Exercise:

In the following sentences, does the first sentence entail the second? If it does,
does it arise from meaning inclusion?

(a) All cats have fleas My cat has fleas

(b) Egbert killed Æthelbert Æthelbert is not alive incl

(c) Egbert took a sheep Egbert stole a sheep

(d) Harriet did not plant tulips Harriet did not plant flowers

(f) A tall woman came in A tall person came in incl

(g) I am wearing brown shoes I am wearing brown footwear incl

(h) I ran to the beach I went to the beach incl

 LING 103
Introduction to
English Linguistics
2016
Review
Meaning is arbitrary
There is no relationship between the sounds associated with a word and the
physical object or action that the word signifies.

Denotation: the literal meaning of a word; its dictionary definition.

Connotation: Associations or the emotional suggestions related to a word

Sense relations:
In semantics we consider sense relations i.e. how the meanings of words and
phrases relate to the meanings of other words and phrases.
Synonymy
Synonym: Two or more expressions share a similar meaning

Testing for Synonymy

The substitution test
If two words are synonyms, then one should be able to replace the other in a
sentence, without changing the sentence’s meaning.

Leonardo looked / glanced / stared / gazed at the Mona Lisa

Do synonyms have exactly the same meaning?

The thief tried to hide / conceal the evidence
Then he tried to hide *Then he tried to conceal

Leonardo gazed at the Mona Lisa for an hour

?Leonardo glanced at the Mona Lisa for an hour
Entailment
The principle that under certain conditions the truth of one statement ensures
the truth of a second statement.

Synonymous: two–way entailment

If I hide something, I conceal it If I conceal something, I hide it.

Inclusive meaning: one–way entailment

If I incinerate something, I destroy it but If I destroy something, I do not
necessarily incinerate it.

Words may have no entailment

If I burn something, I do not necessarily destroy it
If I destroy something, I do not necessarily burn it
Inclusive meaning: one–way entailment
Notice destroy is a general term (end the existence of something)
incinerate is more specific (destroy by burning)

In this context, incinerate and destroy display one–way entailment. incinerate is

just one of many ways to destroy something e.g.

blow up, melt down, incinerate, smash to pieces, level, raze etc

Hyponymy
When one word includes the meaning others, the relationship is referred to as
hyponymy.

We call the more specific term a hyponym of the more general term

incinerate is a hyponym of destroy

Exercise
Arrange the following sets of words from general to more specific.

(a) mouse, rodent, mammal, rat

mammal > rodent > rat, mouse

(b) house, building, bungalow, structure, cottage

structure > building > house > cottage, bungalow

(c) aunt, person, relative, female, cousin

person > relative > female > aunt
cousin
Labelling and diagramming hyponymy

The more general or more inclusive term = superordinate

The more specific term = hyponym
Two or more hyponyms of the same superordinate = co–hyponyms

superordinate cat

hyponym cheetah lion leopard tiger

co-hyponyms

All words can be either the superordinate or a (co)hyponym of another word or

phrase
domesticated animals

cat dog horse

Testing for hyponymy: The ‘is a type of’ test
We can identify the superordinate term by using the ‘is a type of’ test

pinot, sauvignon, wine, chardonnay

Wine is a type of chardonnay / pinot / sauvignon? No

Chardonnay / pinot/ sauvignon are types of wine? Yes

superordinate wine

co-hyponyms pinot Sauvignon Chardonnay

Exercise
Use the ‘is a type of’ test to identify the superordinate terms in the following
lists:

(a) beagle, poodle, dog, terrier, retriever

(b) salmon, cod, snapper, fish, shark
(c) diamond, ruby, gemstone, sapphire, granite, emerald, stone

Draw a tree for (c)

stone

gemstone
granite
diamond ruby sapphire emerald
Exercise
Complete the following sentences using the same word for both

Fred’s eyes recovered and he slowly regained his sight.

Lake Wakatipu is a magnificent sight.

Clearly, both uses of ‘sight’ derive from ‘see’. However, despite their clear
semantic relationship to each other, they do not mean the same thing.

a. ‘the faculty or power of seeing’

sight
b. ‘places of interest in a city, town, or other place.’

