Semantics

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Chapter 5: The meanings of language

Important concepts (these are the concepts you should know after the lectures on Semantics):

semantics; lexical semantics; sentential semantics; pragmatics; content words; function words; semantic features; homonyms, homophones, homographs; lexical ambiguity; polysemy; synonymy; antonymy: complementaries, gradables, relational opposites; hyponymy; taxonomies; metonymy; retronyms; proper names; noun-centred meanings; heads, modifiers; sense; reference; verb-centred meanings; thematic roles: agent, theme, goal, location, source, instrument, experiencer, causative/cause, possessor, etc.; cases; truth conditions; paraphrase; entailment; contradiction; antecedents; coreferentiality; conceptual systems; metaphor; idioms; context: situational, linguistic; discourse; anaphora; Co-operative Principle: maxims of quantity, relevance, manner, quality; speech acts; performative verbs; presuppositions; deixis: personal, demonstrative, place, time

(1) Can you pass the salt?

(2) murderer; assassin

(3) Content words. For example: child, cat, house (nouns); run, know (verbs).

(4) Grammatical/function words. For example: will (future tense), and (conjunction), the (definite article).

(5)

hen mare vixen

daughter duchess woman    + animate

son duke man

(6)

X beautiful die sharp

cause to be/become X beautify kill sharpen

(7)
daughter, son, duchess, duke, woman, man: + human
hen, mare, vixen: - human
daughter, duchess, woman, hen, mare, vixen: + female
son, duke, man: + male

(8) house, car, water: - animate

(9)

count nouns mass nouns count nouns mass nouns

dog, potato: one dog, seven potatoes rice, air :*one rice, *seven airs many dogs, many potatoes much rice, much air

(10) murder one’s neighbour, assassinate the president; kill a snake

(11) wash a car; break a table
build a table; bake a cake

(12) homophones:

tail too flour

tale two flower

(13) homographs:

tear row lead

tear row lead

(14) homophones and homographs:

bank lie bat

bank lie bat

(15) lexical ambiguity: I'll meet you by the bank.
structural ambiguity: The boy saw the man with the telescope.

(16) polysemy:
music (sound produced by means of instruments; kind of art form; particular style of that art form (e.g., baroque music)
hand, cup, child, swear, feel

(17) bear¹, bear², bare

(18) synonymy:

airplane big film help sweat

aircraft large movie assist perspire

(19) tired, exhausted, fatigued, weary, pooped, bushed, knackered, buggered, stuffed, wasted, whacked

(20) a big box; a large box
a big man; a large man

(21) deep thoughts; profound thoughts
deep water; *profound water

(22) Let's go see a film tonight.
Let's go see a movie tonight.

(23) antonymy; complementaries:

alive present married

dead absent single

(24) antonymy; gradables:

big heavy fast

small light slow

(25) How heavy is the bag?
How big is the lake?

(26) tiny, small, medium, large, huge

(27) antonymy; relational opposites:

give buy parent employer

receive sell child employee

(28) big; purple

(29) decent; in-decent
care-ful; care-less

(30) colour red, blue, yellow
dog labrador, terrier, greyhound

(31) colour; blue; sky-blue, ultramarine, aquamarine, sapphire

(32) metonymy:
Wellington for New Zealand
a Picasso for a painting by Picasso
the crown for the monarchy

(33) retronyms:
manual typewriter
quill pen
steam locomotive
water ice
pocket watch

(34) proper names:
Mary, Carl Brown, Auckland, Mount Cook

(35) the Thames; the Queen Mary; the Beehive

(36) the Paris of the 1920s

(37) Toqabaqita (Solomon Islands)
tha Ulufaalu Ulufaalu (man's name)
ni Lifuna Lifuna (woman's name)

(38) There are three Georges in my class.

(39) the man; the tall man

(40) young Mary

(41) The boy likes the girl.
Peter likes Joan.

(42) paraphrases:
I rang up my friend.
I rang my friend up.

(43) oppositeness of sentence meanings:
I'm hungry.
I'm not hungry.
He is alive.
He is dead.

(44) lexical ambiguity:
The bank collapsed.
I was going to take a train to Wellington (but in the end decided to go by plane // but it was too heavy).

(45) two cars

(46) cold water

(47) a good friend
a false friend

(48) the alleged murderer

(49) cold water; strong people; two cars

(50) blackbird; table manners

(51) (the) blue sky; sky blue

(52) a racehorse; a horse race

(53) the woman who lives next door

(54) Hand me the blue shirt.

(55) Hand me the shirt on the sofa.

(56) Jane is the smartest student in the class.
Peter is the smartest student in the class.

(57) By the year 3000, our descendants will have left Earth.

(58) Five minutes elapsed.

(59) I found a watch.

(60) She sang.

(61) The girl moved the toy.

(62) I shifted the chair to the wall.

(63) He is working in the kitchen.

(64) She drove up from Wellington.

(65) The girl broke the window with a rock.

(66) She worries a lot.

