1. Semantics Continued… Meaning Relationships Entailments Maxims of Conversation

2. Semantic relationships The semantic relationships we will discuss here are: –Hyponyms –Hyponyms – X is a subset of Y –Synonyms –Synonyms – X is similar to Y –Antonyms –Antonyms – X is opposite of Y –Homonyms –Homonyms – X sounds/spelled like Y –Entailment –Entailment – X is entailed by Y (If X, then Y)

3. Hyponyms hyponymsubset X is a hyponym of Y if X is a subset of Y. For example, consider the two words “bird” and “parakeet”. –Tweety and Polly are parakeets. –The current set of parakeets contains these two members. –The current set of bird contains at least these two members, possibly others. hyponym –Parakeet is a subset of bird, so parakeet is a hyponym of bird.

4. Hyponyms Hyponymy can be seen as the loss of specificity. It involves moving from more specific to more general.

5. Synonyms Two words are synonymous if they share the same meaning. –Rarely are word meanings 100% identical –Used in different contexts, have different connotations [sofa vs. couch] exactly While it is difficult to find two exactly identical words, there are examples of synonyms in our everyday language:

6. Synonyms cease/stopdog/caninequick/rapid There is no dog that is not a canine. Every couch is also a sofa. If you cease, you also stop

7. Antonyms In its barest form, antonymy refers to the condition of being opposites. –Complementary/contradictory Complete/incomplete, married/single Must be one or the other –Relational opposites/contraries Over/under, doctor/patient, stop/go Can be neither, represent symmetrical relationships –Scalar antonyms/gradable pairs Hot/cold, big/small, tall/short Can be neither, represent extremes on a scale

8. Antonyms Complementary/contradictory pairs XY X’sY’s –Given X and Y, every entity in the world is either in X’s set or in Y’s set, but never in both. married/unmarriedmarried/unmarried visible/invisiblevisible/invisible

9. Antonyms Relational opposites / Contraries –Given X and Y, everything in the world is in X’s set, in Y’s set, or in neither set, but never in both sets. over/underover/under –An object can be over or under another, but never both. It could also be NEXT TO another object. married/bachelormarried/bachelor –A man can be married or a bachelor, but not both. He could also be a divorcé or a widower.

10. Antonyms Scalar antonyms/Gradable pairs –Given X and Y, X and Y fulfill the conditions for being relational opposites but in addition can be interpreted as endpoints on some scale. good/badgood/bad hot/coldhot/cold strong/weakstrong/weak –A good test for this kind of relationship is the potential use of the modifier “quite”.

11. Homonym Source of much lexical ambiguity Different words with the same form but with different meanings. –Homonym –Homonym – [sounds & spelled the same] pen/pen, pool/pool –Homophone –Homophone [sounds the same] tale/tail, knight/night, pen/pen, tier/tear –Homograph –Homograph [spelled the same] tear [  ]/tear [  ], pen/pen, lead [lId]/lead [lEd]

12. Entailments If A, then B (but not necessarily vice versa) 1. If something is an A, it must also be a B, too. 2. If something is not a B, then it cannot be an A. A C A C B A = mare B = horse C = animal

13. Semantic Entailments Inferences –The sheriff killed Jesse –The sheriff killed Jesse. Jesse is dead –Entails: Jesse is dead. Semantic decomposition: –kill –kill = cause someone to die –die –die = to become dead –*The sheriff killed Jesse, but Jesse is still alive –*The sheriff killed Jesse, but Jesse is still alive. –Alive = not dead

14. Pragmatics “Want to see a movie tonight?” –“I have to study.” “What do you want for your birthday? –“Well, my camera is broken…”

15. Maxims of Conversation Quantity –Don’t say more or less than is required Relevance –Be relevant Manner –Avoid ambiguity, be brief and orderly Quality –Be truthful