By the term “distribution” we understand the
occurrence of a lexical unit relative to
another lexical units of the same levels:
words to words, morpheme to
morphemes.
In other words, by this term we
understand the position which lexical unit
occupies or may occupy in the text or in
the flow of speech.
It is observed that a certain component of
the word-meaning is described when the
word is identified distributionally.
Content, aim.
Distribution is a semantic connection and
combination of words within sentence.
This combination may be changed
artificial.
The tasks:
1. study of lexical-grammatical connections
within any constructions.
2. define of meaning structure of separate
words and classes on basis of their
occurrences.
3. establishment of quantitative differences
of words and word combinations.
e. g. In the sentence The boy__________
home .
The missing word is easily identified as a
verb . It may be “came, ran, went, goes”,
but not as an adverb or a noun, or an
adjective.
Thus, we see that the component of
meaning that is distributionally identified
is actually the part-of-speech meaning.
It is also observed that in a number of
cases words have different lexical
meanings indifferent distributional
patterns.
e. g. The verb “to treat” has different lexical
meanings in “to treat smbd kindly” & “to
treat smbd to ice-cream”.
The interdependence of distribution &
meaning can be also observed at the level
of word-groups.
e. g. It is only the distribution of completely
identical lexical units but arranged on the
reverse that differentiates the meaning –
water tap & tap water .
Definition of main notions
Distribution – the sum of all occurrences of words.
Occurrence – environment of lexical words within
sentence. E.g. the boy is drinking water.
‘boy’ and ‘water’. There are the occurrence of verb
‘drink’.
Lexical class of words – a set of words which
have a general notion. Compare. boy ‘man’,
water ‘liquid’.
Semantic field – a set of general meaning of
language elements.
Combination – the ability of words to be in
some semantic occurrences with other
words within sentence.
Valency – the quantity of semantic classes
of words with that combines this element
of construction.
Actants – semantic element which
surrounds the verbs.
E.g. The boy is drinking water.
Combination - +Hum-V2- Liquid
Distribution – Sn-v2-Sa
The verb ‘drink’ has two valencies. That
means in surrounding of this verb may be
only two elements (actants).
The type of valency
1) A obligatory valency – a necessarily of all
elements of sentences. E.g. The student
goes to the lecture.
2) A optional valency – one of the elements
may be absent. E.g. The boy is eating
(cutlet).
3) A free valency – the actants don’t
combine with verbs. Nikolai has supper in
the canteen/ with friend/ at two o’clock.
The ways of distributional analyses
1) Substitution – replacement of actants for
define of their semantic classes. E.g. Мальчик
прислонил велосипед к стене.
Actant from left: мальчик, девушка, студент,
солдат = человек (+Hum)
Actant from right: велосипед, лопата, доска,
жердь+ предмет (-Anim) + к стене, к забору,
к дереву …= направление (dir)
Thus, we have such model of word
combination: Hum+V3+-Anim+Dir
Compare:
Женщина несет корзину +Hum+V2+-Anim
Курица несет яйца. +Anim+V2+-Anim
Парень несет чепуху.+Hum_V2+Abstr
Артист несет радость
людям.+Hum=3+Abstr.+Dr
Here we see that the verb ‘нести’ has four
meaning.
Нести: 1. перемещать предметы
2. класть яйца
3. говорить
4. доставлять
2) Distributional unfolding. That is the way of
increase of number elements for define of
their semantic. E.g.s
Серое пальто – темно-серое пальто
(цветообозначение)
Серый день – темносерый день (мрачный
день)
Серая личность – темносерая личность
(ограниченная личность)
3) Distributional rolling. The way of defining
of main elements of sentences. E.g.
Друг посетил.
Друг посетил меня. (+Hum+V2+Hum)
Друг посетил вчера.
Друг посетил в Алматы.
Componental analysis
In this analysis linguists proceed from the
assumption that the smallest units of
meaning are sememes or semes.
e. g. In the lexical item “woman” several
sememes may be singled out, such as
human, not an animal, female, adult. The
analysis of the word “girl” will show the
following sememes: human, female,
young.
The last component of the two words
differentiates them & makes impossible to
mix up the words in the process of
communication. It is classical form of
revealing the work of componental
analysis to apply them to the so called
closed systems of vocabulary.
The formalized representation of meaning
helps to find out different semantic
components which influence collocability
of words (during the day but not during
the stairs, down the stairs but not down
the day).
Componental analysis is practically always
combined with transformational
procedures or statistical analysis. The
combination makes it possible to find
out which of the meanings should be
represented first of all in the dictionaries of
different types & how the words should be
combined in order to make your speech
sensible.
The defects of distributional
method
• Doesn’t present the semantic differences
of all sentences as a main speech unit.
• Doesn’t define the semantic identity of
different syntactic structure (active,
passive, narrative, interrogative
sentences).