1. Semantics LING 200 Spring 2006 5 for further learning about semantics: LING 442

2. Overview Semantic competence Lexical semantics –Some meaning relationships –Cross-linguistic variation Reference –iconicity –protypes Sense vs. reference –“semantics” Phrasal semantics

3. What is semantics? What is semantic competence? What native speakers know about: –meanings of individual morphemes –meanings of heteromorphemic words and sentences –relationships between meanings

4. Lexical semantics = meanings of morphemes and words –semantics overlaps with morphology Some meaning relations –Synonymy –Ambiguity –Antonymy –Hyponymy and hypernymy

5. Synonymy If A is synonymous with B, –A and B mean the same thing, A can be paraphrased by B Synonymous lexical items –couch = sofa –get = receive –throw up = vomit –put off = postpone

6. Ambiguity Polysemy vs. homophony Polysemous morpheme –meaning 1 meaning 2 –e.g. hard “difficult” “durable, solid” Single lexical entry

7. Homophony Homophones –morpheme 1 morpheme 2 meaning 1 meaning 2 –e.g. pass (‘I’m going to pass’) ‘abstain’ ‘succeed’ Distinct lexical entries

8. Hyponymy and hypernymy If B is a hyponym of A, then –the meaning of B is a special case of A If A is a hypernym of B, then –the meaning of A is a more general instance of B B A

9. Hyponyms: nouns

10. Hyponymy: adjectives colored (‘contains color’) red green black purple blue yellow turquoise royal blue

11. Hyponymy: verbs hyponymhypernym dancemove slicecut drivemotate

12. (Generally) productive ways of forming hyponyms strategyhyponym adjectival/ sentential modification car flower Japanese car the flower I picked last night compoundingpickle rage dill pickle road rage adverbial modification interestingincredibly interesting

13. Caveats re adjectival modification Anti-intersection adjectives (require negation of noun with which they combine): is not a hyponym of: fake $100 bill$100 bill the former presidentthe president (i.e. current) phony offeroffer phony offer offer

14. ‘Non-intersection’ adjectives: is not necessarily a hyponym of: possible solutionsolution alleged thiefthief alleged thief ?? ??

15. Caveat re compounding Exocentric compounds: is not a hyponym of: instead hyponym of: boomboxboxsound system station wagon wagoncar soap operaoperaTV show

16. Cross-linguistic variation in lexical semantics 1. How many morphemes are required to express a concept? –‘conifer branch’ English: 2 morphemes Witsuwit’en –1 morpheme: [  l] ‘branch of conifer’ (vs. ‑ [jisc h  m] ‘branch of deciduous tree’)

17. 2. How general is the concept expressed by a morpheme? (How many semantic features does it take to describe the concept?) Witsuwit’en –[t  stl’  s  ‘paper, letter, book’ –[n  x w ]- ‘our, your (pl.)’, [nj]- ‘your (sg.)’

18. Cross-linguistic variation in the encoding of kinship concepts e.g. ‘parent’s sibling’ –Other possible concepts that might also be encoded in a single morpheme: sex: not specified, male, female side of family: not specified, maternal, paternal 3 x 3 = 9 possible distinct concepts (in addition to ‘parent’s sibling’)

19. ‘parent’s sibling’ sex of parent’s siblingside of family 1not specified 2 maternal 3not specifiedpaternal 4femalenot specified 5femalematernal 6femalepaternal 7malenot specified 8malematernal 9malepaternal

20. EnglishWitsuwit’enSahaptin 1‘parent’s sibling’ -- 2‘mother’s sibling -- 3‘father’s sibling’ -- 4‘parent’s sister’ aunt-- 5‘mother’s sister’ -- -aq’  y/- eq’  y pa X á X 6‘father’s sister’ ---pitspišíš 7‘parent’s brother’ uncle-- 8‘mother’s brother’ -- -z/E-z/E káka 9‘father’s brother’ ---t h aj m  X a

21. Reference Iconic vs. non-iconic reference Does the form of a sign (expression) resemble what it refers to? –spoken languages, rarely –sign languages, more often

22. Iconic vs. non-iconic reference BANANA ENGLAND

23. Prototypical reference For many common nouns, the set of possible referents are clustered around a prototype. E.g. ‘bird’ Prototypical exemplars of a category are more readily processed than atypical exemplars.

