SEMANTICS ??? aardvark SEMANTICS ??? aardvark
boy [+ human,+ male, -adult, ??? ] girl [+ human, -male, - adult, ???] mother [+ human, +female, adult +???] sister [+ human, +female, +daughter of, +sibling, + ???] who [+ human] which [- human]
Semantic features: ‘plus’/’minus’, [+/- ... ]
Semantic roles Agent = the instigator of an action
Theme (Patient) = the undergoer of an action, affected by the action
Instrument = the tools used to carry out an action
Experiencer = usually a subject NP subjected to a state/feeling
Source = the starting point of an action
Goal = the goal of an action
Location = place / location
Mary broke the window with a stone
We picked flowers in the garden
John heard the children
John watched the children
John is sad
Lexical relations
: closely related meanings a) Regional variation: fall – autumn b) Stylistic variation: die - pass away – pop off c) Collocation: milk is sour, butter rancid, eggs
addled d) Evaluative or emotive meaning: statesman vs
politician e) `Loose synonymy´; mature - ripe, adult, perfect,
due (used in a Thesaurus)
: gradable rich -- poor
complementary male -- female
directional up -- down
converses wife -- husband
give -- take
the most characteristic example; = ‘telephone’
Same spelling, different pronun- ciation, different meaning: row - row, sow – sow
Same pronunciation, different spelling: lead – led, to – too – two
Same spelling and pronunciation: bank -- bank, pupil -- pupil
Multiple meanings, but some common “core” meaning: head, foot
(hierachical relationships)
ANIMAL (superordinate term)
DOG CAT HORSE (co-hyponyms)
spaniel,terrier,
sheepdog…)
“connection in every day experience”, “associating two items”: a) container -- contents bottle - coke b) hole -- part Sweden beat Denmark c) representative – symbol The crown (for the State)
words that tend to occur with other words: husband and wife, knife and fork, night and day Grammar: the way in which, the place at which
The study of intended speaker meaning, “invisible meaning”. We have to add knowledge of the world in order to understand fully what is said.
the surrounding words which help
us to decode, or interpret
items pointing to the physical context in the real world
person (I - you), time (now - yesterday - tomorrow), place (here - there)
the expression used to refer to a person/object/concept
listener strategies to decode a message
Elements that point backwards: Mary -- she, The book -- it
pointing forwards: Did you see – the book
: what the speaker assumes to be known, to be the case:
My car is a wreck/ my car is not a wreck: presupposition I own a car
When you tidy your room, don’t forget to…
(= When not if, taken for granted that you do it)
Direct and indirect speech acts
speech acts:
Speech Act: Syntactic form
Commands ------- Imperatives
Questions/
Interrogatives ------- Question clauses
Statements ------- Declarative clauses speech acts: mismatch between
syntactic form and function:
Indirect speech acts
- Could you please close that window?
- It’s cold in here!
- Why is that window open?
- BRRRR!
- You could get pneumonia in here!
close the window!
Negative face:
the need to be independent (I know you’re busy, but…).
Positive face:
the need to belong, be a member of a group (Let’s meet up for a coffee after the seminar!)
Politeness
How do we make sense of an utterance? We need certain help to make sense of conversation. We are dependent on - items which help us understand how an utterance hangs together. and cohesion.
We make texts by actively filling in gaps. Conversational interaction is much more than just linguistic knowledge.
Background knowledge includes knowing about situations; schemas and scripts.
Conversational interaction involves: turn-taking, pausing, opening sequences, closing sequences.
The co-operative principle: Grice’s maxims Make your contribution such as is required by the present direction of the conversation. Quantity 1) Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purpose). 2) Do not make your contribution more informative than required. Quality Try to make your contribution one that is true. 1) Do not say what you believe to be false. 2) Do not say that for which you lack adequate information.
Relation Be relevant. Manner 1) Avoid obscurity of expression.
2) Avoid ambiguity.
3) Be brief.
4) Be orderly.