1. Words
English 306A; Harris

2. Lexicalization English Airplane spoon French Cuillère en forme d'avion
Bird-like-machine-shaped-concave-instrument-for-eating-with
English Airplane spoon
French Cuillère en forme d'avion
German Flugzeuglöffel
Spoon in shape of airplane; French as the language of diplomacy (distance, nuance; 17% more words than English)
Flying-thing-spoon; German as the language of pragmatism, engineering, getting things done; squish-em-together.
English, notably, made up of a Germanic substrate and a French/Latin superstrate, is about halfway between.
LANGUAGES HAVE PARITY, BUT THEY ARE NOT IDENTICAL; OFTEN, THEY ARE VERY DIFFERENT, BUT THEY ARE EXPRESSIVELY EQUIVALENT.
English 306A; Harris

3. Lexicalization English 306A; Harris
An example of multiple lexicalizations; my favourite is Spanish.
English 306A; Harris

4. Symbolicity A mode defined by relationship of arbitrariness, convention, and learning
dog (English)
chien (French)
Hund (German)
perro (Spanish)
leécaa’l (Navajo)
kurii (Maori)
mbwa (Swahili)
khwei (Burmese)
Arbitrary and conventional.
No necessary relationship (no part or causation)--though intonation, volume, suprasegmental laughter.
No resemblance--though slurp, slosh, slush, sleet, ...
Major property: the main way it conveys its meaning.
English 306A; Harris

5. Quiz
A quiz. What do the following six sounds have in common?
If you still don’t know, this one should tip the balance.
That’s right, they’re ringtones. There is one other thing they have in common. None of them RING, in the sense of a bell. The word comes from another time, not so long ago.
English 306A; Harris

6. “Arbitrariness” of symbols
Another quick quiz. What’s this thing, this sign, this signifying thingamajig?<CLICK>
Symbol? (yep, it is conventionally associated with AT&T, or was)
Icon? (yep, it looks like a bell)
Index? (yep, one thing to represent the whole techno-industrial-corporation)
Most signifying thingamajigs have quotients of resemblance, convention, and association, belonging in them. It’s a matter of identifying the biggest quotient.
English 306A; Harris

7. “Arbitrariness” of symbols
Telephone words
Ring
Dial
Hang up
Once upon a time, phones rang.
Despite the metonymic imagery, they didn’t ring like this <SOUND>
But they had real bells on them, of a sort, like this only guy <CLICK>, and they made a ringing sound <SOUND>
Once upon a time, one turned a dial to initiate a call, one dialed a call, like on this phone <CLICK>. It had a bell, too, inside.
Once upon a time, one physically hung the mouthpiece up on a hook, to terminate the call, like in all of these guys. And in this one, too <CLICK>. But notice that this one doesn’t have a dial. It also didn’t have a bell. Yet, it still rang, and one still dialed, by pushing buttons.
But looky here. We still dial phones like this. <CLICK>, though we don’t spin any dials to do it. We still hang it up, though that is just the push of a button. And, it still rings, though it doesn’t sound anything like a bell. Here’s one last example. I couldn’t resist. <SOUND>
What’s the point? Well, all of the words we use for the phone appear completely arbitrary. But they have motivations that have atrophied.
Remember Vico’s principles of research into the humanities. One of them was etymology, a practice often sneered on these days, but which can reveal a good deal about a community, its values, its technology. Frinstance,
English 306A; Harris

8. quark, googol, hobbit, gollum, …
Where words come from
From the imagination
quark, googol, hobbit, gollum, …
Quark (three quarks for Muster Mark” --Joyce, Finnegan’s Wake).
The googol was created by mathematician Edward Kasner to show the difference between an unimaginably large number (70!) and infinity. The name 'googol' was supposedly coined by Kasner's nine-year-old nephew Milton Sirotta in 1938 when asked to give a name for a huge number.
English 306A; Harris

9. meow, bang, crackle, sploosh, ring, …
Where words come from
From the world
meow, bang, crackle, sploosh, ring, …
FROM THE WORLD
A few more, this is direct ICONICITY. A noise in the world gets imitated and made into a word; WHICH THEORY OF LANGUAGE ORIGINS?
English 306A; Harris