24. Reference and prototypes Prototypes vs. set of possible referents: –some set overlap possible: ‘bowl’ vs. ‘cup’

25. ‘a few’ vs. ‘several’ ‘blue’ vs. ‘green’ Reference and prototypes

26. Coreference Grammatical encoding of reference Pronoun form. Reflexive pronouns: singularplural 1myselfourselves 2yourselfyourselves 3himself, herself, itselfthemselves

27. Coreference Joyce burped. Julia asked if Joyce could excuse herself. Julia burped. Julia asked if Joyce could excuse her. ‘herself’ must be coreferential with another NP in the same sentence ‘her’ must not be coreferential with another NP in the same sentence

28. Sense vs. reference kuutib 1. --‘What does [kuutib] mean?’ --‘Let’s ask Joyce.’ vs. ‘Let’s ask the person who has studied Arabic.’ 2. ‘I want to be the president of the U.S.’ vs. ‘I want to be George W. Bush.’

29. Sense vs. reference Reference (‘extension’): identity of real world object Sense (‘intension’): (compositionally determined) meaning Same referent, unequal sense –‘Toshiyuki Ogihara’ has no inherent meaning (to an English speaker, other than “Japanese name”) –‘the semanticist on the faculty in the Dept of Linguistics, UW’ –Proper names characteristically have a referent but no inherent sense

30. Sense vs. reference Sense without reference is possible –‘the first female president of the United States’ –‘the B wing elevator in Padelford Hall’

31. “Semantics” To non-linguists if two expressions differ in “semantics”, the expressions have the same referent but differ in sense –Re employee titles in business: “It's just semantics,” says Ben Compton, president of 10- person architecture firm Architects BC (Lexington, SC). “We really don't put much emphasis on it. What's more important is what we can do to help bring (an employee's) career along.”

32. "One of my pet peeves is when people say the school district, instead of our school district. Maybe it's just semantics, but it makes the community sound powerless, and we're not." Russ Wood, president of the Mountain View- Whisman School Board

36. Sentence (phrasal) semantics How do the meanings of lexical items combine? –Compositionality and lack thereof –Anomaly Entailment

37. Non-compositionality Idioms/proverbs: literal vs. figurative (noncompositional) meaning (‘free translation’) idiomphrasal category noncompositional meaning to put one’s foot in one’s mouth VP‘to say something stupid, regrettable and/or insensitive’ to split hairsVP‘to insist on minute, possibly unimportant detail’ to go downVP‘to happen (dangerous or important event)’

38. More idioms dead endNP‘termination of street with no connection to another street’ black marketNP‘illegal trading or exchange’ dead in the water AP‘not going to happen’

39. Some Tsek’ene idioms idiomphrasal category literal meaningnoncompositional meaning t  c  h e  / nik  l VP‘it wagged its tail’ ‘he/she/it died’ t h ìts h ìs I  ni / õ VP‘he/she put my head in the water’ ‘he/she criticized me’ t h ehk h ahc  e ilà / NP‘frog hand’‘slow, clumsy hands’

40. Some Witsuwit’en idioms idiomphrasal category literal meaning noncompositional meaning [j  X ste] VP‘he/she stays home’ ‘she is pregnant’ [nj  zil util /  j /] VP‘he/she/it likes your smell’ ‘he/she/it is used to you’ [c’  t’  x w ts’  y  il] NP‘songbird backpack’ ‘large wet snowflake’ [l  jap t  / at p  jininye] S‘the devil fought with his wife’ ‘there was a hail storm’

