1.

Semantic is the study of meaning in language

2. Semantic features are the smallest units of meaning in a word on which
speakers of the language agree.
Ex: father: [+human], [+male],[+mature],[+parental],[+paternal]
• hen (gà mái): [+animate],[+bird],[+fowl],[+fully grown],[+female]
3. Componential analysis is an approach to the study of meaning which
analyses a word into a set of meaning components or semantic features.
4. Semantic field (trường nghĩa) is the organization of related words and
expressions into a system which shows their relationship to one another.
- A set of words with identifiable semantic affinities.
5. Lexical gap (trong trường nghĩa khuyết 1 chỗ) is the absence of a word in a
particular place in a lexical field of a language.
- A referent is an object or an entity in the real world or in the world
of your imagination. (School, classmates, teacher)
- Reference (sự liên hệ) of a word or a linguistic expression is the
relationship between that word or expression and the thing, the
action, the event, the quality,... it refers to.
+ Peter’s house <-> the house that belongs to Peter
• Variable reference (có thể thay đổi): the same linguistic expression refers to
different referents. Ex: Vietnamese Prime Minister
• Constant reference (k thể thay đổi): one linguistic expression refers to one
and the same referent (only one referent). Ex: the sun/moon, the United Nations
• Co-reference: two or more linguistic expression share the same referent. Ex:
the morning star + the evening star both refer to the planet called Venus
- Sense is the internal relationship between a word or an expression
and others in the vocabulary of a language.
6. Denotation is the core, central or referential meaning of the word found in
a dictionary.(được tìm thấy, xđ được trong từ điển)
- Is composed by a set of semantic features.
+ woman: [+human],[+adult], [+female].
7. Connotation of a word is the additional meaning that the word has beyond
its denotative meaning. (Nghĩa được đưa thêm vào ngoài nghĩa trong từ
điển)
+ Woman: • [+devoted] or [+patient]
• [+wicked], [+frail]
Literal meaning (nghĩa đen) is the basic or usual meaning of a word
Fgurative meaning is the meaning which is different from its usual meaning
and which create vivid mental images to readers or listeners.
+ We hope college life will help him to spread his wings a bit. (=
extend his activities and interests).
Simile (so sánh - thường dùng as..as, like) is the use of comparison of one thing
with another.
+ Tom eats like a horse
+ My hands are as cold as ice
Metaphor (ẩn dụ) is the use of a word or phrase to indicate something different
from the literal meaning.
+ She has a heart of stone (= She has a pitiless and unfeeling
nature)
+ Life is a journey
• Dead metaphors are idioms or fixed expression (It’s a piece of
cake)
• Live metaphors are implied or indirect comparisons which have a
variety of figurative meanings through their endless use (Dave is a
pig – Dave is short and fat, Dave is slow and lazy, Dave is greedy)
Metonymy (hoán dụ) is the substitution of the name one thing for that of
another to which it is related with which it is associated.
+ He succeeded to the crown (= the royal office)
Synecdoche (dùng 1 bộ phận/ hình ảnh để chỉ cái toàn thể) is a special kind of
metonymy in which a part or aspect of a person, object, etc. Is meant to refer to
the whole person, object, etc.
+ He is a man of seventy winters (= years of age)
+ Gray hairs should be respected (= old or elderly people)
Hyperbole or overstatement (phóng đại) is the use of exaggerated statement
that is made for special effect and is not meant to be taken literally.
+ I’ve invited millions of (= a lot of) people to my party.
Litotes or understatement or meiosis (nói giảm) is the use of deliberately
gentler, milder or weaker statements to express something in a controlled way.
+ It is not bad (= It is fine)
+ It wasn’t easy (= It was very difficult)
Irony (châm biếm) is the expression of one’s meaning by saying the direct
opposite of one’s thoughts in order to be emphatic, amusing, sarcastic, etc.
+ I found the fifty-two pounds of books you left for me to carry.
Your kindness really moved me. (= You were not kind to me at all)
Euphemism (uyển ngữ - nói tránh) is the use of pleasant, mild or indirect words
or phrases in place of more accurate or direct ones.
+ He has passed away (is a euphemism for has died)
+ She is between jobs – chưa có việc làm (She is jobless)
Onomatopoeia (từ tượng thanh) is the imitation of natural sounds by means of
words or groups of words.
+ The sausage sizzled on the fire.
8. Hyponymy or Subordinate (từ hạ danh) is a relation in which the referent
of a word is totally included in the referent of another word.
- Novel, comic (từ hạ danh của book)
9. Hypernymy or Superordinate (từ thượng danh)
- Color (từ thượng danh): blue, red, yellow,...
10.Synonymy (giống nghĩa, khác chữ viết và phát âm) is a relation in which
various words have different (written and sound) forms but have the same
or nearly the same meaning..
11.Antonymy (sự trái nghĩa) is a relation in which two words habe different
(written and sound) forms and are opposite in meaning.
+ pass – fail, hot – cold, true – false, big – small
Classification of antonymy
+ Binary antonymy is a relation in which two members of a pair of antonyms:
•VD: alive – dead, married – single
+ Gradable antonymy (chưa so sánh nhưng có thể so sánh được) is a relation in
which two members of a pair of antonyms:
• VD: hot – cold, difficult – easy
+ Relational antonymy (chỉ mối quan hệ qua lại – Đã so sánh): Two members
of a pair of relation antonyms display symmetry in their meaning.
• VD: buy – sell, employer – employee, thinner – fatter
12.Homonymy (cùng phát âm, cùng chữ viết nhưng khác nghĩa) is a relation
in which various words have the same (sound and written) form but have
different meanings.
 -Bank: + a financial institution
+ the shore of a river
13.Homography (khác phát âm, giống chữ viết và nghĩa) is a relation in
which various words have the same written form but have different
meanings and sound forms.
