SEMANTICS

Semantics is the study of linguistic meaning of morphemes, words, phrases and sentences. Subfields of
semantics are;
Lexical Semantics is concerned with the meaning of words, and the meaning relationships among words.
Phrasal or Sentential Semantics is concerned with the meaning of syntactic units larger than the word.
Pragmatics is the study of how context and situation affect meaning.
MEANING
Conceptual Meaning: Conceptual meaning covers those basic, essential components of meaning that are
conveyed by the literal use of a word. It is the type of meaning that dictionaries are designed to describe. Some
of the basic components of a word like needle in English might include “thin, sharp, steel instrument.”
Associative Meaning is the type of meaning that people might connect with the use of words. The associative
meaning of an expression has to do with individual mental understandings of the speaker. Different people
might have different associations or connotations attached to a word like needle. They might associate it with
“pain,” or “illness,” or “blood,” or “drugs,” or “thread,” or “knitting,” or “hard to find” (especially in a haystack),
and these associations may differ from one person to the next. These types of associations are not treated as
part of the word’s conceptual meaning.
TRUTH- CONDITINAL SEMANTICS
Truth-conditional semantics is a theory of meaning that takes semantic knowledge of knowing when
sentences are true or false as basic. It is the study of conditions under which a statement can be judged true or
false. It is also called compositional semantics because it calculates the truth value of a sentence by
composing, or putting together, the meaning of smaller units. The study of truth or truth conditions in
semantics falls into two basic categories:
1. The study of different types of truth embodied in individual sentences:
a) Tautologies (Analytic Sentences)
b) Contradictions
c) Synthetic Sentences
2. The study of different types of truth relations that hold between sentences.
a) Entailment
b) Contradictory Sentences
TAUTOLOGIES (ANALYTIC SENTENCES)
Tautology is a sentence that is true in all situations; a sentence true from the meaning of its words alone. These
sentences are always true regardless of the circumstances. Their truth is guaranteed solely by the meaning of
their parts and the way they are put together. We don’t need to check on the outside world to verify the truth of
these sentences. Tautologies are sometimes referred to as analytic sentences or linguistic truths. Examples;
 A person who is single is not married.
Circles are round.
Elephant is an animal.
Kings are not female.
My brother is male.
CONTRADICTIONS
Contradiction describes a sentence that is false by virtue of its meaning alone, irrespective of context.
Contradictions are opposite of analytic sentences. While analytic sentences are always true, contradictions are
always false as a result of words in them. Examples;
 Circles are square.
A bachelor is married.
Kings are female.
A blue gas is colorless.
In each case, we know the sentence is false because we know the meaning of words in sentences. It is not
necessary to refer to the outside world in order to judge their truth values.
SYNTHETIC SENTENCES
A synthetic statement is one which is not analytic or contradictory, but which may be true or false depending
on the context. Synthetic sentences are based on our sensory data and experience. The truth value of a
synthetic statement can’t be figured out solely by logic. Examples;
 My oldest cousin is female.
The table in the kitchen is round.
My brother is tall.
We cannot judge whether these sentences are true or false by looking at the words in them. We must verify the
truth or falsity of these sentences.
 ENTAILMENT
Entailment is the relationship between two sentences, where the truth of one necessitates the truth of the
other. For example; if you know that the sentence Jack swims beautifully is true, then you also know that the
sentence Jack swims must also be true. We say that Jack swims beautifully entails Jack swims. Generally,
entailment goes only in one direction (unidirectional). So while the sentence Jack swims beautifully entails Jack
swims, the reverse is not true. Knowing merely that Jack swims is true does not necessitate the truth of Jack
swims beautifully. Jack could be a poor swimmer. On the other hand, negating both sentences reverses the
entailment. Jack doesn’t swim entails Jack doesn’t swim beautifully.
CONTRADICTORY SENTENCES
Contradictory: Mutual negative entailment: the truth of one sentence necessarily implies the falseness of
another sentence, and vice versa. Two sentences are contradictory if, whenever one is true, the other is false.
For example, the sentences Jack is alive and Jack is dead are contradictory because if the sentence Jack is alive is
true, then the sentence Jack is dead is false, and vice versa. In other words, Jack is alive and Jack is dead have
opposite truth values. Two sentences are contradictory if one entails the negation of the other. For instance,
Jack is alive entails the negation of Jack is dead, namely Jack is not dead. Similarly, Jack is dead entails the
negation of Jack is alive, namely Jack is not alive. The notions of contradiction (always false) and contradictory
(opposite in truth value) are related in that if two sentences are contradictory, their conjunction with and is a
contradiction. Thus Jack is alive and Jack is dead is a contradiction; it cannot be true under any circumstances.
AMBUGITY
Our semantic knowledge tells us when words, phrases or sentences have more than one meaning, that is, when