10. Iconicity — Sound Ring, rang, rung
Splish, splash, sploosh, slosh, slush, sleet
Doggie, kitty, itty bitty, teeny weenie
Cock-a-doodle-do (English), cocorico (Spanish), kikeriki (German)
It’s far more common than outright invention, and it leaves traces all over the place.
These words all have sound elements that represent something about their meaning. That is, the signifier and the signified relationship is NOT arbitrary. It’s not determined, of course, but it’s not arbitrary. Ferdinand de Saussure had a famous counter-example to iconicity. Different languages make different animal sounds, he said. But look at the rooster examples. They all start with the same glottal sound, and they all have a burst of short syllables.
English 306A; Harris

11. Where words come from From other words
accused, addiction, aerial, alligator, amazement, anchovies, assassination, auspicious, backing, bandit, baseless, beached, bedroom, besmirch, bet, blanket, bloodstained, blushing, bump, buzzers, cake, cater, champion, circumstantial, compromise, consanguineous, courtship, cow, critic, dauntless, dawn, deafening, denote, deracinate, design, dialogue, dickens, discontent, disgraceful, dislocate, divest, domineering, drug, dwindle, elbow, embrace, employer, engagements, enmesh, enrapt, epileptic, equivocal, eventful, excitements, exposure, eyeball, fashionable, film, fixture, foregone, forward, frugal, futurity, generous, gloomy, glow, gnarled, gossip, grovel, gust, hint, hobnob, humour, hurry, hush, immediacy, impedes, importantly, inaudible, instinctively, investments, invulnerable, jaded, jet, jig, juiced, kickshaws, label, lackluster, lapse, laughable, leapfrog, lonely, lower, luggage, lustrous, madcap, majestic, manager, marketable, mimic, misgiving, misquote, monumental, mountaineer, negotiate, nervy, noiseless, numb, obsequiously, ode, olympian, oscene, outbreak, pageantry, pander, partner, pedant, perusal, petition, premeditated, promethean, puke, quarrelsome, questioning, radiance, rancorous, rant, reclusive, reinforcement, remorseless, retirement, reword, rival, roadway, rumination, sacrificial, sanctimonious, savagery, scuffles, secure, shudders, softhearted, splitting, stealthy, submerge, swagger, switch, tardiness, threateningly, tightly, torture, traditional, tranquil, transcendence, trippingly, unaware unclog, unmitigated, unreal, urging, varied, vaulting, viewless, watchdog, widowed, wormhole, worthless, yelping, zany
Where words come from
From other words
From other words
Yep; words are altered, rearranged, combined, shortened, spliced versions of other words.
English 306A; Harris

12. Where words come from Semasiological Permutations of form
accused, addiction, aerial, alligator, amazement, anchovies, assassination, auspicious, backing, bandit, baseless, beached, bedroom, besmirch, bet, blanket, bloodstained, blushing, bump, buzzers, cake, cater, champion, circumstantial, compromise, consanguineous, courtship, cow, critic, dauntless, dawn, deafening, denote, deracinate, design, dialogue, dickens, discontent, disgraceful, dislocate, divest, domineering, drug, dwindle, elbow, embrace, employer, engagements, enmesh, enrapt, epileptic, equivocal, eventful, excitements, exposure, eyeball, fashionable, film, fixture, foregone, forward, frugal, futurity, generous, gloomy, glow, gnarled, gossip, grovel, gust, hint, hobnob, humour, hurry, hush, immediacy, impedes, importantly, inaudible, instinctively, investments, invulnerable, jaded, jet, jig, juiced, kickshaws, label, lackluster, lapse, laughable, leapfrog, lonely, lower, luggage, lustrous, madcap, majestic, manager, marketable, mimic, misgiving, misquote, monumental, mountaineer, negotiate, nervy, noiseless, numb, obsequiously, ode, olympian, oscene, outbreak, pageantry, pander, partner, pedant, perusal, petition, premeditated, promethean, puke, quarrelsome, questioning, radiance, rancorous, rant, reclusive, reinforcement, remorseless, retirement, reword, rival, roadway, rumination, sacrificial, sanctimonious, savagery, scuffles, secure, shudders, softhearted, splitting, stealthy, submerge, swagger, switch, tardiness, threateningly, tightly, torture, traditional, tranquil, transcendence, trippingly, unaware unclog, unmitigated, unreal, urging, varied, vaulting, viewless, watchdog, widowed, wormhole, worthless, yelping, zany
Where words come from
From other words
Semasiological
Permutations of form
borrowing
combining
reducing
(converting)
Onomasiological
Permutations of meaning
metaphoric
metonymic
specialization
generalization
Through extended meanings
The verb fly becomes: the name of an insect, a baseball that is hit high, the space over a theater stage
As derivations
From study comes student, from moon comes month
Through compound words
Notebook, bedroom and mailbox are some obvious examples but also note elbow (ell + bow) and lackadaisical (from the expression 'lackaday' which itself derives from 'alack the day').
From root + affix
Prefix + root
Pro- (forward or forth) + duce (lead) = produce ("bring forth")
Root + suffix
Wonder + -full = wonderful
Through changing spelling
Alone is from 'all one'. Felt was once used to strain liquid, so the piece of felt used as the strainer became known as a felter, which later changed to filter. "God be with you" was once a valediction which, over the centuries, came to be pronounced and spelled as good-bye.
From names (eponyms)
People's names:
The Teddy Bear is named after Teddy Roosevelt and the electrical volt after Alessandro Volta.
Place names:
Frankfurters after named after Frankfurt, Germany, and jeans after Genoa, Italy.
Trade names:
Kleenex, Band-aid, Jello, Xerox, Hoover
From the shortening or truncating of words
Telephone becomes phone, photograph becomes photo, megabyte becomes meg
From acronyms
Sonar = SOund NAvigation Ranging, laser = Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
Portmanteau words
Motor + hotel = motel
From foreign words
Influenza (Italian), rendezvous (French), chow (Chinese), opal (Sanskrit)
English 306A; Harris

