Semantics
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Carmen Bonner Johnson
Amy Haddad
Summary
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The essential question seems to be “What do you know about
meaning when you know a language?” How and why does
language give meaning or meaning make sense? “The study of
the linguistic meaning of morphemes, words, phrases and
sentences is called semantics. Subfields of semantics are lexical
semantics, which is concerned with the meanings of words, and
the meaning of relationships among words; and phrasal or
sentential semantic, which is concerned with the meaning of
syntactic units larger than the word. The study of how context
affects meaning – for example, how the sentence Its cold in here
comes to be interpreted as “close the windows” in certain
situations – is called pragmatics”. (p. 180)
Semantic rules build the meaning of the sentence from its words
and how words combine syntactically. This is called truthconditional semantics because it takes speaker’s knowledge of
truth conditions as basic. 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”. (p. 180)
“Knowing the meaning of a sentence, then means knowing under
what circumstances it would be true or false according to your
knowledge of the world, namely its truth condition”. (p. 181)
Ambiguity:
Words and phrases with more than one
meaning. (p. 182). “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. The notion that the
meaning of an expression is composed of
the meanings of its parts and how they are
combined structurally is referred to as the
principal of compositionality”. (p. 183)
Reading Rockets- Semantic Gradients
(add pictures to ESOL learners to help language
and understanding)
Semantic Rule 1
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Rule 1 states that a sentence composed of a subject NP and a
predicate VP is true if the subject NP refers to an individual who is
among the members of the set that constitute the meaning of the
VP. This rule is entirely general. It does not refer to any
particular sentence, individuals or verbs.” (p. 185)
When Compositionality Goes Awry: “The meaning of an
expression is not always obvious, even to a native speaker of the
language. Meanings may be obscured in many ways, or at least
many require some imagination or special knowledge to be
apprehended” (p. 186). “There are, however, interesting cases in
which compositionality breaks down, either because there is a
problem with words or with the semantic rules”. “We refer to
these situations as semantic anomaly. Alternatively, it might
require a lot of creativity and imagination to derive a meaning.
This is what happens in metaphors”. “Finally, some expressions
– called idioms – have a fixed meaning, that is, a meaning that is
not compositional”. (p. 187). “When what appears to be an
anomaly is nevertheless understood in terms of a meaningful
concept , the expression becomes a metaphor”. (p. 189). They
may have a literal or metaphorical expression. They may
therefore be ambiguous and with a strong cultural component;
then language creativity is at its highest (p. 190).
Idioms or Idiomatic phrases:
“It turns out that languages also contain
many phrases whose meanings are not
predictable on the basis of the meanings
of the individual words. These phrases
typically start out as metaphors that
“catch up” and are repeated so often that
they become fixtures in the language.
Such expressions are call idioms, or
idiomatic phrases…” An example, “put
his foot in his mouth” or “kick the bucket”.
(p. 191/192)
Idioms – Blue
Application
#8- Take a few idioms and try to find their source.
A friend in need is a friend indeed
Latin origin
 (semantic ambiguity)
 4. a friend (who is) in
need is someone who
 1. a friend ( when
is prepared to act to
you are) in need, is
show it (in deed)
indeed a true friend.
(Acceptable in 1562)
- Referenced in the
Oxford Dictionary of
2. a friend, (when you
Quotations from the
are) in need, is
11th century
someone who is
- “It is sayd, that at the
prepared to act to
nede the frende is
show it (in deed)
knowen” Caxton’s
3. a friend (which is) in
Sonnes of Aymon 1489
need, is indeed a true
friend (indeed)
A foot in the door
A la mode
French origin
Commanders that are
never a la mode but
when all in Iron and
Steel
Anglicized as a noun‘glossy black silk’
English- ‘with ice
cream’
A la mode was
referenced in John
Selden’s Laws of
England in 1649.
American origin
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An introduction or way
into something so that
progress may be
made later.
- it started out as a
literal phrase, but
progressed into a
figurative phrase
A fate worse than
death
Roman origin
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Any misfortune that would make
life unlivable, especially rape or
loss of virginity. It was formally a
euphenism for rape.
1781 from Roman Empire
The matrons and virgins of
Rome were exposed to injuries
more dreadful in the
apprehension of chastity than
death itself.
1914 from Tarzan of the Apes via
Edgar Rice Burroughs
{The ape} threw her
roughly across his broad, hairy
shoulder, and leaped back into
the trees bearing Jane Porter
away toward a fate a thousand
times worse than death.
A la carte
French origin
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Literally means ‘according to
the card’
• the card refers to looking
at the menu
• Earliest references in
Joseph Sherer’s Notes and
Reflections During a
Ramble in Germany 1826
 “He will find
comfortable
apartments, civil
attendance, excellent
fare, a la carte, at any
hour.”
Can you guess where these idioms
originated?
Call A Spade A Spade
American origin
An American term that originated in the 20th century.
2. Catch 22
1.
American origin
Joseph Heller’s novel in 1953 was presented as the trap that
confined U. S. Airforce.
