SEMANTICS An Introduction to Linguistics

What does semantics study? Semantics studies the meaning of language.

Overview Semantics Lexical semantics The meanings of the words Word relations Compositional semantics The meanings of sentences

THE MEANINGS OF WORDS

Two aspects of linguistic meaning Reference The part of the meaning that associates it with some object (referent) Sense The part of the meaning that determines its referent

An act in which a speaker uses linguistic forms to enable an addressee to identify something in the world. Reference coffee

What if we cannot refer the referent that we want to refer to in this world?

WORD RELATIONS

Types of word relations TypeDefinitionExamples HomonymsDifferent words, pronounced the same Different meaning Two, too PolysemyMultiple meaningsbank HomographSpelled identically Different meaning Lead the verb; lead the metal synonymsThe same or similar meaning Sofa, couch

Types of word relations Antonyms typeexample Complementary pairsPresent/absent Gradable pairsHot/cold; Not happy =// sad Relationship oppositesBuy/sell

Sentential Meaning Truth condition paraphrase entailment contradiction

Truth condition Definition The circumstances that determine whether a sentence is true Examples The first U.S. president is George Bush The first U.S. president is George Washington.

Paraphrase Two sentences with the same truth condition Example: Two people were killed in a car accident. Two people died in a car accident.

Entailment Definition The truth of one sentence necessarily implies the truth of another sentence. Example JFK was assassinated in Dallas in JFK is dead.

Contradiction Definition The truth of one sentence necessarily implies the false of another sentence. Example John is single. John is married.

Questions?