CBS1900 Introduction to Language

LECTURE 8
SEMANTICS: THE MEANING OF LANGUAGE

1
Semantics
o “What does it mean?”
o the study of meaning of linguistic expressions

o Word meaning
o lexical semantics lexicon (n.); lexical (adj.)

o Sentence meaning
o syntactic semantics

2
Topics
o Meaning of content words
o Reference vs. Sense
o Meaning of function words
o Lexical relations
o Synonyms; Antonyms; Hyponyms; Hypernyms;
Homophones; Homonyms
o Semantic change
o Sentence meaning
o Thematic roles
o Agent; Patient; Theme; Goal; Source; Instrument;
Experiencer
3
Content words vs. Function words
o content words
o denote concepts such as objects, actions,
attributes, and ideas that we can think about
o e.g., children, purple, eat

o function words
o no clear lexical meanings or obvious concepts
associated with them
o e.g., and, is, but
4
Meaning of content words
o The meaning of a content word can be defined
either by its reference or by its sense

o Reference: Mapping from words to things,

activities, properties, relationships, etc. in the
outside world refer (v.)
referent (n.)

o Sense: Mental representation of a word in the

lexicon, defined by other words in the lexicon

5
Reference vs. Sense
e.g., cat /kæt/

Reference: the set of

cats in the actual world

Sense: a kind of feline animals

6
Why is reference not enough?
o some words do not have references
o imaginary entities, e.g., unicorn 獨角獸
o non-existent in the actual world  no reference
o existent in the lexicon, i.e. “an animal with a single
horn”  has a sense

o some words or phrases may have the same

references but different meanings
o e.g., Donald Trump vs. the US President
7
Reference vs. Sense
o Reference
o Mapping with the referent in the outside world.

o Sense
o Information needed to complete the association and
to suggest properties that the referent may have
o The sense of a word is usually defined in relation with
other words in the lexicon (i.e. lexical relations)
one of today’s topics

8
Meaning of function
words/morphemes
o Function words/morphemes express grammatical
relations
o Usually don’t have references
o Can affect the meaning of sentences, e.g.,
o Tense: e.g. -ed in English
o Modality: e.g. must, can, could
o Deixis: e.g. this, that, I, you, she
o …

9
Lexical relations
o The following lexical relations will be introduced:
o synonyms
o antonyms
o hyponyms
o hypernyms
o homophones
o homonyms

10
Lexical relations
o Synonym
o X and Y have the same meanings
o e.g., couch and sofa are synonyms

o Antonym
o X and Y have opposite meanings X and Y can be either
o e.g., small and big are antonyms complementary
(i.e. not X = Y) or
non-complementary
(i.e. not X ≠Y)

11
Lexical relations
o Hyponym
o word X is a hyponym of word Y if X defines a set
which is a subset of the set of Y
o e.g., cat is a hyponym of animal X

o Hypernym
o opposite of hyponym
o e.g., animal is a hypernym of cat

12
Lexical relations
o Homophones
o same pronunciation, different meanings
o e.g., right and write are homophones
/raɪt/

o Homonyms
o same pronunciation, same written form,
different meanings
o e.g., bank (a financial institution) and bank (the
side of a river) are homonyms
13
Lexical relations
o examples in the dictionary

14
Semantic change
o The sense of a word can change…
◦  more positive
◦ e.g., terrific (from terror)
◦  more negative
◦ e.g., villain (from village)
◦  wider, more general
◦ e.g., dog (originally meaning a specific type of dog)
◦  narrower
◦ e.g., meat (originally meaning food)

15
Semantic change
o often studied in historical linguistics

o Online Etymology Dictionary

o meat (n.)
o “Old English mete "food, item of food" (paired
with drink)…”
o “Narrower sense of "flesh used as food" is
first attested c.1300…”
16
Sentence meaning
o Question: Do the following two sentences mean
the same thing?
o The boy chased the cat.
o The cat chased the boy.

o What about the following sentences?

o The boy chased the cat.
o The cat was chased by the boy.

17
Sentence meaning
o The meaning of a sentence is more than the
meaning of individual words

o In the following, we will use the concepts

“thematic roles” and “syntactic structure” to
explain our observations in the previous slide

18
Thematic roles
o The main verb is often considered as the centre
of sentence meaning.

o A noun phrase must take up some thematic role

that contributes to the state, action or situation
described by the sentence.

