Semantics: The Meanings of Language

1
Semantics The Meanings of Language

• Chapter 5
• Fromkin, Rodman, Hyams. 2003 Introduction to
  language

2
What is Semantics?

• The study of
• the linguistic meaning of morphemes, words,
  phrases sentences
• the context when determining meaning

3
Types of semantics

• Lexical semantics
• Studying the meaning of words and morphemes
• Meaning relationships among words
• Sentential (phrasal) semantics
• Studying the meaning of syntactic units larger
  than words
• Phrases sentences
• Pragmatics
• Studying how contexts affect meaning
• eg) Its cold in here to be interpreted as
• close windows or turn on the heater

4
Lexical Semantics
5
Lexical Semantics

• All the speakers of a language share a basic
  vocabulary the sounds and meanings of morphemes
  and words
• We cannot change the meaning of words arbitrarily
• If we did we would be unable to communicate with
  anyone
• The meaning of words is part of linguistic
  knowledge
• The mental storehouse of word and morpheme
  meanings ? Lexicon

6
Lexical semantics(semantic properties)

• In the sentence the assassin killed
  Thwacklehurst, knowledge of the word assassin
  includes knowing that the individual to whom that
  word refers
• is human
• is a murderer
• is a killer of important people
• These pieces of information
• ? semantic properties
• Semantic properties are the components of meaning
  of a word
• The meaning of all content words (N,A,V,Adv) and
  some of the function words (eg. With, over) can
  be specified, at least partially, by such
  properties.

7
Examples of Semantic Properties

• female is a semantic property of words
• tigress hen doe mare vixen widow girl aunt
  debutante
• human is a semantic property of words
• widow girl aunt doctor dean bachelor parent
• young is a semantic property of words
• child baby cub kitten duckling chick
• cause is a semantic property of words
• darken (cause to become dark) kill (cause to
  die)
• uglify (cause to become ugly)

8
Examples of Semantic Properties
Semantic Property Verbs Having It
motion bring, fall, plod, walk, run
contact hit, kiss, touch
creation build, imagine, make
sense see, hear, feel
9
Semantic Property (cntd.)

• All content words (N, A, V, Adv) and some
  function words (eg. over, with) can be specified
  by semantic properties.
• The same SP may occur in words of different
  categories
• eg) female mother, breast-feed, pregnant
• Additional semantic properties make for fine
  distinction in meaning
• eg) plod (slow) from work
• stalk (purposeful, menace) from plod
• Presence of one SP can be inferred from the
  presence or absence of another (redundancy)
• eg) human ? animate, but not equine

10
Evidence for semantic properties

• Slips of the tongue (Speech errors)

Intended Utterance Actual Utterance (error)
bridge of the nose bridge of the neck
when my gums bled when my tongues bled
he came too late he came too early
Mary was young Mary was early
the lady with the dachshund the lady with the Volkswagen
11
Semantic feature

• Definition A formal or notational device for
  expressing the presence or absence of semantic
  properties by pluses and minuses.
• examples
• woman female human -young
• father male human parent
• mare female human -young -equine
• stalk motion slow purposeful

12
Semantic feature (cntd.)

• Intersecting classes share some features
• eg) girl female, human
• Capturing difference of noun types
• eg) dog count / rice -count
• Thus,
• I have two dogs I have two rice(s)
• He has many dogs He has many rices(s)
• He has much dogs He has much rice

13
Lexical semantics (Words Relationship)

• Words are related to one another in a variety of
  ways
• Types of nym
• homonym
• synonym
• antonym
• hyponym
• metonym
• retronym

14
Word relationship(Homonyms or homophones)

• Words that are pronounced the same, but have a
  different meaning
• May or may not differ in spelling
• examples
• to/too/two tale/tail flower/flour
• bat/bat ground/ground
• Create ambiguity
• Ill meet you by the bank

15
Homonyms (cntd.)

• Polysemy
• definition the concept of words with multiple
  meanings
• eg) bear to tolerate, to carry, to support
• Heteronym
• Two words with same spelling but different
  pronunciation
• eg) dove, bow, lead, wind
• Homograph
• Two words with same spelling but different
  meanings
• homonyms with same spelling, all heteronyms
• eg) bear/bear (but not bear/bare), dove/dive

