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yyx ky 11. Semantics

11. Semantics

11.1 Semantics

11.2 Conceptual meaning & Associative meaning

11.3 Semantic features

11.4 Semantic roles

agent,

theme,

instrument,

experiencer,

location,

source,

goal

11.5 Lexical relations

synonymy,

antonymy,

hyponymy,

prototypes,

homophony,

homonymy,

polysemy,

metonymy,

collocation

11.1 Semantics

semantics语义学

-deals with the conventional meaning conveyed by the use of words and sentences of a language -the study of the meaning of words, phrases and sentences

-focus on what the words conventionally mean, rather than on what a speaker might want the words to mean on a particular occasion

-emphasizes the objective and the general; avoids the subjective and the local

11.2 Conceptual meaning versus Associative/Stylistic meaning

? Conceptual meaning 概念意义

-those basic, essential components of meaning which are conveyed by the literal use of a word

-when linguists investigate the meaning of words in a language, they are normally interested in characterizing the conceptual meaning and less concerned with the associative or stylistic meaning of words

needle: thin, sharp, steel, instrument

? Associative/Stylistic meaning 联想意义

-…associations?, or …connotations1?, attached to a word

-poets and advertisers are very interested in using terms in such a way that their associative meanings are evoked

needle: painful

11.3 Semantic features

…oddness?

The hamburger ate the man

My cat studied linguistics

A table was listening to some music

The hamburger ate the man

NP V NP

This sentence is syntactically good, but semantically odd.

⑥ The components of the conceptual meaning of the noun hamburger which differ significantly from those of the noun man, especially when those nouns are used as subjects of the verb ate. The kinds of nouns which can be subjects of the verb ate must denote2entities which are capable of …eating?. The noun hamburger does not have this property (and man does), hence the oddness of the sentence.

boy in English involves the components (+human, +male, -adult).

★ You can also characterize that feature which is crucially required in a noun in order for it to appear as the subject of a verb, supplementing the syntactic analysis with semantic features:

The __________ is reading a book.

N (+human)

This approach then gives us the ability to predict what nouns would make the above sentence semantically odd. Examples would be table, or tree, or dog, because they all have the feature (-human).

Problem: For many words in a language it may not be so easy to come up with neat components of meaning, such as advice, threat and warning.

⑥ Part of the problem seems to be that the approach involves a view of words in a language as some sort of …containers?, carrying meaning-components.

11.4 Semantic roles

-instead of thinking of the words as …containers? of meaning, we can look at the …roles? they fulfill within the situation described by a sentence.

? Agent施事– the entity that performs the action (the boy kicked the ball)

Although agents are typically human, they can also be non-human forces (the wind blew the ball away), machines (the car ran over the ball), or creatures (the dog caught the ball)

? Theme主题– the entity that is involved in or affected by the action (the boy kicked the ball); an entity that is simply being described (the ball was red)

The theme can also be human (the boy kicked himself)

? Instrument工具– if an agent uses another entity in performing an action, that other entity fills the role of instrument (writhing with a pen, eating with a spoon)

?Experiencer经历者–when a noun phrase designates an entity as the person who has a

feeling, a perception or a state, it fills the role of experiencer

If you see, know or enjoy something, you do not really have to perform any action (hence you are not an agent). (Did you hear that noise?)

? Location方位– an entity that designates where an entity is in the description of the event (on the table, in the room)

? Source来源– where an entity moves from (from savings to checking)

? Goal目标– where an entity moves to (from savings to checking)

? Mary saw a mosquito on the wall.

experiencer theme location

?She borrowed a magazine from George

agent theme source

?and she hit the bug with the magazine.

agent theme instrument

?She handed the magazine back to George.

agent theme goal

?“Gee thanks,” said George.

agent

11.5 Lexical relations

-in everyday talk, we frequently give the meanings of word in terms of their relationships

?Synonymy 同义关系

Synonym同义词- two or more forms with very closely related meanings, which are often, but not always, intersubstitutable in sentences

broad – wide, hide – conceal, almost – nearly, cab – taxi, liberty – freedom, answer – reply

★…sameness of meaning? used in discussing synonymy is not necessarily …total sameness?. There are many occasions when one word is appropriate in a sentence, but its synonym would be odd.