Polysemy
A single word with more than one meaning is polysemous. In the context above,
‘sight’ is polysemous.
Identifying polysemy
Polysemous words are easy to identify use the dictionary!

music (n.) (i.) sound produced by means of instruments; kind of art form
(ii.) particular style of that art form (e.g., baroque music)

Exercise.
Are the following polysemous?

hand body part, clock, a round of applause, someone’s writing etc.

wood stick, building timber, small group of trees

child young person, an immature or inexperienced person of any age

crane machine, bird (yes, they are related)

Consider the highlighted words in the following sentences:

(A) (B)
a) The ships are listing badly. We are listing all members of the society.
b) The statue is made of lead. The dog is on his lead
c) Bus fares have just gone up. Bus fairs are where you buy buses.

Are the highlighted words examples of synonymy? polysemy?

They are neither!

Although the (A) and (B) words look the same, sound the same or both

They are not semantically related to each other

They cannot be substituted for each other

Homonymy
Words that look and/or sound the same, but have no other semantic relationship,
are said to be homonymous
Homonymy
Homonyms: the written and spoken forms are identical

bank bank lie lie bat bat

Homographs: only the written forms are identical

lead = metal [led]

lead = leather strip used when walking a dog [li:d]

row [ɹou] [ɹau] use [ju:s] [ju:z]

Homophones: only spoken forms are identical

tail tale [teiɫ] to too two [tu:] flour flower [flauwə]
Antonymy
The semantic relation that holds when two words express opposite meanings

Complementary opposites
The presence of one quality or state signifies the absence of the other and vice
versa. There is no halfway point.

alive / dead present / absent married / single

If A is true, then B cannot be true

The tree is alive = The tree cannot be dead

equally The tree is dead = The tree cannot be alive
Note: ‘the tree is half dead’ = it is still alive

Multiple complementary opposites

A subcategory of complementaries which are found in sets

days of the week, months of the year, signs of the Zodiac etc.
Gradable opposites
There is a gradual transition along a scale between to points

hot warm tepid cool cold

⇦ ⇨
Other examples: big small
heavy light
fast slow

Gradables can be marked for comaprative and superlative degrees

bigger biggest

more beautiful most beautiful

Gradable opposition is relative to the object described e.g. a small elephant is

bigger than a large mouse
The use of gradable antonyms
In each pair one of antonyms, one is the marked term and the other unmarked.
one term of the opposition is the broader, dominant one.

Unmarked

How tall are you? How old are you?

There is no implication in the questions that the you are particularly tall or old.
The questions simply ask for the degree of the gradable quality.

Marked
How short are you? How young are you?
On the other hand, these questions imply that the person is actually short or
young.
Relational opposites
The opposition requires the context of a relationship between the two meanings.

If A is B’s , then B must be A’s

parent child
employer employee

If A ’s to / from B, then B must to / from A

give receive
buy sell
borrow lend
Semantic features
What things (features) do these words share?

vixen hen woman lioness girl

female + + + + +
adult + + + + -
human - - + - +
canine + - - - -
feline - - - + -
aves - + - - -

What about:
wife husband
female + -
male - +
adult + +
human + +
married + +
parent + +
What semantic properties do the following words share? What properties
distinguished (A) from (B)?

(A) bachelor, boy, man, pope, duke

(B) lion, drake, bull, tomcat

(A) chair, garden, lawn, house, cat

(B) rice, sugar, alcohol, butter, dirt

(A) notepad, church, hill, footpath, truck

(B) hope, insincerity, cowardice, sadness
Noun-centred meaning

Nouns are often 'modified' by other words. The meaning of a noun is built up of
the meanings of the noun and its modifiers.
two cars

An adjective more closely delimits the kind of entity referred to by the noun
cold water
a false friend

Semantic properties control the types of modifiers

have a cat *have a toast
*much cat much toast
A number of cats *A number of toasts
*The amount of cat The amount of toast
The amount of cat in my hamburger was inadequate
?The amount of cats in Gareth Morgan's neighbourhood has decreased
 Verb-centred meaning
Verbal features, like noun features, also have syntactic effects
verbs: events, actions, states etc

In English, ‘syntax’ says a noun is required before the verb, but optionally after
the verb
Cats eat mice
The mouse worries.
This is not a random, speaker choice; it is controlled by the properties of the
verb

*John resembles. *Mary disappeared the cat.