they are ambiguous. In structural ambiguity the same sequence of words has two or more meanings. The boy
saw the man with a telescope is an instance of structural ambiguity. It is ambiguous because it can mean that
the boy saw the man by using a telescope or that the boy saw the man who was holding a telescope. The
sentence is structurally ambiguous because it is associated with two different phrase structures, each
corresponding to a different meaning. Lexical ambiguity arises when at least one word in a phrase has more
than one meaning. For example the sentence “The fisherman went to the bank” is ambiguous; because the word
"bank" has distinct lexical definitions, including "financial institution" and "edge of a river".
 Our knowledge of lexical and structural ambiguities reveals that the meaning of a linguistic expression
is built both on the words it contains and its syntactic structure.
PRINCIPLE OF COMPOSITIONALITY
The Principle of Semantic Compositionality (sometimes called Frege’s Principle) is the principle that states
that the meaning of a complex word, phrase or sentence is determined by the meaning of its parts and how they
are combined structurally. When it becomes difficult or impossible to understand the meaning of a word,
phrase or sentence by the meaning of its parts compositionality breaks down. If one or more words in a
sentence do not have a meaning, then obviously we will not be able to compute a meaning for the entire
sentence. Moreover, even if the individual words have meaning but cannot be combined together as required
by the syntactic structure and related semantic rules, we will also not get to a meaning. We refer to these
situations as semantic anomaly. This is what happens in metaphors and idioms.
Anomaly
Anomaly is a violation of semantic rules resulting in expressions that seem nonsense. The semantic properties
of words determine what other words they can be combined with. A sentence widely used by linguists
illustrates this fact:
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
The sentence obeys all the syntactic rules of English. The subject is colorless green ideas and the predicate is
sleep furiously. It has the same syntactic structure as the sentence “Dark green leaves rustle furiously”.
However, there is obviously something semantically wrong with the sentence. The meaning of colorless
includes the semantic feature “without color,” but it is combined with the adjective green, which has the feature
“green in color.” How can something be both “without color” and “green in color”? Such sentences are
semantically anomalous (semantically ill-formed).
 Other English “sentences” make no sense at all because they include “words” that have no meaning;
they are uninterpretable. They can be interpreted only if some meaning for each nonsense word can be
dreamt up. Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky” is probably the most famous poem in which most of the
content words have no meaning—they do not exist in the lexicon of the grammar. Still, all the sentences
sound as if they should be or could be English sentences:
Twas brillig and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
Semantic violations in poetry may form strange but interesting aesthetic images, as in Dylan Thomas’s phrase a
grief ago. Ago is ordinarily used with words specified by some temporal semantic feature:
a week ago *a table ago
an hour ago but not *a dream ago
a month ago *a mother ago
a century ago
When Thomas used the word grief with ago, he was adding a durational feature to grief for poetic effect, so
while the noun phrase is anomalous, it evokes certain feelings.
 The fact that we are able to understand, or at least interpret, anomalous expressions, and at the same
time recognize their anomalous nature, demonstrates our knowledge of the semantic system and
semantic properties of the language.
Metaphors
Metaphor is a figure of speech in which a comparison is made between two unlike things. When what appears
to be an anomaly is nevertheless understood in terms of a meaningful concept, the expression becomes a
metaphor. Technically, metaphors are anomalous, but the nature of the anomaly creates the salient meanings
that metaphors usually have. Metaphors may have a literal meaning as well as their metaphorical meaning.
To interpret a metaphor we need to understand the individual words, the literal meaning of the whole
expression, and facts about the world. To understand the metaphor Time is Money it is necessary to know that
in our society we are often paid according to the number of hours or days worked. Many expressions now taken
literally may have originated as metaphors, such as “the fall of the dollar,” meaning its decline in value on the
world market. Many people wouldn’t bat an eyelash (another metaphor) at the literal interpretation of saving
or wasting time. Metaphor is one of the factors in language change. Metaphorical use of language is language
creativity at its highest.
Idioms
An idiom is an expression whose meaning does not conform to the principle of compositionality, that is, may be
unrelated to the meaning of its parts. Languages contain many idioms whose meanings are not predictable on
the basis of the meanings of the individual words. Most idioms originate as metaphorical expressions that
establish themselves in the language and become frozen in their form and meaning. Idioms have fixed
meanings that must be learned. They are similar in structure to ordinary phrases except that they tend to be
frozen in form and do not readily undergo rules that change word order or substitution of their parts.

