Semantics Summary - Classroom Notes

Semantics: the study of meaning in language
properties of semantics: a component of the meaning of a word
eg: semantic properties of “kitten”: young, cat
Semantic features: a way of representing semantic properties/ a formal/notational device
indicating the presence or absence of semantic properties by pluses (+) and minuses (-)
eg: kitten [+young], [+cat], [-dog], [+animal]
- Semantic features are the smallest units of meaning in a word (cannot be divided into
smaller segments)
- we identify the meaning of a word by its semantic features
eg: father [+male], [+human], [parental], [-childless]
Semantic fields: the organization of related words and expression into a system which
shows their relationship to one another/a set of words with identifiable semantic affinities
(similarities)
eg: kinship terms: father, mother, brother, siblings, relatives, etc.
emotional states: happy, sad, satisfied, disappointed, etc.
drinking vessels: mug, cup, bottle, etc.
table, stone, pencil, cup, house (countable)
mud, rice, … (uncountable)
- There are various ways of organizing semantically similar items into semantic fields
(eg: orange = color/fruit)
Denotation: type of meaning which may be described in terms of a set of semantic
properties eg: woman = [+human], [+female], [+adult]
Connotation: the additional meaning that the word has beyond its denotative meaning. It
shows people’s emotions and/or attitudes towards what the word refers to
eg: woman = [+devoted] (positive)/[+wicked] (negative)
step mother
denotative = [+female], [+human], [+married], [+ father’s wife]
connotative = [+wicked], [+evil], [+cunning], [+compassionate], [+devoted]
Referent: an object/entity, part of the world (eg: “your book”)
Reference: relationship between language and the world (abstract notion)/ between parts of
a language and things outside the language (in the world)

- Variable reference: when the same linguistic expression refers to different referents
eg: Can I see your “handwriting” (A’s handwriting is different B’s handwriting)
- Constant reference: when one linguistic expression refers to one and the same
referent
eg: the Earth, the moon, Vietnam, The UK
- Co-reference: When 2 or more linguistic expression have the same referent
eg: the Morning star/the Evening star = Venus, America/ the U.S/ the United States/
the United States of America, Japan/the land of rising sun
Sense (of a word): the sense of a word is its place in a system of semantic relationships


with other expressions in the language
eg: “your teacher” = “the one who gives you lessons”
- The same word can have more than one sense (eg: bank)
- One sentence can have different senses (the boy saw the girl with the binoculars)
- Sense = relationship within the language
eg: “the queen of Vietnam” = sense (+), reference (-) / “the queen of England” = sense (+)
reference (+)
- Every expression that has meaning has sense, but not every expression has
reference (if it is abstract -> no reference)
Referring expression: is any expression used in an utterance to refer to
something/someone, used with a particular referent in the mind
eg: “The cat is in the kitchen” - referring expression: the Cat, the kitchen
Predicator of a simple declarative sentence is the word (sometimes a group of words) which
does not belong to any of the referring expressions and which, of the remainder, makes the
most specific contribution to the meaning of the sentence.
Predicate: is any word (or sequence of words) which (in a given single sense) can function
as the predicator of a sentence
the Degree of a predicate is a number indicating the number of arguments it is normally
understood to have in simple sentences (eg: asleep = a predicate of degree one - one-place

predicate, love is a predicate of degree two (a two-place predicate,
- Argument: realized by referring expression
eg:
Your marble is under my chair
- Referring expressions: Your marble, my chair
- UNDER (MARBLE, CHAIR)
- 2-place predicate
Dundee is between Aberdeen and Edinburgh
- Referring expressions: Dundee, Aberdeen, Edinburgh
- BETWEEN (DUNDEE, ABERDEEN, EDINBURGH)
- 3-place predicate
Synonymy: is the relationship between 2 predicates that have the same sense
eg: sofa-couch, purchase-buy, wide/broad
- perfect synonymy is hard to find
- synonyms would differ stylistically, socially or dialectically
- In considering the sense of a word, we abstract away from any stylistic, social or
dialectal associations the word may have. We concentrate on what has been called
the cognitive or conceptual meaning of a word
- Synonymy is the relationship between predicates, not words (because a word can
have many different meanings
Paraphrase: a sentence which expresses the same proposition as another sentence is a
paraphrase of that sentence. Paraphrase is to sentences as synonymy is to predicates