16
Homonym/Homograph/Heteronym
Heteronyms (same spelling) (different sound)
Homonyms (Same sound)
Homographs (Same spelling)
dove/dove lead/lead wind/wind ground/ground
bear/bare flower/flour to/too/two
bear/bear arms/arms can/can
17
Homonym/Polysemy

• Homonymous words
• different dictionary entry
• different etymology
• Example
• to/two/too
• Polysemous
• single dictionary entry, but different use
• Example
• walk the dog, talk a walk, Lambeth Walk

18
Word relationship (Synonyms)

• Words that sound different but have the same or
  nearly the same meaning
• examples couch/sofa, car/automobile
• partial synonymy -- polysemous words
• deep/profound (for thought but not for water)
• mature/ripe (for fruit but not for animals)
• there are no perfect synonyms
• No two words with exactly the same meaning
• driver/chauffeur
• Useful for lexical paraphrasing
• eg) she forgot her handbag/purse.

19
Word relationship (Antonyms)

• Words that are opposite in meaning
• eg) hot/cold, thin/thick
• Only one semantic property difference can cause
  antonyms
• eg) wife/husband (male/female)
• Autoantonyms
• Some words are their own antonyms
• cleave to split apart or to cling together
• dust to remove something or to spread
  something
• Antonym formation
• Adding prefixes un, non, in, mis, dis

20
Types of Antonyms

• complementary pair
• eg) alive/dead, present/absent, awake/asleep
• gradable pair
• eg) big/small, hot/cold, fast/slow
• marked/unmarked
• relational pair
• give/receive, teacher/pupil, buy/sell

21
Word relationship (Hyponym)

• A hyponym is a word that is conceptually included
  within the definition of another word
• eg) red, blue, purple are hyponyms of color
• eg) lion, tiger, leopard are hyponyms of feline

22
Word relationship (Metonym)

• A word or phrase that represents something by
  close association
• examples)
• Lands belonging to the crown (king)
• The Kettle is boiling (water in the kettle)
• Diamond for (baseball)
• Turf for (horseracing)

23
Word relationship (Retronym)

• An expression that once was redundant
• eg) Day baseball, silent movie, surface mail,
  whole milk
• it applies to the combination of words

24
Word relationship (Proper Names)

• Unique words for referring to people, places,
  institutions or gods.
• eg) Smith, Central High School, Seoul
• They refer to a specific object or entity but
  usually have little meaning (sense)
• Unique and definite but no definite article the
• eg) the John Smith, the California
• exceptions) the Mississippi, the Queen Mary ..
• Cannot usually be pluralized
• Universal found in all languages

25
Phrasal/Sentential Semantics
26
Phrasal/Sentential Semantics

• The study of how word meanings combine into
  phrase and sentence meanings, and the meaning
  relationships among these larger units ? phrasal
  or sentential semantics
• Although words and morphemes are basic units of
  meaning, we communicate in phrases and sentences.

27
The principle of compositionality

• the meaning of a phrase or sentence depends both
  on the meaning of its words and how those words
  are combined structurally.
• Same words, same structure but different
  combination
• John loves Mary / Mary loves John
• Same words, same combination but different
  structure
• Visiting relatives can be boring

28
Sentential meaning reflecting word relationship

• Words have synonyms / sentences have paraphrases
• They ran the bill up
• They ran up the bill
• Words have homonyms / sentences have ambiguity
• I need to buy a pen for Shelby
• (Pen animal cage, something to write with)
• Words have antonyms / sentences have negatives
• he is alive
• he is not alive (negated) / he is dead
  (antonymous)

29
Phrasal Semantics
30
Phrasal Meaning

• Noun and Verb are two crucial categories for
  English sentences
• Thus, meaning structure focusing on them will be
  examined
• Noun-centered meaning
• Verb-centered meaning

31
Noun-centered meaning

• Complex semantic rules for adjective-noun
  combination
• red balloon / large balloon
• red is always red but large can be relative
• eg) red ant / large ant
• good friend/ false friend
• a good friend is a kind of friend but a false
  friend is not
• alleged murderer
• We dont know it is a murderer or not

32
cntd.