She put her foot in her mouth. We can’t change this expression as “Her foot was put in her mouth”.

Idioms, grammatically as well as semantically, have special characteristics. They must be entered into the
lexicon or mental dictionary as single items with their meanings specified, and speakers must learn the special
restrictions on their use in sentences.

LEXICAL SEMANTICS (WORD MEANINGS)

The meaning of a phrase or sentence is partially a function of the meanings of the words it contains. Similarly,
the meaning of morphologically complex words is a function of their component morphemes. However, there is
a fundamental difference between word meaning—or lexical semantics—and sentence meaning. The meaning
of entries in the mental lexicon—be they morphemes, words, compound words, idioms, and so on—is
conventional; that is, speakers of a language implicitly agree on their meaning, and children acquiring the
language must simply learn those meanings outright. On the other hand, the meaning of most sentences must
be constructed by the application of semantic rules. Although the agreed-upon meaning of a word may shift
over time within a language community, we are not free as individuals to change the meanings of words at will;
if we did, we would be unable to communicate with each other. All the speakers of a language share a basic
vocabulary—the sounds and meanings of morphemes and words. Each of us knows the meanings of thousands
of words. . This knowledge permits us to use words to express our thoughts and to understand the thoughts of
others. The meaning of words is part of linguistic knowledge. Your mental storehouse of information about
words and morphemes is what we have been calling the lexicon.
 REFERENCE
Reference (Extension) is the relation between the linguistic expression and the entity it denotes in the real
world. For example when you say Jack you refer to the person whose name is Jack.
Referent is the concrete object or concept that is designed by a word or expression. For example;
 Princess Diana is the referent of Rose of England.
The relationship between Princess Diana and Rose of England is called reference.
Co-reference is the relationship between two noun phrases that refer to same entity. For example;
 Mark Twain and Samuel Langhorne Clemens are co-referential as they refer to same person.
 The morning star and the evening star are co-referential because they both refer to Venus.
Antecedent is a noun phrase with which a pronoun is co-referential. For example;
The young boy watched the bluebird until he saw the babies.

Antecedent of pronoun “he”

The man who is eating bit himself.

Antecedent of pronoun “himself”

Pronoun- Antecedent Agreement:

 A pronoun should clearly refer to one clear noun, or else it causes faulty or vague pronoun
reference.

Samuel called Steve twelve times while he was in London. [The pronoun he can refer either to Samuel or Steve]

After putting the disk in the cabinet, Jerry sold it. [The pronoun it can refer to either to disk or cabinet]

The supervisors told the workers that they would receive a bonus. [The pronoun they can refer either to
workers or supervisors.]

The candy dish was empty, but we were tired of eating it anyway. [The reader of this sentence might think that
the dish was being eaten because dish appears to be the antecedent for the pronoun it. The sentence can be
fixed as, "We were tired of eating candy."]

Although Mrs. Smith was wealthy, she made poor use of it. [In this example, the pronoun it has no antecedent
to which it can refer. The reader knows that Mrs. Smith is "wealthy," but it cannot refer to wealthy because
wealthy is not a noun. Pronoun it must be replaced by a noun; “Although Mrs. Smith was wealthy, she made
poor use of her wealth”]

The suitcase was on the plane, but now it's gone. [What is gone? The suitcase or the plane?]

 The pronoun must agree in number — singular/plural — with the thing to which it refers. The
indefinite pronouns anyone, anybody, everyone, everybody, someone, somebody, no one, and nobody are
always singular. The same is true of either and neither, which are always singular even though they
seem to be referring to two things.
 I never go to that place because they have stale bread. (What does “they” refer to? Both I and place are
singular.)
I never go to that place because it has stale bread. [Correct]
 Every student must have their pencils. [Both every and student are singular; therefore, his, her, or his
or her must be used. Their is plural and cannot refer to a singular noun]

 Somebody has left their bag on the floor. [Somebody is singular, therefore can’t be antecedent of “their”.
The sentence can be corrected as; “Somebody has left his or her bag on the floor”]

 Incorrect: No American citizen should lose their right to vote.

Incorrect: No American citizen should lose his right to vote.
Corrected: No American citizen should lose his or her right to vote
 SENSE
If meaning were reference alone, then the meaning of words and expressions would be entirely
dependent on the objects pointed out in the real world. For example, the meaning of dog would be tied to the
set of canine objects. An obvious problem for such a theory, however, is that speakers know many words that
have no real-world referents (e.g., hobbits, unicorns etc.).Yet speakers do know the meanings of these
expressions. Similarly, what real-world entities would function words like of and by, or modal verbs such as
will or may refer to? A further problem is that two expressions may refer to the same individual but not have
the same meaning. For example, Barack Obama and the President currently refer to the same individual, but the
meaning of the NP the President is, in addition, something like “the head of state,” which is an element of
meaning separate from reference and more enduring. This element of meaning separate from reference is often
termed sense.
Sense is the inherent part of an expression’s meaning that together with context, determines its
referent. For example, knowing the sense of a noun phrase such as “the president of the United States in the
year 2010 allows one to determine that Barack Obama is the referent. Sense is what you grasp when you
understand an expression. It includes the properties that an expression has which distinguishes that expression
from other expressions. For example sense of a chair is a seat with four legs and a back, sense of aunt is parent’s
sister etc.
Unicorns and hobbits have sense but no reference (with regard to objects in the real world). Proper
names typically have reference, but no sense. A name like Chris Jones may point out a certain person, its
referent, but has little linguistic meaning beyond that.
LEXICAL RELATIONS
Lexical relations are the relationships of meaning between words. Words are semantically related to one
another in a variety of ways:
SYNONYMY
Synonymy is used to mean sameness of meaning. Synonyms are words with the same or similar meanings.
Words that are synonyms are said to be synonymous, and the state of being a synonym is called synonymy.
Synonyms can often, though not always, be substituted for each other in sentences. We should keep in mind
that the idea of “sameness” of meaning used in discussing synonymy is not necessarily “total sameness.” It has
been said that there are no perfect synonyms—that is, no two words ever have exactly the same meaning.
There are many occasions when one word is appropriate in a sentence, but its synonym would be odd. For
example, whereas the word answer fits in the sentence Sandy had only one answer correct on the test, the word
reply would sound odd. Synonymous forms may also differ in terms of formal versus informal uses. The
sentence My father purchased a large automobile has virtually the same meaning as My dad bought a big car,
with four synonymous replacements, but the second version sounds much more casual or informal than the
first.
Jog/run Fast/quick Garbage/trash Infant/baby
Fall/Autumn Couch/sofa dangerous/risky little/small
Conceal/hide big/large fertile/fruitful ready/alert
Broad/wide car/automobile hard/difficult rich/wealthy
Freedom/liberty outgoing/friendly Lazy/idle mad/crazy
buy/purchase cab/taxi intelligent/clever Present/gift