?Cathy had only one answer correct on the test. (…reply’ would be odd)

★ Synonymous forms may also differ in terms of formality.

?My father purchased a large automobile. (more serious than …My dad bought a car’)

?Antonymy 反义关系

Antonyms反义词– two forms with opposite meaning

quick – slow, big – small, long – short, rich – poor, happy – sad, hot – cold, old – young, male – female, true – false, alive – dead

Gradable antonyms等级反义词

– antonyms which can be used in comparative constructions; the negative of one number of the gradable pair does not necessarily imply the other.

big – small bigger than – smaller than

Non-gradable antonyms/complementary pairs互补反义词

–comparative constructions are not normally used (the expression dearer or more dead sound strange), and the negative of one member does imply the other.

alive – dead, male – female, true - false

Reversives

– although it works for the small number of non-gradable antonyms in a language, it is important to avoid describing most antonym pairs as one word meaning the negative of another

tie – untie(…do the reverse of tie?), enter –exit, pack –unpack, lengthen –shorten, raise –lower, dress - undress

?Hyponymy 上下义关系

Hyponymy–when the meaning of one form is included in the meaning of another, the relationship is described as hyponymy

daffodil – flower, dog – animal, poodle – dog, carrot – vegetable, banyan – tree

★ Hierarchical diagram of hyponymous relations:

living things

creature plant

animal insect vegetable flower tree

horse dog snake cockroach ant carrot daffodil banyan pine

asp

★ The concept of …inclusion? involved here is the idea that if any object is a daffodil, then it is necessarily a flower, so the meaning of flower is …included? in the meaning of daffodil. Or, daffodil is hyponym3of flower.

co-hyponyms - Two or more terms which share the same superordinate (higher-up) term

horse is a hyponym of animal, horse and dog are co-hyponyms, the superoridinate term is animal

★ The relation of hyponymy captures the idea of …is a kind of?, as when you give the meaning of a word by saying “an asp is a kind of snake”.

★ It is not only words for …things? that are hyponyms. Terms for actions, such as cut, punch, shoot, and stab, can all be found as co-hyponyms of the superordinate term injure.

?Prototypes 典范

prototype/exemplar– the concept of a prototype helps explain the meaning of certain words, like birds, not in terms of component features (e.g. …has feathers?, …has wings?), but in terms of resemblance to the clearest exemplar

canary, dove, duck, flamingo, parrot, pelican, robin, swallow, thrush are all equally co-hyponyms of the superordinate term bird

For many American English speakers, the best exemplar, or the prototype, of …bird? is the robin.

★ There is some general pattern to the categorization process involved in prototypes and that it determines our interpretation of word meaning.

★ However, this is one area where individual experience results in variation in interpretation, as when people disagree about whether tomato is a fruit or a vegetable.

?Homophony

Homophones4同音近义词–when two or more different (written) forms have the same pronunciation, they are described as homophones

bare –bear, meat – meet, flour – flower, pail – pale, sew - so

?Homonymy同音异义关系

Homonymy– when one form (written and spoken) has two or more unrelated meanings Homonyms5– words which have quite separate meanings, but which have accidentally come to have exactly the same form

bank (of a river) –bank (financial institution), bat (flying creature) –bat (used in sports), race

(contest of speed) –race (ethnic group), pupil (at school) –pupil (in the eye), mole (on skin) –mole (small animal)

?Polysemy 一词多义关系

Polysemy–relatedness of meaning accompanying identical form, when can be defined as one form (written or spoken) having multiple meanings which are all related by extension

?head

? the object on top of your body; ? on top of a glass of beer; ? on top of a company or department; ?foot

? of person; ? of bed; ? of mountain

?run

? person does; ? water does; ? colors do

? Distinction between homonym and polysemy:

★ If a word has multiple meanings (polysemic), then there will be a single entry, with a numbered list of the different meanings of the word.

head, get, run, face, foot

face [feis]

1.脸, 面孔; 面貌

2.神情, 面容

3.苦相, 鬼脸

4.面子, 威信......

vt.