- VD: Lead (n) /led/, (v) /li:d/
14.Homophony (giống phát âm, khác chữ viết và nghĩa) is a relation in which
various words have the same sound form but have different meanings and
written forms
- VD: place: a particular area or position in space. Plaice: a type of
fish. Both being pronounced /pleɪs/
15.Polysemy (đa nghĩa) is a relation in which a single word has two or more
slightly different but closely related meanings.
- VD: + Can I try one of your chips?: a small cut piece of potato
which is fried for eating
+ This computer has got a faster chip than the old one: a small but
vital piece of a computer
16.Ambiguity (câu tối nghĩa – có nhiều hơn 1 nghĩa, dễ gây nhầm lẫn, bối rối)
-Lexical Ambiguity (về từ vựng): Any ambiguity resulting from the ambiguity
of a word
• Ex: They were waiting at the bank. (Bank1 means financial
institution - Bank2 means shore of the river)
+My fiance is reserved.(V – đã đính hôn, A - bảo thủ)
-Structural Ambiguity (do cấu trúc gây ra): Its structure permits more than one
interpretation.
•Ex: They are cooking bananas. (SVO or SVC)
+ They are moving pavements.
17.Anomaly (sự dị thường, k đúng quy tắc, khác với lẽ tự nhiên): is a
violation of semantic rules to create nonsense.
• Ex: The man fried the hambuger. (X -> Anomaly) -> The man fried the
egg – V
+ The bachelor is married to my cousin.
18.Sentence meaning: is what a sentence means, regardless of the contex and
situation in which it may be used.
19.Proposition (ý): Is that part of the meaning of the utterance of a declarative
sentence which describes some state of affairs..
20.Sentence is a string of words put together by the grammatical rules of a
language.
•Ex: Coffee? (One-word utterances) -> Would you like some coffee ? (Well-
formed sentences)
21.Sentence types
-Analytic sentence (câu hoàn toàn đúng, nhất định phải đúng về ngữ nghĩa) is
one that is necessarily true, as a result of the senses of the words in it.
•Ex: All elephants are animals
-Contradictory sentence (câu hoàn toàn sai, nhất định phải sai về mặt ngữ
nghĩa) is a sentence that is necessarily false, as a result of the senses of the
words in it.
•Ex: This animal is a vegetable.
-Synthetic sentence (câu có thể đúng or sai, chưa xác định được) is one which
is not analytic, but may be either true or false, depending on the way the world
is.
•Ex: Sam’s wife is German
22.Paraphrase is the relationship between a word and a combination of other
words with the same meaning.
23.Entailment (sự kéo theo, kết quả của 1 hành động) is the relationship that
applies between two sentences, where the truth of one implies the truth of
the other because of the meanings of the words involved.
• Ex: John was kill entails John die
-Types of entailment:
+ One-way entailment (Alfred saw a bear entails Alfred saw an animal)
+ Two-way entailment (paraphrase được) (My father owns this car – This car
belongs to my father)
24.Utterance meaning is what a speaker means when he makes an utterance
in a particular situation.
-Presupposition (tiền giả định) is what a speaker or writer assumes that the
receiver of the message already knows.
• Ex: Mary likes her husband => presupposition: Mary has a husband
-Conversational Implicature (hàm ý trong lời nói)
• Ex: I ate some of cakes implicates I didn’t eat all the whole cake.
 25.Speech acts (hành động thông qua lời nói) is an utterance as a function unit
in communication.
-Locutionary meaning (actual words of the message) is its basic literal
meaning conveyed by its particular words and structure.
-Illocutionary meaning (what speaker means to convey) is the effect the
utterance might have on the hearer.
• Ex: I am hungry
->Locutionary meaning: expressing hungry
->Illocutionary meaning: requesting for something to eat
*Classification of speech acts
-Commissive: trong lời nói mang tính cam kết, lời hứa, lời thề, đề nghị, đe
dọa,...
• Ex: I am going to leave you
+ I vow that I will pay the money I borrowed
-Expressive: express an emotion: lời chào, hỏi thăm, chúc mừng, xin lỗi, phàn
nàn, cảm ơn,...
•Ex: This cake is awesome
+ I’m sorry to hear about that
-Representative: miêu tả, diễn tả một sự thật, Lời khẳng định, xác nhận, lời
tuyên bố, phát biểu, đòi hỏi, dự đoán, báo cáo,..
• Ex: I’m from Canada
+ I don’t know how to answer this question.
-Rogative: câu nghi vấn, câu hỏi đặt ra để biết thêm thông tin
• Ex: Who are you?
+ Where did he go?
-Declarative: mang tính công bố, khai báo, thông báo kết hôn, đặt tên, sa thải,
tuyên án,...
• Ex: We find the defendant guilty
+ I resign (từ chức)
-Directive: hướng dẫn, chỉ dẫn, ra mệnh lệnh, đề nghị, van xin, cảnh báo, thách
thức, mời, cho lời khuyên, yêu cầu,...
 • Ex: You’d better tidy up that mess
+ I dare you to eat that entire bowl of wasabi.
26.Deixis (việc sử dụng từ hay cụm từ chung để chỉ thời gian, địa điểm, hoặc
người cụ thể trong ngữ cảnh): means pointing via language
-Classification:
+ Personal deixis: chỉ người, giới tính, số, mối quan hệ trong xã hội. Ex: In this
family, we rarely smoke or drink
+ Spatial deixis: chỉ không gian, nơi chốn (this, that, here there). Ex: Come
here. Would you like this one or that one?
+ Temporal deixis: chỉ thời gian (before, last time, now, then, tomorrow or
through tense).
• Ex: I walked to school every day
Tomorrow is a holiday