ANTONYMY
Antonyms are words with opposite or nearly opposite meanings. There are several kinds of antonyms.
A. Gradable Antonyms
Gradable antonyms represent points on a scale that are roughly equal in distance from the middle of the scale.
Two words are gradable antonyms if they are at the opposite ends of a continuous scale.
Rich—well-to-do—poor
Old—middle-aged—young
Open—ajar—close
Hot—warm—cool—cold
Beautiful—good-looking—plain—ugly
Love—attachment—liking—indifference—antipathy—hate

Happy/sad Easy/difficult Big/small Fast/slow

Long/short Clean/dirt Early/late Good/bad

 Gradable antonyms can be used in comparative constructions like “I’m bigger than you” and “A pony is
smaller than a horse”.
 The negative of one member of a gradable pair does not necessarily imply the other. For example, the
sentence “My car isn’t old”, doesn’t necessarily mean “My car is new”.
 Another characteristic of certain pairs of gradable antonyms is that one is marked and the other
unmarked. The unmarked member is the one used in questions of degree. We ask, ordinarily, “How high
is the mountain?” (not “How low is it?”). We answer “Ten thousand feet high” but never “Ten thousand
feet low”. Thus high is the unmarked member of high/low. Similarly, tall is the unmarked member of
tall/short, fast the unmarked member of fast/slow, and so on.

B. Non-Gradable Antonyms (Binary Antonyms-Complementary Pairs)

Non-gradable antonyms (also called complementary pairs or binary antonyms) are direct opposites.
They represent opposed states that cannot be measured on a scale. There is no continuum or middle
ground between the two sides.
 Non-gradable antonyms cannot be used in comparative constructions and don’t allow adverbs
like very to qualify them. For example; we can’t say “John is deader than Tom” or “He was more
alive than I was”. Non- gradable antonyms are so opposed to each other that they do not admit
any possibilities between them.
 Non-gradable antonyms are complementary in that the negation of one is the meaning of the
other. For example; not dead = alive, not true=false and so on.

Alive/dead Accidental/intentional Against/for Male/female

Married/single Same /different Right/wrong Sink/float
True/false Vacant/occupied Forget/remember Man/woman
Off/on Fail/pass Hit/miss Boy/girl
Present/absent Awake/asleep Day/night Thaw/freeze

C. Converses (Relational Opposites)

Relational antonyms are sometimes considered a subcategory of complementary antonyms. The

difference is that relational antonyms indicate a relationship between two (or more) words that one of
them cannot be used without suggesting the other. There is a relationship between two words which
seem to be opposites of each other but in fact actually imply each other. One exists only because the
other exists.
Brother/sister Mother/father Husband/wife Parent/child
Own/belong Above/below Fraction/whole Teacher/student
Buy/sell Give/receive Predator/prey King/subject
Slave/master Employer/employee Lend/borrow Doctor/patient
Teach/learn Offense/defense Lead/follow Come/go
East/west South/north Win/lose Left/right
In/out Inside/outside Front/back Over/under
Behind/ahead Before/after Up/down Floor/ceiling

 There is a relationship in which the two opposites must both exist. We can accept conversive antonyms
as representing the same situation from two points of view. For example, if Tarzan is Jane’s husband,
then Jane is Tarzan’s wife, if someone is selling something, there must be someone buying it. If a
picture is above the sofa, then the sofa is below the picture. "A owns B" is the same as "B belongs to A".
If someone wins, someone must lose. If there is a fraction, there must be a whole. If X gives something
to Y, then Y receives something from X. If John is Sarah’s teacher, then Sarah is John’s student.
D. Reversives
Reversives are antonyms in which the meaning of one is the reverse action of the other. Reversives are
a form of relational opposites. They represent movement or change in opposite directions.

