Semantics= study of meaning- of the relationships between linguistic form and meaning

Pragmatics- use of tools in meaningful communication. Is about the interaction of semantic

knowledge with our knowledge of the world
REFERENCE- speaker´s use of words to point to something in the world, refer to specific
entities
-The cat is hungry= referent of the expression of cat
-He saw Paul. -who?
SENSE= abstract representation of what the referents of a world have in common
SENTENCE= abstract grammatical elements, generalized from actual language use. Linguistic
expression, well-formed string of words
UTTERANCE= refer to complete communicative units, unique. Speech event by particular
speaker in specific context.
PROPOSITION= determines whether a statements in a particular situation is true or false.
Propositional content of the sentence. (John saw his sister. John saw Mary. Mary was seen by
Peter's uncle. These can all express the same proposition, provided, of course, that Mary is John's
sister, and that John is Peter's uncle, and so on.- IF ONE IS TRUE ALL ARE TRUE. IS ONE IS F\
LSE ALL ARE FALSE)
To sum up: utterances are real pieces of speech. By filtering out certain types of (especially phonetic)
information we can get to abstract grammatical elements, sentences. By going on to filter out certain
types of grammatical information, we can get to propositions, which are descriptions of states of
affairs and which some writers see as a basic element of sentence meaning.
COMPOSITIONALITY= the relation between form and sentence. The meaning of the expression is
predictable from the meaning of the words it contains.
Lexemes are non-compositional – that is, the meanings of these linguistic forms are not built out of (or
predictable from) the meanings of their parts
the meaning of the clause black cat is compositional; its meaning is built from the meanings of its
parts. T

PROPOSITION: is judged to be true if it corresponds o the situation about which a claim is made.
Aim is to explain: analytic (the truth follows from the meaning relations within the sentence…),
contradiction, synthetic (may be true in some situations and false in others. John´s sister is married-
need more knowledge), paradox (automatically false- his sister is a man.)
ENTAILMENT= a fixed truth relation between sentences.
P entails Q- I bought a dog today. I bough an animal today./ John killed the wasp. The wasp was
killed by John.
Mutual- paraphrase: alice owns this book- this book belongs to alice. SYNONYMOUS, she is dead.
She is not alive.
Inconsistent/incompatible- cannot be true.
Contradiction- the wasp is dead. The was is alive. / john is still singing. John is no longer singing.
Independent- neither of them entails the other. John is retired. Mary is married.
Presupposition= part of the utterance… Her husband is a fool= she has a husband. I regret leaving
London= I left London.
COMPONENTIAL ANALYSIS
- THE MEANING OF LEXEMES ARE ANALYSED NTO COMPONENTS, which are
compared across lexemes or groups f lexemes.
- Correlations- proposed components (male occurs in mother, daughter..)
- Woman= +woman + adult + human
- Bachelor= + male + adult + human + unmarried
- Human= animate….

PROTOTYPE
What must be rejected is the notion that definitional (linguistic semantic) and encyclopaedic
(world knowledge) aspects of meaning can be easily separated. Has X features
Conceptual structure- the meaning of the sentence: event state material path place property

PARADIGMATIC SENSE RELATION: substitution, identity of function. Synonymy ,hyponymy,

co-hyponymy, antonymy
Relation- similarity: two things are related/ Difference: …
SYNONYMS
- some difference in denotation, connotation, social meaning
- Full: identical in every sense
- Sense: share one sense, differ in others (sofa.couch)
- Near: mob.crowd. usually defined as words which designate the same thing but differ in its
finer shades
- Identical (logical)x similar (context-dependent)
- Absolute/ propositional (depends on entailment- fiddle.violin)/ near
POLYSEMY AND HOMONYMY
- Multiple senses x sound the same.
- Depends on how the info is organized in speaker´s lexicon.
- Relation between senses associated with a single lexeme x different lexeme that are
coincidentally similar in form.
- Meaning extensions: NATURALIZED (He is in love) / ESTABILISHED (not felt to be figures
of speech- He is a couch potato.) / NONCE READINGS (no entries in lexicon, interpreted as
metaphor or metonymy)
- Metaphor- involve target domain, source domain, set of mapping relations (the life is a
journey, the argument is war)
- Metonymy- whole to part: I am going to wash the car/ fill up car with petrol
-part for whole: there are too many mouths to feed. I noticed several new faces
tonight.
 -place for institution: the White House denies the allegations.
-represented entity for representative: Enhgland won the W.Cup in 1966.
SYNTAGMATIC RELATIONS
Presupposed meaning- do not questioned or denied the utterance…drink it= liquid
-distinguish selectional restrictions (a type of presupposition triggered by specific words) from
collocational restrictions. Collocational restrictions are conventionalized patterns of
combining two or more words.
SELECTIONAL RESTRICTION:
-logically inescapable concomitant of the propositional traits of a lexical item
-anomaly: whether a combination of words is anomalous or normal is usually handled within
componential systems by specifying selectional restrictions.. John expired, expired means
"died", while in My driving licence has expired, it means "has become invalid".
- kompatibilita: Lexémy se v zásadě primárně kombinují podle svého významu, který musí být
slučitelný, kompatibilní s významem druhého slova;…psát + dopis/knihu/poznámku/vzkaz/... , nikoliv
však  *psát vodu/jídlo/ rychlosti/ světlo/... ,
COLLOCATIONAL RESTRICTIONS: need further semantic requirements on subject
Is there something wrong with the engine of your lawnmower ? (There is something wrong
with the (electric) motor.) Is Arthur the one with beer-foam on his moustache? (Arthur is the
one with beer-froth on his moustache.) Have you grilled the bread? (You have toasted the
bread.) Has the aspidistra kicked the bucket? (The aspidistra has died.)
John died/ passed away/ kicked the bucket
My prize rose bush died/ passed away/ …
Dirty/unclean joke
…..
SEMANTIC CLASH:
=do not go together
A clash results from  Collocational preferences → inappropriateness  Selectional
preferences → paradox or incongruity
Paradox: the cat barked. It's too small to fit into this box, Rain falls upwards, usually, If you
walk any faster, you'll be standing still. Paradoxes are typically 'correctable’.
Inappropriateness:
Incongruity: the most serious. No sense can be extracted at all without radical
reinterpretation. Purple gestures of rat milk. The sky´s nipple is a dictionary.
SYNTAGMATIC RELATIONS: PLEONASM= redundant
- Male uncle….