• The head of the phrase determines the principal
  meaning
• Adjective Noun the noun, the NP head, has the
  principal meaning
• eg) red brick is a kind of brick
• Noun compounds the final noun is generally the
  head
• eg) house dog / dog house

33
Sense Reference

• According to Frege(1967), every significant
  linguistic expression has both sense and
  reference, these being different kinds of
  semantic properties

34
Sense Reference (cntd.)

• Examples
• The mason put the red brick on the wall
• The object pointed to in the NP the red brick
  ? referent
• The NP is said to have reference
• some additional meaning to this reference ? sense
• The red brick is the first brick from the right
• Two NPs have the same referent (coreferential)
• They have different sense

35
Sense Reference(Proper Nouns)

• Certain proper names have only reference
• Chris Jones a certain person and thats it
• Others have additional meaning
• Humpty Dumpty a good round shape
• Sue, John female, male
• Fido, Dobbins, Bossie dogs, horses, cows
• Two proper names can have the same referent
• Superman and Clark Kent
• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

36
Sense Reference(Proper Nouns) (cntd.)

• Sometimes reference changes but sense endures
• the president of the United States
• sense head of state of the USA
• reference George W. Bush (will change)
• Some NPs have sense but no reference
• The present king of France is bald
• By the year 3000, our descendents will have left
  Earth

37
Verb-centered meaning

• In all languages, the verb plays a central role
  in the meaning and structure of sentences
• Verb determines the no. of objects
• eg) go(0) / find(1) / put(2)
• Verb limits the semantic properties of its
  subjects and objects
• eg) find requires an animate subject

38
Thematic(theta) roles

• A way of stating
• the selectional restrictions of the verb
• semantic relationships between subjects and
  objects
• Thematic roles include
• Agent, Theme, Location, Goal, Source, Instrument,
  Experimenter, Causative, Possessor

39
(cntd.)
Thematic Role Description Example
Agent Performs an action Bill ate his soup quietly.
Theme (patient) Undergoes the action The rocks crushed the car.
Location Where the action occurs It rains in Spain.
Goal What the action is directed towards Put the cat on the porch.
Source Where the action originated The missile was launched from Bagdad.
Instrument Used to carry out the action Jamie cut the ribbon with a pair of scissors.
Experiencer Receives sensory or emotional input The smell of lillies filled Jennifer's nostrils.
Cause (Causative) Mindlessly performs the action An avalanche destroyed the ancient temple.
Possessor Has something The tail of the dog wagged furiously.
40
(cntd.)

• Invariable semantic properties of words in
  paraphrased sentences
• the boy found a red brick
• the boy agent
• a red brick theme
• a red brick was found by the boy
• same thematic roles as above
• In some related sentences that are not
  paraphrases
• The boy opened the door with the key.
• The key opened the door.
• The door opened.
• The boy agent
• The door theme
• The key instrument
• ? English allows many thematic roles to be the
  subject of the sentence

41
(cntd.)

• Lexicon contains info of thematic roles
• find, V, ___ NP, (Agent, Theme)
• put, V, ___ NP PP, (Agent, Theme, Goal)

42
Thematic roles (cntd.)

• Various thematic roles
• see p.192-193

43
Thematic roles (cntd.)

• Theta criterion
• A universal principle which states in part that a
  particular thematic role may occur only once in a
  sentence.
• example 1
• The boy opened the door with the key with a
  lock-pick
• semantically anomalous since two NPs have the
  same theta-role instrument
• example 2
• the boys red hat of Bill
• semantically anomalous since both NPs have the
  thematic role possessor

44
Sentential Semantics
45
Sentential Meaning

• The meaning of sentences is built, in part, from
  the meaning of NPs and VPs
• ? Principle of Compositionality
• Adverbs may add to or qualify the meaning.
• Example
• The boyNP found the ballVP yesterdayAdvp