Hyponymy: is a sense relation between predicates such that the meaning of one
predicate is included in the meaning of the other
eg: pig (sow-piglet-boar)
eg: color (hypernym/superordinate) → white (hyponym): the relation is hyponymy
- Synonymy is a special case of hyponymy (symmetrical hyponymy)
- Rule: if X is a hyponym of Y and Y is also a hyponym of X → X and Y are

synonymous
Antonymy
- Binary antonyms/complementary antonyms: the negation of one is the meaning
of the other (Not A is B, Not B is A)
e.g. true-false, dead-alive, same-different
- Converses/relational antonyms: one predicate describes a relationship between
two objects and the other describes the same relationship when two objects are
reversed (if A is … B then B is … A)
e.g. teacher-student, doctor-patient, father-son
- Gradable antonyms: More of one is less of the other (comparative, very, how - at
least to of the test)
e.g. hot-cold, tall-short
- (Multiple) incompatibility: the terms in a given system are mutually incompatible (a
system of multiple incompatibility)
e.g. Semantic field (Color) -> white-blue (multiple incompatibility)
Homonymy: a case of homonymy is one of an ambiguous word, whose different senses are
far apart from each other and not obviously related to each other in any way
Homography: a relation in which various words have the same written form but have
different meanings and sound forms
Pron

Spelling

Homonymy

x

x

Homophony

x

Homography

Meaning

Example
bank, bat, ball, sow (female pig),
bear, mug (gullible people),
too-two, sun-son, tail-tale, read-reed,
flower-flour, hour-our, know-no,

x

lead, record, present, read, row (line
- quarrel), wound (injury - wind)

Polysemy: is a relation in which a single word has two or more slightly different but closely
related meanings
e.g. mouth (of a river/an animal), body (of a human, essay), foot (of human/mountain), chip
(small piece of potato/piece of device of a computer), bright (smart/shining)

Ambiguity: a word or sentence is ambiguous when it has more than one sense
- Structural ambiguity: a sentence is considered as structurally ambiguous when its


-

structure permits more than one interpretation (He saw the man with a telescope)

Lexical ambiguity: any ambiguity resulting from the ambiguity of a word is lexical
ambiguity (They are waiting at the bank/That robot is bright)
Some sentences which contain ambiguous words are ambiguous while other are not
(I go to the bank, I go to the bank to withdraw money)
Some sentences which contain no ambiguous words are ambiguous while other are
not (He saw her with the binoculars/he used the binoculars to see her)
Both polysemy and homonymy contribute to lexical ambiguity

-

eg: Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.
Puns: joke plays with words

-

Anomaly: semantic oddness
- Colorless green ideas sleep furiously
Idioms (idiomatic expressions): multi-word phrases whose overall meanings are not
derivable by combining the literal senses of the individual words
eg: it is raining cats and dogs, skeletons in your closet (secret), shake a leg (faster), let the
cat out of the bag (dissimulate the secret), have butterflies in stomach, barking up the wrong
tree (you’re looking in the wrong way), lend me your ear (quiet, listen)
- On your bucket list = something should be done before death, kick the bucket
= die
- you cut corners = take shortcut of doing something
- hit the sack = go to bed
- once in a blue moon = rarely do something
- see eye to eye with someone = agree
- by the skin of your teeth = do something by a narrow margin, almost fail
- get your head around something = understand