Appear/disappear Come/go Shorten/lengthen Raise/lower Tie/untie

Rise/fall Fill/empty Pack/unpack Zip/unzip Do/undo
exhale/inhale Connect/disconnect Progress/regress Lock/unlock Cover/uncover
Dress/undress Explode/implode Get on/get off Button/unbutton Inflate/deflate
Wrap/unwrap Enter/exit Open/close Ascend/descend Build/demolish
 E. Autoantonyms
An auto-antonym or contronym (also spelled contranym), is a word with multiple meanings, one of
which is defined as the reverse of one of its other meanings. Thus auto-antonyms are their own
opposites.
Temper means both “to harden” and “to soften”
Cleave can mean "to cling" or "to split".
Dust can mean to remove dust (cleaning a house) or to add dust (dust a cake with powdered sugar).
Fast can mean "moving quickly" as in "running fast," or it can mean "not moving" as in "stuck fast."
Skin means "to cover with skin" (as in to skin a drum) as well as "to strip or peel off" (as in to skin an
animal).
Overlook can mean "to inspect" or "to fail to notice".
Resign can mean "give up or quit" or "continue".
Sanction can mean "to permit" or "to punish".
Terrific can mean "very good" or "very bad".
F. Antiautonyms
An antiautonym is one of a pair of words which mean the same thing, although one word seems, for
some reason, as though it should be the "opposite" of the other. This concept is related to, but different
than, an autoantonym, which is a single word which means both one thing and its opposite. In English
there are several ways to form antonyms. You can add the prefix un-: likely/unlikely, able/unable,
fortunate/unfortunate or you can add non-: entity/nonentity, conformist/nonconformist or you can add
in-: tolerant/intolerant, discreet/indiscreet, decent/indecent. These strategies occasionally backfire,
however. Pairs such as loosen and unloosen; flammable and inflammable; valuable and invaluable, and
a few other “antiautonyms” actually have the same or nearly the same meaning despite looking like
antonyms.

HYPONYMY

When the meaning of a word is included in the meaning of another the relationship is described as hyponymy.
Hyponyms are words whose meanings are specific instances of a more general word. For example; red, blue,
yellow are hyponyms of the word color. Hyponyms contain the meaning of a general word known as
superordinate (or hypernym sometimes spelled as hyperonym). Thus, red, blue and yellow are hyponyms of
superordinate color. Two or more words that share the same superordinate term are co-hyponyms. Thus, red,
blue and yellow are co- hyponyms.

COLOR SUPERORDINATE

RED BLUE YELLOW

[hyponym] [hyponym] [hyponym]

[co-hyponyms]

 In general there are a number of hyponyms for each subordinate. These hyponyms contain feature
value of the superordinate, but they also have additional features. For example, boar, piglet and sow
contain the meaning of the superordinate pig. But they differ in their additional features, boar (male,
adult), sow (female, adult), and piglet (baby pig).
 Hyponymy is sometimes referred to as inclusion in that the meaning of a word is included in the
meaning of another. If an object is a rose, then it is necessarily a flower, so the meaning of flower is
included in the meaning of rose. The relationship of hyponymy captures the concept of “is a kind of” as
when we give the meaning of a word by saying rose is a kind of flower, blue is a kind of color, oak is a
kind of or sow is a kind of pig.
 Words such as punch, shoot and stab, describing actions can all be co-hyponyms of the superordinate
term injure.
 PROTOTYPES

Prototype is the most characteristic instance of a category. While the words canary, cormorant, dove, duck,
flamingo, parrot, pelican and robin are all equally co-hyponyms of the superordinate bird, they are not all
considered to be equally good examples of the category “bird.” According to some researchers, the most
characteristic instance of the category “bird” is robin. The concept of a prototype helps explain the meaning of
certain words, like bird, not in terms of component features (e.g. “has feathers,” “has wings”), but in terms of
resemblance to the clearest example. Given the category label furniture, we are quick to recognize chair as a
better example than bench or stool. Given clothing, people recognize shirts quicker than shoes, and given
vegetable, they accept carrot before potato or tomato. It is clear that there is some general pattern to the
categorization process involved in prototypes and that it determines our interpretation of word meaning.

MERONYMY (PARTONYMY)

A meronym means part of a whole. It denotes a constituent part of, or a member of something. Meronymy
describes a part –whole relationship between words. For example; Car/wheel, hand/arm, house/kitchen,
head/hair

FACE

FOREHEAD EYES NOSE CHIN MOUTH

METONYMY

In metonymy a thing or concept is not called by its own name, but by the name of something intimately
associated with that thing or concept. Connection between the words can be based on a container–contents
relation (bottle/water, can/juice), a whole–part relation (car/wheels, house/roof) or a representative–symbol
relationship (king/crown, the President/the White House). It is our familiarity with metonymy that makes it
possible for us to understand He drank the whole bottle; although it sounds absurd literally (i.e. he drank the
liquid, not the glass object). We also accept The White House has announced …or Downing Street protested ...
without being puzzled that buildings appear to be talking. We use metonymy when we talk about filling up the
car, answering the door, boiling a kettle, giving someone a hand, or needing some wheels. Making sense of such
expressions often depends on context, background knowledge and inference.
COLLOCATION