John resembles the cat

Mary disappeared
Eventives eat, run, jump, fly, measure , give etc

Statives know, like, be, seem, appear, resemble etc

John eats alligator meat Alligator meat is often eaten by John

John is eating alligator meat Eat the alligator meat, John!

John likes alligators ?Alligators are like by John

?John is liking alligators ?Like alligators, John!

Other verb features

*John thinks that he will ever eat alligator again
John does not think that he will ever eat alligator again
John despairs that he will ever eat alligator again
John doubts that he will ever eat alligator again
This suggests that some verbs have ‘built in’ negation features and do not
require the presence of not
Verb control

The cat eats the mouse

Subject Verb Object
Verbs typically require that the subject refer to a particular kind
of entity
to laugh
The woman
?The ghost laughs
*The brick
There is a semantic relationship between the kinds of noun that
a verb requires and the verb itself. We call the semantic
relationship the thematic role a verb assigns to a noun.
 Thematic roles ( Ɵ-roles )

1. If an entity performs the action denoted by the verb AND the entity has volition
(the ability to decide to do the action or not) = agent

Joan /the girl / she sang

agent
Are the following highlighted phrases agents?
The concrete cracked
The apple was eaten by the boy.
2. If an entity undergoes or is affected by the action denoted by the verb =
theme
The girl moved the toy / the chess piece / the chair
agent theme

Are the following highlighted phrases themes?

The painting was done by the old artist
Mary sent her friend an apple
NOTE: Thematic roles DO NOT depend on a phrase’s position

The toy was moved by the girl

theme agent

Other thematic roles

Goal
the place to which an event is directed
I shifted the chair to the wall.
Location
the place where an event takes place:
He is working in the kitchen.
Source
the place where an event originates:
She drove up from Wellington.
Instrument
The means by which an action is performed
Brian’s clone hit his car with a rock.
Experiencer
an animate entity that perceives something, is aware of something,
psychologically or emotionally
She worries a lot.
Stimulus
that which causes an entity to perceive something, be aware of something,
psychologically or emotionally
The spider frightened the girl.
Causative
a natural force that causes an event to happen
The cyclone destroyed the village.
Possessor
an entity that owns or has another entity in its possession
Bill's best friend has gone away.
If two sentences are paraphrases of each other, that is, if they have the same
meaning, the corresponding noun phrases have the same thematic relations

The dog chased Jane vs. Jane was chased by the dog
agent theme theme agent

Sentences that are not paraphrases can be thematically similar, even though the
meanings are not the same

The boy opened the door with the key

agent theme instrument

The key opened the door

instrument theme

The door opened

theme
Notice English uses prepositions to indicate certain thematic roles:

in, on, at to talk about locations

to to indicate goals
from to indicate sources
with to indicate instruments, possession

Restrictions on thematic roles (the theta-criterion)

As we saw, once a role is assigned it cannot be changed, but also note that no role
can be assigned more than once in a sentence

*I opened the door with the key with the crowbar

*The girl the boy played the piano the violin

Exercise:
In the following sentences, identify the thematic role of each NP
Roles: agent, theme, causative, experiencer, stimulus, source, goal,
location, instrument
agent theme source instrument
Example: The boy took the newspapers from the paper shop with a handcart

a. The aardvark found some ants in the mound of dirt

b. Alligators run from the river to the wading pool for lunch
c. He unlocked all the cabinets with a paper clip
d. John melted the ice
e. The sun melted the ice
f. The blowtorch melted the ice
g. The ice melted
h. The students were terrified by the wild pig
 Sense and reference
Reference: words, phrases and sentences may refer to something in the real
world
Mark Todd is noted for his horse riding.
Notice that we can substitute
The New Zealand horseman is noted for his horse riding.
He is noted for his horse riding.
But what about
No horseman is noted at all.
Who or what do the following refer to in the real world?
The present King of France unicorn Humpty Dumpty
Are they meaningless?
Sense: the meaning of an expression
Mark Todd is noted for his horse riding. sense and reference
Harry Potter is at Hogwarts. sense but no reference
The present King of France is bald.