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Week 3 Lexical semantics and word meaning

Traditional aims of lexical semantics: a structuralist approach. To represent the meaning of each word in the languageTo show how the meanings of words in a language are interrelatedWords (orthographic words)Lexemes (semantic words). Troubles with words. Word-a minimum free form, a smallest unit

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Week 3 Lexical semantics and word meaning

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    1. Week 3 Lexical semantics and word meaning Lexical relations (antonymy, polysemy, meronymy, synonymy)

    2. Traditional aims of lexical semantics: a structuralist approach To represent the meaning of each word in the language To show how the meanings of words in a language are interrelated Words (orthographic words) Lexemes (semantic words)

    3. Troubles with words Word-a minimum free form, a smallest unit of speech… although many forms lie on the borderline between bound forms and words A lexical entry (lemma) can contain several lexemes or senses Collocation- tendency of words to occur together repeatedly Collocations undergo a fossilization of meaning until they become idioms p.60

    4. Homonymy- unrelated senses Homonyms are morphologically unrelated senses of the same phonological/orthographic word (same pronunciation/spelling): a. homographs (same spelling eg. saw (n), saw (verb, past tense) and b. homophones (same pronunciation eg. no, know, rose (n), rose (verb, past tense)) Homomorphs (same morphological form but different syntactic function (eg. fast (Adj), fast (Adv))

    5. Polysemy-related senses Synonymy-similar senses Polysemy- multiple senses of the same phonological word Polysemous senses are listed under the same lexical entry p.64 Synonymy- different phonological words which have the same or very similar meanings True synonyms are rare, there are mostly near synonyms Synonyms can have different connotations and can belong to different registers (styles of language that belong to different situations) eg. die, kick the bucket

    6. Antonymy-opposites Words which are opposite in meaning Simple antonyms (binary pairs): the positive of one implies the negative of the other (eg. pass/fail, dead/alive, hit/miss) Gradable antonyms (two major identifying characteristics with intermediate terms in between) (eg. hot, (warm, tepid, cool) cold Reverses (antonyms between terms describing movement in opposite direction)- (eg. up/down, go/return, right/left Converses (terms which describe a relation between two entities from alternate viewpoints) eg. own/belong to, employer/employee)- part of the speaker’s semantic knowledge that can be arrived at through paraphrasing Taxonomy- classification system (eg. Monday-Sunday, numbers, colors etc.)

    7. Hyponymy (relation of inclusion) A hyponym includes the meaning of a more general word (eg. dog, cat hyponyms of animal) Also, male-female, adult-young relationships

    8. Meronymy (part-whole relationship) Reflects hierarchical relationships (x is a meronym of y if x has y) (y) Book- cover, page, jacket (x) Car- wheel, engine, door, window Member-collection relationship (eg. ship, fleet; tree, forest; bird, flock Portion-mass relationship (eg. drop of liquid, grain of salt, lump of coal)

    9. Extensions of meaning-literal and non-literal meaning Literal meaning- neutral, fairly accurate way Non-literal (figurative) meaning- deliberately talking in untrue or impossible terms in order to achieve special effects

    10. Figurative use of language Metaphor (personification, proverbs)- is based on resemblance, irony, Metonymy (based on contiguity, association), Hyperbole (overstatement), Litotes (understatement) eg. I couldn’t disagree less, That was no big deal.

    11. Metaphor Transferred meaning, not merely decorative features but an essential component of our cognition Metaphors involve: a. source domain (usually concrete and familiar), b. target domain (abstract, less structured) and c. a set of mapping relations or correspondences (epistemic and ontological) The meaning of a word constructs a semantic field (core-periphery) The semantic field of a word is the set of sememes (distinct meanings) expressed by the word. For example, the semantic field of "dog" includes "canine" and "to trail persistently" (also, to hound). Examples: anger is heat or fluid in container, more is up less is down, linear scales are paths p.207-209 (Cruse)

    12. Metonymy (responsible for regular polysemy) Relies on an (actual, literal) association between two components within a single domain Strategy of reference

    13. Patterns of metonymy 1. Container for the contained The kettle’s boiling. Room 44 wants a bottle of champagne. The car in front decided to turn right.

    14. 2. Possessor for Possessed/Attribute Where are you parked? Shares fall 10% after Enron.

    15. 3. Represented entity for Representative England won the World Cup in 1966. The government will announce new measures.

    16. 4. Whole for Part (Synecdoche) I am going to fill up the car with gas. Do you need to use the bathroom?

    17. 5. Part for Whole (Synecdoche) a. The are too many mouths to feed. b. I noticed several new faces tonight.

    18. 6. Place for institution (Synecdoche) The White House announced…. The Kremlin said…..

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