Semantics

Semantics Definition Semantics is the study of the meaning of words, phrases and sentences Semantic analysis focuses on what the words conventionally mean, rather than on what a speaker might want the words to mean on a particular situation.

Semantics There are two basic categories of meaning: Conceptual or denotative: It covers those basic, essential components of meaning which are conveyed by the literal use of a word. The first meaning in a dictionary Associative or connotative: When the real meaning of a word is associated to the context, and to social or cultural behaviour . The idea of woman associated to kindness, weakness, maternity... Poets and advertisers make use of associative meanings most

Semantics The boy eats the apple > appropriate and acceptable The apple eats the boy > appropriate but not acceptable because [eat] requires a noun that denote entities with capabilites of 'eating' These entities are called semantic features or 'semantemes' (it. Semi). Each semantic feature fulfills a semantic role within the situation described by the sentence.

Semantics Semantic features They are the intrinsic components of meaning which determine the use of a word in combination with other words. The verb [eat] requires a noun subject which has a precise property: +animate +animate Vs -animate +human Vs – human + male Vs – male + adult Vs - adult The.............is reading a book > we can predict the words which can make the sentence acceptable

Semantics Semantic roles An entity, a component can play different roles in accordance with the context expressed in the sentence: Agent:The boy ate the apple (who/what performs the action) Theme:The boy ate the apple (what is involved in the action)‏ The car is white (the entity affected by the action)‏ Instrument: He eats with a spoon Experiencer:(when the entity perceives, feels,) I heard that noise ( I = experiencer; noise = theme) Location: The picture is on the wall Source: She borrowed a pen from Mary Goal: He gave the book to Mary

Semantics Lexical relations The meaning of the words derives not only from their components and the roles they fulfill but also by the relationships they establish with other words: Synonymy Antonymy Hyponymy Homophony Homonimy Polisemy Metonimy Collocation

Semantics Synonyms: broad-wide; almost-nearly; liberty-freedom; answer-replay Antonyms: hot-cold; happy-sad; male-female Hyponyms: dog-animal, carrot-vegetable, woman- human-mammal>hierarchical diagram Homophons: meat-meet, flour-flower; Homonyms: bank(of a river)-bank(institution); Pupil (in the eye)- pupil (at school)> not related meaning Polysemic words: head/foot (of a body, a mountain, a bed); run (person, water, colors, programme)‏

Semantics Metonymy: ex: He drank the whole bottle (juice/a)‏ The White House announced (president/c)‏ Take Shakespeare with you (the book/b)‏ Having a roof over you head (a house/a)‏ Relations:a) container-content b) a whole-part relationship c) a representative-symbol relationship

Activity 1 Using semantic features, how would you explain the oddness of these sentences? (a) The television drank my water. (b) His dog writes poetry.

Solution (a) The verb drink requires a subject with the feature [+animate] and the noun television has the feature [-animate]. (b) The verb write requires a subject with the feature [+human] and the noun dog has the feature [-human].

Activity 2 Identify the semantic roles of all noun phrases in this sentence: With his new golf club, Fred whacked the ball from the woods to the grassy area near the river and he felt good.

Answer With his new golf club [INSTRUMENT], Fred [AGENT] whacked the ball [THEME] from the woods [SOURCE] to the grassy area [GOAL] near the river [LOCATION] and he [EXPERIENCER] felt good.

To recap…. One way to analyze the semantic structure of sentences is to start with the verb as the central element and define the semantic roles required by that verb. For example, a verb like kill requires an agent and a theme, as in The cat [Agent] killed the mouse [Theme]. A verb like give requires an agent, a theme and a goal, as in The girl [Agent] gave the flowers [Theme] to her mother [Goal].

……to recap We can represent these observations in the following way: KILL [ Agent Theme] GIVE [Agent Theme, Goal]

How would you define the set of semantic roles for the following verbs, using the format illustrated? break, build, die, fear, like, occupy, offer, open, put, send, live, steal, taste, understand Are there required roles and optional roles?

Semantics Collocations FIXED COLLOCATIONS > idioms, proverbs, ways of saying: “It rains cats and dogs” STRONG COLLOCATIONS > specific combinations, associations between a word and a strict number of words: “inclement weather”; “adjourn a meeting/trial” (NOT update); WEAK COLLOCATIONS > associations between a word and a wide range of words: “broad+ avenue, shoulders, smile, accent”.

Activity 3 E.G.: There are four collocation errors in this paragraph. Correct them: The yellow-haired boy said he had joined the English class to get some new friends. He also said that he wanted to learn about collocations because it would be of big importance in helping him to do fewer mistakes when writing in English.

Solution The blond-haired boy said he had joined the English class to make some new friends. He also said that he wanted to learn about collocations because it would be of great importance in helping him to make fewer mistakes when writing in English.

Semantics Collocations A combination of words which frequently occur together. butter-bread; salt-pepper Make + decision, complaint, mistake, attempt, arrengements Do + research, survey Blond hair Vs yellow hair Heavy rain Vs strong rain Great importance Vs big importance

Activity 4 Match the beginning of each sentence on the left with its ending on the right: She’s having her duty She’s taking a lecture She’s giving a party She’s making an exam She’s doing good progress

Solution She’s having her duty She’s taking a lecture She’s giving a party She’s making an exam She’s doing good progress

Dictionary of collocations http://www.freecollocation.com/

Semantics and Pragmatics