Chapter 3 Word Meaning

Lexical semantics; traditional semantics Formal semantics: denotational approach which emphasizes the links between language and external reality Cognitive semantics: representational approach which emphasizes the link between language and conceptual structure

Aims of lexical semantics 1) to represent the meaning of each word in the language 2) to show how the meanings of words in a language are interrelated, 3.1) I saw my mother just now. 3.2)a. My bank manager has just been murdered. b. My bank manager is dead. c. My bank will be getting a new manager. (a entails b. How? c is an inference from a. How?)

Words and Lexical Items dictionary = lexicon semantics words : lexemes, orthographic words: morning star phonological words: we’ll [wil] grammatical words : walk, walks, walking, walked a lexical entry includes unpredictable information: 1. the lexeme's pronunciation, 2. the grammatical status, 3. its meaning, 4. its meaning relations with other lexemes How about phrasal verbs (look after, throw up ...) and idioms (kick the bucket, spill the beans)? => strings of words, but single semantic units

3.4 Problems with Pinning Down Word Meaning contextual effects to pull down word meaning 1) restricting influence: a. collocation: powerful/strong arguments vs. powerful car/*tea, strong tea/*car, a herd of cattle, a pack of dogs, husband and wife, curry and rice b. idioms through a fossilization of collocations where individual words lose independent meanings: kith and kin, spill the beans 2) expanding influence; towards creativity and semantic shift

3.16 a. I go for a run every morning. c. The ball-player hit a home run. d. We took the new car for a run. e. H built a run for his chicken. g. The bears are here for the salmon run. How view the relationship between these instances of run? 7 different senses of the word run? (ambiguous?) OR examples of the same sense influence by different contexts? (vague?)

Tests to distinguish Ambiguity and Vagueness 1) do-so identity test: 3.17 Charlie hates a dog and so does Mary/ Mary does too. 3.18 Duffy discovered a mole(animal), and Clark discovered a mole (=spy). d. Duffy discovered a mole, and so did Clark. 2) sense relations test: 3.21 I go for a run/jog/?enclosure. (run-jog) 3.22 He built a new run/pen/?jog for his chicken (run-pen-enclosure)

3.5 Lexical Relations lexicon as a network, not a listing of words as in a published dictionary: one important principle is the lexical field, a group of lexemes which belong to a particular activity or area of specialized knowledge 3.5.1 Homonymy : unrelated senses of the same phonological word. homographs (senses of the same spelling): lap, run, keep vs. homophones (senses of the same sound) ring-wring, lead-led, not-knot

3.5.2 Polysemy: related senses of the same phonological word difficult cases to determine homonyms or polysems: sole ,gay, purple 3.5.3 Synonymy: different phonological words with the same or similar meanings couch/sofa, boy/lad, toilet/lavatory, large/big different uses with different contexts 3.33) a big house: a large house 3.34) my big sister : my large sister police officer, cop statesman, politician

3.5.4 Opposites (Antonymy) 1) simple antonyms : complementary pairs or binary pairs dead/alive, pass/fail, hit/miss 2) gradable antonyms : hot (warm tepid cool) cold relative senses; a thick pencil vs. a thin girl one is more basic: how long/old/hot/many .....? 3) reverses : describing movement in opposite directions come/go, ascend/descend, (go) up/down, (turn) right/left 4) converses: relational antonyms own/belong to, above/below, employer/employee 5) taxonomic sisters ; red orange yellow green blue purple brown Sunday Monday ....

3.5.5 Hyponymy: a relation of inclusion; hyponyms, hypernyms bird / | ＼ crow hawk duck .... / ＼ kestrel sparrowhawk .... 3.5.6 Meronymy: a part-whole relationship between lexical items car wheel engine door window piston valve ....

3. 5. 7 Member-collection: ship - fleet, tree - forest (example 3 3.5.7 Member-collection: ship - fleet, tree - forest (example 3.49) 3.5.8 Portion-mass: drop of liquid, sheet of paper grain of salt/sand/wheat, 3.6 Derivational Relations causative verbs: adj.+-en = widen, deepen, ripen agentive nouns: verb + -er = walker, toaster, renter .... 3.7 Lexical Universals Are there any universals in lexical semantics? 1) Are there universals of lexical organization or principles? 2) Are there some lexemes that have correspondences in all the languages?