Corpus (plural corpora) is a collection of language data gathered from spoken or written sources used for
linguistic research and analysis. It is a large and structured set of texts (nowadays usually electronically stored
and processed). Corpus Linguistics is the study of language based on examples of "real life" language use
stored in corpora -computerized databases created for linguistic research. Corpus linguistics can then use the
database to find out how often specific words or phrases occur and what types of collocations are most
common. In corpus linguistics, collocation defines a sequence of words or terms that co-occur more often than
would be expected by chance. A collocation is made up of two or more words that are commonly used together.
Collocations are word pairings that are expected to come together. Good collocation examples of this type of
word pairing are combinations with 'make' and 'do'. You make a cup of tea, but do your homework.

save earn spend a difference an effort a mistake

money a friend make a decision

invest waste make a fortune a noise a phone call

 HOMOPHONES AND HOMONYMS
A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning.

Meat/meet Flour/flower Right/write /wright Pail/pale

To/too/two Bare/bear Be/bee aye/Eye/I
Buy/bye/by Here/hear Rain/reign Plain/plane
Knew/new Principal/principle Rest/wrest stationary/stationery
Root/route Which/ witch Steal/steel/still Sale/sail
Mask/ masque Lessen/lesson Mail/male Flea/flee
Foreword/forward Forth/ fourth Farther/father Die/dye
Fair/ fare Sole/soul Tale/tail Waist/waste
Weather/ whether Wood/would Waive/wave There, their, they're
Sweet/suite Some/sum Son/ sun Seas/ sees/ seize
Saw/ soar/sore Sea/ see Born/ borne Peace/piece
Dear/deer Where/wear Cue/queue Weight/wait
Knot/not Knight/night

A homonym is one of a group of words that share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have
different meanings
Bank (of a river) – bank (financial institution)
Bat (flying creature) – bat (used in sports)
Mole (on skin) – mole (small animal)
Pupil (at school) – pupil (in the eye)
Race (contest of speed) – race (ethnic group)
Ball (as a round object used in game) - ball (as a gathering of people for dancing)
Bear (to tolerate)- bear (animal)

 Homographs (literally "same writing") are usually defined as words that share the same spelling,
regardless of how they are pronounced. If they are pronounced the same then they are also
homophones (and homonyms) – for example, bark (the sound of a dog) and bark (the skin of a tree). If
they are pronounced differently, then they are also heteronyms – for example, bow (the front of a ship)
and bow (a ranged weapon).

 Homophones (literally "same sound") are usually defined as words that share the same pronunciation,
regardless of how they are spelled. If they are spelled the same then they are also homographs (and
homonyms); if they are spelled differently, then they are also heterographs (literally "different
writing"). Homographic examples include rose (flower) and rose (past tense of rise). Heterographic
examples include to, too, two, and there, their, they’re.

 Heteronyms (literally "different name") are the subset of homographs (words that share the same
spelling) that have different pronunciations (and meanings). Such words include desert (to abandon)
and desert (arid region); row (to argue or an argument) and row (as in to row a boat or a row of seats - a
pair of homophones). Heteronyms are also sometimes called heterophones (literally "different
sound").

 Polysemes are words with the same spelling and distinct but related meanings. The distinction
between polysemy and homonymy is often subtle and subjective, and not all sources consider
polysemous words to be homonyms. Words such as mouth, meaning either the orifice on one's face, or
the opening of a cave or river, are polysemous and may or may not be considered homonyms.

 Capitonyms are words that share the same spelling but have different meanings when capitalized (and
may or may not have different pronunciations). Such words include polish (to make shiny) and Polish
(from Poland); march (organized, uniformed, steady and rhythmic walking forward) and March (the
third month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar). However, both polish and march at the beginning of
sentences still need to be capitalized.
 Term Meaning Spelling Pronunciation
Homonym Different Same Same
Homograph Different Same Same or different
Homophone Different Same or different Same
Heteronym Different Same Different
Heterograph Different Different Same
Polysemy Different but related Same Same or different
Capitonym Different when Same except for Same or different
capitalized capitalization

POLYSEMY
Polysemy can be defined as one form (written or spoken) having multiple meanings that are all related by
extension. Examples are the word head, used to refer to the object on top of your body, froth on top of a glass of
beer, person at the top of a company or department, and many other things. Other examples of polysemy are
foot (of person, of bed, of mountain) or run (person does, water does, colors do). If we aren’t sure whether
different uses of a single word are examples of homonymy or polysemy, we can check in a dictionary. If the
word has multiple meanings (i.e. it’s polysemous), then there will be a single entry, with a numbered list of the
different meanings of that word. If two words are treated as homonyms, they will typically have two separate
entries. In most dictionaries, bank, mail, mole and sole are clearly treated as homonyms whereas face, foot, get,
head and run are treated as examples of polysemy. It is possible for two forms to be distinguished via
homonymy and for one of the forms also to have various uses via polysemy. The words date (= a thing we can
eat) and date (= a point in time) are homonyms. However, the “point in time” kind of date is polysemous in
terms of a particular day and month (= on a letter), an arranged meeting time (= an appointment), a social
meeting (= with someone we like), and even a person (= that person we like). So the question How was your
date? could have several different interpretations.