13. Where words come from Semasiological processes
borrowing
combining
morphological (tune in later)
compounding
acronyms/abbreviations
blending
reducing
clipping
(converting)
English 306A; Harris

14. Semasiological processes Borrowing
skunk
chocolate
pyjamas
bungalo
typhoon
tofu
banana
banjo
jazz …
The form inevitably changes (to accommodate the borrowing language’s phonology), and the meaning also shifts in various ways
All languages borrow, as a result of trade, war, imperialism, travel, immigration, and so on. English is voracious, though. <CLICK>”We don't just borrow words, “James Nicoll has said, and been quoted widely for: “On occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary". Nicoll is a KW writer, but I don’t know much more about him. This is the picture representing him on a LiveJournal site.
<CLICK> When languages borrow, there is a change in form (pronunciation, sometimes in spelling), and there will be some shifts in meaning as well, sometimes big, sometimes small.
English 306A; Harris

15. Semasiological processes--combining Compounds
airplane
fire engine
greenhouse
tie-in
blackboard
wet suit
two or more words glued together
English 306A; Harris

16. Semasiological processes--combining Compounds
Stress patterns
(like single words, not multiple words)
Orthographic possibilities
Glued together
Hyphenated
Nothing (just stress)
English 306A; Harris

17. Semasiological processes--reducing Clipping
professor hamburger demonstration facsimile submarine sandwich delicatessan world wide web internet
a word formed by removing part of an ancestor word
English 306A; Harris

18. Semasiological processes--reducing Clipping
professor hamburger demonstration faxcsimile submarine sandwich delicatessen world wide web internet
English 306A; Harris

19. Semasiological processes--reducing Clipping
Often a form of jargon
Efficiency
In-group certification
English 306A; Harris

20. Semasiological processes--combining and reducing Acronymns/Abbreviation
radar
scuba
snafu
fubar
twain
CBC
USA
WW1, WW2
WWW PR
acronymns;
pronoun- cable
letter-enunciation
English 306A; Harris

21. Semasiological processes--combining and reducing Acronymns/Abbreviation
Jargons, Argots, Slangs
Similar to clipping
Efficiency
In-group certification
but
Stronger groupiness
More exclusive
With clipping the linkages are more apparent, so more easily recoverable by outsiders; acronyms and abbreviations require secret information, a key.
English 306A; Harris

22. Semasiological processes--combining and reducing Acronymns/Abbreviation
txt msg ortholect
AFAIK As far as I know
ASAP As soon as possible
B4 Before
CUL8TR See you later
BAM By all means
BAU Business as usual
BCNU Be seeing you
BD Brain-dead
BTDT Been there, done that …
English 306A; Harris

23. Semasiological processes--combining and reducing Acronymns/Abbreviation
txt msg ortholect
AFAIK As far as I know
ASAP As soon as possible
B4 Before
CUL8TR See you later
BAM By all means
BAU Business as usual
BCNU Be seeing you
BD Brain-dead
BTDT Been there, done that …
Rebus principle
4 = [for]
8 = [ejt]
Rebus principle Aleph, ox,
English 306A; Harris

