Lexical Semantics. An Introduction

Lexical Semantics. An Introduction Boris Iomdin Russian Language Institute,Russian Academy of Sciences iomdin@ruslang.ru

Lecture 7. Plan • Lexicon as a system • Lexicographic type • Example: Russian verbs of iterative locomotion • occupations • actions • Lexicographic portraits • Types of information in a dictionary entry • Lexicographic type vs. lexicographic portrait: unification and individualization principles

Lexicon as a system (Apresjan) • The set of lexical meanings in any human language is organized in a systematic way (although less systematically than the grammar) • The lexical system has the classificational and the operational aspects • As a classifying system, the lexicon is a nonrigorous hierarchy with many intersecting classes and subclasses • As an operational system, the lexicon contains rules for interaction of meanings in the text

Unification principle • If several lexemes have common semantic components which occupy the same position in their structure of meaning, than these lexemes are likely to have several or many common properties • In this case, all these lexemes are considered together as a lexicographic type

Lexicographic type • a more or less compact group of lexemes • which have shared semantic, pragmatic, syntactic, combinatorial, prosodic, communicative, morphological, or other linguistically significant properties • and therefore need homogenous dictionary descriptions

Lexicographic type • The more interesting LT have many shared properties and a number of linguistic rules which refer to them • LT display motivated connections between the different aspects of the lexemes within the same type • LT reflect the nationally specific NPW embodied in a given language • A set of LT is the most natural and reliable basis on which any systematic dictionary should be compiled

LT vs. semantic classes • All words in one LT have the same part of speech • LT can be marked out not only for semantic properties • Describing LT makes sense only within an integrated description of dictionary and grammar • LT do not form an hierarchy, but represent classes with many intersections: a lexeme can belong to several classes according to its properties

LT: an example (Apresjan) Verbs of locomotion: progressive(determinate) vs. iterative (indeterminate) • idti– xodit’ ‘go, walk’ • exat’ – ezdit’ ‘go, travel, drive’ • bezhat’ – begat’ ‘run’ • letet’ – letat’ ‘fly’ • plyt’ – plavat’ ‘swim’ • polzti – polzat’ ‘crawl’ • gnat’ – gonjat’ ‘chase’ • etc.

Progressive vs. iterative • Segodnja ja idu v shkolu peshkom.Dnes jdu do školy pěšky.Today, I am going to school by foot. • Ja chasto xozhu v shkolu pershkom.Často chodím do školy pěšky.I often go to school by foot. • Segodnja ja lechu v Evropu Aeroflotom.Dnes letím do Evropy Aeroflotem.Today I am flying to Europe with Aeroflot. • Jachasto letaju v Evropu Ljuftganzoj.Často létám do Evropy Lufthansou.I often fly to Europe with Lufthansa.

Iterative: occupation vs. action Occupation: • xodit’ po gorodu ‘to be walking in the city’ • plavat’ v bassejne ‘to be swimming in the pool’ • polzat’ po polu ‘to be crawling on the floor’ Action: • Oni kazhdyj den’ xodili kupat’sja‘Every day, they went swimming’ • On s utra ezdil za molokom‘Every morning, he drove to buy milk’

Two LTS differ semantically… Occupation: • several movements in one space into several directions • simultaneous with the moment of speech (described while observed) Action: • two movements with opposite directions: from one space into another, and back • not connected with the moment of speech

…and grammatically: process Occupation: • usually described as a process: Posmotri, kak deti begajut po beregu.‘Look how the kids are running about at the beach’ Action: • can be described as a result: Ty kogda-nibud’ ezdil v Pragu?‘Have you ever traveled to Prague?’ • cannot be described as a process:*Posmotri, kak on ezdit v Pragu.‘Look how he is traveling to Prague’

…and grammatically: aspect Occupation: • no perfective aspect Action: • can have the perfective form:On uzhe sxodil <sbegal, sletal, splaval> za molokom‘He already went <run, flew, swam> to buy milk’

…and grammatically: syntax Occupation: • On vse vremja xodil po komnate ‘He was constantly walking about at the room [space of locomotion] ’ Action: • On chasto xodil iz universiteta v biblioteku zanimat’sja‘He often went from the university [starting point] to the library [destination] to study [objective]’

…and collocationally Occupation: • On bystro xodil po komnate ‘He was walking about at the room in prompt steps’On medlenno xodil po komnate ‘He was walking about at the room in slow steps’ • Action: • On bystro xodil za molokom i uezzhal na rabotu‘He went to buy milk, returned quickly and drove off for work’*On medlenno xodil za molokom ‘He slowly went to buy milk’

…and derivationally Occupation: • can derive nouns denoting processes: begotnja ‘the running about’, xod’ba ‘the walking’, ezda ‘the driving’, plavanie ‘the swimming’, … • can derive verbs with delimitative meaning:pobegat’ ‘have a run’, poxodit’ ‘have a walk’, … Action: • no such derivates: *xod’ba za molokom ‘the walking for milk’, *ezda za produktami ‘driving for groceries’, *pobegat’ za gazetoj ‘to have a run to buy a newspaper’

Lexicographic portraits • Term portrait: first used in Zholkovsky 1964 • Lexicographic portrait defined by Apresjan in 1986:a description of all the linguistically relevant properties of a lexeme within the framework of an integrated description of a language

Types of information • Morphological • Stylistic • Semantic • Pragmatic • Communicative • Syntactic • Collocational • Phraseological

Morphological information • type of paradigm (may be shown by a number of key forms): know, knew, known • constraints on tense, mood, person, number, etc.: know cannot be used in progressive tense*I am knowing it • variant forms: shine – shined / shone • analytic vs. synthetic forms: clear – clearer – the clearest,brilliant – more brilliant – the most brilliant

Stylistic information • elevated • standard • colloquial • slang • terminological • pejorative • …

Semantic information • an analytical explication • assertions • presuppositions • modal frames • different uses within the same lexeme • permissible combinations of lexical and grammatical meanings • possibility of semantic contrast between variants • semantic links between the given lexemeandother lexemes (synonyms, analogues, antonyms, etc.)

Pragmatic information • pragmatic features (see next lectures) • non-trivial functions of a lexeme • the relative status of speaker and addressee in social, age, educational or other hierarchy (example:ty, toi, Du vs. vy, vous, Sie) • connotations

Communicative information • whether it is necessary, possible, or impossible to place the phrasal stress on the given lexeme • whether the lexeme is rhematic (can only be rheme), thematic (can only be theme), or both (see examples in Lecture 5)

Syntactic information • the semantic valencies of a lexeme (main participants of the proptypical situation described by the lexeme) • the syntactic ways of expressing semantic valencies (case, preposition, etc.) • optionality (obligatoriness) of valencies • compatibility of valencies • transformations of different patterns with the same meaning • more in lectures on Syntax

Collocation information Constraints on co-occurrence: • morphological • stylistic • semantic • lexical • pragmatic • communicative • syntactic

LP vs. traditional dictionary • LP includes certain fundamentally new types of information never previously included in a dictionary • The traditional types of information are considerably expanded • All linguistic information in the dictionary is recorded in the same formal language as in the grammar • Motivated links between the different properties of a lexeme are demonstrated and explained • The lexicographic portrait is compiled against the background of a lexicographic type

LT vs. LP • Each dictionary entry should reflect equally • those properties of the lexeme which are shared with other lexemes (lexicographic types, the principle of unification) • those properties that distinguish it from other lexemes (lexicographic portraits, the principle of individualization)

Next lecture • Production dictionaries. Consistency and individualization principles

Lexical Semantics. An Introduction