(67) The cyclone destroyed the village.

(68) Bill's best friend has gone away.

(69) The dog chased Jane.

(70) Jane was chased by the dog.

(71) The boy opened the door with the key.

(72) The key opened the door.

(73) The door opened.

(74) Finnish
koulu-sta
school-from
'from the shool'

koulu-un
school-to
'to the school'

(75) I opened the door with the key with the crowbar.

(76) Wellington is the capital of New Zealand.

(77) Paris is the capital of New Zealand.

(78) The dog is chasing the cat.

(79) The cat is being chased by the dog.

(80) I gave some food to my friend.

(81) I gave my friend some food.

(82) It's easy to fool him.

(83) He's easy to fool.

(84) Claire brought the drinks.

(85) It was Claire who brought the drinks.

(86) The lion killed the goat.

(87) The goat is dead.

(88) She has a fox terrier.

(89) She has a dog.

(90) My girlfriend is ill.

(91) I haven't got a girlfriend.

(92) He is a liar.

(93) He always tells the truth.

(94) Someone broke the window.

(95) The window was broken by someone.

(96) John resembles Bill.

(97) *Bill is resembled by John.

(98) This bag weighs five kilos.

(99) *Five kilos are weighed by this bag.

(100) Peter hit himself.

(101) Peter hit him.

(102) Peter thinks he is clever.

(103) He thinks Peter is clever.

(104) My brother is an only child.

(105) That bachelor is pregnant.

(106) Colourless green ideas sleep furiously.

(107) Dark green leaves rustle loudly.

(108) a grief ago

(109) TIME IS A COMMODITY (MONEY):
Stop wasting my time.
time-saving appliances
Let's not spend too much time on that.
I've invested a lot of time in that project.
How much time do we have left?
Thank you for your time.

(110) GOOD IS UP, BAD IS DOWN:
His spirits rose/sank.
Things are looking up.
Things are at an all-time low.
She's in top shape.
be downcast

(111) ARGUMENT IS WAR:
lose/win an argument
I destroyed his argument.
His theory has been shot down.
Their claims are indefensible.
Her criticisms were right on target.

(112) WE AND FUTURE MOVE CLOSER TOGETHER:
We are approaching the end of the semester.
I'll do it when the time comes.

(113) Idioms:
haul over the coals
cut it out
hit it off
let one's hair down

(114) We painted the box red.
We painted the town red.
I put my wallet in the drawer.
I put my foot in my mouth.
I gave him a piece of my cake.
I gave him a piece of my mind.

(115) He put his foot in his mouth.
*He put my foot in his mouth.
*He put his foot in my mouth.

(116) My wallet was put in the drawer.
*My foot was put in my mouth.

(117) We painted the town red.
*We painted the city red.

(118) The Queen will visit New Zealand later this year.

(119) Sit down.

(120) Can you close the door?

(121) [The man]_i said he_i was sick.

(122) [The woman]_i said she_i was sick.

(123) [The people]_i said they_i were sick.

(124) The man said she was sick.

(125) A: I believe Colin likes Ann.
B: Oh, he is crazy about her.

(126) I liked the film and so did she.

(127) John walked in and __ sat down.

(128) I ordered wine and she __ beer.

(129) I bought a bike last week.

(130) I fixed the bike last week.

(131) I bought a bike last week .......... I haven't tried out the bike yet.

(132) I've just bought a house. It's good even though the kitchen is quite small.

(133) Co-operative Principle:
Maxim of quantity: Say neither more nor less than the discourse requires.
Maxim of relevance: Be relevant.
Maxim of manner: Be brief and orderly: avoid ambiguity and obscurity.
Maxim of quality: Do not lie; do not make unsupported claims.

(134) I promise not to do it again.

(135) I pronounce you husband and wife.

(136) I apologise.

(137) I resign!

(138) I declare the Olympic Games open.

(139) “Michael Sibley, I now charge you with the murder of John Prosset at Ockleton in the early hours of May 29^th, and I warn you that anything you say may be taken down and may be used in evidence.” (Bingham, John. 1952 [1972]. My name is Michael Sibley.)

(140) Tomorrow is the 15^th.

(141) Your bedroom is a mess again.

(142) I'm thinking of buying another car.

(143) The President has resigned.

(144) Have you stopped cheating on your wife?

(145) Bob: "I'm tired."
Susan: "So am I."

(146) Bob: "What are you doing tomorrow?"
Susan: "Nothing much. What are you doing?"

(147) This car is mine.

(148) That car is mine.

(149) A: What are you doing there?
B: Come here and you'll see.

(150) Come here!
*Go here!
Go away!

(151) Can I come to your house tomorrow?

(152) Are you going to John's party tomorrow?

(153) Are you coming to John's party tomorrow?

(154) The book is right behind you.

(155) The book is right in front of you.

(156) What will you do tomorrow?

(157) The day spoken about is 16 August.
When speaking on 15 August: "What will you do tomorrow?"
When speaking on 17 August: "What did you do yesterday?"