Semantics: Ling 525
Semantic Terms and Relations
Linguistics 525
Term
Definition
Examples
John broke the vase
==>
The vase broke.
The vase broke.
does NOT ==>
John broke the vase
Fred killed John.
==>
John is dead.
John died.
==>
John is dead.
Entailment
p entails q (p ==> q) if and only if whenever p is true, q is true.
John is dead.
?? ==> ??
John died.
John sold the book to Mary
==>
Mary bought the book from
John
Mary bought the book from
John
==>
John sold the book to Mary
Mary bought the book from
John
<==>
is (logically) equivalent to
John sold the book to Mary
Analytically
True
Sentence
A sentence that must be true in virtue of the meanings of the words in it.
A bachelor is unmarried
A dog is a mammal.
If Fido is a dog, then Fido is a
mammal.
A boy is male.
Two beans is fewer beans than
three beans.
Someone who is very tall is tall.
A tall man is a man.
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A word (with a particular [core] meaning) in all its forms
walk: walk, walking, walked,
walks (but not walker,
walkathon)
steal: steal, stealing, stole,
stolen, steals (but not thief,
theft)
Synonymy
the relation two linguistic forms (for example, lexemes) have when they mean the same
None of the following examples
are uncontroversial:
sofa
davenport couch
lad
boy
aubergine eggplant
cilantro
coriander
permit
allow
I know a A man I
man who know
speaks
speaks
French
French
John
Mary
bought the bought the
book from book from
Mary
John.
Word
???
Lexeme
polysemy
ambiguity
(lexical case: =
homonymy)
vagueness
collocational
variation
The property a lexeme has when it has a number of closely related meanings.
I go for a run every morning.
The bears are here for the salmon
run.
There's been a run on the dollar.
The property a linguistic form has it when it has two clearly distinct meanings (one form;
two lexemes)
The Israelites wandered for many
years after their flight from
Egypt.
John waited a long time at the
airport for his flight from Egypt.
The property a linguistic form has it when it applies to a variety of situations, with the
distinctiuons between them determined by context (one lexeme; multiple functions
contextually determined)
Cowell Mountain is little more
than a hill a by Rocky Mountain
standards.
The workmen left a hill of dirt in
my backyard.
John is tall (for a basketball
player).
Our publicist will attend. He/she
.....
A single meaning that seems to change forms based on words in context
herd, pack, flock, coven,
exaltation
strong (coffee, medicine),
powerful (car)
hot
cold gradable
tall
short gradable
precise vague gradable
gradable
happy sad
(incompatible?)
dead alive simple
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pass fail
simple
forbid allow simple
reverse: B
inflate deflate
reverses A
wrap unwrap reverse
dual: A = NOT
permit require
B NOT
converse: x is
above below A y implies y is
Bx
taller shorter
converse
than than
antonymy
The relation that holds between two words when they have opposite (?!) meanings. In the
case of simple antonyms, the negation of one implies the other. A minimal condition on all
antonyms A and B is that they are incompatible. Nothing can be both A and B at the same
time.
hyponymy
Word A is a hyponym of word B if and only if the meaning of B is more general than the
meaning of A
dog, cat are hyponyms of animal
kestrel is a hyponym of hawk
which is a hyponym of bird
meronymy
Word A is a meronym of word B if and only if the meaning of A names a PART OF B
finger is a meronym of hand
keel is a meronym of ship
Word A is a taxonomic sister of word B if and only if word A and word B are hyponyms
of all the same words (sisters in a hyponymic hierarchy)
Basic color terms are taxonomic
sisters
dog, cat are not taxonomic sisters
(canine, feline)
dog, cat are taxonomic sisters (if
we stick to basic vocabulary)
The inchoative of an adjective is an intransitive verb for which x VERBs means y
BECOME-ADJ; the causative is a transitive verb for which x VERBs y means x CAUSES
y to BECOME ADJ
adj intran tran
cool cool cool
hot heat heat
full fill
fill
dead die kill
?? rise raise
?? boil boil
taxonomic
sisterhood
adjective
inchoative
causative
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