SEMANTIC FEATURES
Semantic features are conceptual elements by which a person understands the meanings of words.
Decomposing the meanings of words into semantic features can clarify how certain words relate to other
words. This method represents the meaning of a word in terms of semantic features that make up the word. For
example:
Table Horse Boy Man Girl Woman
Animate - + + + + +
Human - - + + + +
Female - - - - + +
Adult - + - + - +

This simple example is an illustration of a procedure for analyzing meaning in terms of semantic features.
Features such as“+animate,-animate,” “+human, -human,” “+female, -female,” for example, can be treated as the
basic elements involved in differentiating the meaning of each word in a language from every other word. From
a feature analysis like this, we can say that at least part of the meaning of the word girl in English involves the
elements [+human, +female, -adult].

Evidence for Semantic Features

Semantic properties are not directly observable. Their existence must be inferred from linguistic evidence. One
source of such evidence is the speech errors, or “slips of the tongue,” that we all produce.

Intended Utterance Actual Utterance (Error)

Bridge of the nose bridge of the neck
When my gums bled when my tongues bled
He came too late he came too early
Mary was young Mary was early

These errors reveal that the incorrectly substituted words are not random but share some semantic feature
with the intended words. Nose, neck, gums, and tongues are all “body parts” or “parts of the head.” Young, early,
and late are related to “time.”
Semantic Features of Nouns
The same semantic feature may be shared by many words. “Female” is a semantic feature that makes up part of
the meaning of nouns, such as: tigress, hen, aunt, maiden, doe, mare, debutante, widow, ewe, vixen, girl and
woman.
In some languages, though not English, nouns occur with classifiers, grammatical morphemes that indicate the
semantic class of the noun. In Swahili a noun that has the semantic feature “human” is prefixed with m- if
singular and wa- if plural, as in mtoto (child) and watoto (children).
Semantic properties may have syntactic and semantic effects, too. For example, the kinds of determiners that a
noun may occur with are controlled by whether it is a “count” noun or a “mass” noun.
I have two dogs. *I have two rice(s).
I have a dog. *I have a rice.
*I have dog. I have rice.
He has many dogs. *He has many rice(s).
*He has much dogs. He has much rice.

Count nouns can be enumerated and pluralized—one potato, two potatoes. They may be preceded by the
indefinite determiner a, and by the quantifier many as in many potatoes, but not by much, *much potato. They
must also occur with a determiner of some kind. Nouns such as rice, water, and milk, which cannot be
enumerated or pluralized, are mass nouns. They cannot be preceded by a or many, and they can occur with the
quantifier much or without any determiner at all. The count/mass distinction captures the fact that speakers
know the properties that govern which determiner types go with different nouns.

Semantic Features of Verbs

Verbs also have semantic features as part of their meaning. For example, “cause” is a feature of verbs such as
darken, kill, uglify, and so on.

Darken cause to become dark

Kill cause to die
Uglify cause to become ugly

“Go” is a feature of verbs that mean a change in location or possession, such as swim, crawl, throw, fly, give, or
buy. Words like swim have an additional feature like “in liquid,” while crawl is “close to a surface.”
Jack swims.
The baby crawled under the table.
The boy threw the ball over the fence.
John gave Mary a beautiful engagement ring

“Become” is a feature expressing the end state of the action of certain verbs. For example, the verb break can be
broken down into the following components of meaning: “cause” to “become” broken.

Verbal features, like features on nouns, may have syntactic consequences. For example, verbs can either
describe events; such as John kissed Mary/John ate oysters, or states, such as John knows Mary/John likes
oysters. The eventive/ stative difference is mirrored in the syntax. Eventive sentences still sound natural when
passivized, when expressed progressively, when used imperatively, and with certain adverbs:
Eventives
Mary was kissed by John. Oysters were eaten by John.
John is kissing Mary. John is eating oysters.
Kiss Mary! Eat oysters!
John deliberately kissed Mary. John deliberately ate oysters

The stative sentences seem peculiar, if not ungrammatical or anomalous, when cast in the same form.
Statives
Mary is known by John. Oysters are liked by John.
John is knowing Mary. John is liking oysters.
Know Mary! Like oysters!
John deliberately knows Mary. John deliberately likes oysters.
Negation is a particularly interesting component of the meaning of some verbs. Expressions such as ever,
anymore, have a red cent, and many more are ungrammatical in certain simple affirmative sentences, but
grammatical in corresponding negative ones.
*Mary will ever smile. (Mary will not ever smile.)
*I can visit you anymore. (I cannot visit you anymore.)
*It’s worth a red cent. (It’s not worth a red cent.)