- Is a far cry from = very different = chalk and cheese
- hot potato = hot issue/hot topic
- pull something together = calm down and behave normally
Metaphor: a figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing
is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison, as in “He is a lion”
Metaphor: is the phenomenon where one conceptual domain is structured in terms of
another:
eg: your claims are indefensible -> metaphor: ARGUMENT IS WAR
Structural metaphor: X understood in terms of Y
eg: You’re wasting my time, Can you give me a few minutes?, How do you spend your time?,
We are running out of time => TIME IS MONEY
Orientational metaphors:
Eg: Happy is up; sad is down
I am feeling up. That boosted my spirits
I am feeling down. I’m depressed


Conscious is up; unconscious is down
Get up. Wake up. I’m up already
He’s under hypnosis. He sank into a coma
More is up; less in down
the number of books printed each year keeps going up
his income fell last year
he is underage
Metonymy: a kind of non-literal language in which one entity is used to refer to another
entity that is associated with it in some way
eg: We need a good head for this project -> head = part of a person = person
- The part for the whole:
eg: we need a good head for this project. (=leader)
I linked the laser, its printouts were excellent

- The face for the person:
eg: there’s a new face in the class today (=new person/student)
- Producer for the product:
eg: I love reading Shakespeare.
- Object used for user:
eg: the ham sandwich is waiting for his check
Ask seat 19 whether he wants to swap
- Controller for controlled:
eg: Nixon bombed Hanoi
- Institution for people responsible:
eg: the University is responsible for the scandals,
- The place for the institution:
eg: the White House announced something (=the Government)
the Hollywood is making new blockbusters (=movie industry)
Scotland beat Ireland (= teams)
- Place for the event:
eg:
- Container for the contained:
eg: Denise drank the bottle
the kettle is boiling
Utterance: any stretch of talk, by one person, before and after which there is silence on the
part of that person.
- It could be a sentence, a phrase, a word, a sequence of sentences
ex: Please! Come here! = 2 utterances, Please come here = 1 utterance
Sentence:
- A string of words put together by the grammatical rules of a language
ex: The book is on the table
ex: She looked up the word and She looked the word up -> different sentences
- A sentence is a grammatically complete string of words expressing a complete
thought

ex: The cat is in the kitchen. Please go to the kitchen


Proposition: A proposition is that part of the meaning of the utterance of a declarative
sentence which describes some state of affairs
Utterances

Sentences

Propositions

Can be loud or quiet

x

Can be grammatical
or not

x

x

abstract, cannot be
analyzed in terms of
grammar

Can be true or false

x

x

x

in a particular
regional accent

x

in a particular
language

x

x

no rain check = this product is about to run out of order
Sense properties of sentences
3 senses properties of sentences:
- The property of being analytic (analyticity): an analytic sentence is one that is
necessarily true (=has to be true), as a result of the senses of the words in it. It
has to be based on the semantic features.
ex: all elephants are animals. (elephant [+animal] => animals are animals =>
analytic)
all cats like to bathe. (“bathe” is not included in the “cat” semantic features/ the sense
of cat or cat doesn’t have the semantic feature [-bathe] => not analytic)
The sun rises in the East. (“rising in the East” is not included in “sun” semantic
features => not analytic)
- the property of being synthetic (syntheticity): a synthetic sentence is one which may
be either true or false, depending on the way the world is.

ex: John is from America (Not analytic but could be true to this John but not for that
John => synthetic)
- The property of being contradictory (contradiction)
Contradictions: a contradiction is a sentence that is necessarily false, as a result of
the senses of the words in it. Always false
ex: That animal is a vegetable
Entailment: a proposition X entails a proposition Y if the truth of Y follows necessarily from
the truth of X
eg:
Mary bought a tulip [+tulip] (x) => Mary bought a flower (y)
John ate all the cookies (x) => Someone ate something (y)
John killed Bill (x) => Bill died (y)
- If X entails Y then X entails Z => Y entails Z
eg: Some boys ran down the street


