1. Assessment of Semantics

2. Semantics Introduction: Definitions:
Semantics: is the study of the meaning of words and word combinations
Lexeme is the minimal unit of vocabulary
Lexicon is the mental dictionary

3. Introduction Cont’d: Types of meaning:
Lexical meaning (Lexical semantics)
refers to the meaning of individual words , more specifically, lexemes
Referential meaning (relational semantics)
refers to the relation between semantic categories in an utterance
Non-literal meaning
Word’s relation not to their usual referents but to some characteristic of those referents
Referents (class of beings, objects, events, or characteristics the meaning of word applies to)

4. Lexical Meaning Organization of vocabulary:
means how we learn, store, and access words
Semantic fields and semantic subfields theory
Overextension & underextension
Context-bound words
Development of definitional meaning

5. Lexical Meaning reason e.g. What is it
Incomplete acquisition of semantic features
Apple for plate and another rounded object
A lexical item used to refer to a larger category of objects
overextension
Limited experience
Car for cars only moving on the street, not for cars standing still, pictured cars...etc
A use of word for only a subset of the referents in the adult category
underextension

6. Lexical Meaning Cont’d:
Overextension:
Occurs in normally developing children between the ages of 1;1 and 2;6 yrs
Disappears by the age of 3 yrs
Understanding lexical meaning
Child’s first understanding of single words is context bound. (i.e. words are understood only if they pertain to present, familiar, and perceptually salient objects)

7. Development of definitional meaning
Giving sensory properties or function e.g. banana is to eat
Giving categorical membership e.g. banana is a fruit (starts at 7 years of age)
Adult-like definition e.g. a banana is a fruit that has a thick yellow skin when ripe. (starts at 10 years of age)

8. Relational Meaning
Utterances may be analyzed in terms of grammatical or semantic categories
ex: The boy kicked the ball
Semantic elements
Clause elements
Utterance
Actor
Subject
The boy
Dynamic
Verb
kicked
Goal
Object
the ball
Semantic elements
Clause elements
Utterance
Goal
Subject
The ball
Dynamic
Verb
Was kicked
Actor
Object
The boy

9. Relational Meaning Cont’d:
studies the meaning of vocabulary in different contexts
Linguistic situations not situational context (situational contexts: refers to the situation in which the utterance occurred and its function)
Also called sentence meaning, grammatical meaning and semantic functions

10. Relational Meaning Cont’d:
The first systematic analysis of the relational meaning of words –case grammar-was done by Fillmore (1968)
Case grammar : is the semantic role of case of nouns in relation to other elements in the sentence.
The cases include:
Agentive
The animate instigator of action  “Sam cut the bread”
Instrumental
The force or object causally involved in a state or action  “ The knife cut the bread”
Dative
The animate being affected by the state or action  “ Harry pushed Joe”

11. Relational Meaning Cont’d:
Case grammar Cont’d:
Factitive
The object or being resulting from a state or action “She baked brownies”
Locative
The location or spatial orientation of a state or action  “ I ate at home”
Objective
The referent whose role depends on the meaning of the verb “ She hit the ball”

12. Semantic relations: Include nouns and other word classes
agent+action (car go)
action+object (throw ball)
agent+object (mommy soup)
X+dative (throw daddy)
X+locative (baby chair)
(X is any variable; Dative is the recepient)

13. Semantic-syntactic relations:
refers to the interrelationship between the syntactic role that a particular word fills in the utterance and its semantic role.
Like categories that:
represent a relationship between two referents
e.g. Possession : people and the objects within their domain (baby cap)
Identify ways in which events can be related to each other
e.g. Causality : cause-and-effect relationship expressed with because

14. Non-literal Meaning
Metaphor
Idioms
Proverbs

15. Word Retrieval and Word Learning
Is word-finding problem a word retrieval or a word learning problem?
Requirements of vocabulary acquisition
Understand item’s conceptual attributes – i.e. which semantic field it belongs to, which contexts it can be used in , …etc
perceive and produce its phonological form
Store the information in memory

16. Symptoms of having a word retrieval problem
The use of initial speech sounds or silent articulatory gestures preceding the target word
Giving semantic information
Self correcting
Gesturing
Frustration gestures

17. Assessing Semantics The other aspects of language
Which type of meaning to assess?

18. Assessing Lexical Meaning
Vocabulary comprehension and expression
BPVS  British Picture Vocabulary Scale
PRISM-L Profile in Semantics-Lexicon
semantic fields
type & token
Type refers to the no. of different vocabulary items used by a subject
Token refers to the no. of examples of that particular items
Vocabulary checklists

19. Assessing Lexical Meaning Cont’d:
Semantic analysis of a language sample
The different use of words
Words deficits (when a word is replaced by another one)
Absence of any word class
Elicitation procedures
Alternative referents
Definitions
Games
Set ups

20. Assessing Abstract Relational Meaning
PRISM-G PRISM-Grammar
(shows e.g. which clausal elements are being used by the subject and in what combinations)
BLADES The Bristol Language Developmental Scales
Looks at three aspects of language: functions, sentence meaning, and syntax

21. Assessing Abstract Relational Meaning Cont’d:
Semantic analysis of a language sample
Types of relational meaning used (e.g. possession, location relation)
Elicitation procedures
Following directions that will require the comprehension of various relational meanings
Story re-telling by choosing a story that includes several kinds of relations
Metalinguistic excersizes

22. Assessing Word Retrieval
Picture naming (nouns - verbs)
Sentence completion
Naming an object from a given description
Naming the category of a group of objects
Looking at the substitutions produced by the child
Assessing word learning
Teaching a new word in a naturalistic context and examining it later

23. Children with Semantic Impairments
Extended use of semantic strategies
Confusion of polar position e.g. high,low
Word retrieval problems
Word deficit
Semantic-pragmatic difficulty