24. Semasiological processes--converting Conversion (double-dipping)
permít
contést
survéy
butter
ship
toast
nail
pérmit
cóntest
súrvey
dirty
empty
clean
paint
What seems like ‘one’ word used in more than one category.
This is classified as a semasiological process, but notice that it also concerns the FUNCTION of the word, and therefore its meaning, to a noteworthy extent. It is a bit onomasiological, that is.
English 306A; Harris

25. Semasiological processes--converting Conversion (double-dipping)
Syntactic context
Infallible diagnostic.
“He put butter on the toast.”
vs.
“He buttered the toast.”
English 306A; Harris

26. semasiological/onomasiological processes Blends
smoke + fog motor + hotel
aerobic + exercise
breakfast + lunch
information + entertainment
education + entertainment
Northern Telecom
a word formed by combining two or more clipped ancestors
English 306A; Harris

27. semasiological/onomasiological processes Blends
smoke + fog motor + hotel
aerobic + exercise
breakfast + lunch
information + entertainment
education + entertainment
Northern + Telecom
English 306A; Harris

28. semasiological/onomasiological processes Blends
smog motel
aerobicise
brunch
infotainment
edutainment
NorTel
Semasiological: ALTERATION OF FORM
Onomasiological: NEW MANING
ICONICITY: THE BLENDING OF THE WORDS; THE BLENDING OF THE CONCEPTS.
English 306A; Harris

29. Where words come from Semasiological Permutations of form
borrowing
combining
reducing
(converting)
Onomasiological
Permutations of meaning
metaphoric
metonymic
specialization
generalization
similarity
Through extended meanings
The verb fly becomes: the name of an insect, a baseball that is hit high, the space over a theater stage
As derivations
From study comes student, from moon comes month
Through compound words
Notebook, bedroom and mailbox are some obvious examples but also note elbow (ell + bow) and lackadaisical (from the expression 'lackaday' which itself derives from 'alack the day').
From root + affix
Prefix + root
Pro- (forward or forth) + duce (lead) = produce ("bring forth")
Root + suffix
Wonder + -full = wonderful
Through changing spelling
Alone is from 'all one'. Felt was once used to strain liquid, so the piece of felt used as the strainer became known as a felter, which later changed to filter. "God be with you" was once a valediction which, over the centuries, came to be pronounced and spelled as good-bye.
From names (eponyms)
People's names:
The Teddy Bear is named after Teddy Roosevelt and the electrical volt after Alessandro Volta.
Place names:
Frankfurters after named after Frankfurt, Germany, and jeans after Genoa, Italy.
Trade names:
Kleenex, Band-aid, Jello, Xerox, Hoover
From the shortening or truncating of words
Telephone becomes phone, photograph becomes photo, megabyte becomes meg
From acronyms
Sonar = SOund NAvigation Ranging, laser = Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
Portmanteau words
Motor + hotel = motel
From foreign words
Influenza (Italian), rendezvous (French), chow (Chinese), opal (Sanskrit)
association
narrowing
broadening
English 306A; Harris

30. Metaphor A new signified based on comparison
broadcast (to cast out seeds  to send out a signal)
mouse (little squeaky rodent  computer input device)
NOTICE WITH THE MOUSE, THE SIMILARITY IS DECAYING WITH WIRELESS DEVICES--NO ‘TAIL’ BECOMING MORE ARBITRARY.
English 306A; Harris

31. Metonymy A new signified based on physical or conceptual association
jaw (cheek  pointy boney thing underneath cheeks)
horn (boney animal projection (adapted to make sounds)  musical instrument)
HOW IS HORN METONYMY, NOT METAPHOR?
(not comparison, but material for object (made of horn).
English 306A; Harris

32. Specialization Narrowing of signified
pill (a small, ingestible unit of solid medication  a small, ingestible unit of birth-control medication)
school (any learning institution  a specific type of learning--K-12)
A baby might use the word train only for the toy train he plays with. Adults get confused sometimes when a kid uses the word “train” correctly about a toy, but then asks what that big chugging thing is that crosses the tracks in front of the car. He has a meaning, but he has a very specific one, which he hasn’t yet generalized to the broader cultural usage.
LITOTES
Notice that with pill, as in “are you taking the pill?” and school, as in “the school of architecture,” the other, broader meanings are retained. It’s just a new and MORE SPECIFIC usage that occurs. <CLICK>
English 306A; Harris

