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Chapter 3 Part 1

The document discusses several key concepts in lexical semantics including: 1. It defines lexical semantics as the study of word meaning and discusses how semanticists represent word meanings and their interrelationships. 2. It examines several lexical relations including synonyms, antonyms, hyponyms, prototypes, homophones, polysemy, metonymy, and retronyms which are central to how speakers construct meaning. 3. It explores how words operate differently based on their grammatical categories and how context can both restrict and expand word meanings.

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Salam Mohammad
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39 views

Chapter 3 Part 1

The document discusses several key concepts in lexical semantics including: 1. It defines lexical semantics as the study of word meaning and discusses how semanticists represent word meanings and their interrelationships. 2. It examines several lexical relations including synonyms, antonyms, hyponyms, prototypes, homophones, polysemy, metonymy, and retronyms which are central to how speakers construct meaning. 3. It explores how words operate differently based on their grammatical categories and how context can both restrict and expand word meanings.

Uploaded by

Salam Mohammad
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Word meaning

chapter 3
Wafaa mahasneh
.Word meaning, or lexical semantics
Lexical Semantics can be defined as 'the study of
word meaning', therefore semanticists are
interested in the lexical meaning of words rather
.than grammatical meaning
It seeks to
to represent the meaning of each word in the )1
.language
to show how the meanings of words in a )2
.language are interrelated
A word is in relationship with
,other words in the same sentence–
.other words that are related but absent from context –
.E.g. I saw my mother just now
You know without any further information, that the –
.speaker saw a woman
this knowledge follows from the relationship –1
between the uttered word mother and the related, but
unspoken word woman
the word mother contains a woman semantic–2
.element as part of its meaning
Lexical Relations: A. Synonyms B. Antonyms
C. Hyponym D. Prototype E. Homophone and
homonyms F. Polysemy G. Metonymy H.
Retronyms

:Lexical Relations
are central to the way speakers and hearers
construct meaning. One example comes from
looking at the different kinds of conclusions that
.speakers may draw from an utterance
for example, the following sentences, where
English speakers would probably agree that each
of the b sentences below follows automatically
from its a partner (we assume that repeated
nominals have the same reference)
.a. My bank manager has just been murdered
.b. My bank manager is dead
.c. My bank will be getting a new manager
.The relationship between the a and b sentences was called Entailment
Entailment Sometimes knowing the truth of one sentence entails, or
.necessarily implies, the truth of another sentence
.a. This bicycle belongs to Ahmad
.b. Ahmad owns this bicycle
.c. Ahmad rides a bicycle
.A sentence( S1) entails B sentence(S2) if whenever S1 is true, S2 is also true
On the other hand, we can easily imagine situations
where we believe the a sentence but can deny the associated c sentence. this is
a sign that the inference from a to c is of a different kind from the entailment
relationship between a and b
the entailments in these sentences can be seen to follow from the semantic
relations between murder and dead, and belong and own
Contradiction It is a negative entailment, that is
the truth of one sentence necessarily implies the
.falseness of another sentence
.e.g
.a. Scott is a baby
.b. Scott is an adult
Words and Grammatical Categories
Grammatical categories reflect semantic differences: different categories of
.words must be given different semantic descriptions
:Types of words operate in different ways
Nouns are used to refer (eg, names, Fred Flintstone)
Connectives do not refer (eg, logical words, not, and, or, all, any)
Deictic Words can only be interpreted in particular contexts (eg, pronouns, I,
you, we, them)
Others are very consistent in meaning (eg, logical words)
So that semantic relations between common nouns like man, woman, animal,
.are clearer than between any noun and words like and, or, not
Words & Lexical Items
General linguistic tradition : assume that we
must have a list of all the words in a language,
together with idiosyncratic information about
them. and call this body of information a
.dictionary or lexicon
Words
:Whenever we discuss words, we are bound to talk about
Dictionary or lexicon: a list of all the words in a
.language, together with idiosyncratic information
Orthographic words: a sequence of symbols separated
.from other sequences by spaces
Phonological words: strings of sounds which may show
internal structuring that cannot occur otherwise outside
.the word and syntax
Word forms: where the same semantic word can be
.represented by several grammatically distinct variants
several lexemes can be represented by one
.phonological and grammatical word
:look at the word foot in the following sentences
a. He scored with his left foot.(part of the leg below the ankle)
b. They made camp at the foot of the mountain.(base
or bottom of something;)

