SEMANTICS

Meaning and Structure

 TEAM WORK

Siti Nuralimah (1952041041)

Siti Aisyah Abdullah (1952041011)
Anggun Anisah Najamuddin (1952041035)
Resky Seniawan Gasmin (1552041008)
 WHAT IS SEMANTICS ?

Semantic (from Ancient Greek: sēmantikós, "significant") is the study of

meaning that is used to understand human expression through language. It
focuses on the relationship between signifiers, like words, phrases, signs,
and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotation.
 SEMANTIC
ROLES

Instead of thinking of words as “containers” of meaning, we can look at the “roles”, they fulfill within
the situation described by a sentence. If the situation is a simple event, as in The boy kicked the ball,
then the verb describes an action (kick). The noun phrases in the sentence describe the roles of entities,
such as people and things, involved in the action. We can identify a small number of semantic roles
(also called “thematic roles”) for these noun phrases.
 AGENT AND THEME

In our example sentence, one role is taken by the
noun phrase The boy as “the entity that performs the
action,” technically known as the agent. Another role
is taken by the ball as “the entity that is involved in
or affected by the action,” which is called the theme
(or sometimes the “patient”). The theme can also be
an entity (The ball) that is simply being described
(i.e. not performing an action), as in The ball was red.
Agents and themes are the most common semantic
roles. 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.
A. Boy kicked the ball.
B. The wind blew the ball away.
C. A car ran over the ball.
D. The dog caught the ball.
The theme is typically non-human, but can be
human (the boy), 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.
 INSTRUMENT AND
EXPERIENCER
If an agent uses another entity in order to perform an action, that other entity fills the role of
instrument. In the sentences The boy cut the rope with an old razor and He drew the picture with a
crayon, the noun phrases an old razor and a crayon are being used in the semantic role of
instrument. When a noun phrase is used to designate an entity as the person who has a feeling,
perception or state, it fills the semantic role of experiencer. If we see, know or enjoy something,
we’re not really performing an action (hence we are not agents). We are in the role of experiencer.
In the sentence The boy feels sad, the experiencer (The boy) is the only semantic role.
 LOCATION, SOURCE , AND GOAL

A number of other semantic roles designate where an entity is in the description of an

event. Where an entity is (on the table, in the room) fills the role of location. Where
the entity moves from is the source (from Chicago) and where it moves to is the goal
(to New Orleans), as in We drove from Chicago to New Orleans. When we talk about
transferring money from savings to checking, the source is savings and the goal is
checking.
 LEXICAL SEMANTIC RELATIONS

● Lexical Semantic Relations Words and phrases can enter

into a variety of semantic relations with each other. Here
are the lexical semantic relations:

1. SYNONYMY
2. ANTONYMY
3. POLYSEMY
4. HYPONYMY
5. PARTONYMY
 SENTENTIAL SEMANTIC RELATIONS

Sentential Semantic Relations Like words, sentences have meanings that can be
analyzed in terms of their relation to other meanings.
There are three relations, paraphrase, entailment, and contradiction.
 1. PARAPHRASE
Two sentences that have the same meaning are said to be paraphrases of each
other. These following pairs of sentences
are examples of paraphrasing:

The police chased the burglar. // The burglar was chased by the police.
I gave the summons to Erin. // I gave Erin the supolice
It is unfortunate that the team lost. // Unfortunately, the team lost.
Paul bought a car from Sue. // Sue sold a car to Paul.
The game will begin at 3:00 p.m. // At 3:00 p.m., the game will begin.

Each pair of paraphrase sentence has to be very similar in meaning. It would be

impossible for one sentence to be true
without the other also being true. For example, if it is true that the police chased
the burglar, it must also be true that the
burglar was chased by the police.
 2. ENTAILMENT

When the truth of one sentence guarantees the truth of another sentence, we say that there is a relation of entailment.
Sometimes, this relation is mutual (as in, the truth of either sentence in the pair guarantees the truth of the other),
but other examples are asymmetrical. Some examples of asymmetrical entailment are below:

Prince is a dog. // Prince is an animal.

The park wardens killed the bear. // The bear is dead.
Similarly, if it is true that Prince is a dog, then it is also true that prince is an animal.

If it is true that the park wardens killed the bear, then it must also be true that the bear is dead. However,
thereversedoesnot follow since the bear could be dead without the park wardens having killed it.
Once again, the reverse does not hold: even if we know that Prince is an animal, we cannot conclude that he is a
dog. Hecould be anything like a horse or a cat.
 3. CONTRADICTION

Sometimes, if one sentence is true, then another sentence must be false. This is what we call a
contradiction. For example:

If it is true that Charles is a bachelor he can’t be married.

Charles is a bachelor. // Charles is married.

 
 FURTHER SEMANTIC NOTIONS

1. CONNOTATION

A connotation is a term used to describe the set of associations that a word’s use
can evoke. Additional meanings a word has beyond its central, core meaning. Can
be linked to emotional associations and social, cultural aspects.

For example:
Emotional associations: the word dog may evoke fear (or happiness).
Social, cultural aspects: redneck (negative connotations); vagrant (neutral) vs.
Homeless (negative).
 2. DENOTATION/REFERENTIAL MEANING

Contrary to a connotation, denotation is a relationship between words and the things they stand for, ie., the relationship
between a word and a real-world object. It's the emotion-free bare bones of meaning. These are very useful for
proper nouns. Some example of denotations:

Pete Sampras -> Tennis player.

Italy -> South Europe country.

However, some words, such as unicorn and phrases such as the present king of France which have no referents in the real
world even though they are far from meaningless. In addition, expressions such as the Prime Minister of Canada
and the leader of the Conservative Party, both of which refer (in 2010, at least) to Stephen Harper. Although these
two expressions may have the same referent, it’s wrong to say they mean the same thing.
 3. EXTENSION AND INTENSION

Intension indicates the internal content of a term or concept that constitute its formal definition. They’re the defining
properties of a word the concepts it evokes. Extension indicates its range of applicability by naming the particular
object is denotes. Extension captures what denotations would be referring to, while intension refers to the meaning
that follows the word. Every word has an intension, but not every word has an extension. In addition, the
extensionof a term may change, the intension does not.

PHRASE EXTENSION INTENSION

Capital of Alberta Edminton City where government
resides
Unicorn None Horse -like animal
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