33. Specialization hound meat deer write girl
from hund, all domestic canines
meat
from meat, all edible substances
deer
from deor, wild beast
write
from writtan, to scratch
girl
from gerol, young person
Historically there are lots of examples where specialization occurs, and the other, broader meaning attrophies. So, “hound” for instance.
English 306A; Harris

34. Generalization Broadening of signified
ship (send by boat  send by any means of transport)
school (learning institution  an intellectual or creative group)
A baby might use the word truck for cars and buses as well as trucks. In this case, the kid has a much too broad application, and needs to narrow it to the community usage.
HYPERBOLE
Again, these are examples in which the narrower meaning is retained. <CLICK>
English 306A; Harris

35. Generalization dog holiday place pants virtue
from dogge, a canine breed used for hunting
holiday
from haligdæ, a holy day
place
from platea, broad street
pants
from pantaloons, long, baggy trousers
virtue
from virtu, manliness
Historical changes. Historically there are lots of examples where generalization occurs, and the other, broader meaning attrophies. So, “dog” for instance.
Vir-tu, the vir of werewolf.
English 306A; Harris

36. Conceptual processes also generate new senses of the ‘same’ word.
Polysemy
Conceptual processes also generate new senses of the ‘same’ word.
Specialization, a narrowing of meaning--communicate anything, communicate information (this is now becoming the default)
English 306A; Harris

37. A radial network The polysemy of school
school of optometry
cubist school
school begins at 8:40
generalization
specialization
metonymy
specialization
metonymy
Learning institution
--> lessons (metonymy); it is an attribute of the school, a part of it. This usage doesn’t identify a different type of school, or a different type of activity, so it’s
--> pupils, teaching (metonymy)
pupils, teaching
--> fish (metaphor)
--> intellectual or creative collective (generalization)
--> university, faculty (specialization)
university, faculty
--> special course of study (specialization)
the whole school went to the game
metaphor
she is going to grad school
English 306A; Harris
school of fish

38. New terms
English 306A; Harris

39. mallrat
Teen or tween who spends large amounts of time hanging out in shopping malls
English 306A; Harris

40. podcast A digital audio download of autonomous radio programming.
English 306A; Harris

41. metrosexual
A straight man with the good taste of a gay: scrupulous about his grooming; big consumer of cosmetic products and high fashion suits.
English 306A; Harris

42. retrosexual
Antonym of “metrosexual”: a straight guy who is scared of hair gel, doesn’t know the difference between teal and aqua, wears sweats.
English 306A; Harris

43. adulescent An adult dressing/carrying on like a kid
English 306A; Harris

44. kidult
See “adulescent”
English 306A; Harris

45. cube farm
An office filled with cubicles.
English 306A; Harris

46. prairie dogging
When someone yells or drops something loudly in a Cube Farm, and everyone's head pops up over the walls to see what's going on.
English 306A; Harris

47. assmosis
The process by which some people seem to absorb success and advancement by kissing up to the boss rather than working hard.
English 306A; Harris

48. salmon day
The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to be screwed and die in the end.
English 306A; Harris

49. familymoon
A holiday taken after the wedding by a bride, a groom, and their children from previous marriages.
English 306A; Harris

50. mouse potato The on-line version of the couch potato.
English 306A; Harris

51. mousetrapping
A technique that forces a user to remain on a particular (usually pornographic or gambling) web page.
English 306A; Harris

52. macarena page
A web page capitalizing on a current fad; usually full of fluff with a short shelf life.
English 306A; Harris

53. rain dance
A chiefly ceremonial sequence of actions performed in the hope that they will solve a computer problem.
English 306A; Harris

54. percussive maintenance
Whacking an electronic device to get it to work again.
English 306A; Harris

55. generica
Features of the North American landscape that are exactly the same no matter where one is, such as fast food joints, strip malls, subdivisions.
English 306A; Harris

56. vasectomy zoning
Zoning laws and other restrictions that aim to keep children out of an area or neighborhood.
English 306A; Harris

57. CLM
Career Limiting Move, like doing an uncannily accurate imitation of your boss while she is standing right behind you.
English 306A; Harris