-

-> Some kids ran down the street
-> Some kids went down the street
=> Some kids ran down the street entails Some kids went down the street
The basic rule of sense inclusion: Given 2 sentences A and B, identical in every way
except that A contains word X where B contains a different word B, and X is the
hyponym of Y, then sentence A entails sentence B

- Exception 1 “NOT”
(A) I didn’t buy any rose
(B) I didn’t buy any flower
=> B entails A
(Tip: converted into affirmative forms => back to negative forms)

- Exception 2 “ALL”
(A) I bought all the roses
(B) I bought all the flowers
=> B entails A
- Exception 3 “Gradable words”
(A) I saw a small mouse
(B) I saw a small animal
=> No entailment (There is a gradable words)
PARAPHRASE
A sentence which expresses the same proposition as another sentence is paraphrase of
that sentence
e.g. John sold the book to Mary -> the book was sold to Mary by John/Marry bought the
book from John
-

Paraphrase is to sentences as synonymy is to predicates

To paraphrase:
-

-

Synonyms
e.g. The house was concealed by the tree
=> The house was hidden by the tree (false)
Sentence structures:
e.g. John did the homework => the homework was done by John/It was John that
did the homework
Using relational antonyms:
e.g. buy-sell, own-belong, borrow-lend

e.g. John borrowed a book from Mary
=> Mary lent the book to John
Mixed:
e.g. They put off the meeting
=> The meeting was postponed by the

Two sentences may be said to be paraphrases of each other if and only if they have exactly
the same set of entailments
e.g. John and Mary are twins -> Mary and John are twins


Ex: The house was concealed by the tree
=> The house was concealed by something
<=> The house was covered/hidden by something
SPEECH ACTS
“I’m sorry” -> apology/apologizing
“Hi” -> Greeting
“That’s very nice” -> compliment
“Can you close the door?” -> Request
= An action performed in saying something
-> We can do things with words
= the action that a speaker accomplishes Shawn using language in context
e.g. “It’s quite warm in here, isn’t”
Act of assertion
-

An act of assertion is carried out when a speaker utters a declarative sentence
(which an e either true or false), and undertakes a certain responsibility, or
commitment, to the hearer, that a particular state of affairs, or situation, exists in the
world

e.g. Simon is in the kitchen => a declarative sentence + state of affairs

The Descriptive Fallacy
-

The descriptive fallacy is the view that the sole purpose of making assertions is to
describe some state of affairs
e.g. “Simon is in the kitchen”

Communication
Performative utterance: is one that actually describes the act it performs (i.e. it performs
some act and simultaneously describes that act)
“I promise to give you a book” -> performative
ex: I bet you five pounds it’ll rain tomorrow -> performative
I am betting you five pounds it’ll rain tomorrow -> constative
He bets you five pounds it’ll rain tomorrow -> constative
Performative verb: a performative verb is one which, when used in a simple positive
present tense sentence, with a 1st person singular subject, can make the utterance of
that sentence performative. e.g. “I warn you that you will fail”
Exception: “You are hereby forbidden to leave this room” -> performative
Performative test: “hereby”
e.g. “I sentence you to death” -> “I hereby sentence you to death”
Constative: A constative utterance is one which makes an assertion (i.e. it is often the


utterance of a declarative sentence) but is NOT performative.
e.g. “I’m trying to open the door” -> constative