Such expressions are called negative polarity items because a negative element such as “not” elsewhere in the
sentence allows them to appear Consider these data:
*John thinks that he’ll ever fly a plane again.
*John hopes that he’ll ever fly a plane again.
John doubts that he’ll ever fly a plane again.
John despairs that he’ll ever fly a plane again.
This suggests that verbs such as doubt and despair, but not think and hope, have “negative” as a component of
their meaning. Doubt may be analyzed as “think that not,” and despair as “has no hope.” The negative feature in
the verb allows the negative feature in the verb allows the negative polarity item ever to occur grammatically
without the overt presence of not.
*Negative Polarity Item (NPI): An expression that is grammatical in the presence of negation, but
ungrammatical in simple affirmative sentences. For example; any in “James does not have any Money” but *
James has any money.

Argument Structure
Verbs differ in terms of the number and types of NPs they can take as complements. Transitive verbs such as
find, hit, chase, and so on take a direct object complement, whereas intransitive verbs like arrive or sleep do
not. Ditransitive verbs such as give or throw take two object complements as in John threw Mary a ball. In
addition, most verbs take a subject. The various NPs that occur with a verb are its arguments. Thus intransitive
verbs have one argument: the subject; transitive verbs have two arguments: the subject and direct object;
ditransitive verbs have three arguments: the subject, direct object, and indirect object. The argument structure
of a verb is part of its meaning and is included in its lexical entry. The verb not only determines the number of
arguments in a sentence, but it also limits the semantic properties of both its subject and its complements. For
example, find and sleep require animate subjects. The well-known colorless green ideas sleep furiously is
semantically anomalous because ideas (colorless or not) are not animate.

THEMATIC ROLES
Thematic role (also called semantic role) is the semantic relationship between the verb and the noun
phrases of a sentence, such as agent, theme, experiencer, location, instrument, goal and source.
Theta Assignment (thematic role assignment): The ascribing of thematic roles to the syntactic elements in a
sentence.
a) Agent: The thematic role of the noun phrase whose referent deliberately does the action described by
the verb, the entity that performs the action, the “doer”.
The boy kicked the ball.

Although agents are typically human (The boy), they can also be non-human entities that cause actions,
as in noun phrases denoting a natural force (The wind), a machine (A car), or a creature (The dog), all of
which affect the ball as theme.
The boy kicked the ball.
The wind blew the ball away.
A car ran over the ball.
The dog caught the ball.

b) Theme is the entity that is involved in or affected by the action. Instrument is the entity by which an
action is performed. Theme undergoes the action but does not change its state
The boy kicked the ball.
I put the book on the table.
The theme is typically non-human, but can be human, as in “The dog chased the boy”. In fact, the same
physical entity can appear in two different semantic roles in a sentence, as in “The boy cut himself”. Here
the boy is agent and himself is theme.
 c) Experiencer is the entity that undergoes a sensory, cognitive, or emotional experience.
Susan heard the song.
Many people fear snakes.
The boy feels sad.
John is amused.
d) Instrument is the entity used to carry out the action.
Jamie cut the ribbon with a pair of scissors
This key opens the door to the main office.
They must have used indelible ink.

e) Location is where the action occurs, where an entity is.

Johnny and Linda played carelessly in the park

I'll be at Julie's house studying for my test
We put the book on the shelf.
The ship sank at sea.
The paper is in the folder.

f) Source is the place/individual from which the movement of the action occurs.
She walked away from him
John received a book from Mary
The baby crawled from the kitchen to the door
John received the prize from the president.
g) Goal is where the action is directed towards, the location or individual to which movement occurs.
John went home
Lee walked to school.
John gave me the book
He studied for the test.
Susan threw a pen to John.

NOTES
Recipient: a special kind of goal associated with verbs expressing a change in ownership, possession.
 I sent John the letter.
He gave the book to her.
They gave the workers a raise.
I paid my landlord the rent.
Time: the time at which the action occurs
 The rocket was launched yesterday.
Beneficiary: the entity for whose benefit the action occurs.
 I baked Reggie a cake.
He built a car for me.
I fight for the king.
I prayed for Susan.
John helped Mary to buy a car.
Manner: the way in which an action is carried out
 With great urgency, Tabitha phoned 911.
Cause: what caused the action to occur in the first place; not for what, rather because of what.
 Because Clyde was hungry, he ate the cake.
An avalanche destroyed the ancient temple.
An epidemic killed off all of the tomatoes.
Measure or amount arguments express extension along some dimension (length, duration, cost, and so on).
 They rowed for three days.
The book costs ten dollars.
 Thematic roles are the same in sentences that are paraphrases. This is because certain thematic roles
must be assigned to the same deep structure position, for example, theme is assigned to the object of
bit/bitten. This uniformity of theta assignment, a principle of Universal Grammar, dictates that the
various thematic roles are always in their proper structural place in deep structure.

The dog bit the stick. The stick was bitten by the dog.
Agent theme theme agent

The trainer gave the dog a treat. The trainer gave a treat to the dog.
Agent goal theme agent theme goal

 Thematic roles may remain the same in sentences that are not paraphrases, as in the following
instances:
The boy opened the door with the key.
The key opened the door.
The door opened.
In all three of these sentences, the door is the theme, the object that is opened.