58. Semasiology Formal processes
Morphology
metrosexual, retrosexual, podcast (?)
Blend
assmosis, adulescent, kidult, familymoon, generica, podcast (?)
Conversion
prairie dog[ging], mousetrap[ping]
Abbreviation
CLM
Compounding
mall rat
Morphological: metro- and retro- are treated like prefixes on sexual, like homo-, hetero-, a-, bi-, though both “metro” and “retro” have some life of their own as clips now, so a case could also be made for compounds. “cast” is treated here like a suffix. Podcast also looks a bit like a blend, but notice that “pod” has not been shortened, and that cast is behaving like an item on its own (from sportscast, newscast, simulcast, etc.), rather than as a shortened version of “broadcast”.
Blends, -ware is no longer a word on its own; here it’s standing in for “software’. Family moon looks like a compound, but the moon comes from honeymoon, not moon in the sky.
English 306A; Harris

59. Semasiology Formal processes
Nada
rain dance, cube farm, macarena page, salmon day, mouse potato, percussive maintenance, vasectomy zoning
Purely onomasiological
rain dance: new context of use; new sense; new idiom
cube farm, macarena page, salmon day, mouse potato, percussive maintenance, vasectomy zoning: new adjectival modifications; the creation of new phrases, or idioms, but not new words
English 306A; Harris

60. Onomasiology Conceptual processes
Metaphor
mall rat, kidult, adulescent, rain dance, percussive maintenance, prairie dogging, mousetrapping, cube farm, salmon day, mouse potato
Metonymy
mall rat, macarena page, mouse potato, cube farm, mousetrapping, metrosexual, retrosexual, assmosis, vasectomy zoning
Purely semasiological
CLM
Pick a few from each; click at the double up part.
English 306A; Harris

61. Onomasiology Conceptual processes
Metaphor
mall rat, kidult, adulescent, rain dance, mousetrapping, percussive maintenance, prairie dogging, cube farm, salmon day, mouse potato
Metonymy
mall rat, macarena page, mousetrapping, metrosexual, retrosexual, assmosis, cube farm, vasectomy zoning, mouse potato
Purely semasiological
CLM
Mouse potato metaphor (comparison of person to potato; comparison of computer user to tv watcher); comparison of input device to little rodent; metonymy, selecting one aspect of computer behaviour, using a mouse, to stand for all computer behaviour (notice that this is general, too; the person may only use a laptop, with a track pad or a track ball.
WITH MOUSE POTATO, THERE IS EVEN A SEMASIOLOGICAL FACTOR, RHYME (LIKE CRACKBERRY).
English 306A; Harris

62. Where words and senses come from Onomasiological processes
Metaphoric
Meaning shift on the basis of similarity
Metonymic
Meaning shift on the basis of association
Specialization
A narrowing of meaning
Generalization
A broadening of meaning
English 306A; Harris

63. Signifier Semasiology
Signified Onomasiology
Word form
polysemy
homophony
“dog”
Concept evoked
synonymy
antonymy
yappy, hairy quaduped
English 306A; Harris

64. Onomasiology Synonymy
Lawyer, Attorney, Barrister, Solicitor, Shyster, Ambulance-chaser, ...
English 306A; Harris

65. Onomasiology Word formation
Lawyer, Attorney, Barrister, Solicitor, Shyster, Ambulance-chaser, ...
a) metaphor
b) metonymy
c) iconicity
d) all of the above
e) none of the above
English 306A; Harris

66. Semasiology Word formation
Lawyer, Attorney, Barrister, Solicitor, Shyster, Ambulance-chaser, ...
a) blend
b) clipping
c) morphological
d) compounding
e) conversion
English 306A; Harris

67. Onomasiology Antonymy
black/white, up/down, boy/girl, stop/go, cat/dog, student/professor, ...
English 306A; Harris

68. Semasiology Homophony (hoe/ho)
Two (or more) words (therefore, two or more meanings) that happen to sound the same; a coincidence of form.
Ho as in prostitute.
Hoe as in garden implement.
English 306A; Harris

69. Semasiology Homophony (bear/bare/bear)
Two (or more) words (therefore, two or more meanings) that happen to sound the same; a product of coincidence.
Bear as in ursidae.
Bare as in naked.
Bear as in carry.
English 306A; Harris