19
Thematic roles But not affected.
o Some major thematic roles: Often confused
with “patient”.
o Agent (施事者): doer of the action
o Patient (受事者): entity affected by the action
o Theme: entity that undergoes the action
o Goal: endpoint of a change in location or possession
o Source: beginning point of the action
o Instrument: the means used to accomplish the
action
o Experiencer: entity that receives sensory input
o …
20
Thematic roles
o Some examples:

o John hit the box with a hammer.

agent patient instrument

o John saw a cat.

experiencer theme

o John sent the package from Hong Kong to Macau.

agent theme source goal
21
Thematic roles
o What determines which thematic roles must be
present?
o the verb: it determines the type of event being
described
o Thematic role assignment (= theta-assignment)
o assignment of thematic roles by the verb
o the roles remain unchanged even when the sentence is
passivized
o e.g., John hit the box and The box was hit by John
have the same theta-assignments
22
Ambiguity
o The property of having more than one meaning
o Ambiguity may exist in words, phrases and
sentences
o Two types of ambiguity in sentences
o structural ambiguity (we discussed this in syntax)
o lexical ambiguity
o ambiguity due to ambiguous words or phrases,
e.g.,
o The girl went to the bank.

23
Lexical ambiguity
o The girl went to the bank.
o same phrase structure tree for both meanings
o lexical ambiguity cannot be shown by drawing
phrase structure trees S

NP VP

D N V PP

The girl went P NP

to D N

the bank

24
Syntax vs. Semantics
o two sentences can differ in syntax but agree in
semantics, e.g.,
o The boy chased the cat.
o The cat was chased by the boy.

o two sentences can agree in syntax but differ in

semantics, e.g.,
o The boy chased the cat.
o The cat chased the boy.

25
 Readings for semantics (1/4)
An Introduction to Language, Chapter on “Semantics”, 11th edition:
◦ pp. 133-134: the introductory part of this chapter
◦ read what the authors tell you about “what you know about meaning
when you know a language” (p. 133); take note of what “semantics”
studies (p. 134) and the subfields of semantics (lexical semantics and
compositional semantics, p. 134)
◦ p. 134: What Speakers Know about Sentence Meaning
◦ take note of semantic rules (p. 134): “these rules build the meaning of
a sentence from the meanings of its words and its syntactic structure”,
and the parts above which I bolded
◦ pp. 136-137: Ambiguity and the Principle of Compositionality
◦ take note of the comparison between “structural ambiguity” (we
learned this in the syntax lectures) and “lexical ambiguity” (pp. 136-
137)
◦ take note of what the “principle of compositionality” means (p. 137)

26
 Readings for semantics (2/4)
An Introduction to Language, Chapter on “Semantics”, 11th edition:
◦ p. 137: Compositional Semantics
◦ what must the mental grammar contain in order that the speaker can
determine the meaning of a limitless number of expression? (p. 137)
◦ pp. 146-147: Lexical semantics (Word Meanings)
◦ take note of the fundamental difference between word meaning and
sentence meaning (p. 147):
◦ “the meaning of words is conventional…speakers of a language
implicitly agree on their meaning, and children acquiring the
language must simply learn those meanings outright”
◦ “the meaning of most sentences is constructed by the application of
semantic rules”

27
 Readings for semantics (3/4)
An Introduction to Language, Chapter on “Semantics”, 11th edition:
◦ pp. 147-149: Theories of Word Meaning
◦ pp. 147-148: Reference
◦ take note of the following:
◦ “…its reference, its association with the object it refers to”, “this real-
world object is called its referent” (p. 147)
◦ “If no baby has no reference, but it not meaningless, there must be
more to the meaning of NPs than reference alone.” (p. 148)
◦ p. 149: Sense
◦ take note of the following:
◦ “There must be something more to meaning than reference
alone….These additional elements of meaning are often termed sense.”
◦ “Perhaps the best we can do is to note that the reference part of a word’s
meaning, if it has reference at all, is the association with its reference;
and the sense part of a word’s meaning contains the information needed
to complete the association, and to suggest properties that the referent
may have, whether it exists in the real world or in the world of
imagination.”
28
 Readings for semantics (4/4)
An Introduction to Language, Chapter on “Semantics”, 11th edition:
◦ pp. 149-151: Lexical Relations
◦ “the meaning relationships among different words in their mental lexicons”
(pp. 149-150)
◦ pp. 150-151: please learn what the following terms mean: synonyms;
antonyms; complementary pairs of antonyms; gradable pairs of antonyms;
relational opposites; polysemous; hyponymy; hypernymy
◦ note: we use “homonyms” & “homophones” differently from the textbook:
◦ we use “homophones” to refer to words which are pronounced the same
and written differently but have different meanings, and “homonyms” to
refer to words which are pronounced and written the same but have
different meanings
◦ pp. 156-158: Argument Structure and Thematic Roles
◦ take note of the explanation of what thematic roles express (pp. 156-157)
◦ please learn what the following thematic roles mean: agent; theme; goal;
source; instrument; experiencer
◦ note: the textbook does not distinguish between “theme” and “patient”;
we use “theme” to describe something which does not change state and
“patient” something that changes state
29