SEMANTICSAn Introduction to Linguistics

•What does semantics study?

• Semantics studies the meaning of language.

•Overview

• Semantics • Lexical semantics

•The meanings of the words•Word relations

• Compositional semantics •The meanings of sentences

•THE MEANINGS OF WORDS

•Two aspects of linguistic meaning

• An act in which a speaker uses linguistic forms to enable an addressee to identify something in the world.

•Reference

coffee

•What if we cannot refer the referent that we want to refer to in this world?

•WORD RELATIONS

•Types of word relations

Type Definition Examples

Homonyms Different words, pronounced the same

Different meaning

Two, too

Polysemy Multiple meanings bank

Homograph Spelled identically

Different meaning

Lead the verb; lead the metal

synonyms The same or similar meaning

Sofa, couch

•Types of word relations• Antonyms

type example

Complementary pairs Present/absent

Gradable pairs Hot/cold;

Not happy =// sad

Relationship opposites Buy/sell

•Sentential Meaning• Truth condition • paraphrase• entailment• contradiction

•Truth condition•Definition

• The circumstances that determine whether a sentence is true

• Examples• The first U.S. president is George Bush• The first U.S. president is George Washington.

•Paraphrase • Two sentences with the same truth condition• Example:

• Two people were killed in a car accident.• Two people died in a car accident.

•Entailment•Definition

• The truth of one sentence necessarily implies the truth of another sentence.

• Example

JFK was assassinated in Dallas in 1968.

JFK is dead.

•Contradiction•Definition

• The truth of one sentence necessarily implies the false of another sentence.

• Example• John is single.• John is married.

Questions?