“It’s quite warm in here”
-> The temperature is high in here -> locution

-> Please turn on the fan -> Illocution
-> Someone stands up and turns on the fan -> Perlocution
A locutionary act is the saying of something which is meaningful and can be understood
(word meaning)
e.g. “It’s hot in here”, “Shoot the snake”
An illocutionary act is using an utterance to perform a function (speaker meaning).
(accosting, accusing, admitting, apologizing, challenging, complaining, condiling,
congratulating, declining, deploring, giving permission, giving way, greeting, leavetaking,
mocking, naming, offering, praising, promising, proposing marriage, protesting,
recommending, surrendering , thanking, toasting)
e.g. “shoot the snake” -> may be intended as an order or a piece of advice/ordering
The perlocutionary act (perlocution) is the results or effects that are produced by means of
saying something (the effect that you the speaker leaves on the hearer)
e.g. “shoot the snake” -> shooting the snake (someone does it)
The felicity conditions of an illocutionary act are conditions that must be fulfilled in the
situation in which the act is carried out if the act is to be said to be carried out properly or
felicitously
Sincerity condition on an illocutionary act is a condition that must be fulfilled if the act is said
to be carried out sincerely, but failure to meet such a condition does not prevent the carrying
out of the act altogether.
e.g. “I’m sorry to come in here at this moment”
Classification of speech acts:
1. representative speech act: describe something, state what the speaker believes to be the
case or not.
asserting, concluding, describing,
2. directive speech act: speakers use to get someone else to do something
advising, commanding, ordering, requesting, suggesting
3. commissive speech act: speakers use to commit themselves to some future actions
promising, threatening, refusing, approving

threatening
4. expressive speech act: state what the speaker feels
apologizing, requesting, congratulating, greeting
5. Declaration: changes the world by bringing about or altering the state of affairs it names
naming, pronouncing, sentencing
e.g. I now pronounce you man and wife. Minister of Education: “I resign.”
That’s a good idea
→ A: How do you think about this idea
→ B: That’s a good idea (representative -> describe)
→ A: How about eating out?
→ B: That’s a good idea (expressive -> complimenting)
I said I didn’t
→ A: You was the one breaking the vase
→ B, aggressively: I said I didn’t (expressive -> showing emotion)
→ A: What did you say?
→ B: I said I didn’t (representative -> reporting)
*Notes:
1. Must not add other utterances.
2. Explaining before classifying
3. “It’s snowing”
Situation 1:
A: How’s the weather?
B: It’s snowing.
=> B is describing the weather => Representative speech act
Situation 2:
A: It’s snowing.
B: Oh let me close the window
=> A intends to ask the hearer to do an action => Directive speech act
4. “What else do you want?”

Situation 1:
A: I don’t think this is enough.
B: What else do you want?
=> B is complaining (that A is not satisfied with his job). => Expressive speech act.
Situation 2:


A: I want some lemonade.
B: What else do you want?
=> B is asking A. => Directive speech act

Deixis: A deictic word is one which takes some element of its meaning from the situation of
the utterance in which it is used.
Person deixis
Spatial deixis
Temporal deixis
Deictic projection
Presupposition: what a speaker assumes to be the case prior to making an utterance
Test for presupposition: negate it (constancy under negation test)
“My brother is a doctor”/”My brother is not a doctor” -> presup: I have a brother
Types of presuppositions:
1. The existential presupposition:
[ X’s Y → X (have) a Y] ex: My brother is a doctor → I have a brother
[ the X → there (be/exist) an X] ex: The boy is small → There is a boy
2. The factive presupposition
[V/Adj/N that S-V -> S-V]
ex:
Nobody realized that Kelly was ill -> Kelly was ill
I was aware that she was married -> she was married
It is odd that he left early -> he left early

I am glad that it’s over -> it’s over
We regret telling him the truth -> we told him the truth
3. The non-factive presupposition
[non-factive V that S-V → S not V]
e.g. She dreamed that she was rich → She was not rich
He pretends to be ill → He is not ill
4. The lexical presupposition
again/more/manage/stop/start
e.g. You’re late again → You have been late before
5. The structural presupposition
[WH-Q → S-V]
e.g. Where did you buy that book? → You bought that book
How did you know the defendant had bought a knife? → You knew the
defendant had bought a knife?
I don’t know why I’ve got an average mark → I’ve got an average mark
6. The counter-factual presupposition
[If-clause (subjunctive) → opposite]
[Wish/if only]
[Should/could + have + PP]
ex:
1. Why did you arrive late? → you arrived late


