&

Meaning & Usage

Important of Semantics

Suppose someone said:

“The assassin killed Thawcklehurst.”

What do we know beyond the fact that someone was killed?

Semantic Properties

Word Semantic Properties

Mare “Female,” “animal,” and “equine.”

Defenestrate

Colloquial

Semantic Properties

Semantic Property Verbs Having It

Motion Bring, fall, plod, walk, run

Contact

Creation

Sense

Evidence for Semantic Properties

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

That’s a horse of another color

That’s a horse of another race

He has to pay her alimony

He has to pay her rent

Consider the Following:

If something swims, it is in a ____________.

If something is splashed, it is a _____________.

Which semantic feature do both examples share?

-nyms

• Words are related to one another is a variety of ways. These relationships have words to describe them that often end in the bound morpheme –nym:

Homonyms and ploysemySynonymsAntonymsHyponymsMetonymsRetronyms

Homonyms and Polysemy

• Homonyms=homophones• Polysemous—when a word that multiple meanings

that are related conceptually or historically.• Ex. Bear: “to tolerate,” “to carry,” and “to support”

(amongst others). Also a homonym. • Homograph—different words that are spelled

identically and possibly pronouned the same. • Ex. “pen” the writing instrument and “pen” the

cage. • Heteronym—homographs that are pronounced

differently.• Ex. “dove” the bird and “dove” the past tense of

“dive.”

Synonyms

Please do not annoy, torment, pester, plague, molest, worry, badger, harry, harass, heckle, persecute, irk, bullyrag, vex, disquiet, grate, beset, bother, tease, nettle, tantalize, or ruffle the animals.

--Sign at the San Diego Wild Animal Park--There are no perfect synonyms: agree

or disagree? (Couch vs. Sofa) (“a good scare” vs. “a bad scare”).

Antonyms• Ironically, the basic property of two words that are

antonyms is that they share all but on semantic property. (tall and short)

• Often formed by adding un-,non-,in- (and less frequently mis- and dis-).

• There are types of antonyms: Complementary: alive/dead, present/absent Gradable: big/small, hot/cold, fast/slow Marked vs. unmarked: the unmarked member is the

one used in questions of degree. We ask “How high is the mountain?” (not, “How low is it?”). Therefore, high is the unmarked member of high/low.

Relational opposites: give/receive, buy/sell, teacher/pupil (words ending in –er and –ee are usually relational opposites).

Hyponyms

• Word classes• Ex. [+ color]: red, yellow, blue, etc.• [+ feline]:• [+instrument]:

Metonyms

• A word used in place of another word or expression to convey the same meaning

• Ex. “Brass” for “military officers”• Ex. “Moscow” to refer to the “Russian

government”

Retronyms

• Day baseball, silent movie, snail mail, and whole milk are all expressions that once were redundant.

• While not singular words…still an interesting member of the –nym class.

Proper Names

• Language’s short cuts:• Imagine if we couldn’t name people,

places, institutions, gods (or think of when you don’t know a person, place, or institution’s name and you’re trying to describe them).

More…

• You can also talk about phrasal semantics (evaluating sentences as noun-centered or verb-centered)

• Or about sentential meaning (evaluating the “truth” of sentences, passive vs. active voice, pronoun reference, metaphor, and idioms).

• But we don’t have time for that today...so onto Pragmatics…

Pragmatics

• Interpretation in context.• There is a difference between

linguistic context and situational context.

Linguistic Context: Discourse

• Linguistic knowledge accounts for speakers’ ability to combine phonemes into morphemes, morphemes into words, and words into sentences. Knowing a language also permits combining sentences together to express complex thoughts and ideas. These larger linguistic units are called discourse.

• There are many levels of discourse analysis; we’ll just look at one example:

Discourse Analysis: Pronouns

• The 911 operator, trying to get a description of the gunman, asked, “What kind of clothes does he have on?” Mr. Morawaski, thinking the question pertained to Mr. McClure, [the victim, who lay dying of a gunshot wound], answered, “He has a bloody shirt with blue jeans, purple striped shirt.”

• Pronouns should be used with the referential entity is known to the discourse participants. When the presumption fails, miscommunication occurs.

Discourse Analysis

• Consider the following snippet of conversation:

“It seems that man loves the woman. Many people think he loves her.”

What do these sentences mean? What if you add an exclamation mark to

the second sentence? How does that change the meaning?

Situational Context

• Much of the contextual knowledge is knowledge of who is speaking, who is listening, what objects are being discussed, and general facts about the world we live in—this is situational context.

• For example, when we ask at a dinner table if someone “can pass the salt” we are not questioning their ability, we are politely asking they do so. Or if I say “it’s cold in here” it might mean “shut the window,” “turn up the heat,” or “let’s leave” (possibly others) depending upon the situation.

Maxims of Conversation

• These are the “rules” of conversation. • Maxim of Quantity—a speaker’s contribution to

the discourse should be as informative as required—neither more nor less.

• Maxim of Relevance—a speaker’s contribution should always have a bearing on, and a connection with, the matter under discussion.

• Maxim of Manner—a speaker’s discourse should be brief and orderly, and should avoid ambiguity and obscurity.

• Maxim of Quality—a speaker should not lie or make unsupported claims.

The Cooperative Principle

Maxim Description

Quantity Say neither more nor less than required.

Relevance Be relevant.

Manner Be brief and orderly; avoid ambiguity and obscurity.

Quality Do not lie; do not make unsupported claims.

Speech Acts

• The nonlinguistic accomplishments of an utterance, such as a warning or promise, as determined by context.

• Ex. There is a bear behind you.• They are drive by performative

(affirmative, declarative) verbs (I bet, I challenge, I dare, I fine, I move, I nominate, I promise, I resign!, I pronounce…etc.)

Presuppositions

• Implicit assumptions about the world required to make an utterance meaningful or appropriate.

• Ex. Take some more tea! Presupposes that you already had some tea.

Deixis

• When deictics, words or expressions whose reference relies entirely on context, are analyzed.

• Ex. my, mine, you, your, yours, we, ours, us. • Ex. this person, that man, these women,

those children. • Time deixis: now, then, tomorrow, that

time…• Place deixis: here, there, this ranch, yonder

mountains.