46
Truth conditions of Sentence

• The circumstances of a declarative sentence
• Example
• The declaration of Independence was signed in
  1776 ? True
• The declaration of Independence was signed in
  1976 ? False
• The truth condition does not determine the
  grammaticality.
• Truth conditions are needed to formally determine
  various sentential meanings
• Eg) paraphrases, entailment, contradiction,
  presupposition

47
Truth ConditionsParaphrase

• Two sentences are paraphrases if they have the
  same truth conditions.
• Example (passivization paraphrase)
• A. The horse threw the rider.
• B. The rider was thrown by the horse.
• If A is true, then B is true.
• If B is true, then A is true.
• Example (passivization no paraphrase)
• A. Every person in this room speaks two
  languages.
• B. Two languages are spoken by every person in
  this room.
• Even if A is true, B may not be true.

48
Truth ConditionsEntailment

• the relationship between two sentences where the
  truth of one requires the truth of the other.
• A. The president was assassinated.
• B. The president is dead.
• If A is T, then B is T (A entails B)
• But not vice versa.

49
Truth ConditionsContradiction

• Negative entailment
• A is True, then B is False
• Example
• A. Elizabeth II is Queen of England.
• B. Elizabeth II is a man.

50
Truth ConditionsPresupposition

• Implicit assumptions about the real world.
• The presupposition(s) of an utterance are facts
  whose truth is required for the utterance to be
  appropriate.
• Example
• A. John stopped beating his wife.
• B. John once beat his wife.
• C. John is married
• ? A presupposes B C.
• Even negation of the utterance does not change
  presupposition.
• D. John stopped beating his wife.
• ? D(negated A) still presupposes B C. (unlike
  Entailment)

51
Events vs. States

• Some sentences describe events, others describe
  states.
• Examples
• Events
• John kissed Mary
• John ate oysters
• States
• John knows Mary
• John likes oysters

52
Events vs. States(Showing syntax-semantics link.)

• Eventive sentences sound natural when
• Passivized
• Mary was kissed by John.
• Expressed progressively
• John is kissing Mary.
• Used imperatively
• Kiss Mary.
• When used with certain adverbs
• John deliberately kissed Mary.

• Stative sentences seem peculiar when
• Passivized
• ?Mary is known by John.
• Expressed progressively
• ?John is knowing Mary.
• Used imperatively.
• ?Know Mary!
• When used with certain adverbs
• ?John deliberately knows Mary.

53
Pronouns Coreferentiality(Showing
syntax-semantics link)

• The meaning of a reflexive pronoun always refers
  back to some antecedent.
• Janei bit herselfi
• However,
• Janei said that herselfi slept
• Janei said that Bill bit herselfi
• ? A reflexive pronoun and its antecedent must be
  in the same S-rooted tree. (see p200)

54
Obscure meanings

• Meaning of an expression is not always obvious
• They are
• Anomaly
• Metaphor
• Idioms

55
Obscure meaning(Anomaly)

• Expressions that appear to follow the rules of
  syntax, but go awry semantically
• Examples
• My brother is an only child
• That bachelor is pregnant
• Colorless green ideas sleep furiously
• Semantic violations are caused by semantic
  property mismatch among words

56
Obscure meaning(Metaphor)

• Expressions that ordinarily designates one
  conceptits literal meaningbut is used to
  designate another concept, thus creating an
  implicit comparison.
• Non-literal, indirect, creative meaning
• Example
• My new car is a lemon
• Literally anomalous but metaphorically OK.
• Strong cultural component only those with cars
  and lemons may understand the metaphorical
  meaning.
• Dr. Jekyll is a butcher
• John is a snake in the grass
• Literal and metaphorical meanings are different
• Time is money
• To interpret metaphor, we need to understand both
  the literal meaning and facts about the world.