c. I ate a foot-long hot dog. (unit of length, one third of a yard)


Each of these uses has a different meaning and we
can reflect this by identifying three lexemes(we
.have three senses of the word foot)
Once we have established our lexemes, the
lexicon will be a listing of them with a
:representation of
;the lexeme’s pronunciation .1
;its grammatical status .2
;its meaning .3
its meaning relations with other lexemes .4
lexical entry: includes information's about the
meaning of the lexical item in dictionary
Phrasal verbs and idioms are both cases where a
string of words can correspond to a single
. semantic unit
the meaning cannot be explained in terms of the
habitual meanings of the words that make up the
.piece of language
.Idioms involve the non-literal use of language
kick the bucket (die)
.fit as a fiddle (in good health)
a red letter day (a day that will never be
.forgotten)
the influence of context on word meaning
it is easier to define a word if you are given the phrase
.or sentence it occurs in
contextual effects seem to pull word meanings in two
opposite directions. The first, restricting influence is the
tendency for words to occur together repeatedly, called
collocation. Halliday
compares the collocation patterns of two adjectives
strong and powerful, which might seem to have similar
meanings. there are collocation effects. For example we
talk of strong tea rather than powerful tea; but a
powerful car rather than a strong car
Contextual effects can also pull word meanings in
the other direction, toward creativity and semantic
.shift
.a. I go for a run every morning
.b. The ball-player hit a home run
c. We took the new car for a run
how to view the relationship between these
instances of run above. Are these different senses
of the word run? Or are they examples of the same
?sense influenced by different contexts
.ambiguity and vagueness
if each of the meanings of run is a different
;sense, then run is 3 ways ambiguous
but if they the same sense, then run is merely
.vague between these different uses
in examples of vagueness the context can add
information that is not specified in the sense, but
in examples of ambiguity the context will cause
.one of the senses to be selected
Lexical Relations
lexical field. is a group of lexemes that belong to a
particular activity or area of specialist knowledge, such as
the terms in cooking or sailing; or the vocabulary used by
.doctors blanket1 verb. to cover as with a blanket
blanket2 verb. Sailing. to block another vessel’s wind by
sailing close to it on the windward side
effect of lexical fields is that lexical relations are more
.common between lexemes in the same field
Dictionaries recognize the effect of lexical fields by
…including in lexical entries labels like Banking, Medicine
Homophones and homonyms
Homophones Two or more words that have the same
.pronunciation, but different meanings
We can distinguish different types depending on their syntactic
,behavior, and spelling
lexemes of the same syntactic category, and with the same .1
spelling: e.g. lap “circuit of a course” and lap “part of body when
;”sitting down
of the same category, but with different spelling: e.g. the verbs .2
;ring and wring
of different categories, but with the same spelling: e.g. the verb .3
;bear and the noun bear
of different categories, and with different spelling: e.g. not, knot .4
Polysemy
A word which has multiple meanings related by
extensions./Polysemy is the association of one word
with two or more distinct meanings, and a polyseme
.is a word or phrase with multiple meanings
hook n. 1. a piece of material, usually metal, curved
or bent and
used to suspend, catch, hold, or pull something. 2.
.short for fish-hook. 3
.a trap or snare
Synonymy
Synonyms Two or more words with very closely
related meaning. e.g. answer/reply
couch/sofa
toilet/lavatory
large/big
a big house: a large house

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