9882 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Lexical Semantics, Red, Pragmatics
20 Jun 2018
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Week 6 tutorial (semantics) – Linguistics for Educators
9882
Monday, 26 March 2018
Semantics
Semantics is the study of the linguistic meaning of morphemes, words, phrases and
sentences.
Subfields of semantics:
Lexical semantics
Phrasal or sentential semantics
Pragmatics is the study of how content affects meaning e.g. it's cold in here --> 'close the
windows'
Truth conditions
Tautologies (analytic): sentences that are always true e.g. circles are round. Dogs are
animals. Kings are male.
Contradictions: sentences that are always false e.g. circles are square. Dogs are human.
Situational true or false: depends on context and situation e.g. all kings are rich. All dogs
have four legs.
Entailment and related notions
Entailment: A is true, B is true. Jack swims beautifully --> jack swims. (first part has to be
true for the second part to be true)
Paraphrases: the sentences entail each other. Jack put off the meeting - Jack postponed the
meeting.
Contradictions: A is true, B is false. Jack is alive - jack is dead. (can't be both)
Ambiguity
When words or phrases (including sentences) have more than one meaning, they are
ambiguous.
Structural ambiguity: e.g. the boy saw the man with a telescope.
Lexical ambiguity: when one word in a phrase has more than one meaning e.g. I'll meet her
at the bank.
Compositional semantics
Grammar contains semantic rules that combine the meanings of words into meaningful
phrases and sentences.
Anomaly
Colourless green ideas sleep furiously e.g. colourless - green --> semantically anomalous
Uninterpretable sentences make no sense at all because they include words that have no
meaning.
Metaphor
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Week 6 tutorial (semantics) linguistics for educators. Semantics is the study of the linguistic meaning of morphemes, words, phrases and sentences. Pragmatics is the study of how content affects meaning e. g. it"s cold in here --> "close the windows" Tautologies (analytic): sentences that are always true e. g. circles are round. Contradictions: sentences that are always false e. g. circles are square. Situational true or false: depends on context and situation e. g. all kings are rich. Entailment: a is true, b is true. Jack swims beautifully --> jack swims. (first part has to be true for the second part to be true) Jack put off the meeting - jack postponed the meeting. Contradictions: a is true, b is false. Jack is alive - jack is dead. (can"t be both) When words or phrases (including sentences) have more than one meaning, they are ambiguous. Structural ambiguity: e. g. the boy saw the man with a telescope.