57
Obscure meaning(Idioms)

• Expressions the meaning of which is unrelated to
  the meaning of its parts, though it is
  conventionally understood.
• Examples
• Sell down the river
• Haul over the coals
• Eat my hat
• See p206 and other sources
• Idioms need to enter into the lexicon as single
  items
• Idioms tend to be frozen in form
• She put her bracelet in her drawer
• The drawer in which she put her bracelet was hers
  
• Her bracelet was put in her drawer
• She put her foot in her mouth
• The mouth in which she put her foot was hers (not
  idiomatic)
• Her foot was put in her mouth (not idiomatic)
• However,
• The FBI kept tabs on radicals
• Tabs were kept on radicals by the FBI (still
  idiomatic)
• Radicals were kept tabs on by the FBI (still
  idiomatic)

58
Pragmatics

• Interpretation of linguistic meaning in context

59
Two types of contexts

• Linguistic contexts
• Consider the sentence Amazingly, he loves her
• Linguistic meaning Something male and animate
  has arrived at a state of adoration of something
  female and animate, and the speaker finds it
  astonishing.
• ? There are no referents for he and her
• If the sentence preceding it were
• John met Mary yesterday
• ? Its interpretation would be clearer (heJohn,
  sheMary)
• Situational contexts (Knowledge of the world)
• The listener must know the real-world referents
  of John and Mary.
• For interpretation of amazingly, general belief
  or knowledge is needed. (eg. A person usually
  needs more than a day to complete the act of
  falling in love)
• Examples of situational contexts
• Information on speaker, hearer, and any third
  parties.
• Physical environment, the subject of
  conversation, the time of day, etc.

60
Another aspect of pragmatics Language use

• Examples
• Son of a bitch
• ? an insult
• Do you have any spare change?
• ? Request for money
• I now pronounce you husband and wife
• ? an act of marrying performed

61
Linguistic context Discourse

• Discourse
• A linguistic unit larger than a sentence
• Phoneme lt morpheme lt word lt sentence lt discourse
• Composed of one or more sentences
• Express complex thoughts and ideas
• Discourse analysis
• The study of how speakers combine sentences into
  broader speech unit, i.e., discourse
• Involves questions of style, appropriateness,
  cohesiveness, rhetorical force, topic/subtopic
  structure, differences bet Written and spoken
  discourse, grammatical properties, etc.

62
Linguistic context Pronouns

• In a discourse, prior linguistic context plays a
  primary role in pronoun interpretation
• Example
• It seems that the man loves the woman
• Many people think he loves her.
• Most commonly (bound pronoun)
• he ? the man, her ? the woman
• Possibly (unbound or free pronoun)
• he (with emphasis) ? another man
• her (with emphasis) ? another woman
• Ultimate interpretation of pronouns is determined
  by the situational context.

63
Linguistic context Pronouns

• Gapping (Syntactically wrong but OK in discourse)
• 1st speaker My aunt washed the dishes.
• 2nd speaker My uncle dried. (the dishes
  omitted)
• Gapping
• Jill washed the grapes and Bill (washed) the
  cherries.
• Sluicing (wh-word omission)
• Your ex-husband is dancing with someone, but I
  dont know who (he is dancing with).
• My cat ate something, and I wish I knew what (she
  ate).

64
Linguistic context the articles THE and A

• The
• Used to indicate that the referent of a NP is
  agreed upon by speaker and listener
• Presence or absence makes a great difference
• The terrorists are in control of the government.
• (Terrorists are in charge)
• The terrorists are in the control of the
  government.
• (The government is in charge of the terrorists)
• A
• Consider the sentence
• Helen wants to marry a college professor
• Specific use Helen wants to marry Robert, and
  Rob is a college professor
• Non-specific use Helen doesnt have a particular
  person in mind to marry, but she is confining her
  search for a mate to college professors.
• Ambiguity arises
• A woman gives birth in the U.S. every 15
  seconds
• Mostly, context disambiguates the meaning.

65
Situational context

• Much discourse is telegraphic.
• VPs are not specifically mentioned
• Entire clauses are left out
• Direct objects disappear
• Pronouns abound
• ? Yet people still understand people, thanks to
  contextual knowledge.
• Contextual knowledge (situational context)
• Knowledge of who is speaking, who is listening,
  what objects are being discussed, general facts
  about the world we live in.