70. Semasiology Polysemy (bear)
Tolerate (I can’t bear his jokes.)
Give testimony (I bear witness.)
Have as an identification (We bear the same name.)
Give birth (She can bear children.)
Produce as yield (It has been known to bear fruit.)
Support the weight (That pillar bears the weight of the whole first floor.)
Maintain (They bear me a grudge.)
Support the weight of, carry around; as prototypical.
Tolerate (I can’t bear his jokes.) metaphor (intellectual/emotional, compared to physical)
Give testimony (I bear witness.) metaphor (carry, & present, speech like an object
Have as an identification (We bear the same name.) metaphor, carry a label/speech, like an object
Give birth (She can bear children.); specialization, a particular type of carrying; metonymy, one of the things you do is to carry them. compound (that was the lesson of ‘pussy’)
Produce as yield (It has been known to bear fruit.); specialization, a particular sort of supporting (after producing) (metaphor from animals/humans?)
Support the weight (That pillar bears the weight of the whole first floor.) prototype
Maintain (They bear me a grudge.), metaphor, carry around an emotion like an object
English 306A; Harris

71. Meaning extension Semasiology Polysemy Metonymy Metaphor
Specialization
Generalization
association
comparison
narrowing
broadening
Notice that these same processes, are onomasiological when we are dealing with DIFFERENT words, semasiological when we’re dealing with the SAME word
English 306A; Harris

72. Semasiology Onomasiology
Word Formation (building new signified/signifier relations)
Morphological
Metaphor
Compounding
Metonymy
Conversion
Specialization
Clipping
Generalization
Blending
Semantic Categories (classifying signified/signifier relations)
Polysemy
Synonymy
Homophony
Antonymy
English 306A; Harris

73. Word classes Content words Function words
Carry the semantic burden; less important syntactically.
Open class.
Do much of the syntactic syntactic work; relatively lightweight semantically.
Closed class.
English 306A; Harris

74. Word classes Content words Function words Nouns Verbs Adjectives
Adverbs
Prepositions
Determiners
Particles
Qualifiers
Degree words
Pronouns
Etc. etc. etc.
English 306A; Harris

75. Word class diagnostics
Semantic
What sort of signifieds does the category evoke?
Morphological
What shape can the signifiers have (which affixes, if any, are legitimate)?
Syntactic
Which other words does it co-occur with, and in what order?
English 306A; Harris

76. English Nouns Semantic Morphological Syntactic
Person, place, or thing.
Morphological
Takes plural and possessive suffixes.
dogs, dog’s
Syntactic
Follows articles and adjectives, in that order.
a dog, the dog, a big dog, the green dog
English 306A; Harris

77. English Adjectives Semantic Morphological Syntactic
A quality, attribute, or property (of a person, place, or thing).
Morphological
Takes comparative and superlative suffixes.
big, bigger, biggest
Syntactic
Precedes nouns, follows degree word.
The very big boy.
English 306A; Harris

78. English verbs
Semantic
An action or state.
English 306A; Harris

79. English verbs Semantic An action or state.
nod talk listen feel jump run hit manipulate …
know agree hear feel believe doubt recognize hate …
Feel (palpatate) / feel (experience an emotion)
English 306A; Harris

80. English verbs Morphological Take four suffixes: past tense nodded
3sg present
nods
past participle
(has) nodded, (had) nodded
pres. participle
(is) nodding, (was) nodding
English 306A; Harris

81. English verbs Syntactic Can follow an auxiliary verb.
He can nod his head.
She will know that he is looking for his puppy.
English 306A; Harris

82. English adverbs Semantic
Modifies (in manner, time or location) an action or state.
English 306A; Harris

83.  English adverbs Morphological (though many of them end in -ly.)
English 306A; Harris

84.  English adverbs Morphological (though many of them end in -ly.)
Inflectional
derivational
English 306A; Harris

85. English adverbs Syntactic Follows a verb. They nod vigorously.
(Weak test, but compare “They nod friendly”)
English 306A; Harris

86. Function words
Highly specific tests for individual word category; treat them as belonging to one big bag, ‘not content words’.
English 306A; Harris

87. http://www. arts. uwaterloo. ca/~raha/306a_web/ wordcategories
wordcategories.pdf EnglishInflectionalAffixes.pdf
English 306A; Harris

88. Word classes Content Function Nouns Verbs Adjectives Adverbs
Everything else
English 306A; Harris

89. Words Linguistic building blocks Word formation processes Semasiology
Onomasiology
Word classes
English 306A; Harris