Transcript Chapter 2 Word Meaning

Chapter 3 Word Meaning
• Lexical semantics; traditional semantics
• Formal semantics: denotational approach
which emphasizes the links between
language and external reality
• Cognitive semantics: representational
approach which emphasizes the link
between language and conceptual
structure
Aims of lexical semantics
1) to represent the meaning of each word in the
language
2) to show how the meanings of words in a
language are interrelated,
3.1) I saw my mother just now.
3.2)a. My bank manager has just been murdered.
b. My bank manager is dead.
c. My bank will be getting a new manager.
(a entails b. How? c is an inference from a. How?)
Words and Lexical Items
• dictionary = lexicon
semantics words : lexemes,
orthographic words: morning star
phonological words: we’ll [wil]
grammatical words : walk, walks, walking, walked
•
1.
2.
4.
a lexical entry includes unpredictable information:
the lexeme's pronunciation,
the grammatical status,
3. its meaning,
its meaning relations with other lexemes
• How about phrasal verbs (look after, throw up ...)
and idioms (kick the bucket, spill the beans)?
=> strings of words, but single semantic units
3.4 Problems with Pinning Down
Word Meaning
• contextual effects to pull down word meaning
1) restricting influence:
a. collocation: powerful/strong arguments vs.
powerful car/*tea, strong tea/*car, a herd of
cattle, a pack of dogs, husband and wife, curry
and rice
b. idioms through a fossilization of collocations
where individual words lose independent
meanings: kith and kin, spill the beans
2) expanding influence; towards creativity and
semantic shift
3.16 a. I go for a run every morning.
c. The ball-player hit a home run.
d. We took the new car for a run.
e. H built a run for his chicken.
g. The bears are here for the salmon run.
• How view the relationship between these
instances of run?
7 different senses of the word run?
(ambiguous?)
OR examples of the same sense influence by
different contexts? (vague?)
• Tests to distinguish Ambiguity and Vagueness
1) do-so identity test:
3.17 Charlie hates a dog and so does Mary/
Mary does too.
3.18 Duffy discovered a mole(animal), and
Clark discovered a mole (=spy).
d. Duffy discovered a mole, and
so did Clark.
2) sense relations test:
3.21 I go for a run/jog/?enclosure. (run-jog)
3.22 He built a new run/pen/?jog for his
chicken (run-pen-enclosure)
3.5 Lexical Relations
• lexicon as a network, not a listing of words as in a
published dictionary:
• one important principle is the lexical field, a group
of lexemes which belong to a particular activity or
area of specialized knowledge
• 3.5.1 Homonymy :
unrelated senses of the same phonological word.
homographs (senses of the same spelling):
lap, run, keep
vs. homophones (senses of the same sound)
ring-wring, lead-led, not-knot
3.5.2 Polysemy:
• related senses of the same phonological word
• difficult cases to determine homonyms or
polysems: sole ,gay, purple
3.5.3 Synonymy:
• different phonological words with the same or
similar meanings
• couch/sofa, boy/lad, toilet/lavatory, large/big
• different uses with different contexts
3.33) a big house: a large house
3.34) my big sister : my large sister
police officer, cop statesman, politician
3.5.4 Opposites (Antonymy)
1) simple antonyms : complementary pairs or binary pairs
dead/alive, pass/fail, hit/miss
2) gradable antonyms : hot (warm tepid cool) cold
relative senses; a thick pencil vs. a thin girl
one is more basic: how long/old/hot/many .....?
3) reverses : describing movement in opposite directions
come/go, ascend/descend, (go) up/down,
(turn) right/left
4) converses: relational antonyms
own/belong to, above/below, employer/employee
5) taxonomic sisters ;
red orange yellow green blue purple brown
Sunday Monday ....
3.5.5 Hyponymy: a relation of inclusion;
hyponyms, hypernyms
bird
/
crow
|
＼
hawk
duck ....
/
＼
kestrel sparrowhawk ....
3.5.6 Meronymy: a part-whole relationship
between lexical items
car
wheel
engine
door
window
piston valve ....
3.5.7 Member-collection:
ship - fleet, tree - forest (example 3.49)
3.5.8 Portion-mass: drop of liquid, sheet of paper
grain of salt/sand/wheat,
3.6 Derivational Relations
causative verbs: adj.+-en = widen, deepen, ripen
agentive nouns: verb + -er = walker, toaster, renter ....
3.7 Lexical Universals
Are there any universals in lexical semantics?
1) Are there universals of lexical organization or
principles?
2) Are there some lexemes that have correspondences
in all the languages?