66
Situational context (cntd.)

• Often what we say is not literally what we mean
• Can you pass the salt
• Not asking but requesting
• Youre standing on my foot
• Im asking you to stand somewhere else
• Its cold in here
• Shut the window
• Turn up the heat
• Lets leave

67
Situational contextMaxims of conversation
(Grice 1989)

• Well-structured discourse follows certain rules
  and maxims, such as be relevant, that make the
  discourse coherent.
• The maxim of quantity
• Say neither more nor less than the discourse
  requires
• The maxim of relevance
• Be relevant
• The maxim of manner
• Be brief and orderly avoid ambiguity and
  obscurity
• The maxim of quality
• Do not lie do not make unsupported claims

68
The maxim of quantity

• Description
• Make your contribution as informative as required
• Do not make your contribution more informative
  than is required
• Violation
• Bereft of context, saying (truthfully)
• I have never slept with your girl friend
• This topic of conversation should be unnecessary
• Violation
• A Can you pass me the salt?
• B Yes, I can.

69
The maxim of relevance

• Description
• Be relevant
• Say things that are pertinent to the discussion
• Violation
• A What on earth has happened to the roast beef?
• B The dog is looking very happy.

70
The maxim of manner

• Description
• Be brief and orderly.
• Avoid ambiguity and obscurity
• Violation (obscurity)
• A What are you baking?
• B Be I are tea aitch dee ay wye see ay kay ee.
• Violation (prolixity)
• A I hear you went to the opera last night how
  was the lead singer?
• B The singer produced a series of sounds
  corresponding closely to the score of an aria
  from '"Rigoletto."

71
The maxim of quality

• Description
• Do not lie Avoid falsehood.
• Do not make unsupported claims.
• Violation
• A Tehran's in Turkey, isn't it?
• B And London's in Armenia, I suppose.

72
The theory of speech acts

• Using language to do things making promises,
  laying bets, issuing warnings, offering
  congratulations, swearing testimony, etc.
• Describing how this is done
• ? The theory of speech acts

73
Speech acts Performative sentences

• Performative verbs
• Bet, promise, warn,
• Using them in a sentence does something extra
  over and above the statement
• Eg) I promise to improve. (See p.215 for others)
• Characteristics
• 1st person subject.
• Affirmative and declarative sentences
• Present tense
• I here by Test
• I here by ___
• Eg) I hereby apologize to you (ok ? performative)
• Eg) I hereby know you (awkward ? nonperformative)

74
Speech acts Illocutionary force

• Description
• The speaker's intention in producing an utterance
• Underlying purpose of the utterance
• Depends on the context of the utterance
• Types asserting, promising, advising, inquiring,
  ordering
• Example
• The bar will be closed in five minutes
• ? Informing the patrons of the bar's imminent
  closing and perhaps also the act of urging them
  to order a last drink.
• Band practice, my house, 6 to 8
• ? either reminder or warning (See the cartoon on
  p214)
• Markers Intonation, verbal mood, punctuation
  signs

75
Deixis

• Definition
• reference by means of an expression whose
  interpretation is relative to the (usually)
  extralinguistic context of the utterance, such as
   
• who is speaking
• the time or place of speaking
• the gestures of the speaker, or
• the current location in the discourse.
• Deictic expressions
• Person deixis
• 1st and 2nd person pronouns I, you, my, your,
  we, ours
• 3rd person pronouns which are free he, she, they
• Exception) It appears as though sheepdogs are the
  missing link.
• No function as a true pronoun not referring to
  some entity
• A grammatical morpheme, a placeholder to satisfy
  the English rules of syntax
• Time deixis now, then, tomorrow, this time,
  seven days ago, last week, next September
• Place deixis here, there, this place, these
  parks, this ranch
• Social deixis Your Honor, Mr President

76
Deixis (cntd)

• Misinterpretation of deictic expressions
• confused communication (see cartoon on P217)
• Deixis marks a boundary of semantics pragmatics
  
• Deictic expressions such as I, an hour from now,
  behind me, have meaning (sense).
• To complete their meaning by determining their
  reference, it is necessary to know the context.

77
Thats it