3. For the Birds
American origin
A U.S. army term. A shorten form for army vulgar, 1944
4.
Lexical semantics (word meaning)
“…the meaning of a phrase or sentences is
partially a function of the meaning of the
words it contains”. (p. 193). “However,
there is a fundamental difference between
word meaning – or lexical semantics – and
sentence meaning.” Children learning
language must know these meanings
outright. In word meaning, there is a
relationship that exist between words and
morphemes or the smallest unit of
linguistic meaning or function. (p. 193)
Theories of Word Meaning
One theory is that the meaning of a word is
what the word is associated with or its
reference. “The real world object is
called the referent” (p. 194).
 Another theory is that because a word
always does not have a reference or
referent (no reality connected to it, as it
may be abstract), the meaning of a word
is the mental image in the mind of
speakers. (p. 195);or sense.
Lexical Relations
“Words are semantically related to one
another in a variety of ways. The
words that describe these relations
often end in the bound morpheme –
nym”. (p. 196) Examples are
synonyms, antonyms, polysemous (a
word with multiple meaning that are
related conceptually or historically)
or hyponyms (relationship between
the more general and more specific).
Exercise #10: Research Project
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There are many –nym/-onym words
that describe classes of words with
particular semantic properties, as
was mentioned previously. But what
is the etimology of –onym? What
common English word is it related
to? How many -nym words and their
meaning can you come up with? And
do you know the –nym word that
was the winning word in the 1997
scripps National Spelling Bee?
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The etymology of –onym is Greek,
onoma which means name or word.
The common English word that it’s
related to is name. Name is derived
from onyma.
Some –nym words and their meaning:
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Autonym – a word that describes
itself; ex. noun is a noun, word is a
word, abbrv. is an abbreviation.
Bacronym – the reverse of producing
an acronym; taking a word which
already exists and creating a phrase
using the letters of the word as
initials: ex. Build Absolutely Nothing
Anywhere Near Anybody (BANANA)
*On your index cards try to come up
with a bacronym of your own.
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Oronym – a string of words which is
homophonic with another string of
words; ice cream and I scream, mint
spy and mince pie.
Retronym – an adjective –noun
pairing generated by a change in the
meaning of the base noun, usually as
a result of technological advance; ex.
watch became pocket watch due to
the introduction of the wristband, pen
became fountain pen due to the
introduction of the ball-point pen.
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Tautonym – a word composed of two
identical parts; ex. yo-yo, tutu, byebye.
Euonym was the winning word in the
1997 Scripps Spelling Bee. Euonym
is an appropriate name for a person,
place, or thing; ex. The realtors
name was Sue House.
Discussion
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(1) What are the two theories of
word meaning?
(2) How does context contribute to
the clarification of ambiguity?
Ex: When a student tells you something and the sentence that they are
telling does not have constituent structure, would you correct that
student by having them reword the sentence or not acknowledge that
the sentence is incorrect?
(3) What are lexical relations?
Did you know??
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Did you know that Leonard
Bloomfield, who was the most
influential figure in linguistics in the
U.S. in the first half of the 20th
century, was strongly influenced by
behaviorism? The first chapter in his
book Language, titled “Meaning” is
evidence of this. He felt we should
have a scientifically accurate
definition of meaning for every form
of a language and that we should
have to have a scientifically
accurate knowledge of everything in
the speakers’ world.
 He also concluded that the
statement of meaning is therefore
the weak point in language study,
and would stay that way until
human knowledge advanced far
beyond its present state ( Journal of
Foreign Languages (Shanghai),
119:1 (January 1999),2-20).
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Bloomfield’s ‘stimulus-response’
model of meaning was seen as
impractical as it was suited to his
theoretical orientation. He tried to
reconstruct the field of linguistics as
a purely formal structural basis.
His view of meaning he shared with
other linguists of the time did prove
to be a strong barrier to the
development of linguistic semantics,
A barrier which continued into the
Chomskyan era ( Abbott, 1998 ).
Resources
*Abbott, Barbara (1998). Journal of Foreign Languages (Shanghai), 119:1
(January 1999), 2-20.
*AlexESLvid (2009, Jul 13). Idioms in English- ‘Blue’. Retrieved May 9,
2012. from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_QaTlPpF4s&feature=youtube_gdata
_player
*Freymann, Saxton and Elffers, Joost. How Are You Peeling? Scholastic
Press, N.Y., 1999
*Jenkins, Steve & Page, Robin. What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?
Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 2003
*Martin, Gary. (1996-2012). The Phrase Finder. Retrieved May 9, 2012.
from http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/index.html.
*Nym Words. (1999-2012). Retrieved May 14, 2012. From
www.fun-with-words.com/nym_words.html
*O’Connor, Jane. (2008). Fancy Nancy’s Favorite Fancy Words,
Harper Collins, N.Y. N.Y.
*Stockdale, Susan. (2011). Bring On the Birds, Peachtree
Publishers, Atlanta,Georgia,
*WETA. (2012). Reading Rockets. Retrieved May 9, 2012. From
http.www.readingRockets.org/strategies/semantic_gradients/