1.朝, 临, 面向

2.面对; 应付

3.覆盖; 把...的表面弄平, 削平; 涂上……

vi.

1.朝,向

2.【军】向...转

★ If two word are treated as homonyms, they will typically have two separate entries.

mail, bank, sole, mole

mail1 [me?l]

1.邮政

2.邮件

3.邮车(= mail train)

4.邮轮

vt.邮寄

mail2 [me?l]

n.盔甲

?One form can be distinguished via homonymy, then shown to have various uses via polysemy.

★ homonyms: date (= oblong, fleshy fruit) –date (= point in time)

★ polysemy: date (= point in time)

? a particular day and month (= on a letter)

? an arranged meeting time (= an appointment)

? a social meeting (= with someone of the opposite sex)

? a person (= that someone of the opposite sex)

These three lexical relations - homophony, homonymy and polysemy – are the basis of a lot of wordplay, particularly used for humorous effect.

polysemy

Nursery rhyme: Mary had a little lamb (lamb = a small animal)

Comic version: Mary had a little lamb, some rice and vegetables (lamb = a small amount of meat) homophony

A brand of slogan the Pillsbury Flour Company promoting: Everybody kneads it

⑥ kneads – needs

Riddle: What’s black and white and red all over? Answer: a newspaper

⑥ red – read

homonymy

Why are trees often mistaken for dogs? –Because of their bark

⑥ bark1: the harsh, abrupt sound uttered by a dog;

bark2: the outer covering of a tree

?Metonymy 转喻

Metonymy6– based simply on a close connection in everyday experience.

? a container – contents relation (bottle – coke; can – juice),

? a whole-part relation (car – wheels; house – roof)

? a representative – symbol relationship (king – crown; the President – the White House)

filling up the car, having a roof over your head, answering the door, giving someone a hand, needing some wheels

Many examples of metonymy are highly conventionalized and easy to interpret. However, man others depend on an ability to infer what the speaker has in mind.

?Get your butt over here. (male talk in the United States)

?The strings are too quiet. (orchestral music)

?I prefer cable. (how you receive television programs in the USA)

⑥Making sense of such expressions often depends on context, background knowledge and inference.

?Collocation 搭配关系

Collocation– joined pairs of words

★ We know words tend to occur with other words

h ammer – nail, table – chair, butter – bread, needle – thread, salt - pepper, husband - wife, fresh – fresh air, knife - fork, enough - enough already

1connotation言外之意

The set of associative implications constituting the general sense of a word in addition to its literal sense.

包括单词字面意思之外普通意义的全部内涵的意义

2denote 所指

Denote means “to mark” or “to signify directly”; connote means “to suggest or convey to the mind what is not explicit.”

In speaking of words or expressions, denote describes the relation between the expression and the thing it conventionally names, whereas connote describes the relation between the word and the images or associations it evokes.

Thus, the word Christmas denotes the holiday celebrated on December 25 and connotes turkey, mistletoe, and chestnuts roasting on an open fire.

Denote意思是“作标记”或“直接记作”; connote意思是“暗示那些没有明显表示出来的意义”。

在表示词和词组意义时denote描述词语与某事物通常意义之间的关系，而connote描述的是这个词与它唤起的图象或联想之间的关系。

这样Chrismas这个词指(denote)在十二月二十五日庆祝的那个节日，并意味着火鸡、圣诞树或在篝火上烧烤的栗子

3hyponym下义词

4homophones同音异义词

One of two or m ore words, such as night and knight, that are pronounced the same but differ in meaning, origin, and sometimes spelling.

两个及两个以上词诸如night和knight，发音相同，但意义，起源及有时拼法不同

5homonyms同音异义字

One of two or more words that have the same sound and often the same spelling but differ in meaning.

两个或以上单词发音及经常拼法相同但词义不同

6metonymy换喻，转喻

A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated, as in the use of Washington for the United States government or of the sword for military power.

一种一个词或词组被另一个与之有紧密联系的词或词组替换的修辞方法，如用华盛顿代替美政府或用剑代替军事力量

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