2. When did you stop smoking? → you stopped smoking
3. His car is blue → he has a car
4. Have some more tea → You has already had tea
5. John doesn’t write poems any more → John used to write poems
6. Would you like another beer? → You has already got a beer
7. (in court) Have you stopped beating your wife? → You (used to) beat
your wife

8. (in court) Okay, Mr. Smith, how fast were you going when you ran the
red light? → Mr. Smith were going fast when he ran the red light
Mr Smith ran the red light

Cooperative Principle
4 maxims:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Relevance/Relation: Keep to the topic
Quantity/Informativeness: enough information
Quality: say things that are true
Manner/Clarity: clear enough (no obscurity)
e.g. Spelling the word out instead of simply saying it (e.g. B-E-A-C-H)

Implicature
Conversational Implicatures: conclusions drawn
→ Implicature is matter of utterance meaning, and not a sentence meaning (true)
→ Entailment is matter of utterance meaning (false)
-

Do you like this subject?
When pigs fly :D → implicature (direct: Hell No)

A: You two don’t drink, do you?
B: Well, we don’t not drink. => implicature: We drink in moderation.
explain: “don’t not drink” => double negative => unclear => following maxim of manner, the
B should try to clear, but B isn’t => B is implying sth more subtle => “We do drink but not

much.”
A: Do you like my new carpet?
B: The Wallpaper is lovely
Explain: violate the maxim of relevance → if B liked it, B would say Yes but B
didn’t → implies that B doesn’t like it
A: Who was that man?
B: That was my mother’s husband.
Explain: flouted maxim of manner => B would have said “My father” but B didn’t => B means
“stepfather”
Politeness Principle


actor

actress

air steward air stewardess

barman

barmaid

boy

girl

boy scout

girl guide

bridegroom bride

bus
conductor

bus conductress

chairman

chairwoman

gentleman

lady

headmaster headmistress

hero

heroine

host

hostess

husband

wife

king

queen

landlord

landlady

lord

lady

man

woman

monk

nun

prince

princess

steward

stewardess

waiter

waitress

widower

widow

father

mother

grandfather grandmother

son

daughter

brother

sister


uncle

aunt

nephew

niece

Noun

Female

Male

ant

queen / worker

drone

antelope

doe

buck

bear

sow / she-bear

boar

camel

cow

bull

caribou

doe

buck

cat

queen

tom

chimpanzee

empress

blackback

chicken

hen

cock / rooster

coyote

bitch

dog

crab

hen / jenny

cock / jimmy

crocodile

cow

bull

deer

doe

stag / buck

dog

bitch

dog

donkey

jenny

jack

dragonfly

queen

king / drake


duck

duck / hen

drake

elephant

cow

bull

elk

cow

bull

falcon

falcon

tiercel

ferret

gill / jill

hob

finch

hen

cock

fox

vixen

dog

gerbil

doe

buck

giraffe

cow

bull

goat

nanny / doe

billy / buck

goose

goose

gander

guinea pig

sow

boar

hamster

doe

buck

hawk

hen

tiercel

hedgehog

sow

boar

hippopotamus

cow

bull

horse

mare / dam

stallion / stud

jellyfish

sow

boar

kangaroo

flyer / doe / jill

boomer / buck / jack

leopard

leopardess

leopard


lion

lioness

lion

Noun

Female

Male

lobster

hen

cock

mallard

hen

greenhead

mole

sow

boar

mouse

doe

buck

opossum

jill

jack

peafowl

peahen

peacock

partridge

hen / chantelle

cock

pig

sow / gilt

boar / barrow

rabbit

doe / jill

buck / jack

rat

doe / cow

buck / bull

red deer

hind

stag / hart

salmon

hen

cock

seahorse

seamare

seastallion

sheep

ewe / dam

ram / buck

swan

pen

cob

termite

cow

bull

tiger

tigress

tiger

turkey

hen

gobbler / stag / tom

walrus

cow

bull

whale

cow

bull

wolf

bitch / she-wolf

dog

wolverine

angeline

wolverine

zebra

mare

stallion