41. Anomaly Semantically ill-formed phrases –meanings that cannot combine with each other –anomalous expression = ‘oxymoron’ Sign in a London department store: Bargain basement upstairs On a church door: 'This is the gate of Heaven. Enter Ye all by this door.' (This door is kept locked because of the draught. Please use side door.) Outside a disco: Smarts is the most exclusive disco in town. Everyone welcome. –source of many of Jay Leno’s “Headlines”

42. Syntactic well-formedness independent of semantic well-formedness –‘Colorless green ideas sleep furiously’ –Jabberwocky

43. Entailment If X entails Y, then whenever X is true Y is also true. –X: Last night I did the dishes and straightened the living room. entails: Y: Last night I did the dishes. –X: Mike Price was fired. entails: Y: Someone was fired.

44. Entailment Mutual entailment = complete synonymy ‘Put off’ is synonymous with ‘procrastinate about’ –If –The professor put off writing the paper. entails –The professor procrastinated about writing the paper. and –The professor procrastinated about writing the paper. entails –The professor put off writing the paper. –Then –The professor put off writing the paper. is synonymous with –The professor procrastinated about writing the paper.

45. Predicting entailment 1. Factive verbs: be sorry, regret, stop Factive verbs entail the truth of their complements.

46. I’m sorry you were late. entails You were late. I regret the incident. entails There was an incident. When did you stop beating your wife? entails You were beating your wife.

47. Complements of factive verbs cannot be ‘cancelled’ –Aixa is sorry the party is over (#but it’s actually still in full swing). Complements of non-factive verbs can be cancelled –Aixa said the party is over (but it’s actually still in full swing). –Aixa thinks the party is over (but it’s actually still in full swing).

48. Predicting entailment 2. Dictum de Omni If sentences X and Y differ only in that X contains a hyponym (special case) of Y, then X generally entails Y.

49. Dictum de Omni dill pickle is a hyponym of pickle X: Dave ate a dill pickle. entails Y: Dave ate a pickle. Japanese car is a hyponym of car X: Anya bought a Japanese car. entails Y: Anya bought a car.

50. But: celebrity boxing is a hyponym of boxing X: Darva Conger enjoys celebrity boxing. does not entail: Y: Darva Conger enjoys (all forms of) boxing. Actually, Y entails X! Predicting entailment

51. 3. Dictum de nullo If sentences X and Y differ only in that X contains a hypernym (general case) found in Y, then X generally entails Y. Syntactic conditions under which Dictum de Nullo applies instead of Dictum de Omni: –Negative sentences –Conditional sentences –Sentences containing ‘all’, ‘every’; habitual sentences

52. Negative sentences Seattle is a hypernym of Ballard X: ‘Bill Gates doesn't live in Seattle.’ entails Y: ‘Bill Gates doesn't live in Ballard.’

53. Conditional sentences sports car is a hypernym of German sports car X: If Bill bought a sports car, then it must be a nice car. entails Y: If Bill bought a German sports car, then it must be a nice car.

54. Sentences with 'every' boxing match is a hypernym of celebrity boxing match X: Darva Conger watched every boxing match. entails Y: Darva Conger watched every celebrity boxing match.

55. Habitual sentences boxing is a hypernym of celebrity boxing X: Darva Conger enjoys boxing. entails Y: Darva Conger enjoys celebrity boxing.

56. Entailment summary Possible to predict when some sentences entail other sentences. Depends on –whether sentence contains a factive verb or not –which sentence contains hypernym vs. hyponym –type of sentence: positive vs. negative /conditional / ‘every’, habitual

57. Semantics summary Semantics overlaps with morphology, syntax Semantic competence Lexical semantics –Cross-linguistic variation in the number of morphemes to encode concepts –Semantic relations: antonymy, synonymy, ambiguity, hyponymy, entailment Reference, coreference, reference vs. sense, “semantics” Compositional and non-compositional aspects of linguistic meaning Entailment